29 ms·
Some Details of My Personal Infrastructure
- dennisgorelik 8y agoStephen Wolfram created his remote organization in spite of Richard Feynman advise: ~~~~~~~~~ http://www.lettersofnote.com/2010/06/you-dont-understand-ordinary-people.html http://www.lettersofnote.com/2010/06/you-dont-understand-ord... You say you want to create your own environment - but you will not be doing that: you will create (perhaps!) an environment that you might like to work in - but you will not be working in this environment - you will be administering it - and the administration environment is not what you seek - is it? You won't enjoy administrating people because you won’t succeed in it. You don’t understand "ordinary people." To you they are "stupid fools" - so you will not tolerate them or treat their foibles with tolerance or patience - but will drive yourself wild (or they will drive you wild) trying to deal with them in an effective way. ~~~~~~~~~
- collinmanderson 8y ago> On my personal homepage there are some links that do fairly complex things. One, for example, initiates the process for me doing an unscheduled livestream: it messages our 24/7 system monitoring team so they can take my feed, broadcast it, and monitor responses.
- Karrot_Kream 8y agoIs there a good open source database of people and things like the pBase Wolfram mentions in this article? I've been thinking of hosting an instance of Monica myself.
- laser 8y agoThe implicit sharing of his sleep schedule through his email times over the past 25 years makes me feel better about myself. https://blog.stephenwolfram.com/data/uploads/2012/03/outgoing-mail-diurnal-image.png https://blog.stephenwolfram.com/data/uploads/2012/03/outgoin...
- marviel 8y agoWhat happened in 2002? EDIT: oh, NKS. https://www.google.com/search?q=when+was+wolfram+nks+released&oq=when+was+wolfram+nks+released https://www.google.com/search?q=when+was+wolfram+nks+release...
- fosco 8y agoThe article says >The big empty spaces are when I’m asleep, and, yes, as I’ve changed projects—e.g. finishing A New Kind of Science in 2002—my sleep habits have changed; I’m also now trying an experiment of going to sleep earlier
- 6nf 8y agoEarlier being 2am
- fosco 8y agoI did not see in the article, but I wonder if all of those times are in the same timezone and if those times are based on UTC or his actual timezone, I did not see data on that but could have missed it.
- desdiv 8y agoIt's his actual timezone - EST (Concord, Massachusetts). >The first thing one sees from this plot is that, yes, I’ve been busy. And for more than 20 years, I’ve been sending emails throughout my waking day, albeit with a little dip around dinner time. The big gap each day comes from when I was asleep. And for the last decade, the plot shows I’ve been pretty consistent, going to sleep around 3am ET, and getting up around 11am (yes, I’m something of a night owl). (The stripe in summer 2009 is a trip to Europe.) https://blog.stephenwolfram.com/2012/03/the-personal-analytics-of-my-life https://blog.stephenwolfram.com/2012/03/the-personal-analyti...
- roryokane 8y agoShouldn’t that link be https://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=when+was+wolfram+nks+released https://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=when+was+wolfram+nks+r...? ;)
- gregorymichael 8y agoWow. This mans brain operates differently than mine (in a wonderful sense).
- adwhit 8y agoWolfram talking about Wolfram for 14,000 words. The most Wolfram thing imaginable. Wolfram!
- Jerry2 8y agoReminded me of this classic: >A group of friends and I used to do dramatic readings of the About the Author text from the Mathematica Book, which begins thusly: >About the Author >Stephen Wolfram is the creator of Mathematica and is widely regarded as the most important innovator in scientific and technical computing today. >The guy wrote that himself. >Wait, while searching for that, I see he updated it slightly in later versions: >About the Author >Stephen Wolfram is the creator of Mathematica, and a well-known scientist. He is widely regarded as the most important innovator in technical computing today, as well as one of the world's most original research scientists. >I guess the original didn't fully express the boundless expanse of his awesomeness. >"Does anyone want to bet as to which will gain self-awareness first: Wolfram Alpha or Wolfram, Stephen?" http://chrishecker.com/Kurt_G%C3%B6del_is_Laughing_His_Ass_Off_Right_Now http://chrishecker.com/Kurt_G%C3%B6del_is_Laughing_His_Ass_O...
- prepend 8y agoHe may have the data to make the argument. I suppose if anyone wanted to measure such things which really shouldn’t be measured, I bet Wolfram has a compelling case.
- gcbw2 8y agoThanks for sharing this. Helped me understand what i was reading before. It honestly took me a while to realize the article wasn't an April fools post! I am still upvoting the submission for its comedic value.
- strikelaserclaw 8y agolol, i was gonna say the same thing.
- bitwize 8y agoFor the longest time I thought Sheldon Cooper was supposed to be a pisstake of Wolfram, specifically.
- henning 8y agoI think there's great value in walking with no distractions and it is definitely still very productive if it lets you focus and gather your thoughts. Many great thinkers in history (Immanuel Kant, Charles Darwin, Carl Jung, doubtless many others) had walking as important part of their routine. But, there's no accounting for taste, and whatever works for you is all that really matters.
