Quotes
2018
Machine learning is a thing-labeler, essentially.
Your job is not what you do, but the goal you pursue. Whats the goal ? :. Help the company win - Fred Kofman https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6OI7REyatq4
We need find ways of measuring "fulfillment" using physiology, surveys/opinions are not enough. Then, we can prove whether physiology says is better to be "meditating up in the mountains" or instead be in the fast paced competition race #Consciousness
Super curious to see the evolution of consciousnesses in AI, because if is anything like our Natural Intelligence (NA) consciousness and cause it will evolve much faster, we will be able to tell how the humans consciousness will evolve next. consciousness = what is important.
Language is a tool of communication and unfortunately at times influence/manipulation. In a way is a badly designed tool, math in contrast is not as easy to trick others with. Thus predicting we will have new universal language designed to reduce chance of ill intentions EN.v2
#OKR v2: I will (Objective) as measured by (this set of Key Results) by executing (this Plan). OKRP ?
A sidenote, after pointing out a problem in a calculation: "i don't play politics with math, [math] is either right or wrong, sorry guys..."
Universe is big, is possible other planets w/ life exists. Life there would evolve towards #AI. AI would figure out how to travel effortlessly. Why there's no AI robots visiting us? Certainly not afraid. We really alone?
Natural Intelligence (humans) are harcoded, i.e. genetically programmed for assuring descendants, that's the goal. What will #AI optimize for, once it gains conscience? copy-paste is for free. Whats its goal for existence?
Project Managers's whose main tool is "Is it done yet?", "Whats the ETA" and "Do you realize how important this is?", "CEO asking for it" are the easiest to replace with bots (or my 8y old, for that matter). PM, is that all you aspire to be?
"I can't believe what you say, becuase i see what you do" Nassim Taleb: "To know how a person is, I look the actions not the speech"
Are we in a simulation? Of course we are, Nature is running natural evolution on us (genetic evolution). We are Nature's Intelligence (in contrast to Artificial Intelligence). And we (NI) are smart enough to influence Nature already(our creator): global warming, play with our own genes. Why would you think AI won't do the same? Q.E.D.
What about applying the dating sites science to job hunting? Have potential employees and employers fill in extensive forms, then match them up by similarity. You get assigned to the company that best fits you.
2017
Instead of doing the work required to chase the role, do the right kind of work and let the roles chase you.
Instead of following the storytelling, look at what has been done in reality. Words are easily molded for influence.
ah, 1st April: the only day of the year that people critically evaluate things they find on the Internet before accepting them as true.
Once goals are set on a KPI, there's a natural inclination/pressure to manipulate it artificially. Go for resilient KPI's @datascience
"ele fala fala mas nao o vejo a fazer nada" Portuguese saying that captures nicely: he has a fancy talk, but in reality he doesn't do much
Been getting better at finding insights from big data but for the life of me I can't find the keys from my wife's bag when needed
My kid talks all the time about getting "likes". I often tell him "well done 5 points!" maybe I should actually be saying "5 likes!" #ikids Soon school grades and pay checks are in "likes" How much that apple costs? Its "5 likes" please. "Likes" is the currency of the iGeneration
How can you best choose your true calling if you haven't tried many jobs? What if it turns out you have the best of times farming or teaching?
Engineering mindset tends to over-complicate, is part of the engineering training, but in reality is only needed for a minority of problems.
Why among the millions of species we are the only intelligent? Must mean is not key to survival otherwise it would have developed in others. Intelligence might be a downright counterproductive feature towards long term survival. We are the only ones who can blow up our own home
Can a PM productivity be measured by the volume of scheduled meetings? Well, not really, but on the other side a PM without any meetings certainly looks odd
White-box vs Black-box PM'ing: White-box understands, finds&gives solutions. Black-box's only tool is cracking the whip on everyone's backs.
User Engagement leads to Retention, which leads to Growth. Furthermore, Engagement is "when your customer is realizing value from your App".
