diff --git a/Art.md b/Art.md deleted file mode 100644 index 9a9313f1..00000000 --- a/Art.md +++ /dev/null @@ -1,522 +0,0 @@ ---- -layout: page -title: Art -permalink: /Art/ ---- - - -Art ... is partly about skills development ... but mostly it might be about about thinking different, looking at things from different perspectives ... I might try things, but am not particularly interested in really developing new skills. - -Part of that is maybe about relaxing, just taking a break from what we are *working* on. - -For us, ART is supposed to be FUN ... as opposed to how we think about the serious disicpline of observability and listening engineering, intelligence gathering and reading technologies, [library and information science](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Library_and_information_science) and the whole sport of knowledge engineering ... I deliberately try NOT TO to think about my ART interests with *with anything like serious, critical intention* that I do with observability and listening engineering. - -Others can/should take ART seriously ... for me, it's just about trying to look at things from a different perspect ... I do take ***the ART of thinking different*** seriously -- it bugs the living fuck out of me to discover that I think like other people, although sometimes I do ... but I don't take our attempts to do art itself seriously -- I just do it to exercise, to relax, to ***just*** dream, explore and mentally wander along path, with some forethought but often in a totally unstructured fashion. - -# Art Lists - -Our aim with developing listings is to never have to think about our next list of items to explore/annotate - -I want to have roughly 250 to 125 good art exploration ideas in the hopper ... in order to to have 50 to 25 that we visit on at least once a month ... in order to have ten to five that we are currently touching on once a week ... and to have ONE main GOTO one that we are spending too much time with right now. - -1) The various martial arts are EASILY the most important arts for me right now. - -2) Culinary exploration of flavors as well nutritional aspects of food - -3) Gardening, soil ecosystems, mushrooms, landsculpting, permaculture for edible landscapes - -4) Photography, image engineering, image processing, image recognition - -5) Parks, especially contemplative public spaces, prayer walks, hospice gardens - -6) Museums, galleries, art shows, maker fairs, sculpture gardens - -7) Mysticism, psycotropics, hypnosis, fasting, meditation, prayer, silence, solitude, hermitage - -8) Cartoons, trolling, memes, comics ... maybe graphic novels, but I will confess that I have not exactly warmed up to any sort of visual material ... I am a bigger fan of audiobooks and podcasts - -9) Standup spoken word performances and comedy, but I am an especially huge fan of trolling and inane commentary and the absurdity of verbalized [or TYPED] confusion and misunderstanding. - -10) The podcast genre, podcastering as a way of thinking and listening again to thinking ... it has to involve deep subconscious listening as well as audio engineering, but I sort of skip the ambient music bullshit or any cheesy background hypnotics ... Twitter has me think of the best of the best one-liner introductions to podcast episodes as a form of [ornithology](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ornithology) ... humans are not terribly different than the other sounds of Nature, nature soundscapes and natural rhythms ... but human sound engineering is significant cruder and less artistic than birdsong - -11) Theoretical Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics are the most ARTISTIC precursors of useful hard sciences - -12) [Musicology](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Musicology), [musical mathematics](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music_and_mathematics), [audio spectrograms](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spectrogram). [music informatics and metadata](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music_informatics), [musical history, especially experimental mavericks](https://archive.mpr.org/collections/programs/american-mavericks), the history of the culture surrounding a form of music, such as jazz and jazz standards by [Ted Gioia](https://www.tedgioia.com/) ... and other studies of music and cultural idioms such as [Susan McClary](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Susan_McClary), [Jennifer Ward Regan](https://www.jenniferwardregan.com/), [Mark Katz](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Katz), [Robin D. G. Kelley](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robin_D._G._Kelley) - -13) Quantum computing, theoretical cognitive science, and the logical underpinnings of computer engineering are definitely more art than science - -14) Meta Wikipedia, wikipedian editing culture, general wikiculture and its origins, even extending to the history of the internet - -15) Philosophy, both Classics as well some modern philosophical literature such as literary impressionism ... it's really about thinking different ... we might consider something like *subversive* philsophical critiques such as Josesph Conrad's anti-heroic characters ... or Karl Marx's Das Kapital critique of capitalism ... or the Unibomber's Manifesto [Industrial Society and Its Future](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Industrial_Society_and_Its_Future) or [The Technological Society](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Technological_Society) by Jacques Ellul - -16) - -17) - -18) - -19) - -20) - -21) - -22) - -23) - -24) - -25) - -26) - -27) - -28) - -29) - -30) - -31) - -32) - -33) - -34) - -35) - -36) - -37) - -38) - -39) - -40) - -41) - -42) - -43) - -44) - -45) - -46) - -47) - -48) - -49) - -50) - -51) - -52) - -53) - -54) - -55) - -56) - -57) - -58) - -59) - -60) - -61) - -62) - -63) - -64) - -65) - -66) - -67) - -68) - -69) - -70) - -71) - -72) - -73) - -74) - -75) - -76) - -77) - -78) - -79) - -80) - -81) - -82) - -83) - -84) - -85) - -86) - -87) - -88) - -89) - -90) - -91) - -92) - -93) - -94) - -95) - -96) - -97) - -98) - -99) - -100) - -101) - -102) - -103) - -104) - -105) - -106) - -107) - -108) - -109) - -110) - -111) - -112) - -113) - -114) - -115) - -116) - -117) - -118) - -119) - -120) - -121) - -122) - -123) - -124) - -125) - -# NEXT 125 ... The More Exploratory Or Wilder Brainstorms which *might* move up - -1) - -2) - -3) - -4) - -5) - -6) - -7) - -8) - -9) - -10) - -11) - -12) - -13) - -14) - -15) - -16) - -17) - -18) - -19) - -20) - -21) - -22) - -23) - -24) - -25) - -26) - -27) - -28) - -29) - -30) - -31) - -32) - -33) - -34) - -35) - -36) - -37) - -38) - -39) - -40) - -41) - -42) - -43) - -44) - -45) - -46) - -47) - -48) - -49) - -50) - -51) - -52) - -53) - -54) - -55) - -56) - -57) - -58) - -59) - -60) - -61) - -62) - -63) - -64) - -65) - -66) - -67) - -68) - -69) - -70) - -71) - -72) - -73) - -74) - -75) - -76) - -77) - -78) - -79) - -80) - -81) - -82) - -83) - -84) - -85) - -86) - -87) - -88) - -89) - -90) - -91) - -92) - -93) - -94) - -95) - -96) - -97) - -98) - -99) - -100) - -101) - -102) - -103) - -104) - -105) - -106) - -107) - -108) - -109) - -110) - -111) - -112) - -113) - -114) - -115) - -116) - -117) - -118) - -119) - -120) - -121) - -122) - -123) - -124) - -125) \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/Contemplation.md b/Contemplation.md deleted file mode 100644 index e9c66afd..00000000 --- a/Contemplation.md +++ /dev/null @@ -1,28 +0,0 @@ ---- -layout: page -title: Contemplation -permalink: /Contemplation/ ---- - - -# I define myself as a contemplative Christian. - -*I am not exactly yet worthy of being called a Christian ... true Christianity is rather something which I aspire to ... my life is an attempt to define what true Christianity means FOR ME* and ***for me ALONE.*** - -As a ***contemplative***, I only seek to walk ALONE on Earth among mortals. - -I am not at all very good at being a monastic contemplative. I have tried to live monastically, so that my existence can be more contemplative -- but there certainly are temptations in life and I am not very good at resisting temptation ... so I have not always been as monastic as I was called to be. In general, my failures have taught me that I am addicted to certain comforts and pleasures. My sole shot at redemption is I do realize that I am an addict; I do understand what it takes for me to avoid comforts and pleasures. My life is more than sufficient in every dimension; I have more than what I need, but cannot fix anyone else. I understand now why I must do whatever I must do to avoid even being asked to try. ***Even if it looks like an entertaining funeral ... I will let the dead bury their dead.*** - -My aspiration to Christianity is shaped by my traditions and those who came before me. It can be understood by looking at the first question of the Heidelberg catechism which reminds Christians of what our ***ONLY*** comfort can ever be as Christians. The CHOICE of accepting Jesus as our Savior means understanding the full meaning of this simple question, even if we understand it in a metaphorical context. When we speak of *belonging to Jesus* ... we are not talking about something idioticly, trivially and pathetically *human* such as a deed or title, a marriage vow or oath, or some sort of fraternity pledge/activation ceremony or *sacred brotherhood of warriors* ... these human notions of *belonging* are laughably insignificant and immature ... BELONGING to to Jesus Christ is about FULLY accepting the idea as firmly concrete and absolute that we believe that our ONLY comfort in life and in death [including any notion of an afterlife] is that *we are not our own, but belong—body and soul, in life and in death—to our faithful Savior, Jesus Christ.* - -Of course, the *in body and soul, in life and in death* parts means that we, as Christians are *the belongings* ... not the owner of the belongings ... we do not get to call the shots on what life or any afterlife is about ... we do not EVER get to judge other humans. We can believe whatever we want to believe -- but we should understand that, as humans, our minds have no comparison to the mind of our Creator, our stories and all of the assertions in those stories are only make-believe, even if they seem to work while we are lost in believing our own stories. We do not get to have any say what any kind of afterlife might be like ... stories we have heard from other humans are also just stories ... that includes the favorite stories that our favorite storytellers, parents, grandparents, favorite preachers, favorite authors told us are JUST STORIES. The important point here is that we must not EVER judge; we don't get ANY say who gets punished or rewarded. Only idiots allow their lives to be determined by the stories, hatreds and judgements of others, ie *the entire world in its entirety is not worth one single moment spent in hate.* - -Hate cannot occupy our minds, but as a practical matter, we must know that this world is and always will be ruled by violence ... AND ... understanding how the Earth works, ie rendering unto Casear the things which are Caesar, is how the game works in our existence. This world is ruled by violence ... the state's monopoly on violence drives who gets to print the money and monetary economics has a large role in how wealth and power are determined ... anyone that is extremely wealthy gets more power and ultimately power controls the monopoly on violence. - -We must be shrewd and disciplined in the use of that limited time we are granted ... we should not apologize for the downtime we might need or time for just daydreaming and thinking ... but we should not squander that time longing for or desiring cheap, shiny material things. The most important use of our time is time that, in every last thing we do, we should go about our preparations, acting with intention, UNDERSTANDING the unique WHY of our lives, our unique mission. The ONLY thing that really matters in this existence is *our* time ... and, regardless of our physical state, ***our*** time is entirely spent within the confines of our own minds, ie it is up to us to work on the mental discipline of controlling our own minds. - -As warriors, it is tough enough to just get our own mission right ... this is why all manipulative, attention-seeking, heart-wrenching, hyperbolically hysterical views of how others are supposed to behave simply must not matter ... regardless of the pressure that other sheep attempt to exert to keep the flock of their fellow sheep intact. Hate and hate-mongering activities, such as gossiping or participating in [or submitting to] the manipulation of the congregation are for fools ... we cannot and should not try to fix fools or Pharisees -- it's enough to know that manipulative, bullying, gossiping SHEEP are to be avoided at all costs. - -It has taken a good long while to understand these things ... it has taken me over six decades of reasonably conscious effort as a contemplative to understand WHY it is necessary to let the dead bury their dead. I have finally begun to appreciate what should have been obvious before: the ONLY thing that I really value is my time in developing my discipline at my pace in my life as a contemplative monk or warrior. - - \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/Listification.md b/Listification.md deleted file mode 100644 index b95f4d72..00000000 --- a/Listification.md +++ /dev/null @@ -1,303 +0,0 @@ ---- -layout: page -title: Listification -permalink: /Listification/ ---- - - -I LOVE competition. - -I follow a lot of different competitive technologies ... in war, technology, culture, propaganda and even sometimes in some sports that are actually about competition and participatory improvement ... that's why I strongly prefer wrestling, jiujitsu and traditional martial art forms over ball sports or motor sports that seem to primarily be suited for teevee watchers or very large audiences because they entertain spectators rather involve participants, eg NFL, NHL, NBA, MLB. - -Mostly, I strongly favor ACTIVE, PARTICIPATORY, REAL competition ... and there are some particularly intense competitions in nerdy, non-athletic realms. I have never had much of a significant interest in computer gaming *and just playing games* EXCEPT THAT the hacking, building gaming rigs and new technological companies, eg NVIDIA, Oculus, et al, built by computer gamers is FASCINATING. The competitive participatory DIY sport of gaming rig builds and tweeking the tech for greater computational speed is definitely about ACTIVE, PARTICIPATORY, REAL competition. - -## Overcoming *not-invented-here* Weakness Syndrome - -It is a particularly STUPID time to be either idea averse OR to be full of ignorant pride to be able to appreciate the wider world of more and more ideas. - -Reading is about accelerating the competition of competition, by a factor of 1000X or 1,000,000X or 1,000,000,000X ... to get radically more, radically better competition. - -The world is about to get 1000X more competitive than it has been in the last few decades, thanks to AI finally delivering on some its promise ... although the internetworked and increasingly mobile world we had decades of the 2000s and 2010 was easily been 1,000X more competitive than the backward, inbred times of best of mass-media or cableTV culture of the 1980 and 1990s. - -It's not just that the electronic bid-ask spread in financial markets made capital flows much more competitive than open outcry trading that happened in the street. We now live in a compute-enabled economy dominated by savvy adapters who have mastered the use of the inference engines in their AIphone apps ... people no longer really have the excuse of making the same bad choices they made yesterday. - -The global auction never ceases ... so people don't have to pay attention to spectator shit UNLESS they want to choose to be SPECTATOR prey. The implicit accelerated negotiations embedding in such information-rich, compute-intensive markets will radically intensify competition ... in the same way that online retailers have replaced physical stores which encouraged people to grab a shopping cart and explore the store. - -**There WILL be people who choose to lose because of how they will aggressively avoid AI-ified reading technologies are intensifying competition that comes from the world of more and more and ideas.