"What would you do if you knew you could not fail?"

You know what: Fuck all these apps that are simply telling me the most interesting thing to spend my money on which is horrid consumerism.

You know what I NEED:

An app that does this but for investment: I set a budget per month; it tells me the best thing to invest it in - and takes a small % of the return.

Open up how to MAKE money, not spend it.

In all of Groupon’s life i have bought exactly ONE deal from that. I make well over 100K and have no interest in wasting my money on “deals”

You know what, Mr. SamStave? That’s not a bad idea…

I am quitting Tinychat again. I did it for a good four months over the fall, so hopefully I can keep that up. There’s a lot of shit to be done, including reading a statistics book I recently found.

Michelle woke up. She didn’t know what had woken her, but she was awake. Her eyes stared clearly at the ceiling for a stubborn moment. Then she sighed and threw the covers away. She looked at the clock with quiet frustration; it was almost 2 o’clock.

I'm writing some code, and that's like telling a story and that's like casting a spell and that's like building a ship and that's like fine woodworking and that's like talking to the wind.
Commit message: Initial talking to the wind.

She walked to the kitchen, silently. There was no one to disturb, but the dark house made her silence herself. There was no moon, and she did not turn on a light; giuded by the microwave clock, she reached the refrigerator. It hummed.

I'm going in to work late today because we're having a lunch meeting. I'm a little depressed, because of that or because I pick my nose, or both.
Code that is specific is a machine for pulling the pits from
two-day-old yellow cherries. Code that is general is a hungry 5-year-old boy, collapsing at any provocation.
Commit message: asking a 5-year-old to pit cherries.

Michelle opened the refrigerator. There was, she noticed, no milk. There was, she noticed, a forest. Dappled daylight scampered along the linoleum floor.

Writing code is walking down the wrong path the wrong path the wrong path, I think.

Commit message: dappled, wrestled, wrong.

She let out a soft “oh!”; it was the sort of sound you might expect if she had been reading in a quiet library in the old part of town, and it was almost closing time, and someone had gently touched her shoulder.

I'm pleased with myself.
Writing code is knowing when to give up is never giving up is never letting the tension go.
Commit message: The pleasing sound of a high-tension line.

She reached her hand past the cheese-drawer, which still hung halfway up the open ‘fridge, and felt the warm moist air. A gentle breeze rustled her hair. She shrugged, and stepped forward, dropping her head to fit.

I dislike people today, yesterday, last week. I feel good alone and full of impatience among others.
Writing code is giving up for the moment and returning with fresh eyes.
Commit message: cheese-drawer still full of last week's eyes.

Michelle, in her nightgown, in a forest, stared though the back of her refrigerator and into her dark kitchen. Concious of her electric bill, she reached past the meat-and-cheese drawer and pulled the door shut. The back was still quite open to the woods; she sighed. At least it was reasonably cool here. A leaf fell beside the butter. Michelle ignored this affront and turned to look at the forest.

I spent several hours today arguing about the origin of life. It's a knotty problem, but I couldn't help but be distracted by the fact that I was arguing. I feeling like I'm frequently arguing, antagonizing, defending, parrying --- I don't think I frequently convince anyone of anything. (I suspect that Michelle is in the sort of forest that has trees no more than a foot or two in diameter, and the ground is clear of underbrush; it is an emminently walkable forest, I expect.)
Writing code is pushing forward regardless, like a breech baby.
Commit message: electric breech beech abiogenesis

In the 19th century, a social movement whose followers were named Luddites began to emerge. These individuals believed fiercely that the use of machines and other forms of automated labour would force them to abandon their way of life and leave them jobless. Despite this movement, machines became increasingly present in factories and throughout the agricultural sector. While demand for some jobs was reduced and other positions were completely destroyed, the use of these machines helped create other jobs for individuals who were displaced. An individual who no longer worked on an assembly line could now work as a mechanic fixing the same machine that had replaced him. This sort of replacement and job creation eventually lead to the term Luddite Fallacy; the believe that labour-saving technologies increase unemployment.

Although for the last two centuries it’s true that increased efficiency hasn’t left the masses without jobs, I’d argue we are quickly reaching a tipping point at which point that might no longer be the case. I read an article just the other day that discussed how some restaurants were employing iPads instead of waiters when taking orders from patrons. It was a cheaper alternative, and one that allowed users to see more detailed information regarding their orders.

Today, I learned that 600,000 individuals working for the US Postal Service are going to soon be without a job and another 480,000 will have their pensions adjusted. These are jobs that are gone for good, and likely just the start.

Perhaps the most interesting idea I’ve seen recently comes from Eindhoven University where Dr. Post hopes to completely destroy the livestock industry. He plans to do this by producing synthetic meat grown from stem cells.

Another victim of technology is the warehouse employee, who is already in the midst of being replaced:

 

Ideas like these seem incredibly appealing, but I can’t help but wonder what the social implications of these and other programs might have. See, in the past when a blue collar job was replaced, a blue collar job was created. An assembly line worker could always become a mechanic. A farmer had the opportunity to work in a warehouse. This is no longer the case. A waiter doesn’t necessarily have the skills to build an iPad. A warehouse worker, in all likelihood, cannot program a path finding algorithm for use in his replacement. You see these massive shortages for employees in technology sectors, but the same isn’t true for service, manufacturing and retail work.

For the first time, I think blue collar, unskilled jobs are being replaced without the creation of comparable jobs. It might be interesting to see what happens over the next twenty years as these jobs are continually snapped up. 

While we watch, I think we should consider that just 20 years ago, the internet itself wasn’t even available. Technology seems to move quickly.

A prof from my school was on the front page of TED today. Kind of interesting talk.

26/95

Just got my class rankings back and I placed 26/95 in my class. That puts me just within the top 30%. Considering over the course of first year I was around the 70th percentile, this is definitely a huge improvement. Fuck yeah! :)

A really helpful tutorial on owl drawing!