ljordan

Because the bottom line in life is power, not laws or beliefs.

Never anywhere have I seen such a flood of hyperbole! Still interesting however.

In the study I heard about from a family member it correlates strongly up to a threshold, say $90,000 for a family of 3-4 living in the midwest (ex-Chicago, etc.), but thereafter increasing income doesn't increase happiness (and possibly erodes it).

How about, "in comparison to software development, 'programming' is easy"?

Word. Further, in the same direction: "I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work." (attributed to Edison) It's profoundly true of the world that nothing is wasted. Remember that no success or discovery is an accident. It is the result of time invested in the process.

To me applied minimalism in whatever endeavor just means finding the simplest possible thing that works. I think most of us can see the value in that.

I didn't realize it was being revamped. I had to skip some of the algorithm parts for lack of math (which I'm also studying). IME Part V was by far the hardest part of the book. I often found the language confusing and had to puzzle things out slowly that once I understood them, it seemed they could be more simply put. (Of course in order for that criticism to be useful I would have to develop it and provide details.) There seems to be a lot of value placed on abstraction, to the point that it's sometimes hard to follow. I don't know if it's just me or if it's just a result of the authors being so darn smart.

The wording is a bit too strong, but I take it to mean that the 21st century most closely resembles the 12th. Not exactly the same, but most similar among centuries.

I will upvote this thing all day (figuratively speaking of course). Going through this was a big level-up for me.

Yes the intention was that the Paperwork Reduction Act section requires an entire page while utilizing about 10% of it. I didn't realize the scribd link was present, let alone not funny. I pasted in the link from uscis.gov.

On the way out of the house this morning I heard that "the Federal Government will continue to operate until March".

The interesting thing about this to me is how it highlights that by setting up a process we introduce a set of possibilities that have different probabilities of happening. Given enough iterations some possibilities are virtually guaranteed. If we make planes and fly them, some will crash. If we build bridges and use them, some will fall down unexpectedly. Not to take anything away from these endeavors or imply that we should be Luddites. It just fascinates me to see how processes make consequences (most of which are nowhere near as easy to foresee as loaded weapons being carried, unwittingly or otherwise, on public airplanes).

Correct in my experience (I sometimes work with music, sometimes with silence). Deep insight needs silence: "You want to quiet the noise in your head to solidify that fragile germ of an idea" ->

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124535297048828601.html

I'm born in CA and live in MN, and well... this applies. CA is a more 'asking' culture, Minnesota definitely not.

How to Design Programs.

This is what I started with as well (a versions from several years ago).

Why yes, I work on Wall Street and the man's got a point. In fact, the situation he describes is part of what inspired me to change careers.

My day job. I have to build space into it and put interesting things into the space or it's nearly intolerable. But that is why I'm working on changing jobs. I'm 31.

I sought around for one for awhile to little avail; Dropbox works for me. I have relatively modest needs.

When my dad died I felt as though I was at sea without a compass. I came to see that fundamentally we only know what we know and that we are responsible for the ship (our lives) regardless of what we know about navigation (if anything). Usually experience shows us that we only think we know, but there is a pretty long list of things that generally work that we can learn about. The loss I feel is that the trusted navigator I used to ask when I couldn't tell where my ship was going isn't there anymore, and he can't be replaced. He used to say "do the best you can, that's as much as any of us can do". Navigating as best I can honors him and pulls me together at the low points. Letting the vessel go adrift doesn't help anyone. He's been gone a few years now. I don't know that my life will ever be "back together again". It just goes on changing, and for now, I go on with it.

As a musician by training who was forced to take "any job" out of school due to lack of gainful applications for music skills who is now trying to reinvent himself as a professional programmer (a loved hobby), I feel that. I'm thankful for life, the universe, and everything.