stray bits...

"I actually sweat the specifics because they matter. "

I love this quote - this is one of my core values and love hearing Hilary say it.  She may be personally ambitious - so shoot her - but I believe that she works hard and cares about stuff, including women and kids. She meets with a lot of people in scary situations personally, and I bet that really does affect her.

http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/6/21/1541020/-Trump-s-total-policy-vacuousness-gives-Hillary-space-to-connect-with-average-Americans

1 min read

Omit Needless Motions : thoughts on the Alexander technique

A friend introduced me yesterday to the Alexander technique, which after reading about on various websites, I still know very little about.  Here is why I consider that a failing in principle.

I am not merely a demanding, impatient, spoiled American, though I am those things too.  But the technique, or the description of it I was able to gather in my very brief reading, seems to me to contain powerful principles that reach beyond use of one's body.

The Alexander technique, in my limited understanding, involves not only release of tension but minimalist motion and effort, a conscious avoiding of unnecessary muscle action.

This principle of minimalist, focused effort is both general and powerful: Omit Needless Words.  Treat every problem as if its solution were extremely simple (Extreme programming).  Write.

So here is a challenge to you folks who do understand the Alexander technique, who are teachers and who have dedicated years to its understanding:  Can you write a page or two of imperatives that distill your deep wisdom to the fewest possible words?

In the meantime, I'll keep reading:

http://www.alexandertechnique.com/ http://alexandertechnique.com/resources/joshuaselfstudy/

1 min read

took me long enough: the key..

..to a good life is having a framework in which you can spend the bits of time doing good things, things in line with your long term deep goals.  That's it.  And that's the software I really want to write, the thing that ties together the long-term threads and deeper goals with the daily feed and workflow.  But in the meantime use the tools there are, which maybe could already be used that way...

kinda obvious but most things that make sense are obvious, no?

1 min read

area51

I've been using StackOverflow for years as a programmer, and never before scrolled to the bottom to see the whole community of sites.  Not only is there stackoverflow for plumbers and scifi/fantasy buffs, but http://area51.stackexchange.com/ lets you join or start a community of experts for a new stackoverflow site.

Its interesting that its not just platform software anyone can use, but that the community/reputation/expert factor is an intrinsic part of the thing.  Its not just the software, apparently.

1 min read

Lincoln on pragmatic idealism

I really like these quotes from his debate with Douglass: "This they said and this they meant (the equality of those certain unalienable rights).  They did not mean to assert the obvious untruth, that all were then actually enjoying that equality, nor yet, that they were about to confer it immediately upon them.  In fact they had no power to confer such a boon.  They meant simply to declare the right, so that the enforcement of it might follow as fast as circumstances should permit.  They meant to set up a standard maxim for free society, which should be familiar to all, and revered by all; constantly looked to, constantly labored for, and even though never perfectly attained, constantly approximated....the assertion that "all men are created equal" was of no practical use in effecting our separation from Great Britain; and it was placed in the Declaration not for that, but for future use." -- quoted in Stephen Prothero's The American Bible p.80

I think this is a key point, that declaring what is right or just describing an idea has power even though the writer doesn't have the ability to enforce or implement it, and may not in

1 min read

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