flâneur

Tamseel Ahmad

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on the atlas — 182

highlights — 1025

  • Another test you can use is: always produce. For example, if you have a day job you don't take seriously because you plan to be a novelist, are you producing? Are you writing pages of fiction, however bad? As long as you're producing, you'll know you're not merely using the hazy vision of the grand novel you plan to write one day as an opiate. The view of it will be obstructed by the all too palpably flawed one you're actually writing.
    How to Do What You Love
  • Of course none of the code from my prototype ever made it near the real product (thankfully), but that code did something that fancy arguments couldn't do (at least not my fancy arguments), it showed that the idea and product had real potential. The point of this story, I think, is that you should consider spending less time talking, and more time prototyping, especially if you're not very good at talking or powerpoint. Your code can be a very persuasive argument. The other point is that it's important to make prototyping new ideas, especially bad ideas, as fast and easy as possible. This can …
    Paul Buchheit: Communicating with code
  • Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.
    Hanlon's razor
  • When I was younger the narrator used to convince me and I’d get carried away and try to solve my problems; I would have a miserable time. But one of the perks of getting older is that I have enough emotional experience now, so I trust that if I just take care of my bodily needs, the feelings and thoughts will sort themselves out—even if I don’t find that intellectually plausible in the moment. I will let the voice spin its stories for a few days while I sleep and eat and lay down with the 3-year-old on my belly. Slowly the narrator will become sane again.
    Modular life, meaningful work - by Henrik Karlsson
  • That's the entire system. Sticker sheets cost a few dollars, and there is no database, no server, and no app. The system that works is the one simple enough to do every day for four years.
    A Dot a Day Keeps the Clutter Away — Scott Lawson
  • Every box already had a label on the front with its category and the date I created the box. The new rule was simple: every time I open a box, I place one colored dot sticker near the label. That's it. Use the box, add a dot.
    A Dot a Day Keeps the Clutter Away — Scott Lawson
  • If I kept acquiring parts at this pace without getting rid of anything, I would eventually drown. I needed a way to figure out what was worth keeping and what should go, so the system can reach a steady state.
    A Dot a Day Keeps the Clutter Away — Scott Lawson
  • The two methods that seem to scale arbitrarily in this way are search and learning.
    The Bitter Lesson
  • the actual contents of minds are tremendously, irredeemably complex; we should stop trying to find simple ways to think about the contents of minds, such as simple ways to think about space, objects, multiple agents, or symmetries. All these are part of the arbitrary, intrinsically-complex, outside world. They are not what should be built in, as their complexity is endless; instead we should build in only the meta-methods that can find and capture this arbitrary complexity. Essential to these methods is that they can find good approximations, but the search for them should be by our methods, n…
    The Bitter Lesson
  • We have to learn the bitter lesson that building in how we think we think does not work in the long run.
    The Bitter Lesson
  • Reality is simply a collection of everything that impacts us (or could potentially impact us). And the only way for us to define it is via our tools and models. Models of reality (that work) is reality. Newton’s laws didn’t stop working (or, equivalently, being useful) once Einstein proposed relativity. Einstein simply expanded our repertoire of tools we have to intervene in reality.
    Usefulness grounds truth - Inverted Passion
  • So, truths are, ultimately, bets about what could turn out to be useful.
    Usefulness grounds truth - Inverted Passion
  • “The more you work, the more things come to you. It’s a very amusing function,” the sculptor writes. “You get into a good circle, where the more you make, the more you can do, and the more ideas come to you. And conversely, if you’re away from it, it’s very hard to get going again. And your stomach starts to hurt, and you get depressed. Then you just have to throw yourself into it, but that can be hard.
    On the compulsion to make art - by Henrik Karlsson
  • I found much more comfort in the stories of artists who fixed toilets but never got famous, and who did it anyway. It helped me remember that that cave man desire to populate the earth with your art is normal.
    On the compulsion to make art - by Henrik Karlsson
  • The process of strategy creation must indeed tackle the complexity of the world, but the output of that process is a document that frees everyone else from having to re-solve every puzzle.
    What makes a strategy great
  • Simplicity that ignores reality is reductive, but simplicity that arises from an exceptional summarization of having already processed the messy, complex world, is elegant.
    What makes a strategy great
  • The guiding question is: Which are the few issues where, if we solved them or took a huge bite out of them, but allowed all others to fester without any progress whatsoever, we would have substantially improved our velocity, or competitiveness, or team dynamic, or retention rate, or something similarly critical.
    Quarterly strategic planning using the fairytale structure
  • This is where the customer stops talking about her own life, her own problems, what features or price tag would be acceptable to her, and starts talking on behalf of other people.
    The Iterative-Hypothesis customer development method
  • Use your customers’ words, not your own. Discover those words, by recording the meetings and noting exactly what they say.
    The Iterative-Hypothesis customer development method
  • one technique is to ask them to describe, in painstaking detail, exactly how they will use the product in their daily life. When would they open it up, how does it fit into their workflow, which features do they invoke, how do they move the outputs into other systems? This works because while they really do mean “yes, I think that sounds good,” thinking it through uncovers barriers that in fact blocks the sale; it turns out they need it to integrate better with something, or they actually need a feature you weren’t contemplating, or some other hiccup.
    The Iterative-Hypothesis customer development method
