Journal from Kotnik

Here's really interesting blog post from Dwarkesh Patel on examples of applying barbell strategies to real life. I really liked reading and contemplating on these. This one hits personal open wound:

Don’t be a tech worker who does pathetic side projects in his free time (an infrequently updated blog, a useless webapp, half-hearted attempts to learn more about math or ML). Instead, work multiple jobs at the same time for half a year, and use the earnings to spend the next few years fully engaged in hare-brained schemes (working full time on your startup, becoming a Gwern style independent researcher, etc).

Ha, well, I am trying to make my blog more frequently updated these day, but there's one thing that is very obvious to me: a lot of these ideas, if not all, are completely incompatible with a life of a parent with young children. Two weeks of nothing but reading books? Yeah, right, dream about it, dad :)