
Terry Tao (Fields medalist) on time management - hhm
http://terrytao.wordpress.com/2008/08/07/on-time-management/
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alaskamiller
It's almost 1900 words for an article about time management. But being that my
time is worth zero now I read through it all.

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dominik
I liked his honesty here:

"my ability to do any serious mathematics fluctuates greatly from day to day;
sometimes I can think hard on a problem for an hour, other times I feel ready
to type up the full details of a sketch that I or my coauthors already wrote,
and other times I only feel qualified to respond to email and do errands, or
just to take a walk or even a nap."

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dangoldin
What struck me is how great is is that his career allows him to do that. Most
people have to sit and work at a slow pace instead of just relaxing for a bit
and getting back into things when they are ready.

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hhm
Terry Tao's blog and wiki also has a lot of useful articles about
productivity, professional and personal growth, vocational matters related to
maths, etc. Worth visiting it.

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altay
Fun fact, Terry Tao is an alum of this program:
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=269717>

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dmix
Can someone summarize this for me? I don't have time to read that much text.

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palish
It would be good to change the title to "On Time Management". It shouldn't
matter that Terry Tao wrote it, or that he won a Fields Medal.

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hhm
I'm not so sure about that. Most literature about time management is terrible,
so, you tend to ignore it unless the one writing seems to have something to
say. And Terry Tao is a great achiever, and also somebody who seems to be
doing many useful things at once all the time. Certainly I do care that he's
the one that wrote the article... otherwise probably I wouldn't have even read
it.

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palish
If the writing is good, it will stand on its own. All I'm saying is that the
difference between "Tarry Tao (Fields medalist) on time management" and "Terry
Tao (don't click this link) on time management" is pretty small. They both
make you want to click on the link to see what it's about, and they are both
totally irrelevant to the actual content of the article.

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pc
_If the writing is good, it will stand on its own._

Indeed -- and if this were, say, a fiction contest, it would be a great way to
do things. But when someone is giving advice, the identity of the advisor (and
the success they've had by following the advice) is important.

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palish
You're correct.

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anewaccountname
"Joe Idiot Teaches Quantum Physics"

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Tichy
This made me check - apparently there really isn't an "Idiot's guide to
quantum physics" yet. I wonder why? I bought an "Idiot's guide to economics"
the other day... So Quantum physics is more complicated than economics?

Edit: put "Write Idiot's Guide TO Quantum Physics" on my TODO-list...

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hugh
I just checked and there is a "Quantum Physics for Dummies" on Amazon for
preorder. It's due to come out early next year.

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Tichy
Ah OK, maybe I just confused the title of the series, I thought it was
"Idiot's guide to...", not "... for dummies".

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jcl
Both are real series. Considering that the Dummies haven't published yet, the
Idiots appear to be ahead:

[http://www.amazon.com/Complete-Idiots-Guide-String-
Theory/dp...](http://www.amazon.com/Complete-Idiots-Guide-String-
Theory/dp/1592577024)

