It’s a fine line between quackery and genius: Object Versus Process. I’m not sure if I agree with the author’s conclusions, but I did enjoy reading his paper.
Category Archives: Philosophy
The psychology of digital marketing
I stumbled upon this great video today: The psychology of digital marketing. Rory Sutherland, Ogilvy.
“The thing you’ve got to remember about research is, if people are annoyed about something or upset about something, they’re sincere about being upset, but their reasons for being upset are bullshit. Okay? They just reach off the shelf and go and find a plausible post-rationalisation for their emotional state.”
Lee Sedol vs AlphaGo Move 37 reactions and analysis
Today I came across Lee Sedol vs AlphaGo Move 37 reactions and analysis, wherein AI made a weird move in Go. I ran across the link in The Why of technology which was interesting. It also referenced The Concept of Language (Noam Chomsky) and “Humanity 2.0” by Matt Taylor.
Programming principles from id software
These are great: John Romero on Programming principles from id software
- Just do it (and do it well)
- Keep your code always runnable
- Keep it simple
- Invest time in building great tools
- Test your code thoroughly
- Fix bugs as soon as possible
- Use a superior development system
- Write code for this version of the product
- Use good component abstractions
- Seek feedback from peers while coding
- Give coders creative freedom
Cognitive restructuring
I’m reading Designing the Mind: The Principles of Psychitecture which says:
Cognitive restructuring is the fundamental tool of emotional psychitecture, and psychological research has found it to be highly effective for eliminating negative emotional responses. The first step is to keep a log in the form of a notepad or smartphone app. Try to take note of every undesirable emotion you notice – anything from minor annoyance to severe anxiety. The simple act of keeping a log should cause you to notice many more of these emotions than you normally would. Every time you log an emotion, take a note of the situation which triggered it, and if possible, the chain of thoughts which immediately preceded it.
Falsehood
Today I discovered a curated list of falsehoods programmers believe in.
The Myth in Plato’s Phaedrus
I really want to finish watching The Myth in Plato’s Phaedrus which I found via Britannica, DuckDuckGo, then Wikipedia… so much reading to do!
In defense of blub studies
This popped up on lobste.rs today: In defense of blub studies¸it’s an interesting read and links to some other interesting stuff, such as this.
Are people with dark personality traits more likely to succeed?
This popped up on Hacker News today: Are people with dark personality traits more likely to succeed? — interesting read. Light forces for life!
Meno’s Paradox
Today I learned about Meno’s Paradox which is a fallacy of equivocation. It was mentioned on page 26 of a Kindle book I’m reading: How to Take Smart Notes.