[HN Gopher] Seeking the Productive Life: Some Details of My Pers...
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Seeking the Productive Life: Some Details of My Personal
Infrastructure (2019)
Author : not_knuth
Score : 138 points
Date : 2021-02-06 09:27 UTC (13 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (writings.stephenwolfram.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (writings.stephenwolfram.com)
| egypturnash wrote:
| _And for at least the past couple of years--unless I'm bringing
| the bigger computer, usually in a backpack--I have taken to
| "wearing" my little computer wherever I go. I originally wanted a
| bag where the computer would fit completely inside, but the
| nicest bag I could find had the computer sticking out a bit. To
| my surprise, though, this has worked well. And it's certainly
| amusing when I'm talking to someone and quickly "draw" my
| computer, and they look confused, and ask, "Where did that come
| from?"_
|
| Today I learnt that Stephen Wolfram dos not live anywhere it
| rains very much, because I sure would not take my laptop out in
| that bag when I lived in Seattle, nor would I take it out in that
| now that I live in the tropics.
|
| https://writings.stephenwolfram.com/data/uploads/2019/02/10-...
| dmje wrote:
| I wonder if he's happy. I mean, genuine question, not a snark.
| There's obviously important reasons to be "productive" but there
| are many reasons to just let go, too. I wonder what his mental
| health looks like.
| TuringNYC wrote:
| For some people, organizing the chaos in the background helps
| remove the stress of the chaos -- and allows you to focus on
| things that make you happy.
| maxerickson wrote:
| He probably had $10 million close to 30 years ago, so I'd guess
| he is pretty happy.
|
| The number is somewhat arbitrary, but it's enough money to
| spend most of your time doing what you want to do. Not enough
| to chase every whim, but enough that what you end up doing with
| the bulk of your time is a choice.
| Toine wrote:
| > He probably had $10 million close to 30 years ago, so I'd
| guess he is pretty happy.
|
| This is the saddest thing I've read recently
| robjan wrote:
| I think the unwritten part of that sentence is "so he can
| quit what he's doing whenever he wants, but he chooses to
| live like this"
| dmje wrote:
| ...kinda the important part of the sentence too. Plenty
| of totally depressed millionaires out there...
| TuringNYC wrote:
| >> >> He probably had $10 million close to 30 years ago, so
| I'd guess he is pretty happy.
|
| >> This is the saddest thing I've read recently
|
| I read something sadder recently -- a mother in the US who
| was crying because she couldn't afford insulin for her
| child.
|
| Seriously, sure, money doesnt solve all problems. But it
| sure as heck solves most problems. It adds others, but not
| as big as the ones it takes away.
|
| (FYI, i've lived across the income spectrum thru my life
| from $10k/yr w/o healthcare to top 1%)
| maxerickson wrote:
| Just wait until you read about 2020.
| mark_l_watson wrote:
| He is married, works with his son, and does what he loves for
| his work. I would bet a lot of money that he is happy and lives
| a fulfilled life.
| dmje wrote:
| Good answer.
| rubicon33 wrote:
| He also mentions this, right at the beginning of the article:
|
| > I'm a person who's only satisfied if I feel I'm being
| productive.
|
| For anyone who is like this, you know exactly what he means.
| This is likely the result of the way you were raised, but for
| some of us, our mental health in adulthood really does hinge
| on feeling productive or not.
|
| Whether that's healthy is a ship that sailed when we were
| just children. Instilled in us is a deep need to feel
| productive, and that's how we feel happy.
|
| So yes, I think he's probably as happy as he can be.
| OneGuy123 wrote:
| You belive that he is forcing himself to "be productive" and to
| "work so much".
|
| What you have missed is that he loves what he does.
|
| It's not that "he is so disciplined": it's that he lives for
| this kind of things that is why he can do so much things and in
| such "extreme" manner.
|
| But only an outside observer would mark these as "extreme".
|
| You say "to just let go": the mistake on your end here is that
| you are projecting your own disinterest in the things he does
| on him.
|
| He is not like you, and I'm not saying that you should be like
| him.
|
| It's just that that is his natural tendency. Yours is
| different.
|
| So he doesn't need to "let go" because he is not suffering: he
| is most likely enjoying his life much more that you are yours
| since he lives, breathes and makes money of his hobby.
