We know so much about you, and yet, so little. What's your day job? Where do you find the time to do all this writing? Does your site make a significant amount of money? Why do you choose relative anonymity?
I was originally not going to answer this, but kiba posted his request https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5654008 and to my astonishment, it worked: through Paypal I have currently received $293.01 in 7 donations, through Bitcoin, 1.62btc ($189) in 4 donations.
I have replied to the Paypal donators (but not the Bitcoiners, since they're unreachable) thanking them but I would also like to thank them publicly here: I get very little feedback on my writing aside from little numbers ticking upwards in Google Analytics, and am often plagued by doubts - are my writings any good? Are they usually confined in a ghetto? Are people going away laughing at my ignorance and amateurism? Will they contribute meaningfully to anything at all or just represent an indulgent waste of time and intellectual masturbation? So to see a few comments raise almost overnight ~$500 moves me.
For the reasons I've said in the past. To which I can add personal safety: my Silk Road page is a bit questionable legally, and we all know that there are ways to exploit knowledge of one's True Name and address (even if, as far as I know, I have no enemies willing to resort to, say, 'swatting' me) - one group of stalkers called up a college they thought I worked at to see if they could get me fired or otherwise ruin my day.
I admire your prolific output, even if I don't agree with a lot of your conclusions (historical and political, that is, because your math/stat is too complicated for me to understand). I have to say, you have sparked a lot of discussion amongst me and my friends recently. The importance of argument from argument instead of from authority is made even more clear when the writer, by virtue of his (her?) anonymity, has no authority to fall back on, which makes his arguments even more critical. But it doesn't matter: some of the most accomplished people in history were amateurs. All that is required is a love of the subject, and you seem to love your subjects. Keep up the good work. BTC coming your way.
Thanks for the articles gwern, some bitcoin coming your way. But a suggestion, could you add your bitcoin address by the Paypal donate button on your site? I found it a little hard to find.
If you find value in it, does this really matter? Knowing these things about a person does little more than give you something to like/dislike, approve/disapprove, etc. about them.
Why should we care what this person does? How much money they make from the small parts of their life we see? Why they choose not to bare their souls to us, the morbidly curious?
If this question were actually answered, in my opinion, this site would become less interesting. Keep and enjoy a little bit of mystery and wonder, even if it is just a very little bit.
Such personal questions about people whose work I respect come from a feeling that I might like to do similar, and an insight into their lifestyle and personality may enable that, or else persuade me that the sacrifices are too high for my circumstance. Learning about the lives of people with similar interests always widens my perspective on ways to spend time and the opportunity costs therein.
A good example for me is top level gamers. I love playing games and watching them being played competitively (videogames, Magic the Gathering, Chess, etc.). I've dabbled in competitive gaming but never committed very far, and when I do talk to high level players I always want to know what their day jobs are. To my surprise (or disgust, or satisfaction - I'm not quite sure which), many are unemployed or involved in low-level jobs which allow them to maximise practice time. Some are professional and sponsored but unless they do really well then their incomes from this are atrocious. Then there are others such as "Ultradavid" (a fighting game commentator, but someone whose work I highly respect) who is a lawyer! Only a couple of days ago I asked Ryan Hart (probably the best UK all-rounder at fighting games) about his job and he said he does remote consultancy and editing which means he can travel worldwide to play and still work. One of my relatives is world-class in a competitive sport and also has a very high-powered career - I asked him how he manages that and he told me the prestige of the sport in question allows him to be given time off for competitions and training, though his life essentially is just work, family, and the sport. I found that one particularly interesting because I suspect even if he were far and away the best Counter Strike player in the world rather than in a well-respected sport then that wouldn't fly in his profession. Anyway, these are datapoints which increase my knowledge and help inform my own decisions.
In the case of gwern, it could influence my own choices greatly to hear if he lives off an inheritance, or is a Physics professor, or a professional football player, or especially if he has applied his analytical skills to learning specific technologies in high demand and low supply which maximise his hourly earnings to enable him to work very little and do what he wants the rest of the time. Or, indeed, if he is unemployed and poor, and if so...why?
