With the new year still wet behind the ears, what have you decided to learn about?
Of course I am currently reading Real World Haskell (just took a break to read HN), so its not quite the start I wanted, but hopefully learning Haskell will bring me to a closer understanding of the math behind programming
Less multi-tasking - I started this a week ago, when I was working I switched off the twitter client, the email, and the phone. And I got so much more done with so less effort.
Finding myself - More time meditating, and writing (like a journal). Time over the last 2 years has flown by and I feel like I have nothing to show for it. Meditating had always helped me compose myself, not to mention it will help with finding the "zone" (Along the lines of less multi-tasking)
More hacking, actually putting what I learn to metal. I tend to be academic in nature, but deep inside I know I that its when I put it to use that it really resonates with me
Finally, just being happy. Fretting over every new technology that I feel I just have to know about gives me the satisfaction of knowing about it, without getting enough depth to "know" it.
Go back to the basics - This year, there is only book that I want to read - SICP.
More broadly, my goal is to learn about bringing a business to life. Having quit my day job and switched to consulting in the last year, I'd really like to start exploring new opportunities that could make money while I sleep.
- dedicate an hour a day to nothing but reading
- ditto for exercise
- finish the MIT opencourseware course on intro neuroscience (scored the textbook on eBay for $14)
- start a software project and bring it to being released
- build an arduinome if finances permit
- learn to dance
- finally complete my pilot's license and get a glider certification (again, finances permitting)
- go climbing outdoors as much as possible, time and weather permitting.
- figure out what I want to do professionally for the next few years (current job obligation ending summer)and if either of you decide to build one consider building them commercially. there is currently a bit of demand for the Monome & possibly the arduinome ~ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monome
After that, I want to focus on polish. I too often focus on the end result but I'm bad at getting to the done-done stage - specifically, UI/UX.
Non-technical: 1. Set better goals. I'm am freaking awful at setting goals. Need to focus on and experiment with setting goals.
As far as technical stuff goes I'd like to go through SICP - I had a small exposure to lisp years ago and would like to try it out again.
I'm also going to be doing some courses with the UK's open university (distance learning) - a math refresher and a course on processors/hardware.
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=415683
Someone who likes to read a lot elsewhere in cyberspace just recommended to me the Becker-Posner blog.
http://www.marginalrevolution.com/
http://bigpicture.typepad.com/
For Development/Macroeconomics two great ones (besides Becker/Posner) are Greg Mankiw & Danny Rodrik
http://gregmankiw.blogspot.com/
Mankiw is a bit more traditional than Rodrik, so they tend to have some great back & forth, and when the discussion jumps above college-level they tend to link/explain things. </econ nerd>
Parents are meant to make decisions for their children and children are meant to do things they don't want to do if it's ultimately advantageous. That people think otherwise scares the bejesus out of me, but perhaps explains why kids are so pampered and spoiled nowadays.
Citations: http://www.faqs.org/abstracts/Social-sciences/Are-young-chil... http://ideas.repec.org/a/jdm/journl/v2y2007ip225-233.html
If things are going right, sometimes he'll want to have a discussion. Other times he'd rather just do what you said without understanding it, so he can proceed now (nothing wrong with that if it's voluntary). And other times, just let him do it his way, if it won't be a huge disaster, and he can learn something from his mistake, and about how good your advice is.
People all the time come up and say they already do the stuff on the TCS website. So far the rate of that being true is exactly zero.
PS I do not like psychologists.
The reason the things I'm advocating are especially worth consideration is that they are in line with long standing traditions our society already places very high value on, such as individual freedom and happiness, and control over one's own life.
If you substitute in someone with the same level of rationality and decision making skills as a young child.. let's say.. a meth addict, does it still work?
Sure, there are some kids - especially older ones - who can take part in discussions and come to logical conclusions, but this is a learned skill over many years. The ability to take control of yourself and be rational is very much part of the definition of being an adult.
Asking a 4 year old kid if he wants to go to school or not is not rational parenting and a child should not make those sorts of decisions.
