RSS Parrot

Truth-Seeking Modes

https://www.ribbonfarm.com/2024/08/17/truth-seeking-modes/

Published: August 17, 2024 17:59

Been on a Venn diagram kick lately, since being primed to think in Venns by Harris campaign. This one summarizes an idea I’ve long been noodling on: The healthiest way to relate to a truth-seeking impulse is as an infinite game, where the goal is to…

Intellectual Menopause

https://www.ribbonfarm.com/2024/08/15/intellectual-menopause/

Published: August 16, 2024 06:21

I ran across the alarming phrase intellectual menopause a few months ago in John Gall’s Systemantics, and it naturally stuck in my brain given I’m pushing 50 and getting predictably angsty about it. The phrase conjures up visions of a phenomenon much more…

Imagination vs. Creativity

https://www.ribbonfarm.com/2024/07/14/imagination-vs-creativity/

Published: July 14, 2024 21:25

I like to make a distinction between imagination and creativity that you may or may not agree with. Imagination is the ability to see known possibilities as being reachable from a situation. Creativity is the ability to manufacture new possibilities out of…

Covid and Noun-Memory Effects

https://www.ribbonfarm.com/2024/06/14/covid-and-noun-memory-effects/

Published: June 14, 2024 19:29

Ever since I got a bout of Covid a couple of years ago (late 2022), I’ve noticed memory problems of a very specific sort: Difficulty remembering names. Especially people names, but also other sorts of proper nouns. This is especially marked when it comes…

Bangalore Meetup Report

https://www.ribbonfarm.com/2024/06/05/bangalore-meetup-report/

Published: June 6, 2024 03:31

Did a meetup in ribbonfarm meetup in Bangalore last night, the first ever in India. Thanks to Abhishek Agarwal for organizing. I think this is the first meetup I’ve done since the last Refactor Camp in 2019. It was kinda last minute, which is why I only…

Going Sessile

https://www.ribbonfarm.com/2024/05/24/going-sessile/

Published: May 24, 2024 23:55

One of the biggest changes in my personality with middle age is that I no longer really enjoy travel beyond local weekend getaways. Almost no destination has a pain/novelty ratio that makes it worth it. On the one hand, I’ve traveled enough that few places…

Arbitrariness Costs

https://www.ribbonfarm.com/2024/05/14/arbitrariness-costs/

Published: May 15, 2024 06:54

I’ve long held that civilization is the process of turning the incomprehensible into the arbitrary. The incomprehensible can be scary but the arbitrary tends to be merely exhausting. Unless the stakes are high, such as in paperwork around taxes or…

Decision Brownouts

https://www.ribbonfarm.com/2024/05/12/decision-brownouts/

Published: May 12, 2024 17:15

In thinking about decision-making under stress, most people focus on fight-or-flight responses. Both fighting and fleeing are obvious courses of action that inherit a clear sense of direction from the characteristics of the threat itself, and are energized…

News from the Universe

https://www.ribbonfarm.com/2024/05/12/news-from-the-universe/

Published: May 12, 2024 07:02

I did not expect to see auroras in the Seattle area. Or ever in my life without a special bucket-list effort I had no particular intention of making. Though now I might. It feels a bit like I’ve just seen giraffes in the wild without going to Africa.…

Sons of the Soil, Migrants, and Civil War,

https://www.ribbonfarm.com/2024/05/03/sons-of-the-soil-migrants-and-civil-war/

Published: May 3, 2024 19:03

We read an interesting paper today (ht Sachin Benny with an assist from ChatGPT) in the Yak Collective weekly governance study group (Fridays at 9 AM Pacific). Sons of the Soil, Migrants, and Civil War, by James D. Fearon and David D. Laitin (World…