** - -I choose to get more ideas. I READ in order to get more ideas faster ... to see how things are done better somewhere else or to understand the strategies that have worked well in the past. - -I also want to read in order to write better ... I write and revise, edit, refactor and write more in order to be immersed in the world of ideas ... I monkey around with podcasts in order to improve my writing and to make my reading that much more productive -- I podcast, write, read **in order to PARTICIPATE in the world of ideas** ... although I might live amongst people who seem to be idea averse, I don't need watch teevee or drink alcohol or drive vehicles or do other things that accelerated progressions into stupidity. - -I am an intensely competitive reader in that I **really try** to be speedreaders, *although I still suck at it* ... I skim thousands of abstracts from the preprint Arxivs ... I even participate in Wikipedia editing in order to understand **directly** something about how consensus is reached in *information wars* ... I have seen how intelligent people are aggressively choosing to waste far less of their time in vehicles, preferring instead to travel in the realm of information and ideas ... the world is rapidly becoming more heavily populated by EXTREMELY HEAVY consumers of data, information, fora interaction, [inane] commentary and various repositories of code, models, papers and demo sandboxes ... the intensely competitive nature of our economies is based upon how the people who drive opinions adapt technologies to their needs to grok information that is pertinent to the competitive games we are participating in. - -# Reading is for COMPETITORS; Competition is for readers - -Of course, I also read and curate lists ... just for fun, just as a break from work ... TO JUST RELAX ... but, even when we relax, we do try to use reading aids like multimodal AI to give us outlines or syllabi ... so that we can speedread *with serious, critical intention* TO IMPROVE OUR OVERALL ABILITY TO COMPETE IN THE ***READING*** GAME. - -## Listification is about the competitive SIEVE of ideas - -The COMPETITIVE SIEVE of ideas starts with a FULL hopper of ideas ... because the FULLNESS of the hopper is what gives us the comparability necessary to prioritize and to make choices about what to read and annotate ... it's impossible to have ONE idea that is REALLY and important topic that is more worthwhile than others, if you have not sorted and prioritized down through the sieves, funnels and hoppers of 250 topic areas to get 50 areas of focus, through 50 areas of focus to 10 qualified leads, 10 qualified ideas to close in on ONE good, solid idea. - -Our aim with this listing is to never have to think about our next list of items to read/annotate ... we want to have roughly 250 to 125 good game ideas in the hopper ... to have 50 to 25 that we play with and work on at least once a month ... to have five or ten that are part of our daily drills and things we are certain revisit at least once a week ... so that we can have ONE main GAME that we are focusing on getting right. - -1) Health, nutrition, fitness, wellness, longevity, anti-aging, biohacking, nootropics, supplements, fasting, sleep, stress, mental health, addiction, recovery, trauma, PTSD, depression, anxiety, bipolar, schizophrenia, autism, ADHD, OCD, personality disorders, eating disorders, body awareness, body image, body dysmorphia, body positivity, body neutrality, body acceptance, body love, body respect, body trust, body sovereignty, body autonomy, body agency, body consent, body boundaries, body safety, body security, body privacy, body dignity, body integrity, body justice, body liberation, body revolution, body transformation, body evolution, body transcendence - -2) Prayer, fasting, pilgrimage, long projects, meditation especially techniques like lojong - -3) Martial arts, self-defense, healing, yoga, tai chi, qigong, modern medicine vs traditional medicine, systematic improvement in health and exercise - -4) Startup ecosystems, startup nations, not just the billion-dollar valuation unicorns but successful startups that make it to having a legitimate ten-million-dollar or million-dollar valuation, e-residency and virtual realm cultures that tap new global markets and pools of talent - -5) The art of knowledge engineering, information dashboards and newsreaders for drinking from the firehose of peer-reviewed scientific journals and similar sources of current research and development activities - -6) Ecosystems, nature, not just parks and green spaces but the microscopic realm - -7) Sculpture, particularly landsculpting, sustainable architecture [built to last hundreds/thousands of years, not just modern trash quick fab housing built to last a several decades or a century at most] - -8) Meta Wikipedia, rabid wikipedians, the more general culture of online fora and combative debate of which wikiediting culture might be the best example - -9) Classics and commentary, the culture of literature, poetry and the purification of language, philosophy and theology - -10) Physicis, Mathematics, Chemistry, Biology - -11) Computer Science and AI vs Unabomber Manifest, NLP, Computer Vision, Swarm Robotics and AIoT, Automation vs Simplification, Cybersecurity and the limits of cryptography, Quantum Computing, Metaverse and augmented reality, Smart Infrastructure vs Natural/Emergent [No] Infrastructure - -12) Podcastering, DAWs, audio ... and cultural participation through the audio realm ... generally, we detest vidiots and the zombified culture of people programmed by their media choices in the visual realm ... in other words, we view audio as something we might listen to while RESTING ... we are completely uninteresting any anything that we passively watch while being entertained ... when we want to be entertained or completely immersed in a distracting experience, we DO physical activities, drills/calisthenics and things like gardening. - -13) Music, Music AI and recommendation engines, Music metadata and signature analysis, music theory and the culture of music, music as a form of communication and a form of cultural PARTICIPATION ... we generally eschew any form of spectator culture ... we have no interest in being part of large mob watching a celebrity perform ... IF THERE'S ANY FORM OF CELEBRITY AND CELEBRITY WORSHIP INVOLVED, WE REGARD THE ACTIVITY AS POISON - -14) - -15) - -16) - -17) - -18) - -19) - -20) - -21) - -22) - -23) - -24) - -25) - -26) - -27) - -28) - -29) - -30) - -31) - -32) - -33) - -34) - -35) - -36) - -37) - -38) - -39) - -40) - -41) - -42) - -43) - -44) - -45) - -46) - -47) - -48) - -49) - -50) - -51) - -52) - -53) - -54) - -55) - -56) - -57) - -58) - -59) - -60) - -61) - -62) - -63) - -64) - -65) - -66) - -67) - -68) - -69) - -70) - -71) - -72) - -73) - -74) - -75) - -76) - -77) - -78) - -79) - -80) - -81) - -82) - -83) - -84) - -85) - -86) - -87) - -88) - -89) - -90) - -91) - -92) - -93) - -94) - -95) - -96) - -97) - -98) - -99) - -100) - -101) - -102) - -103) - -104) - -105) - -106) - -107) - -108) - -109) - -110) - -111) - -112) - -113) - -114) - -115) - -116) - -117) - -118) - -119) - -120) - -121) - -122) - -123) - -124) - -125) - -# Exploratory / Wild Brainstorm Lists ... *which might become reading lists* - - -* - -* - -* - -* diff --git a/Marginal_Decade_11_13_23.pdf b/Marginal_Decade_11_13_23.pdf deleted file mode 100644 index 89d968a9..00000000 Binary files a/Marginal_Decade_11_13_23.pdf and /dev/null differ diff --git a/PlaneLinkedIn.jpg b/PlaneLinkedIn.jpg deleted file mode 100644 index eb808ec3..00000000 Binary files a/PlaneLinkedIn.jpg and /dev/null differ diff --git a/PlatosRepublicansMZB.jpg b/PlatosRepublicansMZB.jpg deleted file mode 100644 index 6e539ed4..00000000 Binary files a/PlatosRepublicansMZB.jpg and /dev/null differ diff --git a/README.md b/README.md deleted file mode 100644 index 78a49c35..00000000 --- a/README.md +++ /dev/null @@ -1,12 +0,0 @@ -# MarkBruns.github.io - -First, we just surf and browse ... yeah, there might be a semblance of a method to our madness googling and wikipeding, but there's not really a formal structure we leave behind ... nothing which can help someone else OR, morely likely, anything that can help US, ourselves, weeks/months/years later, when we need to re-trace our steps and repeat the googling, wikipeding to get back to where we were. - -*At some point, if we don't sink into oblivion, we DECIDE that we are going grow the fritz up and that we are going to grow up as we want to, not to please somebody else ...* - -As with formal education, we EVENTUALLY learn the importance of going a step beyond not sleeping and paying attention in class -- we eventually begin actually taking and using notes and that means re-factoring, improving and rewriting better notes to teach ourselves [and our future selves] as we study [and revisit topics later] ... AWESOME lists start to make sense for us, not just as lists of stuff to surf, but as study tools to fork and tailor to our own purposes. - -*Then we grow up a bit more, maybe we stumble once or twice, the grade gets steeper in the climb, we adapt our approach to climbing and we realize that more serious climbing is about climbing with others, we must help others ...* - -So we start CURATING our own forks of [AWESOME lists](https://github.com/topics/awesome) ... sorting, stripping down list, eliminating the dead links, marketing bs and other lite chaff, collecting the sample of dots that we will look at much closer ... then we go the source, READ, review cross-refernces, visit the dev community journals, discussion forums and conferences, get a sense of the people involved in order to sift out the weightier dots worthy of digging into in more depth ... then we *do things the hard way*, we IMPLEMENT, test, break, refactor, extend, re-purpose, re-process the dots ... finally, we talk about our own trip through the dots, we ANNOTATE, explain, discuss, contribute, advance ... learning is a matter of attempting to connecting ALL of the dots ... not just the jargon and factoids but also the communities and people who driving the material. - diff --git a/RODGERS.png b/RODGERS.png deleted file mode 100644 index 4d183343..00000000 Binary files a/RODGERS.png and /dev/null differ diff --git a/Shiloh3LinkedIn.jpg b/Shiloh3LinkedIn.jpg deleted file mode 100644 index 6124a012..00000000 Binary files a/Shiloh3LinkedIn.jpg and /dev/null differ diff --git a/Timeline_11_13_23.pdf b/Timeline_11_13_23.pdf deleted file mode 100644 index 615d316f..00000000 Binary files a/Timeline_11_13_23.pdf and /dev/null differ diff --git a/USAunicorns7.26.17.png b/USAunicorns7.26.17.png deleted file mode 100644 index e8efe06f..00000000 Binary files a/USAunicorns7.26.17.png and /dev/null differ diff --git a/Ventures.md b/Ventures.md deleted file mode 100644 index 6a4db177..00000000 --- a/Ventures.md +++ /dev/null @@ -1,167 +0,0 @@ ---- -layout: page -title: Ventures -permalink: /Ventures/ ---- - - -***Venturing***, for me, is primarily PHILANTHROPIC. **Growthy NEW technology-intensive start-up ventures that achieve multi-million-dollar valuations through bootstrapping and then with additional outside capital achieve multi-billion-dollar valuations are the most efficient way to expand the pie for everyone, so that it's possible do REAL philanthropy.** - -Greater economic value does not come from a stagnant asset and not much value comes from producing something that is not needed by a free market ... the economics of zero-sum, ultra-conservative, idea-averse technologies are ultimately not just depressive, but ultimately lead to wars and destruction ... rather, philanthropic value comes from the techology that *expands the pie*, from increasing levels of overall value by taking away problems, removing constraints and adding technologies that make humans more productive than they could contemplate being before. - -Since we are technologists, of course, we do things that are purely philanthropic in a technological sense, like contributing to different free and open source software/hardware ***projects*** ... *projects* are excellent ways to learn about techologies BY ACTUALLY those technologies in collaboration with others, but MOSTLY WE LEARN BY INTERACTING WITH OTHERS WHO ARE ALSO CREATING THOSE TECHNOLOGIES ... free and open source is probably the best educational institution ever invented ... **being a technological open sourcist is fundamentally philanthropic.