3 ms·
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 fashio
by 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 agoThis 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 agoAnd he does not like the market economy. Besides: Does anybody know in which village his wife lived?
- eru 18y agoSome 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.