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I’ve always envied Wolfram for his work ethic and accomplishments. I wonder if his complexity ideas from A New kind of science could be applied to software, do

I’ve always envied Wolfram for his work ethic and accomplishments. I wonder if his complexity ideas from A New kind of science could be applied to software, do you know some applications on that?

safety1st 2y ago
I find it absolutely fascinating that from the ages of 60 to 65, this guy produced nine books, 499 hours of podcasts, and 14 software product releases. For one thing it's quite interesting just to measure your productivity that way. I'm going through life generally just concerning myself with earning my daily bread. In my entire lifetime I've produced zero books, zero hours of podcasts, and a variety of software releases for other people. I think I'd be more proud of myself if I had a fraction of his track record. It's also amazing that he's doing this at an age when most people are just getting ready for retirement, and seems to have increased his output over the previous 5 year period. Goals I suppose. And it takes a bit of pressure off of me to think that you can still be this prolific later in life. The five year time horizon is pretty interesting, you can accomplish some pretty dramatic things in five years, and even in middle age you have several more of these 5 year windows remaining.
- dgellow 2y ago
  He also has entire teams working for him
- vundercind 2y ago
  > produced nine books Mmm. Nine books in five years plus doing tons of other stuff? I don’t know anything about the specifics of this situation but have seen enough of the publishing industry and of the influencer/executive/thought-leader side of it that I can assure you the normal way someone in those positions writes nine books in five years is by writing zero books. “Producing” is the right term indeed… maybe. Usually they outsource that to one company or another as well (or start a company for it and have someone else run the company, too—I’ve seen this, lol). They provide an outline and final say on each chapter.
  - safety1st 2y ago
    Sure, probably all true. Who cares? "Producing" a book with the help of a team is also a greater career achievement than not producing one. If I look at which I would be more proud of - producing a book or doing nothing - it's pretty obvious.
    - vundercind 2y ago
      You can do it how they do it pretty easily with chatGPT. It’s brought the process within reach of the DIYer who doesn’t want to or isn’t able to (time constraints; skill problems) actually write a book. That’s how the companies that write these for them do it now, so it’s not even a worse process—ghost writers are gone, ChatGPT does the first draft of each chapter, with some of the money saved on writers going to (way) more editor hours than they used to need. If you’re decent at prompting chatgpt you can do that part yourself, then you can hire the editing out ($5k-$15k, depends on the length of book and how good the editor is) or also DIY that if you’re good at it. Pro tip: keep using ChatGPT during the editing, it’s great for normalizing tone after you’ve changed stuff. Or if you don’t need to save cash, just do what others in that position do and hire the whole thing out. $25k-$50k and 20-40 hours of personal time spent and you can “write a book”. Depending on the topic and how much you care about the final product, the time investment part can go under 10 hours, if that’s your preference.
      - safety1st 2y ago
        Amazing comment

I’ve always envied Wolfram for his work ethic and accomplishments. I wonder if his complexity ideas from A New kind of science could be applied to software, do you know some applications on that?

safety1st 2y ago

I find it absolutely fascinating that from the ages of 60 to 65, this guy produced nine books, 499 hours of podcasts, and 14 software product releases. For one thing it's quite interesting just to measure your productivity that way. I'm going through life generally just concerning myself with earning my daily bread. In my entire lifetime I've produced zero books, zero hours of podcasts, and a variety of software releases for other people. I think I'd be more proud of myself if I had a fraction of his track record. It's also amazing that he's doing this at an age when most people are just getting ready for retirement, and seems to have increased his output over the previous 5 year period. Goals I suppose. And it takes a bit of pressure off of me to think that you can still be this prolific later in life. The five year time horizon is pretty interesting, you can accomplish some pretty dramatic things in five years, and even in middle age you have several more of these 5 year windows remaining.

dgellow 2y ago
He also has entire teams working for him
vundercind 2y ago
> produced nine books Mmm. Nine books in five years plus doing tons of other stuff? I don’t know anything about the specifics of this situation but have seen enough of the publishing industry and of the influencer/executive/thought-leader side of it that I can assure you the normal way someone in those positions writes nine books in five years is by writing zero books. “Producing” is the right term indeed… maybe. Usually they outsource that to one company or another as well (or start a company for it and have someone else run the company, too—I’ve seen this, lol). They provide an outline and final say on each chapter.
- safety1st 2y ago
  Sure, probably all true. Who cares? "Producing" a book with the help of a team is also a greater career achievement than not producing one. If I look at which I would be more proud of - producing a book or doing nothing - it's pretty obvious.
  - vundercind 2y ago
    You can do it how they do it pretty easily with chatGPT. It’s brought the process within reach of the DIYer who doesn’t want to or isn’t able to (time constraints; skill problems) actually write a book. That’s how the companies that write these for them do it now, so it’s not even a worse process—ghost writers are gone, ChatGPT does the first draft of each chapter, with some of the money saved on writers going to (way) more editor hours than they used to need. If you’re decent at prompting chatgpt you can do that part yourself, then you can hire the editing out ($5k-$15k, depends on the length of book and how good the editor is) or also DIY that if you’re good at it. Pro tip: keep using ChatGPT during the editing, it’s great for normalizing tone after you’ve changed stuff. Or if you don’t need to save cash, just do what others in that position do and hire the whole thing out. $25k-$50k and 20-40 hours of personal time spent and you can “write a book”. Depending on the topic and how much you care about the final product, the time investment part can go under 10 hours, if that’s your preference.
    - safety1st 2y ago
      Amazing comment