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Slow

michaelnotebook.com

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Re: Slow

#121

Post by neumann »

K-Wall wrote: post #88
lubujackson wrote: post #26

I'm reminded of the famous story of (I think) the central beam in a building at Oxford. The story goes something like: The central beam was beginning to fail and the Oxford administration knew they needed to replace it. When they went around for quotes, no one could replace the beam because it was 100 ft in length and sourced from an old growth tree. Such logs were simply unavailable to buy. To solve the issue, the s…

Can't wait to see this story used on some growth hacker / seeking new opportunities LinkedIn post talking about planning for success.

The funny thing is that 99% of the linkedin shills will miss the second crux of the allegory: To maintain the institutional knowledge for this to happen, you need to have a culture that nurtures employees, keeps them on long term and listens to them. And gives them time to write good documentation for future-proofing.

Re: Slow

#123

Post by neumann »

travisgriggs wrote: post #107
Avicebron wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"A society grows great when old men plant trees in whose shade they know they shall never sit" - Paraphrased from Elton Trueblood

Which defines why American society seems to be F'ed of late. Decades of short term rewards combined with a baby boomer population looking at their last hoorah and declining relevance. Most of the old people I interact seem to be in a state of denial about soon not being here.

Or just compare the billionaires actions now - they are building tunnels in hawaii to prepare for survival just as they are knowingly destroying the future instead of spending their obscene wealth to protect it.

Re: Slow

#125

Post by 8n4vidtmkvmk »

WJW wrote: post #58
bee_rider wrote: post #19

I dunno. I think we should separate out the stuff that fundamentally has to take a long time, like the pitch experiment, from stuff like Notre Dame, which just took a long time because they lacked the resources to do it all at once. Like OK, it takes a long time to build a big church because you need to find all the right rocks or whatever. But the pitch, that’s the universe taking a long time to tell us something. (…

I think it is part of the point for a cathedral to take several generations. If you can point to a building and say "that took 5 years to build and I was there for all of it!", then that's great, but the building is in some way "smaller" than you. If you can point to a partially constructed building and say "my grandfather worked on it, my father worked on it, I'm working on it and my children will work on it too", t…

There's certainly something interesting about taking multiple generations, but it also feels kinda wrong to attribute greater meaning to something because you dragged it out or intentionally scoped the project too big.

Maybe if the project served a greater purpose and couldn't possibly be built in a shorter time, then it would mean more. But a cathedral? What's wrong with a modest church or two?

Re: Slow

#126

Post by saltcured »

thom wrote: post #101
mateo411 wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I bet your friend is good at Scrabble.

Hopefully their interest expands beyond single syllable words, otherwise the highest scores according to a cursory search are 'zizzed' (34) and 'jazzed' (32) which are probably slightly below the average for an elite player.

yeah, "quizzed" (35) is the highest I found

Re: Slow

#127

Post by yunwal »

thom wrote: post #101
mateo411 wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I bet your friend is good at Scrabble.

Hopefully their interest expands beyond single syllable words, otherwise the highest scores according to a cursory search are 'zizzed' (34) and 'jazzed' (32) which are probably slightly below the average for an elite player.

Zizzed and jazzed if spelled in scrabble would be worth less than 32, since only one of the zs would be worth 10 points, the rest being blank tiles which are worth zero.

Of course most good players will create more than 1 word per turn, and will lay down over multiplier tiles.

You can probably do fairly well with just single syllable words, although at a certain level not being able to get a lay down bonus will prevent you from winning.

Re: Slow

#128

Post by morkalork »

There is/was an experiment to domesticate foxes that began in the early 1950s; something that can only be done slowly generation after generation.

Re: Slow

#129

Post by kylecazar »

I like this list (and Collison's)!

One thing I would say -- the Sagrada Familia definitely didn't have to take the incredible time it has. Maybe not a good example of something that could only be done over the long term. Gaudi didn't prioritize it, and a civil war ruined it.

It is, however, an example of something beautiful that did take a long period of time.

Re: Slow

#130

Post by hackitup7 »

neumann wrote: post #121
K-Wall wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can't wait to see this story used on some growth hacker / seeking new opportunities LinkedIn post talking about planning for success.

The funny thing is that 99% of the linkedin shills will miss the second crux of the allegory: To maintain the institutional knowledge for this to happen, you need to have a culture that nurtures employees, keeps them on long term and listens to them. And gives them time to write good documentation for future-proofing.

It's wild that they managed to retain this knowledge without a Confluence by Atlassian subscription (tm).
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