09.30.07
Google and Faces
I told them so: http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/09/30/0213214
But they’re only doing it in Canada, which is somewhat strange. They really don’t seem to see the problem with the privacy implications of street view.
09.29.07
Society has it backwards
As one demonstrates more and more competency, society should withdraw its challenges to permit original paradigm-changing thought. What is actually done is very close to the exact opposite, in which more skilled people are simply given more and more work.
Granted, if you’re motivated enough, it doesn’t matter what society does; you’ll create a lot of work for yourself regardless. But at least it would be original work.
09.28.07
This is how the legislature votes in Texas
I’m not usually one to copy links from Digg, but this is a deeply disturbing failure of democracy:
Even worse than multiple voting is the fact that most of those seats are empty to begin with. Making the law is a very important job. The least politicians can do is show up to work.
Society in general disgusts me, but the elite is the worst by far. It’s as if being scum is a prerequisite to gaining power.
09.27.07
Intuition in sensate disciplines
Bringing intuition into an intellectual discipline dominated by sensors is like bringing the third dimension into a 2D world. You can essentially ignore all obstacles because they don’t block your mode of thought. That intuitive leaping allows us to make startlingly accurate conjectures with very little data.
Of course, while I can probably pass a business theory course in my sleep (having just seen what their tests are like), I still can’t effectively market. Theory is one thing, practice another (and actually understanding people is a whole different beast from any sort of theory). So it’s not as if there’s any material advantage. It just means I don’t need to bother going for a formal MBA because nothing will stop me from learning from the books.
Pairing the appropriate intuitive and sensing types in appropriate roles is still the best option, of course. If you miss details in business, they will eventually be your undoing.
I am the hub node!
I have essentially become the hub that everyone goes through in the Metasquares community. My insights and advice are valued by all parties. This is a good thing; all sorts of opportunities open up when you literally have all of the information there is to know.
09.26.07
Assortive mixing in faculty/student selection
There seems to be a high degree of homophily, particularly in terms of race and culture, in student/faculty pairings.
This may lead to an admissions bias, among other things.
09.24.07
So it isn't quite unique
My thought patterns are not quite as unique as I had previously thought. Henri Poincaré’s thought processes appeared to resemble my own.
Hiring and Admissions
After seeing how faculty are hired in academia, I realize that all of my problems were predetermined as soon as I wrote the word “Algorithms” on my personal statement for grad. school.
09.23.07
Programming or Research… both
I can’t help it. When I start programming, I get really excited. It doesn’t matter how hard the problem might be in theory; sit me down in front of a computer for a few hours and I’ll solve it. I wrote a master’s project that was supposed to take me 3 months in less than a week. I wrote a classifier that took my group a year of fine-tuning in a single day, and it worked better the first time than theirs did after all of that time. I just whizzed through a programming assignment that my professor admits should take about 9 to 10 hours in a matter of one. I can’t really do this sort of thing if I’m not coding, and I can’t do it at all if I’m under heavy pressure, but if the environment is right, it’s amazing to even me, and perhaps explains why my expectations of myself in other areas are sometimes unreasonable. In some ways, it’s a pity that I don’t get to code more often, because I love doing it and I’m really good at it (having done it since 8).
I need to find fields where I can both code and do research. Representing a problem in code, thus rendering most calculations trivial, just removes ambiguities and minute details that could obstruct the general thought process and just seems to augment my thinking ability. For an ‘N’ type, more general thought processing and fewer details is the optimal situation 
Debt? Why?
Not an idea, just a philosophy of mine: don’t owe anyone money if you can at all help it. Ever. Period. It’s a bad situation to be in. If you have less, spend less until you have more. I’m watching some of my friends get into debt and thinking “Why? Was there no better way?”
I don’t even have a credit card. This isn’t an issue, because I’d max out just about any credit card’s limit before I could draw 1/10 of the balance on my debit card. This is the way I intend to keep it. There is perhaps a slightly higher risk of liability if the card is stolen or compromised, but my bank still offers me a very great deal of protection.
CDs are pretty nice, too. Put $10,000 that you almost certainly aren’t going to use anyway away for a few months and take out $10,500. Not a bad chunk of change, considering that the net impact of the CD on your ability to use your finances was probably zero.
I tend to shy away from riskier investments that are tied to markets, at least until I’ve had a chance to perform a thorough analysis, complete with time-series mining and lots of fun statistics in tandem with my own social intuitions. And then I’d probably just invest on my own. Or not at all, if I can find some better way to attain the funds necessary for my goals while still retaining my rather strict internal ethical standards.