** - -But open source projects themselves are not actual PRODUCTS or SERVICES ... building monetizeable PRODUCTS and SERVICES is what building ventures is about ... building products and services that are good enough that people actually part with their money to PAY for using them is HARD ... but creating self-sustaining going concerns based upon a monetizable product/services that is better any product/service it competes against is the most efficient way to do GENUINE, REAL, SUSTAINABLE philanthropy. - -In other words, the *money-making* part of venturing is about PROVIDING JOBS and PRODUCTS THAT BETTER THAN COMPETITORS to YIELD INVESTMENT RETURNS THAT OFFER THOSE A WAY WITH SAVED INCOME TO STAY AHEAD OF INFLATION is inherently philanthropic ... because of the incomes and value that is created ... a rising tide lifts all boats ... and ultimately that rising time makes charity, although the best form of charity is always going to be DIRECT. - -The ventures that we contemplate building are the kind of bootstrapped startups that can become unicorns. We are primarily interested in higher, rapid growth and much less concerned about throwing off substantial streams of continual income ... in the way that developing apartments would produce continual streams of income, although we certain recognize the immense value created by producing better housing alternatives and providing maintenance/upkeep services for appartment tenants. - -Accordingly, the ventures we are interest are SELF-SUSTAINING rapidly-growing ventures that continously invest in research to develop MORE innovative and MORE useful new products/services [which cannibalize or remove the need for old product/services]. - -Growthy enterprises also tend to throw off huge amounts of informational externalities ... in a nutshell, they make other new ventures more productive, more innovative. - -Pur IDEAL venture would be one that sustained itself infinitely because it provided such awesome value that it paid employees well, rewarded investors sufficiently through capital appreciation of a growth stock but never reported much of an annual profit, although its annual revenues were increasing significantly, because the venture was continually re-investing its current income into better future growth opportunities than any other investment provided ... so that the venture would be a more *philanthropically profitable venture* [in terms of more jobs and better paying jobs and radically-increased value per $ in its products/services] long into the future. - -Our process of ACTIVE LEARNING is about WIN-WIN endeavors that expand the pie and advance human productivity ... we have practically no interest in crop farming, for example, because it is a zero-sum game ... it does not expand the pie, it just divides it up differently. - -We can and do look at better intelligence gathering systems so we can better [study the common factors driving the 1200 or so billion-dollar startup unicorns that have come into existence in the last ten to twenty years](https://g.co/gemini/share/44bceab7d627) ... but MOSTLY we are interested in the kinds of ventures that can grow into being million-dollar startups that will grow into ten-million and hundred-million dollar startups on their way to being unicorns. - -Active intelligence gathering and learning means getting our hands dirty and finding the areas of frustration and pain ... by actually DOING THINGS and BUILDING THINGS [at zero or very low cost] ... with the ***ultimate intention of making serious investments in things that actually make human beings better off. *** - -## We do ventures in order PRIMARILY to research investment themes - -EXCEPT that ... but VENTURES must create value for their users; so the best ventures of the next decade will necessarily be about SUSTAINABLE philanthropy. - -There is no form of sustainable philanthropy that is better than something that can be built that will serve customers by improving customer productivity WITHOUT causing any negative externalities or pollutants and will do this EFFICIENTLY without burning up ANY [or very many] resources ... quite often, the ***very best thing that any human endeavor could possibly do is ABSOLUTELY NOTHING, ie to just sit back and watch as we let our Creators process work in the Universe.*** - -We efficiently develop **near-zero-cost proto-ventures** in order understand an industry and understand which are the best long-term competitors in an industry and to invest in superior organizations ... if we cannot find a superior organization, we ***MIGHT*** attempt to create one from scratch, but PRIMARILY we are doing ventures to research an investment theme or thesis. - -***Venturing*** is our process of ACTIVE LEARNING ... getting dirty by actually DOING THINGS and BUILDING THINGS [at zero or very low cost] ... the point is to understand the issues that impede productivity growth for masses of human beings ... thus reserching, learing, building things that might work [or finding out why the ideas don't work] is about ***engaging*** the world economically, culturally, thematically ... *rather than simply being drunken tourist sunning ourselves on a beach*. - -We try to do VENTURES in an intensely practical, near-zero-cost-to-launch manner ... by exploring possible business enterprise ideas (ie, self-sustaining ventures with products that offer customers something they need and will pay for or what is generally referred to as *the MVP with a compelling value proposition*) ... but we also look at creative or scientific research or different open source venture philantropies that could really move the needle. We strongly favor open source. - -# Listing of ventures - -Our aim is to read and use curated lists and AI to read faster, more broadly, more deeply, to discern patterns better ... we dogfood our reading in order to assist us in gathering intelligence ... our goal is to have roughly 100-200 brainstormed in the hopper, that's what our annotified curating reading lists are for ... we actually only focus on about 10-20 venture themes each a month ... but, in practice, we try to *only one FOCUS on damned thing at a time.* - - -0) MZB.me ... the strictly personal overhead, necessary for balance and direction, mostly about enjoying life while getting older - -* MarkBruns.com -* MarkBruns.github.io -* AncientGuy.Fitness / ancientguy.com/org ... why we read the classics and listen to history/biography audio books for entertainment and balance for the AI and engineering work we do in our ventures - -1) Annotify.APP - -* Listify.wtf -* Rrssistant.com/org -* SheepDewg.py -* annotify.net -* annotify.org -* annotifyapp.com -* TWFTR.org - -2) azyn.ch ... time mgmt and productivity improvement - -* asynch.work -* azynch.app -* azynch.com -* reviewable parametric design ... sktch.org/us (see ENGR.co) -* 86400.guru -* 86400.co -* 86400.work -* plyp.us -* kweex.cc ... making others into 10X-ers -* kweex.cloud -* kweex.org - -3) ENGR.co ... parametric engineering validation/verification and code review - -* sktch.org -* sktch.us -* QualityFellow -* Mr.RootCause -* PWR.fm -* Join FREECad dev community -* Nanotoolworks.com -* startupcookbook.us ... productify your skills, beyond open source dev, work at developing a product -* crnc.work ... branding your professional skills, vs becoming a w2-slave -* GYG.be - -4) Salebarn LLC ... free markets and competition - -* Bidm.AT -* auct.us -* crowdliness.com/net/org -* salebarn.org -* salebarn.us - -5) SQL.ag ... resource recovery and optimization - -* soilrXiv.org -* soilqualitylab.com -* soilqualitylaboratory.com -* AdvancedPyrolytics.com ... resource recovery -* WhoresRadish -* CoffeeRxiv.org/wtf/com - -6) Funnier.Be ... there's just too much stupid shit; when life gives you lemons - -* BabylonMurderHornet.org -* Doynk.me -* clichesaur.us -* clichesaurus.com -* clichesaurus.net -* clichesaurus.org - -7) CloudKernel.org ... practical exploitation of IT and scalable compute resources - -OS ... CoreOS riff ... decentralized, but not really for massive hubs -cloudkernel.com -cloudkernel.net -cloudkernel.org -Moby -Buildah -MySQL ... LAMP stack, but more layer-ey as in containers ... tighter, more observable ... more htop-ey or bpf-ey without the stackiness -using VAST.ai, Lambda cloud, Paperspace, et al - -8) BRUNO.science ... pre-print machine learning and Git distributed VCS - -Git, Git, Git and more Git ... eg co-pilot -e-xiv.org -exiv.org -exiv.xyz -gitdeep.com -gitdeep.net -gitdeep.org -gitrxiv.com -gitrxiv.net -gitrxiv.org -Ollam.ai -HuggingFace - - -9) creVass.org ... - -* DRAIN.tips -* IowaBreeze.org -* Stinxjet.com ... reproducing samples for smell, taste, carbon monoxide, hydrogen sulfide, soil quality, water quality, air quality, etc. -* TRIZ.tips -* accidentalinvention.com -* frgl.be ... resource recovery ... fxrz ...optimizing resource recovery -* nanotoolworks ... makering ... scientists blow their own glass -* NOSE.life ... nanofabricated omni sensing electrochemistry (NOSE) is about nanobiochemical sensing and the metrology of nanobiochemical sensing ... - -10) BRUNO.solutions - -* LuckSurface.com/org/net -* LyonCountyRepublicans.com/org/net ... what's so Lyon about them? -* SustainFund.org/net -* violenceinterrupt.us -* tougher.be -* Greenspace.GROUP -* PrairieNative.com -* Diff.wtf -* diffgraph.org -* diffversity.com/net/org/wtf \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/_posts/2024-01-01-The-WHY-of-my-WHYs.md b/_posts/2024-01-01-The-WHY-of-my-WHYs.md deleted file mode 100644 index 83f1dfa1..00000000 --- a/_posts/2024-01-01-The-WHY-of-my-WHYs.md +++ /dev/null @@ -1,152 +0,0 @@ ---- -layout: post -title: "The Full Ishikawa of WHYS Driving My WHY" -date: 2024-01-01 4:30:00 -categories: template ---- - - -An imperfect child of God 🌟 attempting to become an empath🧎🏾 who cannot possibly ever communicate how GRATEFUL he is to our Creator for every moment of his existence! [Philippians 4:8-9](https://www.biblestudytools.com/philippians/4-8-compare.html) - -# PREFACE - -This whole post is like a Preface to a book ... you can safely skip it ... of course, you can safely skip the rest of my autobiographical content also ... this post is about WHY. - -***TBD Editing/Revision*** *I need to ADD/SIMPLIFY with a FULL ISHIKAWA OUTLINE of the WHYS driving my WHY ... this needs to be solidified into coherent five whys bullet-pointed outline of every WHY driving the MAIN WHY.* - -***I will be editing and revising this post for the full year.*** And next year, I will pick up where I left off, editing and revising ... because my WHY is something that I will never be finished pondering. - -# The Full Ishikawa of WHYS or Interest Shaping My WHY - - -# Art - -The reason that I care about Art is ... - -## Why - -### Why - -#### Why - -##### Why - -###### Why - -# Contemplation - -The reason that I care about Contemplation is ... - -## Why - -### Why - -#### Why - -##### Why - -###### Why - -# History - -The reason that I care about History is ... - -## Why - -### Why - -#### Why - -##### Why - -###### Why - -# Games - -The reason that I care about COMPETITIVE GAMES and SPORTS is ... - -## Why - -### Why - -#### Why - -##### Why - -###### Why - -# Ventures - -The main reason that I care about Ventures is the inherent PHILANTHROPY and COMMUNITY SERVICE of well-organized, growing, self-sustaining ventures which employ people doing interesting things to deliver better products and services than are otherwise available and provide better than average returns to investors because the entities are growing and getting better at everything they do - -## Why or Why Not Something Else - -Why not just work for somebody else? - -Why not engage in what I view as the *idiot compassion" forms of philanthropy? - -### Why - -#### Why - -##### Why - -###### Why - - -# Workouts - -The reason that I care about Workouts is ... I have FINALLY come to understand that I need exercise ... and I need a variety of different exercises for a variety of different reasons that I don't even understand yet. Exercise is like the food that you eat that becomes what drives the health of your intestinal microbiome ... which is what FIRST digests the nutrients and gives your cells what they need. I believe that exercise is more important than diet ... also you really need both ... as well as good sleep hygiene ... and the ability to handle and channel stress and aggaravation ... and hydration ... but MOSTLY, it's about what you take away ... with exercise, we DELIBERATELY take away comfort ... we do HARD things in order to BUILD our muscoskeletal system, our cardiovasular system and to build our courage, will, and discipline. - -## Why - -### Why - -#### Why - -##### Why - -###### Why - - -# The Fundamental WHY of my WHYs - -## Stronger, more courageous, less afraid - -This whole existence is all about [Joshua 1.9](https://www.biblestudytools.com/joshua/1-9-compare.html) ... I am commanded to make myself stronger, more courageous, to be less afraid -- so life is kind of simple, sort of ... I don't have to impress anyone or care about what any other human thinks -- I have to pull my weight, pay my bills and sort of more or less get along -- I don't have to impress anyone, ie I don't have to jump out of planes or do ridiculuous shit on mountain slopes ... I just have to be anonymous and READY ... my whole existence is about no having any fear of a fight ... of course, I look forward to dying and always have been ready to die in any fight that actually meant something, BUT I'm not some lame ass who acts out of pride ... my existence is about following the command that my Creator has given me. - -Sure, now that I getting older I do actually start to worry a little bit about ever becoming worried ... and that fear is driven by thoughts of becoming feeble ... so, it has taken me a long time to be responsible about it, but I am finally starting to understand why I actually might need to pay attention to things like my health and healthcare. - -I am not now sick ... I have gotten significantly healthier over the last fifteen years, ever since retiring when I was 49 in 2009 ... in late 2014 or early 2015, I could justifiably say that I was much healthier than five years 2009, but my health was not that perfect then. In 2014/2015, I still came down with pretty severe case of influenza -- not something that would have kept me home from work, but it was one of those noticeable and lasting bouts with the flu that kinda threatened to get worse. But I got better and didn't really ever get sick any more -- so that by 2019 or 2020, I could say that I had gone five years without ever being sick ... now, in 2024 I'm quite a bit healthier than I was five years ago in 2019. But I am still nowhere close to being as fit as I will need to be for the next 50 years [or however long it takes for me to die] ... the POINT is that I really want to die quickly, as a healthy man dies, not after circling the drain for years ... so I will need to work harder make myself stronger, more courageous, and less afraid. - -**I do not spend a dime on healthcare insurance or doctors visits. NOT ONE DIME.** - -*I actually AM much stronger, more courageous, less afraid than the TYPICAL 64 year old ... although I am far, Far, FAR from being as fit as need to be.