Four [Random] Thoughts Vol. 5
1 Book: Born to Run
Christopher McDougall makes such a compelling case in Born to Run that we — humans — were born to run that by the end of the book; I wanted to put my sneakers on, start running, and never stop… Ala Forrest Gump. But I like my life, so I resisted. I wish I’d seen the final race described in the book, or meet some of the athletes in it, though.
Respect for the Tarahumara or Rarámuri, that play a central role in the book.
2 The Mother of all Technical Debts
Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning are two recurring topics in my chats in a all sorts of contexts, and with an ever growing set of easy-to-use AI/ML tools and APIs available to developers; this evolves to questioning what's the best way to get on the AI/ML wagon? It's time to attend to one basic technical debt, and learn to program.
Learning to design programs will help you strengthen your problem-solving skills, as well as abstraction, and synthesis. Tons of courses and resources to learn programming; from short-intense bootcamps, to more classical schools, and trainings. Both online and offline; try Platzi.
Or learn by reading a book.
I loved How to Design Programs (HtDP), and surely the second edition is even better. HtDP is clear, fun, and includes enough exercises to keep you engaged. Their programming environment, DrRacket, grows with you: from beginner to full programmer. And you can access the full text online, to boot.
Then, you’ll be in a better position to join the AI/ML revolution.
3 Being Skeptic
Some years ago, after suffering for the thousand time with outrageous beliefs from close family or friends, some even dangerous like 'they told me this holy water could cure X ailment', I decided to banish all putative knowledge, or belief from my life.
Now I’m a happy skeptic in all domains, supernatural, religion, etc.
I believe in the existence of 0 (zero).
Assuming 0, the successor function helps define the natural numbers, then set theory, and then most of math. Physics, evolution, and science, provide all the magic I need. And SpaceX.
4 Owning the Streets
Whenever I walk around the Tenderloin in San Francisco, it amazes me how many people live on the streets, some clearly homeless, others just hanging around.
And even more amazing to me is how naturally life occurs around them. Everyone is trying to own the space… A couple of friends enjoying a drink on a nice terrace, mere feet away the loud-lady raging against the system, and an intimidating group smoking marijuana, chilling.
A different way to handle extreme capitalism.
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