| layoutIfNeeded wrote:
| I think being "productive" [1] is a hobby for him. Some people
| organize their vinyl collection with painstaking detail, others
| build dioramas.
|
| [1] I'm putting it in quotes, because it seems that the output
| of all this "productivity" consist mostly of filing cabinets
| and databases filled with mundane information about his life.
| hkon wrote:
| To say this was an interesting read is a massive understatement.
| Thanks for sharing.
| reddog wrote:
| "It is hard to have a southern overseer; it is worse to have a
| northern one; but worst of all when you are the slave-driver of
| yourself."
|
| -- Thoreau
| tartrate wrote:
| > computational thinking
|
| > computational history
|
| > computational documents
|
| Whenever I see an article by S.W. I do something very
| unconstructive, which is to just search for occurrences of
| "computational" to see how he manages to put it into just about
| any context.
| 83457 wrote:
| How very computational of you.
| emteycz wrote:
| I went through all occurrences and I think it makes sense every
| time! The man simply computes a lot. What would you expect from
| someone who made their own computational environment though...
| mark_l_watson wrote:
| I didn't read the article to the end but enjoyed the first half.
| If he were my friend, I would have a serious talk about using a
| tablet when walking outside. I live in the mountains and spend a
| huge amount of time walking around my neighborhood and also
| wilderness hiking. Some of that time my mind is absorbed in
| nature, gratitude for what I am experiencing. But I also use some
| hiking time, when I am not with friends, for listening to a wide
| range of podcasts and enjoying fine literature on audiobooks.
|
| My new years resolution for 2021 is listening to more great music
| and reading even more than I typically do.
|
| I very much liked Wolfram's organization and productivity hacks.
| My system is much simpler but I also like his.
|
| I have twice tried to integrate Wolfram language and notebooks
| into my technical life, but it didn't work out. Last time I read
| that they were baking RDF, SPARQL, and other linked
| data/Knowledge Graph tech into their platform, but it was not
| fully baked when I tried it and I walked away in frustration.
| Maybe I will give their knowledge platform another try sometime.
| swader999 wrote:
| I'm surprised he could find a screen that was useful outdoors.
| dugditches wrote:
| Interesting about the glasses he uses to avoid getting car sick.
|
| Looks like they're round tube frames, filled with a liquid dyed
| blue. Which apparently tricks your brain into thinking it's the
| horizon(which moves with your vehicle). https://cdn.pocket-
| lint.com/r/s/1200x/assets/images/148075-g...
| weagle05 wrote:
| This is an amazing article. Thank you for sharing. I'm also a
| little upset I didn't know Wolfram had all of these amazing apps.
| I now know what I'm doing this weekend.
| appleflaxen wrote:
| Has anybody worked for Wolfram? What's he like as a boss? What's
| the company like?
| not_knuth wrote:
| I have no idea what the company is like, nor do I know what
| working for Wolfram is like (person and company), but Wolfram
| the person streams a lot of his meetings.
|
| https://www.stephenwolfram.com/livestreams/
| simonw wrote:
| I love this essay so much. It was the inspiration for my Dogsheep
| project - https://simonwillison.net/2020/Nov/14/personal-data-
| warehous... - which I called "Dogsheep" because I'm imitating
| Wolfram but it's not nearly as impressive.
| layoutIfNeeded wrote:
| The thing I've noticed about people around me using tons of
| "productivity" tools is that in the end they're not actually
| producing more stuff than the regular folk who don't organize
| their life around Notion boards or personal wikis...
|
| This article is yet another example of this phenomenon. I mean
| sure, Stephen Wolfram founded the company that makes Mathematica.
| But other than that, his achievments are pretty underwhelming
| especially when discounting his aggressive self-promotion. His
| body of work is mostly a lot of handwavy stuff with some
| interesting ideas sprinkled in. The science community doesn't
| really take him seriously. So the question remains: are these
| productivity habits anything but symptoms of a mild case of OCD?
| Where's the purported "produce" that these productivity tools
| enabled him creating?
| jansan wrote:
| If the science community does not take the guy who invented
| Mathematica seriously, they are just a bunch of arrogant
| SS%#$s, but I doubt that is even true.
