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Some Details of My Personal Infrastructure

blog.stephenwolfram.com

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Re: Some Details of My Personal Infrastructure

#401

Post by SZJX »

hellofunk wrote: post #166

I personally wonder what has the modern world come to, that an individual cannot take a leisurely walk without distraction, and thus feels like they must be working on a computer while getting in some basic movement for their body.

I don't think he ever meant it that way. It's not that he "cannot take a leisurely walk without distraction", but that he wants to get some walking while working, i.e. the priority is reversed. He claims to walk for "a couple of hours" which is too long to not be doing anything for him. You seem to be generalizing a lot from this one person's preference.

Also, a lot of people listen to podcasts/audiobooks while walking/jogging. Is that a "distraction"? I'd say it's actually even a plus and those two activities are complementary to each other: Being in the wild helps you concentrate on the audiobook, and being able to read something uninterrupted motivates you to go out and do some exercise every day.

Re: Some Details of My Personal Infrastructure

#402

Post by SZJX »

eeZah7Ux wrote: post #332
mark_l_watson wrote: post #75

I just don’t know about hiking with a laptop. Down time is also productive time. That said, it is interesting how he organizes the digital assets of his life. A little off topic: I subscribed to use the Wolfram Language a couple of years ago and really liked the integrated documentation, and the capabilities built in for just about everything. What was a turnoff was the very slow cycle time between entering code to b…

> Down time is also productive time ...or maybe it's not productive and not being productive all the time is a good thing for your mental health.

I think it depends on person. Also Cal Newport, though advocating the concept of "stopping the work day at 5 p.m.", also strongly advocates that one should not mindlessly spend the time "after work", but should engage in other types of productive activities such as reading books. He quotes Bennett, who said that the human mind doesn't tire except for when sleeping, and all it needs is switching to a different type of intellectual activity, which I find to be very reasonable.

My personal experience has been that whenever I'm varying the type of productive activities throughout the day, I get a lot done, feel satisfied, stay sharp and productive. Whenever I do too much mindless entertainment such as playing too much of one video game or browsing reddit, I end up not feeling very well the next day whatsoever.

So in the case of Wolfram maybe he checks email or does some type of activity that is not the same as the type of activity he does while at the desk, which I think can be totally conceivable and productive.

Re: Some Details of My Personal Infrastructure

#403

Post by jessriedel »

laumars wrote: post #399
jessriedel wrote: post #362

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you think they are overconfident, then say so. If you think their analysis misses something, then say so. But being against assessment in general is not a good approach.

> If you think they are overconfident, then say so. I thought I literally did just that? > If you think their analysis misses something, then say so. I've done that in the past and it usually just descends into stupid augments where the ill-informed only dig their heals in deeper rather than acknowledging their mistake. I mean if they weren't someone who was over confident about their own opinion then they wouldn't b…

> I thought I literally did just that?

The point of my comment is that the discussion should take place on the merits of the criticism, not the arrogance of the person who would dare criticize. The fact that you mixed together the two is not a good rebuttal.

> I've done that in the past...

Bad arguments in the past are not a good reason to abandon the structure of good arguments in the future. Get better debating partners rather than trying to avoid the structure of healthy debate.

> blatant armchair critics

If some people praise "this is a good business practice" and others point out that, on the face of the evidence, it appears to be exact the opposite (i.e., that the conference calls are disorganized/confused), it is not unreasonable to point this out. It does not require special insight.

Re: Some Details of My Personal Infrastructure

#404

Post by jessriedel »

ianai wrote: post #394
jessriedel wrote: post #363

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's an asymmetry between the strong negative reaction to criticism but not to praise, even though criticism is more likely to offer substantive points. This suggests to me that people are mostly offended at the arrogance of the commenter rather than working about the risk that we could all become mistaken through reading overconfident criticism.

Every bully I remember tried to mask their bullying as “helpful” or positive in some way.

Every dictator promised to make the nation better. This is not a good reason to reject politicians trying to make the nation better.

Re: Some Details of My Personal Infrastructure

#405

Post by jarek83 »

juskrey wrote: post #220
kevinventullo wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be honest, the conference call linked lower in the thread has increased my skepticism for remote work. Another commenter pointed out how much smoother everything would have gone if everyone had been in the same room.

I love such comments. The guy has a multimillion dollar private business which is at the same time his hobby and a dream, and does it in the way he likes. And someone comes and says his meetings can be more efficient..

For me it does not look like a criticism. He simply is not convinced to the idea of remote work, which means that he does not see it fit for his way of working.

Re: Some Details of My Personal Infrastructure

#406

Post by laumars »

jessriedel wrote: post #403
laumars wrote: post #399

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If you think they are overconfident, then say so. I thought I literally did just that? > If you think their analysis misses something, then say so. I've done that in the past and it usually just descends into stupid augments where the ill-informed only dig their heals in deeper rather than acknowledging their mistake. I mean if they weren't someone who was over confident about their own opinion then they wouldn't b…

> I thought I literally did just that? The point of my comment is that the discussion should take place on the merits of the criticism, not the arrogance of the person who would dare criticize. The fact that you mixed together the two is not a good rebuttal. > I've done that in the past... Bad arguments in the past are not a good reason to abandon the structure of good arguments in the future. Get better debating par…

It's got nothing to do with the competency of the arguments presented and everything to do with the futility of arguing with someone who has already made their mind up. This very conversation is a demonstration to that fact.

Re: Some Details of My Personal Infrastructure

#407

Post by Klathmon »

dagw wrote: post #252
qes wrote: post #235

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You may find it pleasant to have people around and water cooler conversations, but many others do not and have no need or desire for work to double as a social outlet.

It's not (just) about social outlet, it's about growing and learning professionally. Unless your job is to blindly implement features someone else adds to a spec sheet it's always worthwhile to get professional input from people from different fields. Often they'll have unique ideas and insights that comes from having a different background and different experiences.

But that's more than possible when working remotely.

Emphasizing public-first communication methods is a big one. Don't just send a slack message to Bob asking about that thing, tag Bob in the #thing channel so others can see and weigh in if needed. Don't just do a code review over a call and leave, write up a quick summary and post it somewhere. Have meetings where people who might not technically be related to the project are involved somewhat.

Sure, it's work, but it's not more work in my opinion, just different. There are absolutely downsides to remote work, but I really truly believe in and have experienced the benefits too.

Re: Some Details of My Personal Infrastructure

#409

Post by duado »

anjc wrote: post #393
duado wrote: post #238

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is crazy. He is the CEO of an 800 person company and the people talking to him sound like they are completely unprepared for the conversation. Of course the third argument needs to be fucking documented! Their response should have been "yes, this is a clear bad, we'll fix the documentation by tomorrow's meeting." Not just sit silently on the call while the CEO has to go do it themselves.

It's obvious that these people are not stupid and understand that interfaces need to be documented. They are instead confused. I've had micromanagers like SW before, and have been confused many times at the state of something precisely because the micromanager took it upon themselves to "do it themselves" on the fly, just like SW did here. Admitting that it's clearly bad and saying you'll fix it by tomorrow would be…

The difference between a micromanager and a detail-oriented manager is the micromanager tells you how to do it, the detail-oriented manager tells you what to do. I only see detail orientation here. Even the string to describe the API was written by Wolfram even after he asked for suggestions. I’d expect them to jump in and commit to fixing it themselves.

Re: Some Details of My Personal Infrastructure

#410

Post by collinmanderson »

> On my personal homepage there are some links that do fairly complex things. One, for example, initiates the process for me doing an unscheduled livestream: it messages our 24/7 system monitoring team so they can take my feed, broadcast it, and monitor responses.
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