50% does not mean random.  If you beat a grandmaster chess player 50% of the time, you are pretty damn good.

More reality checking on Silicon Valley with the startup that declared $70K minimum wage now hitting hard times because of it:
CEO Who Set Firm's Minimum Wage at $70K Hits Hard Times

Had already pointed out that things like this were unsustainable in my Perfect Storm for Silicon Valley write up a couple months back. It's all well intentioned but overly idealistic with not enough thought put into the consequences.  It's not the first time a company has tried to create somewhat of a utopia for its employees (aka paternalism), but it would be nice to look back on history and not repeat the same mistakes.  One simply has to look back on 19th and 20th century history to find past companies pursuing similar policies (Pullman, Ford, ...). It seems to be a trend now to always charge forward and deny any lessons from the past as old ways of thinking....[More]

I recently read an article about the University of New Hampshire's "Bias-Free Language Guide" this morning.  At first, I thought it was a joke or satirical post of some sort on political correctness, as it seemed like something straight out of Orwell's 1984, but it was on the college's official site as an actual resource.  It's since been taken down, but it's hard to "unpublish" webpages now, especially if it's been up for years. I managed to save a static HTML copy here: University of New Hampshire's Bias-Free Language Guide (as of Jul.29 2015)

One novel that immediately comes to mind is Orwell's 1984.  When I first read it in high school, most my peers and I thought it very unrelatable, but now it's pretty scary how close we're getting to some of its themes.  Here are some comparisons to illustrate the point:

Orwell's ...[More]

Every person is the God of their own world, just pitted against the will of all others out there.

You seek fairness, yet you'd rather we all fail together and never reach our dream than allow any suffering along the way. How is that fair?

     "What do you see when you hear this music?" I once asked someone.
     To my surprise, he said, "Nothing."
     "Really?" I asked.  "Not even a story or anything?"
     "Nope.  I just like how it sounds.  Why? What do you see?"
     It still surprises me whenever I come across others who can be appreciating the same work before us but seeing nothing at all.  It never really occurred to me until after college that others might only hear the sound or see the word, the notes, or the colors.
     I still remember a conversation several years back where several coworkers were debating whether thought was organized based on what language one spoke.  "Of course not," I wanted to say, "Otherwise what would you be thinking as a child before you knew any language?" But the debate simply moved towards whether children had any real thoughts...[More]

The only thing I'll miss from my years in SF.

Jurassic World Piano and Cello Cover by Brooklyn Duo

Clair De Lune by Azuria Sky

Time by Azuria Sky and AIMM

Stellaria by Azuria Sky

Thought this was a very interesting article, special thanks to Kwelstr at xrptalk for originally sharing.
Why Indigenous Cultures Don't Have Back Pain

It reminds me of the several occasions where I actually stressed my neck and back trying to follow advise for sitting up straight (I'm a short guy and tend to sit with legs folded, which then leads to the usual "sit up straight" advice).  IMO it makes the most sense to stick with what felt most natural/comfortable as a child rather than *think* about what your posture or lifestyle should be like.

Thought this was pretty hilarious but spot on with the tech culture I've been dealing with for the last three years.
The Real Culture Wars or Hollywood Vs. Silicon Valley

Very typical quantified, tech thinking to want to watch more movies as opposed to actually appreciate movies.

The last few years have been pretty incredible for the San Francisco Bay Area.  You really have to have lived here as I have to see how easily capital has flowed into the area, the effects of it trickling into nearly every industry even remotely tech related.  Just two years ago, there was San Francisco being more expensive than most cities but not quite at the level of New York or other top tier cities.  Now an apartment that once rented for $2500 can command mid-$3000s or higher.  A place the size of a walk-in closet at under 200 sqft can be found at $1700 or more.  When I first graduated college in 2013, the predominant attitude I saw in my peers was still that of caution and skepticism about the job market.  Now I have peers who have literally switched full time tech jobs every 4 months, some who would buy up an armful of snacks at a convenience store only to throw it all away...[More]

When you deny the existence of the rest of the world, the only things left in your head are facts.

The trend has been pretty clear I think.  We're going to get to the point where DSLR quality cameras can be small enough to carry in your pocket.  Three years ago when I suggested this, even with the release of the first Sony RX100, I'd have to answer to claims that getting that quality in a small camera is physically impossible, but it looks like that's slowly no longer becoming the case.

http://www.wired.com/2015/06/sonys-new-sensors-exciting-new-cameras/

Previously, you always had the tradeoff of more noise with higher megapixels or camera resolution if the sensor wasn't large enough to accomodate, but now it seems Sony has managed to minimize this trade off so that it's no longer a consideration.

Obviously a high-end DSLR today is always going to be better than a pocket camera today, just as it always has been, but the difference is getting much smaller.

     One thing I've come to notice is my thinking style tends to be much different than most when it comes to planning or managing how to pursue multiple tasks.  Some have suggested I think very linearly when much of the world is moving towards nonlinear or multitasking, but I'm not exactly the person one would consider tunnel visioned or laser focused nor is it accurate to say I only do one thing at a time.  Instead, it's more like I plant the seeds of each of my tasks in a way that allows me to shift my focus to other things while each continues in the background.  If you're familiar with business terms, it's like balancing lead time, where one does the things that just need to be started but not tended to for a while so they can be returned to later.  If you're more familiar with engineering terms, it is like pipelining to have multiple things done at the same time, not by having multiple processes but by having one process...[More]

Entering the Stronghold (2015) by Denny Schneidemesser

This is another idea for a short film or animation (probably better fit) that I woke up with as a dream.  It was extremely vivid, like an actual animated film being watched.  The colors come off very strong, with death and decay being black and red while life is green and blue.  Both share occasional streaks of purple though.
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Two brothers are living in a somewhat burned down or devastated forest/wilderness/village.  One of them is out in the woods one day when they are cutting down a tree and release a water spirit.  The water spirit takes the form of an innocent child-like figure that heals the countryside.  

One of the friends get obsessed in dark magic upon realizing magic exists in the world and eventually starts becoming some sort of electricity or energy spirit, spreading smoke/decay and mutation but overall kept in a small corner of the woods because the water spirit would find out and destroy him.  He also doesn't...[More]

I'm trying to build the ship and take sail, yet I can only find people wanting to debate the existence of the water.