10 Things I have learned from programming (so far)

1 - Aesthetically pleasing code often correlates to well thought out and good code.
2 - Sometimes it is just better to start over.
3 - There is a huge difference between skimming and reading for understanding.
4 - Productivity tools are awesome and often come without opportunity cost.
5 - Having a standard format is a very good idea.
6 - How the interpreter is never wrong and how the feeling that it is disappears - slowly with experience.
7 - A little bit about 'unconscious learning' (both about the process and its feeling).
8 - A high-level language with a great community has awesome 'beginner power'. You can create cool tools without years and years of learning. I attribute my sticking with it largely to this fact.
9 - Checklists are useful and do not necessarily stifle creativity.
10 - A much needed reminder of just how rewarding 'craft' or building something can be. 

10 Reasons Why Mindfulness Meditation Could Be a Fraud

i - If it were so useful where has it been for the last 2000 years?
ii - Much of what I do (maybe all) when I practice is simple thinking while sitting.
iii - Sitting cross-legged makes me feel not quite noble, but less like a sloth.
iv - I am just a different / new-age / enlightenment want-a-be.
v - It provides a (or rather, another) believable reason to permit being narcissistic.
vi - Who is the 'self' that is observing / being aware?
vii - How is the subjective claim of 'no-self' or 'emptiness' different from the claim of 'seeing the light [of heaven]?
viii - We are in a big thought-bubble / group-think / circle-jerk where no one is questioning it's merits.
ix - We have a biological inclination to seek meaning; this is just another story.
x - How could an enlightened being have a weight problem. Suspect.

WARNING: DONT READ THIS

We have been blogging for 20 days now and I am not really loving it to be honest.

Most days I write what at the moment I think is profound only to ready it later that day and find it pretentious.

And today for example I have nothing to say. It was a good day, I felt a lot of nice emotions, and I did my work. But that is it, I have nothing of value to add to the conversation.

...

But maybe I am not loving it because I am confusing writing a blog with being a blogger (if you couldn't tell I am in the former category).

Writing is still helping me clarify my thoughts, clearing the fragmented drive that is my brain, and it might be a nice time capsule one day.

So here is to anyone reading and to the next 20 blogs.
Cheers. 

Two way street

Most all the streets here are one direction.

Passing my friend on the way to work the other day "But isn't it the other way?" he asked. "Yeah, but it is only a one way street, buddy." I replied. He smiled and told me "You are the only person in this town going the long way."

Now every morning I am torn.

In one direction my friend and everybody else are right - going the wrong way is faster, not hurting anyone, and I even like the tiny sense of fuck you to the traffic gods, un-rightfully pissed off drivers going the other - correct - way, and generally to the systems and rules and laws and customs and order everywhere.

But going the other way, the long way, also appeals to me, symbolically. My favorite blogger has a saying about the 'long cut' - reminding us not that there are no short-cuts, but that there is only one, and that one short-cut is taking the long route. 

Why Buddhism is True (1)

Preface:
I read a book recently by this title and took a lot away from it. His title (and mine) are intentionally provocative but we are not talking about any of the non-materialistic / spiritual tenets of the religion (to be honest I don't much about them). We are referencing psychology that can be tested through experience that Buddhism claims as truths.

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# 1 Expelling the myth that obtaining contentment can come through obtaining the object(s) of desire(s).

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The idea...
It is more than an idea. It a large part of what propels thoughts and actions.
If  big or long held desires are fulfilled happiness, contentment, or piece of mind will come. The voice whispering "NOW SUCKS" will stop.

...

Even my very non-Buddhist aunt explained that this was a myth in an example or absurd proportion.

Now I have clearly experienced it.

One of my longest held desires, the noun at the end of "If I only had X", has been obtained.

I am very great-full, but contentment has not replaced in full the space previously occupied by desire. It has simply been filled with other desires.

...

The problem is treating in (like I do) the objects of desire as if, well, as if they were more than objects - the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

But perhaps the objects of our desires are just that - objects.

The problem is not that we have desires, it is that we believe the implicit promises they carry.

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'The Minimalists' mantra: "Love people, use things [aka the objects of our desires]. Because the reverse never works." 

10 Things where the Evolutionary Perspective...

... is often more interesting than Our Daily perspective.

My very limited understanding is that all of what we often call human nature was "selected" for through the process of natural selection. But that this does not mean that all of human natures pieces and parts were individually selected or that we use them for the purpose they were selected for. My favorite example of the later is that our noses probably did not evolve to hold our glasses.

I occasionally enjoy looking at parts of life through this lens. 

1 - Food - what we eat.
2 - Food - why we are fat.
3 - Imagination - what is its purpose?
4 - Morality - Us vs Them.
5 - Our silly routines, ticks, and habits.
6 - Short term vs Long term thinking and action.
7 - Emotions - what are the purposes of curiosity or jealousy.
8 - Our immune system.
9 - Striving.
10 - Cleanliness and personal hygiene.

* Maybe some things like love, relationships, and family are better not to be thought about through this perspective?