I remember thinking a lot of things were unfair as a kid and thinking I could make better decisions than my parents - and I was considered a pretty smart kid. Now I'm of my parents' age, I know I was mostly wrong. Adults and parents are there for a reason. They can make skilled judgments, and kids can't.
I just apply them to a minority group that you don't recognize as fully human.
Ned's Dad: We can't do it, man! That's discipline! That's like tellin' Gene Krupa not to go [starts banging on the desk] "boom boom bam bam bam, boom boom bam bam bam, boom boom boom bam ba ba ba ba, da boo boo tss!"
Ned's Dad: We don't believe in rules, like, we gave them up when we started livin' like freaky beatniks!
Dr. Foster: You don't believe in rules, yet you want to control Ned's anger.
Ned's Mom: Yeah. You gotta help us, Doc. We've tried nothin' and we're all out of ideas.
You don't want to find ways to reduce (or eliminate) taxes, without any negative side effects?
You wouldn't approve of a way to deliver vaccinations that hurts less than a needle? (Personally I don't mind it, but some people do.)
You wouldn't approve of finding a way to let people travel faster? One without negative side effects, of course.
You seem to be advocating for the status quo, and denying improvement is possible.
You have never met a TCS-raised child. Why do you think that TCS, which you have never encountered, will without doubt produce this stereotype of teenager, which you have encountered often?
I live in one of the richest counties in the US. (formerly #1 actually). I see children raised like this ALL THE TIME. It is far more common to see a parent explaining themselves to a child who is throwing a tantrum than it is to see a parent putting their foot down. These children grow up totally unprepared for a world that does not make every concession to their current mood. With the exception of the ones who have trust funds (quite a lot around here) and thus don't ever have to face the real world, these kids almost universally wind up as only semi-functioning adults.
I'd go so far as to say that it is inflicting environmental retardation on your child. You job as a parent isn't to be your child's friend. It is to socialize them and prepare them for life. If you want to be friends, you'll have to wait until they're an adult.
I don't think I'd want to be friends with a person who had hurt and coerced me all my life. As for socializing, 'no man can use his brain to think for another man'. A parent can't socialize their child. The child must socialize themselves. The parent can only either persuade their child, trying to help them, or else coerce them, that is, harm them.
One of these is the attitude of a human, the other of a monstrous tyrant. It is always alarming to hear a person say that for the individual, tyranny is the only way to a successful outcome, when time and time again it has wrecked whole societies who together were unable to withstand its corrosive effects.
Before you buy any books on parenting strategies, you need this book:
http://www.amazon.com/Doggy-Picture-Book-Thingy-Things/dp/07...
I'm currently working through a new book called Applied Cryptanalysis - Breaking Ciphers in the Real World and plan to fill in the math as needed from other sources.
Like many other people I also have SICP on my list and it will remain there until I have finished it including most of the exercises.
I have also been learning Haskell over the last year and plan to continue using it as much as possible, especially for mathematical oriented projects such as implementing attacks from the cryptanalysis book.
More seriously, I want to read SICP seriously and play again with Ocaml (I used it quite a bit in university and really liked this language)
On things outside of programming, I'm going to get my chinese back into shape...
2, Learn how to network with people and start a company and apply to Ycombinator for the summer 09 cycle.
Also, read the source code of sites you like or to see how novel effects work.
This should be (almost) everything that you'll need.
2. And maybe the Guitar. I'll start by learning to tune it first, which was the reason it's gathering dust in the first place.
If the strings are hard to keep in tune you will want to replace them. In that case google "change guitar strings".
Then you search "smoke on the water tab", and you should be good from there.
It takes some practice until you realize you really have to tune all six strings at once until everything is tuned approximately right. Then you can fine tune on a string-by-string basis.
I don't know how statistics was taught to you in college, but I find
http://statland.org/MAAFIXED.PDF
a very inspiring article about how statistics ought to be taught, and it includes recommendations of better textbooks, some of which are quite readable for self-study.
Here's another good critique of how college statistics courses are usually taught:
http://repositories.cdlib.org/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=10...
Physics is "natural philosophy", one branch of philosophy. There is also philosophy of knowledge, existence, morals, political philosophy, etc.