| simonw wrote:
| "his achievments are pretty underwhelming" - I don't feel that
| at all. Sure, his self-promotion can make it easy to be
| skeptical. But he has built SO MUCH stuff in his career.
|
| Wolfram Alpha, Wolfram Language and Mathematica are incredible
| achievements.
|
| As an open source focused person I tend to avoid them in favour
| of OS alternatives (not that the open source world has anything
| even remotely comparable to Wolfram Alpha) but I can't deny
| that they are astonishingly powerful products.
| nojito wrote:
| The most productive people in terms of output and success are
| the ones who do not talk about what tools they are using. But
| instead they almost solely talk about behaviors and ideas.
|
| Once I realized that I quickly learned to ignore all of the
| productivity/self help space that plagues the internet today.
| emteycz wrote:
| > Where's the purported "produce" that these productivity tools
| enabled him creating?
|
| - Wolfram Physics
|
| - Wolfram language
|
| - Wolfram Mathematica
|
| - Wolfram Alpha
|
| - several science books
|
| - hundreds of talks and presentations
|
| - ...
| tartoran wrote:
| The problem I have with super productivity is that it appears to
| push people only in one direction. I think giving oneself a break
| and having unstructured time is something that is overlooked with
| these regimes. Merely talking daily walks without any devices or
| technology helps our brains enormously. And a bit of chaos (under
| control of course) can be very beneficial
| jacquesm wrote:
| The best way to appear to be productive is to appropriate other
| people's IP.
| sokoloff wrote:
| Is this a specific accusation against Wolfram or a general
| comment? (I did a quick google search and found nothing, but
| without being sure if I was even looking for something, I
| limited the amount of time I spent.)
| anon_tor_12345 wrote:
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rule_110#History
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthew_Cook#Work_with_Stephen.
| ..
| Sytten wrote:
| Legit question, what is Wolfram, who uses it and why? I used the
| equation solver a few times but I had no idea they have VoIP!
| wizzwizz4 wrote:
| Stephen Wolfram is a person. The Wolfram Language is a language
| he made (in the same sense that Guido van Rossum made Python -
| it's the programming language behind Mathematica). WolframAlpha
| is a website that also contains a partial implementation of the
| Wolfram Language.
| sambroner wrote:
| Let me start by saying... this is as must read article. I share
| it often. It is 1. extremely fascinating 2. patently ridiculous
| 3. something to learn from
|
| He documents almost every part of his daily work environment in
| painstaking detail. Much of it is ridiculous. All of it,
| including the article itself, is over the top. I am very
| appreciative that he chose to share.
|
| Stephen has optimized (for him! not for me) his life to an
| unbelievable degree. Whether that is walking outside with a
| laptop working because it slightly reduces his resting heart
| rate, the extensive renovations to his office to remove the sound
| of his computer fan, or the elaborate filing system he uses for
| his daily notes and mail.
|
| He also goes _deep_ into his personal analytics. Stephen is
| working approximately 100% of the waking hours of the day as
| evidenced by the timestamps on the emails he sends, which are
| well plotted over 3 decades. (He 's a night owl, sleeping
| 3am-9am). It also appears he is opening nearly 800 email every
| day and keeping his unreads below 200.
|
| I should add, partially because I read this article, I began
| tracking half hourly sprints in the pomodoro-style and have
| become more interested tracking parts of my own life.
| agbell wrote:
| This essay was published as part of a book and I got an
| interview with Stephen setup by his publisher when it came out.
|
| The interview was so much fun. We had an hour booked and ended
| up talking for much much longer until he had to leave to teach
| kids programming.
|
| I spent some of the time quizzing him on whether he could
| answer things in his language and then him calculating the
| solution. He really likes what he does.
|
| My read is that he has setup the type of life he really wants
| to have. Gathering and tracking productivity data is something
| he likes.
|
| Here is the part of the interview that made it 'on air'
| https://www.se-radio.net/2019/12/episode-392-stephen-wolfram...
