The Long Game
... read more
Interesting reads and finds everyday
Yes, it is the case that a seventh-century succession dispute led to Islam's schism between Sunni and Shia. But that is quite literally ancient history. Today's divide between Sunni and Shia isn't primarily about religion, and it's not ancient: It's quite recent, and much of it is driven by politics, not theology.
There’s always a discussion these days about whether or not “we should move to Slack”. I like Slack, but I totally understand that it’s a cleaned up version of IRC.
Some people tell me that it’s much better than email, “it’s quick and directly to the point”, but I think that’s just because they don’t use it as often as they use email. Once everyone is on Slack, the same problems will happen.
... read more
You can watch this talk as well.
... read more
Warning: contains some spoilers.
... read more
I’ve always been a huge fan of Mozilla (and not just Firefox, but the foundation behind it). This article is very difficult for me to read. It doesn’t offer possible ideas or plans to stop the ongoing decline of Mozilla, it just highlights how bad the current situation is.
Saying “ongoing decline of Mozilla” maybe sounds worse than it is, or maybe I’m just in denial.
... read more
Iyad el-Baghdadi’s interview with Vox is a must-read for any one who’s trying to understand ISIS and how to stop it.
... read more
Reading into ISIS’s writings sheds a light on their goals.
... read more
Important basic concepts in choosing the strategy to fight ISIS
... read more
From episode 488 of the Hanselminute podcast with guest Omoju Miller. She talks about the role of a teacher in the context of Computer Science education. Starting around 11:10
I have this fundamental idea that you can't teach anybody anything, what you can do is guidance and facilitation. They have to decide they want to learn it. Once you turn on the light, they will go in and get the knowledge for themselves and you will be the human that can help them figure out the bottlenecks faster. The world is so different now, everything you need to know is available to you somewhere online. So, the idea that I'm, the teacher, the expert is no longer the case. I have a certain skill that I can support you in your learning but I'm by no means the expert. You might end up being the expert for that area. I just need to unravel the blocks that are holding you back and get you on your way.
Scott’s response is exactly like mine: Wow, that really just blew my mind. The ‘factory line’ way of teaching is a thing of the past given the student’s access to knowledage in ways that far superior to the abilities of the teacher in front of them. No longer is it sensible for teachers to act like they’re the source of knowledage, they have to move to the role of enabler and facilitator.
... read more
واللافت أن هناك جهلاً غير مبرر من الطرفين باعتقادات الطرف الآخر. فحين نبحث في غوغل عن السنة والشيعة، نقع على كتابات الكراهية المبنية على الجهل. فالسنة يلعنون الشيعة لأنهم يقولون بتحريف القرآن، ويؤلهون أئمتهم ولغيرها من التبريرات التي تحض على الكراهية. وهذا ببساطة شديدة غير صحيح إن نحن عدنا إلى مصادر المعلومات الدقيقة.
This article is part 1, there's also part 2. The two parts maybe long but are definitely worth the read.
The article was recommended by Elon Musk.
... read more
Forty-seven percent of all employment in the United States is susceptible to automation over the next two decades, according to a study by Carl Benedikt Frey, an economist, and Michael A. Osborne, an associate professor of machine learning, at the University of Oxford.
Still, I wouldn’t say that Medium’s homogeneous design is bad ex ante. Among web-publishing tools, I see Medium as the equivalent of a frozen pizza: not as wholesome as a meal you could make yourself, but for those without the time or motivation to cook, a potentially better option than just eating peanut butter straight from the jar.
There were essentially two (more-or-less) well-known laws in the IT community that contributed to (predicted, even) JavaScript’s world domination.
Moore’s Law has been generalized in several ways, how it is really about "exponential progress, in the wake of tiny revolutions and paradigm shifts"
Atwood’s Law by Jeff Atwood: "Any application that can be written in JavaScript, will eventually be written in JavaScript."