senatorhung's pad
ramblings of an information troubleshooter

another sunny day at the park

everything you need to know in life

• link of the day: 10 pearls gleaned from Charlie Munger's 1994 talk on Worldly Wisdom
  
  
  1. need multiple mental models from a wide range of academic disciplines: "You've got to hang experience on a latticework of models in your head."
  
  
  
  2. think in terms of permutations and combinations: "If you don't get this elementary, but mildly unnatural, mathematics of elementary probability into your repertoire, then you go through a long life like a one-legged man in an ass-kicking contest. You're giving a huge advantage to everybody else."
  
  
  
  3. accounting: "you have to know enough about it to understand its limitations - because although accounting is the starting place, it's only a crude approximation."
  
  
  
  4. get results from someone by telling them WHY: "Just as you think better if you array knowledge on a bunch of models that are basically answers to the question, why, why, why, if you always tell people why, they'll understand it better, they'll consider it more important, and they'll be more likely to comply. Even if they don't understand your reason, they'll be more likely to comply."
  
  
  
  5. psychology of misjudgement: "just as a man working with a tool has to know its limitations, a man working with his cognitive apparatus has to know its limitations."
  
  
  
  6. advantages of scale: "if you get a whole lot of volume through your joint, you get better at processing that volume. That's an enormous advantage."
  
  
  
  7. disadvantage of scale: "The great defect of scale, of course, which makes the game interesting - so that the big people don't always win - is that as you get big, you get the bureaucracy. And with the bureaucracy comes the territoriality - which is again grounded in human nature."
  
  
  
  8. technology: "discriminate between when technology is going to help you and when it's going to kill you. ... the huge productivity increases that would come from a better machine introduced into the production of a commodity product would all go to the benefit of the buyers of the textiles. Nothing was going to stick to our ribs as owners."
  
  
  
  9. getting an edge: "you have to figure out what your own aptitudes are. If you play games where other people have the aptitudes and you don't, you're going to lose. And that's as close to certain as any prediction that you can make. You have to figure out where you've got an edge. And you've got to play within your own circle of competence."
  
  
  
  10. investing: "There are huge advantages for an individual to get into a position where you make a few great investments and just sit back and wait: You're paying less to brokers. You're listening to less nonsense. And if it works, the governmental tax system gives you an extra 1, 2 or 3 percentage points per annum compounded."
  
  
  

suspension of disbelief

I can't have it
and you can't have it
and we won't
get it

so don't bet on it
or even think about
it

just get out of bed
each morning

wash
shave
clothe
yourself
and go out into 
it

because
outside of that
all that's left is
suicide and
madness

so you just
can't
expect too much

you can't even
expect

so what you do
is
work from a modest
minimal
base

like when you
walk outside
be glad your car
might possibly 
be there

and if it is-
that the tires
aren't
flat

then you get
in
and if it
starts-you
start.

and 
it's the damndest
movie
you've ever
seen
because
you're
in it-

low budget
and 
4 billion
critics

and the longest
run
you ever hope
for
is

one
day.

literacy and lawyers

  
"your billable time is your income,
your non-billable time is your future."

• link of the day: an aquatic epiphany - the writer spent 165 days swimming in the columbia river:

  When folks asked me what they could do 
  for their own creeks and rivers, I said, 
  "Shop for a clean river. Buy organic."
  
  When they frowned at such a glib answer, 
  I told them about the pesticides and 
  about my swollen lymph node, and I 
  pointed out that, in the aggregate, 
  their total lifetime food purchases 
  would likely dwarf their charitable 
  contributions to environmental causes. 
  
  "Look," I would say. "If you pay another 
  dollar for organic butter, you get cross, 
  sure. So why do it? Because you are not 
  just buying butter, you are creating an 
  economic incentive for farmers to stop 
  using the cancer-causing chemicals. 
  That means cleaner creeks, cleaner air, 
  healthier citizens, better wages for 
  laborers, and viable family farms."
  

is this world going to the dogs ?

• fontaine - francophone, independent of ISPs / registrars, open source developer
• wojtyra - 28, fine art major, web designer, P2P is fair, anonymized whois
• smith - emails should not be openly published on whois, personally supports P2P
• pearce - whois info should be protected, saskatoon-based

• top 10: beyond the farthest precinct, with sf/cyberpunk writer paul difilipo taking over the writing reins from alan moore
• the 3d and final issue (for now) of death jr. with ted naifeh's art
• bone sharps, cowboys & thunder lizards:
  
  "This is the story of Edwin Drinker Cope and Othniel Charles Marsh, two scientists who found and fought for dinosaur bones, and the artist Charles R. Knight who almost single-handedly brought dinosaurs back to life for an awestruck public."



• the final issue of nyx - it's been a *long* time coming ...
• the 1st issue of rex libris:
  
  "Rex Libris, Head Librarian at Middleton Public Library, travels to the farthest reaches of the galaxy in search of overdue books. He must confront powerful alien warlords who refuse to pay their late fees."

cleaning out the neighbourhood

the *man* is the mask

• franz ferdinand - "the dark of the matinée"

    "time every journey
    to bump into you, 
    accidentally"