- techgipper 8y agoFunny, I do this with my digital trash can: When I was consulting at Bell Labs in the early 1980s I saw that a friend of mine had two garbage cans in his office. When I asked him why, he explained that one was for genuine garbage and the other was a buffer into which he would throw documents that he thought he’d probably never want again. He’d let the buffer garbage can fill up, and once it was full, he’d throw away the lower documents in it, since from the fact that he hadn’t fished them out, he figured he’d probably never miss them if they were thrown away permanently.
- bluedino 8y agoPeople do that with their deleted items in outlook. helpdesk empties deleted items Hey! I keep stuff in there!
- l9k 8y agoI do that with tabs for online articles I (probably) want to read.
- MasterScrat 8y agoYou should use Pocket for that: getpocket.com
- james_s_tayler 8y agoI prefer using tabs because the space constraint forces you to actually choose what's important to read. When there is no space constraint everything just gets dumped into a pile and there's no real way to prioritize what you truly do and don't want to read. You just end up with a long list of stuff you don't care enough to actually read. At least that was my experience with Pocket. Maybe it works for some. I do the same thing with physical books. I don't keep a list of books to read. I keep a bookshelf full of stuff I'm making my way through over the years. Spending the money forces me to choose what I actually feel is important I read vs what I think I want to read.
- 8y ago
- vortico 8y agoHow cow, this guy is the world's most organized person. I operate in the exact opposite way. The more disorganized, temporary, inconvenient, and cluttered my workspace is, the more I can ignore the outside world and focus on the abstract problem at hand.
- noir_lord 8y agoFunny how people are so different. My desk has to have exactly, 1 keyboard, 1 mouse, 1 A4 5mm graph paper pad and that's it. I used to struggle to work on a slightly cluttered desk but these days it has to be basically empty. In terms of paperwork, it goes behind me on shelves sorted by "Important, will need soon, Important, will need later, Not important" everything else goes in the bin. Periodically I rip the pads apart and put them through the bypass scanner on the MFP in the main office and store the resulting PDF's. First time my partner saw my office at work she was positively shocked because at home (other than my work space) I'm a messy, "leave it where I had it last" type.
- agumonkey 8y agoYounger I loved having all my shit around me on my desk. It was hyper natural and hyper efficient. Nowadays ... nope. It feels a bit like reading your own undocumented one night epic project .. with age you just love a bit of structure and cleanliness
- copperx 8y agoSame here. Brain shrinkage is real; one can't deal with so much disorganization as one gets older.
- agumonkey 8y agoMaybe that's me being in denial but I don't consider it to be shrinkage. In the recent years, it seems that motivation went from small to broad. I'm not less capable intellectually [1]. I'd say it's a decrease of energy and blind passion and more things to handle that divide attention and care. There's also a bit of energy saving dimension.. as a programmer we oughta know that a well maintained structure avoid worst-case complexity.. same goes for your drawers :) [1] I'm actually a lot smarter than my college self, I tested few years ago when wildly sick trying to do proofs from scratch on stuff I knew nothing prior (theorems on fibonacci series). And after a bit of sweating and pencil twisting I managed to have insights and solutions. So it's not a linear decrease in brain power, it's more like a rotation or shapeshift.
- Ftuuky 8y agoI wish I was 10% as organized as Wolfram.
- jmnicolas 8y agoHe probably wishes he was 10% as human as you ;-)
- numlocked 8y ago“One, for example, initiates the process for me doing an unscheduled livestream: it messages our 24/7 system monitoring team so they can take my feed, broadcast it, and monitor responses.” Must be nice!
- afterburner 8y agoMost interesting to me here is his "walking outside" work setup (fairly simple, as he says, like you're selling popcorn). Because apparently walking outside reduced his resting heart rate more than just relying on a treadmill.
- graeme 8y agoOne could imagine any number of reasons: air quality, sunshine, a calming effect from seeing nature or variety in peripheral vision, difference in terrain providing stimuli, strength benefits of carrying the apparatus (it sounds like he often carried stuff even before working outside) The benefits of the outdoors are pretty widely reported. And it doesn't sound like he went outside much of his own inclination.
- BucketSort 8y agoSay what you want about Wolfram, he's a brilliant guy. Brilliant people often have strange quirks and egos, but that's just a part of being them. Also, this account has only posted links about Wolfram. Is it him or an assistant?
- jhall1468 8y agoLinus Torvalds is quirky and has an ego. Steven Wolfram is one of the most arrogant people I've ever read. It comes through in virtually every aspect of his writing. It's understood that people who are exceptional smart aren't always socially pleasant, but Wolfram is trying to raise that bar by quite a bit.
