Sky's Blog

I was watching Charlie Rose interview Paul Farmer tonight and I thought, “gee I was going to become an M.D. when I was an undergraduate in college, and it would have been so nice to have that M.D. and then be able to go do other things if I wanted to.” But then I did a double-take and realized that I was truly fortunate to realize while an undergraduate that what I really wanted to do is become part of the “core” of those working on Computer Science in its early days.

Compared to today, 1963 really was the early days. It was pre-Internet. It was pre-Ted Nelson. It was pre-Doug Engelbart. And so forth. And getting a PhD in computer science back then was really an adventure in the unknown. Most of what we regard as Computer Science was unmapped in those days.

So some unaskedfor advice to my readers. When you find yourself saying ”I think I should do X but I really like Y” please pay attention to what your intuition is telling you. Don’t waste your time doing what someone else thinks you should be doing. Above all, be realistic, but give great weight to what your intuition is telling you, because it’s very likely right about it.

That old Steve Jobs advice again (see also)

“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life.”

Geek: one who is deep into the intricacies of a discipline, study or physical objects. {e.g. “Computer geeks”} A geek usually makes his own world and socializes about his chosen study. Frequently the geek doesn’t care much about the opinions of others about his chosen love-object, leading to their becoming socially ostracized. But, “So what?” A geek participates in geek activities every day, and preferably at least once every hour. The word may derive from European languages where it means fool or crazy.

Fanboy: one who is unreasonably geeky, proud of and proseletyzing about a discipline, study or physical objects. {“Apple fanboy”} Flamewars frequently arise between fanboys and their opponents because of the depth (and unreasonability) of their beliefs surrounding their love-object. A fanboy participates in fanboy activities “as needed” which might be each day, or sometimes only once a month. The word fan is a shortening of the word fanatic.

Ham: one who is showoffingly self-involved in participation in a discipline, study or physical objects. {“Ham” on the stage; “Ham” radio} On the stage, a “ham” usually overdoes it, going beyond what is necessary — and usually because he just loves doing it and gets a charge from his love-object. A ham usually participates in ham activities “when they feel like it” and sometimes in ways that indicate they feel they are invisible, such as ham radio operators talking on the radio when walking down the street. (Umm…that begs the question of whether cellphone street-walker-talkers are ham radio operators.) The word is a shortening of the word amateur.

My life is a series of cycles. One of them in particular has the lyrics “Business; learning; business; learning; business; learning…” I spend a few years building a company or a product, I become successful at it (most of the times), I then leave and cycle back into something I want to “learn.” And that learning period becomes formative in determining what I can productively do in the next business cycle.

Steve Jobs knew about these cycles, and said during his famous Stanford University commencement address of 2005 [7:22 into the video, which you can find on NPR]

“The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again.”

These cycles have nothing to do with whether you get rich or become a bum. They have to do with how you decide to use your precious years. He put the exclamation point on it [12:40 into the same video] by adding

“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life.”

I need a mode for my iPhone where I can leave an app running on the screen and ”turn off touch” so that I can watch what’s happening but not cause anything to happen if I accidentally touch the screen.

I have decided to call this ”fingerprint only” mode because you can touch the screen, but nothing happens.

I particularly need this for mapping and travel apps, where I want to keep the app open while I’m walking or hiking and holding the phone in my hand, but touching the screen could cause the app to fly off to different coordinates, or even to change mode or shut down. Great example is Everytrail where it tracks my movement and I frequently have it in my hand so I can watch as I walk along. Fascinating, but way too easy to touch the wrong thing and completely screw up the trip map.