4 ms·

Becoming a magician (2018)

82 points by rajlego 6y ago

rajlego 6y ago
I discovered this post from this Nielsen tweet: https://twitter.com/michael_nielsen/status/1074150124169773056?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1074150124169773056%7Ctwgr%5Eshare_3&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fblog.stephsmith.io%2Fhow-to-be-great%2F https://twitter.com/michael_nielsen/status/10741501241697730... Which I discovered from this post: https://blog.stephsmith.io/how-to-be-great/ https://blog.stephsmith.io/how-to-be-great/ I wasn't sure how to name this post well so if anyone has any ideas let me know (since it's not about literal magicians)
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
- rajlego 6y ago
  (can't see your reply for some reason directly but in response to above tweet author of post wrote this: https://twitter.com/utotranslucence/status/1074503969735462913 https://twitter.com/utotranslucence/status/10745039697354629... which has context and some photos of pieces from author and the person they mentioned)
bradknowles 6y ago
The original article is at https://autotranslucence.wordpress.com/2018/03/30/becoming-a-magician/ https://autotranslucence.wordpress.com/2018/03/30/becoming-a...
schoen 6y ago
(2018)
- rajlego 6y ago
  unfortunately looks like like it's too late to edit the title
shostack 6y ago
This bit about seeking out magicians resonates with me. It is partly why I've gravitated towards technical things. Literally controlling electricity to do my bidding. Yeah, that's magic. But finding those people who possess a skill you thought yourself competent at, but at a completely different level than you are is a humbling and exhilarating experience. It is addictive. The best is when they do what they do by tossing any generally recognized best practices out the window and reinvent the discipline from first principles in an entirely different way.
- rajlego 6y ago
  Have you met many people like that? For me, the person I think is most like that is Piotr Wozniak [1]. He's basically mastered everything: physiology, happiness, learning, creativity, communication. He's done it generally with global optima not local optima meaning he sacrifices things most people normally wouldn't (e.g. has no phone, only does barefoot running). Fortunately he has lots of writing on his lifestyle so I think I have a chance after a decade or two of approaching him but man, if he didn't exist there would be so many things I'd take for granted as unsolvable (enjoying exercise, being consistently happy every day, managing stress). [1] https://supermemo.guru/wiki/Piotr_Wozniak https://supermemo.guru/wiki/Piotr_Wozniak
  - cheeko1234 6y ago
    Damn that blog is a gold mine. Thanks a lot for linking it. This makes me want to make myself a wiki-type blog for keeping notes and developing ideas.
    - rajlego 6y ago
      Sure. From talking to author of that blog, I've roughly taken away that threaded conversation (reddit/hn), email, voice chat, instant messaging are all just chat. If you want to extend the value of information over time, you need some sort of wikipedia. I've been leaning towards using Obsidian since linking is wonderful but I haven't figured out good workflow for using it with SuperMemo (software made by author of above blog). I'm considering just going with mediawiki, same as supermemo.guru. Plus would be that it would be super easy to edit with friends. Also been looking at some tiddlywiki based solutions as well.
JackFr 6y ago
“There are two types of genius. Ordinary geniuses do great things, but they leave you room to believe that you could do the same if only you worked hard enough. Then there are magicians, and you can have no idea how they do it. Feynman was a magician.“ — Hans Bethe (remembering that Bethe himself was a Nobel laureate.)
- rajlego 6y ago
  Great quote! Where's it from?
  - JackFr 6y ago
    I’ve seen it multiple places, but the first time I saw it was in James Gleick’s biography of Feynman “Genius”.
pazimzadeh 6y ago
This reminds me of how I felt looking at the detailed realistic icons on the iPhone/iPod touch back in 2007/2008 (not to mention the entire device). Years later this article from Mike Rundle helped me deconstruct the magic and become a designer myself: http://flyosity.com/tutorial/crafting-subtle-realistic-user-interfaces.php http://flyosity.com/tutorial/crafting-subtle-realistic-user-...

