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What to Learn

danluu.com

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Re: What to Learn

#61

Post by ihodes »

xyzelement wrote: post #26
joyeuse6701 wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The author of the post does address your Scott Galloway example by stating that that is an obvious weakness that needs correcting. I think if we're starting with an individual with no obvious weaknesses, perhaps they are just average at many things for example, the ROI is better for things one has a natural aptitude in. Correcting an obvious weakness would generate a better ROI as per your examples.

> I think if we're starting with an individual with no obvious weaknesses, perhaps they are just average at many things for example I didn't mean that the weaknesses have to be obvious. I agree the first example I used was a blatant one, but in the other case the person had lived 5 decades without recognizing the impact that lack of communication skills had on his life. He always just thought "that's how I am." So in…

I think I agree with your argument, directionally, but in the case of the C++ hacker, might it be the case that he needed to find a different role, job, and/or manager to really leverage the power of a 98%tile C++ programmer?

Re: What to Learn

#62

Post by mrandish »

In recent years I've started to apply this idea more and more in my own career and life. I'm focusing much less on adding new skills and instead finding much higher ROI doubling down on improving the "top three things I'm uniquely good at" in meaningful ways.

Re: What to Learn

#63

Post by ipnon »

lukego wrote: post #21

Forth is an interesting case. It's really unproductive to build complex systems with. If you try, you will probably be frustrated. Instead it forces you to try really hard to find a cheating short-cut to solve the problem as few moving parts as possible. Just one simple example. The 'struct' language feature is 1500 LOC in Lisp but only 10 LOC in FORTH (see below.) Are they equivalent? No, the Lisp one has lots of be…

Elixir and Erlang, in my estimation, similarly force simplicity by the nature of its own constraints, in this case massively concurrent processes designed to fail. The difference is constraining the OS interface instead of the bare metal interface. The antithesis is maybe the object orientated model where interfaces are mutable and state is unreliable.

Re: What to Learn

#64

Post by borroka »

WJW wrote: post #56
borroka wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Are they listening? When you have a conversation with them, are they paying close attention to what you have to say, or are they busy delivering a message? You want listening :)" - This is common advice anytime one talks about relationships and communication. Listening is a skill, listen 10, talk 1, almost to the point that is difficult to understand who's doing the talking if everybody is getting the same advice of…

What make you think it is not particularly challenging to do, especially given your earlier acknowledgement that almost nobody is a good listener?

Just for the sake of example, I consider solving partial differential equations challenging. Listening is not challenging. One may not do it for a variety of reason, but we call can do it no exception, the act is as easy as it gets. A bit like walking.

Re: What to Learn

#65

Post by xyzelement »

ihodes wrote: post #61
xyzelement wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I think if we're starting with an individual with no obvious weaknesses, perhaps they are just average at many things for example I didn't mean that the weaknesses have to be obvious. I agree the first example I used was a blatant one, but in the other case the person had lived 5 decades without recognizing the impact that lack of communication skills had on his life. He always just thought "that's how I am." So in…

I think I agree with your argument, directionally, but in the case of the C++ hacker, might it be the case that he needed to find a different role, job, and/or manager to really leverage the power of a 98%tile C++ programmer?

That's a legit option and actually that's what happened with this guy - we moved him to a parser team from a client-facing team. But we both recognized that as a bit of "defeat" - we failed to improve his communication, so as plan B how do we help him not get fired.

The point I am making and that I don't want to get lost is: there's a huge difference between "I am consciously choosing to be a C++ hacker" vs "I am falling into this bucket because I fear doing other stuff". First one is fine, second one means a person is under-living their potential.

Re: What to Learn

#66

Post by borroka »

groby_b wrote: post #55
borroka wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Are they listening? When you have a conversation with them, are they paying close attention to what you have to say, or are they busy delivering a message? You want listening :)" - This is common advice anytime one talks about relationships and communication. Listening is a skill, listen 10, talk 1, almost to the point that is difficult to understand who's doing the talking if everybody is getting the same advice of…

Knowing and doing are two very different things. It might look easy, but it really isn't. Listening is challenging work, and we get little training to do it well. So, yes, incompetence is one of the reasons. And worse, it's often incompetence we're actively unaware of - "it's listening, how hard can it be". There are also advantages in not listening, but I really believe this "looks easy, but actually hard to do" spl…

Those are some good points.

I think there is also a delayed gratification that is coming from listening, while the gratification that comes with talking or expressing oneself is immediate. There is also in the "manager should listen" from the parent comment a bit of asymmetry if not hypocrisy, where the manager is the agent prone to maliciousness and the report is the one who should be listened to. And also, and I have been guilty of it like anybody else, I believe that sometimes we don't feel our manager is listening to us because they are not agreeing with us. They listen, they just happen to have a different opinion, but we prefer to say they don't listen.

I would say that I am not terribly interested in being listened to beyond the obvious, I particularly appreciate managers who are appreciative, decisive, and smart.

Being good at managing largely overlaps with being good at being friends minus the chances of being fired. The manager-report is not the same relationship as friend-friend of course, but I have yet to find a good direct manager who I would not consider good at being friends (reliable, honest, entertaining, decisive etc.), granted, not with me, and viceversa.

Re: What to Learn

#67

Post by throwaway879080 »

>working on a few things and not being particularly well rounded has worked for me in multiple disparate fields

arguably "well roundedness" is key to major breakthroughs in science & engineering

while most of us work on incremental improvements, the real innovation often happens on intersection of two or more disparate fields that until then were considered weakly related, and it does require knowing a bit of everything

the best scientists and engineers I know are "knowledge omnivores" and will digest anything. It does require well developed "filtering" capacity though, picking up signal from a lot of noise, and a sort of information hoarding mentality

Re: What to Learn

#68

Post by carapace »

lukego wrote: post #21

Forth is an interesting case. It's really unproductive to build complex systems with. If you try, you will probably be frustrated. Instead it forces you to try really hard to find a cheating short-cut to solve the problem as few moving parts as possible. Just one simple example. The 'struct' language feature is 1500 LOC in Lisp but only 10 LOC in FORTH (see below.) Are they equivalent? No, the Lisp one has lots of be…

Chuck Moore used to carry around a 3D wireframe CAD program on a deck of punchcards that fit in his shirt pocket.

Re: What to Learn

#70

Post by xyzelement »

brezelgoring wrote: post #60
xyzelement wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, a weakness is a weakness only to the extent that it neutralizes your strength. Like - is it important to spell? If you become very successful in your field despite not spelling well, then spelling is a waste of your time. On the other hand, if that flaw keeps you from getting jobs/being taken seriously then you need to fix it.

>a weakness is a weakness only to the extent that it neutralizes your strength Agree wholeheartedly. Floyd Mayweather doesn't know how to read, or so I hear, yet he's one of the very best at what he does, and no one can take that away from him.

Yup and that may change. For example, if he decided he wanted to write an autobiography sometime down the road, this may become something to fix!
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