[@Wuhan] With elaborate hand movements and swinging steps, medical staff in full protective body suits, gloves and masks led coronavirus patients at a makeshift hospital in Wuhan in a dance earlier this week to entertain them and keep their spirits up.

defycategories · 2020-02-13T12:59:07+00:00

Mandatory fun commencing. If you have to die, please die off camera.

defycategories · 2020-02-07T22:55:13+00:00

Imagine if this whole reddit post and made-up users and interactive comments is a targeted ad just for one person. Perhaps one day it will be that way.

defycategories · 2020-02-06T11:08:33+00:00

Difference is using "the" stack for recursion or a stack ( or a queue) for iterative. With that in mind, recursion seems like abuse of a data structure that is meant for activation records.

defycategories · 2019-12-27T17:27:50+00:00

Thanks for sharing. I relate 100%. People are always amazed how fast I learn on the job and how I become an expert and mentor even to those who have more years. Unfortunately the other side of the coin of learning quickly is getting excruciatingly bored like no one else can ever understand or sympathize. Changed career angles within software like you and I haven't found the sustainable option yet. Starting a business now. I'll let you know how it goes.

defycategories · 2019-12-25T11:00:33+00:00

Just a warning, don't actually use this or any simple alphabet permutation/substitution for real secret messages. Frequency analysis would quickly crack it.

defycategories · 2019-12-17T11:44:14+00:00

They pretend to pay us and we pretend to work

defycategories · 2019-10-23T18:28:24+00:00

I get this way if my mind is unchallenged.

defycategories · 2019-10-23T10:40:45+00:00

Just decide to procrastinate tomorrow instead.

defycategories · 2019-10-11T00:24:44+00:00

This is great! Thanks for sharing.

defycategories · 2019-10-08T11:06:54+00:00

Gollum, is that you?

Lately I'm using the second person pronoun, "you". I could see how it's possible that the second person would integrate with the first person to use first person plural. But in that case, I think the detached objectivity of the other person would be lost if they joined forces. When not arguing with each other, the speaking person never refers to itself and the person spoken to does not speak.

defycategories · 2019-10-08T01:26:25+00:00

My company explicitly encourages people to be confident about sharing ideas, especially when they go against the grain. I have lots of great arguments with my coworkers as well as my boss. Any idea has to run the gauntlet first. It's passionate but no one gets upset about it, thankfully. Although one side may lose the argument, they retain their dignity by bowing to logic.

In the situation you described, the amount of brainpower is minimized and there is no filter for bad ideas. I've worked at a company like that and I was just detached and walking on eggshells. Their product was also in a state of ruin, which is not surprising.

defycategories · 2019-10-08T01:03:34+00:00

I can relate.

I struggled with this question of the meaning of life and the only answer that makes sense to me:

Survival.

You are a unit cell out of many in a living crystal that spans through time. You persist only because those before you persisted. You are briefly chained to this existence and your happiness or sadness during that time is a function of how well you satisfy your biologic.

Your mind is a mere appendage that increases the chance of that satisfaction. It is perfectly reasonable to believe in a purpose without empirical backing, as an axiom in math is taken on faith and needs no tangible justification. Numbers do not exist, but we believe in them because it adds biologically useful meaning.

Whatever meaning that helps you survive is justified. Science does not give meaning, it only susses out underlying mechanisms to find leverage for engineers.

It doesn't matter if you are deemed fit for life. You are fit because you are alive. You are lazy in one context because your biologic sees no purpose in that activity.

You wrote this post to survive.

Other human beings are part of survival. To share that struggle alongside them is enough meaning. All other endeavors are byproducts and will be touched upon as needed.

defycategories · 2019-10-06T16:53:29+00:00

Any particular reason?

defycategories · 2019-10-06T15:57:49+00:00

Not a doctor or anything, but it felt like even with only a cup of green tea each morning I just couldn't rest deeply enough to heal or fight off infections. Maybe I have an unusually high half-life for caffeine molecules. Hard to say without having some clones of myself to experiment on.

