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
Opened and tried a new coffee today: Blue Tokai’s Sampigehoney. Love the name of that estate. <!--more--> This is the first time I’m buying coffee from BT, because of my handwavy anti-mainstream bias. But the experience all the way from order to cup has been fantastic.
It's an opinion that sounds unreasonable with insufficient context, but depending on a conditional or added context, makes sense. I've liked documenting these as they bring out nuances that are often missed by human brains which are fond of rigidly identifying with labels or fixed arrangements.
Microsoft Bob was a frilly, ornate software that spectacularly failed back in the 90s. The user was presented with images of various rooms cluttered with books, pens, clocks, calculators, letters, dustbins, calendars, boxes, shelves, cupboards, drawers, windows and a dog. Most of these opened a program in the computer that
A heuristic—the amount of freedom I have, whether intellectual, artistic or financial, is inversely proportional to the number of thoughts I hold, but cannot express publicly. I was born fairly free. Like all the other babies, I could publicly air my frustrations by wailing and pointing to things, with
I live with a quiet discomfort. It is not a bother most of the time, for I am good at pretending it is not there. I hide it with layers of casual denial and mental gymnastics. But it is there. It will never not be there. And it is impossible
My wrist mildly hurt, and had a small bump on it, so I thought I'd get it checked out. Easy, I thought. I'll go to Manipal, one of the biggest, most well-equipped hospital chains around. I got the app to book an appointment. One of the
Like any good pretentious psychologist, let me add a label to generalize a phenomenon that I commonly witness around me. It's called the Career-Or-Nothing mindset, or the CON mindset, which is best said while swirling a glass of fancy wine. It’s fairly common among young people in