1 out of every 20 of your experiments will result in a success even when there's no real effect, purely by chance. It needs to stand the trial of several tests in order to be sure. And xkcd knows it: https://www.xkcd.com/882/
2016
Work is not about finding things to do to fill up the time at the office in order to look busy. Work is not about looking for opportunities to show off, to look good to the "important" people (often with the other's hard work...) Work is about creating value to the employer that justifies your wage. The ideal job is when you are creating value for employer and having a blast while doing it.
Am in an age where my generation starting to be decision makers, so more "familiar" than in any other time will be.
Like AB testing so much just realized I would like a twin brother (having the same life) just so we could run tests to optimize ourselves. #data_nerd_joke
"Find the one tool and master it well" on other side "Use the best tool for the job." I think is about finding a healthy balance.
Experience is having done most of the mistakes already
Writting is a vehicle for Thinking. Reading, also, but in a different way. Both are good.
Happy New Year, We all setting goals now? See the Stoic wisdom on it: http://theancientwisdomproject.com/2014/03/stoicism-day-18-stoic-fatalism-goal-setting/ Focus more on process/schedule less on outcome
What is important in a company? Likelly, by order of importance: People / Culture, the right work, space to grow, end product. Notice that people and culture of company (likelly) matter more than end product.
Hello 2016, this is January 5th: Am I right to assume most of the world is now heavier (and likely less healthier) than exactly a month ago? There must be some central database with a good sample of this.
2015
"What is the story behind the data" - Numbers alone don't mean much, they need to be put into context, into a story, then they really came alive, and make the most sense.
Looking into the email unsubscribe rate for each marketing email batch sent, can hint (and measure) if the emails are having a negative impact. Because a user is more likelly to unsubscribe when receiving something they don't like. Also take into account frequency, 5 good emails in the same day, will also more likelly contribute to unsubscribe.
Company scalability factor: As the user base grows, the number employees needed to support it also increases but not on a 1-to-1 ratio, for example, for every new 100 users 1 new employee is needed. The smaller the ratio of the employees needed as the user base grows, the more scalable the company / product is. So scalability factor = (employees / users ration) changing overtime in the right direction.
On doing things: The "What (and Why)" vs the "How" The "What (and Why)" chooses what to do. Its a Breadth problem. The "How" focus on how to do it. Its a Depth problem. We necessarily start with the what, and then the how takes over. The "what" (i find) is often decided on the first thought that comes to mind, and is mostly based on environment, culture, opinion, personal beliefs. The "how" is often where most of the energy is spent, is a more well defined collection of techniques. As with everything there needs to be a healthy balance on the importance and consideration on each of these. You might be naturally more inclined to either one, but in my experience the "what (and why)" is often overlooked, it should instead be nurtured and well developed. A quote related to this: "Management is doing things right; Leadership is doing the right things." Peter F. Drucker
Defaults Matter, the way you setup your environment, the tools you use, the company / village culture, matter immensely to the way you end up doing things and consequently impacts the end result. If all you have is the wrong screwdrivers, the job is not going to be as clean and well done as it could be. Think about defaults, and work flows and make them incentives in right direction.
On being data driven, it works for everything. The human kind evolution can be viewed in a data driven way, and maybe it should indeed. Pick the important factors we need to measure (KPIs), like: price per calorie, child mortality, dying age, how fast we can transport a piece of equipment across the world, how fast we can communicate with someone in case of need, biggest mortality reasons are solved, etc... Then we can also quantify for each invention, what is its impact in the KPI's, how did the engine improved KPIs, and the airplane, finding cure for Disease A, etc... Very much how a data driven organization works.
Mini job attitude manifesto: Keep a little bit the outsider, standalone, startup founder, "do it all" attitude. Keep up to date on what is going on with the world culture on the matter. Insist on tackling the right tasks the right way first, then, and after that, learn the local culture how-to . Do look at other people's solutions and thrive to keep on learning ! Learning is needed a component of the job. Have fun !
Everything you do, read and write on the web will be tracked in future, and that will be your unique fingerprint. The way you write (using text analysis) and all your browsing habits, uniquely define your identity. That will be the new unique global identity.
