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A Caltech Nobel laureate celebrates his 100th birthday, then gets back to work

latimes.com

121–130 of 254 posts

Re: A Caltech Nobel laureate celebrates his 100th birthday, then gets back to work

#121
post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All the folks in my peer group who followed their left-leaning parents mantra of doing something interesting, something that you love, got absolutely screwed. As much as I hate big tech, I cannot blame anyone for pursuing it.

being a hipster and being a socialist aren't the same.

Maybe but there is a very big overlap

Re: A Caltech Nobel laureate celebrates his 100th birthday, then gets back to work

#123
post #4

Wow, such a winner: Long, healthy life full of accomplishments within a community where he is liked and he likes them back. I wonder what people like Peter Thiel have to say about it, would he consider Rudy Marcus a "winner", maybe bigger one than himself? I recall something about Thiel looking down on the life choices and motivations of scientists.

Realistically, Peter Thiel would praise the guy. He's talked before about our current level of stagnation and how the US needs to prioritize real advances in technology, especially in fundamental areas like physics. A Caltech Nobel Prize Winner who won his award for his contributions to the theory of electron transfer reactions would naturally help advance that agenda.

Re: A Caltech Nobel laureate celebrates his 100th birthday, then gets back to work

#124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because arguably it reduces demand for the next generation to do their thing. And if too many do it then it also becomes a necessity for more in the same age cohort to afford housing and transportation.

Pretty offensive to suggest that someone should “step aside for the next generation”. Personally I’d rather work for someone with more experience (all else being equal), but ultimately the best ideas and execution will win.

[deleted]

Re: A Caltech Nobel laureate celebrates his 100th birthday, then gets back to work

#126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well it's unlikely he's as productive as he was in his prime.

There is an 80-year old astrophysicist at the local government research observatory here. The government doesn't pay him anymore, but he has his own grants. He is almost certainly the most productive person at the facility, running circles around people half his age. And he does everything. Is a leader, guide and mentor for all the young scientists. He does serious intellectual work. Sometimes spends all day out in t…

Indeed. Hans Bethe did serious and solid scientific work way into his 90s.

Re: A Caltech Nobel laureate celebrates his 100th birthday, then gets back to work

#127
post #27

I particularly enjoyed this quote >“The main thing is finding something that you enjoy doing, that preferably doesn’t harm others, and that tests whatever aptitude one has, that tests one’s ingenuity,”

Followed by

> “It’s almost like a kind of a game. You against nature.”

Re: A Caltech Nobel laureate celebrates his 100th birthday, then gets back to work

#128
post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

By "retirement", people generally mean no longer working for money. That doesn't mean you can't find things to do.

Yeah, but the popular image is the kind you see in the moving picture "About Schmidt"

We stopped calling them moving pictures in 1910. They're motion pictures now.

Re: A Caltech Nobel laureate celebrates his 100th birthday, then gets back to work

#129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not suggesting people go off and die, or be thrown off a cliff. Rather that they consider there are some downsides to society at large if they unnecessarily work late in life. FWIW, I was responding to the question "why not? [keep working]".

The available data[1] suggest that society at large benefits from increased productivity regardless of whether the individuals driving that productivity are 65 or 25. Fortunately, we live in a positive-sum economy where working harder and longer not only grants you a bigger slice of the pie, it increases the size of the entire pie itself. [1] https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/gdp-vs-happiness

Be careful extrapolating macro scale effects into the micro scale. GDP is a function of a huge number of things and its correlation with positive outcomes doesn’t mean everything that boosts GDP is a net positive. Many forms of economic inefficiency end up boosting GDP.

Re: A Caltech Nobel laureate celebrates his 100th birthday, then gets back to work

#130
post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How did they get screwed? I feel like I kind of got screwed going into SW. I have friends who make 1/3 the money as athletic trainers, but just seem to love their life so much more. Maybe when we’re 60 things will change, but seems like a bad tradeoff.

There are happier because their work is finite. They do athletic sessions, they are done, their time then is their own. As software dev/lead/manager/pm you are never done, there is always next thing to do. This why some devs become SREs - your shift is over, you are done.

One reason devs work a lot more is that getting paid more causes you to work more, not less, because you miss out more by not working.

(This is why two income families are a sign of high wages more than poverty. And that both of you have relatively equal earning power of course.)

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