- BucketSort 8y agoCould he be autistic or something? Usually people would know how they would be perceived if they were well socialized. In any case, it doesn't bother me. He thinks his work is of the utmost importance and wants to be in the annals of mathematics alongside Newton, Einstein, etc. He won't be, but let him have his fun. He's at least doing interesting things, unlike these unbearable celebrities that are incredibly dull, but everyone fawns over. I hereby transfer the right of ego from the mainstream celebs to the scientists.
- lazyjones 8y agoRelevant: http://www.lettersofnote.com/2010/06/you-dont-understand-ordinary-people.html http://www.lettersofnote.com/2010/06/you-dont-understand-ord... ;-) By the way, he is in the annals of particle physics...
- incognition 8y agoAwesome letter, thank you. Feynman was a genius in more than one way. In a way, all great teachers have the ability to see into us.
- BucketSort 8y ago
- ericsoderstrom 8y agoAny idea what the "roll-around mouse" thing is that he mentions? The only Google results for that phrase are cat toys
- saagarjha 8y agoA mouse with a ball inside of it?
- hberg 8y agoHe's probably referring to a regular mouse that you move around your desk. As opposed to a touchpad or static mouse with a large sphere you spin around with your thumb.
- oh_sigh 8y agoOld-school non-optical mouse
- foxhop 8y agoDid you know even the old-school computer mouse uses light to work? The new school just don't have a mechanical component of a ball and two rollers which spin two separate "gears" which blocks light and then math to figure out the horizontal change + vertical change. I found that pretty neat when I learned. (I'm old enough to remember the pains of using a gunked up ball mouse.)
- kevin_thibedeau 8y agoThe old-school mice were also called "optical mice" because the old-old-school mice used mechanical sensors.
- watmough 8y agoFor old-school meaning about '85 or so, 'optical mouse' meant a mouse on a special gridded pad that worked optically. See this: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sun_optical_mouse.jpg https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sun_optical_mouse.jp... That's not a regular mouse pad, it's a special red/blue/silver grid detected by a laser in the mouse.
- ranie93 8y agoThrough the article I found he livestreams many of his meetings on Twitch! This is particularly candid moment I happen to find: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HGjvFyRk_4I&feature=youtu.be&list=PLxn-kpJHbPx14mHrB5BlhImVOWo5Geg6f&t=271 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HGjvFyRk_4I&feature=youtu.be... edit: I wasn't aware of the negative opinions regarding his ego, but from listening to this meeting I can say they aren't unsubstantiated!
- nthnclrk 8y agoI have somewhere between 5–20% comprehension of what they're talking about in a technical sense but found the conversation from 4m31s (as you've linked) to ~10m45s utterly fascinating.
- mlevental 8y agoyou know what's insane about that video? the CEO of a 100 (200?) person software company is writing docs. but then again i'm not surprised that wolfram is a micromanager.
- jimmcslim 8y agoAnd I quote... > Usually we (which quite often actually means me) will write documentation for a function before the function is implemented.
- roel_v 8y agoThe article says 800. I can't imagine what it would be like, to be part of a machine of 800 people basically set up to cater to the whims of one overlord.
- booleandilemma 8y agoWhat’s HN’s opinion of Stephen Wolfram? Is he legit? Is the tome A New Kind of Science worth reading?
- reader5000 8y agoNKoS is definitely worth reading especially if you have "boolean" in your username. And it's mostly pictures anyway.
- seanmcdirmid 8y agoHe was a child genius, known as a bit too egotistical today, but he has made genuine contributions to the field. NKOS has a nice narrative at least, and might be worth reading as a pop sci work, but isn't very scientifically noteworthy in itself.
- danbr 8y agoI met him at a talk about a year ago, I would agree he is somewhat egotistical, but he didn’t come off as arrogant - which was interesting.
- rsync 8y agoHe is the creator of Mathematica: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolfram_Mathematica https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolfram_Mathematica I would consider that legitimacy.
- lenticular 8y agoMathematica is literally the worst PL I've ever used, especially since you effectively have to use their built-in editor that doesn't even have multiple undo. Of course, it is the least-worst symbolic system out there currently. But, it's not like lisp wouldn't have developed similar capabilities if Mathematica didn't come around.
- blihp 8y agoYou mean like Macsyma, now Maxima, where he probably got some early ideas from?
- jclay 8y agoI really like the personal homepage idea. Reminds me of the iGoogle days. Anyone know any products / tools to create a simple one consisting of essentially an organized collection of links? I guess any static site generator could work, but would be nice to have an out of the box theme and can show RSS Feeds.
- joshbuchea 8y agoDoesn't have a theme or ability to show RSS feeds but... I built an open-source Chrome extension I call SwiftTab for creating a custom page of links from my Bookmarks Bar (or a folder named "_Swift") https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/swifttab/poikmgendcdljfoaelblkdjehmpedjif https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/swifttab/poikmgend... Source code is @ https://github.com/joshbuchea/chrome-ext-swifttab https://github.com/joshbuchea/chrome-ext-swifttab
- davchana 8y agoGoogle Chrome shows tiles of your most visited links. In mine, HN is first one.
