kalid

33 ms·

1. 271.▲
   Finding Unity in the Math Wars(betterexplained.com)

   101 points by kalid 14y ago|21 comments
2. 272.▲
   by kalid 14y ago

   I think it depends on the field and the person: in politics and business, probably. Do you think Einstein or Gauss were driven by a desire to have it all? I suspect they'd still do what they did even if they'd "made it" and were the richest
3. 273.▲
   by kalid 14y ago

   Here's Google's policy on cloaking: http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&#38...
4. 274.▲
   by kalid 14y ago

   "On writing well", William Zinsser http://www.amazon.com/Writing-Well-30th-Anniversary-Edition/...
5. 275.▲
   by kalid 14y ago

   I think that's a dangerous line of reasoning. Why not learn to memorize ingredients on a can of soup? That is also exercise for your brain. Algebra lets us describe relationships between unknown quantities. Nearly every physical law is expr
6. 276.▲
   by kalid 14y ago

   I agree. It was extremely frustrating to see the argument "Firefox is awesome because of the add-ons. Oh, you have problems? Why are you using add-ons?". You can't have it both ways! (Also: users don't care what subsystem is causing the pro
7. 277.▲
   by kalid 14y ago

   I've always hated the "XX million copies sold" or "Fastest-selling Windows OS ever." Windows sales are proportional to PC sales. New Windows OSes come out every 4 years. Assume the GDP increases 2% or 3% per year in that time, and PC shipme
8. 278.▲
   by kalid 14y ago

   I was curious about how bad the GNU standards could be [they make so much great software!]. Holy crap. Function calls with a space? foo (x,y); Braces indented halfway into the "else" keyword? Ugh. I'm no C guru but even has a freshman cs ma
9. 279.▲
   by kalid 14y ago

   Thanks, really appreciate it!
10. 280.▲
    by kalid 14y ago

    Thanks, I should have clarified my original post. I totally see the need for specific requests, which is "Hey, guy with their phone plugged in, can you bring up Bad Mamma by the Jammas on youtube?" I don't see the need for the overwrought "
11. 281.▲
    by kalid 14y ago

    I think I'm in the target market (tech geek, enjoy casual music listening) and I just can't wrap my head around the multi-playlist scenario: "The Q presumably gets its name from “queue,” or playlist, and Google is especially proud of its mu
12. 282.▲
    by kalid 14y ago

    Whoops! Thanks for the comment, the text should be a readable black on white (like this: https://skitch.com/kalidazad/er7an/intro-to-distributed-vers... ). Which browser were you using? (I just tried FF, Chrome, Safari) Thanks!
13. 283.▲
    by kalid 14y ago

    I completely agree. If it helps, I wrote up some visual tutorials about version control in general that many have found helpful: http://betterexplained.com/articles/intro-to-distributed-ver... The idea is to build a mental model about wh
14. 284.▲
    by kalid 14y ago

    A telling quote from that article: "Is Ballmer going to be another John Sculley, who nearly drove Apple into extinction because the board of directors thought that selling Pepsi was good preparation for running a computer company? The cult
15. 285.▲
    by kalid 14y ago

    When you look at an acorn, do you see a nut or an oak tree? :)
16. 286.▲
    by kalid 14y ago

    I thought you were being sarcastic with the name, but no, it really is called the: "Samsung Galaxy S II Epic Touch 4G Android Phone, Black (Sprint)" http://www.amazon.com/Samsung-Galaxy-Epic-Touch-Android/dp/B... Wow.
17. 287.▲
    by kalid 14y ago

    I'm a big fan of intuitive learning and have mixed feelings too (downloading the game now to try it out). Some thoughts 1) Certain basics skills ("spelling and grammar") are needed to express/understand higher-level ideas (literature, poetr
18. 288.▲
    by kalid 14y ago

    Great comment -- chiming in because intuitive math (or the lack thereof) is a hot-button issue for me :). I really dislike the von Neumann quote "Young man, in mathematics you don't understand things. You just get used to them." I know what
19. 289.▲
    by kalid 14y ago

    I think we'd need to distinguish "scientifically irrelevant" from "humanly irrelevant". Scientifically, discovering that a god created the universe and let it be (the disinterested watchmaker) has no bearing on any future experiments. Psych
20. 290.▲
    by kalid 14y ago

    > Why do you say it as bullshit? An MIT-trained physicist should know the common name for a unit of energy. Sure, he might not remember the conversion from joules to calories, but to have never heard of it? That's taking a literal readi
21. 291.▲
    by kalid 14y ago

    A huge problem with math is we end up teaching mathematical vocabulary, not mathematical fluency. It's like high-school language classes: everyone memorizes vocab lists, stutters out canned phrases, and forgets it all later. I'd prefer to s
22. 292.▲
    by kalid 15y ago

    Thanks, really glad it was helpful. I'm planning on going back and covering all the math I thought I'd learned in school :).
23. 293.▲
    by kalid 15y ago

    Shameless plug, but I try to explain math concepts on my blog. Here's an example for e, which eluded me for a while: http://betterexplained.com/articles/an-intuitive-guide-to-ex... My goal is to explain ideas as I wish they were shared wi
24. 294.▲
    by kalid 15y ago

    Exactly. I saw that back and forth thread on education and it made me cringe.
25. 295.▲
    by kalid 15y ago

    Thanks for that explanation. I've seen the "riding the elephant" analogy before and it's quite fitting. Usually the rider can't do much, but this trick seems to work.
26. 296.▲
    by kalid 15y ago

    Thanks for eloquently stating a problem I've noticed for a while. I think there's a fear of not coming off as a hard-nosed, logical thinker, so the constant need for citation is a proxy for "I believed XYZ because some authority said it was
27. 297.▲
    by kalid 15y ago

    I just wrote a comment on the same! I completely agree. I feel there's a pressure to fill some artificial page count requirement. I read "The Evolution of Cooperation" and it honestly could have been done in 30 pages. Instead, I foolishly s
28. 298.▲
    by kalid 15y ago

    A neat idea I've heard on this topic: Suppose you read 20 books a year. With 50 years of life, that's 1000 more books in your lifetime. (Or 2000, or 5000). Why waste a slot on a book that isn't useful? Many books, esp. modern non-fiction, a
29. 299.▲
    by kalid 15y ago

    I'm getting it for myself -- Kernighan is a wonderful writer, and I want to see how a master can explain technical concepts gracefully.
30. 300.▲
    by kalid 15y ago

    Sometimes. I think it shows the person has enough empathy to realize what they're saying could be hurtful. I see it as making a point which isn't meant to be taken personally (and a signal the person is willing to engage in a discussion, no