Wasting Time

For the past fifteen months, I got to work with the fabulously smart people at Epistemic AI, who have forgotten more than I’ll ever know about Artificial Intelligence, life sciences, and the business of combining them. As I return focus to my own long-term passion projects, I again have time to share my thoughts more regularly with all of you wonderful Deeply Nested readers. Thank you for being here.

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Let’s talk about wasting time. Cramming for exams, then forgetting as quickly as we learned. Interviewing for jobs we don’t get. Making ourselves available to sales prospects who never purchase.

I once spent four years helping develop Sun Microsystems’ Millennium microprocessor, slated for release as UltraSPARC V. Suddenly, in April 2004, the project was cancelled, and its team of hundreds—some of whom had been focused on it for six years already—laid off. We were told not to bother mothballing our work.

Humans have long memories. Too long, maybe. We tend to consider time wasted if, in retrospect, it could have been better spent. But a bar that high is unfair to our past and present selves. All time has opportunity cost. Time is only truly wasted if it doesn’t improve anyone’s life in any way.

There must be higher love, down in the heart or hidden in the stars above. Without it, life is wasted time.

—Steve Winwood, Higher Love

We value focus because we presume the shortest path to our goal is a straight line. But sometimes, nonlinearity actually accelerates progress. As any Computer Scientist knows, algorithms that backtrack are often faster than greedy alternatives that do not.

Suppose a falling rock encounters a broad, flat obstacle. The rock, being deeply stupid, cannot continue its downward journey. It’s stuck. To progress, the rock would have to temporarily change direction, so it could go around the impediment. Here’s the kicker: It doesn’t even matter what direction the rock chooses, so long as it’s somewhat orthogonal to the ultimate goal.

I have not failed 10,000 times. I’ve successfully found 10,000 ways that will not work.

—Thomas Edison

Side quests in a video game do not detract from the main quest. Often, they enrich it. If you read the abridged version of a book, have you really read the book? Maybe, but you didn’t have the full experience; and if you cut out enough inefficiencies, you are bound to miss something of value.

Not all those who wander are lost.

—J.R.R. Tolkien, The Riddle of Strider

As you progress through your career and your life, try not to beat yourself up for all the time you’ve seemingly wasted. We all move in the wrong direction sometimes. The important thing is to keep moving.