- mikemotherwell 8y agoProblem is it includes distractions. A personal homepage would be better focussed on things I SHOULD do, rather than things I actually do.
- steerpike 8y agoYou might like Netvibes. I've been using it for over a decade and it's still fantastic. https://www.netvibes.com/ https://www.netvibes.com/
- bendotero 8y agoHaven't heard that name in ages. Thanks for the reminder.
- TeMPOraL 8y agoWow, I'd love something like this, but that would incorporate my social media into background stream of super-compacted, mostly-text events. Think of being on a Slack channel (in Compact mode), where the only things that are posted are messages from your Facebook timeline, e-mail, HN stories, replies to your HN comments, new IM threads etc. Also, you could pin stuff you care about, and with one click/keyboard press, everything else gets cleared. Alas, I don't think Facebook in particular allows for such deep integration with one's feed - because yes, that would essentially replace me the facebook website/app.
- seltzered_ 8y agoFwiw: in 2010 Stephen Wolfram did an interview about his setup: https://usesthis.com/interviews/stephen.wolfram/ https://usesthis.com/interviews/stephen.wolfram/
- slm_HN 8y agoI can see why some people think this guy is a bit much (Wolfram-branded Pilot Precise Grip pens, Wolfram Cloud, Wolfram Language) but this is a very thorough and interesting article. He even admits the embarrassing stuff: Apple Mac Pro.
- fredrix 8y agoOh boy, another trashy story line follows from this guy.
- fredrix 8y agoWolfram is a notorious misogynist. I recall hearing complaints how badly his staff was treated. From finding socks to finding pencils, this story is yet one of many highly highly distorted one.
- urda 8y agoThat envelope idea based on need (Hotel, Conference, Car, etC), that's a pretty slick idea.
- peterwwillis 8y agoI have a few of those for different uses: mini toiletry bag, extra toiletry bag, mini electronics bag, extra electronics bag, travel laptop bag, world adapter bag. I use zip locks or water-resistant roll-top bags to compress better in a 25L "personal item/carry-on" bag. My camping gear is organized the same way: cold weather gear bag, cookery bag, bug spray/sunscreen/soap bag, medical bag, utility tool bag, hydration bladder, tent bag, sleeping bag, burning man costume bag, burning man crafting bag, mini cocktail kit, ...
- mark_l_watson 8y agoI just don’t know about hiking with a laptop. Down time is also productive time. That said, it is interesting how he organizes the digital assets of his life. A little off topic: I subscribed to use the Wolfram Language a couple of years ago and really liked the integrated documentation, and the capabilities built in for just about everything. What was a turnoff was the very slow cycle time between entering code to be evaluated and seeing results. I signed up for a less expensive level of service (about $20/month) and that may have been the problem. I would like the speed of, for example, Common Lisp repl development with the power of the Wolfram Language.
- 5166cc9c39fa61 8y agoRather than throwing even more money at Wolfram, it would be even better to put up a fund (maybe a crowdsourced campaign) to buy the rights to Macsyma and PDEase to release them under the GPL.
- mark_l_watson 8y agoExcept the Wolfram Language provides access to vast information about the world. I worked with the Knowledge Graph at Google and Wolfram Language seems like an easy to use personal version of that. I would be happy to pay for it, forever, if it were more responsive.
- 5166cc9c39fa61 8y ago> Except the Wolfram Language provides access to vast information about the world. Which is mostly pulled in from public data sources, such as the CIA World Factbook, US census and economic data, US Geological Survey data, Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap, etc. Knowledge Graph was based on Freebase, which in 2016 transferred its database to the Wikidata project (https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Wikidata:Main_Page https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Wikidata:Main_Page). So once again, instead of throwing more undeserved money at Wolfram for appropriating other people's work, the better alternative is to work on integrations of Wikidata into Common Lisp, SciPy, Org mode, etc. and contribute to Wikidata itself.
- g-harel 8y agoI recently finished a project which looks a lot like that browser homepage! https://targetblank.org https://targetblank.org
- momofarm 8y agobring a satphone when go outside? I thought at least 90% of inhabitable place has some GSM signal?
- carlob 8y agoI once visited the US SW with a T-Mobile phone and I think I've seen it connect to some network twice in ten days.
- sg0 8y agoI just realized upon reading this that I might have car sickness too (and that it's a real thing). It's worse if I sit at the back, usually its a concoction of strange feelings, mild nausea, weird pangs of pain...
- jumelles 8y agoIs Wolfram Notebooks the new Lotus Notes? Does their "Knowledgebase" compete with Bloomberg - is there live information?
