The Random Walk Theory of Measurement

What a great post. All of my biases tend in the direction described here:

The true score theory, or true measurement theory, postulates (and it is only a postulate) that a measurement value is the sum of a true value and a possibly random error : .

This postulate has an interesting consequence that I have rarely seen discussed. Suppose, as was the case in our pre-service teacher’s measurement process that measurements were carried out in a sequence, one ...

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How to manage a tech career

Interesting. This guy worked at AI and Huge. I’ve had friends work at both places.

Autonomy and women in business

Interesting.

I would never turn away an opportunity to be recognized as a powerful woman, but I do question the value of these “Power” lists. At best, I can learn from them how women maneuvered in male-centric industries. What I’d really like to know is how women discovered their unique niche in the world and built lives that sustained their vision.

In his book Drive Daniel Pink identifies AUTONOMY as a primary motivator in the workplace. We don’t all need to ...

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Motherhood: the list

Interesting.

Am I a bad mother if…

I’m typing this while an infant is feeding on my right boob?

I forgot to ask you to wash your hands before holding the baby?

I stick a finger in her mouth to suck when she’s tantruming and there’s no Purell in sight?

I pee while I’m wearing her?

I eat while I’m wearing her, and you can find granola crumbs and errant drops of the frozen yogurt in the folds of her neck?

I have a three wet-fart rule? ...

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Growing apart from old friends

An odd post from Sebastian Marshall, about growing apart from old friends. I disagree with most of this – I think all people tend to grow apart with time, and it does not matter if some are “improving” or not. But it is an interesting post, just like anything that Marshall writes.

Employees who suffer Stockholm Syndrome

Interesting:

Hopefully nobody reading this is literally being held hostage right now. If you are, good luck!

For the rest of you, why might I suggest that you are suffering from Stockholm Syndrome? Because employment relationships can manifest themselves in this very way.

In the article, Love and Stockholm Syndrome: The Mystery of Loving an Abuser, Dr. Joseph Carver says that the following four situations serve as a foundation for the development of Stockholm Syndrome:

The presence of a perceived threat to one’s physical ...

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Can the USA drive cowardice out of politics?

Tim Bray complains about the stupid things the USA does because of the panic it has suffered since 9/11.

The saddest thing is how much this fear has undermined and destroyed the Republican Party. Starting with the election of 1948, the Republicans began to realize they could get votes by stoking fears of overseas threats. Very slowly, over the decades, the Republican party got increasingly addicted to the boost they could get through this tactic. And, because of it, they went ...

Category theory offered programming insights in 1965

I just got done reading John Derbyshires book, The Unknown Quantity, which is a history of algebra. Derbyshire starts with the Babylonians in 2000 BC and then he narrates the advances in algebra up to modern times (to 2006). He sounds somewhat skeptical about whether or not Category Theory ever had any practical usefulness. However, this article from 1965 seems to suggest that, yes, Category Theory did at one offer some practical insights into programming. I am using the word ...

Patterns of prime numbers

I like this. Spiral images that map prime numbers.

A snow storm

We had a bit of a snow storm the night before last. Here are some photos of taken just outside my apartment building, during Monday morning, and then another photo take 12 hours later, on Monday night:

Although the storm had stopped the day before, the wind on Monday was so intense that new drifts continue to gather.

The tech scene in New York is running hot

It’s a good time to be a programmer in New York City.

What is an introvert?

I have never been able to buy into the idea that introverts are people who find other people tiring. I am an introvert but I am happy to spend most of each day hanging out with friends. I might be able to agree that introverts find strangers tiring. The process of getting to know someone requires effort. I could live with that definition. All the same, I found this interesting:

Do you know someone who needs hours alone every day? Who ...

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Microsoft loses billions of dollars on its online division, and no one seems to care

The lack of discipline that has crept into Microsoft is nicely summarized here:

It’s an unbelievable chart. I’ve had to stop writing several times just to look at it again.

I’m certainly not arrogant enough to claim I know how to fix an entire division. But I can look at this and ask some basic questions:

Who in senior leadership has earned promotions or raises during this time? I’m not saying this is impossible, but it does deserve some serious explaining.

What fundamental assumptions ...

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What about dumb people who are energetic? Do they do harm or good?

Interesting:

Why would someone support a presidential candidate without knowing their positions? Why would someone want their children to have an ignorant but effective teacher? Why would someone want a programmer who is proficient at producing bad code?

I don’t think anyone wants these things, though they do lose sight of their goals. People like charismatic presidents, good teachers, and productive programmers. But it’s too easy to fall into reductionism, focusing on elemental components and losing sight of how the big picture.

By ...

What is it like to have suicidal depression?

Interesting.

Americans over-estimate how much money the poor have

And Americans underestimate the percentage of wealth in the US that is held by the top quintile.

Ellen Beldner on gender

2 posts over at Ellen Beldner’s blog that I just stumbled upon:

Regarding attire:

Recently, every time I get dressed to go out — heels, skirt, jewelry — it strikes me how incredibly non-functional are the clothes that make women look feminine, especially in high fashion. When I wear heels I can’t run, I have to take small steps, I have to balance carefully, I have to take cabs. Small evening-appropriate bags are absurd: I can rarely fit keys, phone, wallet ...

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The USA has a drug problem

Terrifying:

A few years ago I was managing the night shift at a call center when one of the CSR’s came bursting out of the stair well onto the main floor and yelled “They’re searching everyone in the parking lot.” They were the cops, the searchees were our employees leaving work. A few days before someone had allegedly been mugged in that parking lot. The center director called the local sheriff and asked them to keep an eye on the lot ...

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Glassdoor is a place where employees post reviews of companies

I never heard of this site before, but this negative review of Netflix is interesting. This goes against most of what I’ve heard about Netflix up till now. The critical tone is hard to make consistent with the continuing success that Netflix seems to enjoy.

Too many new ideas will kill a startup

Interesting.

Researchers discover evidence of a multiverse

Some evidence of a multiverse.

It is a little sad the way good words get ruined sometimes. They start off with meaning X and then, for a few decades, they become closely identified with concept T. After awhile people realize that T is just a subset of what X used to mean, but by now the word that used to refer X now refers to T. So a new word needs to be invented to refer to what X always ...

A list of startup incubators

I might apply to some of these.

Politics leaves me lonely

Orwell writes about the dramatic swings in opinion among his comrades on the left:

Here were the very people who for twenty years had hooted and jeered at the ‘glory’ of war, at atrocity stories, at patriotism, even at physical courage, coming out with stuff that with the alteration of a few names would have fitted into the Daily Mail of 1918. If there was one thing that the British intelligentsia were committed to, it was the debunking version of war, ...

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Orwell: the worst truth about atrocities is simply that they happen

Orwell writing about the lies about atrocities, and about people’s willingness to believe or disbelieve depending on who is speaking.

But unfortunately the truth about atrocities is far worse than that they are lied about and made into propaganda. The truth is that they happen. The fact often adduced as a reason for scepticism — that the same horror stories come up in war after war — merely makes it rather more likely that these stories are true. Evidently they ...

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People who have something to lose

Orwell, on the kind of people drawn to fascism.

When one thinks of all the people who support or have supported Fascism, one stands amazed at their diversity. What a crew! Think of a programme which at any rate for a while could bring Hitler, Petain, Montagu Norman, Pavelitch, William Randolph Hearst, Streicher, Buchman, Ezra Pound, Juan March, Cocteau, Thyssen, Father Coughlin, the Mufti of Jerusalem, Arnold Lunn, Antonescu, Spengler, Beverley Nichols, Lady Houston, and Marinetti all into the same ...

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