* - -I really need to work harder on myself ... to make myself stronger, more courageous, and less afraid ... and that is going to require the DISCIPLINE of a plan, sticking with that plan and constantly re-vising and improving the implementation of that plan ... there's no other way than the DISCIPLINE of improving DISCIPLINE of implementing a better plan. - -**DISCIPLINE EQUALS FREEDOM** - -## A Better, ie MORE DISCIPLINED, Plan Starts with BETTER Knowing The WHY of the Plan - -I just always thought that my WHY was to be the GENUINE me that I knew I was supposed to be. - -I did not exactly know who that ME was supposed to be ... so I experimented and tried different things ... until about the time was coming up on my fiftieth birthday and I knew that enough was enough ... there's no point in showing for somebody else's agenda; it was time to focus EXCLUSIVELY on my own things. - -I do KNOW with absolute certainty that my WHY has absolutely nothing to to live like other people or just conforming to their choices ... you could say that radical NONconformance, in search of a better way is most of my WHY ... and the other part of that WHY is about being a better example on that radical NONconformance. - -I understand now why my WHY needs to be more about being a BETTER example of my WHY ... of course, I don't EXACTLY know my WHY yet ... nobody ever does know something like that EXACTLY -- this existence is about pondering that WHY. - -## The Past Pondering of the WHY OR How I Got to Where I Am Now - -Of course, I respect other choices and others WHYs, but I not other people and they are not me. We are free to choose amongst the best examples. But small-minded gossips, karens and idiots do think that way. So I get PISSED OFF REALLY QUICK when idiots shift in into their hardcore ***community-idiot-enforcer*** mode of behavior and assume that I am supposed to value their choices and their WHYs highly enough to be envious of them or to want to be like they are. We are DIFFERENT. Our Creator has set up the shuffling mechanism of every event since the start of the Universe to ensure that we have become UNIQUE. The UNIQUENESS is one of the most amazing things about being alive ... only IDIOTS would want to sell out their uniqueness in order to conform to community standards of like minded people. - -I look at other people's lives and I tend to think those lives are fine for them, but that's not exactly what I want, but there are pieces that I will emulate. I respect and love other people's choices -- but that does not equate to a desire to emulate ... I do not necessarily want other people to emulate my example, but ***if it becomes necessary as a matter of self-defense*** I will KILL PEOPLE if they go too far in making a point of not allowing people to express their unique individuality. - -Instead of a family or having related people surrounding me, I always craved different life experiences ... I have never had any wish to have children or a family. Of course, I wanted see myself as being responsible or accountable for my choices, so I thought that if I got a woman pregnant, I would try be the best father I could be -- but I was not interested in marriage, but I get how society and culture is based upon the sanctity of marriage ... at an early point in my life, my goal was to be an intelligence office, but as I understood things about wars and warfight, my interest shifting to being a game theorist, an academic theoretician working food and biowarfare policy ... it's NOT about being a threat; rather, it's about understanding and mitigating threats. - -I have never wanted to do any crime or somehow hurt anyone, but I did want to understand what it's like to face life in prison so I have participated in various forms of prison ministries -- I might end up in prison some day for some sort of political activity or form of expression that makes people think, ie when thoughtcrimes become a punishable offense ... I was never particularly anxious to preclude other options, including the option to just walk away from what I was doing, but I wanted to UNDERSTAND the experiences from the inside, so recently for example, I wanted to understand what it's like to be a cross-country truck driver, so I tried it until I understood that I tended to tire mentally after physically resting in the drivers seat, so after a certain age, one becomes an unsafe long-distance driver even if one is meticulously scrupulous about diet, exercise and preparation - -I wanted to understand machining as well as tool and die work and the construction of fixtures and work-holding equipment; I still work in that realm ... I was interested in understanding the soil and farming, even though I never really cared about the machinery side of farming; I still raise some of my own food and love soil ecosystems ... I also continue to be multidisciplinary engineer working on multidisciplinary projects and philanthropies ... I have never craved and still do not craved being respected/revered as a professional or expert in any matter -- in fact, I find that I DETEST the arrogance of experts but I might detest people who BLINDLY trust experts even more than that. I can only put up with the unwarranted aura of trust for so long before being surrounded by the trusters of professionals or experts really gets on my nerves. - -My WHY is not somebody else's WHY; I respect their WHYs, but NOBODY else's WHY is going to universally applicable to others ... in my example, I don't particularly want longevity ... I don't exactly believe that eternity or any life after this one is remotely similar to this life ... but I LOVE my Creator, so I very much look forward to dying and whatever comes thereafter as much as I look forward to figuring out more things about this life and being in more control of my health. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/_posts/2024-01-05-control-your-programming-agenda.md b/_posts/2024-01-05-control-your-programming-agenda.md deleted file mode 100644 index 6ffda4f9..00000000 --- a/_posts/2024-01-05-control-your-programming-agenda.md +++ /dev/null @@ -1,78 +0,0 @@ ---- -layout: post -title: "Updating The FITNESS/HEALTH Content Agenda" -date: 2024-01-01 4:30:00 -categories: template ---- - - -An imperfect child of God 🌟 attempting to become an empath🧎🏾 who cannot possibly ever communicate how GRATEFUL he is to our Creator for every moment of his existence! [Philippians 4:8-9](https://www.biblestudytools.com/philippians/4-8-compare.html) - - -# I will spend $5000 in 2024 on fitness/health CONTENT - -Maybe I should spend more. I will definitely invest much more in terms of my time ... my TIME is what actually matters ... and it's also the limiting constraint, ie I can't take in more than $5000 worth of content, especially since there's such a huge amount of high quality content available for little or no money. **The big constraint is TIME.** - -I have been MORE aggressively spending on health/fitness content since I retired, because I have deliberately CHOSEN TO have more time to invest *doing things that actually matter,* like thinking about my life. - -**My health/fitness sort of matters to my life ... because of how how being at least mentally/emotionally healthy sorta drives my whole agenda for everthing ... including the WORK that I still do in AI and deep learning, advanced mfg and technical continuous improvement, and knowledge engineering.** *My physical, mental and emotional health are sort of important, but not THAT important to me ... I have some legit experience in being seriously probably-gonna-die-within-a-few-hours unhealthy ... so I know why those things ESPECIALLY matter because of how they impact my spiritual health.* - -I am still alive even though I was told I would die of sepsis in early March 2007 ... the sepsis was caused my an adverse reaction to prescribed painkillers, which was complicated by a prolonged power outage while I was sick which lead to me becoming severely dehydrated. So after I somehow miraculously recovered from my organs shutting down and decided to leave the ICU, I was told that it was more than likely that I would be rehospitalized within days or weeks and that rehospitalization sometime within 3-6 months was a near certainty. I was informed upon leaving the hospital that I should expect to deal with side-effects of my bout of sepsis for the rest of my life [which would be shortened without regular doctor visits and medical care]. - -Since I no longer ever get sick and generally feel better than I ever felt in my 40s, as long as *my program* keeps working out, I will keep spending on content and education for myself ... and I will avoid wasting any money on healthcare insurance, regular visits to medical professional or any prescription pharma. - -This whole enterprise is all about [Joshua 1.9](https://www.biblestudytools.com/joshua/1-9-compare.html) ... I am commanded to make myself stronger, more courageous, to be less afraid ... of course, I look forward to dying ... BUT I do actually worry a little bit about ever becoming worried about my health and healthcare. - -I am not now sick ... I have gotten significantly healthier over the last fifteen years, ever since retiring when I was 49 in 2009 ... in late 2014 or early 2015, I could justifiably say that I was much healthier than five years 2009, but my health was not that perfect then. In 2014/2015, I still came down with pretty severe case of influenza -- not something that would have kept me home from work, but it was one of those noticeable and lasting bouts with the flu that kinda threatened to get worse. But I got better and didn't really ever get sick any more -- so that by 2019 or 2020, I could say that I had gone five years without ever being sick ... now, in 2024 I'm quite a bit healthier than I was five years ago in 2019. But I am still nowhere close to being as fit as I will need to be for the next 50 years [or however long it takes for me to die] ... the POINT is that I really want to die quickly, as a healthy man dies, not after circling the drain for years ... so I will need to work harder make myself stronger, more courageous, and less afraid. - -**I do not spend a dime on healthcare insurance or doctors visits. NOT ONE DIME.** - -*That's because I actually AM much stronger, more courageous, less afraid than the TYPICAL 64 year old ... although I am far from being as fit as need to be.* I just barely fit enough that I can realistically think about getting tougher ... some do not have luxury of being able to contemplate an ascent from where they are, ie their health is as bad and precariously unhealthy as mine was fifteen years ago ... since I know that this will not happen with out effort, I will spend $5000/year on fitness/health CONTENT in 2024 in order to improve the targeting of my efforts. - -It is TYPICAL for others my age might spend north of $25,000 or $50,000 on health insurance, doctor's appointments/treatments, prescription medicines ... they might not think they spend that much; many do not realize the FULL cost of everything ... but there are big hidden expenses of being a healthcare patient, such as the cost of the vehicle which is a healthcare NEED because it might be unnecessary for other things, people are convinced they NEED a decent vehicle to get reliably to and from the doctor's office ... but the REAL biggie of healthcare expense is cost of making room in schedules for appointments, including for the time that will be necessary commuting to visits and maybe stress-buying extra stuff at the store after/before the visit AND the multiplicative time-waste of extra stress as patients in waiting rooms are terrorized after listening to other patients like them who are scared shitless about their health and not being able to afford their healthcare insurance. - -## Stronger, more courageous, less afraid - -*HOPEFULLY, the value of my time in this exercise is worth a million times or 1000X or at least a few times more than what I spend on content, but if it isn't, then I need to use every trick, every cheat, every advantage that I can buy to be better at planning ... so that I can become stronger, more courageous, less afraid.* - -Maybe I should spend even more ... I don't know if I can actually put MORE to use, but I do know that my content spend is strictly for better, more informed planning ... a more informed plan is all about more reliable EXECUTION, with more dependable results and less collateral damage or negative side-effects and less wasted time. - -*The point of content is NOT for relaxing, edification or any sort of entertainment value -- it's not just the ideas, but how the ideas translate into what ones DOES with the content ... how does the content result in a better plan and better means more effectively implemented? Knowledge is completely USELESS, even dangerous or delusional if it does not DRIVE implementation of a BETTER PLAN.* - -This kind of content is not content design to soothe idiots and zombies, like Netflix or NFL or some form of news or movie channel which is about herding an audience toward an outcome. The point of this content is to advance the general plan of making me stronger, more courageous, less afraid ... the content for this year is like any years plan that has been about investing in my WHY and increasingly targeting what kinds of things have worked best for me healthwise and financially. - -Hopefully this explains why I will spend $5000 in 2024 on fitness/health CONTENT. I **used to** allocate more of annual spend to physical seminars, martial arts trainers and the cost of traveling to those things ... sometimes, I would a spend little bit on gym or dojo memberships ... but, NOW, I spend it primarily on virtual content, because ... Automotive cultures fundamentally WEAKEN and IMPOVERISH. - -## Sharpening the axe - -In order to be more efficient with my time, I have to sharpen the axe before I wonder off into the forest of content ... sharpening the axe means that I look at content with the intention of developing something better. - -THIS YEAR, I spent $2500/year on [Peter Attia's EarlyMedical program](https://earlymedical.com/lessons/welcome-to-early/#1-5-our-core-frameworks) which entail three major areas: (1) RE-identifying my WHY; realigning my goals with that WHY, (2) more precisely and accurately understanding my health risks, and (3) using PA's strategic framework to better re-formulate my lifestyle tactics to get stronger. - -For right NOW, I just intend to use one year of PA's program ... I don't see a reason to re-subscribe once I have been through the program ... but I expect that next year, I will look around for similar programs. I may revisit the program after five years, but the point in consuming the content is to develop and implement something better FOR MY OWN NEEDS, ie I don't expect that what I implement FOR MY OWN NEEDS will be better for others but it'll be in this repository and they will be free to use it if they want ... - -I will also spend about $1500/year for a VARIETY of other content, predominantly martial arts/yoga training ... things like [Rickson Gracie's Academy](https://rickson.academy/en) ... [Ryron / Rener Gracie University](https://www.gracieuniversity.com/) ... but also other items like [Dr. Joe Dispenza Unlimited Course](https://drjoedispenza.com/) or [Dr William Davis's Undoctored Inner Circle](https://innercircle.drdavisinfinitehealth.com/default.aspx) ... and others. As an example of those others, I have found an absolutely a perfect FitnessCoach app ... which I have taught myself to HARD IGNORE *just to show anyone reading this that this content-driven self-programming happy horseshit of mine doesn't all STICK in my brain.