This is what consistently appalls me ( and yet astounds me at the same time )
That companies and organizations are full of utterly untalented and wholly ill-suited & miserable folks who somehow lucked into lofty and well-paying jobs.
And yet there are gifted people like gwern who cannot seem to catch a break no matter how demonstrably prolific they are.
I think we should stop telling kids that life rewards the passionate and the skilled.
(By rewards I don't mean some inner solace coming from indulging in what you love, but the conventional rewards of recognition and remuneration.)
Life is rigged in favor of the opportunists.
The schemers, hustlers, the witty-talkers and the seize-rs.
But certainly not the plainspoken and the adept.
No matter how you dice it, your conscience tells you that this is more than a bit unfair and disenchanting.
I reply with a question, in what way is gwern so famous that "we" need to know about him, his day job, his schedule, his site revenue,...?
I heard about gwern (and his site) this week when I stumbled on http://www.gwern.net/otaku from a NGE website (3.33 just got out...) and didn't search the website further. Now I've seen the same website appear for its article on the death of Google Products.
So now I've gotten a glance, seen some articles I already read,... But what is this all about? Maybe it's because we are used to popular bloggers always writing under their full name, with their blogs always being related to their work-personas,... What makes you want (or think we deserve) to know so much more about him?
If you appreciate his work, please don't cause Gwern grief by trying to uncover his True Name.
Breaking Gwern's pseudonymity could get him in a lot of trouble. His writings cover many topics, but some of them show evidence of breaking the law. For example, he has probably used Silk Road to buy drugs online. Even the most lax employer or school would be forced to take some action if they found out about his activities. He could even face criminal prosecution.
The guy has created a ton of value and captured almost none of it. Considering how altruistic he's being, the ethical action is to respect Gwern's desire and not out him.
Doxing a pseudonym without consent (or attempting to) is kind of impolite and aggressive, especially if you want him to answer your questions about his life.
[+] [-] gwern|13 years ago|reply
I have replied to the Paypal donators (but not the Bitcoiners, since they're unreachable) thanking them but I would also like to thank them publicly here: I get very little feedback on my writing aside from little numbers ticking upwards in Google Analytics, and am often plagued by doubts - are my writings any good? Are they usually confined in a ghetto? Are people going away laughing at my ignorance and amateurism? Will they contribute meaningfully to anything at all or just represent an indulgent waste of time and intellectual masturbation? So to see a few comments raise almost overnight ~$500 moves me.
> What's your day job?
Various things; as I say on http://www.gwern.net/Links#personal I sometimes write for people.
> Does your site make a significant amount of money?
No. I sometimes get donations, but not very much; they are all recorded in http://www.gwern.net/About#popularity if you're curious about specifics.
I recently added Google AdSense and Amazon affiliate linking because money was tight. These don't make very much either. Specifically:
- Google AdSense: $241 lifetime total (over 269k pageviews) - Amazon Affiliate: $59 total or ~$0.8 a day: http://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/85192141/2013-05-04-total...
> Why do you choose relative anonymity?
For the reasons I've said in the past. To which I can add personal safety: my Silk Road page is a bit questionable legally, and we all know that there are ways to exploit knowledge of one's True Name and address (even if, as far as I know, I have no enemies willing to resort to, say, 'swatting' me) - one group of stalkers called up a college they thought I worked at to see if they could get me fired or otherwise ruin my day.
[+] [-] bmmayer1|13 years ago|reply
I admire your prolific output, even if I don't agree with a lot of your conclusions (historical and political, that is, because your math/stat is too complicated for me to understand). I have to say, you have sparked a lot of discussion amongst me and my friends recently. The importance of argument from argument instead of from authority is made even more clear when the writer, by virtue of his (her?) anonymity, has no authority to fall back on, which makes his arguments even more critical. But it doesn't matter: some of the most accomplished people in history were amateurs. All that is required is a love of the subject, and you seem to love your subjects. Keep up the good work. BTC coming your way.
[+] [-] new299|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jmillikin|13 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] obviouslygreen|13 years ago|reply
Why should we care what this person does? How much money they make from the small parts of their life we see? Why they choose not to bare their souls to us, the morbidly curious?
