On the web there’s a certain kind of encouragement to never ask yourself how much information you really need. But when I get to the point where I’m seeking advice twelve hours a day on how to take a nap or what kind of notebook to buy, I’m so far off the idea of lifehacks that it’s indistinguishable from where we started. There’s very little advice right now to tell people that the only thing to do is action, and everything else is horseshit.
The Value is in the Struggle
I think it is very definitely worth the struggle to try and do first-class work because the truth is, the value is in the struggle more than it is in the result. The struggle to make something of yourself seems to be worthwhile in itself.
Twitter: 2010-08-31
- RT @ocweekly Twilight Star Taylor Lautner Challenged to Push-Up Contest to Resolve Lawsuit http://bit.ly/9WsyCE #
The Direction I Thought Was Important
I found in the early days I had believed ‘this’ and yet had spent all week marching in ‘that’ direction. It was kind of foolish. If I really believe the action is over there, why do I march in this direction? I either had to change my goal or change what I did. So I changed something I did and I marched in the direction I thought was important. It’s that easy.
Here Come the Brides
We went to a wedding over the weekend, although it won’t be recognized as such by the state of California because both people involved were women.
One of the women is Asian, the other Mexican. Both are in their late 20s, both pretty, and they seem to be very happy together.
The reception was held at The Reef restaurant, affording a beautiful view of Long Beach harbor and the downtown lights beyond.
The bride wore white. The other bride also wore white.
We couldn’t find a “bride and bride” wedding card at the Hallmark store.
We asked an employee about it, an older woman. “You want what?” she said.
“A bride and bride card. All the wedding cards are bride and groom, a man holding a woman’s hand. What we want is a bride and bride card.”
“We don’t have anything like that,” she said.
“You should get some.”
Silence.
The gentleman who performed the wedding told us that we were not just attending a wedding, we were striking a blow against ignorance and bigotry.
Actually, I wasn’t there to strike a blow for anything; I was there because I was invited.
If you’re going to position yourself as a champion of tolerance and broad-mindedness, you should go ahead and drop the name-calling.
The Mexican bride’s family is, I assume, Catholic and opposed to this kind of thing — women marrying women.
“I was a little taken aback when I first heard about it,” her dad said.
But she’s still their daughter, granddaughter, sister, niece, etc., and the family turned out in large numbers to support her.
The Asian bride’s family was a different story. Other than a couple of cousins, they were in absentia.
Her mom didn’t attend because she opposed the wedding. Her dad didn’t attend because he didn’t even know it was happening. Mom didn’t tell him because she’s afraid it would kill him.
More People I’m Sick Unto Death Of: Guys who wear porkpie hats to formal affairs.
Other than to call attention to yourself at an event that’s not about you, what possible reason could you have for wearing that hat? To protect your head? From what?
Lose the hats, hipsters.
Twitter: 2010-08-30
- RT @ChelseaVPeretti: Just saw a forgettable documentary about Alzheimer’s. #
- 4 Steps to Generating Your Next Breakthrough – Harvard Business Review http://goo.gl/xGRa #
One Problem After Another After Another
I could see life being a long sequence of one problem after another after another. After quite a while of thinking I decided, “No, I should be in the mass production of a variable product. I should be concerned with all of next year’s problems, not just the one in front of my face.” By changing the question I still got the same kind of results or better, but I changed things and did important work. I attacked the major problem — How do I conquer machines and do all of next year’s problems when I don’t know what they are going to be? How do I prepare for it? How do I do this one so I’ll be on top of it?
By changing a problem slightly you can often do great work rather than merely good work. Instead of attacking isolated problems, I made the resolution that I would never again solve an isolated problem except as characteristic of a class.
Car Bombs: Another Reason I Prefer to Just Stay Home
CIUDAD VICTORIA, Mexico (Reuters) – Two car bombs exploded in northern Mexico early on Friday, days after marines found the bodies of 72 people gunned down in the country’s escalating war with powerful drug cartels.
