Sometimes I fall into the trap of thinking that working with a computer is the same as knowing how to read and write. My life is a life of video conferences, keyboard shortcuts, navigating in three-dimensional worlds, email processing, and a dozen more tasks that require mastery of a handful of programs and applications. It’s […]
Most books have a moral (or suggested action) that can be explained in two pages or less. So why write and read books? Because applying a solution without understanding how it was generated is what robots do. And sometimes, that is enough; sometimes we just need to know what type of screw to use, what […]
“One day, Yahya was out riding with the caliph Harun Al-Rashid. A man appeared before the caliph and said to him, “My mule is dead.” Upon hearing this, the caliph commanded that the poor man be given five hundred dirhams. But Yahya signaled the caliph to dismount, and then took him aside. “Father!” said Harun. […]
As people, we are an amalgam of biology and experience. Biology is directly deterministic. Experience is not. The possession of a particular set of data and the interaction of this set of data with a person’s biology is what will shape their personality, cognitive ability, tastes, choices, and everything that defines them as an individual. […]
What I wrote in a previous essay about learning is equally true for productivity. Working is admirable. Producing is admirable. It is the work, our work – work that brings new objects, ideas or systems to the world, or that makes existing objects, ideas, or systems remain properly functional – that adds value to everyone’s […]