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Donald Knuth on work habits, problem solving, and happiness (2020)

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Re: Donald Knuth on work habits, problem solving, and happiness (2020)

#151

Post by marttt »

jmcphers wrote: post #91

> My mother is amazing to watch because she doesn't do anything efficiently, really: She puts about three times as much energy as necessary into everything she does. But she never spends any time wondering what to do next or how to optimize anything; she just keeps working. Her strategy, slightly simplified, is, "See something that needs to be done and do it." All day long. And at the end of the day, she's accomplish…

As someone with rural/countryside roots, I recall similar advice on physical labor: it is best to work at a steady, consistent pace all day long without getting sweaty or breathless. You'll avoid (or postpone) dehydration, remain more alert and calm, and thus it is much easier to switch tasks immediately.

As a tree planter of several seasons, I've realized that this advice works remarkably well. Pushing yourself, sweating, drinking stimulating beverages instead of plain water etc seems to give you an edge while planting, but it's kind of deceptive in the long run IMO. Steady, moderately paced, but consistent, non-stop work is more effective in the grand total.

Then again, all this might come down to whether one is a "long distance runner" or a "sprinter" by personality and bodily characteristics. I guess I'm somewhere in between, but, approaching 40, these "100 meters in 9.2 seconds" daily life dashes are somehow starting to lose their appeal. Howdy, middle age!

Re: Donald Knuth on work habits, problem solving, and happiness (2020)

#152

Post by yourapostasy »

77pt77 wrote: post #123
jmcphers wrote: post #91

> My mother is amazing to watch because she doesn't do anything efficiently, really: She puts about three times as much energy as necessary into everything she does. But she never spends any time wondering what to do next or how to optimize anything; she just keeps working. Her strategy, slightly simplified, is, "See something that needs to be done and do it." All day long. And at the end of the day, she's accomplish…

Until eventually someone invariable has to clean up your mess due to awful choices. But why should you care? You've moved on with your trail of collateral damage by then, reaped the benefits and the fixer will subconsciously take the blame for any problems from outside observers.

Don’t know why you’re being downvoted, but this agency effect is real. The implicit assumption that rarely works out behind this “git ‘er done” is the “small” tasks picked up have already been organized into such tasks from a decomposition of the complex problem the tasks are part of.

This is why for example, I see fancy CICD pipelines covering for static component dependencies locked into a hard coded version of components. Completely breaking a core value proposition of the pipeline, but someone got the story points and moved on. It turns out that small task of putting the project into the pipeline should have been decomposed further. Oops.

This philosophy is a power tool and like any such tool, you take care in where you point it, and it will serve you well. Point it in the wrong direction however, and it will also happily blindly eviscerate you with no malice.

Re: Donald Knuth on work habits, problem solving, and happiness (2020)

#153

Post by FrankyHollywood »

> "The best test of when I'm about ready to solve a problem is whether or not I can think about it sensibly while swimming"

My personal variant is "when I don't have problems to solve while I'm cycling it's time to look for a new job" :)

Re: Donald Knuth on work habits, problem solving, and happiness (2020)

#154

Post by gjm11 »

ido wrote: post #135
gjm11 wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So, Knuth wrote this rather unusual book called "3:16" in which he took every chapter-3-verse-16 in the Bible (where chapter 3 is too short for that, he continued past the end into chapter 4 in the obvious way), thought about it a lot and wrote down his thoughts, and also commissioned eminent calligraphers to render his translations of all those verses. (He was inspired, if that's the right idea, by the notion of str…

It's getting off topic, but I love how we interpret Knuth's works like those of Rashi[1] interpreting the Talmud: His commentary on Tanakh—especially on the Chumash ("Five Books of Moses")—serves as the basis for more than 300 "supercommentaries" which analyze Rashi's choice of language and citations, penned by some of the greatest names in rabbinic literature. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rashi

Yeah, I did feel a little weird writing commentaries on Knuth's writing just like he was writing commentaries on Paul's. Fortunately no one thinks I am obliged to regard Knuth as perfectly free from error.

(Speaking of not being perfectly free from error, in my earlier comment I wrote "if that's the right idea" but of course I meant "if that's the right word", but I didn't notice until after it was too late to edit.)

