The Sagan Series
A must watch.
Education
Effective learning: Twenty rules of formulating knowledge
Good principles for life. “Before you proceed with memorizing individual facts and rules, you need to build an overall picture of the learned knowledge. Only when individual pieces fit to build a single coherent structure, will you be able to… Read More »Effective learning: Twenty rules of formulating knowledge
Why Wikipedia cannot claim the Earth is not flat
Nice explainer how encyclopedias in general are supposed to work. “If Wikipedia had been available around the sixth century BC, it would have reported the view that the Earth is flat as a fact without qualification. It would have also… Read More »Why Wikipedia cannot claim the Earth is not flat
A Study Guide for Human Society, Part I
Good tips to get yourself educated. “My recommendation is to pick three very different historical periods that you find fascinating. They can be any three, really, but ideally they will be a bit separated from each other in space, time,… Read More »A Study Guide for Human Society, Part I
Read to Forget
I do the same. “From most texts, I only want two things: First, I want it to subtly alter my thinking, an incremental update that moves me towards a refined world model. Second, I want to pull out a few… Read More »Read to Forget
How to be yourself, when you have no self
Nonwestern look into being yourself. “To the question ‘Who am I?’, Confucius would like you to reply with your traditionally defined social role. As to how you should play that role, the ideal would be to emulate a well-known exemplary… Read More »How to be yourself, when you have no self
The Best Programmer I Know
Great principles, not only for programmers.
Derivatives, Gradients, Jacobians and Hessians – Oh My!
Nice quick explanation of hard to grasp concepts “An interesting thing about gradients is that when you calculate them for a specific point, they give a vector that points in the direction of the biggest increase in the function, or… Read More »Derivatives, Gradients, Jacobians and Hessians – Oh My!
Why Facts Don’t Change Minds in the Culture Wars—Structure Does
Facts are important, but they are not enough “The Church had mastered the art of narrative dominance, building a system of stories, symbols, and doctrines that made its authority seem natural and inevitable. The geocentric model was one of the… Read More »Why Facts Don’t Change Minds in the Culture Wars—Structure Does
Why Write?
Do you know your audience? “So the three reasons readers might not already know what you tell them are (a) that it’s not important, (b) that they’re obtuse, or (c) that they’re inexperienced.The reason I did this breakdown was to… Read More »Why Write?