In his book The Signal and the Noise, Nate Silver (of FiveThirtyEight fame) uses an analogy of hedgehogs and foxes to represent different kinds of thinking: “The fox knows many little things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing.” Nate brings up the fox or hedgehog in the context of forecasting socio-political events, but I … Continue reading Hedgehogs with Hammers and Foxes with Boxes
Category: Personal Practice
The Gas and Brakes Model of Behavior
Some software developers are eager to get home from work and pick up a programming side project: exploring new technology, learning skills, or just messing around and making things. I was never one of these developers. I have a few half-hearted attempts: an out-of-date personal website with a gray and blue color scheme and a … Continue reading The Gas and Brakes Model of Behavior
Top 5 Books of 2020
1. Uncanny Valley by Anna Wiener: When a book shakes your identity to its foundation, it deserves the best book of the year slot. Uncanny Valley is a memoir of Anna Wiener’s plunge from the NYC literary world into the Silicon Valley tech world. She manages to reveal the deep flaws of tech culture without … Continue reading Top 5 Books of 2020
Top 5 Books of 2019
1. Algorithms to Live By: The Computer Science of Human Decisions by Brian Christian and Tom Griffiths: There are few books that I wish were longer when I got to the end of them, and this is one of them. Lighthearted and easy to read (disclaimer: I have a degree in computer science. I still … Continue reading Top 5 Books of 2019
Top 5 Books of 2018
Paying penance for procrastination. One unexpected upside to doing these top 5 book reviews years later is that I can see which ideas have really stuck with me. 1. Aphro-ism by Syl and Aph Ko: Explores the connections and interrelations between the structure of racial and species oppressions through a series of essays and letters … Continue reading Top 5 Books of 2018
Top 5 Books of 2017
Paying penance for procrastination…these are my favorite books from four years ago. I can’t say I entirely remember my reasoning, but I’ve done my best to reconstruct what I can. 1. Where is Your Body? by Mari Matsuda (reread 2018): A remarkably friendly critical race theory book (wikipedia def: a theoretical framework in the social … Continue reading Top 5 Books of 2017
Speed Reading Evaluation
The promise of speed reading is alluring, but does it work? For questions like these, I have a coterie of self-help experts (1) whose opinions I trust, or at least trust to get me pointed in the right direction. Some (Steve Pavlina, Tim Ferriss) are huge fans of speed reading. Others focus more on the … Continue reading Speed Reading Evaluation
No Rest November
Over the past 18 months, I’ve done ten 30-day habit trials to see what life would be like with less sugar, more exercise, and fewer digital distractions, among other things. A typical trial will involve picking an area to focus on, setting rules, and preparing any supporting materials I’ll need throughout the month. One of … Continue reading No Rest November
The Pragmatic Philosopher 