> My late friend Stan Ulam used to remark that his life was sharply divided into two halves. In the first half, he was always the youngest person in the group; in the second half, he was always the oldest. There was no transitional period. Agree.
Lessons I wish I had been taught (1996)
31–40 of 71 posts
Re: Lessons I wish I had been taught (1996)
#32mine was, rising in 96, is that self taught stuff takes a while to understand, even if you do not understand
Re: Lessons I wish I had been taught (1996)
#33> Blackboard Technique Use Whiteboard. Worst teaching experiences in my life have featured blackboards. Ooh that scree of the chalk and the eraser that does no such thing. Mind you, I haVE bad experiences with whiteboards too, particulary when the previous user defaced the board with non-whiteboard markers
Re: Lessons I wish I had been taught (1996)
#34> Blackboard Technique Use Whiteboard. Worst teaching experiences in my life have featured blackboards. Ooh that scree of the chalk and the eraser that does no such thing. Mind you, I haVE bad experiences with whiteboards too, particulary when the previous user defaced the board with non-whiteboard markers
Agreed, but we'd better zip up our flame proof suits before the chalk fans arrive. Look, I appreciate dark mode as much as the next guy and the chalk bouncing trick is super slick, but my god, the sound.
Re: Lessons I wish I had been taught (1996)
#35>>10 Be prepared for old age Like my dad adviced me. As you age worry only about four things: Health, Relationships, Side income and Free time. Forget about career, accolades, titles, awards or recognitions, nothing is really remembered in this world where kids can't remember their parent's birthday or what they had in dinner yesterday.
If you cannot see your legacy, then why do anything. What difference does it make if others don't remember if you cannot witness it anyway. I understand the part about family and relationships, but success sure feels good too even if no one cares after you are dead.
Many people want to feel that their life was important & meaningful, and having a legacy fulfills that desire. Even though they don't get to experience their legacy first-hand, simply knowing they will have a legacy increases their self-esteem and well-being while they're living. It's this same desire to be important & meaningful that likely contributes to 'success' feeling good to you.
Re: Lessons I wish I had been taught (1996)
#36> Blackboard Technique Use Whiteboard. Worst teaching experiences in my life have featured blackboards. Ooh that scree of the chalk and the eraser that does no such thing. Mind you, I haVE bad experiences with whiteboards too, particulary when the previous user defaced the board with non-whiteboard markers
Re: Lessons I wish I had been taught (1996)
#37> Blackboard Technique Use Whiteboard. Worst teaching experiences in my life have featured blackboards. Ooh that scree of the chalk and the eraser that does no such thing. Mind you, I haVE bad experiences with whiteboards too, particulary when the previous user defaced the board with non-whiteboard markers
In general, even non-Hagoromo chalk can be brushed or washed off, unlike dry erase marker dust that gets on everything and can stain. Also, I personally dislike the lack of friction when writing with dry erase markers.
Re: Lessons I wish I had been taught (1996)
#38Earlier quoted context omitted.
Agreed, but we'd better zip up our flame proof suits before the chalk fans arrive. Look, I appreciate dark mode as much as the next guy and the chalk bouncing trick is super slick, but my god, the sound.
My primary school teachers liked to joke how they’d all die of bronchitis or tuberculosis from inhaling all that chalk dust over the years.
Re: Lessons I wish I had been taught (1996)
#39 Activity Calories burned
-------- ---------------
Writing one line of C....................... 10
Debugging one line of C..................... 300
Writing one line of Lisp.................... 2
Debugging one line of Lisp.................. 20
Writing one line of Fortran................. 25
Reading e-mail.............................. 200
Writing e-mail.............................. -3
Reading news................................ 1000
Web-surfing ................................ 100
Working on thesis........................... 7
Answering officemate's phone calls.......... 432
Wondering about the future.................. 107
Speculating about life on other planets..... 371
Getting to know inner child................. 252
Perfecting .plan file.......................39924
Reading Wired............................... 15
Writing limericks in assembly language...... 924
Sleeping in chair........................... 15
Sleeping in chair, but leaning on desk...... 7
Sleeping on office floor (with pillow)..... 14
(without pillow)..... 257
Choosing a new CD to work to................ 333
Dreaming (at night)......................... 4522
Searching................................... 777
Sorting..................................... 222
https://alumni.media.mit.edu/~cahn/life/activity.htmlEdit: It's possible (likely?) this is Janet Cahn's (~cahn) activieties, not Gian-Carlo Rota's
Re: Lessons I wish I had been taught (1996)
#40Quoted post unavailable.
Does an author's privilege (or in this case perhaps the reader's assumption of privilege), change whether the content has any value? My biggest takeaway from these lessons was that great ideas aren't birthed fully formed and perfect. They can take a long time to perfect and even when you think they've been perfected, they often still need to be fixed!