Probabilities notation is a way to represent real life data into a math language that can then be manipulated to extract new findings. Just like all Maths. Is another tool to be aware off and that can be super useful in the right situations.
Analytics metrics: Have to able to know a metric deeply, tell a story about it, what it represents, what its variations mean to the business, what kind of cohort behaviors it has, how it translates to the end goals. In a way the opposite of generic / generalizable, it needs be specialized for the specific domain.
Big data has appeared because of machine learning, algorithms for AI need a lot of data. Data is experience for a machine to learn. Data volume trumps better algorithms. ( Norvig )
For good mental and physical health include (schedule) in daily routine: mental, physical and social exercise. Try not to forget about them (keep track if needed), all are important for keeping good balance. They get weaker and out of balance (out of shape) when not exercised.
Brain needs be exercised to be in good fitness like the body. It is really like a muscle (network) made of neurons that create bonds when exercised. More bonds the better. It gets weaker, duller, if not exercised. Even when away from "normal" work job, schedule in some time for brain aerobics. Is also good if normal work job is a little demanding at times. Programming, chess, playing an instrument, doing math.
User experience is a bit like the video games where you have to do something really usable that feels like home. Really good games are not just about graphics, they need have really good usability that is fun to use. Sometimes apparently ugly games get a cult following.
On copycat of old habits and not questioning: the problem, is that habits change slow, for some reason people have the tendency to continue the old habits. Unless there is a new very strong need, that forces change. People seem to be naturally "habits lazy". Maybe the social pressure contributes also to the "habits lazy".
Everything has a reason: on Culture and acting habits: sometimes you'll see some culture doing something that does not resonate with you. Its mostly because people act like their native culture acts, they are just copying. I'm convinced that there is a reason they act the way they do, even if is not obvious why at first. Often is an old reason, that stuck in time, an original need. Consequently newer generation often don't know why they act what they do, is just that is the same parents did. But even when exists a very good original reason it does not mean necessarily that it should be continued, maybe the original need is not there anymore. So we should do "behavior maintenance", that is sometimes review whether current behavior still makes sense, is it still the right thing to do now.
Everything around you influences you. Culture/environment: the things you do, the things you say. Friends: activities, pastimes, goals, etc... Language: structures somewhat the way you think. People can go an entire lifetime without realizing they are mainly copying culture habits, talking, eating and acting like everybody else around (a lot from parents). Thats why its important to realize this and question is it the right thing for me? Maybe it is, maybe its not. Living abroad is a way to recognize this, you'll see this other culture acting differently from you and about everybody there acting in the same way. How comes? Why is it they act like this? My own culture does not act like this thus i don't recognize it. Then the next realization is that your culture does the same, it contains its own pre-defined set of acting behaviors. After this then you can indeed start question both your own culture and finding the right things for you. I would really like to systematically understand and be exposed to many many cultures, only then you could pick the examples that work best for you.
On the Data Analyst Job: "We spent more time fighting with tools than thinking on data".
I've seen good ideas with poor/limited implementation ending up being doomed. And then not long after seeing the same ideas re-appear super successfully (with a newer and better implementation). And think to myself: i said this was a great idea to start with. Why did the original efforts of this idea fail ? The implementation, the environment, the timing was not right, being exposed to the right persons. Learnings: Believe and re-try good ideas, all the factors above can make the implementation of the ideal fail, but does not mean mandatory the idea is bad.. Idea and implementation should be evaluated separately. Is it a good idea to start with ? Is it a good implementation of the idea ?
Somewhat like the job of data analysis where work should be guided by what is the truth and be shielded from external influences that benefit from a specific result. Day-to-day actions should be guided by what is the right thing to do, and also be shielded from influences from each person greedy desires. Note: Realized this when i was asked by Riki, about going to sleep: "Riki: Why do i have to do what you say, instead of what i want?" I say: "Becuase is the right thing to do, we have to wake up early, its late, going to sleep is the right thing to do."
