4 ms·

Freeman Dyson's Brain

12 points by prakash 18y ago

michael_nielsen 18y ago
I submitted this just a few days ago (http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=203685 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=203685).
- whacked_new 18y ago
  Unfortunately, the lack of responses is highly influenced by time of submission, and you might have gotten unlucky. Great read, thanks to you both. Dyson is awesome.
  - eru 18y ago
    Did anyone ever conduct an (informal) study on the best time to submit?
    - whacked_new 18y ago
      http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/new_study_shows_best_and_worst.php http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/new_study_shows_best_an... Informal indeed.
- whacked_new 18y ago
  I would add that after reading the interview, alongside my great sense of awe, I still cannot figure out why this was called "Freeman Dyson's Brain" rather than the title as you put it.
howardyeh 18y ago
For ambitious, enterprising people here, here's what Dyson says about getting ahead: The general rule I tell people is: "While you're young, work on the fashionable stuff - that's where you get ahead fast and make a reputation. When you're older, do the unfashionable things that, in the end, may be more important but that won't get you recognized right away." Let's all go make facebook and twitter clones in Lisp, Erlang, and Scala!
- michael_nielsen 18y ago
  This advice seems to be more true in academia than the startup world. I think Dyson was talking about academia, which is where he's spent his career.
  - eru 18y ago
    And he does not like the market economy. Besides: Does anybody know in which village his wife lived?
- eru 18y ago
  Some other applicable quotes: > So you're saying just go ahead and try stuff and you'll sort out the right way. That's what nature did. And it's almost always true in technology. That's why computers never really took off until they built them small. > Why is small good? Because it's cheaper and faster, and you can make many more. Speed is the most important thing - to be able to try something out on a small scale quickly. > Fail fast. Yes. These big projects are guaranteed to fail because you never have time to fix everything.
DaniFong 18y ago
"One of the things I got from Infinite in All Directions - it was a delight to me, and I've been quoting it ever since - is that you honor inventors as much as scientists. It's as great a part of the human adventure to invent things as to understand them. John Randall wasn't a great scientist, but he was a great inventor. There's been lots more like him, and it's a shame they don't get Nobel Prizes. Is it the scientists who are putting them down? Yes. There is this snobbism among scientists, especially the academic types. Are there other kinds? There are scientists in industry who are a bit more broad minded. The academics look down on them, too. Is that a weird British hangover? It's even worse in Germany. Intellectual snobbery is a worldwide disease. It certainly was very bad in China and probably held back development there by 2,000 years. How would you stop this intellectual snobbery? I would abolish the PhD system. The PhD system is the real root of the evil of academic snobbery. People who have PhDs consider themselves a priesthood, and inventors generally don't have PhDs."
- michael_nielsen 18y ago
  I liked that bit, too, although I thought the stuff about PhDs a bit overstated, maybe because Dyson doesn't have a PhD. But the snobbism about invention seems oh-so-true, and to have dire consequences for academic disciplines (e.g., CS) where invention is particularly important.
  - DaniFong 18y ago
    It might also be a function of where his interests are now. I was a bit surprised too, since grad programs in physics are pretty honest. But I think it's a little different in bioscience. On many occasions, after talking with a biologist or biochemist, I get the impression that it must be incredibly hard to stay focused on the interesting questions. There is so much pressure to pick safe topics and just churn out papers.

12 points by prakash 18y ago

I submitted this just a few days ago (http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=203685 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=203685).

whacked_new 18y ago
Unfortunately, the lack of responses is highly influenced by time of submission, and you might have gotten unlucky. Great read, thanks to you both. Dyson is awesome.
- eru 18y ago
  Did anyone ever conduct an (informal) study on the best time to submit?
  - whacked_new 18y ago
    http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/new_study_shows_best_and_worst.php http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/new_study_shows_best_an... Informal indeed.
whacked_new 18y ago
I would add that after reading the interview, alongside my great sense of awe, I still cannot figure out why this was called "Freeman Dyson's Brain" rather than the title as you put it.

howardyeh 18y ago

For ambitious, enterprising people here, here's what Dyson says about getting ahead: The general rule I tell people is: "While you're young, work on the fashionable stuff - that's where you get ahead fast and make a reputation. When you're older, do the unfashionable things that, in the end, may be more important but that won't get you recognized right away." Let's all go make facebook and twitter clones in Lisp, Erlang, and Scala!

michael_nielsen 18y ago
This advice seems to be more true in academia than the startup world. I think Dyson was talking about academia, which is where he's spent his career.
- eru 18y ago
  And he does not like the market economy. Besides: Does anybody know in which village his wife lived?
eru 18y ago
Some other applicable quotes: > So you're saying just go ahead and try stuff and you'll sort out the right way. That's what nature did. And it's almost always true in technology. That's why computers never really took off until they built them small. > Why is small good? Because it's cheaper and faster, and you can make many more. Speed is the most important thing - to be able to try something out on a small scale quickly. > Fail fast. Yes. These big projects are guaranteed to fail because you never have time to fix everything.

DaniFong 18y ago

"One of the things I got from Infinite in All Directions - it was a delight to me, and I've been quoting it ever since - is that you honor inventors as much as scientists. It's as great a part of the human adventure to invent things as to understand them. John Randall wasn't a great scientist, but he was a great inventor. There's been lots more like him, and it's a shame they don't get Nobel Prizes. Is it the scientists who are putting them down? Yes. There is this snobbism among scientists, especially the academic types. Are there other kinds? There are scientists in industry who are a bit more broad minded. The academics look down on them, too. Is that a weird British hangover? It's even worse in Germany. Intellectual snobbery is a worldwide disease. It certainly was very bad in China and probably held back development there by 2,000 years. How would you stop this intellectual snobbery? I would abolish the PhD system. The PhD system is the real root of the evil of academic snobbery. People who have PhDs consider themselves a priesthood, and inventors generally don't have PhDs."

michael_nielsen 18y ago
I liked that bit, too, although I thought the stuff about PhDs a bit overstated, maybe because Dyson doesn't have a PhD. But the snobbism about invention seems oh-so-true, and to have dire consequences for academic disciplines (e.g., CS) where invention is particularly important.
- DaniFong 18y ago
  It might also be a function of where his interests are now. I was a bit surprised too, since grad programs in physics are pretty honest. But I think it's a little different in bioscience. On many occasions, after talking with a biologist or biochemist, I get the impression that it must be incredibly hard to stay focused on the interesting questions. There is so much pressure to pick safe topics and just churn out papers.