241
The Biggest Mistake I Ever Made
There was a time in my life when I played quite a bit of basketball. I was leading engineering at a start-up in Scottsdale, AZ, my wife was…
Topics /
Life, Learning & Writing
The most popular blog posts about life, learning & writing on Hacker News. 285 posts.
242
What Math Do You Need for Physics?
Chad Orzel has a very sensible piece at Forbes, headlined What Math Do You Need For Physics? It Depends, which addresses the question of what math a physicist like him (experimental AMO physics) re…
243
244
A VR Cycling Experience for $40
I’ve made an Arduino thing that can wirelessly talk to a mobile device over BLE and can now meter the revolutions of a wheel with an optical tachometer. I’m using these two hardware fea…
245
246
I'm Writing a Book on Security
I’m writing a book on security in the highly connected Internet-of-Things world. Tentative title: Click Here to Kill Everybody Peril and Promise in a Hyper-Connected World There are two underlying metaphors in the book. The first is what I have called the World-Sized Web, which is that combination of mobile, cloud…
247
Why Haters Hate: Kierkegaard Explains the Psychology of Trolling in 1847
“Showing that they don’t care about me, or caring that I should know they don’t care about me, still denotes dependence.”
248
249
The Moon Illusion, an Unsolved Mystery
physics, history of science, pseudoscience, hoaxes, writing, education, skepticisism, humor, quotes, illusions, 3d stereo photography.
250
251
252
“Write Every Day” Is Bad Advice: Hacking the Psychology of Big Projects
A Flawed Axiom Write every day. If you’ve ever considered professional writing, you’ve heard this advice. Stephen King recommends it in his instructional memoir, On ... Read more
253
“Your program is stupid. It doesn't work,” my wife told me (2010)
<img src="http://stevehanov.ca/blog/wheel1.png"/>
254
255
My Journey From Blindness to Building a Fully Conversational User Interface
Apps are a nightmare for the visually impaired. So when I started losing my sight, I decided to fix that.
256
257
The Leica Q: A six month field test
An extensive review of the Leica Q camera — taken on a six month test in the field, in multiple shooting scenarios and multiple environments.
258
Become a 10x Programmer by Managing Your Time Better
Become aware of bad habits that make you less productive and learn how to break them with proper time management skills.
259
London vs San Francisco – back and forth
This site is mainly a storage cupboard for things I've tinkered with along the way, such as:
260
How becoming a pilot made me a better programmer
Two years ago I trained for my private pilot license over the course of nine months. Besides be...
261
Toward an exploratory medium for mathematics
The world's oldest complete piece of surviving music is the 3,400-year-old Hurrian cult hymn . The hymn was found inscribed on clay tablets excavated from the ancient city of Ugarit, in modern-day Syria. Sometime after the hymn was composed, the idea of using notation to record music was lost. Writing two millennia…
262
My Distributed Systems Seminar's Reading List for Spring 2017
Below is the first draft list of papers I plan to discuss in my distributed systems seminar in the Spring semester. If you have some suggest...
263
Liskov's Reading List for Computer Scientists
Barbara Liskov pointed us in her talk at Heidelberg Laureate Forum to some interesting “must-reads” for computer scientists. The talks will be available here: http://www.heidelberg-laureate-forum.org/ . I strongly recommend to watch many talks – including hers.
264
Farewell, App Academy. Hello, Airbnb – Part 2
(Note: this is the second part of this story. You can read the first part here.) Despite the rejection from 23AndMe, I kept pushing. I applied to all the big hiring websites. Hired rejected me from...
265
The best linear algebra books
If you would follow the road to linear algebra here are some trustworthy signposts.
266
The Birkana hexadecimal number symbols
AMONG number systems, the hexadecimal system of counting (or 'radix') has a special place in the hearts of programmers, being closely relate...
267
How I Deal with Harassment, Abuse, and Crazies in General
Whenever I write about a topic that upsets me, I calm myself by illustrating it with royalty-free, reassuring stock photos. "People are...
268
The Importance of Acoustics in Food Storage
Deep in the archives of San Francisco-based Aquarius Records, buried between several days’ worth of “laptop glitchery” and “brutal industro-crunch,” lies this gem: Insect Noise in Stored Foodstuffs , (INRA, 2000, CD, 19:98).
269
Becoming a Professor
Photo by Daderot [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons When I was first appointed as the director of the MIT Media...
270