Re: Donald Knuth on work habits, problem solving, and happiness (2020)

#155

Post by michaelcampbell »

marttt wrote: post #151
jmcphers wrote: post #91

> My mother is amazing to watch because she doesn't do anything efficiently, really: She puts about three times as much energy as necessary into everything she does. But she never spends any time wondering what to do next or how to optimize anything; she just keeps working. Her strategy, slightly simplified, is, "See something that needs to be done and do it." All day long. And at the end of the day, she's accomplish…

As someone with rural/countryside roots, I recall similar advice on physical labor: it is best to work at a steady, consistent pace all day long without getting sweaty or breathless . You'll avoid (or postpone) dehydration, remain more alert and calm, and thus it is much easier to switch tasks immediately. As a tree planter of several seasons, I've realized that this advice works remarkably well. Pushing yourself, sw…

This resonates with me, but sadly not with modern culture that is so hell-bent on both optimization and PUSH PUSH PUSH! all the time. It's ridiculous.

Re: Donald Knuth on work habits, problem solving, and happiness (2020)

#156

Post by michaelcampbell »

chmod600 wrote: post #102
jmcphers wrote: post #91

> My mother is amazing to watch because she doesn't do anything efficiently, really: She puts about three times as much energy as necessary into everything she does. But she never spends any time wondering what to do next or how to optimize anything; she just keeps working. Her strategy, slightly simplified, is, "See something that needs to be done and do it." All day long. And at the end of the day, she's accomplish…

This is effective because analysis paralysis is mentally draining. We tend to think/optimize in terms of time. But I've found it helpful to optimize for mental energy, which is often the limiting factor.

> We tend to think/optimize in terms of time. But I've found it helpful to optimize for mental energy, which is often the limiting factor.

I love this. Very succinct and insightful.

Re: Donald Knuth on work habits, problem solving, and happiness (2020)

#158

Post by slothtrop »

theonething wrote: post #33
beebmam wrote: post #2

>In Christian churches I am least impressed by a sermon that talks about how marvelous heaven is going to be at the end. To me that's not the message of Christianity. The message is about how to live now, not that we should live in some particular way because there's going to be pie in the sky some day. The end means almost nothing to me. I am glad it's there, but I don't see it as much of a motivating force, if any.…

Why should the journey be orthogonal to the destination? The Bible confirms that both are vital. The Sermon on the Mount commands Christians to be kind, loving and good people in this life. Verses like Matthew 6:19-21, Colossians 3:2 and 1 Corinthians 2:9 compel Christians to live this life in light of eternity. To me, if you accept the presuppositions of the Christian worldview, this is logical. If this life and how…

> The Bible confirms that both are vital.

Evangelicals just as easily claim the opposite, on the same conceit. "The Bible says". If this wasn't up to interpretation you wouldn't have so many protestant sects.

For instance, being kind and loving could be construed as an obligation for Salvation, not a reflection of the importance of Earth life. There are a not-insignificant number that oppose utilitarian improvements to quality of life because it might "distract people from God", notwithstanding how comfortable their own lot might be. It's not at all life-affirming for them, at least not in terms of how they feel of their neighbors.

Re: Donald Knuth on work habits, problem solving, and happiness (2020)

#159

Post by [deleted] »

gjm11 wrote: post #154
ido wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's getting off topic, but I love how we interpret Knuth's works like those of Rashi[1] interpreting the Talmud: His commentary on Tanakh—especially on the Chumash ("Five Books of Moses")—serves as the basis for more than 300 "supercommentaries" which analyze Rashi's choice of language and citations, penned by some of the greatest names in rabbinic literature. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rashi

Yeah, I did feel a little weird writing commentaries on Knuth's writing just like he was writing commentaries on Paul's. Fortunately no one thinks I am obliged to regard Knuth as perfectly free from error. (Speaking of not being perfectly free from error, in my earlier comment I wrote "if that's the right idea" but of course I meant "if that's the right word", but I didn't notice until after it was too late to edit.)

[deleted]

Re: Donald Knuth on work habits, problem solving, and happiness (2020)

#160

Post by gonehome »

jwogrady wrote: post #115
gonehome wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Related to your higher type of engineer: http://employees.oneonta.edu/blechmjb/JBpages/m360/Professio... It’s a good short story if you’ve got 20min.

Excellent suggestion. I enjoyed it. Just one question. How the hell does anyone read all that in 20 minutes?

Maybe 40min? It's been a long time since I've read it.
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