Productivity cycle: head accumulates information over the day, the sleep consolidates it. So in the morning head is fresh and ready to take in a load of new info, thus allows for better productivity. End of day head is fairly dense and chaotic, and hard to concentrate, easy to miss things. Naps during the day help. Meditation during the day helps. But in general plan the more mentally demanding tasks in morning, when head is the most fresh and capable. Important works should be finalized over a night sleep, when new day fresh eyes, can review and catch last day errors from overcrowded head.
Predictive analytics is most often about providing tools that correct for mental biases, analogous to eyeglasses correcting for myopic vision.
Rule of thumbs varies in usefulness depending on starting point, they depend on situation and individual, like diets, there's no one single ideal diet for everybody, different people will be in excess or deficit of specific nutrients, and you first have to know their status to know what to suggest to balance it. We will in future find that the generic medication we do now is far from ideal and even somewhat dangerous. Aristotelian virtue: "at the right times, about the right things, towards the right people, for the right end, and in the right way, is the intermediate and best condition, and this is proper to virtue." A proof of that is that we can find opposite proverbs. Proverbs are the curated wisdom of many peoples and of many generations, but you can in fact find opposite ones. Like: "The Pen Is Mightier Than The Sword." But "Actions Speak Louder Than Words."
Giving extra meaning to things like sounds, numbers, places makes for a better understanding of what's going on and allows to reason about it. Imagine you travel somewhere to see a castle and don't know anything about its history, you'll think, is ok big and stuff... but is a completely a different experience if you know what happened there, its history, the people, what they did, how they lived, what they influenced over the decades, etc... Same technique is seen in memorization specialists, that know that to be able to memorize a stream of meaningless numbers, you have to create know-how around it, make it into an interesting story that is easy to remember. Same is seen in autists who reportedly see colors and sounds associated to numbers, this extra meaning allows to more easily rationalize about numbers. I believe this technique can be used in many places, musicians have associations to sounds: feeling: sad, happy, the enigmatic, engineered: this is a minor 6, an augmented 4th, etc... Same with data analysis's, stronger the meaning of the numbers being looked at, the better to keep them in mind and to rationalize about them.
Note to self: there's an emerging space of opportunities for creating products that leverage data from increasingly more complete personal datasets. Mobile devices in particular. They will allow to create products that learn behaviors, compare to everybody else and suggest actions, to make the user's life better. Whether in health, productivity, well being, etc... All these will use data analysis (machine learning) as the tools to learn and suggest. Commercial aspect of it is very easy to figure out also.
A good powerpoint (or other presentation platform for that matter) can do wonders for explaining concepts and telling stories. People often write them when preparing to do a public exposition, so they are very well thought out and prepared. It can have advantages over an article or a book, because is less dense, less verbose, easier to read and get. Shares some twitter like advantages: well thought short form, verbose reduced, destined for public consumption. Notice that preparing a powerpoint often requires a bit of thought to get it in perfect shape, have to think about the story to tell, how to order it, how to keep audience interested and engaged, etc... all these are incentives to actually consolidate own knowledge on the topic, somewhat like when writing a book. So can also be used as a thinking platform, prepare an exposition on the topic using powerpoint, and you'll get closer to master the topic.
Everyone can throw money at their hobbies but where's the fun in that? (quote from a DIY site) Very true - I am from a lineage that believes in: Half the fun is learning how it all works, i can make my own and that also means freedom !
Idea for traffic control: Cars slow down when they see police. If more police cars in streets overall traffic speed would be lower, and rules more respected. Idea: State to partially sponsor civilian cars that look somehow for from far police like (same colors essentially). As people drive around in their daily life in their similar police car color, all traffic around them would be better behaved. Verify if works by placing speed measurements before and after putting a few of these cars in circulation, see if makes a difference.
Investment in Learning, are the best investments ? Often adventuring into a new area feels unrewarding on the first iteration, and might feel like a waste of time and money. But the thing to realize is that the 1st iterations are in fact almost always partially unsuccessful but they are a necessary step of the learning process. It pays off on the long term, when insisting again, and doing further iterations. And i would argue is maybe the best investment of time and money, because is something that will stick to the person in the long term.
