Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

latimes.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

141–150 of 254 posts

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

#141

Post by xapata »

serf wrote: post #136
thret wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

I read it as 'moving' (emotionally stirring) picture (a common-use colloquial for 'movie'; A film – also called a movie, motion picture, moving picture, picture, photoplay or (slang) flick) and that it is -- definitely emotionally stirring. It was amazing to me, having watched it many years previous, that it was essentially a 1:1 representation of my widowed father. when I watched it recently it was less funny than I…

The audience is rescued from the sad moments by letters to Ndugu. I remember a couple times being on the edge of tears, only to cheer up when I heard, "Dear Ndugu."

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

#142

Post by bombolo »

ekianjo wrote: post #121
bombolo wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Maybe but there is a very big overlap

one is about feeling morally superior to others, one is about helping others.

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

#143

Post by bjelkeman-again »

zw123456 wrote: post #57

Hi there, old person here. Tomorrow is my 65th birthday. I had vowed to myself that I would completely and totally retire, Finally, at 65. But then, this "thing" cropped up and the day after tomorrow, I am pitching my 3rd startup to investors. I wonder, am I crazy. But I feel passion for this project. So, I am throwing myself into the fray again, there is no logical reason to do so. So, Rudy, I understand.

I am 59, and this is my seventh new company, third startup with external funding. We just closed a €1M Euro grant for our work and are well placed for the next funding round during the autumn.

You are not crazy, if it is something you are passionate about. I tend to work on things I expect to take a decade or so before I step off. I really don’t feel that being a bit older is a detriment. I work smarter than I did and I get to work on things that really mean something for me, and maybe the world at large.

I say, go for it and best of luck!

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

#144

Post by sieabahlpark »

lostlogin wrote: post #53
losteric wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The older folks typically also benefited from getting into housing when it was less scarce, riding one or more waves of progress, at a time where healthcare ROI was much higher. My generation faces a different economic situation. I know people in academia that love what they do and dreamed of living a life like Rudy's. In practice, they're stuck - huge debts, dismally low post-grad wages, stuck renting, just hoping f…

Your housing comment is key - the grind of paying for rent or a mortgage with two incomes really stifles and ability people have to try something.

I think the reality is if you can't afford to live on a single income the chosen area you want to live in isn't where you should be. If you can't get a singular salary which affords you to live in an area then you're selling yourself short.

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

#145

Post by spaceman_2020 »

losteric wrote: post #36
spaceman_2020 wrote: post #2

I’ve been fortunate enough to know a few older people who really loved their work and were excellent at it. All of them had one thing in common: they didn’t want to retire. Meanwhile all of my peer group is obsessed with FIRE and dream of retiring early. All of us are also involved in pretty meaningless work that has no measurable impact on the world (five lines of code to a million line codebase is hardly world chan…

The older folks typically also benefited from getting into housing when it was less scarce, riding one or more waves of progress, at a time where healthcare ROI was much higher. My generation faces a different economic situation. I know people in academia that love what they do and dreamed of living a life like Rudy's. In practice, they're stuck - huge debts, dismally low post-grad wages, stuck renting, just hoping f…

As someone who gave up the academia dream for Big Tech, I can relate…

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

#146

Post by Tade0 »

lambdasquirrel wrote: post #46
losteric wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The older folks typically also benefited from getting into housing when it was less scarce, riding one or more waves of progress, at a time where healthcare ROI was much higher. My generation faces a different economic situation. I know people in academia that love what they do and dreamed of living a life like Rudy's. In practice, they're stuck - huge debts, dismally low post-grad wages, stuck renting, just hoping f…

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.

Sounds more like a generational thing than anything connected with political affiliation.

In my corner of the world it's the economically conservative crowd that advocates this - assuming money will follow because that's what happened to some of them in the 90s, when we were fresh out of communism.

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

#148

Post by jdkoeck »

jacquesm wrote: post #76
zw123456 wrote: post #57

Hi there, old person here. Tomorrow is my 65th birthday. I had vowed to myself that I would completely and totally retire, Finally, at 65. But then, this "thing" cropped up and the day after tomorrow, I am pitching my 3rd startup to investors. I wonder, am I crazy. But I feel passion for this project. So, I am throwing myself into the fray again, there is no logical reason to do so. So, Rudy, I understand.

> Tomorrow is my 65th birthday. Congrats! > the day after tomorrow, I am pitching my 3rd startup to investors. I'm still pretty active (58) but there is no way I'm going to do another run, I'm happy tinkering with stuff, spending time with kids and working on average 3 to 4 months per year. I always saw money as a means to an end, just another tool in the toolbox. I don't need more of it so that part of the drive is…

Why do you assume the poster above you is in it for the money?

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

#149

Post by vasco »

jdkoeck wrote: post #148
jacquesm wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Tomorrow is my 65th birthday. Congrats! > the day after tomorrow, I am pitching my 3rd startup to investors. I'm still pretty active (58) but there is no way I'm going to do another run, I'm happy tinkering with stuff, spending time with kids and working on average 3 to 4 months per year. I always saw money as a means to an end, just another tool in the toolbox. I don't need more of it so that part of the drive is…

Why do you assume the poster above you is in it for the money?

They shared their own thoughts, not an assumption about op.

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

#150

Post by darkwater »

vl wrote: post #77
kenjackson wrote: post #54

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.

Agree to this minus the SRE part which cannot be more wrong.
Post reply on HN