A Pattern Language is a beautiful tome on architecture and urban design that I found in my company's physical library. It had a pale yellow minimalist cover, a small form, and some blotchy typography accompanied by evocative photographs and lively doodles explaining the essence of its ideas. I
These days I derive little joy from my possessions of necessity. Knowledge workers, over the last couple of decades, have traded the engagement of our senses for an upgrade in flexibility. I shall elaborate. Let's take a phone. Here's a rough chronology. Notice the gradual loss
There's a pattern of things I predictably like—which I shall now call "just the right amount of unpleasant". Some examples to follow. Food and Beverage * Fermented, funky stuff—kimchi, kombucha, certain cheeses and curd have just the right amount of "spoilt" sourness to
Is art paintings, sculpture, architecture, theatre, dance, film, poetry, literature, craft and criticism? It's hard to describe it in concretions. Sometimes concretions aren't enough. Let me try something more abstract—to me, good art is powerful compression. The human condition is vast and complex, the only
This is lifted from my old blog that's not around anymore (with some light edits). My default mental state is no longer weirdly existential. Although it's been a while since I've played some games in my head. It's the weekend. I sit
This is lifted and reposted from my old blog that's not up anymore. I don't use twitter/X/whatever anymore. Now for the post. <div dir="ltr"><div><img src="https://internetblog.s3.amazonaws.com/images/b7f36ef2-dd64-4bfc-8cf2-d0133f838af6"
Friends know me for having a broad and discerning palate. In recent years, I have realised that this quality of mine has been an endless stream of joy and that has enriched my day-to-day. I have also felt that many people don't draw from this stream enough. <
I am a strange loop is perhaps the best book I’ve ever read; a masterpiece and a flagship example of what the written word is capable of achieving. I felt like there was a me before I read this book and a me after I read it, and I
What contributes to a stable, high-quality software product? I shall categorise it this way: * The mapping of abstractions and patterns to the problem. * Choice of tools and technologies. Software discourse tends to be disproportionately focused on the latter. I find myself contributing to this skew as well. Perhaps it'
Two archetypes of people capture my imagination. They could be placed on two ends of a spectrum. The first is the polymath—a person who has done a whole bunch of things to remarkable effect. By the standards of modernity, they have lived many lives. To throw out a bunch
This is three: 3 This is \(\frac{1}{3}\): 0.333... π is approximately but not exactly 3.1415 in Hindu-Arabic numerals. <!--more--> π is transcendental which means π cannot be the solution of any polynomial equation. we cannot add and multiply real numbers in any combination to
<!--more--> Transcript from EWD 1308-11, by Edsger W Dijkstra: Finally a short story for the record. Finally a short story for the record. In 1968, the Communications of the ACM published a text of mine under the title "The goto statement considered harmful", which in later