- techgipper 8y agoYeah there's live information sourced from all over the place...kind of like Wolfram Alpha in a notebook https://www.wolframalpha.com/knowledgebase/ https://www.wolframalpha.com/knowledgebase/
- aerovistae 8y agoI'm kind of outraged that he has a solution in hand to carsickness in the form of strange glasses and didn't prove a link to the product. Does anyone know what those are? I would kill to be able to read in the car. edit: seems to be these https://www.boardingglasses.com/?action=home&lang=EN https://www.boardingglasses.com/?action=home&lang=EN
- areyousure 8y agoThere is a link to nearly every item mentioned in the post in a section called "Product details". The glasses you mention are the last item under "On the move".
- thomasjudge 8y agoToothbrush, even
- acidburnNSA 8y agoMythbusters seems to think that ginger actually works. [1] [1] https://mythresults.com/episode43 https://mythresults.com/episode43
- NelsonMinar 8y agoI'm struck by how his Metasearcher is somewhat similar to Gelernter's Lifestreams concept. I've taken for granted for 20+ years that would eventually be coming and it hasn't yet. Some Google products are a little like it: Photos, Gmail. I like that Wolfram has his own.
- imhoguy 8y agoReminds me Perkeep also. https://perkeep.org https://perkeep.org
- Zedmor 8y agoFunny but he seems to be old enough to realize that success in life and career is about people, not machines.
- biztos 8y agoHere's a guy I think of as very successful, and very smart, and yet he seems extremely tethered to his computers. Meetings while walking, and assuming nobody notices? Questioning the practicality of time spent outside? That's kind of... really... sad.
- duado 8y agoIt’s not that nobody notices that he’s walking... it’s that, what is anyone going to do about it? Who signs their paychecks?
- carlob 8y agoI'm just going to say this: walking is faaaar better than eating :)
- adenverd 8y agoI think most of us would be sad or depressed if our lives were like his. But it seems like he has intentionally conformed the rest of his life to the things that matter most to him (his work, company, personal productivity) rather than what you or I think of as happiness or a good life. I certainly wouldn't want to be him, but if he's living how he wants to live, who am I to judge. I might be a little biased though, WolframAlpha got me through countless hours of college homework assignments.
- TeMPOraL 8y agoI guess it really depends. I think I'd loved this lifestyle - always doing work that contributes directly to humanity's scientific output and having time to follow your own intellectual pursuits? Sign me in.
- ericd 8y agoWhat's wrong with meetings while walking? It's a great way to have a meeting, even better if it's a one on one and you're both walking.
- smileypete 8y ago
- SllX 8y agoThat was an intense read. I’m not sure I actually learned much of value beyond how awesome it might be to have an entire IT department at your beck and call, but certainly his File System has helped solidify some of my germinating ideas on how to reshelve my own file system with which I am lately dissatisfied.
- danw1979 8y agoI couldn't take tips on personal infrastructure from someone whose monitors aren't perfectly aligned.
- nodesocket 8y agoThere is something that makes me a little sad inside that running on the treadmill while being on the computer and working is even a possibility. It's like in the movie WALL-E where people are shuffled around on lazy-boy like chairs while eating ice cream. It just feels wrong. There is much to be appreciated with being with your thoughts, music, and running.
- chubot 8y agoSome pretty cool things: - He's a CEO who dogfoods his own software! Not only that, he seems to be one of its most prolific users. That's amazing. Having worked for over a decade at Google, I sometimes wonder if the founders still use the products. Larry Page used to always harp on latency (rightly), and now Google products are slower than ever. - He's a remote CEO, and supports remote working! It sounds like the company was ahead of the curve in this respect. - He's grown his company to 800 employees over 28 years, and it's still relevant today. And I believe he never took funding. Also amazing! Most tech companies that are 28 years old have gone through a ton of turmoil. I've heard all the bad stories about Wolfram's personality. Combined with NKOS, that made me think poorly of him. But maybe has mellowed with old age. People forget how insufferable Bill Gates was 20 years ago too. Gates really rehabilitated his image and maybe Wolfram will too. Despite the ego, he's definitely contributed interesting things to society. And I hope that I'm as excited by my work as he is when getting to that age.
- GuiA 8y agoThere’s definitely arguments to have on the actual impact of Wolfram’s mathematical/scientific work vs the impact he claims it has, but there are no doubts regarding his skills at running a scientific software operation.
- kevinventullo 8y agoTo be honest, the conference call linked lower in the thread has increased my skepticism for remote work. Another commenter pointed out how much smoother everything would have gone if everyone had been in the same room.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- levesque 8y agoDon't kid yourself, it's not going to be as efficient. Audio and delay are big issues, as not everybody can talk at the same time. But the point is that it is doable, and some companies have good success with that. They are usually small-medium companies though, my guess is we won't be seeing any 100% remote unicorns popping up.
- antarcticablue 8y agoThe way he organizes things is almost like an experimentation and reflection process. Boring activities can be fun if a bit structure/design is added!
- tbyehl 8y agoThat rack photo belongs in /r/cablegore
- duado 8y agoWhy doesn’t someone this wealthy have a “body man” to carry around all this shit for him?
