Twelve Virtues of Rationality
Came across an elegantly written essay that I found pretty powerful. It’s subtle and not for everyone, but if you’re one of the people it’s for, you may find it transcendent. The Twelve Virtues of Rationality: Curiosity: a burning itch to know is higher than a solemn vow to pursue truth. Relinquishment: “That which can…
Republican tax bill is an attack on America’s future
Ok, let’s summarize: 1. The tax bill drastically increases costs for graduate students by charging the tuition which they don’t pay as income. 2. The tax bill would devastate startups, especially technology startups, by taxing options when they vest (but in many cases before they could be sold, making them worthless for startups). Note: this…
PSA: Netflix Phishing Email is Really Effective
Protect yourself! Follow the standard advice about phishing: Be suspicious of anyone who contacts you by phone or email and pushes you to act right away. Don’t click on links in emails. Make account changes by navigating directly to a site and log in there instead of going through an email link. Don’t return phone…
The Neurophysiology of Love
You can say it any way you want…
In 1987, when Steve White invented the Graphics Interchange Format, he named it after the “JIF” peanut butter that was popular then. He pronounced it the same way. It was an inside joke for techies; he frequently said that “Choosy developers choose ‘GIF’,” referencing a television commercial circulating at the time. People who knew what…
We are all men
Language is interesting. I just learned, uncited on Quora, but I choose to believe it because I want to… The modern word female is not derived from the modern word male. In fact, female derives from the latin word “femina,” from which we retain the idea of feminine; male derives from the latin word “masculus,”…
A moment of Star Wars geekdom
This happened: airport evacuated, shrapnel filled bomb defused.
Race is a social construct
So what does that mean, “a social construct?” I think of it as something that a group tacitly agrees to think, do, or believe which is exists solely because of that agreement. You can sometimes tell if something is a social construct by evaluating if it varies significantly between different groups. For example, the concept…