swordsmith

Sounds a bit like Transcriptic, is this compilation process of protocols the distinction?

While that approach might help you understand how to code a technique, it doesn't do much to teach you to evaluate when and why to use a technique. You can read a bunch of tips on when to use something, but simply remembering these "facts" rather than being able to relate them from first principles is not efficient.

Granted after you understand the math, you no longer need an equation, but simply a mental picture of what is going on (for example, I remember linear regression with projection of data onto a line or plane).

After you have a good foundation, I found often-times you can then ignore the details of equations and see the relevant parts (different forms of Bayes rule, projections, chain-rule, etc) and arrive at the general idea of a technique.

The interesting and hard part is understanding the technique, and I think that is probably the most bang for your bucks, as I assume you are proficient in programming already.

Do 30 pushups during every compile cycle. Or any other body weight exercise.

Why should Ruby, Git and a bunch of other tools be in the default installation? If you are a developer installing it is easy enough. If I want a minimum dev environment, I don't want to go around searching and uninstalling a bunch of packages.

Convenience to development should be measured by how easy it is to install/access development tools when you need them -- such as how well the package manager work, not how much stuff the base system come with.

I was planning on going through Pattern Recognition and Machine Learning by Bishop, for those who have gone through this PDF, which do you think is more useful for learning data science?

Could you explain how you would do this? There doesn't seem to be an editable line, what's the trick?

This is actually pretty fun. Although my first reaction to the "white noise" hint was to pull up matlab and do a 2D-fft, figured it might show a picture.

Would never have thought contrast/brightness though :(

Thanks for the comment, you're right, my conclusion was definitely hasty and very much lacking reading it the second time. The 11 laws were illustrated through historical examples, showing how observance and transgression of each primarily resulted in the win/loss of power. I found it very interesting that Zuckerburg's rise illustrated many of these laws.

However, I don't think the laws outlined (or at least all of them) only apply to sociopaths. Law 2: Never put too much trust in friends, learn how to use enemies. This is just as defensive as manipulative, we would like to think our friends will always be loyal, but that's simply not true.

Law 3: Conceal your intentions. Law 4: Always say less than necessary. Law 6: Court attention at all cost. Marketing and public relations use these all the time.

Law 7: Get others to do the work, and you take credit. Indeed, this one breaks hearts and how we wish that no one ever does this. You can chose to play the game, or learn how it can happen to better defend against credit-stealing. If only Tesla was aware...

Law 9: Win through actions rather than arguments. I actually don't see anything sociopathic about this law at all.

Law 11: Learn to keep people dependent on you. Gaining early traction is pretty important for a startup's success.

Law 12: Use selective honesty and generosity to disarm your victim. This is mostly used in adversarial situations, more like a law of war rather than law of life. But again, "crush your enemy totally" is preached in Sun Tzu's Art of War, but the book is still a classic.

Law 13: When asking for help, appeal to people's self-interest, never to their mercy or gratitude. This is one of the tenet in Dale Carnegie's "How to win friends and influence people", simply explains human nature.

Like every piece of knowledge, the laws outlined in the book really depend on your own interpretation and how you apply them. It's similar to learning about security so you can protect yourself against exploits and make robust products.

I've been reading Robert Greene's 48 Laws of Power recently, and throughout this essay, I can't help but think just how all the "moves" Zuckerburg were accused (and infamous) of were exemplary of a number of these laws. Not trying to pass judgement on Zuckerburg's virtues or lack thereof (it's best to accept the inherent unfairness in life on the road to power), but he is a master of power plays:

Law 3: Never put too much trust in friends, learn how to use enemies. If only Zuck's "friends" knew about the first part of the law. Zuck was, however, a master in exploiting and gaining information from his "enemies". Further, he used what his competitions to frame what his product should be.

Law 4: Conceal your intentions. "Keep people off-balance and in the dark by never revealing the purpose behind your actions" -- apparent in both the Winklevoss and Greenspan's stories. Zuck misled and deceived until the right time.

Law 5: Always say less than necessary...classic Zuck, "There was a need for facebook, so I made it"

Law 6: Court attention at all cost. His fight to receive coverage in the Crimson ensuring the early dominance of thefacebook.

Law 7: Get others to do the work for you, but always take the credit. If any of the stories about facebook is true, then Zuck's a textbook example of observing this law. According to Greene: using other people's work "not only will [...] save you valuable time and energy, it will give you a godlike aura of efficiency and speed". Clearly it has worked to achieve his "genius" aura.

Law 9: Win through your actions, never through argument. He never let the lawsuits detract him away from the work too much. Now that facebook is too big, what actually happened really doesn't matter anymore.

Law 11: Learn to keep people dependent on you. Facebook is too big now...G_G

Law 12: Use selective honesty and generosity to disarm your victim. The part about facebook's frequent change and backtracks of privacy must has something to do with this.

Law 13: When asking for help, appeal to people's self-interest, never to their mercy or gratitude. Zuckerburg appealed to Greenspan's desire to help entrepreneurs when asking for advice. Also, his claim that Greenspan was one of those on his level can be seen more of a classic ego-stroking rather than admission of admiration.

Law 14: Pose as a friend, work as a spy. "Knowing about your rival is critical. Play the spy yourself to gather valuable information that will keep you a step ahead. [...] There is no occasion that is not an opportunity for artful spying". Yeah, Zuck's a master at this.

Law 15: Crush your enemey totally. Check.

So out of the first 18 laws, the rise of facebook and Zuckerburg have observed 11, textbook style. His amoral approach to power and life is definitely key to his success.

HN for programming and hacking.

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