December 2010
15 posts
24.) Don’t give the Joneses a second thought. You haven’t seen their credit history.
25.) Programming is the new literacy. …or, at least, if not programming, then the ability to fluidly adapt technologies to specific situations. Thanks to the ubiquity of technology, tomorrow’s generations will be stratified according to the depth of their understanding of technology. Don’t believe me? Go browse the list of programming gurus who top Forbes’ list of...
23.) When two people share something, let one person do the dividing, and let the other choose their portion first.
22.) Live beneath your means. Far beneath your means. At some point in most people’s lives, they realize that their possessions have become a hinderance, rather than a comfort.
21.) Whenever a heated debate erupts over a question of “either / or,” the answer is almost always “both / and.” Creation or evolution? Did anyone ever stop to consider how insipid it would be for an omnipotent and omniscient being to create a static and unchanging race to inhabit an ever-changing world? I personally like to think of this as the “brunch...
Connected
So here it is, Christmas weekend, and everyone’s thoughts are turned to friends and family, and the connections that make up the community of which we are each a part. I suppose, to most people it’s funny that I reduce such transcendent ideals as “family” and “community” down to their most simplistic technological analog, but it’s only natural to me,...
What You’ll Wish You’d Known
Any high schooler will tell you, if they’ve been asked once, they’ve been asked a thousand times. “Well, what do you want to do with your life?” One student found an answer to that question in the excellent Paul Graham essay, “What You’ll Wish You’d Known.” He wrote about how the essay inspired him in an article entitled “What a High School Student Learned from...
20.) Set aside one day a year to do something that makes you feel like a little kid. Halloween is a particularly good choice, but pretty much any day will do.
19.) It no longer matters who originated content. It’s who disseminated it.
18.) If you’re over eighteen, always have a suit ready. The world expects it.
Achieving Techno-Literacy
One of my all-time favorite tech writers, Kevin Kelly, published an excellent piece in New York Times Magazine entitled “Achieving Techno-Literacy.” In it, Kelly discusses what he learned about technology from homeschooling his 8th grade son for a year. It’s really worth a read, but here’s the meat of the piece:
Technology will change faster than we can teach it. My son...
Connected
So here it is, Thanksgiving weekend, and everyone’s thoughts are turned to friends and family, and the connections that make up the community of which we are each a part. I suppose, to most people it’s funny that I reduce such transcendent ideals as “family” and “community” down to their most simplistic technological analog, but it’s only natural to...
17.) Adventure begins with trouble. Adventure can’t be scheduled and it isn’t the product of a well-laid plan executed as expected. Adventure happens when you get lost, when you have no idea what you’re doing, when you’re forced to rely on complete strangers to save yor ass, when all your plans are ruined, when you get caught in the rain, and when you end up in deep...