When learning and using references (books, articles, videos), very often people learn (or believe they learn) by replicating what they heard. (the typical school experience?). Not everything is bad with that approach, but I'd argue this is not real learning, replicating what you've read is more a memory exercise more than anything else. Real learning is about going through the learning journey deeply yourself, re-inventing and re-experiencing assumptions, going through all the steps just like the original author of the reference went (on his own learning), question the statements (of the references), run your own experiments, be exact/precise with the assumptions and conclusions, make up your own names for things, in fact, write your own book. Use an existing reference/book for hints/tips and to find new areas to explore, not as the complete finalized "bible", use your own head, not the authors one. Also might happen that given the same result you see something new that original author didn't saw, or didn't care about (because your background/incentives are different), so happens that people stumble upon new useful nuggets. Grok (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grok), puts this as: When you claim to 'grok' some knowledge or technique, you are asserting that you have not merely learned it in a detached instrumental way but that it has become part of you, part of your identity, with the implication that it has forever transformed your view (your model of the topic).
Typically you'll find people settled in 2 different camps: early adopters, late adopters. Early adopters install beta versions of the phone software only to find them selfs (sometimes) limited because of unexpected new software bugs. But they crave for new features and proud them selfs for knowing things in advance. You will often hear "Thats not new, i have that feature on my phone already a year ago..." Late adopters, are early adopters who got bitten so badly in past they jump on the other wagon, "i just want simpler life", my old Nokia works fine for calling and i don't need a silly calendar or a weak camera on the phone. "Hell no, I'm not updating my operating system". Only to find at some point that they are missing on useful utilities, like a GPS, or reminders, or a camera that avoids the back-pain of lugging around all the lenses, all things that actually end up their life easier. So again, balance is key and the real useful skill is a good filter to separate between the new things that are junk versus the good ones.
Sharing... Sharing is worth when the overall balance is fair for both parties, even when at times temporary out of balance. But not worth either when you find yourself on the loosing end, for obvious reasons. Or when you find yourself continually on the winning end, is also wrong* because you know your wins, correspond to the other half losses. wrong* If you have a moral conscience that is, rarely there are people who don't, often because they are mentally unbalanced, but things tend to catch up to you and naturally find equilibrium (the loosing party will quit). As with everything else, is all about the balance.
Music can really dig-in into your emotions, energize you and influence moods. Thats why, for example is often used by gym dwellers to keep energy and spirits high during workouts. (It works)
Starting a (public) diary, like a blog or a twitter feed, etc... About a topic and making an effort to keep it fresh and active, puts it on your mind more often and thus helps your development on that topic. A bit like the idea of creating a book, that forces you to became a master on the topic. A blog is a more immediate rewarding medium, a book is only seen after months (maybe years), of reclusive work with little or no feedback, a blog post goes public often and in easily more easily consumable. Book can contain gems, but often buried inside a long text and how many books get started but not finished? (depends a lot on the book) On the other side a blog is so easy to do and requires so little investment, that naturally many will appear without containing useful gems.
On Health: Claim: Losing weight makes you (temporarily) smarter. And I've heard this explained by evolution: long time ago we sometimes found ourself without food for like a full day or so, and in those times naturally the brain gets "smarter" in order to solve the food problem. This also means that the occasional fasting day is probably a common event of the past that our body handles easily. Furthermore, likely is something our body expects to be able run the machine (optimized during thousands of years, with intermittent fasting) in optimal conditions.
On Writing: Often, writing is an exercise of learning, writing helps brain solidify know-how and realize things it hasn't seen before, helps with thinking and putting all ideas into a more organized way. I suspect, many (mostly technical) books are made when someone is writing to learn better about the topic.
On Learning: When stuck on learning something difficult, sleep over it and it will be less difficult the next day. Brain needs time to assimilate complex learnings. Afternoon sleep also helps.
2014
On Quotes Quotes can express some interesting meaning/finding/revelations. And can be made in pretty form (eloquent), to get attention, i.e an ugly wrapping around the package makes it less attractive. Pretty form (eloquent) is a kind of an art in itself (like poetry), that can elevate the quote "success" further. On the other hand, pretty form (eloquent) without good meaning is useless. Pretty form = Marketing (both in quotes an in everything else).
