johngossman

5 ms·

31.
by johngossman 7mo ago
In 35 years in the industry, reading and studying during work hours were always supported. Frankly, most places would let us play video games during work hours as long as we met our deadlines.
32.
by johngossman 7mo ago
Machiavelli. Not just the Prince but his other works. He reads remarkably modern. There are many "Machiavelli Readers" that will provide a curated selection. Cicero and Plato.
33.
by johngossman 7mo ago
You might reconsider when your richer neighbor paid the politician to block you or build an asphalt plant next to your new condo. It's a slippery slope. Or how about when the fire department starts asking for a little something to keep
34.
by johngossman 7mo ago
Tolkien and Lewis came by their luddism fairly, having both survived the horrors of trench warfare.
35.
by johngossman 7mo ago
Yup. I've had Gemini create fake citations to papers. I've also had it hallucinate the contents of paywalled papers, so I know I can't trust anything it writes, though I am getting better at using it recursively to verify thi
36.
by johngossman 7mo ago
This verification problem is general. As an experiment, I had Claude Cowork write a history book. I chose as subject a biography of Paolo Sarpi, a Venetian thinker most active in the early 17th century. I chose the subject because I know so
37.
by johngossman 8mo ago
I find they are good at identifying interesting topics and writing articles that don't deliver. They remind me of Omni magazine (which I subscribed to at one point). The articles aren't even wrong.
38.
by johngossman 8mo ago
And reading a history book while you're in the place makes both the book and the place more interesting.
39.
by johngossman 8mo ago
One more source to consider, if you find non-fiction dry (and if you do, I'd start by trying a different history book) is novels. Novelists like Rushdie, Heller, Solzhenitsyn, and a surprising number of sci-fi writers include a lot of
40.
by johngossman 8mo ago
I wish I could upvote this multiple times. However, I hope nobody takes away from this that all history is purely biased and therefore worthless. Reading a history book should be like having a conversation with a well-informed friend: you s
41.
by johngossman 8mo ago
Are you seriously suggesting that one can't learn Roman History without learning to read Latin? That it is better to be ignorant of history than read a few books?
42.
by johngossman 8mo ago
While I agree with the list of recommended podcasts, you may be a reader. It is easier for me to make notes and backup and review when reading. A good history book is a story book as interesting as any novel, with the added benefit of being
43.
by johngossman 8mo ago
For someone not wishing to be an expert or read source material, like the OC, facility in languages is absolutely not necessary. And history absolutely is valuable and can be accessible to everyone.
44.
by johngossman 8mo ago
As I age, I look on these happy, productive seniors, people like Dick Van Dyke (100), David Attenborough (99), and Mel Brooks (99) and keep my fingers crossed.
45.
by johngossman 8mo ago
That's not a bug, that's a feature
46.
by johngossman 8mo ago
Whether or not the Republic ever reflected Plato's ideas about government, James Romm's recent book "Plato and the Tyrant" makes a compelling case that Plato changed his mind after trying to teach virtue and create a Ph
47.
by johngossman 8mo ago
I just re-read Canticle after decades. It's startlingly well written, at least the first two parts. Head and shoulders above most 50s pulp. A masterpiece really. It was assigned reading in my high school. I wonder if anyone under 40 re
48.
by johngossman 8mo ago
I speculate that a lot of sci-fi reflects the cutting edge of science and technology at the time it is written. For well over a century a lot of that frontier was transportation: and we got "Around the World in 80 Days" and "
49.
Many people have no mental imagery. What's going on in their brains?(nature.com)
22 points by johngossman 9mo ago|11 comments
50.
by johngossman 9mo ago
My sympathies. I've had to track some of those sorts of things down and sometimes you wonder about your sanity.
51.
by johngossman 9mo ago
I've been building computers for my friends and I for 25 years and the two worst "random stability" issues I had were high quality but aging PSUs.
52.
by johngossman 9mo ago
Posting some code that reproduces the bug could help not only Apple but you and others.
53.
by johngossman 9mo ago
There are true stories that don't involve asteroids but are just as compelling. Anything by Irving Finkel, such as: https://youtu.be/LUxFzh8r384
54.
by johngossman 9mo ago
I do something similar but also cooy the most interesting of these into Obsidian. Doesn't take long and the activity of sorting helps me remember. It's amazing how often when I skim these that I find something interesting/pro
55.
by johngossman 9mo ago
Especially when they're based on eyeballing it on Google Maps
56.
by johngossman 9mo ago
Go look at Bangladesh (or the whole Ganges valley). Extremely dense population outside of urban cores. Tiny area compared to the US but a lot of people...maybe 500 million between India and Bangladesh.
57.
by johngossman 9mo ago
I doubt this explains the world-wide phenomenon, but regionally sure. I remember in the 90s when studies brought the Nigerian population estimates down this triggered a drop of growth forecasts across sub-Saharan Africa. Edit: changed world
58.
by johngossman 9mo ago
You are conflating known and unknown unknowns, otherwise known as Knightian uncertainty. As the article says, many countries have not run censuses in many years and/or manipulate the numbers.
59.
by johngossman 9mo ago
"I have a map of the United States... Actual size. It says, 'Scale: 1 mile = 1 mile.' I spent last summer folding it. People ask me where I live, and I say, 'E6." Steven Wright Though it's not as funny without
60.
by johngossman 9mo ago
Your memory is correct. Once compression was applied, the size on the wire was mostly a wash. Parsing costs were often greater but that's at the endpoints.

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