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The Bus Ticket Theory of Genius

paulgraham.com

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Re: The Bus Ticket Theory of Genius

#351

Post by guskel »

nobodyandproud wrote: post #59
MarkMMullin wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The 'problem' with modern science is that a large finite amount of stuff has been discovered, and new discoveries are most often built on that stuff. I splash around in the backwaters of machine learning, however I have to pick my targets carefully and maintain a very tight focus - the defined knowledge base has already grown to more than anyone can ingest in detail. Given the amount of knowledge that has to be absor…

The problem with modern science is that there is no room for the unusual. Faraday had no formal training, but his natural intuition, interest, and tenacity made him standout. Newton was a brilliant, paranoid asshole. Instead funding goes to credentialed career scientists whose greatest ability is self-promotion, fund raising, and stringing-along the public. As an example: The next big particle accelerator sucks up bi…

Part of it has to also do with science becoming more empirical.

Re: The Bus Ticket Theory of Genius

#352

Post by bretthoerner »

BeeOnRope wrote: post #327
jacquesm wrote: post #212

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Simplest solution: if the traffic situation around you allows it get a bike. And use it for anything under 10 km or when you need to transport something heavy. Cheaper than the gym and far healthier, saves you money on w&t on your car as well.

Why is biking far healthier than the gym?

I think they just mean it's healthier than not biking to work.

Re: The Bus Ticket Theory of Genius

#353

Post by jeffdavis »

throwaway713 wrote: post #191

I agree with his theory, but what I find particularly interesting is that I think most people do not have an obsessive interest in anything at all. And as someone who has obsessive interests in a lot of things (some “useful”, some not), that seems really odd to me: how can you just be satisfied to go to work, come home, watch TV, and go to bed each day? (Not saying that’s the wrong way to live, just saying it is surp…

What separates piano and OS hscking from making dinner, for you? What is mundane versus interesting?

It seems to reduce the problem back to what might lead to a useful discovery versus what won't. But piano is likely in the latter category, given that its obsessed about so often over centuries. Maybe the time for OS hacking to lead to discoveries is on its way out, as well.

Obsessive cooking might be more likely to be fruitful, come to think of it. We have changing ideas about food production and nutrition; and more enabling technologies around for new ideas.

(I'm not saying that there's anything wrong with obsessing about things that won't lead to discoveries. They could be useful in a more mundane way, or be useless but still engaging.)

Re: The Bus Ticket Theory of Genius

#354

Post by dang »

achillesheels wrote: post #333
drongoking wrote: post #323

Two reactions to this. I almost believe these: 1. The difference between collecting bus tickets, working on mathematics, and figuring the crystallization patterns of snowflakes is virtually nothing. To the people obsessed with it, it is all-important; to outsiders, all three look indistinguishably pointless. Only in retrospect can anyone say whether the activity led to something society considers important. The truly…

You’re completely deluded into believing that genius is overrated. While it is never in isolation, and its fruits are the product of historical necessity, it takes a rare breed of sacrifice, which PG here is saying as obsession, to hit the targets no one else sees (paraphrasing Arthur Schopenhauer); and is constitutionally the personal, moral input of an individual on choosing how to cause themselves to be, unconcern…

> You’re completely deluded [...] Shame on you and your ilk

Crossing into personal attack isn't allowed, and we ban accounts the keep doing it, so can you please not do it here? If you'd take a look at https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html you'll see how the intended spirit of this site points in the opposite direction. Note that it doesn't depend on how right you are.

Re: The Bus Ticket Theory of Genius

#355

Post by dwaltrip »

nobodyandproud wrote: post #59
MarkMMullin wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The 'problem' with modern science is that a large finite amount of stuff has been discovered, and new discoveries are most often built on that stuff. I splash around in the backwaters of machine learning, however I have to pick my targets carefully and maintain a very tight focus - the defined knowledge base has already grown to more than anyone can ingest in detail. Given the amount of knowledge that has to be absor…

The problem with modern science is that there is no room for the unusual. Faraday had no formal training, but his natural intuition, interest, and tenacity made him standout. Newton was a brilliant, paranoid asshole. Instead funding goes to credentialed career scientists whose greatest ability is self-promotion, fund raising, and stringing-along the public. As an example: The next big particle accelerator sucks up bi…

There is still plenty of room for the unusual, it just isn't as easy as it was back in the day when most important discoveries were made by people working by themselves at home with little organizational funding.

