Stephen Wolfram – 4-Hour Conversational Documentary on My Entire Arc of Life [video] • Hacker News Board

Re: Stephen Wolfram – 4-Hour Conversational Documentary on My Entire Arc of Life [video]

#121

Post by aleph_minus_one » Wed, Feb 21, 2024, 8:44 PM UTC

aeonik wrote: post #16

martinky24 wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For every genius who was right and ridiculed, and celebrated accordingly, there are many people who were wrong and ridiculed, and forgotten accordingly.

His work is definitely worthwhile. Wolfram Language by itself is actually very cool. I really wish he would open source it. I'm not going to use any math package that isn't open source for anything. I think his physics work is pretty interesting as well. I think the reason he aggrandizes, and this is only speculation, is because he is pushing the envelope in many fields simultaneously and wants to "credentialize" him…

> His work is definitely worthwhile. Wolfram Language by itself is actually very cool. I really wish he would open source it. I'm not going to use any math package that isn't open source for anything.

Here is the official statements of Wolfram Research on this topic:

> Why Wolfram Tech Isn’t Open Source—A Dozen Reasons

> https://blog.wolfram.com/2019/04/02/why-wolfram-tech-isnt-op...

Re: Stephen Wolfram – 4-Hour Conversational Documentary on My Entire Arc of Life [video]

#122

Post by ska » Wed, Feb 21, 2024, 8:48 PM UTC

throwup238 wrote: post #65

xaellison wrote: post #50

Scientific American I think did a balanced article about this character: https://web.archive.org/web/20231231040033/https://www.scien... My favorite quotes: when provided with some of the responses from other physicists regarding his work, Wolfram is singularly unenthused. “I’m disappointed by the naivete of the questions that you’re communicating,” he grumbles. “I deserve better.” “There’s a tradition of scientists…

> “There’s a tradition of scientists approaching senility to come up with grand, improbable theories,” the late physicist Freeman Dyson told Newsweek back in 2002. “Wolfram is unusual in that he’s doing this in his 40s.” That is a brutal take down. Did Dyson and Wolfram have a math-beef going or something?

I think it's more that Wolfram has stepped on enough toes that he earns takes like this.

He's an interesting character, and rare in that is his both obviously very intelligent, and yet not nearly as intelligent as he thinks he is.

I suspect he's the sort of person who can't stand the idea that he is not the smartest guy in the room - in perception or reality. He may well have constructed his career as an "outsider" to reduce the occurrences of this, perhaps not intentionally.

Re: Stephen Wolfram – 4-Hour Conversational Documentary on My Entire Arc of Life [video]

#123

Post by yangikan » Wed, Feb 21, 2024, 9:11 PM UTC

cc101 wrote: post #22

He is bright. He has important things to say. Learning what he has to say takes way too much time. Until he gets a merciless editor, I won't listen to him.

He records every aspect of his life -- even design meetings. You can watch it all here: https://livestreams.stephenwolfram.com/

Re: Stephen Wolfram – 4-Hour Conversational Documentary on My Entire Arc of Life [video]

#124

Post by martinky24 » Wed, Feb 21, 2024, 9:18 PM UTC

Suppafly wrote: post #117

martinky24 wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

- They pay like shit (compared to "sexy employers") - Headquartered in Champaign, Illinois (not a bad town, but not sexy) - As "cool" as their software is, not a lot of people use it. Python is eating their lunch, ESPECIALLY outside of academia. Although, they're losing ground in academia as well - Stephen Wolfram isn't a charismatic leader who is fun to work for. There's no shortage of stories of him short circuitin…

>- They pay like shit (compared to "sexy employers") How do they pay compared to other midwestern employers?

Relatively reasonably, for Champaign cost of living. But "local midwestern employer salary" isn't sexy.

Re: Stephen Wolfram – 4-Hour Conversational Documentary on My Entire Arc of Life [video]

#125

Post by perrygeo » Wed, Feb 21, 2024, 9:29 PM UTC

martinky24 wrote: post #102

nomilk wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Jobs, because he didn’t do it himself? The commonality is they all brought $1b+ ideas to market; they didn’t just have good ideas, but did the hard work necessary to execute on them.

