

That'll Never Work - jgrahamc
http://blog.jgc.org/2012/11/thatll-never-work.html?

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rwmj
John's a good speaker and has done a few "crazy" things.

However I thought this talk was going to be about the wingnut ideas that
really will never work because they defy human nature / currently known laws
of physics / principles of good software design / basic logic / etc.

~~~
duairc
What's "human nature"? Human nature, if anything, is adaptability. What feels
"natural" to us is largely determined by our socialisation and our environment
(i.e., things which we can change).

~~~
premchai21
If you change it so that what feels "natural" to you is not what feels
"natural" to everyone else, then you are in for a world of hurt when you find
that all the resources you were relying on are no longer presented in a way
that you're compatible enough to access.

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engtech
That was a great talk, and well worth listening to. I think it also highlights
why we find your blog posts interesting -- because you are an engaging speaker
with that mysterious "charm" quality.

I feel that the HN post title is missing much needed air-quotes around
"That'll Never Work" since the talk is all about ignoring the internal voice
that tells you to give up.

While I've only done much less impossible things, I have found that the act
beating the impossible helps give confidence for future tasks. You realize
that things aren't as impossible as they seem at first glance.

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luanfernandes
Hi John, is there any way you can provide subtitles (in english) on this talk?
or a transcript? English is not my native language so it's kinda hard to
understand everything you say

~~~
jgrahamc
If I had time I'd listen to what I said and write it down for you.

~~~
polyfractal
I'm not sure if this was a snarky reply or not, but you can get pretty cheap
english translators on oDesk. Average price is $1/minute of translated
material. The accuracy is usually superb, especially considering the price.

~~~
jgrahamc
What would make you think that was a snarky reply on my part?

~~~
dasil003
Strange. I think it's bleed over connotation from when you ask someone to do
something and say something like "have you got that or shall I write it down
for you?"

Something about the "write it down _for you_ " is often used in a
condescending way.

~~~
polyfractal
Yeah, I think this was it. Sorry jgrahamc, I wasn't trying to be insulting. It
was just the phrasing with threw me off.

Something about the mix of _"I'd listen to what I said"_ and _"I'd write it
down for you"_ just seemed like an unpleasant way to say _"sorry I don't have
time to transcribe it"_

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arctangent
Never heard you speak before, jgrahamc. Enjoyed the video immensely.

~~~
jgrahamc
Thanks.

I'm more than happy to speak at people's events on the following conditions:

1\. I have something to say. I never give the same talk twice so I usually
need quite a lot of warning so that I have time to come up with something
original.

2\. It's convenient for me to get there.

3\. The talk is videoed and made public. Since I'm not being paid my pay is
publicity.

~~~
da02
Thank you very much for making it public.

Is publicity the only reason? I thought it was because you take pity on those
born with the unfortunate curse of being constantly curious.

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adnam
What was the previous talk? You've piqued my interest now!

~~~
jgrahamc
Linda Sandvik's talk about "Making Things Better" was a really touching talk.
It started slowly and I thought it wasn't going to be good but it just got
better and better over time: <http://vimeo.com/53074443>

~~~
Peroni
Mandatory plug for the HNLondon Vimeo page: <http://vimeo.com/hnlondon>

A collection of all our previous speakers including jgc (obviously) Eben
Upton, Rand Fishkin, Joel Spolsky and many more.

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datr
The first thing I thought of when reading the title of this post is Adaptive
Optics (<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adaptive_optics>). When I was told the
idea of using a mirror which could reposition itself thousands of times a
second to correct for atmospheric disturbances I had an initial gut reaction
of "this will never work". There just seemed like there was too much which
could go wrong or would have to be compensated for. Of course I was completely
wrong - the technology works brilliantly and along side telescopes is now
being used in microscopes, medicine and weapons!

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_gbc
Excellent talk and well worth the time to watch. Thanks for making it publicly
available.

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maxer
whens the next hacker news meetup in london?

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dmitri1981
22nd Nov <http://www.meetup.com/hnlondon/>

