I finished reading the book The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera a couple of day's back Loved it (mostly). It reminded me of what it was like to live a life that was lighter, not weighed down by expectations; que sera sera. Just thought I'd like to share a couple of passages from the book. Emphasis... Continue Reading →
Memory
Just the other day I stood waiting to cross the street. As the cars passed in front of me I started thinking about how odd it'd be if one of these cars were to veer a little to the left. Maybe a crying child; maybe a bad day at work; maybe the shadow of a... Continue Reading →
Echo chambers
"The difference is that the United States' aims are to spread democracy and openness," said the female interviewee, when asked by the BBC reporter on what the difference was between the US using "information warfare" vs. the Russians doing the same thing. (For context, this was a radio programme on the suspected Russian interference in... Continue Reading →
Are you what you write? (or, Machiavelli the playwright)
I just watched a documentary on Niccolò Machiavelli. You may know him as that scheming, deceitful, and generally rotten guy who wrote the political bible The Prince. So infamous is he that his name has become an adjective synonymous with evil. Just see what Merriam-Webster has to stay about being "Machiavellian": suggesting the principles of conduct laid... Continue Reading →
Fast Cars
With a light press of the accelerator, the car effortlessly sped up. Without my realising it we were now a little over the speed limit. It was odd how slow it felt. The cabin deathly quiet as the car stoically glided along. Flashback 10 years: driving in Perth in the 小金车 (xiao jin che or... Continue Reading →
Do not give me a gift of which I desire
A little note about happiness, from the book Homo Deus, by Yuval Noah Harari: If I identify happiness with fleeting pleasant sensations, and crave to experience more and more of them, I have no choice but to pursue them constantly. When I finally get them, they quickly disappear, and because the mere memory of past pleasures... Continue Reading →
Supposedly Irrelevant Factors
I'm halfway through reading one of the best books I've read in a long while: Misbehaving, by Richard H. Thaler. One of the things that most stuck with me was that of "supposedly irrelevant factors", which refers to something that, in theory, should not affect or influence the thinking of a rational person but does. Thaler... Continue Reading →
Anticipation, proactivity, and the Invisibles
Just read an article via Slashdot on this thing called "Tab Warming" that the Mozilla team is testing for the Firefox Web Browser. I won't go into the details, but in essence what Tab Warming does is that it anticipates whether or not you'll click on a link, and if it does it "paints" the page... Continue Reading →
The Run
We act very much as if we were on a voyage. What can I do? I can choose out the helmsman, the sailors, the day, the moment. Then a storm arises. What do I care? I have fulfilled my task: another has now to act, the helmsman. If the weather is bad for sailing, we... Continue Reading →
Doing the right thing poorly
I was halfway through reading the book Flying Without a Net by Thomas J. when I came across the following brilliant insight: in order to improve a particular skill, we have to first start by recognising that however we are performing that skill may not be the best way of doing so, and that to... Continue Reading →
Donn, fragments 