* - -My BIG reason for switching to VIRTUAL content is that I have had the lesson pounded into me DRIVING IS FOR RETARDS. In other words,it is NOT DRIVING that furnishs me with HUGELY beneficial impacts on health and fitness, especially on my mindfulness and general awareness of my level of FITNESS ... because I have to carry my body weight. - -NOT Driving is right up there with NOT DRINKING ... I have not had any alcoholic beverages since 2020 -- I should have started tapering my annual alcohol consumption off forty years before that and then quitting entirely by the time I was 23 or so. It took me a lot longer to understand how alcohol or even a beverage like coffee works as a regular ritual or SOCIALLY-ENCOURAGED habit, eg getting together with a friend for a few beers / coffee ... I accepted the SOCIAL part of it, but I should have been much creative. - -My main impetus for FINALLY quitting on alcohol was that I noticed many people IN THE ISOLATION OF THE PANDEMIC LOCKDOWN who I know were talking [on social media] about how much they tended to drink during the pandemic ... AND THEY JUSTIFIED IT!!! In order to cope with the pandemic!!! ... *and the drinking alone part REALLY bugged me.* - -The thought of ever needing a drink to cope just flat out pisses me off ... whining about the pandemic *moving your cheese* and now you need to use that disruption as an excuse to have another drink is the kind of DISGUSTING behavior that I do not EVER want to have anything to do with. Drinking for the sake of coping is ABSOLUTELY PATHETIC AND DISGUSTING to me. - -I was not about to set myself up to fall into that trap -- so I stopped EVER buying any kind of beverage with any alcohol content in July 2020 ... and, my life got better ... slowly, because I have not really drank all that much in a year, ie I tended to have a few beers with friends and sometimes overdo it in that manner -- but generally, I have not really drank all that much for decades. But still, since alcohol is water-soluble and fat-soluble neurotoxin, it's depressive effects PERSIST. It took about three years or so, but I finally can say that the neurotoxin is out of my system almost entirely and I don't see the upside of putting even a taste of alcohol back into my brain. - -The most affordable part of my content spend is the additional $1000 that I spend just READING ... on Pubmed and the pre-print archives ... but the pre-prints really require something like ConnectedPapers ($36/yr) ... and I like to have CURRENT texts, so I throw a little bit of money at Perlego ($120/yr) and OCCASIONALLY, maybe two months/year, I will opt for a month of O'Reilly at $49/month ... and I give Wikipedia some money every month ... a maybe five hundred dollars or so worth of USED books/year. So, I READ a lot ... but the text version of my content is just less than $1000/year. - -{NOTE on old text and hard-copy books: I am more than well aware that electronic texts are conveninetly searchable, but I am OLD and I still enjoy relaxing by paging through an old texts, eg martial arts/yoga texts, med school texts on neuroscience, nutrition, gastrointestinal health, hepatology as well as the basics in biochem/biophys and MCAT exam guides to get familiar with keywords [to be able to ask Bard a decent question] ... old texts are like the "comfort food" of content, because I still enjoy scribbling some notes and just doodling up things like protein molecules. *I get it ... but I am old and I'm not going to apologize for the fact that I still enjoy paging through old books* ... ***and being surround by stacks of books that I could have never afforded that many books back in the day when I hung out in bookstores or University libraries because owning books was way too expensive.***} - -# The point of consuming content is to develop and implement A BETTER PLAN. - -*It's all about what you DO with the content ... knowledge is USELESS if it does not drive implementation of a BETTER PLAN.* - -My WHY is not going to be close to Peter Attia's WHY ... of course; I respect his WHY, EVEN MORE than $2500 worth of respect I spent on his content [*and hopefully, some people get that joke ... but I do need to emphasize it's a joke*] ... but PA's WHY is not that applicable to others ... in my example, I do NOT especially want longevity; I DO want to live well and not need any care as long as I live -- but I do really look forward to dying and whatever comes thereafter as much as I look forward to figuring out more things about this life and being in more control of my health. - -Implementing a BETTER PLAN to *hopefully* never need any care is about using the consumption of content to program, re-program and re-re-program myself to be significantly more disciplined about my health and fitness ... and mentally disciplined about strengthening that discipline. - -There's just no other way to attain the FREEDOM from worry that I need than the DISCIPLINE of improving DISCIPLINE of implementing a better plan. The content is a tool to help me push me to get there. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/_posts/2024-01-08-hermit-in-wilderness.md b/_posts/2024-01-08-hermit-in-wilderness.md deleted file mode 100644 index 10162412..00000000 --- a/_posts/2024-01-08-hermit-in-wilderness.md +++ /dev/null @@ -1,23 +0,0 @@ ---- -layout: post -title: "Just A Hermit Living In The Wilderness" -date: 2024-01-08 4:30:00 -categories: template ---- - - -*What do you DO?* - -***I am a [contemplative Christian](https://markbruns.github.io/Contemplation/); I DO hermit stuff.*** - -I don't accept donations or live off of offerings as other other contemplative religious orders do; I try to work on my venture philanthropies in free and open source science and research; I make sure that my income is sufficent so that I never have to impose my costs on other humans. I never ever EVER ask for assistance in paying my bills or taxes; it's my responsibility to responsible for my financial needs, so I generally NEVER get in a position where I need anything -- I not only enjoy being entirely self-reliant; I especially do not want to pay exorbitant fees to any service *professional*. - -I am HAPPY, HAPPY, HAPPY ... because I have chosen to be a [contemplative Christian](https://markbruns.github.io/Contemplation/) living according to my own hermit lifestyle. - -I chose to live in the wilderness *SORT OF*... except I am not really allowed to ***legally*** just go out and live in the physical wilderness. Since the span of this physical existence happens in something called the Information Age, I choose to leave the civilized environment of my peer professionals and the wealthiest 1/10 of 1% ... I have given everything away in my life three times. I have deliberated chosen to live in something of a cultural backwater or what might be thought of as a bit of a technological resource-deprived, economically-depressed third-world backward wilderness. - -There's NOTHING wrong with where I live ... as far as climate, food producing ability or BASIC power/water/gas/comms utilities goes ... but NOBODY is probably going to [startup a new unicorn](https://www.investopedia.com/terms/u/unicorn.asp) ... -- the closest one is ... there's not enough talent or access to resources, labs, or SMART capital. There's plenty of low-growth, hyper-risk-averse dumb capital that sees nothing but gloom and doom ... but a tech unicorn needs CONNECTED, SMART capital and it requires an atmosphere characterized by GROWTH and continual prowling for opportunities. There are literally almost an infinite number of opportunties to create new companies ... there are no end to the new possibilities ... obviously, not all of those opportunities are going to be worth pursuing past the ideation phase and of those that are worth pursuing, very, very, VERY few will succeed to the point where they can be added to the new unicorn list ... but a few will succeed with absolutely great, breakthrough products as well as a tough, shrewd, tough-as-nails ability to out-compete all comers and do that while providing exceptionally high-paying jobs to talented, hard-working employees as well as generally outsized returns for investors. - -If anyone needed proof of this, there are right now [more than 1,229 unicorn startups valued at more than $1B](https://www.cbinsights.com/research-unicorn-companies) around the world ... and although some of the unicorns graduate past startup phase, the number of NEW unicorns SLOWLY inches up every year, but it's probably always going to be limited by population, ie there might be more than one, but there's not really a way for there to be 2 founders of unicorn per million people ... and the distribution of those unicorn founders will tend to cluster ... for example, Iowa's population might suggest there would be 4 or 5 unicorns in the state, but people are far too risk-averse and especially ***idea-averse*** so nobody with ideas is going to move to the midwest in order to start a new unicorn ... midwesterners do start unicorns, but it is NECESSARY to leave the idea-averse culture in order to get the talent necessary to build a unicorn. - -But I have deliberately chosen to use my time for my own health and ***spiritual growth*** ... especially for SPIRITUAL GROWTH, so that means MOSTLY eschewing participation in growing parts of the economy ... so my lifestyle is basically a hermit gig EXCEPT that I still contribute to free and open source science and research projects ... and I still *sort of* watch the unicorns **AS A SPORT** ... others follow the Super Bowl or March Madness -- I follow unicorns ... I choose to live in an isolated backwater that is as close as I am going to be allowed to living being *away from civilization,* ***out in the wilderness.*** \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/_posts/2024-01-11-neverend-the-detox.md b/_posts/2024-01-11-neverend-the-detox.md deleted file mode 100644 index c5f9a897..00000000 --- a/_posts/2024-01-11-neverend-the-detox.md +++ /dev/null @@ -1,80 +0,0 @@ ---- -layout: post -title: "Always a Matter Of Detox and Elimination" -date: 2024-01-11 4:30:00 -categories: template ---- - - -In a previous post, I described my $5000 content spend for 2024 ... which brings up a bigger PROBLEM, ie what do I remove to make room for it AND for the new acquistions that hopefully better content, better ideas lead to me add. - -*It's NEVER about what we add or acquire ... 95% or maybe more, ie who knows what the numeric percentage is, of* ***the BENEFIT comes from the stupid shit minimize*** - -In terms of content, there are only so many seconds in a day ... $5000 is cheap for what value we might get out of good content ... but we will get at least $95,000 worth of benefit from REMOVING the stupid timewasting shit we waste time on. It's EASY for us to say that we need to get rid of any time wasted on idiotic things like HATE ... or allowing any kind of mindrot, eg like dwelling on the pain of having our feelings hurt, to live rent-free for even one second in our minds ... but we ALSO have to get rid of other forms of STUPIDTHINK such as spending too much time dwelling on memories or wishing to return to the past or hoping to see people who mattered to us again. - -**We have to LIVE on the future-ish side of the present, as we prepare for the future -- we cannot waste time looking back, because we are not going that way.** - -*Obviously, therefore, time management HAS TO matter even more when we are trying to make room for better new habits.* YES, of course, we are serious enough about minimization to ensure that the screen time on our mobile devices stays low ... and YES, we generally HAVE TO make a practice of AVOIDING MOST SOCIAL MEDIA. For the most part, and the ONLY reason that use social media is as a way to let people who MIGHT NEED US SOME DAY, *although they don't realize why they need us yet* ... to let people know that we're still ***out there*** and, more importantly, *we are never going to settle down and be one bit normal*. - -As human beings, our behavioral tendency is to always be curious about things, maybe thinking that we might need something in the future as a tool or something that helps us ... so we are pretty much always in acquistion mode ... acquiring more and more and MORE stuff, even when it's electronic content that we minimalists like because content takes up no space and is rapidly findable ... but the MORE IMPORTANT flip side of acquisition is about what we will sort through, remove, minimize, phase out, revise, edit, purge and eliminate stuff from our system. - -# What is our ONGOING PLAN for detoxification and elimination going to be? - -The INITIAL plan might be as simple as going for a long walk EVERY DAY ... and purging anything that shows up as a problem or crosses our mind as we are walking ... a long walk has ways of making the need for purging dreadfully obvious, eg "*My knees hurt*. Well ... WHY would your knees hurt? Do you need to stop eating stupid shit again ... OR have you been sitting too much rather than going for walks?" - -The NEXT phase of walking, if there are no obvious aches/pains, is to THINK ... to especially think about simplification and removal ...life is pretty much always a matter Of DETOX and ELIMINATION, but there are parasitic advertisers out there that will try to make you think that life is about acquisition ... it's NOT! - -## Affluent lives are PATHOLOGICALLY acquisitive - -HEALTHY LIVES, by contrast are is pretty much always a matter of sorting out, straightening, polishiing, standardizing, sustaining, more polishing, more optimizing and **ELIMINATING THE STUPID SHIT** ... it's the same with training for anything; the important part of training is to minimize the junk steps, but do the steps correctly and in a manner that does not impose any costs or additional work on anyone else. - -Walking is HIGH VALUE activity if you make sure that it is a MENTAL activity ... and NOT the kind of thing where you are distracted by stupid music or other mind rot. If you want to make the very most out of your walks, you have to PURGE the stupid mindless shit out of your walking method so that you focus on MINDFUL walking. - - -## I HAVE TO try to minimize everything that does not make me stronger, more courageous, less afraid - -I don't have a choice any more ... I no longer have ANY ROOM for any baggage ... I HAVE TO sort my shit out and severely minimize everything that does not make me stronger, more courageous, less afraid. HAVE TO. HAVE TO. HAVE TO. - -I no longer have ANY ROOM for any baggage ... so I HAVE TO severely minimize everything that does not make me stronger, more courageous, less afraid. - -I recognize that these things are making me weaker and maybe less able to confront things, so it is necessary for really get my mind back to ***"being a LEAN THINKING predatory killer/eater again."*** - -It might sound extreme, but it's really about being HEALTHY ... and that means being able to go hungry, able to live in discomfort, able to do HARD things ... so it really IS about getting back to ***"being a LEAN THINKING predatory killer/eater again."*** - -*I apologize if people find the language to be extreme ... but that's just the way it has to be.* One simply HAS TO PUSH ONE's MIND in that ***LEAN frame of mind***, ie *what's the simplest possible shot that will work to reliably bring down the kill?