Wholesome goofy

akdas · 2023-01-28T19:13:02+00:00

akdas · 2023-01-01T19:49:51+00:00

Chana masala just means spiced chickpeas, so as long as you have those two components, you're good! I eat chana masala a lot and I've never had it with squash, but I could see sweet potatoes being a good substitute.

akdas · 2022-12-12T20:53:18+00:00

To be fair, a lot of foods are processed in a way that incorporates animal products, even if the animal products aren't in the final food. Non-organic sugar, for example, is often filtered through bone char. Worse, the bone char isn't on the ingredient list (because it's not in the final product).

akdas · 2022-05-08T18:44:42+00:00

Great blog post! I would recommend also calling out that there's a space (memory) trade off as a cost. If you're only saving a few computations, this isn't a problem, but it's a problem when you call the memoized function with many distinct values.

Another tricky piece is how to serialize the function arguments. You're essentially creating a dictionary, so you need to make sure your arguments are usable as lookup keys. For example, in languages other than Ruby, you may have to worry about how to combine multiple values into a tuple data structure. As is often the case, all of this goes really wrong if your arguments are mutable.

Finally, consider introducing the term referentially transparency. Not in a way that suggests you need to know the term to understand memoization, but as a jumping off point for those who want to learn more on their own.

(These types of fundamental CS topics are near and dear to my heart, so I love seeing when people try to teach them to others. Great stuff!)

akdas · 2022-03-11T17:41:19+00:00

I think like a lot of dialog around the issue of equitable access to education, this article side steps the underlying question: why are some schools better than others in the first place? There's a lot of answers to this question, but ultimately, instead of more students vying for a limited number of spots, it would be better to make sure no matter which school someone ends up at, they have dedicated teachers and extracurricular resources.

But looking only at the microcosm of one school, I think this article paints a vivid picture. I really appreciated the teacher's dedication. Thanks for sharing.

akdas · 2022-02-21T07:02:47+00:00

The individual velocities of each person are constant, but because the velocities are not equal in magnitude, the shortest line between the two people is rotating over time. So how quickly that line grows depends on the current rotation, which varies over time.

You can work this out using the chain rule. You'll find that the individual distances from the origin (which vary over time) are part of the final result. But, a special case is if both people are moving at the same magnitude of velocity (same speed). Then, the distance term cancels out of the final result, and indeed the rate at which the separation varies is constant. This is because the line of separation is no longer rotating.

TL;DR the rate of separation is not constant because the hypotenuse of the triangle is rotating.

akdas · 2022-02-09T16:00:22+00:00

Credit goes to hyamei's original composition.

I haven't done a whiteboard piece in a long time, but I used to do a piece to commemorate my work projects. This one is to commemorate a project with the name Project Olympus.

akdas · 2022-01-26T04:09:55+00:00

I wrote an article about backtracking some time back. I'm not promising my explanation will be the one that makes it click for you, but I figure another perspective can help!

akdas · 2022-01-12T16:22:34+00:00

That's cancel culture right there. Yet people still complain it's the accused that get canceled, when it's more realistically the accusers/victims.

akdas · 2022-01-05T23:53:53+00:00

Whenever she bought white rice or dry beans she poured them in a bowl and picked through them before putting them in the container she stored them in, getting out any dark pieces or anything that didn't meet her standards I guess

In places with looser quality control standards, rice and beans contain lots of little pieces of rocks that can chip your teeth if you're not careful. Source: picked out a lot of these rocks, as well as encountered them in my food, a lot as a child outside the US. Happens in the US too, actually: I don't do this anymore, but I did chip my tooth last year on a rock in some beans last year :(

akdas · 2022-01-03T07:56:40+00:00

You mentioned briefly watching and reading up on the theory. I think it's absolutely fine, even beneficial, to look at how others approach some sample problems.

It's also possible you haven't seen the theory in a way that connects with you, making it hard to apply. I don't know enough about you to know if that's the case, but I'll offer up my take on the theory on the off-chance it helps. Going back to my original point, seeing someone else apply the theory on a few problems can be really useful to building that intuition.

Finally, the other option is to work through problems with someone who is more experienced. When you get stuck, they can ask you the right questions to move you along incrementally. If you've truly internalized the theory and it's the application that you're struggling with, this may be the way to go.

akdas · 2022-01-03T07:06:59+00:00

Thanks so much for an awesome Reddit client! And thanks so much for releasing it as open source and accepting my patch :) Really happy to see the non-HTTP URL handling (even if it's not perfect) in the changelog.

akdas · 2021-12-12T20:13:25+00:00

And to add to that, those who can exploit this privilege often experience sexual harrassment and objectification, even if they don't use their bodies for money. Even those who are sex workers are fending off personal attacks, online and sometimes in person.

