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A word of warning
I just set this thing up to cross-post from LJ to FB/VK, but please note that I am unlikely to check those and respond to comments or messages.
Cheers,
Mike
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Galloway's career advice
Here's a video I randomly ran into. Some reasonably random guy giving "life strategy" advice: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMW6xgPgY4s
I don't agree with some of his points, but overall it seems like a valid approach. Life strategy is a bit like diet: no one really knows ( Read more... ) -
What would you do, if you did not have to do anything?
I ask this question of my colleagues, relatives or friends occasionally, not with the view to compile the list of the top-10 responses -- I require no answer and certainly don't insist on a truthful one -- but rather to get one to consider the question for themselves and maybe try to understand what their answer would have been, were they inclined ( Read more... ) -
The Black Peacock
I finally got around to the much-discussed Black Swan book by Taleb. If you have not read it, I advise against doing so, but if you feel like it anyway you might want to stop reading now -- there will be spoilers.The book is allegedly about low-probability high-impact events, which is what Mr. Taleb means by a "black swan". I disagree. I think the ( Read more... ) -
Reading List: Merchant Adventurer by Patrick E. McLean
The reason I read this one (well, one of the reasons, anyway) is that it happened to be available on Podiobooks free of charge. As you might know, I am somewhat aversed to paying for books I haven't read. As a matter of fact, I am one of those people who actually would pay after the fact if the product is good. I've done that with software, with ( Read more... ) -
Emperor's Edge by Lindsay Buroker
The subtitle proclaims the book to be a "high fantasy novel set in an era of steam". Personally, I am rather uncertain as to the amount of steam involved, at least as far as the figurative sense of the word is concerned. A more precise, albeit less exciting version would be "a love story in a fantasy setting ( Read more... ) -
Grand Budapest Hotel
If you haven't seen this one, I strongly recommend it. It isn't something one would watch for the sake of the plot alone, but the music is rather nice and I like the atmosphere it creates: a sort of quiet decadent melancholy, which overlays the whole story. A feeling of endless and passive journey, of passing by without touching ( Read more... ) -
Ender's Game (the movie)
It happened so that I've read the book(s) describing the events included in the film just before the film was out, so the following review has the traditional not-as-good-as-the-real-thing bias. Moreover, it happens that Orson Scott Card mentioned some of the work on the scenario and choice of actors in a postface to one of his books, which, ( Read more... ) -
Multitalking
One of my pet peeves is multitalking: multitasking involving talking to somebody, most often by phone or chat, although lately I observed (with amazement) several people actually doing that in a face-to-face conversation.
Do not get me wrong, I have nothing against talking while driving, cooking, working out or dining (though I myself find this last ( Read more... ) -
Small Chances of Big Ideas
As Research Whisperer says, there is an observable trend towards safe, incremental research. This is no news, at least to people doing organized research of any kind in a university or a government-funded lab. I believe the same goes for most private R'n'D labs, too. I don't want to dispute this point now. There is no way (at least, no obvious way ( Read more... )