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The Bus Ticket Theory of Genius

paulgraham.com

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Re: The Bus Ticket Theory of Genius

#361

Post by jacquesm »

QueensGambit wrote: post #360
jacquesm wrote: post #287

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

That sounds like a very useful idea! IDEs have made refactoring large projects much easier than it used to be but I can still see how your representation is superior. Text files as storage for computer programs are awkward, you're always left with huge impedance mismatch between the form in which you specify what you want and the form it eventually takes.

Thank you for answering my question.

Re: The Bus Ticket Theory of Genius

#362

Post by javajosh »

>a disinterested obsession with something that matters

Aha! It's official then, I'm a software architecture genius.

But seriously though, even if you're curious and obsessed, does that really make you a genius? You might be obsessed with general relativity but contribute nothing to the field.

Re: The Bus Ticket Theory of Genius

#363

Post by majos »

eli_gottlieb wrote: post #307
tompccs wrote: post #16

I think this is correct. The bad news is we are creating systems which minimise the number of geniuses entering each field. In the past, science was an eccentric hobby, not particularly valued and certainly not a viable career option. Today it's all of these things - like becoming a doctor. Telling your mother you want to be a scientist is far better than saying you want to be a musician. A hundred years ago that wou…

>Telling your mother you want to be a scientist is far better than saying you want to be a musician. Are you joking? A small child literally has a better chance of growing up to become a professional athlete than a tenured research professor!

This doesn’t seem true.

In 2016, American universities hired about 20,000 tenure-track faculty [1]. Adding up the major pro sports leagues, there are very very generously 10,000 American pro athletes, (i.e. people who don’t have day jobs).

I guess things change if you include all the minor league and farm teams, especially for the MLB.

[1] https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2018/10/12/about-three-q...

Re: The Bus Ticket Theory of Genius

#364

Post by chubot »

sornaensis wrote: post #318
danbmil99 wrote: post #219

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Frankly most people obsess about things like finding a mate, playing video games, collecting comics, politics, reading books, watching & discussing TV shows & movies, social websites (such as this one), sex, porn, fashion, sports, the social politics of work (as opposed to the work itself -- e.g. "The Office") and, of course, their kids. But none of these sorts of obsessions are likely to lead to fame or fortune. I t…

Interests aren't necessarily obsessions or passions. I think it's rare to be obsessed with any of those things, but common to be superficially interested. For instance many people will just watch a TV show and enjoy it, and maybe even rewatch it a few times, without knowing all of the actors or writers or how the production of the show worked, etc etc, while you would expect an obsessed person to know at least some o…

Yeah that’s a good point. Almost everyone watches TV. But people like say Jimmy Kimmel watched TV so closely that they came to understand its underlying mechanisms.

What makes people laugh? What entertains them and makes them less lonely? Who are the important people in the business? You could watch TV for years and never ask yourself those questions.

After all there’s no real school for TV. Many people on TV now studied it by simply paying closer attention. There are LA insiders for sure who can watch their parents, but there are also people like Letterman who was from a small town in Indiana.

As another example, a lot of UFC fighters also grew up watching the nascent sport in the 90’s. They learned how it worked simply by paying more attention, practicing, and being more obsessive about it than the millions of other fans. There’s no school for it since it was a rapidly developing martial art. YouTube has apparently permanently changed the state of practice in Jiu-Jitsu.

Re: The Bus Ticket Theory of Genius

#366

Post by scruple »

munificent wrote: post #348
scruple wrote: post #317

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My twins are 6 months. I've maintained 3x a week, hour long full body training sessions the entire time (and I get out for 2-3 10k runs a week and occasionally get out for a mountain bike ride, depending on how good of a deal I can make with my wife). I'm fortunate to work from home full-time, which means that I can get my workout in over lunch hour. For people who aren't are so fortunate, I always recommend that the…

> My twins are 6 months. For what it's worth, that means that you're actually at an easier phase than you will be when the kids get older. Infants are time-consuming in many ways, but they also sleep a lot and have few external needs of their own. When your kids stopping napping and start acquiring their own friends and activities, the time commitment goes up a lot , especially when they are still too young to do muc…

Oh, for sure. It's already ramped up, month over month, just due to them napping less. I'm excited to see where it all takes us over the coming years. That said, a major factor in why I work full-time remote today is because I wanted to take control of my health and use my lunch hour to exercise. I don't plan on ever giving that up, but I know that's optimistic. I'd happily go back to S&S 6 days a week if that's where my life took me (again).

Re: The Bus Ticket Theory of Genius

#367

Post by pmoriarty »

friedman23 wrote: post #190
pmoriarty wrote: post #175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I find it sad and disturbing that so many people worship being a workaholic.

People worship success. Turns out to be better than other hard working people you need to work extremely hard.

Success (by which most people mean financial success, fame, or winning in some competition) is certainly worshipped.

However, just being "a hard worker" in itself is considered a virtue by many people.

I hesitate to call it the Protestant Work Ethic or the Puritan Work Ethic, as it's far from limited to Protestants or Puritans, but that's really what it is. The harder you work, the more virtuous you are considered to be, and working less is considered sinful or lazy (in other words, unvirtuous and blame-worthy).

Re: The Bus Ticket Theory of Genius

#368

Post by irrational »

sornaensis wrote: post #318
danbmil99 wrote: post #219

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Frankly most people obsess about things like finding a mate, playing video games, collecting comics, politics, reading books, watching & discussing TV shows & movies, social websites (such as this one), sex, porn, fashion, sports, the social politics of work (as opposed to the work itself -- e.g. "The Office") and, of course, their kids. But none of these sorts of obsessions are likely to lead to fame or fortune. I t…

Interests aren't necessarily obsessions or passions. I think it's rare to be obsessed with any of those things, but common to be superficially interested. For instance many people will just watch a TV show and enjoy it, and maybe even rewatch it a few times, without knowing all of the actors or writers or how the production of the show worked, etc etc, while you would expect an obsessed person to know at least some o…

I think its fairly common for teenagers (and some not-teenagers) to be obsessed with sex. Many people seem to be obsessed with politics. I've met many adults who I assume are obsessed with work since they spend so much time doing it.

Re: The Bus Ticket Theory of Genius

#369

Post by overgard »

fancyfish wrote: post #357

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 tra…

By your process though, you likely wouldn't discover the genius. After all, you wouldn't know if what they're doing is of value until afterwards. What if the Entertainment Tonight fanatic ended up writing brilliant blistering and influential social critiques later because of their obsession with pop culture? The point is you can't know upfront.

Re: The Bus Ticket Theory of Genius

#370

Post by Rexxar »

QueensGambit wrote: post #360
jacquesm wrote: post #287

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

Does it have its own integrated source control ?
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