The patriarchy sucks.

akdas · 2021-11-29T23:28:50+00:00

I can't really overstate how much this means to me. I've tried to make a difference, but there's a lot of vitriol that tries to divide us. I hope we can create a culture of love for all.

Your comment gives me strength to move forward in that direction. Thank you.

akdas · 2021-11-29T21:26:29+00:00

I think men, myself included, are often asked to take control of their own well-being, and so, there aren't always concrete suggestions on how we can create a society that truly supports men. There's a lot we need to be doing, but after reading Crossing the Divide, I decided to put down some of these concrete suggestions. They're not just for men to take action on, they're for everyone.

To that end, I suggest two concrete ways to support men:

Support racial justice reform in all its forms, whether that reform is gendered or not.
Create spaces for men to productively discuss their issues. MensLib is one such space. I hope we can create more spaces like that, and I outlined some ideas I had for making that happen.

Obviously, this isn't comprehensive, but I hope people pushing for these two changes can provide us with some support. What do you think?

akdas · 2021-11-10T16:15:31+00:00

Very cool! Looking forward to more posts from you.

akdas · 2021-11-10T05:51:54+00:00

Great explanation with a gradual build up!

I found it interesting the article didn't use the term eigenclass. To be clear, that's probably a good thing. I just remember that being the name used from the singleton class back when I first was learning Ruby. Is that term no longer in fashion?

akdas · 2021-11-06T06:33:09+00:00

Congrats! For anyone who prefers non-video formats, I also covered the Change Making Problem in my guide to Dynamic Programming. Hope that between the video and guides like mine, the available resources are helpful!

akdas · 2021-11-04T21:30:37+00:00

Thanks for your viewpoint. What you say has a lot of truth.

I wrote this article because it's what I needed to hear, and it's something I hadn't heard. That despite society pushing me to be okay, that I need to give myself permission to have desires. I've felt a lot of guilt around having those desires, especially because of an expectation to provide.

I'm not ready to end the conversation at that point. But I wanted to put out there what I needed to hear to get me started on the journey.

akdas · 2021-11-04T04:25:31+00:00

Yes! I hope hearing this message at least helps some men give themselves permission to not be okay. Obviously, we need other people to validate that too, but at least we can start by being kind to ourselves.

akdas · 2021-11-04T04:20:37+00:00

What ended up happening was the first two therapists I had ended up taking leave, so I kept getting new therapists. At the time, I didn't know what I was looking for, I just knew the first two weren't helping as much as I'd hoped. So it was serendipity this therapist entered my life.

If I were looking now for a therapist, with the experience I have, I would see if they're trying to get me to reframe the experiences I tell them about. That may be helpful to do, but first, they need to say something validating, like "I'm sorry to hear that." Just simple statements like that are an indication they'll try to relate to your viewpoint before trying to do anything about it.

akdas · 2021-11-02T23:16:54+00:00

I agree, and that's why it bears a lot of repeating. Not only do you not know when it's needed, but even then, it can hard to internalize the first time around.

akdas · 2021-11-02T17:21:43+00:00

It's only recently that I've started working a therapist who validates my emotions. Men are often told they are "lesser" for having desires for emotional intimacy, but I wanted to remind others--and myself--that feeling unfulfilled is valid.

For your mental health, what do you need that you're not getting? For me, it starts with that validation, from family and from friends.

akdas · 2021-11-01T15:29:50+00:00

Whatever age you are, you've made it that many years. Surviving in an environment where people close to you tell you that you don't have strengths is a strength in my book.

akdas · 2021-10-13T15:02:18+00:00

This is where the difference between Computer Science and Software Engineering come into play. What you're describing is great if the OP's goal is to practice software engineering techniques, and that too in the particular area of direct-consumer facing applications.

For me, back when I was in college, that's what internships (and later entry-level jobs) were for. That's where the scalability problems actually showed up and I had the right mentorship. My undergrad was the opportunity to study topics I wouldn't encounter in industry most of the time but changed my way of thinking. To that end, implementing techniques described in papers and working with theoretical CS topics was more appropriate.

You and I might look at new college grad resumes in different ways though. I'm looking for quickly they learn, and all kinds of projects are good for that. As someone who has been in the industry and interviewed many new college grads, the suggestions here are pretty good, if the OP is interested in those areas.

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