It's a nice narrative that overgrown institutions are ruthlessly repressing all creativity. And I do believe there is some truth to that. We should work hard to understand why and then improve the situation. However, unfortunately, reality is usually more complex and also more mundane (in some ways) than any nice narratives we can come up with.

Re: The Bus Ticket Theory of Genius

#357

Post by fancyfish »

Most people have no productive obsessive interests. They might obsess over Entertainment Tonight, if anything. That produces nothing of value for broader society. You might even say it halts growth as a society, corrupting our cultural fabric.

Geniuses are a gift because they generally apply their obsessions in a way that brings our culture forward. Investing and trading gurus who pore over 10-Ks or find alpha in trading signals and show incredible returns. Writers burning the midnight oil producing a prolific amount of high-quality work. Brian Chesky living in over 30 different AirBnB locations obsessing over the customer experience.

Hire the obsessive geniuses, then get out of their way. Not all of them will have a great "vision" or know what a good collaborative framework at work looks like. Sometimes your job as a founder and leader is to figure out how to let them flourish.

Re: The Bus Ticket Theory of Genius

#358

Post by BoorishBears »

panarky wrote: post #302
BoorishBears wrote: post #273

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What in life is not a competition? What the above comment is about applies to so much in life, from education to careers because at their core, they are competitions. > If you're in a competition, the. By definition you're doing the exact same thing as everyone else. Not true. There are people who play competitive, ranked, games 3 hrs a week and are happy with being in the top 50% of players And there are people who…

> What in life is not a competition? The examples given in the post are not competitions. The bus ticket collector is interested in old bus tickets, and is not competing with anybody. Ramanujan obsessed over series, and was not competing with anybody.

Flipping light switches is not a competition... I wasn't being literal. I mean a great number of important things in life are competitions even if we don't see ourselves as competitors. -

But actually I disagree with saying Ramanujan wasn't competing with anyone, he just wasn't trying to compete

Plenty of people would consider any academic field a competition, even if not everyone in the field is there to compete

The competitive nature of the mathematics field easily have to do with why Ramanujan was not taken as seriously as he should have been at first. A "competitor" was coming with claims to grand contributions and that already created friction, which when combined with other factors about his non-traditional presentation became roadblocks.

Re: The Bus Ticket Theory of Genius

#359

Post by jaxr »

jeffdavis wrote: post #353
throwaway713 wrote: post #191

I agree with his theory, but what I find particularly interesting is that I think most people do not have an obsessive interest in anything at all. And as someone who has obsessive interests in a lot of things (some “useful”, some not), that seems really odd to me: how can you just be satisfied to go to work, come home, watch TV, and go to bed each day? (Not saying that’s the wrong way to live, just saying it is surp…

What separates piano and OS hscking from making dinner, for you? What is mundane versus interesting? It seems to reduce the problem back to what might lead to a useful discovery versus what won't. But piano is likely in the latter category, given that its obsessed about so often over centuries. Maybe the time for OS hacking to lead to discoveries is on its way out, as well. Obsessive cooking might be more likely to b…

I think that's the whole point. It's not about what is interesting and what not, but what truly obsesses you. What OP means is that cooking is not something he feels obsessed about. It's great if you are obsessed about cooking and have 10 hours a day to practice your cooking. But most of us, wish we had more time to explore the topics we are deeply attracted to. If they make a difference, all the better.

Re: The Bus Ticket Theory of Genius

#360

Post by QueensGambit »

jacquesm wrote: post #287
QueensGambit wrote: post #28

Having done passion projects for 15 years, the elephant in the room is: Do you have dependents and do they support you? At some point in time, your worthless obsession will feel like selfishness to your dependents and yourself. Its a material world after all. This is a great article, but a reality check will be helpful!

> Having done passion projects for 15 years What were those? Genuinely interested, I'd rather hear about people's passion projects all day long than about ways to make money.

Quite a lot. But, the one I spent most time was in creating a programming language that stores its source code as parse tree instead of text file. If you rename a variable, it will automatically change all the code, UI and DB that refers it.
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