espressomachiat

The amount of thought and awareness that goes into the experience of corresponding by letters seems like a bit of a lost "art" today.

What does turing complete mean?

>We know from painful experience that letting a third party layer of software come between the platform and the developer ultimately results in sub-standard apps and hinders the enhancement and progress of the platform. If developers grow dependent on third party development libraries and tools, they can only take advantage of platform enhancements if and when the third party chooses to adopt the new features. We cannot be at the mercy of a third party deciding if and when they will make our enhancements available to our developers.

Brilliant:

> Lisp has been out for 60 years

Thank you for this; always reminded of my favourite paragraph from pg's article:

>A friend who moved to Silicon Valley in the late 90s said the worst thing about living there was the low quality of the eavesdropping. At the time I thought she was being deliberately eccentric. Sure, it can be interesting to eavesdrop on people, but is good quality eavesdropping so important that it would affect where you chose to live? Now I understand what she meant. The conversations you overhear tell you what sort of people you're among.

It pays to be good seems to be one of the core philosophies.

>So I'm not suggesting you be good in the usual sanctimonious way. I'm suggesting it because it works. It will work not just as a statement of "values," but as a guide to strategy, and even a design spec for software. Don't just not be evil. Be good.

http://www.paulgraham.com/good.html

Exactly - within 30 minutes 20 people have upvoted but no one has commented.

>But I also sense an honesty in it that has already semi-convinced me to actually do it!

This subtle honesty is incredibly persuasive

There are so many lovely subtle references to the Old Beijing warmth and quirks (such as bellowing into the phone in a fancy cafe).