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finished reflection 10 (finally)!
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reflections/10.md

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# Reflection 10
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_December 2017 (12/04/17-12/29/17)_
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_December 2017 (12/04/17-01/05/17)_
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* TOC
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{: toc }
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{: toc }
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## TODO
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## The delay on this reflection
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* read http://futureofcoding.org/episodes/18-research-recap-nine.html
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* read other entries from http://futureofcoding.org/log#test-_data-git-log-json
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The fastidious reader will notice that I am quite delayed on finishing this reflection. My apologies. I reflected on this fact [here](http://futureofcoding.org/log#where-have-i-been-this-week) and [here](http://futureofcoding.org/log#reflecting-on-reflection-10). Hopefully I will be quicker with these going forward.
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## Bret Deep Dive
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## [Bret Deep Dive](http://futureofcoding.org/notes/bret-victor/)
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### Really useful
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There's so much that I missed in the first reading/watching, especially all of his references and sources. For example, I LOVED the interview with Will Wright that he linked to in Learnable Programming -- it's making me seriously consider creating video games like Nicky Case does.
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There's so much that I missed in the first reading/watching, especially all of his references and sources. For example, I LOVED the interview with Will Wright that he linked to in Learnable Programming -- it's making me seriously consider creating video games like Nicky Case.
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### Re-read all my notes? TODO
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http://futureofcoding.org/notes/bret-victor/
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This will take a few hours. Probably useful. Just so much time!
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### LogicHub was (kinda) his idea
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[In my journal I wrote](http://futureofcoding.org/log#so-many-of-my-ideas):
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> In particular I was shocked by how many of my favorite ideas Bret also wrote about, including... LogicHub, a wiki-like platform for understanding and argumentation with nested sources.
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As Bret says in [Ten Brighter Ideas?](http://worrydream.com/TenBrighterIdeas/)
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> As you explore this document, imagine a world where we expect every claim to be accompanied by an explorable analysis, and every statistic to be linked to a primary source. Imagine collecting data and designing analyses in a collaborative wiki-like manner.
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Of course, this isn't *exactly* my vision for LogicHub. I still feel it's important to have precise langauge and community "voting" on the logical-ness of connections.
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## Thinking about the futureofcoding (TODO find a better spot for these sections, they are not reflections)
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### Alan Kay
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In interview with Jason Brennan, he said Alan Kay's purpose is "everyone a scientist." Made me think of this recent BV tweet:
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Goal: 9 billion scientists by 2050. <a href="https://t.co/Nit7wurjeH">pic.twitter.com/Nit7wurjeH</a></p>&mdash; Bret Victor (@worrydream) <a href="https://twitter.com/worrydream/status/931017433489346561?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 16, 2017</a></blockquote>
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<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
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I surmised the definition of "scientist" relevant here is someone comitted to getting around our human biases to reduce our uncertainty. In Alan's words, "the process of scientific thinking is able to deal with many of
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our own inabilities to think and other flaws in a strong enough manner to still come up with ever more accurate mappings of more and more complex parts of our universe." [The Human Condition](http://www.vpri.org/pdf/m2003001_human_cond.pdf)
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> HARC's mission [is] to ensure that human wisdom exceeds human power, by inventing and freely sharing ideas and technology that allow all humans to see further and understand more deeply
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[Another Alan Quote](http://www.squeakland.org/resources/articles/article.jsp?id=1003):
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> This is what our work and Squeak is all about. We are interested in helping children learn to think better and deeper than most adults can. We have made the Squeak medium to serve as a new kind of electronic paper that can hold new ways to represent powerful ideas. We have written examples of this new literature and they are published over the Internet for children and adults to "read" and play with. Readers can also become writers, because "authoring is always on". In fact, much of the learning of this new way to represent and think is best done by "authoring along with the author" in what we call "active essays". To try one of these out right away, look at "Methinks It Is A Weasel", an active essay about one part of Evolution.
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That's pretty clear. I'm realizing that this purpose and Elon's to get us to Mars are very similar in tone: averting existential risks aflicted on humanity by humanity. I'm less worried about these risks, even more so after reading *Better Angels of Our Nature* which talks about how humans continue to get less violent over time.
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The mission of us "getting around our biases" sounds similar to [Steph Jang's mission](http://stephjang.com/about/):
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> I’m working on helping people reprogram themselves to achieve their goals.
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>
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> My personal mission is to equip myself and others with the tools, know-how, and support to become more compassionate and competent human beings.
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>
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> Why? To turbocharge humanity’s ability to solve our biggest problems (e.g., inequality, disease — including mental illness, terrorism, climate change) and establish a more peaceful, equitable, self-actualized society.
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Again very large and problem-solve-y.
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#### Making wrong vs possibility TODO
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It makes me think about the distinction from Landmark, of "making wrong" vs "possibility." A lot of these missions, to my ears, come from a "making wrong" place. A place of sadness, regret, and inadequacy. A place of recognizing "problems." And then wanting to "fix" them.
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It may be more fun and productive to accept the world as it is, and as it is not. Then meditate on the most important things. Then think about ways to reimagine the most important things. Then think about the pros vs cons of each of the new ideas, and then if one of them has many more pros then cons, work on making it into a reality.
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Let's come up with a metaphor for this. The metaphor for "making wrong" is easy: it's a teacher assigning problems, having you solve them, and then marking you right or wrong on them. The metaphor for "possibility" is a little more amorphous. I imagine a brainstorming session or a make-believe game kids make up or a "what do I want to be when I grow up" conversation.
