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Used to know a guy: brilliant young man, excelling in the fields of physics and mathematics, and not a slouch in many others – at an amateur level driven by cur

Used to know a guy: brilliant young man, excelling in the fields of physics and mathematics, and not a slouch in many others – at an amateur level driven by curiousity, but with an intelligence base nevertheless. He had an older brother, who was, by the younger brother's own admission, a notch above himself in the intelligence department. The older brother was said to have been bored working at Google. My suspicion is: someone in dire need of intellectual engagement might want to work at Tesla simply because of the opportunity to exercise one's mental capacity in a challenge of equivalent magnitude. (Not Tesla specifically: I suspect any company with similarly-driven heavily-pushed technical production would suffice, for a person with the knowledge of that sphere.) Imagine Einstein or Hawking sorting paper in an office. How do you think their minds would feel in such an uncreative, unproductive environment? I'd wager they'd suffocate soon without an opportunity to express their intellect in a meaningful way. Same story, I suspect, happens with the brilliant engineers and designers at Tesla. (Which isn't to say that the nightmare-ish conditions they're being put through are necessarily worth it, or that they can't find an outlet for their capacities elsewhere. Working for a company is simpler, in that one doesn't need to make as many choices as an independent entrepreneur would have to. It's also prestigious – since the company has a big name – which may or may not play its role.)

majewsky 8y ago
> Imagine Einstein or Hawking sorting paper in an office. How do you think their minds would feel in such an uncreative, unproductive environment? Einstein is the perfect counterexample: Had he not worked at a boring paperwork job in the patent office, he wouldn't have had enough mental capacity to devise his theories.
- ovi256 8y ago
  >Had he not worked at a boring paperwork job in the patent office That job was not as boring as commonly understood. He had to examine patents about time synchronization devices that used light signals between trains. That led him to think about what would later become relativity.
TarpitCarnivore 8y ago
> My suspicion is: someone in dire need of intellectual engagement might want to work at Tesla simply because of the opportunity to exercise one's mental capacity in a challenge of equivalent magnitude. (Not Tesla specifically: I suspect any company with similarly-driven heavily-pushed technical production would suffice, for a person with the knowledge of that sphere.) I feel like you're over selling this by a lot, especially the Hawkings and paper comparison. Someone moving from Google to Tesla because of "boredom" is likely due to the industry more than the intellectual challenge. People go to work at Tesla because they believe in Musk's "vision" of a better world.
- MarsAscendant 8y ago
  I think you're right. Nobody lets themselves be worked into dust just so they could R&D in wider capacity. From what I understand (comparing my knowledge of the younger brother and the younger brother's gushing over the older's intellect), the older brother was a real big head. I know people get bored when their intellectual capacity has not met a worthy rival of a problem. I extrapolated.
  - TarpitCarnivore 8y ago
    I could see someone moving from basic front-end/back-end engineering into more challenging roles like AI/ML, autonomous driving, etc. Chances are though if you're at the upper tier of work already it's just coming down to solving problems at the industry. Spoke with someone the other day who moved from building game engines, to helping build engines for photo/video tools. Similar technological challenges, just a totally different industry.
    - MarsAscendant 8y ago
      I see what you mean. Do those two areas provide similar technological challenges? Obviously, they're both about coding the backbone of the product, and I understand that visuals are, often, a big part of a game engine, which could translate to visual editing. Is that what you meant?

majewsky 8y ago

> Imagine Einstein or Hawking sorting paper in an office. How do you think their minds would feel in such an uncreative, unproductive environment? Einstein is the perfect counterexample: Had he not worked at a boring paperwork job in the patent office, he wouldn't have had enough mental capacity to devise his theories.

ovi256 8y ago
>Had he not worked at a boring paperwork job in the patent office That job was not as boring as commonly understood. He had to examine patents about time synchronization devices that used light signals between trains. That led him to think about what would later become relativity.

TarpitCarnivore 8y ago

> My suspicion is: someone in dire need of intellectual engagement might want to work at Tesla simply because of the opportunity to exercise one's mental capacity in a challenge of equivalent magnitude. (Not Tesla specifically: I suspect any company with similarly-driven heavily-pushed technical production would suffice, for a person with the knowledge of that sphere.) I feel like you're over selling this by a lot, especially the Hawkings and paper comparison. Someone moving from Google to Tesla because of "boredom" is likely due to the industry more than the intellectual challenge. People go to work at Tesla because they believe in Musk's "vision" of a better world.

MarsAscendant 8y ago
I think you're right. Nobody lets themselves be worked into dust just so they could R&D in wider capacity. From what I understand (comparing my knowledge of the younger brother and the younger brother's gushing over the older's intellect), the older brother was a real big head. I know people get bored when their intellectual capacity has not met a worthy rival of a problem. I extrapolated.
- TarpitCarnivore 8y ago
  I could see someone moving from basic front-end/back-end engineering into more challenging roles like AI/ML, autonomous driving, etc. Chances are though if you're at the upper tier of work already it's just coming down to solving problems at the industry. Spoke with someone the other day who moved from building game engines, to helping build engines for photo/video tools. Similar technological challenges, just a totally different industry.
  - MarsAscendant 8y ago
    I see what you mean. Do those two areas provide similar technological challenges? Obviously, they're both about coding the backbone of the product, and I understand that visuals are, often, a big part of a game engine, which could translate to visual editing. Is that what you meant?