Alex's Notes

Macro level processes altering micro level processes by changing constraints. For example, thoughts and memories alter the strength of connections in the brain via gene regulation which alters the physical constraints of ions/electrons (synapses).

A data structure and search algorithm for efficiently finding the shortest plan of actions between an initial state and goal state.

Webmention is a W3C web standard for decentralized comments, reposts, and other interactions across websites.

The game about the game. In game development, it’s often cited that it’s all about the meta game.

In a blog post from Dave Cheney, open source contributor to golang, he writes that it’s always better to talk about a bug/feature/change then writing code.

A talk given by Brian Moriarty, a renowned game designer/developer, that encourages listeners to dedicate themselves to the pursuit of making something awe-inspiring.

An essay from Niklas Luhmann about learning to read and how there are different kinds of books that require different approaches.

An Emacs library that recreates Roam (software that implements a Zettelkasten-like system) using org-mode.

Something that would be valuable even in the absence of outward effects e.

Similar to Neil Gaiman’s remarks about a fountain pen and writing there are ways that enhance the feeling of a craft.

Disorder in a system that tends to increase over time until reaching an equilibrium.

The reason discussions of social problems and correctness are difficult is because there is no safe way to fail and learn from feedback about a point of view.

By analyzing frontend analytics events we can derive the ‘hot paths’–sequences of actions users often take.

Transforms a language into data by lexing (separating the words into a sequence of tokens) and parsing (applying syntactical rules to the tokens).

An analog note taking system that emphasizes connections between atomic ideas.

It seems like we should have better options for a full fledged, on-demand dev environment, that lives in the cloud, available from any internet connection, and you only pay for what you need.

Overtly stating or doing something for the purposes of letting other people know your position on a social issue for fear of being looked down on.

User experience for a non-trivial web UI tends to degrade over time as more functionality is added and more engineers add to it.

The subjective quality of the user’s motivations and feelings towards the interactions with a product.

From an entry point uncover all of the possible actions a user could take in a user interface.

Main ideas: Powerpoint has low information density. Forcing to communicate using bullet points incorrectly emphasizes or deemphasizes key information (e.

A book by scientist J.E. Oliver on research and discoveries with thought on how to apply his approach more broadly.

*S*ituation *C*omplication *Q*uestion *A*nswer A way of structuring writing to clearly communicate an idea introduced by Barbara Minto in The Minto Pyramid Principle.

Mathematician and computer scientist. Important ideas: What matters is working on important problems or work on things that could lead to something important.

Physicist and author of ‘Surely you are joking Mr. Feynman’ who worked on the Manhattan project and won a Nobel Prize.

A sociologist famed for his prolific output–he wrote 70 books and 400 scholarly articles on a wide range of topics.

Acclaimed author that looks at the world in a unique way that’s very entertaining.

These days I wake up very early for the puppy ~5:45 AM so between getting the dogs ready and starting work I have about three hours.

Talk given by Richard Hamming as part of the art of doing science and engineering course.

A talk given by Richard Hamming about the art of doing science and engineering.

A lecture from Richard Hamming about creativity and how to cultivate it.

A way of predicting what a system is going to do next when you don’t have exact information (like most real-world things).

So much of technology is solving the problem of inter-operating between disparate systems e.

The process of generating a range input values based on some constraints to fully explore a programs handling.

Researcher who focuses on how to improve the productivity of knowledge workers.