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It's interesting to me how frequently on HN I read about people using their formidable technical expertise to pursue projects with really impractical and anachr

It's interesting to me how frequently on HN I read about people using their formidable technical expertise to pursue projects with really impractical and anachronistic technology, whether it's this project, or retrofitting some really old laptop with scarcely any processing power, or whatever. I understand the impulse to reject practicality and not let "the market" or merely pragmatic considerations dictate one's creative/intellectual impulses. But there is also something perverse about devoting so much brainpower and energy to these kinds of niche projects, which seem almost like a sort of performance art or a thought experiment made real. I find it kind of appealing, but also kind of odd.

quesera 6y ago
I've thought about this often. My conclusion is that ~all humans "waste" time in some manner or other -- and that this is natural, probably necessary, and good. The same argument can be made for sleep. And there might be a useful analogy there... Psychologically "sleeping" (i.e. directing your energies in not-obviously-productive pursuits) bends your brain in a way that a relentless focus on "useful" work does not. This is probably true of all entertainment. Objectively, the person who spends 500 hours getting a 6502 emulator working in JavaScript and then blogging about it, has added more to the world than the person who spends those same hours streaming The Simpsons. ...and also more than those of us who spend 500 hours reading the blogs of people who made crazy useless things happen... But maybe the personal value of the diversionary time spent has some sort of parity..?
- borepop 6y ago
  It occurs to me to that sometimes "silly" projects can also lead to practical applications. Mainly I think I'm struck by how many techy people have the impulse to pursue these quirky projects, and how there is sort of a poetic spirit to it under the techy exterior. As you say, it's certainly a more interesting and creative use of time than sitting on the couch watching TV.
jes5199 6y ago
Every time I work on something anachronistic or artificially constrained, I learn more about the fundamentals of the cutting edge stuff. There's a way that the "default" perspective of the industry tends to emphasize certain skills and knowledge and de-emphasize others, but the world of useful skills is much broader than that, and things crop back up in unexpected ways. Maybe we'll never need to make calls with an antique phone, but there could totally be audio and telephonic applications on modern hardware where the average engineer would have no idea what to do, but someone who had worked on a "toy" project like this would be able to say "oh, this is just like an old [whatever]"

quesera 6y ago

I've thought about this often. My conclusion is that ~all humans "waste" time in some manner or other -- and that this is natural, probably necessary, and good. The same argument can be made for sleep. And there might be a useful analogy there... Psychologically "sleeping" (i.e. directing your energies in not-obviously-productive pursuits) bends your brain in a way that a relentless focus on "useful" work does not. This is probably true of all entertainment. Objectively, the person who spends 500 hours getting a 6502 emulator working in JavaScript and then blogging about it, has added more to the world than the person who spends those same hours streaming The Simpsons. ...and also more than those of us who spend 500 hours reading the blogs of people who made crazy useless things happen... But maybe the personal value of the diversionary time spent has some sort of parity..?

borepop 6y ago
It occurs to me to that sometimes "silly" projects can also lead to practical applications. Mainly I think I'm struck by how many techy people have the impulse to pursue these quirky projects, and how there is sort of a poetic spirit to it under the techy exterior. As you say, it's certainly a more interesting and creative use of time than sitting on the couch watching TV.

jes5199 6y ago

Every time I work on something anachronistic or artificially constrained, I learn more about the fundamentals of the cutting edge stuff. There's a way that the "default" perspective of the industry tends to emphasize certain skills and knowledge and de-emphasize others, but the world of useful skills is much broader than that, and things crop back up in unexpected ways. Maybe we'll never need to make calls with an antique phone, but there could totally be audio and telephonic applications on modern hardware where the average engineer would have no idea what to do, but someone who had worked on a "toy" project like this would be able to say "oh, this is just like an old [whatever]"