Happy life

My advice for a happy life based on what works for me / research in general:
  1. Eat healthy every day
  2. Exercise every day
  3. Find a live in significant other
  4. Talk to a friend or family member daily
  5. Caffeine and alcohol are high interest short term loans, generally better to avoid
  6. Move on
  7. Build things you are passionate about
  8. Listen to other people
  9. Read good books

SyntaxNet is Approaching Human Levels

Google’s new open source language parser, SyntaxNet, seems to be nearing human levels of sentence parsing.  Trained human linguists can parse sentences with 97% accuracy, SyntaxNet can parse them with 94% accuracy… basically SyntaxNet is halfway there. If it doubles in efficiency twice, it will surpass humans.

When it surpasses humans, how far will we be from general strong artificial intelligence?… read more “SyntaxNet is Approaching Human Levels”

Illustrated Man by Ray Bradbury

I just finished reading the “illustrated man” by Ray Bradbury. A fascinating tale about a tattooed man whose tattoos tell stories from the future, it is a bit macabre. Entertaining though and good literature.

Complexity

Managing complexity is one of the greatest challenges developers and managers face. Developers face complexity in the form of having code that can grow difficult to understand, and managers face it in businesses that become hard to comprehend. The human mind is finite and can only hold so much in it at a given time.

Developers have a number of tools and best practices to try to help make code more understandable.… read more “Complexity”

LAUSD Superintendent Closing Schools Wasted 67 Lifetimes

Robert Cortines, the superintendent of the LAUSD schools received a bomb threat and then closed all schools today. 640,000 kids were sent home along with approximately 100,000 teachers and administrators. The threat was “electronic”.. I am guessing emailed from the Tor network or something like that.

Was Robert Cortines decision the correct one?

Let’s look at the facts:

  1. Of the 1,055 actual school bombings in the history of the world only 14 were preceded by a warning.
read more “LAUSD Superintendent Closing Schools Wasted 67 Lifetimes”

Body Weight vs Speed

Interesting information I came across today. For a 170 pound athlete, a fat gain of 2% (or 3.4 lbs) results in a vertical jump height loss of 2″ and a 40 yard dash time increase of .26 seconds.

That is pretty crazy to me. Currently I weigh about 198 pounds and am 6’6”.  I am not fat but definitely not skinny either.… read more “Body Weight vs Speed”

Work is Vital to Life Satisfaction

Most people can’t wait for the weekend. There are endless jokes and cultural memes about Thank God It’s Friday and resenting when Monday comes back around.

In my experience though, after a long weekend or vacation I usually find myself less happy than when I am working regularly and getting things done. The sense of purpose and accomplishment that I get from work I generally don’t get from play.… read more “Work is Vital to Life Satisfaction”

Daily 6 Mile Runs

I have slowly over the last year and a half built up to the point where I run six miles four to five mornings each week. I typically wake up at around 6:40 am, drink two glasses of water, use the restroom, then head outside for my six mile run. My route takes me on Motor Ave under the 10 freeway and up into beautiful Cheviot Hills.… read more “Daily 6 Mile Runs”