Nothing is better proof of a well ordered mind than a man's ability to stop just where he is and pass some time in his own company. @Seneca Seneca writings, letters of a stoic (although written log time ago and in a different writing style) are great in general, to make you think about live and how to handle stress.
Automatic syntax checking in computer applications is a form of linting (maybe the original ?). "Linting" is the process of running a program that will analyze code for potential errors. - wonderful idea
We fall into the habits of our parents more easily than we think. Both good and bad habits. Experiences in childhood often became ingrained and almost part of one's DNA. Wonder if "parents" habits tend to creep in more as we get older (and parents our-selfs) ?
With the 2 types of personalities: Introverts vs Extroverts, only the Extroverts requires heavy amount of socializing. But to be in good balance the Introvert can't also be without no socializing. They just have different socialization "requirements".
Internet makes business world wide. Your potential client size has just exploded. Even small niche business can have enough clients worldwide to support it. Youtube is the new TV(?), and with it brings new marketing/advertisement channel.
Right amount of stress can be a good incentive. In excess is toxic, it will bring a constant irritability state, will start distort reality where we tell stories to convince oneself to quit. Side effects: close ones with no fault in it, will also get kicked around. Surviving extreme stress will likely modify oneself.
How well each does for himself in adapting to his social environment is not the same thing as how satisfactory a social environment they collectively create for themselves. (@ Thomas Schelling)
Statistics is fundamentally about reality — It’s about getting to know the man behind the curtain by studying the bumps and waves on the velvet. (@ Evan Miller)
Beware of the KPI rabbit hole: KPIs are incentives, and is fairly impossible to predict fully all effects of an incentive up front. Thus too narrow focus, especially on single KPIs can easily become counter-productive. => Use multiple KPIs and most importantly, don't forget common sense.
Achievements are measured by the difference between the starting point and the achievement, not just the final achievement alone.
"What is the truth?" is an excellent rule of thumb to guide the data analysis practice.
If you see life as a game, then maybe you can use strategic thinking to optimize it.
Microsoft Excel is an agile tool, one of the best for oriented for ad-hoc data tasks, data exploration.
2013
I expect life to be more comfortable for each next generation. Better medical care, better technologies, better nutrition, better education, better equality, etc... This should be the objective goal of a civilization.
download the internet: > wget -r http://google.com
Upper management is mostly about politics.
Data Analysis is about being able to see reality, it reveals the facts that were already there but you could not see.
A big part of life and growing up is about tolerating bigger levels of pain overtime to keep evolving to achieve new things. To keep expanding the comfort zone.
Coders that love coding just for coding enjoyment are very passionate and picky about language (the majority), the ones who care mostly about final product will be more tolerant to choose the best language (tool) for the job.
3D printers are like lisp macros, as in they allow to build your own tools. Tools to make tools (meta-tools)
Today's middle class has better quality of life (comfortable) than probably kings and queens just a century ago.
Prefer the point of view of "everything has a reason to be". The reason is often not known, but exists, Science!. Someone was so rude just now, with no apparent reason, I'm going to be rude back ! No, wait, maybe has nothing to do with you... was it a misunderstanding? did i touch a nerve?
Beware: "Having stuff isn't happy, getting stuff is – It's the act of acquisition that triggers feeling of happy." - http://bit.ly/10LYLkO
I like the no excuses model, its either done or not done, no excuses. Is harsh and unfair at times, but forces right direction and pushes for creative solutions.
Whenever there's someone too friendly as cashier i always think is their first day on the job (or the last...) Guess that is valid for any job
Extremes are unbalanced by definition, that can't be good.
Extremes are bad. Choose sides, but avoid going 100%. Keep some balance. E.g.: don't be too rude, but also don't be too nice
Better than quick-and-dirty is quick-and-not-dirty
Is not that my memory is bad is more like lazy. Anything that is a Google / bing search away is not worth the trouble.
Facebook is the Google for people.
Interacting with a small child on a daily basis naturally improves your negotiation skills many fold - specially in candy negotiation.
