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"If you find yourself deviating from your goal daily, maybe you do not have a goal to begin with and you are conceding ground to someone who does."

As if I needed further confirmation that my suspicions about my work life were true.

I see...

Adds The Big Sleep, Ulysses and To Kill a Mockingbird to Goodreads

Hilarious and creative!

From Normcore, on Paul Graham and Flexport.

In previous global crises — such as the 2008 financial crisis and the 2014 Ebola epidemic — the US assumed the role of global leader. But the current US administration has abdicated the job of leader. It has made it very clear that it cares about the greatness of America far more than about the future of humanity.

America's nationalism does not bode well, for it and for the world.

Yuval wrote a book about the death of liberalism, I believe. Need to go read it now.

This is such a helpfully written and illuminating introduction to coronavirus testing and also what happens when countries aren't proactive.

Learned a lot from this. I suspect that, in the future, many kids will point to the coronavirus as being the thing that spurred their medicinal interests.

I do not think there is anyone alive who nerds out over the seemingly 'mundane' like Paul Ford.

This was such a read. Also: check out brbxoxo.com. What an idea for a web project: "brbxoxo searches online sexcam sites and only broadcasts feeds when the performers are absent."

I've only recently started to read The Atlantic and their human-centered writing around the coronavirus makes me feel very warm, I'm not going to lie.

I really admire America's spirit of freedom. I'm not surprised to see that it is tethered to bureaucracy and respect for authority (no society would work otherwise).

I guess I'm telling Ian not to beat himself over it. America, culturally speaking, inspires us to chase our dreams :D

This was oddly moving.

One thing I love fiction for is: it tends to take things, compress time and sprinkle magic on top of this.

The point I'm making is this is impressive. What a time to be alive.

coronavirus is in all the things.

game buffs, anyone?

sigh. heavy is the head.

Such a beautiful, beautiful article. Also, again, brings to mind an argument I've been making for a while. People who tell you facemasks are ineffective are lying. They're simply saying this to prevent you from snagging up all the facemasks and leave nothing for health workers. I understand the need for this, but I do not appreciate the dishonesty of the argument.

See that old fling? Her airways were well-protected by the mask. She only transfers the virus because he touched her physically.

Anyway - I love this article because it ticks the 'narrative' checkbox I've been waiting for. If facts won't do it, let stories.

Some contextual information: @can called out Ben on Twitter for sharing the chloroquine research 'paper', and Ben defended it, but eventually capitulated when it was revealed that the Stanford(?) PhD publisher had had their PhD revoked.

Given that Ben himself fell prey to 'weird' information, this is a thoughtful successor to Zero Trust Information.

I quite like this article, although I felt that the normal distribution graphs were rather arbitrary.

I'm trying to understand what this 'herd immunity' thing really means.

Damn.

Reminds me of something similar I wrote a few years ago, titled 'Human Compilation Error' - https://thevunderkind.com/human-compilation-error-5d23baea3b96

This might seem irreverent, but I love the way NYTimes' screen color changes to match the tone of the sections.

More to the point, I appreciate the existence of this article. Everything I've read 'til now has been a dispassionate, disinterested recitation of the list of symptoms without an emotional foothold. May Dr Xia's family find comfort in these times.

While I agree that the mobile web could do with a makeover - and what doesn't? - I get the niggling feeling the author has focused on the least of the mobile web's worries :)

Nice :D

Knapsack problems are tricky. First time I read the traveling salesman problem, I didn't expect it to have a time complexity of polynomial time.

Need to brush up my study into quantum computing.

"Ian: Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to think if they should."

I'm reminded of Harry Frankfurt's paper, "On Bullshit."

I know that the Brave Browser has poor retention, and now this. The jigsaw puzzle gets another piece.

Adams was an imperfect writer. His plotting was lax, partly a result of a notorious procrastination habit which required him to rush at the last moment, but which helped make him an imaginative improviser. (“I love deadlines,” he wrote. “I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by.”) His female characters are flimsy. But he excelled at bringing a human scale and sensibility to the vastness of the cosmos, and vice-versa, often via a deftly executed one-liner.

Also not in the least bit surprised to find that Terry Pratchett (one of my faves) was a rival to Douglas.

Hehe.

Lovely. In running the growth teams of different startups in Africa, I've made my fair share of simple mistakes I've definitely overreacted to (and over-corrected!), so I get it.

I wish her all the best!

People are horny and lonely, and there are peple who see a market in that.

A fool and his money are soon parted.

Huge if true.