During my early days in my tech career. I joined a small tech firm that did linux kernel programming and embedded stuff. It was my first job out of college and I was really excited. My mentor was a 50+ guy whom I walked everyday from work to back my home. It didn't started out like that, we would leave work around different times and one day it was raining, so we waited and then it became sort of habit. I learned so much about programming and life in general. Made me a better programmer for sure. I'm always grateful!
His office was not a multi-storey air-conditioned open plan aquarium where 30-something idiots commuting from the leafy counties of Kent want to discuss how they got pissed last night and who feel compelled to bond with software devs by showing them the latest "take a selfie and see it mapped onto a baboon arse" app. I would love to have the opportunity to go on walks with a mentor, but the only available ones are frustrated, scared managers who think of themselves as thought leaders or aloof top managers/founders who think of themselves as geniuses when they are a) well-connected public school crowd keeping the riffraff out of their lives, b) clever, but not genius operators happy to ride their teams to the ground to cover up lack of planning. The best I could get out of them is beers on a Thursday night. Thanks.
Around that time Oppenheimer became the director of the Institute of Advanced Studies where this took place. His idea was to invite there various talented people, giving them grants to work on whatever they wish. Most of them were in science, but he also managed to get T. S. Eliot.
So, they walked to campus together, spent about two hours there, then walked home together. It sounds more like just sharing a long daily walk with a stopover at the office.
bonding over walks is actually one of the best ways of communicating your thoughts with the other person. ofc I don't have any research or anything to back it up, but whenever i hit a blocker in life, i take a walk with my bestfriend in and around the college campus. 99% of the problem is solved by the end of it. however if i do the same thing elsewhere, like our room or some place to eat, the flow of thoughts isn't that coherent or fruitful. maybe the active work of walking stimulates our brains to think out stuff properly.
One of my fondest memories is the moment I realized that I was walking and sitting in the same parks and benches that Heisenberg and Bohr did while they uncovered the secrets of the really small. Being in such an environment is ... quite special, it's different to the outside world.<p>It doesn't quite match the experience those two had talking with each other, but it was quite the experience.
Consider that they were both German speaking, and Einstein had never fully switched to English. For example he would only publish his research in German.
I probably wouldn't mind spending 30% of my workday walking home with either Gödel or Einstein, even if it meant I was only getting paid 70% of my normal salary.
When I worked last the lunchtime walk was a daily ritual - through heathland next to the site. When I became a line manager to my peers, it was also where we had the unofficial chats - where I was ‘me’ rather than corporate. That walk is the thing I miss most about working, as a retiree
A little off-topic but there's this amazing documentary on Einstein: Genius. It has three seasons and the first one is all about Einstein. It's a really accurate description of all the important events in his professional as well as personal life
Successful people's currency is not money but networking and working with great people is one of the best part in life as the last point of Sam Altman's list is probably the most wise of advice from the list [1].<p>>17. Working with great people is one of the best parts of life<p>I think this is why teleworking proponents are missing the important point. Meeting in person for example having lunch with co-workers can create eureka moment that online discussions hard or impossible to replicate. The game changing Transformer early concept was discussed and proposed in Google cafeteria. The legendary AT&T cafeteria environment as mentioned by Hamming was a prime example where many of inventors and Nobel Prizes recipients gathered, is now very difficult or nearly impossible to replicate in the industry [2].<p>[1] What I wish someone had told me:<p><a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38728172">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38728172</a><p>[2] The Art of Doing Science and Engineering:<p><a href="https://press.stripe.com/the-art-of-doing-science-and-engineering" rel="nofollow">https://press.stripe.com/the-art-of-doing-science-and-engine...</a>
This article has convinced us to RTO. /s<p>Hear me out!<p>We will return to the office:<p>1) For not more than an hour a day<p>2) To talk to Kurt Godel, and nothing else<p>Sadly, Kurt died some 46 years ago. Our grief cannot be approximated, even by Godel Numbers.<p>Therefore, we will not return to the office.<p>---------------<p>Ps: Assuming Bankruptcy Risk Prevents the Sale of Your Office<p>Sell the office anyways. Write the loss off, file for bankruptcy protections if needed, and try to bounce back on good will.<p>If you push the RTO, you burn your good graces - with your workers and with your customers - hoping to rehabilitate a wasteful and outdated mode of production. You might easily run out of good will while finding yourself nipped to death by more up to date and worker friendly organizations.