Month: October 2012

>”I think the the biggest mistake people make is latching onto the first idea that comes to them and trying to do that. It really comes to a thing that my folks taught me about money. Don’t buy something unless you’ve wanted it three times. Similarly, don’t throw in a feature when you first think of it. Think if there’s a way to generalize it, think if it should be generalized. Sometimes you can generalize things too much. I think like the things in Scheme were generalized too much. There is a level of abstraction beyond which people don’t want to go. Take a good look at what you want to do, and try to come up with the long-term lazy way, not the short-term lazy way.” – [Larry Wall](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larry_Wall)
[Don’t Buy Something Unless You’ve Wanted it Three Times — Product Design — Medium](https://medium.com/product-design/87c254033e2c)

> The graph shows that while both parties have always been distinct in their ideology, since about World War 1 there’s at least been some slight overlap. All that changed in the early 70’s though, as successive Republican congresses became increasingly more conservative in their voting records, while Democratic congresses remained much the same. Today, there’s no ideological overlap between members of the two parties.
[The rapidly increasing ideology of the US Republican Party](http://blog.revolutionanalytics.com/2012/10/the-rapidly-increasing-ideology-of-the-us-republican-party.html)

One of the many things wrong with insurance based medical care system.
> You’re probably having a heart attack. This could kill you. You need to come with us.
>
> “No. It’s too expensive. I can’t.”
>
> He’s got kids, and grandkids, and too much debt already. That’s what he tells you. And you try to tell him that life is worth a hell of a lot more than money. Grandkids, right? You want to play with your grandkids.
>
> “I don’t want them to pay my bills.”
[Suicide is cheaper](http://geo-geek.blogspot.com.au/2012/10/suicide-is-cheaper.html)

> “The results of our study indicate that young children’s performance on sustained delay-of-gratification tasks can be strongly influenced by rational decision-making processes,” the researchers conclude. 
Something to think on next time you why a person on social assistance buys something extravagant.
[The marshmallow test, revisited](http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/wp/2012/10/13/the-marshmallow-test-revisited/)

> The advent of Do Not Track threatens the barter system wherein consumers allow sites and third-party ad networks to collect information about their online activities in exchange for open access to maps, e-mail, games, music, social networks and whatnot.
[Do Not Track? Advertisers Say ‘Don’t Tread on Us’](http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/14/technology/do-not-track-movement-is-drawing-advertisers-fire.html?_r=0&pagewanted=all&gwh=547A8509E6EE3202DC31C8D3835F1ACA)

The open-source world has learned to deal with a flood of new, oftentimes divergent, ideas using hosting services like GitHub — so why can’t governments? In this rousing talk Clay Shirky shows how democracies can take a lesson from the Internet, to be not just transparent but also to draw on the knowledge of all their citizens.