* - -The LEAN frame of KILLING mind and the discipline of that mindset is necessary if one wishes to be healthy. When it comes to health ...there's NO SUBSITUTE for the LEAN KILLER mindset ... it's raw, bloody and tastes like something real ... you can't make it better by pouring ketchup on it or washing it down with some mind-altering beverage. - -## Why We NEED to FAST - -Taking things away is like FASTING ... not exactly like extended fasting or some sort of hunger strike ... but we have to do whatever we need to do in order to FEEL hunger. - -Controlling our appetites for different things is not exactly like fasting and doing without -- it's about using as little as we can possibly use OR like eating ONE GREAT MEAL A DAY in order to restore control of one's appetites ... it's ESSENTIAL to periodically experience HUNGER ... we don't need to deprive ourselves to the point where we react by overconsuming. - -But, I am afraid there'd be nothing wrong with a few bouts of extended fasting for me right now ... and I have found that extended fasts do help me to be more courageous, less afraid ... SO maybe, I will think about doing some extended fasting ... but I also know from past experience that I really have to get my mind to the point where I am ready, able and CONFIDENT enough to persist through some bouts of extended fasting. - -The point of OMAD is not to NOT COMPLAIN, NEVER WHINE, NEVER MAKE EXCUSES ... and, being HUNGRY once a day, reminds one that we not only can survive a weensy little bit of suffering ... it actually makes us much, MUCH healthier ... especially when we focus on eating the VERY BEST things for us nutritionally [which we might otherwise, if our appetite is impaired by the standard American diet, not be hungry enough to be excited by]. - -Of course, nobody wants to live in unbearable discomfort and pain -- but the quickest way to get into that state is actually from endulging the standard American diet or eating at restaurant ... of course, one should exercise and feel a BIT of discomfort every day ... the point is not to suffer, but to press out on one's limits ... to remove the lethargy ... it's mostly about taking away the American lifestyle of convenience and comfort, focusing first on eliminating ALL of stupid shit that makes me worse off ... the same general mentality applies thoroughout ALL of my purchases. - -That's why there's no drinking any more for me ... I not only avoid alcohol like the plague but I also find that I have to avoid friends/family members who drink ... because it's too demoralizing to have a conversation with imbeciles. - -In a nutshell, moving to ASYNCHRONOUS WORKFLOWS and completely virtual workflow is about placing a priority on making the most of everyone's time; people who need to have physical meetings tend to be time wasters. This is why the removal of the convenience or WEAKNESS of automotive culture is behind my severe minimization of all driving ... I have learned that I not only strongly prefer to walk everywhere, but I also need to make sure that I am able walk, ie my knees or my back is not bothering me, I can carry a large pack and not get blisters or sore muscles on my feet after hiking several miles ... I do make accomodations to travel for things that are absolute business necessities, but I find that there are fewer and fewer of these necessities AS I LEARN that many meeting/conf organizers are entirely MINDLESS when it comes to agendas of physical meetings or work that they imagine requires a physical presence. - -When it comes to carbs ... I have done it before ... I don't like the serious withdrawl pains that come with an abrupt cessation ... but it's time again for me to wean myself from processed foods, breads, sugars and most carbohydrates ... I will not lie, eliminating these things tends to be hard on me ... these standard American diet things are extremely cheap, so they appeal to my tendency to opt for cheap calories/cheap protein as I pinch pennies [and still get that short-term sugar high or satiating "boost" from a bread item] ... but I recognize that these things are making me weaker and maybe less able to confront things, so it is necessary for get my mind back to *"just being a predatory killer/eater again."* - -# Spending SMARTER on fixed assets - -Phase out the vehicle ... spend minimal amount necessary to keep vehicle road worthy ... the ultimate plan is not to own a vehicle. - -The general strategy in home repair/maintenance is to minimize use, PUT OFF maintenance, PUT OFF improvements, PUT OFF all upgrades ... it's all about keeping the power dry and saving money for the eventual remod. Sure, I still need a servicable place to live ... but I will continue to put off improvements and save money for what I see as LARGE coming remods as long as I can ... eventually the house will probably need a new roof, new windows [and probably new siding], a new deck/porch/conservatory or south facing atrium ... but, frankly, the highest and best use of these two lots property might be demolition and reconstruction [since the property has been re-classified to be within a floodzone.] - -On landscape architecture, I will continue to invest in soil building and attempting to extend/prolong the life of the trees ... add plants, shaping the terrain and attempting re-shape the landscape MANUALLY ... for the lifting and exercise. Along the way, I will dismantle the rock/paver impediments and repurpose those things as terracing aids to generally retain water around the property, as close to where the rain falls because drowth is going to be a permanent consideration on property build on top of gravel fill. In order to reduce Summer temperatures by 20-25 degrees on the property, will reduce any paved area solar heat collectors and replace those areas garden items grown in movable, optimizable bags of improved soil. I have used geraniums as soil building aids as I compost organic material into something that will eventually resemble a higher quality soil ... the main benefit of geraniums is their riduculous hardiness and durability in the face of neglect; since geraniums are tough to kill, I have found them to be helpful as indicators of soil readiness for use. My soil transformation process is sort of simple and crude; I just use vermiculite with composted leaves/twigs mixed in with the ridiculously junky fill and gravelly sand that comprised the "fill" which was used as the topsoil this property ... it's time to level off my population of geraniums and just renew/refresh/repot as I use the soil that formerly grew geraniums for garden containers ... this soil has never really grown a decent crop of crabgrass, but it will grow broadleafs and [with sufficient fertilization will support little tufts of turfgrass seedlings that can be mowed, but perpetually need to be re-established - -## A Better Plan Starts with BETTER Knowing The WHY of the Plan - -My WHY is about being a BETTER example of my WHY ... of course, I don't exactly know my WHY yet ... for me, this existence is about pondering that WHY. - -I am seeking to minimize the time that I waste by not being in a state of prayerful contemplation. - -PRAYER. MORE PRAYER. ALL DAY PRAYER. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/_posts/2024-01-14-strength-conditioning-mobility-coaching.md b/_posts/2024-01-14-strength-conditioning-mobility-coaching.md deleted file mode 100644 index b05960d1..00000000 --- a/_posts/2024-01-14-strength-conditioning-mobility-coaching.md +++ /dev/null @@ -1,199 +0,0 @@ ---- -layout: post -title: "Strength, Conditioning, and Mobility Self-Coaching" -date: 2024-01-14 4:30:00 -categories: template ---- - -AI, content, journalling, podcasting, doing the reps, are all part of the IMMERSION process of self-coaching and improving the discipline ones coaching in ANYTHING ... including like strength, conditioning, and mobility coaching ... serious coaching, especially the most serious form of coaching or SELF-COACHING ... is ALL about IMMERSION and about how we THINK. - -AI is certainly changing the way that humans think ... just as Google, Wikipedia and Amazon changed the way that people search for information [and become insta-experts] ... just as printing press changed the way that people think about freedom and why humans are subjects why anyone should give any respect to the authority of the king. FREEDOM is not free ... and, sorry GI Joe fans, freedom didn't come from flag waving and the military ... freedom came from the the way that humans THINK and then do what they need to DO in order to USE VIOLENCE in order take back their freedom. Freedom is NOT free ... it will demand a SACRIFICE ***from you***. - -**The POINT of Strength, Conditioning, and Mobility Coaching is that YOU need to sacrifice part of your life in order to TRAIN in order to be ready to be VIOLENT THREAT to those who would take your freedom.** We can hope that we will never have to use violence ... but if we are not prepared and ready, we can guarantee that we will be a victim of violence. Freedom is not free ... one way or another, it will get paid for ... and the price you *should be willing* to pay is preparation and self-discipline and self-coaching, but one way or another, the price of freedom will CONTINUE TO be paid. - -Let's start off with a deeper dive on Gemini or Bard's answer for our question about [strength, conditioning, and mobility coaching for MALES OVER 65](https://g.co/bard/share/05a7387874fd) ... we can and also will use Gemini Advanced and Copilot and a bunch of other AI ... but the POINT of Strength, Conditioning, and Mobility Coaching is really META-cognition MENTAL STRENTH, MENTAL CONDITIONING, MENTAL MOBILITY, MENTAL COACHING exercise to start asking a LOT MORE questions ... and then to keep asking MORE and STILL MORE and EVEN STILL MORE questions. - -Asking more and more and more questions allows us to IMMERSIVELY THINK in an important topic driving HEALTH ... such as Strength, Conditioning, and Mobility Coaching ... and, sure AI love [or at least never sick of] getting more questions ... the questions make the AI and the whole AI response ***better, faster, cheaper*** [ie, cheaper, in terms of resources consumed on the back end, even if the AI is "free" to use, the questions help tune it] for other people. - -AI NEVER can get too many questions ... in a way that ANY human sifu, even the most patient of the patient sifu, will at some point, get sick and tired of the smart ass's questions ... but we should REMEMBER, part of the **reason** the human sifu gets sick of all of the questions is that the human sifu cares enough about you as a human to get pissed off at the questions. At some point ... **YOU have to DO** ... no just try ... no askey more questions ... you have to DO the repetitions! - -So DO the repetitions ... when you get tired, go back to the fundamentals ... ask Gemini, Copilot more questions ... first train in the preliminaries. - -https://earlymedical.com/programs/early/ - -https://rickson.academy/en - -https://www.gracieuniversity.com/Pages/Private/Dashboard - -https://drjoedispenza.com/course-details/638fb2becfca52701153381a/course - -https://innercircle.drdavisinfinitehealth.com/program_overview.aspx - -https://www.perlego.com/home - -https://www.audible.com/library/titles - - -Then, at some point, talk about it ... remember ... [USE THE PODCASTERING PLAN](https://five.libsynsupport.com/hc/en-us/articles/5454952503195-About-the-Plan-Levels) ... as part of the IMMERSION process ... to THINK, internalize, DEVELOP the self-coaching and improve your discipline ... you can DO the reps in very little time, but if you really want to COACH yourself, you need to think and to verbalize what you DO. - -The whole point of [podcastering FOR YOURSELF](https://five.libsyn.com/show) is about THINKING OUT LOUD and talking to yourself IN PUBLIC ... and then listening to yourself and then adjusting your thinking and your talking your way through what you are doing ... the WHOLE POINT is IMMERSION ... IMMERSION, IMMERSION, IMMERSION ... **[podcastering](https://five.libsyn.com/show -) is all about THINKING and the DISCIPLINE of improving our DISCIPLINE of DISCIPLINED thought** - -## Embrace the suck of cliches - -When we look at fitness regimes, we tend to get confronted by tsunamis of cliches and locker room slogans ... that stupid shit is just the nature of coaching ... if you want to coach your self, you will NEED to develop your little helpful slogans and mnemonics ... that's just how it has to be. Get over it ... using the CLASSIC cliches is part of the IMMERSION process to drive our thinking. - -***So NEVER MIND the stupid, annoying cliches!*** Strength and conditioning is going to be particularly heavy on cliches ... but cliches get to become cliches because they have worked well for millions of people ... in some ways, because it's always going to be the three-legged stool of **Development**, **Intensity** and **Consistency** - -You can't just skip to the cliche answer that it's all about CONSISTENCY ... of course, it is Consistency, Intensity and Development ... but your first assignment is to remove whatever is not working ... so STOP BEING A CONSISTENT IDIOT! - -You have DEVELOPED the RIGHT approach to bringing the INTENSITY to your daily CONSISTENCY. - -Your stupid old way of doing things DID NOT WORK, because you CONSISTENTLY short-cutted your thinking on just not bothering with the details being CONSISTENTLY WRONG in CONSISTENTLY getting the MINIMAL AMOUNT done ... so that you could CONSISTENTLY go right back to your old habits, maybe not right away but within a couple week or a month you FORGOT all about that undeveloped, mediocre, not thought through intensity ... like you CONSISTENTLY do every time you start and exercise program. - -You have to be consistent with STUDIED, COACHED, CRITIQUED, IMPROVED ***intensity*** ... in order to ensure that you are actually mindfully aware, disciplined and critically encouraging with every INTENSE repitition of all of those *consistenty* done repetitions that you are going to do ... HOW are you going to coach yourself on your reps; WHERE is the INSTENSITY going to come from? - -Of course, being CONSISTENTLY INTENSE is not going to help you achieve your MAJOR goal of BETTER HEALTH with all of its supporting SMART objectives if you are optimizing the wrong things or strategically calling the wrong plays. You have to DEVELOP a balanced overall plan that you will INTENSELY improve with discipline intent CONSISTENTLY ... so that why we START with the DEVELOPMENT of a syllabus -- we might copy a lot of material and use a lot of cliches, but the DEVELOPMENT of our own syllabus has to be specifically DEVELOPED for us. - -# Development - -You will always hear the following bullet points below ... because the advice is ALWAYS true, ALWAYS important ... *Yeah, yeah, yeah, we've heard that shit a million times -- good advice, we all get it.* ***No you REALLY don't GET it ... AT ALL!*** - -That's why you have to endure hearing it repeated over and over again, because people always disregard it ... so YOU have to REPEAT these cliche bullet points over and over again to yourself and THINK about why they matter to you.: - - * *Always consult with a **HEALTH**care provider before starting any new exercise program.