  • Real patterns will stand out from that noise; that’s your fundamental truth, that you can build products and strategies around. There might not be much of it. All the more reason to highlight it.
    The Iterative-Hypothesis customer development method
  • When someone actually visits your pricing page in future, this is also the experience they will have⁠—reacting to a specific price. It’s smart to test what that experience will be like.
    The Iterative-Hypothesis customer development method
  • One group was shocked⁠—shocked⁠—that the price tag would be so high; they would never pay even close to that amount. Another group said they would only buy the service if it were much more expensive, because otherwise they know it couldn’t possibly fulfill its promises. (Those groups turned out to be emergent segments; see above.)
    The Iterative-Hypothesis customer development method
  • But in my opinion the price-tag is an essential component of the interview, because I believe the price is inextricably linked to what the product means to that person, therefore how they think about it and how it affects their life.
    The Iterative-Hypothesis customer development method
  • It’s also possible there’s nothing to learn because you’re fishing in the wrong spot
    The Iterative-Hypothesis customer development method
  • When the surprises stop, that means learning has stopped, and that means you should stop the process.
    The Iterative-Hypothesis customer development method
  • If you hear anything surprising, ask follow-up questions. Surprise means you’re learning
    The Iterative-Hypothesis customer development method
  • It’s important to list even the most obvious, mundane assumptions, because you’ll be surprised how often you’re wrong or they need adjustment, even if you’re an expert in the field.
    The Iterative-Hypothesis customer development method
  • The second reason to write down hypotheses is that, as we’re about to see, they will help us generate great interview questions.
    The Iterative-Hypothesis customer development method
  • People are more objective at seeking the truth when they’re forced to record their predictions⁠—for example as formal “bets”⁠—and observe how reality confirms or clashes with those bets.
    The Iterative-Hypothesis customer development method
  • Long before whole brain emulation, most of us already spend our days making countless glass-quiet commutes between us-west-2 and us-east-1.
    Zugunruhe - Aidan Smith
  • you learn the big ideas from the bottom up: you start by working hard on concrete examples, which are then generalized (often with help from others) into useful principles, honed by more work, and generalized again. The cycle is repeated and before you know it you will really know it.
    Those maps at the beginning of books, or, a few words about teaching « the jsomers.net blog
  • The key for me, again, is to scaffold only after I've got some meat, but still early enough to enable ample use of that scaffold.
    Those maps at the beginning of books, or, a few words about teaching « the jsomers.net blog
  • Good books are almost fractally deep: you find whole worlds wherever you look, and no matter how far in you zoom
    Most book clubs are doing it wrong « the jsomers.net blog
  • I spoke earlier about planting acorns so that oaks will grow. You can’t always know exactly where to be, but you can keep active in places where something might happen.
    You And Your Research · Gwern.net
  • If what you are doing is not important, and if you don’t think it is going to lead to something important, why are you at Bell Labs working on it?
    You And Your Research · Gwern.net
  • Darwin⁠ writes in his autobiography⁠ that he found it necessary to write down every piece of evidence which appeared to contradict his beliefs because otherwise they would disappear from his mind
    You And Your Research · Gwern.net
  • What most people think are the best working conditions, are not. Very clearly they are not because people are often most productive when working conditions are bad.
    You And Your Research · Gwern.net
  • Or rather, and this is the point: there was a gap. The gap has shrunk.
    Pseudonyms lets you practice agency - by Henrik Karlsson
  • The Gell-Mann Effect, also called the Gell-Mann Amnesia Effect describes the phenomenon of an expert believing news articles on topics outside of their field of expertise even after acknowledging that articles written in the same publication that are within the expert's field of expertise are error-ridden and full of misunderstanding.
    Gell-Mann Amnesia Effect | Loricism Wiki | Fandom
  • This, Glass thinks, lies at the heart of what art does: it takes everyday human perception and refines it through rigorous practice. Drawing forces you to look at the world—but it is the capacity to look that it is really about.
    The newness of depth - by Henrik Karlsson
  • My job is to figure out how she models the world in her head, not to teach her.
    Socratic dialogue with kids - by Henrik Karlsson
  • the way she thinks will change and converge on a better model as she struggles to be more exact
    Socratic dialogue with kids - by Henrik Karlsson
  • I’m simply trying to understand how she thinks.
    Socratic dialogue with kids - by Henrik Karlsson
  • But books that force us to talk about what we read to make sure that it makes sense to Maud—these books pull out our hidden thoughts so Maud can see them. And then she imitates us.
    Reading challenging books with kids is fun and probably useful
  • Not only do we need to not die of boredom. We also need to remember to fake that we are asking questions since the text is really too flat for any questions to arise.
    Reading challenging books with kids is fun and probably useful
  • Reading serious literature with kids makes the strategies that Collins et al suggested intuitive and obvious. You don’t have to plan exercises and be clever the way a teacher has to be (and most fail to). You can just be yourself.
    Reading challenging books with kids is fun and probably useful
  • there is nothing more painful to humans than our freedom, that we are responsible for everything we do, and so we long to submit to an authority
    A list of books and essays that I love - by Henrik Karlsson
  • All of the moments that no one else will ever remember
    The moments - by Henrik Karlsson - Escaping Flatland
  • In a normal play, you know where everything is going, so you can relax into the story; but here, you had to be on the edge of your seat, because you never knew which line of dialogue held the key to it all. Each night, Glass experienced the emotional climax in a new part of the play.
    The moments - by Henrik Karlsson - Escaping Flatland