| 1996 wrote:
| > Much of it is ridiculous. All of it, including the article
| itself, is over the top
|
| I disagree. It gives an example of what you can achieve with
| large amounts of money, freedom and dedication. It also contain
| great advice possible on a budget:
|
| > When I was consulting at Bell Labs in the early 1980s I saw
| that a friend of mine had two garbage cans in his office. When
| I asked him why, he explained that one was for genuine garbage
| and the other was a buffer into which he would throw documents
| that he thought he'd probably never want again. He'd let the
| buffer garbage can fill up, and once it was full, he'd throw
| away the lower documents in it, since from the fact that he
| hadn't fished them out, he figured he'd probably never miss
| them if they were thrown away permanently.
|
| Whether you may gain from the suggestions is up to you.
|
| For example, if you value your health, reducing your resting
| heart rate seems like a valuable thing to optimize for.
|
| > Whether that is walking outside with a laptop working because
| it slightly reduces his resting heart rate, the extensive
| renovations to his office to remove the sound of his computer
| fan
|
| This seems extremely valuable to me. He's in for the long game.
| So am I.
|
| Thanks to my work in the crypto space, I retired very young. I
| have great freedom to fail, but I remain time poor.
|
| Reading from his experiences gives me a better idea on what
| will provide me the most utility, without investing too much of
| my time in what seems to be a failure for other people (I
| considered doing the book thing, but in university I
| fortunately moved to everything PDF, so all paper books were
| trashed)
|
| Also it helps avoid what would be very little gains in
| practice. For ex, his note system: he had his box of archives
| digitized. I decided to throw everything away as his example of
| being able to access school notes about a rhinoceros talk
| strike me as a waste of time and a risk of potentially drawing
| wrong conclusions:
|
| > > So, for example, here are school geography notes from when
| I was 11 years old, together with the text of a speech I gave
|
| Yeah thanks but no thanks. Nostalgia is a powerful drug that
| can make you keep a wrong path. It is better to let yourself
| forget what is value less to make room for what is important.
| Let these unused neural pathware decay and go extinct!!
|
| Just one thing wrong from the article:
|
| > > How do I take notes when I'm "out and about"? I've tried
| various technological solutions, but in the end none have
| proved both practical and universally socially acceptable. So
| I've kept doing the same thing for 40 years: in my pocket I
| have a pen, together with a piece of paper folded three times
| (so it's about the size of a credit card). It's very low-tech,
| but it works. And when I come back from being out I always take
| a few moments to transcribe what I wrote down, send out emails,
| or whatever
|
| This is a big one. I have found a 14" Sony ebook to be the best
| notetaking device. Someone I otherwise found very wise told me
| it was a 1k etch-a-sketch replacement to folder pieces of
| paper. I disagree. The ability to backup and sync my notes
| everywhere is priceless - and developing the habit to review my
| objectives everyday even more so.
|
| It has allowed me to fully revamp my TODO system, but I found
| the lack of color problematic for some notes.
|
| So now I'm in the process of replacing it by a lenovo dual
| display solution (Yogabook C930) - one color side, one eink
| side. The eink can also work as a display for regular windows
| applications.
| Terretta wrote:
| I think the bit of paper idea is that it's so minimal it's
| not even a thing, and brings all the pocket-ability,
| portability, works any time anywhere, benefits of not being a
| thing.
|
| Your alternative, a 14 _inch_ electronic, or a laptop, is
| definitely a thing, with all the downsides of being a thing.
| treeman79 wrote:
| Had a first child, 2 years in I Was constantly stressed out. I
| started tracking time very closely. Both what was done, what
| needed to be done.
|
| Worked out that If there were no delays; I would have 5 minutes
| at 7:25 to myself.
|
| It was a much needed wake up call.
| zarp wrote:
| I found myself in a similar situation to yours... and then
| had a second child. If I had the time to track it, I'm sure
| the results would not be much better. After that much needed
| wake up call, what did you end up doing?
| treeman79 wrote:
| I did less.
|
| Changed jobs. Freed up 3 hours of commuting a day.
|
| Wife wasn't pulling weight with errands. She refused to
| drive. So that needed fixing.
|
| Stop having to go to grocery store every single day.
|
| Organize house a lot better. Lots of time wasted looking
| for clothes.
|
| Get rid of anything not nailed down.
| redisman wrote:
| Lower your standards for everything. Work, cleanliness,
| relationships, hobbies.
|
| Try to get to a point where you do housework while the
| kiddo is awake and entertaining themselves.
