103. Productivity is Dead. Long Live Knowledge Creation

My latest X/Twitter follow, Richard Ngo, asked the following question:
"Have you ever wondered why you’re not as productive as Elon?"

Richard is a former employee at @openai and @googledeepmind. I answered, "Yes, many times", but later realized I had a new perspective on productivity as a whole.

I think the "productivity" lens needs to be replaced.

You could create knowledge that surpasses all productivity:
- cure "incurable" diseases
- create a new element
- a model for AGI in your bedroom
- form a new branch of mathematics

As long as it does not violate physical laws it is possible. It could take decades of work or a Sunday afternoon.

The question is how are you encouraging/discouraging yourself to do this?

Life is about finding a problem and falling in love with it.

As Popper said, which I learned from David Deutsch:

I think that there is only one way to science - or to philosophy, for that matter: to meet a problem, to see its beauty and fall in love with it; to get married to it and to live with it happily, till death do ye part - unless you should meet another and even more fascinating problem or unless, indeed, you should obtain a solution. But even if you do obtain a solution, you may then discover, to your delight, the existence of a whole family of enchanting, though perhaps difficult, problem children, for whose welfare you may work, with a purpose, to the end of your days.

~Karl Popper

We forgot that some of the most transformative insights are produced by unknown individuals, quietly toiling away with their passion in remote corners. History is replete with examples of people working in obscurity, developing groundbreaking ideas that only posthumously came to light.

I ask, once more, how are you encouraging/discouraging yourself to do this?