dominicq

Theory building Programming is theory building [1] . There's a mental process in which a programmer understands the problem, the context in which the problem happens, as well as the solution to it, codified by -- code. In this framework, the code is just a byproduct of the understanding. Whenever...

First of, Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad is a good book. I like it. It was a bit difficult to read because of Conrad's style, but I don't hold it against him, or the book. It's better for it. I will skip the summary, and just share some of...

I’ve been wearing footwear of the wrong size, material, and shape for as long as I can remember, certainly at least 20 years. Only recently have I fixed this, and I come with great tidings: if you, too, hate wearing shoes, and the industrial revolution and its consequences, it is...

There's a thought that I sometimes hear, and it goes something like this: "We live in the best X of all possible Xs". For example: * Whatever criticism one might have towards modern society, we're still living in the safest and richest time of human history. * However poor one...

If you have a developed system for finding the difference between truth and falsehood, and constantly think about rationality skills, and are always improving them, learning new techniques, and keep thinking about meta-level things: congratulations, your skills are useless. Well, they’re not entirely useless. There’s a theoretical world in which,...

Thought it would be cool to extract some interesting notes & share here. Please correct if you spot any mistakes. This is a good book because it gives you numbers. It's important to understand the quantities of things around you. I think that there's a sort of deep understanding that...

(crossposted from my blog) In Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, there's a notion of being "good at the basics", as opposed to "being good by knowing advanced techniques". How you want to be good is a question of personal preference, but the idea is that these are the two ways, and most...