Moore’s Law (general form) The amount of a computing resource (memory, processor power, network bandwidth, etc) you can buy with an inflation-adjusted dollar doubles every two years. Wirth’s Law Software gets slower, faster than hardware gets faster. Clarke’s Three Laws of Prediction When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is [...]
That was, by the way, my 100th post on Explorations. As I’m posting this, Sitemeter says I’ve had 1,366 visitors.
If something is possible now, it will remain possible ten years from now. If something is barely possible now, it will become possible ten years from now. If something isn’t really possible now, it won’t become possible in ten years. Corollary: If something isn’t really possible now, but “should be possible” ten years from now, [...]
If you think you have a complete grasp of a subject, you are probably wrong. — “Prometheus“
When Gautama realized his Enlightenment, as I’ve written about before, he “saw through” the whole problem he’d set out to solve: why do things suck so? Why is everyday life so unsatisfactory? Technically, why is there duhkha? The answer he saw is called the Four Great Truths. Go ahead, follow the links, it won’t hurt [...]
If you want to understand the behavior of a person or group, look for what rewards that behavior. You will invariably find something, but i may be something unexpected. If you want to encourage a behavior in a person or group, find a way to reward it. If you want to discourage a behavior, decide [...]
Lawyer, n, a professional who has undertaken years of training in the notion that any position, no matter how idiotic, is true as long as (a) he wants it to be true, or (b) he’s getting paid by the hour by someone who wants it to be true.
… you need a filter: someone has to decide what to publish, and has to make those decisions based on how many copies they expect to be able to sell. Those people are called “editors,” and their job is to read all the incoming material, decide what is going to have the best chance of [...]
If you can’t decide between two choices, flip a coin. Then, before you look at the coin, observe which choice you are hoping for. Take that one. Put the coin away.