ideas now and then
I'm an avid user of Pocket, a useful app that stores and recommends content. When I started using it, the recommendations were wide-ranging, interesting and from lots of sources. I started saving articles from the recommended feed. Over time, the range of topics narrowed: lots of philosophy, politics and productivity. The range of sources narrowed: …
Continue reading "My view on why Facebook gives people cats (i.e. why I can’t use it anymore)"
"What moves the evil man is the love of injustice" John Rawls I want to let Rawls' Veil of Ignorance drape my eyes when I think about systems. This post is about what happens when that poorly tied Veil slips - when biases, weaknesses and humanity shape my decisions. It is also an exploration of …
I am the sum of things I did not choose. I am the melding of a random egg and a random sperm. Twenty-three random pairs of chromosomes determine much of how I look and who I am. My genes are then influenced by the outside world in ways I do not understand. I am mostly …
Cooking is something I love to do. I have spent many hours in the kitchen over the years. After a journey, (I think) I am now a competent cook. My initial experiences of cooking were rote. Ask mum, then use exactly those ingredients in those quantities. Rote was driven by a lack of knowledge, a …
What do I know? The answer is: I don't know. I know that I know something. How much I know, I do not know. Sometimes I feel like I know a lot, usually I feel like I know little. The more I learn the less I feel I know. Rather, I realise the sheer volume …
I have a friend who works at a fruit company. He brings home a lot of free fruit. "Just take it" his bosses say. I have a friend who works for a chocolate factory. She brings home boxes for biscuits for everyone she knows. "Don't worry, we've got loads" her bosses say. What is a …
We each dance a merry dance To the music we are given. How long we dance for, I don't know. Sometimes I lead, sometimes follow. You dance, I dance, we don't know why. New moves, new clothes: we try, we try. Sometimes we laugh, sometimes we cry. And then our music stops. ---- We each …
"A father's love is not measured in words, nor kisses, but in time." Raphael Honigstein in Klopp: Bring the Noise Yes, I'm of that age. Virtually everyone I know has had or is having babies. I haven't, but it has given me something to write about, which I'm doing here. Children change lives. People get …
Continue reading "Random observations on raising children (from someone who has not)"
The world marches forward. Our ingenuity knows no bounds: We are creating machines more intelligent than ourselves. We will soon cheat death. We are going to Mars and beyond. We are making meat from plants. We are curing diseases. We are becoming masters of our own destiny. We are doing this through incredible collaboration and …
I'm getting fewer and fewer views on this blog. It shouldn't bother me, but it does. I created it to capture my thinking, to understand myself better, to improve my writing. I think I'm making some headway on these goals. I did not set it up to build a readership or a following. Frankly, if …
musings of an untrained mind 