4 ms·

Unfortunately, he doesn't have a day job and he's really poor. If you like his research, consider a donation in paypal dollars or bitcoin.

by kiba 14y ago

bmmayer1 14y ago
Do you know him personally?
- kiba 14y ago
  No, but I do interact with him on a daily basis on IRC.
krazykringle 14y ago
From the site: 1L7LgaRtr3WSw5g1MaJQWj19T6RByssz41
spitx 14y ago
This is what consistently appalls me ( and yet astounds me at the same time ) That companies and organizations are full of utterly untalented and wholly ill-suited & miserable folks who somehow lucked into lofty and well-paying jobs. And yet there are gifted people like gwern who cannot seem to catch a break no matter how demonstrably prolific they are. I think we should stop telling kids that life rewards the passionate and the skilled. (By rewards I don't mean some inner solace coming from indulging in what you love, but the conventional rewards of recognition and remuneration.) Life is rigged in favor of the opportunists. The schemers, hustlers, the witty-talkers and the seize-rs. But certainly not the plainspoken and the adept. No matter how you dice it, your conscience tells you that this is more than a bit unfair and disenchanting.
- deleted 14y ago
  [deleted]
- nostrademons 14y ago
  "That companies and organizations are full of utterly untalented and wholly ill-suited & miserable folks who somehow lucked into lofty and well-paying jobs." Why does it astound you that opportunities go to the opportunists? I think that what you're seeing here is that gifted people do eventually catch a break and luck into a lofty and well-paying job. And then their employer starts telling them what to work on (because, after all, people don't pay you for being smart - they pay you to do things for them), and they don't have time to work on the cool-but-relatively-useless public-domain stuff. From the outside, it looks like they've suddenly become utterly untalented, ill-suited, and miserable. But from the inside, they're just as smart as they ever were, it's just that their talents have been redirected into invisible things that people will actually pay for. I used to do cool stuff like teach folks how to write Scheme interpreters in Haskell or port Arc to Javascript or spend half a day re-implementing Tetris on a webpage. Eventually enough people noticed that I got a nice job at Google. I still work on cool stuff, but nobody notices anymore, partly because everybody takes the fact that Google Search just works for granted and because I work with enough other talented people that I can't claim sole credit for anything I do anymore. If Gwern wants a job at Google, I'll be happy to refer him.
  - spitx 14y ago
    So mediocre opportunists who fill the ranks of nearly every outfit in America do not appall you? The brain trust in most companies doesn't fill a beer boot.
    - nostrademons 14y ago
      No. The average person is, by definition, average. If mediocre opportunists didn't fill the ranks of nearly every outfit in America, they'd all be unemployed. Typically if smart people have difficulty finding or keeping a job, it's either because a.) they don't want one or b.) they have mental or emotional problems that make them difficult to work with. The latter is a real problem, but not really an injustice (or rather, it's an injustice that people are born with or develop these problems, but not that they aren't hired if they have them). In that case, one's mental energy is often better spent dealing with those problems or enlisting help to deal with those problems than on becoming smarter, because you get a much higher payoff from the former.
- readme 14y ago
  Someone once said "If you don't toot your own horn, no one else will." Hiding behind a pseudonym is a great way to avoid being recognized for your works in the short-term, unless you're some sort of prolific writer, but I think we know that's a lot different than developing software. If gwern would associate these works you all revere him for with his real name, I'm sure he'd have plenty of job offers.
- oskarth 14y ago
  Have you considered the possibility that maybe he just doesn't want a regular job?
jaibot 14y ago
Just donated $5.

Unfortunately, he doesn't have a day job and he's really poor. If you like his research, consider a donation in paypal dollars or bitcoin.

by kiba 14y ago

Unfortunately, he doesn't have a day job and he's really poor. If you like his research, consider a donation in paypal dollars or bitcoin.

bmmayer1 14y ago

Do you know him personally?

kiba 14y ago
No, but I do interact with him on a daily basis on IRC.

krazykringle 14y ago

From the site: 1L7LgaRtr3WSw5g1MaJQWj19T6RByssz41

spitx 14y ago

This is what consistently appalls me ( and yet astounds me at the same time ) That companies and organizations are full of utterly untalented and wholly ill-suited & miserable folks who somehow lucked into lofty and well-paying jobs. And yet there are gifted people like gwern who cannot seem to catch a break no matter how demonstrably prolific they are. I think we should stop telling kids that life rewards the passionate and the skilled. (By rewards I don't mean some inner solace coming from indulging in what you love, but the conventional rewards of recognition and remuneration.) Life is rigged in favor of the opportunists. The schemers, hustlers, the witty-talkers and the seize-rs. But certainly not the plainspoken and the adept. No matter how you dice it, your conscience tells you that this is more than a bit unfair and disenchanting.

deleted 14y ago
[deleted]
nostrademons 14y ago
"That companies and organizations are full of utterly untalented and wholly ill-suited & miserable folks who somehow lucked into lofty and well-paying jobs." Why does it astound you that opportunities go to the opportunists? I think that what you're seeing here is that gifted people do eventually catch a break and luck into a lofty and well-paying job. And then their employer starts telling them what to work on (because, after all, people don't pay you for being smart - they pay you to do things for them), and they don't have time to work on the cool-but-relatively-useless public-domain stuff. From the outside, it looks like they've suddenly become utterly untalented, ill-suited, and miserable. But from the inside, they're just as smart as they ever were, it's just that their talents have been redirected into invisible things that people will actually pay for. I used to do cool stuff like teach folks how to write Scheme interpreters in Haskell or port Arc to Javascript or spend half a day re-implementing Tetris on a webpage. Eventually enough people noticed that I got a nice job at Google. I still work on cool stuff, but nobody notices anymore, partly because everybody takes the fact that Google Search just works for granted and because I work with enough other talented people that I can't claim sole credit for anything I do anymore. If Gwern wants a job at Google, I'll be happy to refer him.
- spitx 14y ago
  So mediocre opportunists who fill the ranks of nearly every outfit in America do not appall you? The brain trust in most companies doesn't fill a beer boot.
  - nostrademons 14y ago
    No. The average person is, by definition, average. If mediocre opportunists didn't fill the ranks of nearly every outfit in America, they'd all be unemployed. Typically if smart people have difficulty finding or keeping a job, it's either because a.) they don't want one or b.) they have mental or emotional problems that make them difficult to work with. The latter is a real problem, but not really an injustice (or rather, it's an injustice that people are born with or develop these problems, but not that they aren't hired if they have them). In that case, one's mental energy is often better spent dealing with those problems or enlisting help to deal with those problems than on becoming smarter, because you get a much higher payoff from the former.
readme 14y ago
Someone once said "If you don't toot your own horn, no one else will." Hiding behind a pseudonym is a great way to avoid being recognized for your works in the short-term, unless you're some sort of prolific writer, but I think we know that's a lot different than developing software. If gwern would associate these works you all revere him for with his real name, I'm sure he'd have plenty of job offers.
oskarth 14y ago
Have you considered the possibility that maybe he just doesn't want a regular job?

jaibot 14y ago

Just donated $5.