How to Accomplish Big Things, Even When You Feel Small
“Listen to the mustn'ts, child. Listen to the don'ts. Listen to the shouldn'ts, the impossibles, the won'ts. Listen to the never haves, then listen close to me… Anything can happen, child. Anything can be.” — Shel Silverstein Have you ever felt like your dreams are bigger than you are? Like wanting to travel to exotic…
Avoid Working Alone
Dear new developer, I suggest that the first job you take be the one with the highest learning potential, not the highest earning potential. (This post contrasts the two, in the context of entrepre…
Stop Reading News (2013)
Discover why constant news consumption makes us less informed and how to break free from information overload to think more clearly.
I miss Facebook
I'm 35. Before Facebook, I had to use different tools depending on whom I wanted to chat with. I'm not talking about the early era of the Internet, but rather the period after everybody started getting online. Chat was just getting popular, but it
Jerks on the Internet: what my first DDoS taught me
Ambitious software engineer
Programming Books You Wish You Read Earlier
There are so many programming books out there, sometimes it's hard to know what books are best. You won't find cracking the coding interview, the pragmatic programmer, or even the best python book. These are the best programming books curated from each major Software field.
What Makes a Good Conversation?
This blog post is about the NAACL 2019 paper What makes a good conversation? How controllable attributes affect human judgments by Abigail See, Stephen Rolle...
From Alex’s Family
Alex was with his family when he passed peacefully earlier today, Wednesday, February 27th. We would like to thank everyone across the globe for their love and support. It meant a lot to us and Ale…
A Love Letter to Personal Websites
This is a declaration of love for personal websites, written from years of thinking on the subject, reviewing thousands of portfolios, building websites for friends and bookmarking those of strangers. It’s a subject I’m so passionate about, I built my business on it. And recently, it’s become a matter of principle…
How Does Esperanto Sound?
When people hear Esperanto for the first time, they sometimes think they're hearing Italian, or maybe Spanish. A good amount of vocabulary in Esperanto is taken from romance roots, so this isn't totally surprising.
Why introductory chemistry is boring: a long-term historical perspective
Looking for flashcards for chemistry? Try 21st Night ! It allows you to create and share flashcards with anything on them: images, videos, equations, you name it . Plus, there’s a built-in to-do list!
Getting too absorbed in side projects
Does anyone else get too absorbed in side projects that you forget about life
The principle of charity: Criticize the best interpretation of an argument
The principle of charity is a philosophical principle that denotes that, when interpreting someone’s statement, you should assume that the best possible interpretation of that statement is the one that the speaker meant to convey. Accordingly, to implement the principle of charity, you should not attribute falsehoods…
The Programmers' Stone (2014)
Hi, and welcome to The Programmers' Stone. The purpose of this site is to recapture, explore and celebrate the Art of Computer Programming. By so doing we hope to help the reader either become a better programmer, understand what less experienced programmers are struggling with, or communicate more effectively with…
Oldest Viable Laptop (2017)
What’s the oldest laptop you could reasonably do your job with? 3 years old? 5 years? 10? And if asked the same question 10 years ago, would your number be higher or lower? Thanks to a failing batte…
The Hierarchy of Cringe
Cripples and lovely women are both tired of being looked at, they are weary of an existence that involves constantly being observed, they feel hemmed in; and...
I spent way too much effort to win a game show on Dutch national TV
In my time, I've done a number of side projects — some serious, some decidedly less so. My latest side project is quite definitely in the latter category: trying to win a game show on national television.
Hacking Water
From water insecurity to offgrid, solar pumped, gravity flow 1000 gallons of running water.
Calorie per Dollar List – Eat for 21 Dollars a Week
3 Years ago, my wife and I were starting Grad School, and we needed to save $30,000 a year. I remember in college I’d ask:
Hacking the Casio F-91W to Handle 1000 Psi
The Casio F-91W is one of the most iconic watches of the past few decades. It’s notoriously cheap, reliable, and retro; in fact, it’s probably the only watch that was worn by both Obama and Osama . At just under $10, it’s the perfect daily beater watch. And in the age where you need to charge your Apple Watch every…