Breaking Smart Notes # 4

March 4, 2019 / Tech

Name of Essay: Purist Versus PragmatistsThere are two approaches to technology:PuristNot agile. Precious about the way things should be. Careful about keeping technology pure. Mixing and matching is not welcome. Start complex.Pragmatist  Agile. Not precious about the way things should be. Leave out what doesn’t work. Mixing and matching is welcome. Start simple.creativeIn the late 90s there were passionate debates about browsers and the future of the internet. There were purists that didn’t like the messy way in which the browser was developing. Pragmatists saw the browser …

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Breaking Smart Notes # 3

March 4, 2019 / Tech

Name of Essay: Towards a Mass FlourishingThese essays are not about answering ‘what’ or ‘when’ — they are about explaining ‘how’instead of trying to predict the future, and therefore limiting ourselves, we need to have a hacker ethos.trying to predict the future is of a “pastoral mindset.” It causes us to be attached to a ‘what’ and ‘when’ which is costly if we’re wrong.Inventing the future is easier than predicting it.Small teams are better than corporations. “Small enough to be fed by …

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Breaking Smart Notes # 2

March 4, 2019 / Tech

Name of essay: Getting ReorientedSoftware is eating the world. We underestimate the increasing power of software.  4 Reasons why. First 3 are not unique to this software era.Technological change unfolds exponentially (like compound interest) — we overestimate the effect of technology in the short run and underestimate in the long run.During the transition, it gets chaotic. We shift our attention from the quiet change to the economic crises, political affairs and apocalyptic fears. Impact of software appears in disguised form. i.e. drones appear to be …

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Breaking Smart Notes # 1

March 4, 2019 / Tech

Name of Essay: A New Soft TechnologySoftware started blowing up around the year 2000. It existed before, but it was mostly used to solve problems of the industrial age rather than to explore possibilities. “After written language and money, software is only the third major soft technology to appear in human civilization.” Soft technology: an innovation that can be used in a variety of physical forms.think of money – it can be embodied in credit cards, checks, paper, coins, precious metals.similarly, software can be …

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T.J. McConnell, My Favorite NBA Player

January 23, 2019 / Sports

Every NBA fan has their favorite player to root for. Usually it’s a top 10 player, or whoever happens to be the best player on their favorite team. While I do enjoy watching some of the best scorers like James Harden or Steph Curry, lately I’ve grown fond of one lesser known player: T.J. McConnell, the undrafted guard from the 76ers. Averaging about 7 points, 2 rebounds and 4 assists from the bench, T.J. is far from an elite player (at least …

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Mastering one thing is better than learning a bunch of little things

January 3, 2019 / Unschooling

 One of the many things wrong with the education system is that it doesn’t give kids the time to master anything. What we do instead is teach them a little about a lot of different subjects. And I’m using the word “teach” loosely here, since kids don’t retain most of the information.   Schools have this “jack of all trades” method where kids are given 1 hour periods to focus and they are made to juggle 5-7 completely different subjects, most of which are …

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The secret to having something interesting to say is to get used to saying things.

December 23, 2018 / Writing

Recently I was having a conversation about the benefits I’ve experienced by blogging. When I encouraged this person to try it, I was met with this point: “You may have interesting things to say, but I don’t.” I have to say that this statement has it backwards. You see, when I started blogging it was to discover what I had to say, not to release some ideas that I already had. And let me tell you, since I started blogging I’ve discovered …

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Outside of School There Are No Rules

December 3, 2018 / Unschooling

Schools have taught us that neatly defined paths are the only ones worth taking. That there’s only one way to learn. That you have to wait for orders before you can even think about creating something. That you have to study before you take action. That you can’t delve into a subject seriously unless you are getting a credential for it. That may be true while you’re in school. Outside of school however, there’s only two things that really matter: that you …

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Pocket Casts: My Favorite Podcast App

November 24, 2018 / Reviews, Tech

When the podcast industry was at its infancy, you had to go through the iTunes music app in order to subscribe to podcasts.   Now that the podcast industry has blown up, there are many ways you could listen to podcasts. If you go to your app store and search for “podcast,” what you’ll see is a seemingly never ending list of options. On top of that there are things like Spotify or Soundcloud. Even video recordings on YouTube are becoming popular.  …

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Aim Higher

November 15, 2018 / Self-improvement, Running

If my goal for the day is to run two miles, I feel exhausted by the time I finish. If my goal is to run four miles, I don’t feel exhausted at two. This reveals to me that it’s all about the mindset. Obviously I’m physically doing the same amount of exercise by the time I finish two, so I believe that the difference is in my expectation. My brain is constantly looking for an excuse to stop pain. If it is …

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