Venkat @vgr@refactorcamp.org
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More at http://venkateshrao.com
Joined May 2018
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To all #heyfeedfox contributors: please keep the comment short and sweet. Preferably just use the title of the link, or if that's not clear, a 5-10 word precis. Don't do big quotes. Save that for follow up comments. See my latest for examples of good style. https://www.ribbonfarm.com/2018/10/09/refactorings-roundup-09-16-18-10-06-18/
Maybe T. Rex was *not* covered in feather. #heyfeedfox https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/t-rex-skin-was-not-covered-feathers-study-says-180963603/
3 kinds of insights:
1. Sublinear: a reframing of an obviously important thing. Can only have diminishing returns.
1. Superlinear: seemingly trivial observation that leads to compounding big consequences if you think it through (like a mystery clue that only Holmes notices), resolving a lot of ambiguity
3. Glitchy: suspicious incoherence that makes you do a double take and then leads to an aha that changes what you think you're looking at, like an optical illusion changing interpretations
Time is like unfolding origami #heyfeedfox http://experimenta.org/makesense/artists/matthew-gardiner/
Venkat
boosted
@vgr What I noticed is that “fools” attract a lot of help; society is surprisingly full of people who are willing to help if you can press the right emotive buttons, so to speak And one very powerful button is the “I need help and I don’t know it” button, i.e. the “I am a fool” button.
Surprise! Show more
In general people who succeed at anything do so along a vector where they don’t mind looking foolish. This is why so many people who seek to be successful start of on exactly the wrong foot: “If that fool can make it work it should be easy for me since I’m obviously smarter”. The irony is, they’re right about themselves and therefore wrong about their plan to succeed.
One thing that comes naturally to me but I’ve entirely failed to teach anyone else is willingness to look foolish
Venkat
boosted
Which companies/orgs can you think of are good places to pursue advances in software-engineering?
ThoughtWorks came to mind for me.
Academics don't count. Also emphasis on software engineering/gardening, not computer science.
Venkat
boosted
Liberal whitelisting and conservative blacklisting both try to maximize agency for everyone.
When the whitelisting becomes too conservative you get elitist moats. When the blacklisting gets too liberal you get shunning of the world. Each becomes degenerate when it takes on the trait of the other.
A blacklist and a whitelist can’t exist together because that would imply a 3rd type that is not whitelisted or blacklisted.
Venkat
boosted
So I read Ian Chengs Emmisary's Guide to Worlding and this technique of using Johnstone-style "masks" to embody different aspects of the worldbuilding process strikes me as similar to some ideas in this "psychonaut field manual" my brother sent me awhile ago: https://orig00.deviantart.net/dca9/f/2018/094/8/e/the_psychonaut_field_manual_fourth_pdf_edition_by_bluefluke-d8rjuxc.pdf (yes it's a deviantart link 😅). It's sortof like a spiritually agnostic guide to occult/"magick" techniques.
Venkat
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Trying to better define elitism. Humble arrogance?
Venkat
boosted
Neat article about the engineering challenges of getting terawatt-hours of energy from the world's largest wind and solar plants in Xinjiang to the population centers in east China that need it.
One surprising detail: they use DC for long-distance power transmission! I always learned AC was used because it's less lossy over long distances. But I guess they figured out a way to do even less lossy transmission using DC in the megavolt range. #renewableEnergy #heyfeedfox
"I've always been interested in comics for their cultural-fringe nature -- they're visual storytelling as edge case, not remotely fitting into the structures and shapes of commercial visual narrative. This is why elements of comics have always trickled back into the cultural mainstream - comics are one giant cheap-ass lab full of unpaid volunteers let loose with old machinery and out-of-date chemicals." — Warren Ellis #heyfeedfox
Venkat
boosted
elite -> gatekeeper -> troll
The transition points are when the majority wants to get in and when the majority has stopped caring.
A big list of self-reported regrets from readers of rad reads @heyfeedfox https://radreads.co/deal-with-regrets/
Venkat
boosted
Thesis:
- Industrial-age was about maximizing profit
- Web-age was about maximizing reach
First, agree/disagree?
Then, what will the decentralized-age (preferred term over crypto or blockchain) be about?
Tried a dumb and depressing exercise. Make up a 2 column worksheet with 4-5 rows. Columns are assets and liabilities. Rows are life stages/ages. Childhood, 18-30, 30-45 etc. Fill it in. Depressing how quickly assets dwindle and liabilities/burdens multiply. This is why it’s worth trying to get rich young. You’ll need it later to balance out deficits in every other area.
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Joined May 2018
