austinl

10 ms·

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by austinl 5y ago
Very similar to A Plan for the Improvement of English Spelling by M. J. Shields (frequently misattributed to Mark Twain): "For example, in Year 1 that useless letter "c" would be dropped to be replased either by "k&quo
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by austinl 5y ago
I'm writing an "Introduction to programming" book (with Swift, but the language isn't very important based on the content). I'll likely host the web version for free, and then allow folks to choose their price if th
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by austinl 5y ago
> Looking back on it, most of our essays were not good. They were rubbish. It makes me cringe to look back at my high school essays, like I was trying to write with a thesaurus. Thankfully, senior year, a friend who went on to write prof
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by austinl 5y ago
I couldn't imagine trying to read Wolfe with English as a second language — definitely commendable! One thing I'd recommend if you're giving it another go is to read the chapters, then listen to Alzabo Soup (the podcast) afte
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by austinl 5y ago
When I read the title, I thought the article would be about Rimworld (perhaps the most efficient way to make money in that game) https://www.reddit.com/r/RimWorld/search/?q=organ%20harvesti...
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by austinl 5y ago
If you liked Anathem, I'd recommend reading Gene Wolfe's series, The Book of the New Sun [1]. I didn't quite like it the first time, but decided to reread the series because I kept thinking about it a year later. The world is
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by austinl 5y ago
I've just been getting into paragliding (i.e. without the motor), and have been absolutely loving it. It blew my mind to learn that by riding thermals, paragliders can essentially stay in the air indefinitely. My longest flight so far
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by austinl 5y ago
It's fascinating how culture has effects on architecture. So many older American homes have small kitchens that are separate from a formal dining room. Historically, a family member or cook would be making food separately, out of the w
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by austinl 5y ago
This is what things are like in many parts of Japan (see https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2017/nov/16/japan-reusabl... ). Oddly enough, the value of houses in Japan depreciate over time (like cars). It&
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by austinl 5y ago
“You should be extending your stay among writers whose genius is unquestionable, deriving constant nourishment from them if you wish to gain anything from your reading that will find a lasting place in your mind. To be everywhere is to be n
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by austinl 5y ago
This was my first reaction too. Now I work in a (Swift) codebase where I could probably count the number of for loops we have on one hand. Pretty much everything is done through map/reduce/filter, etc. At first, I thought it wasn&
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by austinl 5y ago
I had the same experience with Apple about a year ago. Not merge sort, but an algorithm question that also involved a fair bit of math. The type where if you know the number theory trick, the implementation becomes straightforward, but if y
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by austinl 5y ago
On the opposite end of the spectrum, the company I work for shuts our offices down from the 24th to the 2nd. Engineers submit availability for on-call schedules, and get a gift card for each on-call day they're responsible for. I feel
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by austinl 5y ago
I'd recommend checking out their YouTube channel — they document sailing from Vancouver to New Zealand and back! A lot of this work was done along the way. https://www.youtube.com/c/HundredRabbits/videos
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by austinl 5y ago
I have an AirTag hidden in my car, and it makes me feel a bit better — but it's mostly just to help me remember where I've parked. My partner's car was stolen out of the parking garage on Grove St. in Hayes Valley (San Franci
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by austinl 5y ago
Guessing you're referring to "Glenfiddich", but it reminded me of the case of whiskey vs. whisky: It's generally spelled “whiskey” — with an e — in the United States and Ireland. It's spelled “whisky” — without the
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by austinl 5y ago
While not directly tied to economic growth, one factor this article leaves out is that global human population growth could possibly peak within our lifetime (although more likely around 2100) [1]. In the last 60 years, total fertility rate
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by austinl 5y ago
I stayed at my previous company for five years, but worked in four different roles across that time: - 1 year doing iOS frontend/product - 1 year doing low-level iOS systems - 2 years as a PM - 1 year doing backend I was never bored. I
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by austinl 5y ago
Wanted to share the link just because I love this account as well: https://twitter.com/SeinfeldToday A recent example: George's GF wants a "no phones at dinner" rule. G: "We had a good thing going, Jerr
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by austinl 5y ago
Yeah! This was another great realization from KSP — figuring out that the naive way is possible, but the delta V required to do it is absurd. Here's a video of a KSP speed-run to the Mun and back in 2 hours using this method (with 10K
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by austinl 5y ago
I had a similar experience when playing Kerbal for the first time in high school. I thought that NASA got to the moon by simply thrusting in a straight line from Earth in a way that would intersect with the moon's orbit and boy was I w
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by austinl 5y ago
Yeah, I think this is more correct. Historically, land value has been driven upward by proximity to high-paying jobs. This is why gentrification occurs. For example, people move into the Mission District in SF because it's close SoMa w
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by austinl 5y ago
Using a spaced-repetition-system is probably the most evidence-based way we can get to long lasting memory. The success I’ve personally had with it makes me feel like it’s similar to downloading information to your brain, Matrix-style. I’ve
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by austinl 5y ago
Ironically, the first time I remember being struck by an opening line was from Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury: "The seller of lightning-rods arrived just ahead of the storm." It's almost too forward — but
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by austinl 5y ago
I've been really happy with my setup. Floyd Bed Frame — The Floyd frame can be bought as a queen size, then upgraded to a king later. ( https://floydhome.com/products/the-bed-frame ) Parachute Linen Sheets — kind of
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by austinl 5y ago
That’s interesting (and definitely unsurprising) to hear! I think freshman year might be a bit too early to appreciate the curriculum, before students have seen how ubiquitous some of these tools are in engineering jobs. Maybe it would be b
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by austinl 5y ago
I was happy to see my alma mater introduce a class called "CS 193 Tools" that is taken by all freshmen. I never took it, but it started when I was a junior or so (~2014). A friend of mine pushed to create the course and helped TA
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by austinl 6y ago
> I'm often asked a question like, "How are you able to award a diploma on the basis of nothing other than an essay and a letter of support?" The answer to this very reasonable question has two parts. First, I'm in a
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by austinl 6y ago
There's definitely a mindset thing to this that I need to work on, but my last experience going through the interview process was so draining that I didn't recover for several months. It was my first time interviewing for "se
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by austinl 6y ago
Most of the C I wrote was while in college. I think understanding the question, "why are strings in C hard?" is a good gateway to understanding how programming languages and memory work generally. I agree with you though that teac

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