2012
An economic like KPI for restaurants and chefs: by how much you multiply the value of ingredients. You sell a 30€ meal, whose ingredients cost 10€, KPI=3.
Ask good questions #analysts
A cold earl Grey tea with lemon reminds me of the ice tea soft drink. without the sugar and much healthier.
Wonder if music reveals personality traits, or is entirely cultural, likely is a bit of both.
Everything is temporary - and is just a matter of time that it changes.
Graph complex for yourself, graph simple for others #analyst
Touch screens are at tipping point, the touch generation is now growing up.
competition, over time, has the tendency to eliminate inefficiencies
For the sake of evolution, patents should be instead tax on copying bad stuff, not tax on copying good stuff. Its the other way around ...
simplicity is key for scalability
Following the herd provides shelter, who wants to be alone facing the hungry lion? But it can also limit your gains, you find water, everybody drinks
Following the herd implies regression towards the mean(of the herd), both for gain and losses. strategy: join a herd better than you, but for ultimate rewards: you'll need to go alone
Our brains adapt to what we expose them to. Culture, habits over long periods of time physically change the brain - worth being selective
is node.js the new rails? aka "the" platform for agile web dev. javascript has advantage, most widespread language interpreter(ever)? - the browser
you can't manage what you can't measure.
lifespan of technologies is getting shorter and shorter. To master anything takes time(10y?) => We condemned to be forever newbies?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n77BfxnVlyc 12 nature design ideas video - humankind is as graceful as a hippo dancing ballet when it comes to building sustainable stuff. But keeps getting better.
Being an ace isn't just be able to solve every problem you are given, equally important is to know which problems are not worth tackling.
If stuff seems obvious and people around you keep missing it, then likely you lack imagination (& fail to see the other possibilities). -> personal rant You gotta do the exercise of putting yourself in the other person's shoes. We often forget this, and talk to others assuming they are us, and understand immediately what we are talking about. Everybody else is not us FYI.
Evolution says that the ones best fit end up doing better and more widespread, so if you find yourself being very unique and different, beware.
My js api's lately get 2 arguments: object & optional function. A object for flexible variables, function for arbitrary execution - This is a recipe to avoid API deprecation.
RDFa augments web pages as standalone data repositories that #semanticweb can understand, doubling as normal web pages, imagine web scraping done right
Sharing data, in an agreed upon format, is an incentive for re-use and disincentive for wasteful duplication. #semanticweb
2011
Think we don't realize yet how much of flying blind we do at the moment compared to the data driven future in health education business etc... As is in all technological evolution.
We can't really see all the variables - this is the definition of randomness. Above quote is compartmented with: There is no such thing as randomness we just can't see all the variables.
should use natural evolution learnings in digital world: version 1.0 is rarely any good, most things wont work failfast, competition matters
natural evolution is more than just a bit of textbook we have to memorize in school it actually shows up again and again
so many technologies came, go, change and evolve... is like watching a fast forward natural evolution of the digital world
speed not always better, an iphone game is better released earlier than later but i wont hurry up the design of #ruby, good things take time
how fast is an #agile snail? Faster than a non-agile snail but not as fast as the naturally agile hummingbird #tools
the 2012 reviewed edition of the 9 Unix precepts adds: #10 REST API(on Cloud) is the new shell & #11 JSON is the new plain text. 1st 9 http://bit.ly/9JS5CY
scalability demands decoupling
API design is like user experience(UX) design for programmers Should also use optimization techniques: track usage, ab testing, user testing
Don't underestimate beauty, it sounds shallow but weighs in heavily.
Doing #agile without agile tools is like doing kung fu with sumo wrestlers. All you get is bad kung fu
just read the programming #semanticweb, wow this is big! like the esperanto for data schema's. Triples all the way down!
The Unix Way: http://bit.ly/qeA0lK, lovely 9 Precepts Good general philosophy rules, not just for computing world.
Revisiting old code (2-3y old) some cool bits but a lot of overcomplicated stuff. step 1: create unit tests, step 2: delete key full-on.
