Interesting Links for 04-12-2014

[andrewducker]

• Stephen Colbert explains why the new lightsaber is awesome, and the haters are just wrong
  (tags: starwars )
• Laser pointers are obsolete - we have a new ultimate kitten toy
  (tags: cats lasers awesome )
• Medical histories, movies, and a script from Breaking Bad's creator - the Sony Pictures hack is as bad as it gets
  (tags: hacking sony epicfail

Comments

Why taking a ceramics class would be good for your procrastination problems

[cartesiandaemon]

I am adding this to my list of "wow, I didn't expect that headline to be accurate". That was actually really awesome. It reminds me of another similar essay about making pots, where there was one class told they'd be graded on the total weight of pots produced, and one class told they'd be graded on their best pot. The first class produced better pots.

That told me, my natural inclination to think everything through first was useful, but so was a drive to just throw yourself in as fast as possible and try lots of things, which I've tried to do a lot more.

Re: Why taking a ceramics class would be good for your procrastination problems

[andrewducker]

I rather like this Carmack quote:
"Focused, hard work is the real key to success. Keep your eyes on the goal, and just keep taking the next step towards completing it. If you aren't sure which way to do something, do it both ways and see which works better."

Re: Why taking a ceramics class would be good for your procrastination problems

[woodpijn]

I've been hearing stuff lately (from Scott Adams and others) suggesting goals can be counterproductive and systems are better.

Then again, I suppose despite the word "goal" the approach in that quote is more system- than goal-driven...

Re: Why taking a ceramics class would be good for your procrastination problems

[andrewducker]

Yeah, I think goals are useful if they give you something specific, but generally speaking you're best off focusing on making sure that your systems are healthy and allow you to work in a productive way that doesn't drive you mad.

Driverless cars

[drdoug]

a) driverless cars will one day seem as strange a way of describing them as horseless carriages. I can't believe I've only just clocked that.

b) One pilot is in MK, near where I live! I desperately want to be a test driver. Hold on ... they are not going to need test drovers.

Re: Driverless cars

[andrewducker]

They might need "test people to sit in them" though :->

And yes, I reckon that five years after generic driverless cars are available you'll start to see a massive societal switchover.

Re: Driverless cars

[naath]

Yeah, a few years of "too expensive for most people" before they get really going. I'm expecting it to get harder and harder to get (or keep) a license to actually drive a car the easier it becomes to get a car that doesn't need a driver.

Re: Driverless cars

[andrewducker]

Oh, I don't expect to _own_ one.

I expect driverless taxis to be the norm very quickly, and be around half the price of the kind with drivers.