6 ms·

I love this guy. Great article about him here: http://www.wired.com/medtech/health/magazine/16-05/ff_wozniak?currentPage=all http://www.wired.com/medtech/healt

• michael_nielsen 17y ago
  The apology is strange. It seems predicated on a false notion of efficiency, assuming that somehow one's interactions with other people can be "efficient" in the same sense as one's interactions with a book. But that's not at all true. I am reminded of Freeman Dyson's comment soon after he met Feynman: "Feynman is a man whose ideas are as difficult to make contact with as Bethe's are easy; for this reason I have so far learnt much more from Bethe, but I think if stayed here much longer I should begin to find it was Feynman with whom I was working more." More generally, working with and learning from other people requires dealing with all sorts of "inefficiencies"; they're not optional. But if you're working with the right people, those inefficiencies are more than compensated for in other ways.
  • Luc 17y ago
    > working with and learning from other people requires dealing with all sorts of "inefficiencies"; they're not optional. I don't think he's all that interested in working with other people. In other words, he's not seeking to optimize his relationship with other people so much as he is finding a convenient excuse for not seeing other people at all.
    • jamesbritt 17y ago
      "In other words, he's not seeking to optimize his relationship with other people so much as he is finding a convenient excuse for not seeing other people at all." Which is sort of foolish. A big problem with being hyper efficient and blocking out assorted noise and distraction is that you end up filtering out serendipity. You become very efficient at some local maxima. If nothing else you risk missing out on learning about some new, better way to be efficient, but mostly you miss out on the weird random stuff that comes from the odd conversation with people. It's like people who only listen to [right|left]-wing radio or follow [right|left]-wing Web sites. You get really good at reinforcing the same beliefs and attitudes. (Same is true for people who stop paying attention to new other programming languages and paradigms.) I've reduced the number of local gatherings and general conferences I attend because of, overall, a poor return on the time invested vs tasks I want to complete, but don't want to become a hermit altogether because at the better gatherings there's a reasonable chance I'll learn about something interesting out of the blue.
      • Luc 17y ago
        > Which is sort of foolish. A big problem with being hyper efficient I think you're defining a metric by which your life is a success, but I'm sure you'll agree other people can be aware of this and still have other goals. This person probably doesn't need to work for a living (passive income from his software), so he can afford not following your otherwise quite sensible rules about serendipity. He can dig deep into a narrow subject, which may end up bringing him more satisfaction than aspiring to be something of a Renaissance man. He doesn't have to be all HackerNewsy, entrepreneurial etc. Besides, let him be a hermit if he wants to. It's kind of comforting to know that there is no high score or awards ceremony at the end of our lives. Local maxima don't sound so bad.