- hellofunk 8y agoI personally wonder what has the modern world come to, that an individual cannot take a leisurely walk without distraction, and thus feels like they must be working on a computer while getting in some basic movement for their body.
- SZJX 8y agoI don't think he ever meant it that way. It's not that he "cannot take a leisurely walk without distraction", but that he wants to get some walking while working, i.e. the priority is reversed. He claims to walk for "a couple of hours" which is too long to not be doing anything for him. You seem to be generalizing a lot from this one person's preference. Also, a lot of people listen to podcasts/audiobooks while walking/jogging. Is that a "distraction"? I'd say it's actually even a plus and those two activities are complementary to each other: Being in the wild helps you concentrate on the audiobook, and being able to read something uninterrupted motivates you to go out and do some exercise every day.
- bufferoverflow 8y agoHe is walking while working on a computer, not vice versa.
- alexpetralia 8y agoIt's a world that increasingly values cognitive output over physical output. Doesn't seem that dystopian to me.
- nabnob 8y agoI can't tell if you're being sarcastic or not.
- karmelapple 8y agoI see him walking while working as a way to keep his physical self exercising alongside his mind, not because he can’t handle being alone with his thoughts. He even mentions that if there’s a stressful meeting, he can walk off some of the stress. He also works remotely, and it’s important to take the opportunities to move around while remote. It’s easy to stay in the house all day, especially in a snowy winter, but getting some movement in is important for many people to have a happy and healthy life.
- nevi-me 8y agoStephen mentions that his mouse is on the left because he's left-handed. I'm left-handed, and I don't think I've ever seen someone put the mouse on the left. How much difference would it make to accuracy, or does the other hand eventually learn to compensate?
- ardy42 8y ago> I'm left-handed, and I don't think I've ever seen someone put the mouse on the left. I'm left-handed. I mouse left-handed at work and right-handed at home. I used to mouse exclusively right-handed, but I started developing wrist-aches and realized I could prevent them by not using one wrist so disproportionately. > How much difference would it make to accuracy, or does the other hand eventually learn to compensate? Zero. I got used to using my left hand very quickly, in no more than a day or two.
- thestepafter 8y agoDo you use a left handed mouse or the same mouse you would use for your right hand? Also, which mouse are you using?
- ardy42 8y agoI use generic ambidextrous mice, but flip the left/right buttons so my index finder is always main-click and my middle finger is right-click.
- evanb 8y agoI'm left handed but when I have had a physical mouse (or... trackball) it's always on the right. My left hand, at this point, is essentially incompetent at mousing. That's partly because in the computer lab at school the mice were on the right side and often the cables were too short to be moved to the left with easy use. In other shared environments it's good to be able to just sit down at any machine and use the mouse there---the same reason left-handed people often want to still learn right-handed guitar. If I'm on my laptop I use the trackpad mostly with my left, but on the few occasions I've used a separate trackpad device I've put it on the right.
- drefanzor 8y agoThis is the best thing I've read in a long, long time. Mr. Wolfram, how does it feel to be a god? :D
- sytelus 8y agoA lot of people don’t know absolutely massive amount of functionality that is stuffed in to Mathematica. It does everything from symbolic math to astronomy to economics to deep learning to biology to ... If Wolfram had figured out how to make his software free while still having sustained business, he would undoubtedly be the hero of the tech/nerd/geek world, perhaps shoulder to shoulder with Jobs or Linus or Gates - at least for the tech crowd.
- nels0n 8y agoYou must be a fool. The amount of material this guy relies on is the work of his subordinates. Matthew Cook, etc ... he would never be considered anything like a hero in the eyes of a true nerd. He is stands for the dark force and will always be remembered as such
- carlob 8y agoDisclaimer: Stephen Wolfram pays my rent. The times have changed a lot since Matthew Cook, now a lot of my meetings with him are simultaneously live-streamed on several different platforms and the recordings are available for anyone to use. If anyone were to say all the ideas on the particular piece of Wolfram Language I'm working on are all Wolfram's I'd have hours of video recordings to show. I haven't tested my theory yet, but I think the day I decide to switch jobs those might prove useful.
- nels0n 8y agoU r just a puppet implementing ideas from higher ups within the wolfram clan not him. As if u know how the times were when Matthew cook was still w the company. Come on puppet , grow up
- yesenadam 8y agoSage is free. William Stein deserves a huge amount of credit. Some of the huge amount of functionality stuffed into Sage: http://doc.sagemath.org/html/en/installation/standard_packages.html http://doc.sagemath.org/html/en/installation/standard_packag...
- ElComradio 8y agoThis should be entitled “A Treatise on Why My Personal Infrastructure is Amazing”
- carlob 8y agoA new kind of personal infrastructure?
- jwmoz 8y agoI had to stop reading. It's such an obsession with working and technology.
- brootstrap 8y agohaha. if i was walking outside and ran into wolfram like this, i'd fucking bookdrop his stupid ass laptop and watch him cry and freakout. I work in town with wolfram HQ, have had relationships with folks who work very closely with wolfram. As you could imagine he is a fucking nut case haha.
