I know this is a really mainstream opinion, but I recently watched a recording of the musical Hamilton and I really liked it.
I think Hamilton (the character, not the historical figure which I know very little about) has many key flaws (most notably selfishness, pride, and misogyny(?)) but also virtues/attitudes that are useful to emulate.
I especially found the Non-stop song(lyrics) highly relatable/aspirational, at least for a subset of EA research that looks more like “reading lots and synthesize many thoughts quickly” and less like “think very deeply about a narrow research topic and come up with a fleeting novel insight.” Especially the refrain:
Why do you write like you’re running out of time? Write day and night like you’re running out of time? Every day you fight, like you’re running out of time Keep on fighting, in the meantime-
And
Why do you always say what you believe? Why do you always say what you believe? Every proclamation guarantees Free ammunition for your enemies (Awww!)
Why do you write like it’s going out of style? (Hey) Write day and night like it’s going out of style? (Hey) Every day you fight like it’s going out of style Do what you do
And
How do you write like you’re running out of time? (Running out of time?) Write day and night like you’re running out of time? (Running out of time?) Every day you fight, like you’re running out of time Like you’re running out of time Are you running out of time? Awwww!
How do you write like tomorrow won’t arrive? How do you write like you need it to survive? How do you write every second you’re alive? Every second you’re alive? Every second you’re alive?
I love Hamilton! I wrote my IB Extended Essay on it!
I also really love and relate to Non-Stop but in the obsessive, perfectionist way. I like + appreciate your view on it, which seems quite different in that it is more focused on how Hamilton’s brain works rather than on how hard he works.
Thanks! I don’t see nearly as much perfectionism (like none of the lyrics I can think of talks about rewriting things over and over), but I do think there’s an important element of obsession to Hamilton/Non-Stop, which I relate pretty hard to. Since I generate a lot of my expected impact from writing, and it’s quite hard to predict which of my ideas are the most useful/promising in advance, I do sometimes feel a bunch of internal pressure to write/think faster, produce more, etc, like a bit of a race against the clock to produce as much as I can (while maintaining quality standards).
So in the context of this song, I especially admire people (including the character Hamilton, some journalists, some bloggers, and coworkers) who manage to produce a lot of output without (much) sacrificing quality.
I know this is a really mainstream opinion, but I recently watched a recording of the musical Hamilton and I really liked it.
I think Hamilton (the character, not the historical figure which I know very little about) has many key flaws (most notably selfishness, pride, and misogyny(?)) but also virtues/attitudes that are useful to emulate.
I especially found the Non-stop song(lyrics) highly relatable/aspirational, at least for a subset of EA research that looks more like “reading lots and synthesize many thoughts quickly” and less like “think very deeply about a narrow research topic and come up with a fleeting novel insight.” Especially the refrain:
And
And
I love Hamilton! I wrote my IB Extended Essay on it!
I also really love and relate to Non-Stop but in the obsessive, perfectionist way. I like + appreciate your view on it, which seems quite different in that it is more focused on how Hamilton’s brain works rather than on how hard he works.
Hello fellow Zhang!
Thanks! I don’t see nearly as much perfectionism (like none of the lyrics I can think of talks about rewriting things over and over), but I do think there’s an important element of obsession to Hamilton/Non-Stop, which I relate pretty hard to. Since I generate a lot of my expected impact from writing, and it’s quite hard to predict which of my ideas are the most useful/promising in advance, I do sometimes feel a bunch of internal pressure to write/think faster, produce more, etc, like a bit of a race against the clock to produce as much as I can (while maintaining quality standards).
So in the context of this song, I especially admire people (including the character Hamilton, some journalists, some bloggers, and coworkers) who manage to produce a lot of output without (much) sacrificing quality.