Relevant to the question about how we can make it scalable for novices to enter workspaces are these livestreams Stephen Wolfram released on YouTube of his days at work.
Given that most of the work of Wolfram is open source, he can record his work and put it out there. However, most workers and executives wouldn’t be able to do that as easily given red tape and NDAs.
That is a great film recommendation! I just watched Andy Matuschak write notes, and it was the first full length film I’ve sat through this year. There something absolutely mesmerizing about watching someone skilled perform knowledge work (or handicraft for that matter—my three year old loves to watch people do ceramics on YouTube).
About the last point: open source is much easier because of that reason. But the same models that are being developed in the open domain can be exported to closed domains, don’t you think? There are some examples, Ray Dalio live stream within Bridgewater for example, and there is a rich history of apprenticeship models in industry, and in especially Germany and Switzerland it seems like it works fine along a glass box pattern. It is just about trickier outside of open source, and needs another financial and juridical structure around it.
Excellent points. With the proper juridical structure, it is possible to make work more open.
Have you come across Joseph Henrich’s books on cultural evolution by any chance? He talks extensively about cultural learning. His books convinced me that cultural learning sets humanity apart from other animals. He sites plenty of empirical research showing that human babies outshine other primate babies primarily in their ability to learn from others.
I work in the software industry (safe to assume you do, too, given you follow Andy Matuschak?). My company has something called “shadowing,” which is basically when you join the meetings with someone more senior and watch them do their work. It is hugely underutilized in my experience, and I think it is primarily an incentive misalignment problem. I suspect that the more senior members would feel burdened by facilitating shadowing for juniors.
The recent book “Software Engineering at Google” by Hyrum Wright dedicates a significant portion to talking about mentorship and giving juniors room to grow. Giving juniors menial work and not putting thoughtful effort into developing them is a big mistake many companies make.
The incentives are tricky. Because there is a real cost to shadowing and mentoring, and especially in a culture where people frequently change employer it is hard to justify allowing it to slow down productivity. Is that the same incentive misalignment you refer to, or do you mean something else? How do you think one should go about it?
Relevant to the question about how we can make it scalable for novices to enter workspaces are these livestreams Stephen Wolfram released on YouTube of his days at work.
https://youtu.be/XSO4my8mTs8
Given that most of the work of Wolfram is open source, he can record his work and put it out there. However, most workers and executives wouldn’t be able to do that as easily given red tape and NDAs.
That is a great film recommendation! I just watched Andy Matuschak write notes, and it was the first full length film I’ve sat through this year. There something absolutely mesmerizing about watching someone skilled perform knowledge work (or handicraft for that matter—my three year old loves to watch people do ceramics on YouTube).
About the last point: open source is much easier because of that reason. But the same models that are being developed in the open domain can be exported to closed domains, don’t you think? There are some examples, Ray Dalio live stream within Bridgewater for example, and there is a rich history of apprenticeship models in industry, and in especially Germany and Switzerland it seems like it works fine along a glass box pattern. It is just about trickier outside of open source, and needs another financial and juridical structure around it.
Excellent points. With the proper juridical structure, it is possible to make work more open.
Have you come across Joseph Henrich’s books on cultural evolution by any chance? He talks extensively about cultural learning. His books convinced me that cultural learning sets humanity apart from other animals. He sites plenty of empirical research showing that human babies outshine other primate babies primarily in their ability to learn from others.
I work in the software industry (safe to assume you do, too, given you follow Andy Matuschak?). My company has something called “shadowing,” which is basically when you join the meetings with someone more senior and watch them do their work. It is hugely underutilized in my experience, and I think it is primarily an incentive misalignment problem. I suspect that the more senior members would feel burdened by facilitating shadowing for juniors.
The recent book “Software Engineering at Google” by Hyrum Wright dedicates a significant portion to talking about mentorship and giving juniors room to grow. Giving juniors menial work and not putting thoughtful effort into developing them is a big mistake many companies make.
The incentives are tricky. Because there is a real cost to shadowing and mentoring, and especially in a culture where people frequently change employer it is hard to justify allowing it to slow down productivity. Is that the same incentive misalignment you refer to, or do you mean something else? How do you think one should go about it?