4 ms·

I'm not sure that John Carmack, someone who's known for his legendary coding ability and work ethic, is going to be representative of most engineers / programme

I'm not sure that John Carmack, someone who's known for his legendary coding ability and work ethic, is going to be representative of most engineers / programmers out there. The term 10x gets thrown around a lot to the point of banality, Carmack is actually one of those 10x humans.

TehShrike 3y ago
I think the split on these conversations isn't usually between extremely effective people and not-very-effective people, it's usually between people who aspire to be more effective/get more done, and people who think that par is fine.
- parineum 3y ago
  > it's usually between people who aspire to be more effective/get more done, and people who think that par is fine. _at work_ Most (all probably) people aspire to be more in whatever their passion is.
  - TehShrike 3y ago
    The discussion in the original post is responding to "Why working fewer hours would make us more productive". We're talking about how to be more productive in general.
strikelaserclaw 3y ago
its easy to work 12 hours a day when the thing you do is what gives you pleasure.
- AndrewKemendo 3y ago
  Which is entirely his point
  - MisterBastahrd 3y ago
    Which is incredibly quaint and myopic. The advanced world he lives in literally doesn't exist if people only work on passion projects.
- elromulous 3y ago
  Exactly. And at Carmack's status, he can afford to only work on things that give him pleasure.
Zetice 3y ago
*was one of those 10x humans. He's kind of gone off the deep end now, though given this comment he may have always been a little out of touch with reality. He was a hero of mine, but now isn't (and IMO that's fine).
- ctrlp 3y ago
  In what sense has he "gone off the deep end"? Why was he once a hero of yours but no longer?
  - Zetice 3y ago
    1) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35991322 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35991322 2) His general admiration of Elon Musk and positive opinion of a man who flagrantly and regularly violates the very societal norms that have provided him with the opportunities he built his life around.[0] 3) His inability to navigate Facebook/Meta to effect the change he felt was necessary [1] 4) "My core thesis is that the federal government delivers very poor value for the resources it consumes, and that society as a whole would be better off with a government that was less ambitious." (I should have known about this but didn't until relatively recently) [2] 5) The comment he made as the topic of this submission; he's completely out of touch with reality for anyone who isn't him, but doesn't seem to care at all or even really understand what other people might want. John Carmack's way of thinking is useful for people who want to directly create things themselves, and who don't trust or can't figure out how to motivate or incentivize people to amplify their work. When I was like that, John Carmack was my hero. Now I realize that to be the most effective version of myself, I need to have relationships with others who make me even better than I could possibly be alone. For that, John Carmack is not a good person to look up to, as he doesn't seem to be capable of growing his reach beyond himself. So he's not my hero, he's someone I look at and now see all of the flaws that may have already been there, but weren't relevant for the time I valued him as an inspiration. [0] https://mleverything.substack.com/p/elon-musk-john-carmack-and-gatekeeping https://mleverything.substack.com/p/elon-musk-john-carmack-a... [1] https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2022/12/john-carmack-leaves-meta-after-a-decade-fighting-to-make-vr-a-reality/ https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2022/12/john-carmack-leaves-m... [2] https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=1895320834035758&id=100006735798590 https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=1895320834...

TehShrike 3y ago

I think the split on these conversations isn't usually between extremely effective people and not-very-effective people, it's usually between people who aspire to be more effective/get more done, and people who think that par is fine.

parineum 3y ago
> it's usually between people who aspire to be more effective/get more done, and people who think that par is fine. _at work_ Most (all probably) people aspire to be more in whatever their passion is.
- TehShrike 3y ago
  The discussion in the original post is responding to "Why working fewer hours would make us more productive". We're talking about how to be more productive in general.

strikelaserclaw 3y ago

its easy to work 12 hours a day when the thing you do is what gives you pleasure.

AndrewKemendo 3y ago
Which is entirely his point
- MisterBastahrd 3y ago
  Which is incredibly quaint and myopic. The advanced world he lives in literally doesn't exist if people only work on passion projects.
elromulous 3y ago
Exactly. And at Carmack's status, he can afford to only work on things that give him pleasure.

Zetice 3y ago

*was one of those 10x humans. He's kind of gone off the deep end now, though given this comment he may have always been a little out of touch with reality. He was a hero of mine, but now isn't (and IMO that's fine).

ctrlp 3y ago
In what sense has he "gone off the deep end"? Why was he once a hero of yours but no longer?
- Zetice 3y ago
  1) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35991322 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35991322 2) His general admiration of Elon Musk and positive opinion of a man who flagrantly and regularly violates the very societal norms that have provided him with the opportunities he built his life around.[0] 3) His inability to navigate Facebook/Meta to effect the change he felt was necessary [1] 4) "My core thesis is that the federal government delivers very poor value for the resources it consumes, and that society as a whole would be better off with a government that was less ambitious." (I should have known about this but didn't until relatively recently) [2] 5) The comment he made as the topic of this submission; he's completely out of touch with reality for anyone who isn't him, but doesn't seem to care at all or even really understand what other people might want. John Carmack's way of thinking is useful for people who want to directly create things themselves, and who don't trust or can't figure out how to motivate or incentivize people to amplify their work. When I was like that, John Carmack was my hero. Now I realize that to be the most effective version of myself, I need to have relationships with others who make me even better than I could possibly be alone. For that, John Carmack is not a good person to look up to, as he doesn't seem to be capable of growing his reach beyond himself. So he's not my hero, he's someone I look at and now see all of the flaws that may have already been there, but weren't relevant for the time I valued him as an inspiration. [0] https://mleverything.substack.com/p/elon-musk-john-carmack-and-gatekeeping https://mleverything.substack.com/p/elon-musk-john-carmack-a... [1] https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2022/12/john-carmack-leaves-meta-after-a-decade-fighting-to-make-vr-a-reality/ https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2022/12/john-carmack-leaves-m... [2] https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=1895320834035758&id=100006735798590 https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=1895320834...