4 ms·

> Or working as a patent clerk, maybe? Does it still work though? In the days of Einstein, I imagine you could slack off easier in such a position than nowaday

by lx9911 10y ago

> Or working as a patent clerk, maybe? Does it still work though? In the days of Einstein, I imagine you could slack off easier in such a position than nowadays. The problem these days is that we're inundated with busywork not only in academia, but in most occupations.

VLM 10y ago
And wouldn't the smartest fraction of the population, or at least the researchers think they're the smartest, have the best skills at shamming and avoiding individual busywork and finding careers where they can ruminate in relative peace compared to working in a busy call center, for example? Even in general at very large scale, a world of limited and shrinking economic opportunity but unlimited and expanding education (well, until the future student loan crash arrives), means you can try to pile on busywork but the people shamming and pencil whipping it are better at shamming and pencil whipping and everything else, than any other cohort in the history of humanity... As a cultural touchstone look at the movie "Office Space" still relevant today. He stares at the walls for an hour or two every day trying to look busy. Sure you might have to pass three interviews with ten people while proving P=NP and writing a javascript compiler to GET the job, but to DO the job you have to update TPS report headers every couple weeks and that's about it, other than loading letter size paper into the laser printer and staring at walls looking busy. Not to spoil the plot of the movie but the lead actor is not a theoretical physicist although if he were, it would be a dream job for him, work about an hour a week then look really busy the other 39+ hours while working on physics.
hilop 10y ago
Reddit (and to some extent HN) are proof that there are plenty of white collar jobs with oodles of free time.
- ScottBurson 10y ago
  It's not the right kind of time, though. Reading and occasionally posting usually don't require sustained concentration -- they can mostly be done as a break from that. (Of course there are times when an interesting and difficult topic shows up, or a debate arises that one wants to participate in.) So for the most part, it's a break from work. Switching from one nontrivial technical task to squeeze bits of a much more difficult task into one's day is much harder.
- Ar-Curunir 10y ago
  Are you seriously claiming that making posts on Hacker News and Reddit requires anywhere near the intellectual rigour and deep thought required for "paradigm-shifting" changes?

by lx9911 10y ago

VLM 10y ago

And wouldn't the smartest fraction of the population, or at least the researchers think they're the smartest, have the best skills at shamming and avoiding individual busywork and finding careers where they can ruminate in relative peace compared to working in a busy call center, for example? Even in general at very large scale, a world of limited and shrinking economic opportunity but unlimited and expanding education (well, until the future student loan crash arrives), means you can try to pile on busywork but the people shamming and pencil whipping it are better at shamming and pencil whipping and everything else, than any other cohort in the history of humanity... As a cultural touchstone look at the movie "Office Space" still relevant today. He stares at the walls for an hour or two every day trying to look busy. Sure you might have to pass three interviews with ten people while proving P=NP and writing a javascript compiler to GET the job, but to DO the job you have to update TPS report headers every couple weeks and that's about it, other than loading letter size paper into the laser printer and staring at walls looking busy. Not to spoil the plot of the movie but the lead actor is not a theoretical physicist although if he were, it would be a dream job for him, work about an hour a week then look really busy the other 39+ hours while working on physics.

hilop 10y ago

Reddit (and to some extent HN) are proof that there are plenty of white collar jobs with oodles of free time.

ScottBurson 10y ago
It's not the right kind of time, though. Reading and occasionally posting usually don't require sustained concentration -- they can mostly be done as a break from that. (Of course there are times when an interesting and difficult topic shows up, or a debate arises that one wants to participate in.) So for the most part, it's a break from work. Switching from one nontrivial technical task to squeeze bits of a much more difficult task into one's day is much harder.
Ar-Curunir 10y ago
Are you seriously claiming that making posts on Hacker News and Reddit requires anywhere near the intellectual rigour and deep thought required for "paradigm-shifting" changes?