Twitter: 2010-08-28
- Amateur NC ghost hunter looking for ‘ghost train’ hit and killed by real train http://goo.gl/0TaL #
- “Bonus?! I thought we were all going to get *boners*.” — Disappointed office worker #
- RT @capricecrane: They say “don’t cut off your nose to spite your face” yet they don’t offer an alternative way to spite your face. #
Twitter: 2010-08-27
- Worth a read: the Paradoxical Commandments of Leadership – Good Experience http://goo.gl/yitU #
- RT @Jesus_M_Christ: It’s true, my Dad does talk to Glenn Beck, but only to tell him to shut the hell up. #
The Important Problems of Your Field
Over on the other side of the dining hall was a chemistry table. I had worked with one of the fellows, Dave McCall . . . I went over and said, “Do you mind if I join you?” They can’t say no, so I started eating with them for a while. And I started asking, “What are the important problems of your field?” And after a week or so, “What important problems are you working on?” And after some more time I came in one day and said, “If what you are doing is not important, and if you don’t think it is going to lead to something important, why are you at Bell Labs working on it?” I wasn’t welcomed after that; I had to find somebody else to eat with! That was in the spring.
In the fall, Dave McCall stopped me in the hall and said, “Hamming, that remark of yours got underneath my skin. I thought about it all summer, i.e. what were the important problems in my field. I haven’t changed my research,” he says, “but I think it was well worthwhile.” And I said, “Thank you Dave,” and went on. I noticed a couple of months later he was made the head of the department. I noticed the other day he was a Member of the National Academy of Engineering. I noticed he has succeeded. I have never heard the names of any of the other fellows at that table mentioned in science and scientific circles. They were unable to ask themselves, “What are the important problems in my field?”
Playing With Pain
My son comes home from playing basketball at L.A. Fitness with what looks like blood all over his white T-shirt.
“Is that blood on your shirt?” I ask him.
“Yeah. A guy followed through on his shot and smacked me in the face.”
“So your nose was bleeding?”
“Yeah. I wiped it on my shirt.”
“That’s awesome.”
“I know. It’s sick.”
Overheard
Twitter: 2010-08-26
- RT @eddiepepitone: Prophets of doom make 13 dollars an hour, life coaches 35 an hour. So who’s full of shit now? #
- RT @thesulk: “Who’s that actor?” “I don’t know, and I may never know.” (Watching TV Before the Internet) #
- RT @capricecrane: “Heidi Montag Wants Huge Breast Implants OUT.” She’s getting good at cutting giant boobs out of her life. #
Related Articles
- Heidi Montag Regrets Breast Implants (mtv.com)
Double Dippin’
If He’s Lost Letterman, He’s Lost America
At a time when painful unemployment numbers continue to bear down on the tattered economy, many are frustrated that the nation’s leader is enjoying another luxurious trip. On CBS’ “The Late Show” Tuesday night, David Letterman took a jab at the president, saying: “He’ll have plenty of time for vacations after his one term is up.”
Living in Beverly Hills
LOS ANGELES — Donald Bren’s two out-of-wedlock children testified Monday in the fraud case they brought against their billionaire father that they didn’t lack any material things growing up in Beverly Hills, but that his absence in their lives made them feel angry, hurt and abandoned.
Hey kids, that feeling — is called “life.”
You Have to Neglect Things
Given two people with exactly the same ability, the one person who manages day in and day out to get in one more hour of thinking will be tremendously more productive over a lifetime. . . . I spent a good deal more of my time for some years trying to work a bit harder and I found, in fact, I could get more work done. I don’t like to say it in front of my wife, but I did sort of neglect her sometimes; I needed to study. You have to neglect things if you intend to get what you want done. There’s no question about this.
Related Articles
- Did Mozart Play Kickball (eppsnet.com)
- 10,000 Hours + Courage == Greatness (podly.tv)
Twitter: 2010-08-24
- RT @Jesus_M_Christ: How do I know Adam and Eve were white? When’s the last time you seen a black man give up a rib? #
- RT @eddiepepitone: Tweets of Nietzche’s wife- God isn’t as dead as our sex life! #
- RT @pattonoswalt: In the future, everyone will be obscure for fifteen minutes. #
I Would Like to Do First-Class Work
I have to get you to drop modesty and say to yourself, “Yes, I would like to do first-class work.” Our society frowns on people who set out to do really good work. You’re not supposed to; luck is supposed to descend on you and you do great things by chance. Well, that’s a kind of dumb thing to say. I say, why shouldn’t you set out to do something significant. You don’t have to tell other people, but shouldn’t you say to yourself, “Yes, I would like to do something significant.”