In the past, I've been interested in things like the Dvorak keyboard layout and old text editors—namely vim and emacs. Why is this? In specific domains, these tools confer some neat advantages. To summarize, the Dvorak keyboard layout gives a more comfortable typing experience as the letters are arranged …
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Corona Virus Diary, Part 126
What is "10 minutes"? If you're running late for something, it may be all someone needs to feel relief; if you're doing a workout, it may feel like prolonged torture. When we are at rest, it is easy to look at time abstractly—e.g. I can play to study …
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The mechanics of distraction are often like this. There is something you know you should be directing your attention to—for instance, paying attention to the road while driving so you can do so safely. Distractions are like "suggestions" that try to lure your attention away. A billboard showing a …
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Years ago (at least five or six?), I had this idea that I only wanted to get "consumables" as gifts. That is, stuff like food/drink, cash, etc. The idea was that one source of problems in our lives is the accumulation of a bunch of stuff that isn't particularly …
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Continuing on the topic of tools; how can writings be useful?
Many books are tools. We can look at for what ends they are created. For example, dictionaries are often created to help people do reading and writing of other books. Reference books are so-called because you refer to them …
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I started watching some videos by this fellow, Uneducated Economist. You can think about "economy" in terms of something like US dollars... and then you can think about it more broadly in terms of the exchange of goods and services (and how stuff like supply, demand, taxation, etc impact this …
read moreCorona Virus Diary, Part 120
Doing anything has costs because our time is not infinite. There are many sayings out there about how you "can't buy more time"—yet often we go through great lengths to save money even if this means using up a lot of time.
The Internet has brought this sort of …
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Time and attention cannot be replaced; a day cannot be redone. On the other hand, you can earn more money. So it is a false equivalence that "time is money"—as the saying goes "money can't buy you more time". Time and attention well spent will continue to pay you …
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Why are video games so popular these days? I will answer this question from my own experience—probably some of the thoughts I will put here will mirror some readers' experiences.
Type of games
First, we should point out that there are many different sorts of video games. What kind …
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