tithe

> Without the pressure to speak amongst others, it became clear that I often said things out of anxiety

I can't go probably 100 words without saying something stupid or flat out contradictory. I'll think back to the conversation, realize I don't actually think or believe what I said, and wonder just what possessed me to say that and how many people I've alienated with words that I don't even believe or hold to be true!

Silence is one way to avoid making those mistakes, but that's me avoiding the problem, not actually solving it (and it would be nice to speak all the time in truth, with coherence, and consistent with what I believe), despite not having much to say in the first place, unless:

- to clear misunderstanding / requests ("Excuse me, but I think this is my seat.")

- to prevent harm / danger ("Look out!")

- civics / politeness ("Excuse me", "Good morning", "I'm fine, thank you.")

Henri Petroski in "To Engineer is Human" has a chapter about the advent of the calculator during the slide rule era, and that calculators (and later computers) eroded a structural engineer's "feel for the numbers", caused engineers to pursue work on the fringe of their abilities, and perhaps more seriously, limited their ability to verify the correctness of the computer's work (this was the era where, for the first time, a machine could perform orders of magnitude calculations more quickly than humans could). He outlines the collapse of the Hartford Civic Center [1] as a case study in when blindly trusting computer output goes wrong (and by sheer luck, no one was killed).

It feels like the example was cherry-picked, but the combination of "less accurate" and "more confident" made me immediately think of this disaster. I truly worry that it's going to take civilian deaths / liability before the proper use / place of these new technologies is adopted, but we could probably start with 1) not in safety critical systems, and 2) don't replace your specialists / experts with algorithms.

[1] https://www.engr.psu.edu/ae/thesis/failures/MKP/failures/fai...

How about professions that require licensing to practice (civil engineering, accounting, insurance, actuarial science, law, medicine, pharmacy, nursing), or work in the government sector (defense, military, municipal/state/federal agencies)?

Play video games while waiting to build 200 MB of JavaScript for a contact form!

I like that analogy, rules are pipes through which behavior flows.

Agreed, building something is just the first step.

One of the marketing struggles I've had is just getting people to care. I did have a bit of an "If you build it, they will come" attitude because I had confidence in the quality of the work...but even that seems to be irrelevant if you can't get people interested.

As an introvert by nature (extrovert by necessity), I wonder what I'm missing that others seems to grasp innately, because the consequences are fatal for an entrepreneur if you can't convince others to at least try the thing you're offering.

Just be careful if you believe the itch is the result of something you might be allergic to (e.g., food, or bug bites).

I had several bites from fire ants and ran them under hot water from the bath, which seemed to trigger (or accelerate) a full-body reaction (anaphylaxis?) and a harrowing trip to the emergency room!

> Seth Klarman, in Margin of Safety...

May I ask where / how you came about your copy? I've seen it mentioned several times but have found it difficult to locate. (For example, the used copy on Amazon is selling for $2000!)

I prefer his "brass tacks" writing style, but it's also interesting to compare the versions (Grillo-Marxuach is a screenwriter, after all).

Since the link above is for the "nice version", here's the link to the more colorful, not-so-nice version: https://okbjgm.weebly.com/uploads/3/1/5/0/31506003/11_laws_o...

Indeed Japan does: https://www.j-platpat.inpit.go.jp/d0100

Interesting! What kind of history class was it, that would include studying logical fallacies?

Personally, I enjoy detail-oriented activies, so software suits me just fine. But if I was going to switch to something else, I'd ask myself "What other detail-oriented industries could I thrive in?"

* Restaurant / hotel management (specifically, the atmosphere and ambience of a space)

* Architecture / architectural engineering

* Real estate development / planning

* Movie set dressing (!)

That's some serious...multithreading!

(I applaud others for resisting such cringe, but I just couldn't help myself.)

Why not just "So, how long have you been programming for?"

I'd interpret this question as "Does this person think I'm experienced enough for the work?" over explicitly wanting to know whether I began at a young age.

How about this one?

   "What do you call the number of times that one number can be divided by another?" A) Dividend, B) Divisor, C) Quotient.

And a minor UX nitpick: please wrap the input element inside of a <label> tag, it makes it much easier to interact with form controls (in that I can click on the text to mark the control):

      <label class="answer">
        <input type="radio" name="q4" value="wrong" /> Condensation
      </label>

To bypass the Bloomberg paywall in Chrome, add a dot after the TLD: https://www.bloomberg.com./news/articles/2024-08-25/boeing-c...

One colloquial term for the guillotine was (is?) "le rasoir national" = "the national razor."

Other colorful terms include "the regretful climb", "the silence mill", "Capet's necktie", "the patriotic shortener", "half-moon", "timbers of justice", and "Charlot's rocking-chair".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guillotine#Names_for_the_guill...