- nels0n 8y agoSo wolfram company made a deal with hackernews ? Featuring and upvoting troll stories is becoming more more the norm here.
- nels0n 8y agoTo add to comments. This story Is delusional for people knowing wolfram company. It is known that company has not performed well for a good while ... I guess this hackernews featured story is trying to reverse trends. If that was a strategy, people should start looking for new gigs. It is also notorious that his micromanaging style hasn’t appealed to many employees.
- kraf 8y ago> in my pocket I have a pen, together with a piece of paper folded three times (so it’s about the size of a credit card) I'm really loving this idea
- larrywright 8y agoIndex cards also work well for this.
- KingMachiavelli 8y agoI always find it interesting to see what personal productivity improvements highly successful people _do not_ implement. Considering that the typical productivity speel for technology & progaming tasks is tiling window managers (minimize mouse movement), mechanical/ergodox/split keyboards (ideal hand width and orientation), possibly linux or OSX w/ homebrew to automate tasks using scripts. It's interesting to see how relatively rare these setups are among CEO's (in tech) and how 'normal' the setups of successful people really are. There are several factors I see that are or have been impeding implementation of such setups. Firstly, many of the most common tiling WMs have only existed since the 2000s resulting while the current, mature segment of highly successful individuals likely started with the tools available in the 80s & 90s and by then both Windows and Mac OS were using desktop metaphor (floating) environments. The use of floating windows (even with snapping, etc) increases use of the mouse and decreases the relative benifit of highly specialized keyboards like the ergodox. And a lot of membrane keyboards nowdays can /feel/ decent w/o mechanical switches. The choice of OS is likely whatever they have been using since the 90s with some bias towards switching to OSX/MacOS and since it provides many linux-like capabilities in terms of shells for scripting(albiet often horendiously out of date). Finally, likely the largest factor contributing to having relatively normal setups is that the more involved tasks can be delegated to employees whom may or may not have highly customized setups.
- distant_hat 8y agoThat's because a lot of gains can be realized from sticking to a given system. The hardest part is starting some system than sticking to it. Also, being a CEO makes things easier from other perspectives. You have staff to take care of your mundane stuff and people double check to make sure they utilize your time effectively. A random employee wouldn't walk over and lean on his desk to comment about the weather.
- crispyambulance 8y ago> It's interesting to see how relatively rare these setups are among CEO's (in tech) and how 'normal' the setups of successful people really are. I suspect that's because one's setup isn't really a big deal. Saving a odd second or two because you're using a split mechanical ergodox or whatever dvorak keyboard with no window manager and scripts to automate the wazzoo out of everything adds up to... not very much at all unless you're doing very repetitive tasks where seconds count. I mean, I think folks should just use whatever makes them happy, and it is interesting to see what people end up using like on usesthis (https://usesthis.com/ https://usesthis.com/). But really, people can be productive with almost anything.
- Rasyidsugar 8y agoWonderful, sir. You look so cool with your Computer on your daily life .. I also write my own writing, here .. https://www.tolongtangtugas.web.id https://www.tolongtangtugas.web.id as my daily activity.
- vikaskyadav 8y agoThat's great! But I think life should have some uncertainty and a little entropy. It is the little chaoses that make life interesting.
- duado 8y agoIt is always great to see what an utterly incorrigible dweeb (and I use that term affectionately) does with power and money. I just fucking love that instead of a Learjet he has basically a large ecosystem of software built specifically for his personal needs.
- VectorLock 8y agoHe says in the article he went from never traveling to traveling all the time. I wonder if he has a Learjet as well.
- jurassicfoxy 8y agoI agree. This was one of the most motivating articles I've read in a while. This is a man who unabashedly goes 100 % all in to whatever he wants, fully admits it's nutty, and looks like he's having the time of his life.
- vonseel 8y agoWhat the heck... this guy just wrote more words on his personal infra than I have probably written in my lifetime. In all seriousness, everything said in the top ranked comment by chubot - ditto here. The article was too long for me to finish, though.
- melling 8y ago“Twenty years ago I imagined doing it with an augmented reality display and a one-handed (chorded) keyboard.” The idea of being more productive away from my desk has always been appealing. I hope he explores this further. This would be an improvement to the computer strapped to you.
- galfarragem 8y agoThis tidbit is delicious: Perhaps all that data I’ve collected on myself will one day let one basically just built a “bot of me”. In the end all we want is freedom. I suspect that productivity optimization is our unconscious search of a (social) way of getting free.
- a2tech 8y agoI applaud his work ethic, but can you imagine how many people it takes to support this work style? Programmers building custom interfaces, around the clock monitoring people for his streaming whims (mentioned in the article), system admin's keeping his home cloud running, his personal dev cloud at the office, and the syncing between them. It seems pretty personnel intense
- tchaffee 8y agoWhich is a crucial point. While his infrastructure might be interesting (or perhaps bizarre), it's not repeatable for the vast majority of people.
