2431
Never say “no,” but rarely say “yes.”
"Focus" requires saying "no" to most things, but there's a way to do it that allows you to say "yes" exactly when it matters most.
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Life, Learning & Writing
The most popular blog posts about life, learning & writing on Hacker News. 8,929 posts.
2432
A Square Meal – Foods of the ‘20s and ‘30s
[Content warning: Food, culture shock, milk] They say that the past is a foreign country, and nowhere is this more true than with food. The book is A Square Meal: A Culinary History of the Gr…
2433
How I automated the boring parts of life
I have a bad habit: waiting until the last minute to do things. Like, last month I had to fly to New York to run a 193 mile relay race. I knew about the trip for almost 6 months, but didn’t buy plane tickets until 3 days before, at 4x the cost. True ...
2434
Text Is All You Need
Personhood appears to be simpler than we thought
2435
We need technology that is less immersive, not more
How come so many of the most talented engineers of our time work on making our entertainment more immersive?
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How I retired in 9 years on a corporate programmer salary
I have been asked many times to provide some more gritty details on how I became Mr. Money Mustache at such an early age. Commenters and email writers have asked me to provide Salaries and Savings …
2439
Thoughts on Daylight Computer
on the Amtrak from Denver to Sacramento When I get to write or read on a screen that’s reflecting the sun back at me instead of needing to be shielded from it, I get a dose of this feeling that this is what all computing could feel like. I want so much more of this in my life. This is a piece of hardware that makes me…
2440
Hacker's Guide to Tea
All tea comes from Camellia sinensis. In this no-bs guide to tea, we explore what is tea and what isn’t as well as how to best prepare tea.
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Mise-en-place for knowledge workers
Knowledge work is unique among skilled professions in that we lack a culture of systematic improvement. Other skilled trades – from carpenters to welders
2443
Look at yourself objectively
In the 1840s, hospitals were dangerous places. Mothers who went in to give birth often didn’t make it out. For example, at Vienna General Hospital’s First Obstetrical Clinic, as many as 10% of mothers died of puerperal fever after giving birth. But there was some good news: at the Second Clinic, the number was just…
2444
Believe you can change
Carol Dweck was obsessed with failure. You know how some people just seem to succeed at everything they do, while others seem helpless, doomed to a life of constant failure? Dweck noticed that too — and she was determined to figure out why. So she began watching kids, trying to see if she could spot the difference…
2445
The Lego Great Ball Contraption
The Great Ball Contraption is a class of machines built with Lego that transport small balls from place to place in many different ways. The otherwise pointless
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Build It Yourself
We need a vibe shift on dependencies in programming.
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I am mesmerized by our new robotic vacuum (2019)
Disclaimer: this is more a rant than anything else. Maybe more #crazydudewontstoptalkingavoidthewate...
2450
Ted Chiang: The Secret Third Thing
I really like Ted Chiang’s writing.
2451
Why don't they just..?
It seems every time I come across a story about the Mars Curiosity rover there will be many people commenting on the technology used start...
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The one-year anniversary of my total glossectomy
One year ago today, I went into surgery expecting that I’d lose half my tongue to a squamous cell carcinoma recurrence. The evening before, Bess and I got legally married;[1] it was a short, but ch…
2454
How to draw ideas
Great ideas are hard to find. Drawing makes it a lot easier. And fun. How? In a creative process drawing can play four different roles. Let’s say, we want to come up with ideas for…
2455
A set of top Computer Science blogs
This started out as a list of top Computer Science blogs, but it more closely resembles a set: the order is irrelevant and there are no duplicate elements; membership of this set of blogs satisfies…
2456
Learning Haskell is no harder than learning any other programming language
It has still often been difficult to find answers to my questions. I think this is largely due to the fact that when discussing things with the average Haskell programmer, I feel like I have a fourth-grade education.
2457
I'm a laptop weirdo and that's why I like my new Framework 13
It turns out I've always done weird things to my laptops.
2458
Canceling "Hey"
cancelling-my-hey - Chad Nauseam Home
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Peter Naur's view of programming
To answer this question, let me take you a few years back, when I worked with a small high tech startup. We were working on a pretty complex augmented reality system spanning all layers from low-level computer vision components to cross-platform mobile and web apps. Especially for the lower-level components, a good…
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No-one knows what they are doing
When I was a child I assumed that all the adults running the world knew what they were doing. Now that I am an adult, I am under no such illusions. Just look at the current British government. They…