JosephBurnett.com

There is a shadow world flowing through all that surrounds us. It is a world of numbers and symbols, possibility and computation. Every touch, every perception, every word is an atom in the landscape beneath our shared hallucination that is reality.

Kids are adults in training. But some stuff is hard to get them to practice, like chores and managing their money. It’s easier to do it for them and buy them stuff when they ask for it. There is no easy answer, but through trial and error we have found a pretty good process. It’s called “family meeting”.

My TODO list is a flowing river.

Advice that does not try to be advice is useful. To give true advice is to speak honestly about the world and how we are in it--to say what is. But the moment that a person begins to say what you should do or not do, it is no longer useful. When we see things as they are, it is obvious what to do.

The other day a friend at work asked me “How do you do so much?”. He made a similar comment in my annual peer feedback, that he has no idea how I find the time for all that I do. Immediately I thought, “Oh my god. I can’t get anything done!”

“It is the quality of your consciousness at this moment that determines the future.”

“[English] becomes ugly and inaccurate because our thoughts are foolish, but the slovenliness of our language makes it easier for us to have foolish thoughts.”

“Saying what people failed to do, or implying what they could or should have done to prevent the mishap, has no role in understanding human error.”

Are all good explanations simple explanations?

Why does happiness matter in software engineering?

“In order to think, you have to write. If you don’t, you only think you’re thinking.”