Be careful with that thing, it's a confidential coffee maker
Just keep it under wraps.
Donald Knuth on work habits, problem solving, and happiness (2020)
Recently, I came across a few old and new interviews of Donald Knuth (sources: (i) Companion to the Papers of Donald Knuth , (ii) Interviews conducted by Lex Fridman Part 1 and Part 2 ), where he sheds light on his work habits, how he approaches problems, and his philosophy towards happiness. I really enjoyed reading…
Five origami books by Shuzo Fujimoto are now public domain
Shuzo Fujimoto’s five self-published books: Solid Origami, Invitation to Creative Playing with Origami, and Twist Origami 1-3 Yesterday, during an online event dedicated to Shuzo Fujimoto, I was happy to announce that his children, Hitoshi Fujimoto and Shumi Okada, being his heirs, have agreed to release his five…
75% of the time we spend with our kids in our lifetime will be spent by age 12
75% of the time we spend with our kids in our lifetime will be spent by age 12.
I'm an addict
I like watching videos. A lot in fact. Today, I've spent over 6 hours watching youtube videos, an hour of reading through comments[1] on hacker news, 3 hours...
Don't Waste the Good Days
If you’re feeling creative, do the errands tomorrow. If you’re fit and healthy, take a day to go surfing. When inspiration strikes, write it down. The calendar belongs to everyone else.…
Maybe you should do less 'work'
Working in tech, I've observed developers who work as hard as possible when they don't need to. I’m here today to tell you that it's a bad idea and you shouldn't do it.
Aging programmer
Back in college, they told me that I would start my career writing code, but eventually, I would move to a position where I would ask others to code my designs. To celebrate that this turned out to be completely false, here are some assorted reflections as a 40-year-old programmer that looks back: • Compared to my…
A mysterious voice is haunting American Airlines’ in-flight announcements
A mysterious voice is moaning and grunting on American Airlines' in-flight announcement systems, and nobody knows who or how they're doing it.
Unlearning perfectionism
A way out from the perfectionism trap
One year as a solo dev building open-source data tools without funding
I quit my job as an engineering manager at Oracle in early June 2021. I had a bit of savings and a few contract opportunities so I decided to see how far I could get building an app I've wanted for years as a manager. I have never built my own app before and I've never built a desktop app before.
Linux on the laptop works so damn well that it’s boring
Which is good! Boring = success
Good conversations have lots of doorknobs
Or "Spiderman Is My Boyfriend"
5-min breathing workout lowers blood pressure as much as exercise, drugs (2021)
Strength training for your breathing muscles? Daily High-Resistance Inspiratory Muscle Strength Training lowers blood pressure and improves vascular health as
What if regular exercise is the best cognitive exercise?
File this under highly speculative. I’m sure there is better research on this topic than this writing This past week, for no obvious reason,...
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Don’t think to write, write to think
This is one of the lessons that every writer comes to appreciate: writing is thinking. Writing is not the artifact of thinking, it’s the actual thinking process. There’s no shortage of great quotes on this topic, the implications are less clear: Writing is the planning process and the final product: You don’t design a…
Be wary of imitating high-status people who can afford to countersignal
Pay more attention to people who are just a little bit ahead of you
On Being Indispensable
It took far too long for it to click in my brain that I was stuck. There was no career path. Sure my title changed, pay went up, but my day-to-day never changed. I was so busy collaborating with dozens of people across all departments, that it felt like I was growing. I wasn’t.