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

latimes.com

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

#161

Post by computerdork »

Zircom wrote: post #38
egwor wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’ve been asking myself why I’m not already doing this now. Why not spend a bit of time on reading about it now?

I don't know about you but I'm mentally exhausted at the end of most days once I'm off work. It's relatively uncommon for me to even have energy to invest in my normal hobbies, let alone self-improvement/ learning new skills.

Agree with this. Am a software engineer and musician (composition). Exhausting to do both.

But, have also found you can switch between them if you're a consultant. You work on medium-term length projects, build up a bank, quit, then focus on your other interest for a few months. Need to live frugally, but it is possible (have been doing this cycle for years).

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

#162

Post by teekert »

influx wrote: post #158
teekert wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have this theory: Humans have a spectrum for "worrying about things" or "things deemed important", let's call it 0 to 1. Things you don't worry about are 0. During normal life you worry about some things, and stuff surrounding work may even approach 1. Normal, because your family's well-being may depend on it. Then you retire or become unemployed and the 0 to 1 spectrum starts to drop in scope, the spectrum starts…

I’ve taken off a year and a half from work and similar to your theory, I have the same amount of stress in my life, I just apply it to non work parts of my life. I was shocked.

Yes, that's indeed how I felt. Idk, I do think there are people that don't experience this effect or perhaps less.

In general I've felt best when I was making or doing something I felt was really worth doing. Happy clients, difficult work (by my own standards, but also, I like to think by humanity's), lots of time spend highly focused.

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

#163

Post by throwaway98797 »

teekert wrote: post #157
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 have this theory: Humans have a spectrum for "worrying about things" or "things deemed important", let's call it 0 to 1. Things you don't worry about are 0. During normal life you worry about some things, and stuff surrounding work may even approach 1. Normal, because your family's well-being may depend on it. Then you retire or become unemployed and the 0 to 1 spectrum starts to drop in scope, the spectrum starts…

i get antsy

after 6 months off i’m exploring new subjects new challenges

the biggest thing is that you have to talk about something

if you aren’t working that something could be family, tv, or hobbies

but you got to talk about something

if you’re world gets too small you have only simple things like tv 2 video games shows to talk about and for me that never felt enough

i like a sprinkle of drama in my life

i too am in my 40s

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

#164

Post by kristopolous »

lambdasquirrel wrote: post #131
kristopolous wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My parents are on the far right. It was only after I ignored their rugged individualism Ayn Rand style beliefs that I got anywhere in life and now I'm doing fine. That's probably why I consider it to be such a scam. YMMV.

The opposite of something that is not working is not necessarily something that is working.

My point was more that following your dreams will get you to about the same place as gumption, hard work and keeping your head down.

Instead you need to understand power dynamics, social arrangements, how to negotiate, things like that.

For instance, your success as an artist in say the 1960s could come much easier if you spent your time becoming close friends with Peggy Guggenheim instead of working on your brush stroke.

Next time you see a stupid startup get funded, go research who the founders are and invariably you'll find like, their parents are hedge fund managers.

Now you could call me a cynic, complain it's unfair, or you could go out and meet some hedge fund managers with your time (this option works the best!)

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

#165

Post by herewulf »

vasco wrote: post #160
gravypod wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Meanwhile all of my peer group is obsessed with FIRE and dream of retiring early. I'm a SWE and I would love to FIRE one day but the goal of my retirement is very different from others. I want to buy some land with a house and a workshop, learn machining, chemistry, electrical engineering, etc and either contract for startups or start my own projects. Also, I'd like to bring some polish to the free software stack b…

Almost every person I know has the same goal about learning all these new hobbies. What happens instead is people do what they are passionate about and if you never learning X all your life you probably won't start at 65.

Depends on what X is. Ski jumping? Probably not. Workshop stuff (CNC, 3D printing, etc) probably yes.

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

#166

Post by herewulf »

computerdork wrote: post #161
Zircom wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know about you but I'm mentally exhausted at the end of most days once I'm off work. It's relatively uncommon for me to even have energy to invest in my normal hobbies, let alone self-improvement/ learning new skills.

Agree with this. Am a software engineer and musician (composition). Exhausting to do both. But, have also found you can switch between them if you're a consultant. You work on medium-term length projects, build up a bank, quit, then focus on your other interest for a few months. Need to live frugally, but it is possible (have been doing this cycle for years).

Very interesting! Any chance you have written more extensively about this somewhere? I am a consultant but it's hard to get my clients to leave me alone for more than a week.

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

#167

Post by vasco »

herewulf wrote: post #165
vasco wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Almost every person I know has the same goal about learning all these new hobbies. What happens instead is people do what they are passionate about and if you never learning X all your life you probably won't start at 65.

Depends on what X is. Ski jumping? Probably not. Workshop stuff (CNC, 3D printing, etc) probably yes.

It doesn't. Most people I know didn't have plans to ski jump when they are old because they know some physics and have been in the world more than 5 minutes.

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

#168

Post by saiya-jin »

ngai_aku wrote: post #40
egwor wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’ve been asking myself why I’m not already doing this now. Why not spend a bit of time on reading about it now?

Probably because most of us have feelings similar to what was expressed by the parent: > It is very hard to have the energy to do a full day of work, come home, and do a full night of work. I really enjoyed school, and I always thought I’d be the type to continue education via MOOCs, self-guided study, what have you. But it’s hard to fit it in after a full day of work and family time!

Same for me with learning new language (french) after long day at work... theoretically it should be fine and I know I should do it, but often the motivation is not there anymore at the end of the day, and you need some semi-constant momentum to get anywhere in these sustained efforts.

And once you get kids, they are more effective than black holes with sucking out any time you could have for yourself. Its well spent time, don't get me wrong, most probably the best way to spend it for a parent, but personal efforts suffer correspondingly. And next day is not gonna be different. Same for weekends and holidays. All year, every year.

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

#169

Post by herewulf »

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

You, sir, are winning that game. See you "at work" because in 59 years I also want to be productive still!

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