December 2010
50 posts
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My Presentations post from 2009 →
According to Google Analytics, this 3500-word post I wrote in March 2009 to explain why most presentations are bad and that’s a choice made by the presenter is the most popular, and more enduringly so, of all the things I’ve blogged. Who says people don’t read long text on the web?
(It’s also my favorite post on presentations, but I may be biased in that assessment.)
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“We might choose Placido Domingo, for sheer tenor shamelessness, and epic...”
– Harping on the Past: A Christmas Tale
Following the Summer of no blogging with the Fall of no Blogging, Denk now breaks his silence with a funny, then sentimental, then insightful, then sentimental again christmas story
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“We might choose Placido Domingo, for sheer tenor shamelessness, and epic...”
– Harping on the Past: A Christmas Tale
Following the Summer of no blogging with the Fall of no Blogging, Denk now breaks his silence with a funny, then sentimental, then insightful, then sentimental again christmas story
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“If we were to take a peek at the Nachemson Chart, which is a measure of...”
– TonyGentilcore.com » Deadlifts Are One of the Worst Things You Can Do For Your Spine (He’s being facetious.)
He blinded me with Science! (Sorry, Thomas Dolby). But Tony is wrong. I’m now reading this at my “new” standing “desk.”
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“If we were to take a peek at the Nachemson Chart, which is a measure of...”
– TonyGentilcore.com » Deadlifts Are One of the Worst Things You Can Do For Your Spine (He’s being facetious.)
He blinded me with Science! (Sorry, Thomas Dolby). But Tony is wrong. I’m now reading this at my “new” standing “desk.”
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“Net Neutrality sounds like a good idea, but then, so do most new government...”
– Net Neutrality. Pfft. | Quick Hitts
To which I made the following comment:
Bringing in the government to solve an imagined internet neutrality problem is like filling your house with snakes to solve an imagined mouse problem. Assuming the snakes reproduce, expand their mandate, take over the...
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“There are two universal rules about people who work in software:
1....”
– Marginal Added Value
Not just for software, though for many other fields the lag time between (1) and (2) is significant and may be beyond the experience of most practitioners.
Statistics tools (and econometrics and machine learning) seem to have short (1) to (2) times as long as there’s...
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“Clearly, economists see theories in context larger than falsifiable predictions....”
– Falkenblog: Some Myths are Better than Others
Clearly Eric is not feeling the Holiday Spirit.
In his defense, though, while believing in Santa has almost no negative consequences — and creates the opportunity for a lot of tomfoolery by parents and, especially, grandparents— some...
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HBS Professor calls for the end of...
No. That’s cherry-picking what he wrote. But sometimes one wonders whether the old days of lecturing and exams weren’t better. Even when one is a well-known professor at Halberd Business School:
Here’s an interesting example in Clayton Christensen, Michael Horn, and Curtis Johnson’s book Disrupting Class. On page 4 (you can read that on Amazon.com from the book sample if...
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Some 2010 books worthy of mention
These are non-technical books I read in 2010 that I believe are worth paying attention to. It’s not a list of “Best Books,” most of which are biased by recency or popularity. It’s a personal list of books I liked.
Don’t Vote, It Just Encourages The Bastards, by P.J. O’Rourke.
The Rational Optimist: How Prosperity Evolves, by Matt Ridley.
The Forgotten Man: a...
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Some 2010 books worthy of mention
These are non-technical books I read in 2010 that I believe are worth paying attention to. It’s not a list of “Best Books,” most of which are biased by recency or popularity. It’s a personal list of books I liked.
Don’t Vote, It Just Encourages The Bastards, by P.J. O’Rourke.
The Rational Optimist: How Prosperity Evolves, by Matt Ridley.
The Forgotten Man: a...
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NASA Engineers Propose Combining a Rail Gun and a... →
Finally, a US maglev project that makes sense. (Though I’m sure there’s a lot to think about regarding air friction and structural issues with both ships.) A tip of the fedora to JWZ.
It’s a little disconcerting for a STEM publication to write that “A 240,000-horsepower linear motor converts 180 megawatts into an electromagnetic force.” Horsepower and megawatts are...
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The "treadmills in the movie theatre" problem and...
I occasionally exercise and I occasionally go see movies. When I’m exercising, I don’t want to see movies and when I’m watching movies I don’t want to do so on a treadmill. That’s why movie theaters have seats rather than treadmills. Not understanding this is why science fiction keeps losing viewers and readers. In short:
Stop trying to attract ancillary audiences at...
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The "treadmills in the movie theatre" problem and...