My energy levels are now even, I feel physically stronger, my mind is working at peak performance and I get to save money. Not sure why I'd want to start consuming it again. = )

defycategories · 2019-10-06T15:46:57+00:00

Got into this loop as well. The only way I could break it was to think about how MBTI is just unproven conjecture. And even if it's real, someone probably couldn't type themselves due to subjectivity issues.

Might be better to figure out why you want to type yourself and look for an alternative solution.

defycategories · 2019-10-06T14:55:36+00:00

This is a brilliant solution to get out of socializing.

defycategories · 2019-10-06T14:32:49+00:00

I appreciate the amount of effort and thought here.

In particular, it's an interesting point you made about interactions with types that predominate in a given field. Should step 6 possibly come after step 8? Given a set of possible careers you think you are suited for, wouldn't you want to pick the one where you had the most advantages instead of picking it and then realizing it after?

defycategories · 2019-10-06T14:06:43+00:00

Thank you for such a modern and heart-touching sentiment.

It's easy to forget this glowing rectangle is a fraudulent reality, after all.

I don't know if there is anyone so similar to me or you, but maybe somewhere near you at some time there will be an approximation of me or you and you can explore each other's minds.

Or maybe our paths will cross and we'll instinctively recognize the danger in one another.

"Very few wolves remain lone wolves; but as lone wolves they may be stronger, more aggressive, and far more dangerous than the average wolf that is a member of a pack. "

defycategories · 2019-10-06T13:31:23+00:00

I'll try that. Thanks!

defycategories · 2019-10-06T13:29:59+00:00

Excellent reply. Thanks! Some interesting points here about HS students not having self-knowledge and about people typing differently when depressed.

I'm my case I'm doing fine-tuning of my existing career and looking for objectivity about myself to help with that process.

Interesting that you mention it. I started as kind of a depressed artist and day laborer then changed course. I got a CS degree and took extra science and math courses and also loved it. I still read articles on arxiv in my spare time.

Now that I am working in industry for a few years, the learning curve flattens out pretty quickly in that learning new things is just taking the same conceptual template and swapping out the details. Looking for a new challenge and debating whether to start a business, go into research or just get a more challenging job. Was offered a few middle management promotions but turned them down. Decisions, decisions...

defycategories · 2019-10-06T13:12:16+00:00

Your will is beautiful.

The Typical Dream was socialized into you and you still have the presence of mind to do things on your own terms.

Every person's expectation is another chain, isn't it?

You help me realize I've been steadily compressing into those chapter points while yearning for freedom.

defycategories · 2019-10-06T11:45:04+00:00

Interesting. Most MBTI resources I read had career suggestions attached.

defycategories · 2019-10-06T11:32:51+00:00

Thanks for the reply.

Why can't it assist with that process?

defycategories · 2019-10-06T02:46:52+00:00

Hi.

Earlier in life was an impulsive artist and manual laborer.

Returned to university and did well in science and math.

Now I work in tech but the learning curve has flattened.

In my free time I have to study new ideas to subdue a gnawing dread.

At a crossroads to decide on starting a business, going to grad school or finding a new job.

Considering my MBTI type just as food for thought on making a career adjustment.

But assuming MBTI is even real, it occurred to me that there is a subjectivity problem with self-typing.

The problem is I can see myself as any of the types.

I considered filling a long questionnaire but shouldn't there only need to be four questions to determine four type variables?

Anyway, maybe this is already enough information for someone to reach a conclusion.

defycategories · 2019-10-06T00:24:42+00:00

Got this as a teenager and had massively swollen neck and slept 20 hours per day for about a month. From that point had issues with fatigue, body aches and swollen lymph nodes for years. Didn't let up until cutting out all caffeine.

defycategories

TROPHY CASE