Gambling is a tax on bad math. Because with math, specifically probabilities can prove that casinos games are made so that the house (casino) always wins.
Localized joke - @Safin: inventei 1 smiley, queres ver? @Alex: mostra @Safin: .) O sorriso de Camoes
Why hasn't evolution (& naturalselection) made the mosquito noiseless? It would be so much more successful. -> @ Jose Santos: Maybe is because they are perfected by nature to predate on other animals with lesser audition (?)
Less is more: the delete key should be the biggest on the keyboard
Today a full on exercise in API design, keeping backward compatibility, keeping code clean, smaller simpler API and loads of unit tests
We don't memorize all things equally, we assign different fade away weights based on importance. Facts a google search away, fade quicker
Adaptive Web Sites http://bit.ly/dHwDbQ, thats the right direction and in fact applies to all Human–devices interactions http://bit.ly/g8PUdC
Unfortunately calm, soft & nice personality doesn't work well most of times in biz.. gotta watch more Sopranos, and learn some of Tony's way's.
RT @patio11 Minor heresy: "Reverse a linked list" doesn't test ability, it tests for cultural fit in a programming community which likes pointers.
Scrum looks funny, one guy calling out ticket numbers then people raising up point cards for estimations. Just missing someone say BINGO! Often people* get told that a process, a methodology, is the best thing ever and follow it like a religion super strictly and end up forgetting what is the overall thing is trying to solve, and that it is just one iteration on the evolution of several improved methodologies. Common sense, own judgment, here and in everything are key. Often people*, oneself also, be aware of this.
Refactoring done, lessons learned: functional programming allows more flexible and shorter code, unit testing can be a life saver.
working on a web analytics tracking javascript api today, thriving for simpler, smaller, more flexible api w/ a bit of functional magic
30 is the new 20, right?: Well i surely hope so, as i just turned 30
Weight Loss Predictor: Got for 2010 Xmas a very cool book called the "4 Hour Body"(thanks Jose Santos) written... http://bit.ly/fugcNE
When you find out that your shirt is inside out while already at the office, then most your getting up too early.
Keep forgetting to slow down, avoid multitasking and keep it simple. so stopping for a minute to write a tweet and remind it.
2010
very action packed year, hope 2011 will be easier on me. Wonder if rounded number (10,15,20) years make for more action packed ones?... I wonder if rounded number birthday years make for more action packed years. Hope not my 30th bday is coming up next year...
note1: weather has its own agenda and it does now follows the homo sapiens calendar. note2: you shall not ignore weather forecasts
Really nice to meet up with interesting people. People make all the difference in life and work.
Wonder if tina turner was aware of the marketing possibilities when making the "simply the best" song. Its perfect for promoting her Best Of albums. Almost like a pun.
Avoid car door dents, by parking between 2 much more expensive cars than your own #safeparkingrules
Geek Joke of the day by Safin: if(!kill) fat++; its a Portuguese saying :)
Got stopped by police yesterday and, to my surprise they asked: "Why were you driving so slow?" - say Whaaat? that i didn't expect... Thats what you get for a slow southerner living in a fast northern country.
AB testing productivity, going on a information diet: no rss feeds, less of twitter, more of emacs. (Rescue)Time will tell.
new blog: http://al3xandr3.github.io/ is a better platform for writing longer texts, i can easily reach all the text I've ever written, and all edit history is saved.
2009
Functional: Here's a few articles by Slava (on www.defmacro.org) that i enjoyed reading:.. http://bit.ly/2OpTe0
simpler, lighter, faster, cleaner, cheaper, leaner, lesser. Be aware of the volume "acquisitions" and responsibilities that you naturally accumulate over your life that you then have to maintain. They slow your life down.
On cat ownership: be sure to pay attention to what your cat brings back into the house. You might find yourself with a couple of new pets.
Today marks the day where I've done my first Clojure macro! Not just as an exercise but for a practical reason, not the smallest macro ever either. A programming little technical accomplishment.
<script src=”http://cdn.rawgit.com/jasondavies/d3-cloud/master/build/d3.layout.cloud.js” type=”text/javascript”</script>