mr_olive

Hah, I was dealing with this problem today.

My approach: Add entries for my localhost apps to `/etc/hosts`, and set up nginx as a reverse proxy.

Now when I go to `http://myapp.local` in the browser, `/etc/hosts` tells it to go to `localhost:80`. The http server sitting there knows which port to send the request to. I also made a systemd service that starts nginx automatically.

Now I have meaningful URLs for local apps, and I don't have to remember which one is listening on which port.

On the contrary, in my experience such stateful APIs are a great use case for state machines. You just approach them differently. Instead of doing a blocking call, you introduce a "waiting for <something>" state. You leave the "blocking" state when the correct event comes, or after a timeout. And while you are waiting for the event, you don't just burn CPU cycles, but yield control quickly, so that other threads can execute in the meantime.

The "Pale Blue Dot" photograph strikes the same chord for me. Carl Sagan's reflection on it can be especially moving [1].

[...] The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that in glory and in triumph they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. [...]

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pale_Blue_Dot#Reflections

There's a whole (short) chapter on changes in "Peopleware" [1].

I've just skimmed through it, here are the key points I've found:

1) Change is not a single step. It involves several stages, one of them being chaos.

2) Chaos implies that things look worse than they used to be. People feel less comfortable and want to go back to old ways. Their reactions are emotional, not rational.

3) "You never improve if you can't change at all"

I recommend entire book. If you work in software business, I think you should know it.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peopleware:_Productive_Project...

I think it's only partially true. Technology products may get pretty depending on who is the consumer. Computers, phones and cars get nice exterior design, because the "general public" uses them, and they are, as you said, sold on looks.

But consider industrial machines and buildings: mining machinery, electronics assembly lines, car factories and oil mining platforms. No matter how mature an industry branch is, machines are not being built to look nice. And warehouse buildings are just huge, gray, ugly-as-hell boxes. This is because there are many other constraints, machinery gets expensive, and there's simply no use for aesthetics.

So I think that spaceships may get nice exterior design if a lot of people (think millions) is going to be buying them. If the consumer group will be small, we will get aesthetics closer to cargo trains. Which, in my opinion, is awesome anyway.

And yes, I too think that ISS looks great as it is.

These radiators exist specifically to deal with power which has already been used. As stated in the article, the station needs a few kW of electrical power. Eventually all this power ends up as a waste heat energy. There is nothing that can be done with it, so it has to be dumped into space.

I second the OP. The "emotional" motivation has brought me quite far in my life. I always enjoyed learning. I got into programming because it was easily triggering the "reward circuits" in my brain. But as life follows, there are more and more things that need to be done, but require quite some mental effort to start.

So I decided it is time for a paradigm shift. I would rather do things I consider worth doing, instead of doing those that my brain finds attractive and immediately rewarding. I am following this paradigm for a few months now, and can confirm that satisfaction coming when the job is finished is truly rewarding.

Related reading: "The obstacle is the way", by Ryan Holiday. A very concise introduction to stoicism philosophy. The life approach presented by the author has many common points with those of OP.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18668059-the-obstacle-is...

Nobody has mentioned it yet, so I feel obliged to link keyboard.io: http://www.keyboard.io/

They are currently in prototyping phase and they expect to go to Kickstarter this summer. I'm not from their team, I only want a good keyboard and this one looks promising.

I also own a Das Keyboard and I absolutely love the feel. But this "traditional" layout is just not good enough for today's typing-intensive professions. I have already experienced first RSI symptoms on both of my pinkies, so I'd like to try a true ergonomic keyboard.