RoR: Forum

In spades! I'm a professional editor--I work with concepts, logic, grammatical structure, syntax all the time.

Many times, authors have commented to me that they are surprised I never studied their field, since I catch things that eluded them.

Post 1

Wednesday, May 31, 2006 - 5:19pm

Objectivism helps with all aspects of my life. In life, I constantly try to determine the facts of reality, I know that there are no contradictions, I know that I don't have to live for anyone else but myself, and on and on.

Post 2

Thursday, June 1, 2006 - 8:35am

As an educator, one highlight -- where Objectivism REALLY helped me -- was on Constitution Day at the school. I was able to make a pretty good case for the superiority of constitutional republics (over all alternatives).

Ed

Post 3

Thursday, June 1, 2006 - 10:27am

I agree with Jordan; Objectivism helps with all aspects of your life.

The philosophy itself has nothing to do with my job duties, but being an O'ist, I never get involved with petty disagreements, office politics, rumormongering, etc. What other, irrational people do and say at work is of no interest to me (unless their actions are directly interfering with my work)...they're easy to ignore, and I can concentrate on the actual job. There are a few, somewhat reasonable people at work that I do enjoy talking to, and when I give a rational view of a political or social situation, they generally listen to me...(granted, it's probably for no other reason than the fact that I SOUND reasonable, and not emotional or hysterical) but nevertheless, I've managed to get through to some of them, which is always a plus.

Post 4

Thursday, June 1, 2006 - 9:37pm

I could probably write an article or two about how Objectivism has impacted my career. For instance, it's taught me to be very systematic in my understanding of things. That's a huge benefit in my field of expertise (cache coherency and microprocessor design). The concepts I deal with are very complicated and there are so many variations that nobody can keep track of it all. But by thinking in terms of principles, and keeping the knowledge hierarchical, I do it with ease. Even very good designers often shy away from my specific area.

I've also explicitly used concept formation to develop key concepts that explain some of the more difficult ideas, allowing me to identify them with ease as well as communicate them.

Ethically, I pursue my career in terms of the trader principle, and seek to earn my wealth. I see my career as a process, instead of simply a state, and act accordingly. I deal with coworkers by understanding their own goals and seeking to offer value for value.

There's countless other ways I use ideas I learned from Objectivism.

Post 5

Friday, June 2, 2006 - 6:36am

"cache coherency and microprocessor design"

Nice. A decade ago that could have been at a dozen companies; now I'm guessing server procs at one of Intel, IBM or AMD. Can you share where you're at?

Post 6

Friday, June 2, 2006 - 10:31am

Yes, thinking in principles has been an always-useful lesson, though I don't have a lot to add to what others have already said.

A corollary question is: has working with other Objectivists helped you? In my case, no. The soi-disant Objectivists I've known in a few decades in the software business have been, in most cases, uncooperative, dogmatic and not especially talented, as if their vision of Rand's heroes were a substitute for efforts to be like them in the respects that count. I'd rather work with all the self-identified Mormons I've known on the job than with all the self-identified Objectivists.

The worst co-worker I ever had didn't claim to be an Objectivist, but he spouted Rand constantly, passing it off as his own invention. Just as well; nobody could stand him, and he would have given her a bad name.

Peter

Post 7

Friday, June 2, 2006 - 11:44am

Hi Aaron. Multiprocessing is getting much more common. It's the way of the future! So there are lots of companies doing it. The ones you listed are big, but there are quite a few startups, and some establish companies as well. Off the top of my head: Qualcom, Broadcom, Raza Foundaries, PA Semi, and Transmeta, and I wouldn't be surprised at finding a dozen others.

I work at a startup. Can't really talk about it. Very secretive. :)

Peter, I've met some Objectivists at work. At this company, one other guy is a self-identified Objectivist, and he's got a pretty good reputation in the industry as an analyst. Another guy says he "used to be", which I understood to mean he has some problems and doesn't quite identify himself anymore, but he's one of our most senior engineers and good to work with. At my previous job I knew another self-identified Objectivist, and he was very good by industry standards, and pretty easy to get along with.

Quality varies, I'm sure. I just wanted to note that my experience has been a lot better. These people don't quote Rand all the time, but they're very good at their jobs.

Post 8

Friday, June 2, 2006 - 7:26pm

Sounds like I shortchanged especially the communication/network chipmakers! My perspective had come from the serious shake-out in HPC over the last decade - R.I.P. the major multiproc-capable CPU offerings from DEC, HP, SGI (and minors from Intergraph, Convex, etc., and IMO Sun Sparc isn't that far behind...). However, I hadn't realized how much multiproc action there was now outside high-performance computing, such as embedded multi-core MIPS or PPC. Glad you are able to work in such interesting areas at a startup, and hopefully we'll be able to buy products integrating your work (if we haven't already? :) ).

Post 9

Friday, June 2, 2006 - 8:32pm

Yes.

I own my job.

Hell, I own the whole damn Company!

gw

Post 10

Friday, June 2, 2006 - 11:33pm

Hi Aaron,

Yeah, the networking space is fairly decent in size, and they're really starting to like MP. You're right that a lot of these bigger companies died or are dying. Fortunately, the smaller companies are growing into that kind of market. Another big market is the XBox, Nintendo, and Playstation. There's a push there for MP as well.

And no products yet, but hopefully you'll all be buying them! Design cycles for one of these kinds of chips is 2.5 to 3.5 years. Some manage to do it quicker, and many manage to do it a lot slower. Hopefully we'll be on the quicker side!

Processor companies are continuously starting up and going under. Keeps things exciting. I don't see an end to it anytime soon.

Post 11

Saturday, June 3, 2006 - 10:21am

> I could probably write an article or two about how Objectivism has impacted my career. [Joe]

I think that would be a great article(s), especially if it were detailed about your work showing how the principles work in very concrete nitty-gritty cases.

Post 12

Sunday, June 4, 2006 - 2:30pm

I can understand 'it's had no effect', especially depending on what field you're in and whether you were working before or after encountering the philosophy. The 'it's made me worse' answer is surprising though. Can anyone who answered that provide more details? I'm not going to try to argue with you on it, I'm really curious as to where you saw Objectivism hurting your job. Thanks.

Post 13

Sunday, June 4, 2006 - 3:25pm

I can imagine an interest in Objectivism hurting an intellectual, artistic or political career, though more easily in the past than today. Others, in any field, might think reading Rand made them into strident mouth-offs who lost their colleagues' respect, but the trait was probably there in the first place. And then there's the clergy.

Peter

Post 14

Sunday, June 4, 2006 - 7:24pm

I chose that it had no effect because I'm not really "working", (unless you count studying as "working").

In the lab, the only "version" of Oism that would help me-- or, at least, not hinder me-- would be a flexible and adaptable version in regards to new scientific knowledge, as I will be dealing with consciousness, cognition, concept formation, art, language, perception, memory, all with a neuroscience influence. Ultimately, my main grounding comes from reality and neuroscience.

But I think it depends on the person's job.
(Edited by Jenna W
on 6/04, 7:25pm)

Post 15

Monday, June 5, 2006 - 4:20pm