In what world is anything Wolfram has created a $1b+ idea?

Mathematica has half-billion+ in annual revenue and has been a mainstay of engineering work for decades. So ... this world?

Re: Stephen Wolfram – 4-Hour Conversational Documentary on My Entire Arc of Life [video]

#126

Post by Suppafly » Wed, Feb 21, 2024, 9:59 PM UTC

martinky24 wrote: post #124

Suppafly wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>- They pay like shit (compared to "sexy employers") How do they pay compared to other midwestern employers?

Relatively reasonably, for Champaign cost of living. But "local midwestern employer salary" isn't sexy.

>But "local midwestern employer salary" isn't sexy.

True, but it's always funny when people compare midwestern salaries to FAANG companies, as if the cost of living is like 10x less in the midwest. I don't know the specifics of what wolfram pays, but my gut feeling has always been that it's likely pretty good. A lot of the other random math and tech adjacent companies in the area started by ex-wolfram employees and UIUC grads seem to be doing pretty well.

Re: Stephen Wolfram – 4-Hour Conversational Documentary on My Entire Arc of Life [video]

#127

Post by martinky24 » Wed, Feb 21, 2024, 10:55 PM UTC

perrygeo wrote: post #125

martinky24 wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In what world is anything Wolfram has created a $1b+ idea?

Mathematica has half-billion+ in annual revenue and has been a mainstay of engineering work for decades. So ... this world?

Alright, I'm gonna need a source cited on that one lmao. Absolutely no way.

Re: Stephen Wolfram – 4-Hour Conversational Documentary on My Entire Arc of Life [video]

#128

Post by iamnotsure » Wed, Feb 21, 2024, 10:56 PM UTC

TYSM

Re: Stephen Wolfram – 4-Hour Conversational Documentary on My Entire Arc of Life [video]

#129

Post by martinky24 » Wed, Feb 21, 2024, 10:59 PM UTC

Suppafly wrote: post #126

martinky24 wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Relatively reasonably, for Champaign cost of living. But "local midwestern employer salary" isn't sexy.

>But "local midwestern employer salary" isn't sexy. True, but it's always funny when people compare midwestern salaries to FAANG companies, as if the cost of living is like 10x less in the midwest. I don't know the specifics of what wolfram pays, but my gut feeling has always been that it's likely pretty good. A lot of the other random math and tech adjacent companies in the area started by ex-wolfram employees and U…

Yeah, I don't disagree. But again, the original metric was "sexy". But you're definitely better off getting a remote big-tech adjacent job than working at Wolfram Research, if you've got those chops.

Re: Stephen Wolfram – 4-Hour Conversational Documentary on My Entire Arc of Life [video]

#130

Post by aeonik » Wed, Feb 21, 2024, 11:15 PM UTC

aleph_minus_one wrote: post #121

aeonik wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

His work is definitely worthwhile. Wolfram Language by itself is actually very cool. I really wish he would open source it. I'm not going to use any math package that isn't open source for anything. I think his physics work is pretty interesting as well. I think the reason he aggrandizes, and this is only speculation, is because he is pushing the envelope in many fields simultaneously and wants to "credentialize" him…

> His work is definitely worthwhile. Wolfram Language by itself is actually very cool. I really wish he would open source it. I'm not going to use any math package that isn't open source for anything. Here is the official statements of Wolfram Research on this topic: > Why Wolfram Tech Isn’t Open Source—A Dozen Reasons > https://blog.wolfram.com/2019/04/02/why-wolfram-tech-isnt-op... See also > Episode 1: Thoughts on…

I don't have an answer for him. I don't mind paying money for software, I get his points, but at the same time, it's a non-starter for me.

When it comes to math. Especially a system as cool as Wolfram Language, I want to hack on the insides.

I don't publish things, or have time right now. But in 10 years, I estimate I'm going to be wanting to compile math software on radically different chips and ISAs.

Without an open source language, everything I build on top of the system will be incompatible with hardware specific instructions, unless they compiled it for that chip, often missing very specific optimizations (which could be improved even today). Or I would need to virtualize.

All this math code will the most important and hottest running code paths in my system, and won't even be able to compile to experimental ISAs or their extensions to take advantage.