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I haven't reviewed it recently but I get the sense that SmallTalk and the Dynabook were created out of possibility. Yet Alan's *New Computing Technologies* project starts with "making wrong":
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> Code is too: large, complex, costly, buggy, insecure, segregated, and inexpressive
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Of course, this discussion is quite related to John Dewey's notion of a positive philosphy for progressive education, based on experience, as opposed to a reactionary one based on what we don't like in standard ed.
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### Thinking about income TODO
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## Miscellaneous updates
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### Custom log page
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## Custom log page
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This has come along really nicely! I'm honestly a little surprised how much fun I had building this page. What's funny is that I had the idea for making this page in my last research reflection time and came up with the basic structure for doing it locally, statically instead of dyanmically from github via AJAX on each page load.
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For example, in order to iterate on this without having to push to github each time, I needed to learn how to compile a jekyll site locally with `jeykll serve` but then also not include that in the project via `.gitignore`.
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### Clearing up space on c9
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## Clearing up space on c9
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Clearly the Cloud9 space detectors weren't working properly before because I didn't get any warnings about space on my 2GB machine, but I had 20GB of data on it! I first moved up to the 10GB machine but still needed to delete 10GB. I deleted a lot of projects I don't use anymore first. Then I figured out how to use `git sparse` to clean up this repo a bit. I tried using git large file system but 1) it solves a different problem and 2) it doesn't work with Github Pages. This was a bit annoying, and took an hour or two.
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### Research recap episodes --> housekeeping
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## Research recap episodes --> housekeeping
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I recently [figured out that my "research recap" episodes are a waste of time](http://futureofcoding.org/log#cons-and-pros-of-my-current-schedule). I will move to a bi-weekly release schedule, and only do interview episodes. I explained this new structure [in the episode I released today, Dec 29, 2017, in the housekeeping section](/episodes/20).
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### Less productive at home (since 01/15/17)
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## Less productive at home (since 12/15/17)
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I've only gotten a dozen or so hours of work in since I've come home. It's partially a vacation so that's OK, but I would've prefered a bit more time to focus.
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## Next week (01/09/18-01/12/18)
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I've only gotten a dozen or so hours of work in since I've come home. It's partially a vacation so that's OK, but I would've prefered a bit more time to focus. I am making an effort to get ~4 hours of computer time in every weekday I'm here going forward, which is really only 4 days, including today.
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Let's say I have 4 solid work days before leaving for Dynamicland. What are the most important things to do?
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## Next steps 01/01/18-01/19/18
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I'd say continuing the BV Deep Dive is pretty darn useful. The more of Brett and his sources, such as Edward Tufte -- just bought one of his books -- in my head, the better I will be able to absorb and communicate while there. I think I may be able to even finish this deep dive if I really put my head down and don't get distracted by emails and whatnot.
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### Priorites
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However, I will also want to set aside time next week to organize my trip out west, including seeing friends and figuring out my birthday on the 21st.
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#### Visit Dynamicland TODO
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## Calendar Sculpting
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#### BV Deep Dive TODO
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![screenshot 2018-01-05 at 4 47 51 pm](https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/2288939/34630320-9858384e-f239-11e7-8351-3a875ab05189.png)
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#### Other FoC research TODO
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This is my rough plan for the week. In the past, I treated blocks of time as un-deletable. This is useful because it helps make time more concrete. If something would take 5 hours, I can't change that, I can only move that block of time sooner or later. However this system doesn't quite work perfectly because (1) sometimes things take longer or shorter than you'd expect, (2) sometimes you decide not to do something anymore (which would be deleting it), (3) it's difficult in google calendar to move events to the following week.
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#### Write Plan (including deep thinking) TODO
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So as a stop gap measure, I will allow myself to decrease the time of some blocks, or even delete them, as needed. However I will keep the above picture in this journal so that I can see what I originally planned, and will then be able to compare it with what actually happens next week.
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#### Organize this project. Other things: TODO
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Given all that, I think it's realisitic to assume I'll get 15 hours (possibly as much as 25 if I'm really focused) of BV deep dive in next week, which I think will be more than enough to be prepared for my visit. However, I also want to leave time for odds and ends to show up, as well as for a potential podcast interview.
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deep thinking,
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reading HN,
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Reading twitter,
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github issues
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## During Dynamicland
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### Calendar Sculpting TODO
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While I'm there, my intention is to write in this journal at least every day. I'd also love to add videos and pictures here, as well as do some fun tweets. It might be fun and useful for me to write piece on the space so as to explain why I'm so excited about it. I've also thought about writing a piece entitled "Bret Victor Fanboys" after chatting with Jan Paul Posma and Stefan Lesser, but not sure how that would go over.
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## After Dynamicland
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There are a number of other things on my mind that require focused thought, which requires time, which I will not have until after going to Dynamicland. These include:
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1. Finishing my [plan](/plan)
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2. Organizing the other topics for me to research both in [links](/links) and also in my Inbox.
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3. Organizing the other topics/notes I have writting in the "deep thinking" label in my Inbox.
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4. Organizing and prioritizing the [Github Issues for this project](https://github.com/stevekrouse/futureofcoding.org/issues)
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5. Now that I'm no longer addicted to HackerNews, I need to find a system to get the relevant links into my research list. That is, I need to set aside time to read HN. Ditto for Twitter.
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<script>
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