Bonum Certa Men Certa

Gemini Links 15/06/2023: Solaris and Deliberate Practice



  • Gemini* and Gopher

    • Personal/Opinions

      • "Soyokaze"

        According to wordhippo, "Soyokaze" means gentle breeze; slight breeze. It has been rather stuffy here in Tokyo over the past few days: going back and forth from wet and humid to dry and humid. I've managed to keep the AC off and stick with USB fans .. but for how much longer?

      • The library rocks!

        Took my little guy to the library today, he participated in a "baby laptime" program and got to bounce to different songs, read (or more accurately chew on) books and play with other little ones.

        It's really amazing to me that libraries offer these services for free. Since my son was born in November, we've gone from never using the library to visting on a weekly basis. We've started borrowing books, movies and even video games. I've mostly stopped paying for content (besides the newest Zelda game haha). Just last week I got to play the newest God of War game (admittedly after a 3 month wait, but I'm not in a rush). Older games and movies are available within a day or two (they'll even transfer it between locations for you).

      • Other People Have Loved This Too

        There's a park near me that I sometimes go to, with a canal running right through the middle of it. Recently I was wandering through a part of it I don't go to much, far off in a little corner. There the canal turns and that opens up a lovely vista where you can see straight down it and all the land around it.

      • IT WireNextcloud offers on-premise AI capabilities in Hub 5 release [Ed: Now with more buzzwords]

        In a statement, the company said given that numerous organisations were scrambling to build AI into their products, Nextcloud was well placed to be a platform for collaboration when dealing with sensitive data.

        "What do Goldman Sachs and Citi Group have in common with Samsung and Apple?" asked Nextcloud founder and chief executive Frank Karlitschek.

        "They all ban the use of ChatGPT and other online AI products for fear of data leaks. This is entirely sensible, given the record of the companies offering these services.

        {loadposition sam08}"While AI offers incredible opportunities to improve the productivity of employees, the risks are equally large.

    • Science

      • Solaris

        Solaris, in all forms, was a huge influence on me. I remember being up late as a small child, Tarkovsky's Solaris on TV. I was desperately trying to figure out what's going on, but it was very mysterious and completely over my head...

        Later on my father introduced me to Lem, my life-long favorite writer. I've read and re-read Solaris many times, always finding something different...

        The movie is kind of nuts, to be honest. I think it was an attempt to match 2001-A Space Odyssey in scope. I am always particularly amused by the running-around-the-circular-hallway-for-no-reason scene, which to me rings as a low-budget response to glorious rotating space-station excercise scene, and the 15-minute driving-through-the-tunnel-for-no-reason scene matching the hyperspace jump scene...

    • Technology and Free Software

      • Re: beehiveth: degrowth and its discontents

        I do this here USENET-like quote-and-reply thing from time to time, imagining it's going to coax feedback and/or engagement from someone somewhere along the line, despite the vast majority of life evidence screaming it won't. But I do it anyway because I enjoy the mechanics, and can occasionally imagine such engagement transpiring, e.g. imagine responses, counter-responses, etc.

      • Deliberate Practice

        The Orange Site linked to some article or the other on Deliberate Practice, so here are some thoughts on DP.

        Cultures vary in depth, or even within a culture; some pour the tea into a cup, while elsewhere there is a whole ceremony. DP may be necessary to get halfway good at a tea ceremony in a reasonable amount of time. Others pour their coffee from a device that was cleaned last who knows, while elsewhere one will wait for the barista to try a few more pulls until they get it just right. Either method works if you only want some stims for the day. Either may be a bad habit if done too often.

        Cutting out distractions—smartphones, the internet—may help build concentration. Without sustained concentration, what can you learn? There is a Goldilocks zone, maybe three to five hours of good, deep practice per day, split into sessions maybe an hour to 90 minutes long. Spending more time on the same task is pointless and may even regress. The quality of the practice—focused, intent, looking for the errors and how to improve—is more important than quantity of practice.

      • Internet/Gemini

        • The state of the internet

          The internet has gotten complicated. Websites take gigabytes of data, complicated pipelines, frameworks and teams of enigineers. I should know, I've been one of those engineers. I've also been a designer, having to consider to complexity of the beats we build these days. But it wasn't always this way, and I'm not convinced it *better* this way.


* Gemini (Primer) links can be opened using Gemini software. It's like the World Wide Web but a lot lighter.



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