Author: admin

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Learned Today 2008 06 17 1536H

I’ve been a victim of this awhile ago, I think another side effect of this is that people with certificates automatically discount your knowledge because you lack the said certificate.
I’ve encountered this with managers from job listings for java programmer, web developer, database administrator and the like.
I sometimes had to restrain myself from correcting people who were interviewing me. Its a balancing act between not seeming arrogant whilst trying to correct a false assumptions. I find this often with people not that passionate with programming and the like.
as a disclaimer with everything I write: What Do I Know I Am Probably A Big Fool!

Dunning-Kruger effect

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Dunning-Kruger effect is the phenomenon wherein people who have little knowledge (or skill) tend to think that they know more (or have more skill) than they do, while others who have much more knowledge tend to think that they know less.

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Best Read Today!

from chris dillow here:
For me personally, introspection corroborates all this. I can easily imagine that, with even slightly different upbringing or luck, I would be either considerably richer and “successful” than I am now, or in prison. My “character” is of secondary importance, if indeed it exists at all. As Iris DeMent sang:

And I traveled to a prison; I saw my share of shattered dreams.
Were the tables slightly tilted I could be bound, they could be free.

I mention all this because it’s a big reason why I’m an egalitarian. When I see someone successful and respected, I see – as a tendency with exceptions – not an admirable character but merely the beneficiary of lucky circumstances. And when I see life’s other side – again, with exceptions – I see not bad character but bad luck.
And one reason why I am more attracted than most to the possibility of social change is that the long-run pay-off to greater equality and democracy is precisely the effect it might have in improving people’s behaviour.

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Feeling Foolish

Why Do I keep feeling this way??
I have a strange feeling that I may be the fool in the equation.
triggered by a quote seen in my feed reader, the quote:

Euripides

from Quotes of the Day
“Talk sense to a fool and he calls you foolish.”
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The Secret Of Unit Testing!

from Micheal Feather’s blog here:
Quality is a function of thought and reflection – precise thought and reflection.  That’s the magic.  Techniques which reinforce that discipline invariably increase quality.

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On Creativity in Companies

An excellent post from Scott Berkun. If you are at all involved with a group of people as decision makers a must read.
from here:
some take aways:
…..
They mistakenly believe the problem is the quality of ideas, when in fact the problem is the conservative psychology inherent in democracy.


Pure democracy is not the political system that will create the most change – it’s a system geared for stability, not for innovation.
…..
if you ask for more innovation without changing the authority structure, I’ll call you crazy.

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On Refactoring

Inspired by this post
I was recently handed the responsibility to maintain/fix the code of my officemate who has already left for greener pastures. Its my first day with the code so I did a 2-3 hour refactoring session with around 4k LOC.
I finished trudging through 1k LOC , and would probably be finished with the rest of the code if my team lead didn’t tell me to fix a critical bug (on the code I was refactoring).
Note One: I haven’t been told that the code was my responsibility but I have a sixth sense for things like this, so I faced the hurdle head on.
Note Two: Writing Unit tests before refactoring, trust me on this, You know that feeling you have before an operation, well that’s how you feel before and , while and after you are testing your code. No matter what you do you have that fear that maybe you didn’t do it right. So just write the test. Just do this for your sake.
I saw a few readily fixed errors around 10 and about 4 errors that took me awhile to understand and eventually fixed.
Around 2 hours after lunch we had a quick meeting because of the critical bug. The bug was a show stopper and at the meeting the code/functions/pages were formally given to me with a reminder:  We need the bugs fixed today.
luckily, some of the the bugs I have already fixed and my refactoring allowed me to easily zero in on the offending code. I was able to fix it in less than 30 minutes.
After two hours, my team lead comes to me and ask warily,
“When are you going to finish fixing the bug?”
“Its Already fixed”
“The bug? you sure?”
“yep”
The face of my team lead of disbelief/suspicion/slight admiration was priceless.
This was all due to refactoring!

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Contact Hypothesis

Contact Hypothesis! This although with a stretch ties in nicely with yesterday’s post/rant!
from the TED blog:
The researchers] surveyed 180 Bosnian Muslims about their attitudes towards Bosnian Serbs in the wake of the earlier conflict. They found that Bosnian Muslims who had more Serb friends and who identified more with a sense of being “Bosnian,” rather than “Bosnian Muslim” or “Bosniak,” also tended to show more empathy for Serbs as a group, to be more trusting of Serbs, and to see Serbs as more varied — all of which predicted greater levels of forgiveness and more positive attitudes towards the Serbs.
This pattern is consistent with what’s known as the “contact hypothesis” in social psychology, which states that more high quality contact between groups promotes intergroup reconciliation.

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Living In A Bubble

I feel strongly about this. I either try to walk as much as I can. The thing that irritates me a lot is the high levels of pollution you are exposed to. Coming from a 3rd world country You bet our elites probably don’t know how hard it is to breath in most any part of metro manila. Its sad because they are mostly living in a bubble. They live in posh villages with well manicured lawns and beautiful trees. They ride in air conditioned limos and hardly ever really experience the air pollution. I have a feeling they’d be more concerned with the environment if they only joined me for a walk!
from the NYT:
I wouldn’t think that sidewalks are a top priority in developing countries. The last priority. Because the priority is to make highways and roads. We are designing cities for cars, cars, cars, cars, cars. Not for people. Cars are a very recent invention. The 20th century was a horrible detour in the evolution of the human habitat. We were building much more for cars’ mobility than children’s happiness.Even in countries where most people can’t afford to own cars? The upper-income people in developing countries never walk. They see the city as a threatening space, and they can go for months without walking one block.

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Loving Friend Feed!

First Time I used friend feed I wasn’t that Impressed, this was because I was already following the a-listers.
Then I had a little time to burn and found a thread in hacker news on friendfeed and now I can say I am definitely hooked.  Thank You friend feed founders/devs!

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Thanks To XKCD!

Whenever I have moments when I begin to feel the enormity of the hurdles ahead of my journey.
Whenever I feel the need to censure my words.
Whenever I start to feel the loneliness of the path that I chose to traverse.
Looking at this helps alot!