Gwern Branwen

I don't think I get bored too easily because I switch between so many different topics.

Even if I'm kind of sick of deep learning papers, well, you know, then I have tons of other things I can read or argue with people about.

So I don't really get bored.

I just end up getting kind of exhausted.

You know, I have to kind of go off and do something else like lift weights.

Yeah, I think I get a lot more mileage out of arguing with people online than pretty much any other writer does.

I'm trying to give a genuine answer here, not some stupid thing about note-taking.

I get a lot more out of arguing with people than I think most people do.

You need motivation to write and actually sit down and kind of crystallize something and do the harvest work.

And after you tend your garden, you do have to do the harvest.

And the harvest can be hard work.

It's very tedious.

And, you know, there are many people that I talk to who have many great ideas, but they don't want to harvest because it's tedious and boring.

And it's very hot out there in the fields reaping.

And you're getting dusty and sweaty.

Why wouldn't you just be inside having lemonade?

And I think the motivation from arguing and being angry at people online is in plentiful supply.

So I get a lot of mileage out of people being wrong on the internet.

I think aside from the obvious one that you could kind of be like arbitrarily wrong when writing by yourself and just become this like crazy loony by having a big confident wrong take.

I think aside from that, you also have the issue of kind of the emotional toll of not having colleagues that you can kind of convince.