The fast Fourier transform and related topics in stochastic processes.
Ask HN: Name one idea that changed your life
411–420 of 839 posts
Re: Ask HN: Name one idea that changed your life
#412As a German, the idea that mass murder and high tech are different sides of the same coin has shaped my world view forever (after reading Dialectic of Enlightenment and On the Critique of Instrumental Reason). Horkheimer red-pilled me on our western societies and I'm grateful for it.
I mean this sincerely: WTF does that mean? Mass murder is the opposite to technology?
Two sides of the same coin generally means complementary items that may seem unrelated, not opposites. An English teacher I had banged on about theme and style being two sides of the same coin when writing.
The example here would be that mass murder is not really as effective without technology, whereas technology enables us to flip to mass murder quickly even if we previously didn't consider it. They are complements.
Re: Ask HN: Name one idea that changed your life
#413Earlier quoted context omitted.
"Dude, sucking at something is the first step towards being sorta good at something." -- Jake the Dog
"The master has failed more times than the beginner has even attempted."
"A beginner practices until they get it right, a master practices until they can't get it wrong."
Re: Ask HN: Name one idea that changed your life
#414Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Do you think a lot of people would have problems with reading this? I don't know. Readability and aesthetics are at odds. I believe there used to be a strong aesthetic desire for text to be of uniformly block-like shape. It took centuries for spaces to appear between words and even longer for paragraphs to become as short as they are today.
> Readability and aesthetics are at odds. I'm not sure. If it's a cafe front, I can deal with Comic-like windings. If I'm reading something for a reasonably long time, I start valuing functionality - here it's readability. Maybe people could train to read easily that font - they didn't have much of alternatives. That would mean readability is rather conditional. I'd like to know.
> Maybe people could train to read easily that font - they didn't have much of alternatives. That would mean readability is rather conditional. I'd like to know.
I feel like comprehension of the underlying language will aid readability. If it were written in English, despite the illegibility, I'd be able to read it easier by having a general sense of what the words are supposed to be from context.
Re: Ask HN: Name one idea that changed your life
#415Intermittent fasting. These days I only have one meal a day
Were you a breakfast eater before you started?
The thought of food usually makes me queasy before around noon. So I naturally slipped into intermittent fasting before I knew what it was.
Re: Ask HN: Name one idea that changed your life
#416Favor interrogative-led questions over leading questions. A leading question attempts to get the listener to agree or disagree with a premise you feed to them. An interrogative-led question often begins with the words: who; where; what; when; why. Imagine the responses to these two questions: - "Did you like the movie?" (Leading) - "What did you think about the movie?" (Interrogative-led) How do each of these questio…
I hear suggestions like this occasionally, and I don't get it. Apparently sentences like "Did you like the movie?", which sound to me like perfectly neutral questions, actually have a slant. Which way is this question leading me to answer? How can I tell? "Yes" and "No" seem equally acceptable answers here. I don't see how either one would "displease the asker", without knowing more about the situation.
The problem with the question is that it reduces an infinite dimensional space (all the things you could have thought about the movie) into a single scalar value. Your mind is likely to be preoccupied with performing that projection which is fundamentally uninteresting.
It’s like asking “Is the pharmaceutical industry good or bad?” vs. “How should the pharmaceutical industry participate in society over the next 20 years?”
Re: Ask HN: Name one idea that changed your life
#417For me its practical application of objectivity: Any person who touts the superiority of their proposed opinion is not somebody you should trust. Any given opinion is superior or not on its merits. That distinction is the difference between a subjective person and an objective person.
Re: Ask HN: Name one idea that changed your life
#418Earlier quoted context omitted.
My life experiences don't match your mental model, sadly. Maybe it has to do with where and how one grows up? For example, I know with certainty that my parents, teachers, and first bosses were enemies. A lot of people on HN seem to have grown up in safe, nurturing, loving environments. But, remember that most of the world's people didn't. I don't mean to call you out - just saying that I would love to have had your…
Sad reality, adequately explained by game theory: https://ncase.me/trust/
Whoa. Excellent website. Thank you so much.
Re: Ask HN: Name one idea that changed your life
#419The thing I dislike the most about other people is often something I do myself.
So when dealing with any people-related issues, the first thing I do is reflect if it's something I do myself.
If it is, then I try to determine if its something I like about myself; if I like it, I try not letting it bother me again; if I don't like it, I change it.
Re: Ask HN: Name one idea that changed your life
#420The Growth Mindset. To briefly sum up the findings: Individuals who believe their talents can be developed (through hard work, good strategies, and input from others) have a growth mindset. They tend to achieve more than those with a more fixed mindset (those who believe their talents are innate gifts). This is because they worry less about looking smart and they put more energy into learning. Along with this goes em…
On my Twitter bio, I labeled myself an infosec noob. I've been doing it for 4 years now, but I'm definitely still a noob. And I will always be a noob. When I stop calling myself a noob, I stop learning.
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