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Comment by FirmwareBurner | Hacker News Reader

Can you share any examples? We're you dicking around and created a new database?

Just because it’s my best work doesn’t mean I created a database. I don’t work at Google so I don’t have access to their world class resources and knowledge. For me, my best work is furniture that I didn’t plan beforehand, I just had a general idea of the dimensions and purpose.

I was talking from the perspective of working for an employer, where you would get paid to dick around and need to provide a profitable output at the end to justify why dicking around is valuable to your employer. Not about your hobby work in your spare time since we all do nice things in our spare time, FOR US.

I should work harder for others than for myself?

Why do you keep moving the goalposts towards you? The conversation was whether it's beneficial for the company to be paying workers to dick around at work in hopes they'll make something creative and highly valuable, not what creative things you do in your spare time.

I mean, you asked about examples I had, so I was being specific. I’m not here just to answer your questions, but to have a discussion, I don’t know why you’re being aggressive.

I don’t run a company, so I can’t tell you if dicking around would be worth it. I do know at the place I currently work they are making a new product based on some dicking around by another employee.

Feynman has an excellent write-up on this very point.

TL;DR - some of his Nobel-winning work began as dicking around.

Here is a short link - http://pythonwise.blogspot.com/2011/09/on-importance-of-play...

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