7951
The Essence of Peopling
Nouns for human beings - "people" or "person" - conjure in the mind a snapshot of the surface appearance of humans. Using nouns like "people" subtly encourages…
Topics /
Life, Learning & Writing
The most popular blog posts about life, learning & writing on Hacker News. 8,940 posts.
7952
Laundry at the end of the world
It's pretty much what you'd expect.
7953
Welcome to hell; please drive carefully
A while back we watched a video on the topic of British road crossings (which I strongly recommend, as well as Chris's shorter video specifically about Zebra crossings ) and since then Tess has been calling out the different crossings by their proper animal names. This explains why, with tickets to a Halloween event…
7954
7955
Ethnographic research on Dynamicland
The “Dynamic Medium Group” led by Bret Victor which is developing “Dynamicland” is much admired and closely watched in the interaction design community. Yet the information about their work is closely-guarded and usually only available in a highly moderated form. The work of ethnographer Götz Bachmann, who spent much…
7956
7957
The Man Who Almost Never Succeeded (2012)
## The Rather Sad Story of the Father of American Photography It’s been a long time since I did a photography history article. I generally prefer the early days of photography. People just were, I…
7958
How to Draw An Owl
One interpretation of the image and caption is that it reinforces how some folks perceive the progression from novice to expert: Stage 1: You suck. Stage 2: You're an expert. In fact, masterin…
7959
David Kahn has died
David Kahn has died. His groundbreaking book, The Codebreakers, was the first serious book I read about codebreaking, and one of the primary reasons I entered this field. He will be missed. EDITED TO ADD (2/4): Funeral website. EDITED TO ADD (2/10): New York Times obituary.
7960
7961
The era of exploration
This post explores the idea that the next breakthroughs in AI may hinge more on how we collect experience through exploration, and less on how many parameters and data points we have.
7962
How to Write a Programming Book
If you read Programming books, then your goal is to learn. If you write Programming books then your goal is to teach. When I wrote my book…
7963
7964
A Short Course in Thinking About Thinking (2007)
A SHORT COURSE IN THINKING ABOUT THINKING Edge Master Class '07 DANIEL KAHNEMAN Auberge du Soleil, Rutherford, CA, July 20-22, 2007 AN EDGE SPECIAL PROJECT
7965
7966
7967
We Need to Die
There's this genuine repulsion I feel when people talk about a future where death by old age is no longer a thing. Something very deep within me just says "no, absolutely not", and I've been trying to figure out why.
7968
This white powder will kill me one day
There are lots of bad things that you can insert into your system through various ways that all seem to be represented in physical form as white powder. Heroin, Cocaine, various other chemicals that people will consume in order to alter their state of consciousness. I hate drugs, with a passion. I’ve seen up close in…
7969
7970
Windows to Mac to Windows to Mac to... Linux? It doesn't matter.
Over the last 20 years, my primary computing environment has gone from Windows 3.1, to Mac OS 6/7/8/9, to Windows for about a decade, and then back to a Mac a couple of years ago. Recently, I switched to using a Linux desktop as my primary computer. I can’t say that there’s a dramatic r…
7971
Where to wait for an elevator (2010)
Where do you stand in order to minimize the expected distance to walk to catch the first elevator that arrives? Maybe not where you think.
7972
7973
Walking the World: Seoul
Consumption, brutality, and the cute
7974
7975
7976
7977
7978
Why My MOOC Is Not Built on Video
A MOOC professor takes a contrarian view and creates a MOOC without relying on videos, and makeing the claim that they are not necessary for a meaningful online learning experience.
7979
“Out of the Crisis” Podcast
Over the past few weeks, I have recorded a series of conversations with people leading the way out of this mess. They range from prominent ...
7980
Using Wikipedia in the classroom: a cautionary tale
(Third and final update: If you read this post, please also read this follow up post, which includes summaries of ways to try to reduce the likelihood of running into the same problem.) Last fall, …