- imhoguy 8y agoThis is his empire he has build from scratch and is ultraeffective for years. Now compare it to how much work is involved to support politicians work style and what is the efficiency of that system.
- Rainymood 8y agoOnly 1 mention of pBase in this thread so far, I really liked this idea of having a database of people, I'm wondering if someone has solved this problem already?
- jrh206 8y agoAlso: https://sivers.org/dbt https://sivers.org/dbt
- code4tee 8y agoI’ve always admired Wolfram. As he said in the article he could have made his company much bigger but he has a great thing going and gets to do what he loves most every day. Do really cool stuff, mostly stay out of the rat race and make a few bucks.
- anentropic 8y agoI can't un-see that Comic Sans clock
- bravura 8y ago"And—partly out of caution about having a radio transmitter next to my head all day—my headset is wired," What is the current medical consensus on how dangerous wireless headsets, bluetooth headsets, cell phones, etc are?
- tzs 8y agoOf the known ways for electromagnetic radiation to harm cells (directly breaking chemical bonds when a molecule is hit by a photon, and heat damage from the energy absorbed), we are pretty sure that wireless headsets and cell phones are safe. The frequencies they use don't involve photons that can break bonds, and they don't have enough energy for heat damage. The open question is whether or not there are either unknown ways it can harm cells. An unknown direct harm method is probably unlikely. There have been enough studies that we would have spotted it. An unknown indirect harm, though, is harder to rule out. An indirect harm would be something like it can't cause cancer, but if a cell goes cancerous for some other reason the electromagnetic radiation interferes with the body's mechanisms for detecting and fixing or killing the cancer cell. Keep in mind that even if these things do increase risk, either by some unknown direct mechanism, or by an unknown indirect mechanism, we can say that the risk increase is low. You probably do dozens of other things a day with similar or more risk that you could avoid. Bottom line: if you want to have a wireless device next to your head all day for convenience or out of work necessity, no one can really say you are being foolish or cavalier toward you health. But if you decide to minimize such device usage, no one can really say you are worried over nothing.
- GarethKeenan 8y agoDoes anyone know what the name of the glasses he wears that blocks peripheral vision?
- GarethKeenan 8y agoDoes anyone know what the name of the glasses he wears that helps with car sickness?
- denart2203 8y agoBut, the big question on everyone’s minds: “When is v12.0 coming out, and what all will be in it?” I could swear folks said [tentatively] it was supposed to come out mid-to-late last year, or maybe now early this year? Anything more definitive yet? I keep checking back for updates, but not sure I’ve ever seen a definitive release date mentioned yet? Well, whenever it finally drops, I’m sure it’ll be great and I’ll pick up and upgrade from v9.0 (been waiting a while for the money & impetus to upgrade to the latest version).
- daniellerommel 8y agoYou can get sneak-peeks on Stephen's twitch livestreams (he's been doing design reviews live for a while now, including a lot of the v12 functionality). twitch.tv/stephen_wolfram (also on Wolfram's youtube channel for archives). He tweeted Monday about burning down bugs for v12, if you follow the extrapolation, a good guess would be release of v12 in late March to early April (assuming there are no killer bugs left)
- shatnersbassoon 8y agoObligatory mention that he spent 10 years writing a 1000+ page book of nonsense called A New Kind of Science that was basically about how great he is and how everyone else is an idiot: http://bactra.org/reviews/wolfram/ http://bactra.org/reviews/wolfram/ It's not just about productivity, people...
- purplezooey 8y agoI see he doesn't live in California. $.25/kWH power bill would make that basement rack very tough to justify ;)
- MacroChip 8y agoHaving a satellite phone is very interesting! I wonder what motivated that. Is he traveling to extremely rural (presumably international) locations?
- gwatstime 8y agoMy main takeaway from this was: owns a billion dollar company and can't afford AirPods
- vbuwivbiu 8y agoyou don't need a computer to code while walking, do it in your head and type it in when you get back
- kiddico 8y agoSorry if this is off topic, but does anyone know what model/brand of the satphone pictured in the hardware/daily gear section? Alternatively if anyone here knows that market I'd appreciate some guidance in terms of what brands to look at.
- roryokane 8y agoIf you scroll all the way to the bottom, you can see a Product Details box where Wolfram lists the specific products he currently uses. According to that, the satphone is an Iridium 9555 (https://www.amazon.com/Iridium-9555-Satellite-Kit-Packaging/dp/B00IJHGSIO https://www.amazon.com/Iridium-9555-Satellite-Kit-Packaging/...).
- microcolonel 8y agoI love how he just sprinkles in the Iridium satellite phone and the Comic Sans MS and makes no mention.
- dennisgorelik 8y ago> I do basically no videoconferencing. Screensharing is great, and critical. But typically I find video distracting. In our remote work we also do not use video, but use screensharing and audio a lot.