jack

Shuffle meme

Fri, 23 Jan 2015 10:43:24 GMT

Rules: http://liv.dreamwidth.org/459251.html

List of things in the order I like them, with one removed, and with three more added at the top, middle and bottom:

Maths
Twitter
Stuffed Dinosaurs
Nessie Ladle
Undercooked Aubergine

I'm sad the Nessie Ladle is so low down! It's totally awesome. But I decided Stuffed Dinosaurs were even better :)

I also took the liberty of mutating the rules, which wasn't explicitly asked for, but is implicitly in the rules by virtue of how humanity works :) And because I thought it might get ugly if I had to play "think of something worse than gender essentialism, think of something worse than that, ok, now worse than that..." Even if other people can make that an interesting conversation!

comments

Advice Day

Wed, 04 Dec 2013 13:08:30 GMT

via Liv and wild_irises

If you had to give me one piece of advice (however ridiculous), what would it be?

comments

Starwars day

Fri, 04 May 2012 15:37:13 GMT

Happy bad pun day!

comments

Questions from Chess

Thu, 08 Mar 2012 16:21:55 GMT

You are offered the chance to become an Instant Expert in any one field of academic endeavour. Which field of academic study do you choose, or do you turn the offer down entirely?

This is an interesting question, I'll answer in three parts.

Would I want the expertise?

Yes, definitely. It might make sense to pick a subject I know nothing about, so I gain proportionately more. But honestly, what I'd like is to know maths to a professional level, rather than a graduate level.

When I see a question about physics or biology or literature, I'm more likely to think "I wish I had someone to explain that to me", but when I see a question about maths, I'm more likely to think "I wish I knew that."

Would I want the job?

I'm not sure. I think it was a good thing I didn't do a PhD, I think the risk of me drifiting would have been too high. But I think I'd like being a professor. And I'd like to discover something genuinely new. But on balance, I'm not certain, but I think I'd rather make great software than great maths.

Would I want the prestige?

I don't know. In general, I'd like to be admired, but when it comes to it, I actually only want to be admired for things I've actually done, not for stuff that just fell onto me.

On the one hand, that sounds quite laudable. But on the other hand, I think it's a manifestation of imposter syndrome: to some extent popular successful people are those who say "I worked hard, so I deserved to capitalise on the luck I had" rather than "oh, well, I worked hard, but I only succeeded because I got lucky". Most likely, if someone's parents/peers were millionaires, they'd think being a millionaire was appropriate compensation for the work they do. And if they were destitute, they'd think being destitute was what they could expect.

comments

Word Meme: Programming; Magic; Fantasy; Judaism; Political

Wed, 11 May 2011 21:24:44 GMT

A word meme about five words associated with my journal.

Programming

This is what I do every day. And am interested in. As do/are many of my friends. Hence, I talk about it. Although funnily enough, I don't talk about it as much as you might think. I think I'm often embarrassed to do so, because of the chance I'll seem ridiculously ignorant about something, when I'm supposedly earning my salary as a programmer, or ridiculously pretentious for caring about something other people don't bother with.

Magic: The Gathering

I think Magic is a great game for geeks. I got into it slowly because I knew it would be a time and money sink, but it fulfils many of the criteria that are really enjoyable: it's possible (if you don't make a deck too ridiculous) to play a quick game in half an hour or less; it passes the time in a social fashion; there's enough skill and randomness that the better player usually wins, but that it's rarely devoid of interest; it has microcosms of just about every aspect of game theory; many of the cards are just shiny; it's a rule system that geeks love exploring; there are many different formats, ranging from completely casual to fiendishly competitive.

Of course, there are problems with it: if you get into it seriously, you will spend money one way or another, because the cards are ultimately produced by a company; it often draws out people's obsessive geeky-competitive tendencies (I don't know if that's because it's antisocial, or because it's social enough it's the only place you met people who will tend to be obsessive); the rules are quite well written, but undeniably complicated to pick up at once.

The weird thing is, it's one of the very few things I like I'm embarrassed to admit to many of my friends (obviously excluding people who like it like I do). Most people I know are tolerant in the sense that they won't blame me for liking something, even if they do think it's puerile. But (I'm not sure if this is accurate) I still get a vibe that liking magic is somehow "sad". That although you can like many hobbies, pouring energy into magic is a disproportionate obsession the way liking TV or roleplaying isn't. And I think I subconsciously know what people mean, but I can't put words to why that should be so.

Fantasy

I'm going to assume this is about fiction and not about unfulfilled dreams :)

At some point when I was a teenager I started liking science fiction and fantasy. I can't remember a clear transition. Partly that's because scifi/fantasy is what a lot of children's books quite naturally are.

I remember finding Asimov's "Caves of Steel" sophisticated and intellectual when I was about 10.

I can't ever remember noticing a clear distinction between science fiction and fantasy until I made friends with the sort of people who argued about that sort of thing at university. I mean, I would have known there was a difference, but I would instinctively be drawn to either.

In principle, I would have thought what would draw me to the genres was the interest in hypothetical questions. I'm sure I did like much classic SF on that ground, and still enjoy (rare) engineering-heavy SF. But in fact, a lot of what drew me in was the sort of stories told, which are often more evident in fantasy than SF.

comments