shiny

I've often thought about this... is it really possible to live forever? Or does entropy (along with other factors like the accelerating rate of expansion of the universe) demand that at some point it'll all come to an end, regardless of how smart our AI offspring eventually become?

Yep, I keep a bunch of distracting sites in my /etc/hosts file (slither.io included) and even wrote a script to quickly block them all [1] ... but of course don't have a script to unblock them :)

[1]: https://gist.github.com/shmay/f09c0ce1c9f36064f7dc12b0b2331c...

What kind of changes would you like to see made to the app store?

Listened to that whole thing as well, and was just as frustrated. I prefer Brian Greene's 1 minute case for the absence of free will: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KBNzaXx6eKg

I'm a dev as well, and thus 'left brain' dominant, so I sometimes fantasize about buying a ticket to some foreign country and focusing on 'right brain' things like learning a language, writing, traveling, making videos, etc.

I've actually started to learn to Chinese in the past (through Pimsleur) and travelled to Taiwan where I could put it into practice. It was great fun, I miss it a lot, but ultimately I decided it's not as great an investment as learning programming stuff.

I think if you are going to learn a new language, it really helps to live in a country where you will need to use it. Do you have much desire to travel to and/or live in Taiwan or China? Also, the best language learning hack is to find a partner that's fluent in the language you are attempting to learn, and ideally doesn't speak your language so well, so you are constantly forced to converse in the other language. Not sure of your relationship status, but it's another thing to take into account.

I'm glad I started to learn another language. Even today, years after I've stopped actively learning Chinese, I still lookup Chinese phrases and can pick up small things when I hear people speaking it. Hell, not too long ago a waitress at a Chinese restaurant asked me 不要饭吗 (don't want rice?). I felt quite proud that I could answer back 要 (want).

One major drawback of learning Chinese is the massive number of characters (both simplified and traditional) you'd have to learn to read it, though if you are just speaking it that issue will be alleviated, but it always helps to know the characters.

That's another aspect of spoken languages - they are far more memorization heavy. As programmers, we need to focus more on learning concepts and principles, then quickly looking up specifics when needed.

When speaking a language you don't have time to look up words or phrases, so you're heavily reliant on memory, and in general there's just a lot of stuff to memorize.

Bit scattered and rambly, but hopefully this all helps in your decision.

Yeah, I've been doing Rails for work + side projects for awhile, and I love & appreciate it, but I keep sneaking glances at Elixir/Phoenix. Fast, concurrent-capable tests out of the box seems like a game-changer, for starters. Not to mention all of the cool, new (to me) concepts to nerd out on.

I'm fine sitting on the sidelines for now and letting the ecosystem mature, but will definitely be jumping in at some point.

Even as a millenial, save for GoT and some sports (though I find it pretty much impossible to sit through an entire ad-drenched sporting event anymore), I've completely stopped watching TV and movies, and YouTube is a go-to when I want to veg out.

Thanks to the Kindle, I still read. I also listen to a ton of podcasts.

So all of my consumption is veering away from the big players and towards smaller, niche players. I've noticed a similar trend among friends.

A digital bazaar has sprung up, and people are leaving the Cathedral for it, which is definitely a good thing imo.

I worked for a company that relied solely on Firebase for their backend... I ended up writing a lot of Node scripts to munge our Firebase db's data and JSON structure.

I really like the `deinit` construct that comes with ARC, which lets you know when an object is about to be deallocated. Makes it much easier to find memory leaks, imo.

Sorry for the confusion - I expect to spend money, but preferably not at Turbo Tax.

Dr Kodama - https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/dr.-kodama/id1060934796?mt=8

My first (iOS, very simple) game. Got to learn Swift and some basic game dev principles - was fun (save for encountering this issue: http://stackoverflow.com/q/24223572/548170). Thanks for trying and please hit me with any feedback if you got it.

> A month ago I was working from a cabin in the woods in Wisconsin.

OT, but has anyone else tried this? I've often fantasized about working while embedded in a beautiful nature setting, but I imagine it's tough to find good internet in such a place. I'm in California ... any recommendations?

I've also thought of copying Antony Garret Lisi's 'science hostel' idea [1] but for coders / entrepreneurs :)

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antony_Garrett_Lisi#Science_ho...