If this question were actually answered, in my opinion, this site would become less interesting. Keep and enjoy a little bit of mystery and wonder, even if it is just a very little bit.
[+] [-] JDGM|13 years ago|reply
A good example for me is top level gamers. I love playing games and watching them being played competitively (videogames, Magic the Gathering, Chess, etc.). I've dabbled in competitive gaming but never committed very far, and when I do talk to high level players I always want to know what their day jobs are. To my surprise (or disgust, or satisfaction - I'm not quite sure which), many are unemployed or involved in low-level jobs which allow them to maximise practice time. Some are professional and sponsored but unless they do really well then their incomes from this are atrocious. Then there are others such as "Ultradavid" (a fighting game commentator, but someone whose work I highly respect) who is a lawyer! Only a couple of days ago I asked Ryan Hart (probably the best UK all-rounder at fighting games) about his job and he said he does remote consultancy and editing which means he can travel worldwide to play and still work. One of my relatives is world-class in a competitive sport and also has a very high-powered career - I asked him how he manages that and he told me the prestige of the sport in question allows him to be given time off for competitions and training, though his life essentially is just work, family, and the sport. I found that one particularly interesting because I suspect even if he were far and away the best Counter Strike player in the world rather than in a well-respected sport then that wouldn't fly in his profession. Anyway, these are datapoints which increase my knowledge and help inform my own decisions.
In the case of gwern, it could influence my own choices greatly to hear if he lives off an inheritance, or is a Physics professor, or a professional football player, or especially if he has applied his analytical skills to learning specific technologies in high demand and low supply which maximise his hourly earnings to enable him to work very little and do what he wants the rest of the time. Or, indeed, if he is unemployed and poor, and if so...why?
[+] [-] kilowatt|13 years ago|reply
I wrote about _why for this reason, too: http://kevinw.github.io/2013/04/30/why-did-why-the-lucky-sti...
[+] [-] kiba|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] krazykringle|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jaibot|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] bmmayer1|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] spitx|13 years ago|reply
That companies and organizations are full of utterly untalented and wholly ill-suited & miserable folks who somehow lucked into lofty and well-paying jobs.
And yet there are gifted people like gwern who cannot seem to catch a break no matter how demonstrably prolific they are.
I think we should stop telling kids that life rewards the passionate and the skilled. (By rewards I don't mean some inner solace coming from indulging in what you love, but the conventional rewards of recognition and remuneration.)
Life is rigged in favor of the opportunists.
The schemers, hustlers, the witty-talkers and the seize-rs.
But certainly not the plainspoken and the adept.
No matter how you dice it, your conscience tells you that this is more than a bit unfair and disenchanting.
[+] [-] Skoofoo|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mapt|13 years ago|reply
One of the more resourceful and consistently interesting people I have had the pleasure of knowing.
[+] [-] joshguthrie|13 years ago|reply
I heard about gwern (and his site) this week when I stumbled on http://www.gwern.net/otaku from a NGE website (3.33 just got out...) and didn't search the website further. Now I've seen the same website appear for its article on the death of Google Products.
So now I've gotten a glance, seen some articles I already read,... But what is this all about? Maybe it's because we are used to popular bloggers always writing under their full name, with their blogs always being related to their work-personas,... What makes you want (or think we deserve) to know so much more about him?
[+] [-] dfc|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] skrebbel|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] klint|13 years ago|reply
[1] http://lesswrong.com/lw/9t8/the_singularity_institute_needs_...
[+] [-] codezero|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] unknown|13 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] bmmayer1|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] unknown|13 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] unknown|13 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] ggreer|13 years ago|reply
Breaking Gwern's pseudonymity could get him in a lot of trouble. His writings cover many topics, but some of them show evidence of breaking the law. For example, he has probably used Silk Road to buy drugs online. Even the most lax employer or school would be forced to take some action if they found out about his activities. He could even face criminal prosecution.
The guy has created a ton of value and captured almost none of it. Considering how altruistic he's being, the ethical action is to respect Gwern's desire and not out him.
[+] [-] mapt|13 years ago|reply
What would a name & address tell you exactly?
[+] [-] unknown|13 years ago|reply
[deleted]