* - * *Start with low-intensity exercises and gradually increase intensity and duration.* - * *Tailor the syllabus based on the individual’s preferences, health conditions, and fitness level.* - - -**At 65, you HAVE TO BECOME your own HEALTH provider ... YOU need to IMMERSE yourself in the improvement of your HEALTH.** My own goal as a 65-year-old is to be the HEALTHIEST, FITTEST 70-year-old that I can possibly be ... I want to HEALTHIER tomorrow than I am today; healthier next week than I am this week, healthier next month than I am this month ... HEALTH has to be built through hourly, daily, weekly progression ... but building that progression is entirely about IMMERSION in the larger goal of becoming the PROVIDER of my own HEALTH. In this particular post, we are focused on PROVIDING greater STRENGTH and CONDITIONING ... as part of the IMMERSION thinking in STRENGTH and CONDITIONING, as a 65-year-old man, I will need to spend a lot of time thinking about FLEXIBILITY and BALANCE to even be able to train to be stronger and to have better cardiovascular conditioning. - -Obviously, as I approach my 65th birthday, I should not exactly be interested in the goals of someone winning a national championship in college wrestling, HOWEVER when I look at the RESULTS of these top flight college sports programs, I definitely see the degree to which they DEPEND UPON really great strength and conditioning coaches ... top flight do not just hand players a few sheets or a little handbook with exercises and point the players to the weight room ... they have highly compensated professional strength and conditioning coaches who oversee the entire strength and conditioning program with staff responsible for coaching the players through the exercises and monitoring the players' progress in order to make daily, weekly, monthly adjustments in focus. - -HEALTH has to come from IMMERSION. Immersion does mean swallowing pills or supplements. Being IMMERSED in health improvement is like being immersed in a language for the purposes of THINKING NATIVELY in that language ... we have to THINK in every moment about getting to be healthier. - -Nobody learns TO THINK in a language as we all THINK as natives in our language by swallowing a pill. We also do not learn to THINK as a NATIVE in a language by visiting some language professional four times a year OR every two weeks or EVEN once a day. The only way to really LEARN a language ... to THINK as a native speaker thinks in a language is through total IMMERSION. If you want to provide yourself in GENUINE health -- you will need tp immerse yourself in the how you get healthy. You PROVIDE better HEALTH for yourself in itsy bitsy baby steps ... in the same way that you recover from when you were VERY sick, ie at first, YOU JUST WORK AT FEELING BETTER IN THE NEXT FEW MINUTES OR HOUR, you AVOID all of poisons and anything that does not help your health, so that build up your health and strength, so that you can even think about what can do so that the rest of the day goes better -- you work at feeling better today, so that the week goes better ... you cannot DEVELOP better HEALTH by focusing on symptoms or pills or supplements or any of the typical medicial FEAR MONGERING.** - -You need to IMMERSE yourself in the DEVELOPMENT of your own strength and conditioning program. For STARTERS, just to give you and outline of what to think about AT FIRST, you can ask an AI like CoPilot to [develop a strength and conditioning syllabus](https://sl.bing.net/dK3ib8cQvHE) to help you get started thinking about the discipline of developing better discipline by putting together a strength and conditioning program that *actually makes sense* FOR ME as I am IMMERSED IN THE THINKING about strength and condition ... if I am not IMMERSED in the topic so that I am THINKING about it, as a native language speaker THINKS in his native language ... there's no chance that the strength and conditioning program will be **something that I will actually do** ... without the IMMERSIION of THINKING about the DEVELOPMENT of the program, all that I will have is *just another asinine schedules of exercises or calisthenics that any junky, fritterware fitness app tells me I should do.* - -So dive in to IMMERSION part of this ... we can start getting immersed by fleshing out the outline of the syllabus that CoPilot has developed for me ... I will need to think IN DETAIL about the following topics: - -## Exercise Physiology - -#### Objective - -Understand the physiological responses to exercise and how they change with age. - -### Topics: - -Cellular respiration and energy production - -Cardiovascular adaptations - -Muscular strength and endurance - -Flexibility and joint health - -Age-related changes in metabolism - -Recommended Resources: -Textbook: Exercise Physiology: Theory and Application to Fitness and Performance by Powers and Howley 1 - -## Strength and Conditioning - -#### Objective - -Improve functional strength, balance, and overall fitness. - -### Topics: - -Resistance training techniques - -Functional movements (e.g., squats, lunges, push-ups) - -Core stability exercises - -Balance training - -Proper warm-up and cool-down - -Recommended Resources: -Personalized strength training program -Online videos or classes for guided workouts - -## Sports Medicine, Especially Injury Prevention - -#### Objective - -OLD guys need to learn about injury prevention and RECOVERY from training ... and the opportunities to learn about treatment will arise. - -### Topics: - -#### Meditative focus to PREVENT injuries - -- **when you walk, focus on the walking** ... ditch the music or bullshit podcast -- leave your damned cameraphone at home, unless getting picture the sunrise/sunset is sorta the point of a particular walk - -#### Mobility and flexibility exercises to PREVENT injuries - -#### TIME management and 5S orderliness to PREVENT injuries - -- put shit away so it does not cause an accident - -#### Nutrition for recovery - -tart cherry extract - -mushrooms - -#### Understanding pain - -40% rule - -Knowing when you're coming up on a limit - -Yoga and other tactis to improve general body awareness - -#### Rehabilitation principles [especially for old injuries] - -#### Other Topics - -* Common sports injuries (e.g., joint sprains, muscle strains) - -* First aid/CPR/AED - -### Recommended Resources: -Online courses or workshops on sports medicine -Consultation with a sports medicine specialist - -## Martial Arts Training and Rehabilitation: - -#### Objective - -Enhance flexibility, balance, and mental focus. - -### Topics - -Martial arts appreciation and study of the different forms (e.g., Traditional martial arts, Sambo, BJJ, [Jeet Kune Do](https://bruceleefoundation.org/jeetkunedo/)) - -Gentle martial arts drills for seniors - -Breathing techniques ---Wim Hof method - -Injury prevention during training - -Exercises/drills to improve Mind-Body connection (e.g., Tai Chi, Qigong, Yoga) - -Recommended Resources: -Local martial arts classes (choose low-impact styles) -Books or online resources on martial arts for seniors - -## Sustaining Motivation and Goal Setting - -Of course, consistency and sustaining the intensity through gradual progress are key ... we need to think a bit about what that means for us PERSONALLY. As old geezers we kinda know way better than any stupid fiftysomething or WORSE what a wet-behind-the-ears fortysomething PUP thinks an old dog should do. - -We got to this age by know what's gonna work and what's gonna fail MISERABLY ... for example, I CANNOT buy a cool martial arts rash gaurd as a motivation to lose weight -- I know that if a damned shirt is too small, having the annoying thing in my sight will MOTIVATE me to bury the shirt and never think about fasting or any kind of diet, but instead to think more about buying tasty toaster strudels and other shit that I should not eat, ie the cool rash gaurd PISSES ME OFF; it's a DE-motivator. - -So I have learn my own tricks for making excuses and getting out of shit ... if I don't NEED to make a few steps on the journey every day, I'm not just going to just magically enjoy the stupid journey ... I need to create a NEED ... I know that I just don't need to stay motivated; motivation can't be about pride or some stupid bullshit like that -- the driving daily need HAS TO BE something, like landscape architecture and gardening that I NEED to do every day ... the key to prioritizing safety throughout the process is all about the whole program being a series sort of small meaningful chores that need to get done every day -- that's why the whole strength and conditioning program has to involve gardening and landscaping ... because I don't give a fuck about getting in shape to make the football team. - -The KEY really boils down to me having chores that I have to do every day ... I can turn off and ignore a stupid fitness app -- the real needs all about an IMMEDIATE WHY, something I HAVE TO DO, not a pop-up reminder from an app, but something REAL that needs attention, like a garden or an edible foodscaping project. It has to be REAL ... something where I can see what I have done even it's just something like re-positioning the geraniums to give the ones that aren't blooming more sun and move the blooming ones into the shadier areas so their blooms last longer ... there has to be a PHYSICAL, immediate WHY implicit in a daily set of chores that reminds one why he even needs to even bother with strength and conditioning. It does not work to have a distant, off-in-the-future WHY, eg I don't want to die unfit -- **the distant, nebulous, off-in-the-future "it's good for you" WHY is just not close to being good enough for an old guy.** diff --git a/_posts/2024-01-18-automotive-culture-is-for-idiots.md b/_posts/2024-01-18-automotive-culture-is-for-idiots.md deleted file mode 100644 index 3de62606..00000000 --- a/_posts/2024-01-18-automotive-culture-is-for-idiots.md +++ /dev/null @@ -1,32 +0,0 @@ ---- -layout: post -title: "Automotive Cultures WEAKEN and IMPOVERISH" -date: 2024-01-18 4:30:00 -categories: template ---- - -## Automotive Cultures FUNDAMENTALLY Weaken and Impoverish - -*It's almost a matter of DESIGN * ... but actually, **the weakening and IMPOVERISHMENT is a side-effect of design that is 100% about LUXURIOUS COMFORT and UNNECESSARY CONVENIENCE as well as being 110% about the ILLUSION of STATUS which accrues to the ostentacious display of superficial wealth.** - -I regret every time I spent any money on an automotive upgrade ... when I had a MINIMALLY acceptable car, eg a $250 or $500 beater for commuting or anything better than what I ABSOLUTELY needed to get me from point A to point B. - -To really twist the knife ... my stock investments have generally done extremely well, better than the S&P500 or NASDAQ indices, even though I did not really have much capital AT ALL to start with ... for example, when I consider how much my $25,000 investment in Amazon in May, 1997 returned before I exited 20 years later, I am even more pissed off that I ever participated in the automotive circus ... I realize that I really wasted a lot of money on better cars than I needed ... ***but then again, the typical American citizen participating in our automotive culture was 5X maybe even 10X worse than I was*** ... the REASON that we cannot have nice things is the amount of resources that we have SQUANDERED on our automobiles and every thing that our automotive culture *provides* to us. - -For anyone who has trouble connecting the dots ... because it is part of what is DRIVING my decision to make a hard, full, complete switch away from travelling to content and to instead invest more heavily in autodidactic training, eg just DOING drills and internalizing VIRTUAL content until it becomes my own. - -# YOU CANNOT GET THERE BY DRIVING TO IT. - -Instead of going to that training event, *you would better off walking in that direction for half of the total time you would spend and then just turning around and walking home, while you were mentally rehearsing the content you SUPPOSEDLY were missing.* - -***If it ain't VIRTUAL, it is JUNK.*** Even without the virtual reality and augmented reality technologies that are now available AND DROPPING IN PRICE. - -It's important understand WHY **any kind of content that demands users travel or commute will have been developed by a mindless idiot who did not understand the costs that his physical seminar or training seminar imposed IN ADDITION TO THE time at the seminar.** Thus, the content is fundamentally before it even starts ... but agendas of physical meetings also tend to be less productive than a coherent email. - -Physical content is now inherently WORTHLESS by comparison with drills and other **autodiadict** approaches based on virtual materials. - -## Instead of investing anything in your vehicular life ... invest in your virtual AUTODIDACTIC life. - -*If there's a vehicle involved in getting to/from it, the content is just not going to be worthwhile.