True, I misspoke, and thanks for the link. But Curson's stuff has made me rethink the practicality of heavy, slow lifting. He does think that it will slow you down.

Rippetoe is all about gaining weight and putting on muscle. Probably not practical for most people. I'd also be hesitant to teach yourself both how to deadlift and squat - I hurt myself doing both after reading Rippetoe, despite the detailed instructions.

Also, according to Nick Curson (coach of UFC Champion Rafael Dos Anjos) on the Joe Rogan podcast, heavy slow weight lifting is counterproductive for most sports [1] [2]

[1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJmYFlvKloE&t=26m18s

[2]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJmYFlvKloE&t=43m23s

Oak Ridge is working in tandem with a Canadian company to build a Molten Salt Reactor [1], and China is trying to build them as well. Seems pretty dumb to completely give up on a nearly-unlimited, potentially very clean/safe form of energy production.

[1]: http://www.forbes.com/sites/jamesconca/2015/01/07/nuclear-po...

They found debris from AF447 the day after it crashed. Nothing from MH370 has been found.

Alaska might be up for it.

Fusion is cool, but fission is easy and if used on Thorium in LFTRs[1], would provide us with virtually unlimited, passively safe energy that leaves extremely little waste.

Unfortunately it falls under the 'nuclear' umbrella and thus carries with it all of the baggage associated with that.

5 minute elevator pitch for the LFTR: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uK367T7h6ZY

Failing that, I don't understand why we can't just connect a pipe (like we do with oil) from one of our water rich states to CA.

But for whatever reason the state doesn't seem to be even considering any engineering solutions to the problem.

[1]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liquid_fluoride_thorium_reactor

In that case, Seattle's $15/hr minimum wage may help spur innovation in this space.

Nice, though when I login with G+ it doesn't seem to register it.

Or you could just eat pastured meat.

Tim Ferriss, on the Joe Rogan podcast [1], predicts a pandemic in the near future (around 28:45). Basically, he knows a guy who runs a biotech company who claims that they, if they wanted to, could engineer a virus within six months that could wipe out humanity.

I wouldn't say that it's the sole threat, however. Yudkowsky seems to take the threat of runaway AI quite seriously. These are crucial times.

[1] http://blog.joerogan.net/archives/3531

I use this, but cycling through all of my windows drives me crazy. I've found Witch (http://manytricks.com/witch/) useful for switching between windows, but it can be a bit slow to load -- I wish OS X had an inbuilt system like it.

A carb is a not a carb. Sucrose is composed of equal parts glucose and fructose, while starch is pure glucose. Fructose and glucose are two different 'carbs' and handled much differently by the body.

"But Smith was wrong. Every successful economy, without exception, has prospered by subsidizing key industries and protecting them from foreign competition. And nearly without exception, every developed society has then, with consummate hypocrisy, preached free trade to less-developed countries."

Comeon, really? That no country has practiced complete free-trade means Smith was wrong about free-trade?

How do you implement a socialist society correctly? Those indigenous societies (can you give some specifics?) probably did not operate under a socialist government banning property rights, but voluntarily worked together. There is nothing un-capitalist about this -- after all, capitalism is all about freedom (hence the title of Milton Friedman's first book), and people are free to do as they please. Even further, the people of these societies are probably closely related and thus more predisposed to help each other. It's not surprising large heterogeneous societies like ours don't operate the same way.

I saw "Inside Job" and did not come away with the same conclusions, and I think there is probably more to be said about one of the greatest banking crises in history than a 2-hour documentary. Indeed some poor regulations were factors in the crisis, but that does not mean that all regulations everywhere are good, and any kind of dis-regulation is bad. The internet seems to be operating fine without heavy regulation.

Well, you could take a semester/quarter off and see if this product is something that could work. You don't have to full-on drop out.

Honestly, from reading your post, it doesn't sound like you're getting too much out of college (at least educationally, dunno about socially). It may not be worth your time/money/brain power. College isn't a necessity for networking with like-minded people these days.

How easy are these countries to get into (and become a working member of their society)? I know Switzerland and New Zealand are particularly tough.

Try http://learnpythonthehardway.org/

Do you have a glossy screen? Switching from glossy to matte helped my eyes a lot.

I also use Flux on my mac, so perhaps that helps.