TobyBartels comments on Post ridiculous munchkin ideas! - LessWrong

55 Post author: D_Malik 15 May 2013 10:27PM

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Comment author: TobyBartels 30 May 2013 01:24:48AM 3 points [-]

When I was a grad student, I preferred to spend time in my office and go home only to shower once every two or three days (especially before TAing a class, when I would also put on shoes). This annoyed some people, and eventually they got through a policy that the building was closed for 8 hours at night, told only me, and enforced it only against me. My TA union went ballistic when the campus police got involved; in the grievance process, we eventually settled that I only had to maintain a residence outside of the office (or something like that, I don't exactly remember, but anyway it was something that I'd been doing anyway), so a victory for labour solidarity!

There was another person around at this time, a munchkin dedicated to gaining XP in studying interesting mathematics. Actually being a grad student had too many distractions, and he quit that before I got there, but he continued to hang around and collaborate on research with one of the professors. Every few years, he would take a sabbatical for a few months to get some money by coding, but mostly he slept in my office and ate a microwaved mixture of rice, cheese, frozen mixed vegetables, and spices. He did what I was only accused of doing, and I don't know why the authorities never went after him; I think that his existence just couldn't be classified in their consciousness. (It's been a few years, but I'm pretty sure that he's still there.)