Re: Why the Web Succeeded.

I Find Karma (adam@milliways.cs.caltech.edu)
Tue, 16 Sep 1997 03:18:49 -0700 (PDT)


Berna L. Massingill writes:
> >> > >> http://www.cs.caltech.edu/~adam/local/faq-adam.html#ninetyseven
> >> > >> That ought to keep you busy for a while. :)
> >> > I'll say. It looks like it'll give me plenty of material for a nice
> >> > long babble -- maybe I'll compose one tomorrow while I'm waiting for
> >> > the morning's first increment of caffeine to take effect. :-)
> After giggling my way through the "97" part of your FAQ, I went back
> to the top and started reading. But your ability to babble exceeds
> my ability to read babble,

You have to understand, this FAQ has been building for FOUR years.
If it was hard to write, it should be hard to read. Right?

> so somewhere around the "this is where I came in" point I decided to
> come back to this some other time. A few random remarks:
> >> Rulli's rant on the art of loafing (04/08/94): ....
> >> Yes, this college thing is supposed to be only a phase, though I
> >> admit I've milked it for just about all it's worth. ....
> :-)

I think I still have a year or two of milking left. Moo.

> >> The classes, term-papers, and reading are preparing me to
> >> someday become a disposable tool for somebody else to make money
> >> with. That's depressing.
> I'll say.

That's worse than depressing. It's terribly depressing.

> >> .... I have three and a
> >> half IKEA bookcases filled top-to-bottom with CDs, in alphabetical
> >> order. Frightening, isn't it?
> Yes. Alphabetical order?

Up until last year. I have a year's worth to file still.

> >> 24. The National Science Foundation reports that most Americans
> >> answer the following three questions incorrectly.
> >> 1. Which is smaller, an electron or an atom?
> >> 2. Which travels faster, sound or light?
> >> 3. How long does it take the earth to go around the sun once?
> Makes you curious to know what some of the wrong answers were, huh?

Curious, and nervous.

> >> 8. What is the "Thirty Hypothesis"?
> >> This is the belief that one's useful life ends at 30.
> No *wonder* I've had so much trouble finishing a thesis.

:)

> >> This rule was first proposed by Rohit as the "Mathematician's rule of
> >> 25," which states that anything that was ever useful in
> >> mathematics was discovered and/or proved by a person by the time
> >> s/he was 25. We extend this rule to 30 for all fields besides
> >> mathematics ....
> Well, now, if "all fields" doesn't include anything a liberal-arts person
> might study ....

Penalty, minus fifteen yards, first down.
You used "liberal-arts" and "study" in the same sentence.

> >> If you haven't broken
> >> through by the end of your PhD, it's not going to happen.
> And who says that happens by 30? then again, does replacing "by 30"
> with "by the end of your PhD" help me any? :-)?

Take it any way you can. Smoke em if you got em.

> >> :) When you get a chance, look at:
> >> http://www.cs.caltech.edu/~adam/local/faq-adam.html#charette
> I *like* it.

Not bad. Of course, Rohit *lives* it.

----
adam@cs.caltech.edu

I have been reading People magazine quite a lot lately, and I've noticed
that everyone mentioned has had some kind of tragedy in their youth.
Which suggests that the interviewers are really pushing for that info.
Which has been making me wonder what I would say if I were being
interviewed. I need to come up with some kind of tragedy in my youth,
just in case.
-- Megan Coughlin