book
I've recently completed the book Why Does the World Exist?: An Existential Detective Story by Jim Holt. It was quite an entertaining read but also quite unsatisfactory, since I feel it didn't even come close to giving an answer to the question posed. At most, it
habit
I have long been looking for a system that helps me stick to good habits. I used a time tracking application on my iPhone and also created various spreadsheets. Unfortunately the solutions I found so far turned out to be too cumbersome to enter data (spreadsheets) or too difficult to
consciousness
Today I listened to a podcast from the show Waking up with Sam Harris. The topic of the podcast was consciousness and the self the guest was a Anil K. Seth. I haven't finished the podcast yet (it is over three hours long) but even in the beginning
coding
I've recently done some research into WebRTC and specifically on how to stream media captured in the browser to a server. Initially I thought I could use something like Kinesis Video Streams and have AWS do the heavy lifting for me. Unfortunately this turned out way more complicated
anger
We all know how it feels to be angry. We can be angry in the small, maybe about something we forgot and for which only we ourselves are to blame. We can be angry in the big, as a people who feel that others are taking advantage of us. It
body
When we think of the mind, we often first think about our thoughts, feelings, beliefs and decisions. When our mind wanders, our thoughts jump from one topic to another. When we change our mind, we have decided to think of something in a different way than we used to or
economics
Today I came across an article by Steve Biddulph and one paragraph therein really struck a chord with me: There is something happening, in the new century, to the way we live, which again is harming our basic humanity. Every economy tends to enslave, and ours is the most effective
breathing
Without a doubt, our body and mind are connected. Without our body, our mind cannot be. If we strive for a strong and enlightened mind, we must also strive for a strong and healthy body. Of course, it is still possible to achieve an enlightened mind even in a body
functional-programming
I always had the feeling that React is just a bit to complex, a bit to 'heavy' to be a truely elegant solution to the problem of building complex user interfaces in JavaScript. Two issues, for instance, are the general project setup, exemplified by the need to have
happiness
Look within; within is the fountain of all good. Marcus Aurelius We often go about our lives in a robot-like way. We do what is prescribed by our biological, social and cultural programming; seek social confirmation, seek good-looking mates, seek power, seek wealth, and we do so without thinking about
art
Ornaments are an important part of nature. Flowers use them to attract bees. Birds use them to attract mates. Frogs use them as protection from predators. It is therefore not very surprising that jewellery, face painting, tattoos and other ornamental devices are one of the many things which are shared
definition
One of the marks of an expert is the knowledge of vocabulary within a specific domain and the ability to apply this vocabulary effectively and precisely. Listing to two engineers talk about the construction of a bridge, we would not understand much of their conversation, as long as we not
