41–50 of 91 posts
It's in the context of learning crafts, and the main point is that many people are discouraged because they don't seem to get quick results from their practice—but nor does anyone else! When you have a good sense of how much time is required to get good at something, your expectations will be more in line with reality.
A good example (in my twisted mind) is the folks that set up concerts and sports games. I have a friend, who runs setup of major venues. Like, stadiums and conference centers, for big-time events (thousands of people). The deal is, that a whole lot of moving parts, need to come together, for one event, and there can be no screwups[0]. Takes a lot of planning, prep work, validation, and, most importantly, experience (…
You could gather all the "technology", all the equipment, all the cables and boxes and speakers and ropes and everything else, and hand it off to a smart, motivated young crew of complete newbies, and the "techology" wouldn't work. The show would not make it, and it's possible people would even get badly hurt or killed trying.
This is the real catastrophe when a team gets nuked and the jobs sent somewhere else, anywhere else, doesn't even matter. You can transfer the code, you can transfer the infrastructure, but you can't transfer the lived experience. Our so-called elite managers understand that this is why they can't be replaced but lack the courtesy to extend that understanding to the people who work for them, that everyone everywhere who does anything non-trivial ends up building these same networks of lived experience that are the real ability to achieve.
Putting on a show isn't about knowing that steel is made of carbon-infused iron; it's all the networks of lived experience that have developed to the level that they can achieve something like a major stadium show, safely.
The magic lies not just in the effort itself but in how it is directed. Teller’s months of work burying boxes weren’t random. Sustaining long-term effort toward an uncertain payoff requires more than discipline—it demands resilience and a reimagining of gratification. The real magic, perhaps, lies not in the final trick, but in cultivating a mindset where the process itself becomes fulfilling, where the act of buryin…
I have invested quite an unreasonable-amount-of-time rendering fractals, (just on 1 node so far) myself, mostly only at 2k (square) pixels but really quite a few at 16k (16384x16384 pixels) and I'm also hoping to figure out how to do some magic with these images one day!
A good example (in my twisted mind) is the folks that set up concerts and sports games. I have a friend, who runs setup of major venues. Like, stadiums and conference centers, for big-time events (thousands of people). The deal is, that a whole lot of moving parts, need to come together, for one event, and there can be no screwups[0]. Takes a lot of planning, prep work, validation, and, most importantly, experience (…
A lot of what people think of as "technology" is actually this knowledge. Your friend has lots of experience. There's people they know and trust to do certain tasks. Those people know other people who know how to solve this or that problem. They know their gear and are constantly experimenting with new gear and getting to know it. You could gather all the "technology", all the equipment, all the cables and boxes and…
The term “tribal knowledge,” is used as a pejorative, in tech architecture, but I have found it to be the “magic ingredient” to really successful endeavors.
I worked for a corporation that is over a hundred years old, and is absolutely dripping with “tribal knowledge.” They regularly accomplish stuff that is considered nearly impossible.
But “tribal knowledge” basically means that you need to keep employees around for a while, and also, stay at a job for a while, which is sort of anathema, in today’s tech culture.
Hmm, I think 'fail fast' and 'embrace the grind' are popular and somewhat contradictory advices. Which is better? I think 'fail fast' is (or was?) a bit overhyped so I tend to err on the side of 'embrace the grind'. But obviously the art is in deciding which one to follow in a case by case basis. Working on your dream game for years only to find absolutely no traction is not a good place to be in, but constantly chas…
Fail fast is a pretty trash idea, if you exclusively mean don't be afraid to do new things, then I'm all for it. If you're careless with the idea, as most of the people who embrace it seem to be. It means do something bad to your users.
I'm gonna steal (badly) a quote from superfastmatt here (before I go find the video and correct the quote)
> The motto of hech companies is "fail fast", the motto of companies like NASA might be "never fail", the motto of Boeing is just "fail"
I think it perfectly highlights the dichotomy between good engineering, and bad.
edit: yeah, his delivery is so much better than my atrocious attempt https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQ867EDWcls it's the very start of the video, and his entire channel is amazing and hilarious.
the real quote: Tech companies have a mantra of "fail fast, fail often", This is in contrast to an organization like NASA who could have the phrase "try not to fail", or Boeing who prefers the simpler "fail". While NASA would prefer to do things methodically making sure to check all the boxes along the way; SpaceX would rather just take an educated guess build something strap a bunch of sensors to it and see what happens. You can learn a lot very quickly the second way, I also do things this way but not because I'm trying to disrupt any paradigms it's because it's just more fun to do it that way [...]
I don't know, having spent a third of of my life on a single project almost daily, not all that time deliberate and most of it ADD-driven problem avoidance, I ended up inflicting upon myself a personal hell I have only begun to comprehend the depths of. When the interest finally waned I didn't feel I had enough to show for it and every other aspect of my life suffered in ways that will take years to make up for. At t…
Imagine if the magic trick was: 1. They pour a large bowl of rice onto a table 2. They reveal the exact number of grains Would this feel exciting as a card buried under the ground? No Does this still require a lot of effort to count every grain? Yes Applying a huge amount of effort doesn’t equal achieving the desired result (in this case the suspense, surprise and magical element) The direction one is going is often…
Hmm, I think 'fail fast' and 'embrace the grind' are popular and somewhat contradictory advices. Which is better? I think 'fail fast' is (or was?) a bit overhyped so I tend to err on the side of 'embrace the grind'. But obviously the art is in deciding which one to follow in a case by case basis. Working on your dream game for years only to find absolutely no traction is not a good place to be in, but constantly chas…
Fail fast = use it when in exploration mode. Dig here, dig there until you find something of worth
Embrace the grind = once you have found something worthwhile, speed a lot of time