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Can I ask you how you trained yourself to do this? Is there a trick that helps focus on important problems?
by read 13y ago
Can I ask you how you trained yourself to do this? Is there a trick that helps focus on important problems?
- rwallace 13y agoI find the key is, using the metaphor of the tech tree, to distinguish between branches (inventions which lead to other things) and leaves (which don't, at least not in a relevant timescale) and - this is the hard part - to ruthlessly apply the rule only work on branches. It's easy to see that things like video games, artificial life and fart "apps" are leaves and we shouldn't spend time working on them. It gets painful when we apply the rules to things we value more highly. Astronomy, particle physics, space flight, fusion power: these are all noble pursuits, at least the first two or three were branches in the past, by rights they should all be branches today. But they're not. They're leaves. That's the cold fact of the matter, and the world has to be dealt with as it is, not as it should be.