I occasionally exercise and I occasionally go see movies. When I’m exercising, I don’t want to see movies and when I’m watching movies I don’t want to do so on a treadmill. That’s why movie theaters have seats rather than treadmills. Not understanding this is why science fiction keeps losing viewers and readers. In short:
Stop trying to attract ancillary audiences at...
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“I don’t know if stupid people are becoming more plentiful or I’m just getting...”
– Welcome to Stupidville | Quick Hitts
Many examples of stupidity at the link. Final paragraph:
Ideally, the best way to deal with The Stupid is to just discontinue the conversation – either ignore them, or say “have a good day” and move on. I’m trying to do this more myself, but my baser nature...
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“I don’t know if stupid people are becoming more plentiful or I’m just getting...”
– Welcome to Stupidville | Quick Hitts
Many examples of stupidity at the link. Final paragraph:
Ideally, the best way to deal with The Stupid is to just discontinue the conversation – either ignore them, or say “have a good day” and move on. I’m trying to do this more myself, but my baser nature...
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“In my own youth, children played with chemistry sets, electric workbenches; we...”
– Mike Flynn’s Journal - Then You Saw it, Now You Don’t
(Hey, I had the same childhood, plus piano lessons.)
The end of science fiction, which the Original Poster forecasts, may not be nigh. What we need is some basic marketing knowledge inculcated into science fiction authors,...
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Statistics, networks, and other fun finds on the...
A collection of interesting papers I’ve read recently. Arxiv is over-represented, obviously.
Cooper and Barahona: “Role-based similarity in directed networks.” For them “role” is defined as similarity in the flow vectors for each node. So, maybe a little reductive on the common usage of “role” for nodes in various real networks.
Mira, Solgi, and...
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“In my own youth, children played with chemistry sets, electric workbenches; we...”
– Mike Flynn’s Journal - Then You Saw it, Now You Don’t
(Hey, I had the same childhood, minus telescopes, plus pianos.)
The end of science fiction, which the Original Poster forecasts, may not be nigh. What we need is some basic marketing knowledge inculcated into science fiction...
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“The code, which in fairness was written for temporary hires that interact with...”
– A Suitable Wardrobe
Will Boehlke describes the code:
black shoes with laces and a semblance of a shine;
pattern-free black over the calf hose except that socks with ribs are OK;
black belts (and no extra credit for trousers with side adjustors or worn with braces).
suits in dark grey, black...
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“The code, which in fairness was written for temporary hires that interact with...”
– A Suitable Wardrobe
Dynamic Endeavors Will Boehlke describes the code:
black shoes with laces and a semblance of a shine;
pattern-free black over the calf hose except that socks with ribs are OK;
black belts (and no extra credit for trousers with side adjustors or worn with braces).
suits in...
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Personal observation from day 16071
Last night, in a bout of nostalgia, I decided to watch Tim Burton’s movie Batman (1989). And noticed something:
Kim Basinger (35 in that movie) is more beautiful and feminine than any contemporary actress or model.
There’s no political or social statement involved in this observation, just a What The Heck Went Wrong? feeling. Isn’t time supposed to bring evolution and...
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“So the 92nd St. Y has determined that the course of its interviews should be...”
– Twitter / Steve Martin
Crowdsourcing gone wild! Steve Martin felled at 92nd St. Y!
The NPR has something to say:
But the way the Y respondedwas stunning. Not only did it chastise and undermine an interviewer and a guest in the middle of a live event, but the next day, it offered everyone who was...
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“The results were undeniably impressive. The effect of a few months of consulting...”
– Tim Harford — Article — A case for consultants?
In my experience, most consultants fall into one of four categories:
1. They bring basic business and management knowledge, which should be known by those in charge of the client organization but isn’t. That’s probably what happened in...
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“I am forced to read a lot of crap. As a reviewer of submissions to design...”
– Don Norman’s jnd.org / Why Design Education Must Change
Read the whole thing here at the Core 77 website.
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“Hint! If you replace phrases like “curves from metabolic studies” with just...”
– Medical researcher discovers integration, gets 75 citations « An American Physics Student in England
Kind of like when Economists rediscovered basic calculus in the XIXth Century under the name of “Marginal Analysis,” or when contemporaneous computer scientists discover basic...
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“[T]he IRS has no way of charging Stan O’Neal, a guy who came into a 100-year-old...”
– Philip Greenspun’s Weblog » Success of Wall Street and corporate looters will lead to inability of U.S. to support entrepreneurs?
As usual with Greenspun’s good pieces, read the whole thing for a complete argument.
For those who may think that what the IRS needs is more discretion...