31–40 of 171 posts
I see this all around me. People are fixated on careers, hobbies (FOMO), spread thin by family obligations and errands. The truth is, happiness does not derive from these things. This "busyness" is an invention. Life is simple, and happiness actually derives from having cats.
I see this all around me. People are fixated on careers, hobbies (FOMO), spread thin by family obligations and errands. The truth is, happiness does not derive from these things. This "busyness" is an invention. Life is simple, and happiness actually derives from having cats.
I'm allergic to cats. Pets also add complexity to life, e.g. when you want to go away for any length of time.
“Whether something is complicated is in the mind of the beholder.” Don Norman In the same way that a probability represents your state of information about an event or action your assessment of the complexity of a task or problem is a function of your state of information and relevant expertise. I think this has implications for models like cynefin where the assignment to a domain (simple, complicated, complex, chaot…
This is knife vs bread cutting machine stuff.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm allergic to cats. Pets also add complexity to life, e.g. when you want to go away for any length of time.
They can even give you Toxoplasmosis! https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toxoplasmosis
Which brings us to Hacker News.
Full Disclosure: I was a cat owner, but I'm on HN for its news and the forum, I'm not particularly interested in startup companies...
[0] Toxoplasmosis has been linked to a higher likelihood of entrepreneurial behavior in people who get infected
https://www.businessinsider.com/parasite-in-cat-poop-linked-...
[1] There's a Really Weird Link Between Cats And Entrepreneurs
https://www.sciencealert.com/toxoplasma-gondii-correlation-e...
The article leads with a quote by Don Norman. I read his book "The design of everyday things" after hearing a lot of people speak highly of it. I found it quite underwhelming. Anyone have insight of what people think is so noteworthy about that book?
Wow! I was his student many, many years ago. I had to take his class because he was the head of our department. I thought I was going to do something very different with my life and I wasn't very interested, except that he was a great lecturer. In retrospect he was easily the most influential professor I ever had. If his work in something like "Design of Everyday Things" seems underwhelming I would guess that is beca…
The quotes referenced in this article “Whether something is complicated is in the mind of the beholder" and "The total complexity of a system is a constant" appear to me to be contradicting. How can the complexity be both relative and constant simultaneously? Personally, I favor the former. An operating system, for example, seems to me to dramatically lower total complexity since a few hundred (thousand?) people can…
One is entirely subjective and the other isn't.
Example: a typical CLI application might be incredibly complicated to my mother, while it is in fact much less complex than e.g. a GUI software she uses to make and order picture books, which to her is much less complicated.
Something being complicated to someone doesn't mean it is complex. Very simple things can be complicated, very complex things can be simple.
It's almost obvious complexity can be created. So why it can't be destroyed as well?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Wow! I was his student many, many years ago. I had to take his class because he was the head of our department. I thought I was going to do something very different with my life and I wasn't very interested, except that he was a great lecturer. In retrospect he was easily the most influential professor I ever had. If his work in something like "Design of Everyday Things" seems underwhelming I would guess that is beca…
I think part of the trouble is I read the "revised and expanded edition." From some of the reviews I remember reading at the time, the revisions did the book no favors.
I would agree the book has little in terms of practical advice nowadays. It was brief and straightforward at the time, and age has only lessened the impact.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
"Hello. Welcome to the Automated DMV, Mr. Smith. Your car registration needs to be renewed. Since you're here, and we recognize you, and your car is in the parking lot, and we recognize that, too, renewal will be $122. You have three parking tickets outstanding, so we will add $150 to that. You have one red light violation, and we're sending video of that to your phone if you want to contest it. But since the face an…
There's no world in which a DMV with access to your bank account waits until your registration renewal to charge you with a traffic violation.