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Advice from a 104-year-old PhD student [video]

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Re: Advice from a 104-year-old PhD student [video]

#21

Post by jimbokun »

xwdv wrote: post #13
pbourke wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you’re a working programmer using a mainstream language, then I feel that spending some time with an ML-derived language such as Haskell and a Lisp will pay dividends in your day to day practice. There are some keen insights about computing that are revealed by these languages - and those insights are transferable to your daily work in JS, C#, Python, Java, etc to some degree.

Can you give any examples?

Looking backwards, I dug pretty deeply into Clojure for a while.

When Streams came to Java, I felt like I was already an expert in that paradigm, and was able to adopt it immediately in ways that made my Java code clearer and more concise, and maybe even more performant in some cases. (Streams can allow you to transform a very long sequence of data, without needing to realize the whole sequence in memory first, as one example.)

I also use immutable data structures by default wherever possible, unless I know I really need to mutate the data.

I try to make the output of a method dependent only on the inputs, wherever possible.

You shouldn't take it to extremes, but incorporating paradigms from one language into another can pay big dividends.

Re: Advice from a 104-year-old PhD student [video]

#22

Post by layoutIfNeeded »

submeta wrote: post #3

Truly inspiring. I am in my late forties, and I was wondering if I have enough time to learn Haskell, now I have no reason not to.

My dad is a 55 year old mechanical engineer. He have called me 3 times today with various questions regarding C++. He’s learning it by writing a program to draw Bezier curves.

Maybe at 55 I’ll pick up mechanical engineering as a hobby.

Re: Advice from a 104-year-old PhD student [video]

#23

Post by desiderantes »

zekrioca wrote: post #11
vuciv1 wrote: post #4

Eat fruit and take cold showers. The last time this was posted, someone said cold showers were the secret to looking young forever. I can't find much convincing official research (just blogs) to support that cold showers are beneficial to skincare, but I've been taking them nonetheless, and honestly, my pores have looked better :)

It is easier in tropical countries like Colombia, where “cold” is basically “warm”. In colder (northern) countries, I tried this but it is very hard because “cold water” (i.e., non heated) is way too cold (like minus temperatures).

Colombia has a huge range of climates. His city, Medellin, is a bit chillier than what you would expect.

Re: Advice from a 104-year-old PhD student [video]

#24

Post by st1x7 »

pbourke wrote: post #10
xwdv wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s never too late to learn anything. The problem is, are you ever going to be able to put it to good use before forgetting much of it? I’ve wasted so much time in the past decade learning random shit that I never used, it’s been a poor ROI compared to just continuing to hone the skills and languages I use daily. Really demotivating.

If you’re a working programmer using a mainstream language, then I feel that spending some time with an ML-derived language such as Haskell and a Lisp will pay dividends in your day to day practice. There are some keen insights about computing that are revealed by these languages - and those insights are transferable to your daily work in JS, C#, Python, Java, etc to some degree.

> and those insights are transferable to your daily work

Some people say this, others say that it makes your daily work worse because going back to a language that isn't on the cult-approved list is so difficult.

Re: Advice from a 104-year-old PhD student [video]

#26

Post by Drdrdrq »

zekrioca wrote: post #11
vuciv1 wrote: post #4

Eat fruit and take cold showers. The last time this was posted, someone said cold showers were the secret to looking young forever. I can't find much convincing official research (just blogs) to support that cold showers are beneficial to skincare, but I've been taking them nonetheless, and honestly, my pores have looked better :)

It is easier in tropical countries like Colombia, where “cold” is basically “warm”. In colder (northern) countries, I tried this but it is very hard because “cold water” (i.e., non heated) is way too cold (like minus temperatures).

> minus temperatures

Nitpick: it is difficult to take a shower with water in solid form (ice).

Re: Advice from a 104-year-old PhD student [video]

#27

Post by djedr »

johanneskanybal wrote: post #15
xwdv wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I keep hearing the secret to longevity is exercise. Maybe cold showers would help you look younger though. But a lot of things will help you look younger.

If you're 104 and takes long walks everyday that's the more extreme element rather than cold showers. But sure a great morning routine with the adrenaline boost from cold water might give you the edge to actually take that morning walk.

yeah, definitely it works like this; it has a stimulating effect

in many ways better than a coffee, although not pleasant

like a slap in the face

helps you locate your socks, to quote a classic

but yeah, no reason why just taking cold showers alone and then sitting around should have any magical effect

so perhaps it should be seen as a catalyst to being active; that's already significant

Re: Advice from a 104-year-old PhD student [video]

#29

Post by dzink »

You can trial the cold shower experience by just a washing your face with cold water after you wake up every morning. Growing up in Bulgaria that was a standard practice for my whole family. It does wonders for the skin and is very refreshing.

Re: Advice from a 104-year-old PhD student [video]

#30

Post by bitexploder »

trangon wrote: post #14
submeta wrote: post #3

Truly inspiring. I am in my late forties, and I was wondering if I have enough time to learn Haskell, now I have no reason not to.

Do it. You never know where it will lead. For example I started screwing around with C a few months ago and now I playing with microcontrollers and cameras because of that.

I started playing with Linux and C in 96. I was just an ignorant teenager. I didn’t know C was “hard”. I didn’t really care that Linux was different from Win95, I just knew Linux had fvwm2, gedit, and C compilers I needed for hacking on MUDs. I didn’t know chasing down obscure memory leaks was hard, I just linked libefence and did it. I was just playing and learning. Then I got offered a job doing web development with ColdFusion while still in high school. I was amazed at how easy the language was compared to C. Every “wow they must have a lot of time” project is often some other hacker playing and learning. Play and finding a way to make programming and computers not seem like work is how you develop a life long love of hacking and learning :) (this is not follow your passion advice, I think that is terrible advice, but if you can make your work feel like play and your play very intentional you will struggle to burn out or find it hard to sit down and write code any given day) :)

Edit: also, in 96 the Internet was very different. Many problems were solved by reading man pages, reviewing library source code, and thinking hard about what was happening. Modern Internet and stackoverflow /can/ make you more efficient in the short term but in the long term, it’s worth not rushing to google every error or weird problem. Give it a few minutes. If you’re writing a web app for example, in say Django or Rails go peek at the source code (they are beautiful projects). It’s almost a crime to not review the Go standard library source code, it is one of the cleanest out there. Etc, etc.

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