|
| Some medium term planning helps. Cooking enough for 2-3
| meals at a time so you don't do it everyday. I used a meal
| plan that told me the groceries to get. Think of some other
| "life hacks" or corners you can cut for things you do a
| lot. Take some time for self care.
| m463 wrote:
| This kind of "ridiculous" is laudable.
|
| Not his specific solutions, but the sort of "beginners mind"
| where you can solve things even if social convention dictates
| otherwise.
|
| Just as an example, using scissors in the kitchen where a
| "normal person" would bow to convention and use a knife.
| jansan wrote:
| I can share some experience about having a treadmill in the
| office. I built my own using a second hand treadmill from which I
| removed everything but the lower part (belt, drive and housing).
| Then I purchased an IKEA Skarsta height adjustable desk. Finally
| all I needed was a monitor and a desk mount for the monitor.
| Without the monitor the price was less than 300EUR.
|
| But the thing is, while it works really well in theory, I rarely
| use it. I find working while walking very difficult. I cannot
| concentrate very well and movements get really erratic. It is
| mainly useable for longer browsing sessions, but long browsing
| sessions usually occur by accident and are usually not planned in
| advance. So yeah, the whole machine is right next to me while I
| write, but I am not using it.
|
| Also, Linus Torvalds has a similar setup:
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LE0JtUeyVJA
| rubicon33 wrote:
| I picked up one of these [1] a couple years ago and have LOVED
| it. I've logged on average probably about 7 miles a week on it.
| While that might not sound like much, it adds up, and it's 7
| miles a week that I would have otherwise been sitting.
|
| If I need to REALLY focus on a very challenging problem, I will
| sit down. But if I'm doing something more routine, it's perfect
| for walking.
|
| The best part of the treadly is how easily it's stored. Just
| flip it up and lean it against the wall. Out of the way.
|
| [1] https://www.treadly.co/
| tartoran wrote:
| It's very slim and seems quite capable but 750 is a bit
| steep. I actually got a tramploine and the workout I get is a
| lot more vigorous and shorter, I average 10 mins a day on it.
| jfim wrote:
| How fast is the treadmill going? For walking desks it seems
| that it needs to be a pretty slow pace, and slower than the
| pace at which one would normally walk.
| jansan wrote:
| I can control the speed with a little potentiometer (that is
| basically the control that I stripped from the original upper
| part). So it can go quite slow, which really is necessary if
| you want to use a mouse or keyboard. For watching youtube,
| you can go pretty fast.
| csomar wrote:
| For such an elaborate setup, I'm quite surprised he missed a few
| things from the gamers world. And yes, these gamers do have some
| serious sh*t. Gamers mice and mousepads are order of magnitudes
| more precise and comfortable. I had the Logitech G900 and
| recently got the Razer Viper Ultimate. Anyone having strains from
| using the mouse should try these things.
| maya24 wrote:
| The only thing I really got out of this long article was the
| importance of having a customized organizational and workflow
| system that suits your lifestyle. For me there's two books /
| methodologies that has made a huge impact in how I think about
| and organize my work. The first is David Allen's getting things
| done system. It is extremely generic but comprehensive and
| suitable for pretty much any kind of knowledge worker. The second
| is using a personal kanban board for organizing all of my work
| and personal tasks. Highly recommend the book Personal Kanban.
|
| with a sufficient organizational assistant in place I don't feel
| the need to be productive all the time. I know that when I sit
| down my work is already planned ahead so I can immediately start
| being productive. I also review and plan my work ahead a little
| bit which saves a lot of time and makes contact switching less
| costly.
| jodrellblank wrote:
| > " _If I actually want to write anything serious, though, out
| will come my little computer, with its full keyboard. Of course,
| if I'm standing up it's pretty impractical to try to balance the
| computer on one hand and type with the other._ "
|
| Something I've not seen, but wondered about, is a chording
| keyboard on the back of a tablet device. Especially since he
| mentions chording keyboards earlier in the article, a tablet
| screen could have keys for one or both hands while holding it.
|
| > " _(I periodically try using drawing tablets but I don't like
| the way they treat my whole screen as a canvas, rather than
| operating in a window that I can move around.)_ "
|
| Bit surprised that a multimillionaire computer programmer can't
| get this solved when it seems like "only" a software problem?
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