82 points by rajlego 6y ago

I discovered this post from this Nielsen tweet: https://twitter.com/michael_nielsen/status/1074150124169773056?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1074150124169773056%7Ctwgr%5Eshare_3&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fblog.stephsmith.io%2Fhow-to-be-great%2F https://twitter.com/michael_nielsen/status/10741501241697730... Which I discovered from this post: https://blog.stephsmith.io/how-to-be-great/ https://blog.stephsmith.io/how-to-be-great/ I wasn't sure how to name this post well so if anyone has any ideas let me know (since it's not about literal magicians)

deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
rajlego 6y ago
(can't see your reply for some reason directly but in response to above tweet author of post wrote this: https://twitter.com/utotranslucence/status/1074503969735462913 https://twitter.com/utotranslucence/status/10745039697354629... which has context and some photos of pieces from author and the person they mentioned)

bradknowles 6y ago

The original article is at https://autotranslucence.wordpress.com/2018/03/30/becoming-a-magician/ https://autotranslucence.wordpress.com/2018/03/30/becoming-a...

schoen 6y ago

(2018)

rajlego 6y ago
unfortunately looks like like it's too late to edit the title

shostack 6y ago

This bit about seeking out magicians resonates with me. It is partly why I've gravitated towards technical things. Literally controlling electricity to do my bidding. Yeah, that's magic. But finding those people who possess a skill you thought yourself competent at, but at a completely different level than you are is a humbling and exhilarating experience. It is addictive. The best is when they do what they do by tossing any generally recognized best practices out the window and reinvent the discipline from first principles in an entirely different way.

rajlego 6y ago
Have you met many people like that? For me, the person I think is most like that is Piotr Wozniak [1]. He's basically mastered everything: physiology, happiness, learning, creativity, communication. He's done it generally with global optima not local optima meaning he sacrifices things most people normally wouldn't (e.g. has no phone, only does barefoot running). Fortunately he has lots of writing on his lifestyle so I think I have a chance after a decade or two of approaching him but man, if he didn't exist there would be so many things I'd take for granted as unsolvable (enjoying exercise, being consistently happy every day, managing stress). [1] https://supermemo.guru/wiki/Piotr_Wozniak https://supermemo.guru/wiki/Piotr_Wozniak
- cheeko1234 6y ago
  Damn that blog is a gold mine. Thanks a lot for linking it. This makes me want to make myself a wiki-type blog for keeping notes and developing ideas.
  - rajlego 6y ago
    Sure. From talking to author of that blog, I've roughly taken away that threaded conversation (reddit/hn), email, voice chat, instant messaging are all just chat. If you want to extend the value of information over time, you need some sort of wikipedia. I've been leaning towards using Obsidian since linking is wonderful but I haven't figured out good workflow for using it with SuperMemo (software made by author of above blog). I'm considering just going with mediawiki, same as supermemo.guru. Plus would be that it would be super easy to edit with friends. Also been looking at some tiddlywiki based solutions as well.

JackFr 6y ago

“There are two types of genius. Ordinary geniuses do great things, but they leave you room to believe that you could do the same if only you worked hard enough. Then there are magicians, and you can have no idea how they do it. Feynman was a magician.“ — Hans Bethe (remembering that Bethe himself was a Nobel laureate.)

rajlego 6y ago
Great quote! Where's it from?
- JackFr 6y ago
  I’ve seen it multiple places, but the first time I saw it was in James Gleick’s biography of Feynman “Genius”.

pazimzadeh 6y ago

This reminds me of how I felt looking at the detailed realistic icons on the iPhone/iPod touch back in 2007/2008 (not to mention the entire device). Years later this article from Mike Rundle helped me deconstruct the magic and become a designer myself: http://flyosity.com/tutorial/crafting-subtle-realistic-user-interfaces.php http://flyosity.com/tutorial/crafting-subtle-realistic-user-...