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markcmyers

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markmyers.substack.com 2y ago

Practice project for learning a computer language

markcmyers
1pts0
markmyers.substack.com 2y ago

Crazy Elon? Okay, but heed his advice if you're learning a computer language

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markmyers.substack.com 2y ago

I earned a million dollars as a mediocre, 70-year-old programmer

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markmyers.substack.com 2y ago

How do you learn JavaScript when you don't know how to learn?

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fivethirtyeight.com 12y ago

MIT Scientist Responds to FiveThirtyEight on Climate Change Disaster Costs

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www.businessinsider.com 12y ago

There are two Americas, and one is better than the other.

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www.readability.com 12y ago

George Saunders' biggest regret: Not being kind

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www.readability.com 12y ago

You gain more by not being stupid than you do by being smart.

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www.slate.com 12y ago

Google ignores periods in email addresses

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3pts1
well.blogs.nytimes.com 12y ago

The Ticktock of the Death Clock

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www.bloomberg.com 13y ago

5 Hackers Charged in Largest Data-Breach Scheme in U.S.

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2pts0
www.slate.com 13y ago

NeverWet? More Like OftenKindaWet.

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www.businessinsider.com 13y ago

Live in The UK? You'll Have To Tell Your Spouse That You Watch Porn

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www.slate.com 13y ago

Super-cheap online master’s degree could change American higher education

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www.nytimes.com 13y ago

Our Coming Food Crisis

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3pts1
www.businessinsider.com 13y ago

BMW's New Electric Car Is Surprisingly Cheap

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www.slate.com 13y ago

This Is Exactly How Fast the Windows Monopoly Is Being Destroyed

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www.slate.com 13y ago

University Suspends Online Classes After More Than Half the Students Fail

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news.ycombinator.com 13y ago

Not just Detroit: Actuarial delusion creates phantom retirement funds

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www.slate.com 13y ago

The 2005 screenwriting book that’s taken over Hollywood

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www.readability.com 13y ago

Hitting China’s Wall

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www.businessinsider.com 13y ago

Fatigue impairs performance more than alcohol.

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1pts0
www.lifeedited.com 13y ago

Use your iPhone as a car key.

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1pts0
gizmodo.com 13y ago

They're now installing vending machines for pot in the U.S.

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3pts0

I spend more time reading new submissions than front-page submissions. There are far more new submissions, and I usually have the time to go through at least four or five pages of them, so the pool is larger. What's more, cumulative advantage boosts good submissions that, for whatever reason, enjoy a strong start and penalizes good submissions that don't get out of the starting blocks as fast.

Mensa members are a small subpopulation of Americans with high IQ, so it's a stretch to conclude that high IQ is the problem. To me it's more plausible that someone seeking to boost self-esteem and social status by joining a weird organization tends to be a more troubled person than intelligent people in general.

As a former advertising executive, I can tell you what the problem is here. The writer and his boss who approved the copy aren't addressing the customer, they're addressing the boss's boss. In a dysfunctional organization like Microsoft, communicating up rather than out is how you get promoted. It's a rare Microsoft employee who moves up the ladder by thinking about the customer.

The curve for divorce takes the same U shape, though it's steeper. It peaks around 60. This might suggest that unhappiness in marriage plays a role in overall unhappiness. In their early 20s most people aren't yet married to wrong partners. By their 60s most people who ever married have either divorced wrong partners or are living in bearable marriages.

On your quiz, the average answer is "3-5 hours," and this squares with recent research suggesting that in an 8-hour day, mind workers are doing actual work about 3 1/2 hours on average. The rest of the day is spent on snacking, gossiping, Facebook, etc.

I'm a highly motivated independent developer and writer, and I've been studying my own work habits to try to become more productive. I use toggl — https://www.toggl.com/ — to track my time throughout the day. I'd work 12 hours a day if I could, but I can't. I run out of gas after 2 hours, 3 hours — and sometimes 8 hours. My limit on tedious, fussy, boring tasks is about 2 hours, after which I'm not much good for anything. My limit when I'm writing a book is 3 to 4 hours. If I'm building something out of code or working in Photoshop, sometimes I get addicted, and then I can go 8 hours. Addiction seems to be the only thing that gets me close to being as productive as I'd like to be. Sadly, I can't choose to focus only on the types of tasks that I'm addicted to.

My sense is that most people — probably including your boss — have never measured how much cognitive work they themselves can do before their brain is fried. I'm talking about real work, not meetings. Meetings use almost no brain glucose at all, so are a way to pad "working" hours without increasing fatigue substantially. I'm convinced this is why meetings are so popular in corporate America.

As long as no one is measuring, it's easy for everyone to kid themselves that they're good for 8 hours and that everyone else should be, no matter how unrealistic that may be.

I feel her pain, but in my book it's inappropriate for her to be painting herself as a victim. A business in which she was a principal cheated 3,000 people out of $182,000. Now she's wailing about being inconvenienced. She should sit down and write a personal apology to each of the backers who've been more than inconvenienced.

I wouldn't bet on it, Wal-Mart. How many traditional companies managed to catch up with the new kids on the block? Think Barnes & Noble, Microsoft, Blockbuster, Kodak, and Nokia.