* It's important to understand, for yourself, why that is the case. - -Any kind of regular automotive culture indulgence does not tend to just rather mindless in its own construction ... throughout all aspects of my life, I now feel even STUPIDER after traveling to something ... especially when that something proves to be even more worthless than my low expectations of what I expected it to be. *It is as if people who use vehicles are not only stupid, but they develop antiquated pre-2020 agendas of stupid antiquated happy horseshit that is more endemically, inherently time-wasting, unfocused, less self-aware, meandering CRAP that is even worse than just me searching through my shelves of old books and MUCH WORSE than the efficiency of using AI, web search and knowledge engineering tools like ConnectedPapers. diff --git a/_posts/2024-01-21-how-we-develop-investment-topic-lists.md b/_posts/2024-01-21-how-we-develop-investment-topic-lists.md deleted file mode 100644 index 0be1bf8b..00000000 --- a/_posts/2024-01-21-how-we-develop-investment-topic-lists.md +++ /dev/null @@ -1,521 +0,0 @@ ---- -layout: post -title: "Minimal Viable Prototypes As VENTURES" -date: 2024-01-21 4:30:00 -categories: template ---- - - -This post is about HOW/WHY we develop our [VENTURES](https://markbruns.github.io/Ventures/) list ... our point with these MVP Ventures is not really to develop the next billion-dollar unicorn ... it's not even really to develop a venture with a million-dollar valuation ... our aims are much more modest -- we simple register domain names and then develop those virtual properties [somewhat similar to how individual athletes/musiscians develop their NIL properties] by adding the general framework of a business plan with monetization ideas and technologies that might become part of million-dollar enterprise or perhaps even a unicorn, if the concept sorta *wins the lottery*. - -# A Deep Dive Into The Success Of Unicorn Startups - -### Sources / General Background Reading; Skim These First As Preparation For The Deep Dive - -(1) [Building a unicorn startup: key characteristics and strategies - The Thrive.](https://www.thethrive.in/business-article/characteristics-of-a-unicorn-startup/) -(2) [Unicorn Startup Checklist for 2024 | Embroker.](https://www.embroker.com/blog/unicorn-startup-checklist/) -(3) [How to build a unicorn startup in 2023? - Tactyqal](https://www.tactyqal.com/blog/how-to-build-a-unicorn-startup-in-2023/) -(4) [Unicorn Company Status: What It Means & How to Invest | Britannica Money. ](https://www.britannica.com/money/what-is-a-unicorn-startup) -(5) [Anduril: Shaping the Future of Defense With Advanced Technology](https://startuptalky.com/anduril-success-story/) -(6) [Anduril Success Story: Transforming US & allied military capabilities](https://www.listmystartup.com/2023/05/anduril-success-story.html) -(7) [How Defense Tech Company Anduril Rapidly Grew Their Business](https://www.builtinla.com/2021/08/06/defense-tech-company-anduril-rapidly-grew-business) -(8) [Palantir Technologies - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palantir_Technologies) -(9) [Palantir's pioneering path: The future of data analytics - Entrepreneur. ](https://www.entrepreneur.com/finance/palantirs-pioneering-path-the-future-of-data-analytics/469359) -(10) [The Palantir Pack: Startups founded by Palantir alumni - Protocol](https://www.protocol.com/palantir-pack-alumni-startups) -(11) [Why Palantir Is the Health Tech Startup You’ve Never Heard Of - Medium](https://blog.palantir.com/why-palantir-is-the-health-tech-startup-youve-never-heard-of-eb3e1037d816) -(12) [What companies can learn from unicorn startups to overcome the COVID-19 crisis](https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/INMR-01-2021-0011/full/html) -(13) [UNICORN START-UPS AND THEIR JOURNEY: A CASE STUDY OF TWO INDIAN STARTUPS SWIGGY AND PAYTM - IJCRT](https://ijcrt.org/papers/IJCRT2008065.pdf) -(14) [Unicorn Startups – The 33 Remarkable Companies - Entrepreneurship Drive](https://entrepreneurshipdrive.com/unicorn-startups-the-33-remarkable-companies-that-started-with-little-or-no-funds-a-case-study) -(15) [The Rise of Unicorn Companies: A Magical Growth?](https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-42412-1_29) -(16) [Analysis of Unicorn Startups - AIRBNB and BYJU’s - Academia.edu](https://www.academia.edu/43549129/Analysis_of_Unicorn_Startups_AIRBNB_and_BYJU_s) - -## Introduction to Unicorn Startups** - -- Definition and characteristics of Unicorn startups[^10^]¹¹¹³ -- The concept of disruptive innovation¹² -- The role of technology and asset-light business models¹² - -## Case Studies of Successful Unicorn Startups** - -- Case Study 1: Anduril - - Founding and early years¹⁴¹⁶ - - Key products and services¹⁴¹⁵ - - Growth and funding¹⁴¹⁵ - -- Case Study 2: Palantir - - Founding and early years² - - Key products and services² - - Growth and funding¹² - -- Case Study 3: Airnb - - Founding and early years² - - Key products and services² - - Growth and funding¹² - -Top 10 Unicorn Companies In India 2022 - -1. InMobi -2. Flipkart -3. BharatPe -4. Dream11 -5. PhonePe -6. BYJU'S -7. Ola -8. Ola Rooms -9. Zomato -10. Swiggy - -## Common Traits of Successful Unicorn Startups** - -- Solving real problems¹³ -- Strong team with diverse skills and experiences¹³ -- High growth potential[^10^] -- Innovative ideas[^10^] -- Entrepreneurial spirit[^10^] -- Risk-taking and resilience[^10^] -- Continuous improvement[^10^] - -## Strategies for Building a Unicorn Startup - -- Developing a minimum viable product (MVP)¹¹ -- Identifying user problems and proposing solutions¹¹ -- Discovering a large, homogenous potential target market¹¹ -- Creating a product that’s accessible, user-friendly, and cost-effective¹¹ -- Determining your business model¹¹ - -## The Future of Unicorn Startups - -- The role of AI and data analytics in the future of Unicorn startups¹ -- The impact of Unicorn startups on the economy and society¹ - - -## We develop [VENTURES](https://markbruns.github.io/Ventures/) in order to INVEST in human productivity. - -**That's the WHY of it.** That's the core theme in everything we tinker with. - -Investing drives the ***SUSTAINABILITY*** of [VENTURE PHILANTHROPY](https://markbruns.github.io/Ventures/). Actually having skin in the game helps to SUSTAINABLY advance human productivity by building more the things that most efficiently, most rapidly advance creative, productive workflows.*** - -[VENTURES](https://markbruns.github.io/Ventures/) are HOW we LEARN about what actually EFFICIENTLY, RAPIDLY advances productivity? - -**That's the HOW of it.** - -We have learned what does not work at all ... we see all kinds of examples of laughable failure around us in the world. You simply CANNOT learn about productivity by being a practicioner of *victimthink* who indulges in conspiracy theories ... you cannot be a hate-filled jerk ... you cannot possibly learn about productivity by trusting the experts who are even stupider than teachers who cannot do, so must teach ... you certainly deserve to fail miserably and have all of your capital taken from you if you are the kind of lazy thinker who believes in the magic of ***the Next Big Thing or NBT*** [which is usually designated as the NBT by experts and conventional wisdom.] - -You cannot just trendspot ... you have to dig in, roll up your sleeves, get frustrated by not being able to figure out how something works in order to *finally* really UNDERSTAND the mechanics of WHY/HOW ... with dirty hands, skinned knuckles and all kinds of frustration and failure analysis, you can ***FINALLY*** understand the why/how [and the why not/how not to do it] of why and how something will improve the productivity of masses of humans. - -You cannot just trendspot without the frustration of being in the mix ... you actually have to learn things the hard way and get your *hands dirty* ... to learn things the hard way, you have to BUILD AN ALMOST WORKING PROTOTYPE OF SOMETHING FOR ALMOST NO COST. - -YOU can ONLY really LEARN BY DOING SOMETHING ... do [VENTURES](https://markbruns.github.io/Ventures/) is mostly about failing and being frustrated enough by the whole process to think you wanna quit ... but it is not about being a spectator or a tourist or a trendspotter ... it's about being a participant in the process of learning about what actually advances human productivity. - -You can get lots of hints by READING [about what other people have done; about what works, what does not work YET]... and getting better at reading more, faster, better ... but if you want to LEARN, you have to DO ... you sorta have to DO things that you totally suck at to learning anything new ... you DO things that you are pretty good at to find ways to get better ... and you build new proto-VENTURES to find out who is really doing this so well, that you want to invest in them getting even better. The only hints in investment come from your own proficiency in building the minimal viable prototypes of the VENTURE that you believe might make people more productive ... you will FAIL in the building of these proto-ventures, so you want to preserve your capital ... and learn from other people's failures. - -Other people's FAILURES are gigantic hints ... for example, NOBODY who thinks that vehicle technologies will make humans more productive really understands the productivity of human thought ... you cannot get thoughts, information, knowledge *shipped* fast enough by car, by plane, by spaceship. The productivity of human thought is all about the speed of useful INFORMATION application and the acceleration of the growth of KNOWLEDGE for better resource allocation ... the biggest gains in productivity will not come from transport, although we might need to apply knowledge engineering and information technology to car companies, we don't want to invest in just another car company, ie we want to invest in the company that selling the car company the AI, information technology and knowledge engineering because *the topline growth in vehicle miles travelled per citizens per year in developed nations peaked fifteen years ago.* - -Our investment theme for the past fifteen years has been PRIMARILY only about investing in our own health ... that's because we were told that we were going to die in hours/days but not months AND if we somehow did recover, we would soon relapse and then at that point we would die in hours/days but not months. So OUR FOCUS has been on understanding our own existence and what we needed to do to be as healthy as possible WITHOUT THE ASSISTANCE OF THE EXPERTS WHO COULD NOT HELP US because they would fail us again. - -GENUINE care for **HEALTH**, not healthcare or health insurance ... and **FITNESS**, not fitness equipment or fitness centers ... as well as the exsistential creativity of asynchronous workflow for teams of creative human beings ... is the PRIMARY focus of our investment strategy. - -As we have regained our health ... we have begun to think about the kinds of [VENTURES](https://markbruns.github.io/Ventures/) that we can build to help others ... we have re-strategized how we think about [venture philanthropy](https://markbruns.github.io/Ventures/) and the entire topic of how humans go about creating wealth and generally improving the human condition ... KNOWLEDGE ENGINEERING is not something that one individual or one company can accomplish ... we can only accomplish COMPETITIVELY ... through globally competitive workflows ... ideally, globally competitive workflows do not deteriorate in to wars ... but unfortunately WAR has been the driver of better technologies that have generally lifted humans out of the drudgery of low-productivity subsistence and just barely getting by. In the LARGER realm of human advance, it's all about the productivity of MASSES of humans ... ***but YOUR existence is something that YOU cannot trust to experts, stupid!*** - -If we care about other humans ... we have to find the best ventures to develop and invest in ... but we need to understand why COMFORT is an impediment to developing and investing in those ventures. - -# INTELLIGENCE ... and intelligent thinking - -Our investment strategy is based on finding those companies that make others radically more productive. - -It's about actually USING the technology ... not just reading, but writing code, understanding ideas/mechanisms of ideas ... in order studying the acceleration of productivity in workflows ... understand the kinds of systems that make systems more productive demands learning the fundamentals of the fundamentals the HARD WAY and building up the systems in order to understand how/why certain companies have developed a culture or workflow that will give them the inside edge for the next five or ten years. - -We don't pick stocks ... we pick reading themes or intelligence gathering themes for the kinds of things that we think demand more READING, REFLECTION and INTELLIGENT DEBATE. - -We advocate that people do more than just read, they should, for example, work at learning the basics of the basics of [cognitive science](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_science), [knowledge representation and reasoning](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_representation_and_reasoning), [linguistics and the applied learning of language](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linguistics), [computational semiotics](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computational_semiotics), [how natural language processing is implemented in code](https://www.nltk.org/), [how large language model platforms are used to learn about and extend open source LLM technologies](https://huggingface.co/docs/hub/index) in order to **understand from a fundamentals level what things like deep learning or artificial intelligence are all about**. - -## Stock tips are FOR IDIOTS - -If you want to understand investment themes ... you HAVE TO spend time getting your hands dirty with the fundamentals of the technologies that are driving the future of making people radically more productive. - -It is STUPID to invest in stupid shit because somebody says that it's going to be the next big thing ... and you have to UNDERSTAND ENOUGH of what about that idea will make people more productive ... and you have to understand why somebody has not already implemented it ... AND YOU CANNOT BE THE KIND OF MORON THAT SWALLOWS CONSPIRACY THEORY IDIOT THINK about dark kabals or aliens or secret commissions that rule the world. - -There is NO SUBSTITUTE FOR UNDERSTANDING EXACTLY HOW THE PRODUCTIVITY IMPROVMENT HAPPENS. - -## We develop the precursors of VENTURES in order to learn about industries - -Learning something the hard way is about REALLY, ACTUALLY, TRULY going through the process of doing it ... and that means doing it as inexpensively as possible ... the MVP principle is applied to investement research ... what is MINIMAL VIABLE PROTOTYPE that can possibly work well enough to maybe work ... as we START UP a venture and think about competing in an industry, we will understand who the best competitors in that industry are ... or else, we have a startup that we should actually start the eff up. - -# FUTURE Topic Lists [otherwise known as *rabbitholes*] - -***NOTE: This LIST is NOT EarlyMedical reading stuff ... that's above this in our Four Horsemen of Longevity™ ... atherosclerosis leading to cardiovascular and cerebrovascular disease, cancer, neurodegenerative disease, and metabolic disease ... this is a place for putting all of those things that cross our mind ... and things that we might go back to later.*** - -Our aim with this **FUTURE TOPICS listing*** is to have a GOTO lists for any downtime, or morning-before-we-wakeup, or times-when-we-just-want-relax and to never want have to think about our next list of items to read/annotate ... generally we want to have 250 items on this list, with at least 125 higher ranked more useful topic ideas in the FUTURE TOPICS hopper ... twenty-five or so of this topics will relate to the startups and philanthropic [VENTURES](https://markbruns.github.io/Ventures/) that we curently are tinkering with -- and in that pool of projects, the point is to have five key projects that we touch once a week ... and to have ONE main one that is operational now and that we are most focused on getting right. - -1) Microscopy, lithography, computational lithography - -2) Atomic layer deposition, atomic layer etching, atomic layer epitaxy - -3) Semiconductor manufacturing, semiconductor physics, semiconductor devices - -4) Flowering plants, particularly trees, woody plants, shrubs, vines - -5) Yoga, kinesiology, martial arts, self-defense - -6) Sculpture, particularly optimal landsculpting, particularly parks and green spaces - -7) Prayer, lojong meditation, eliminating cognitive dissonance, improving neurocapacities - -8) Podcastering ... Revoicer, MURF.ai and other AI-generated audio from text ... [REAPER.fm](https://dlz.reaper.fm/userguide/ReaperUserGuide703c.pdf) and others DAWs for audio engineering ... as well as ***monkeying around*** with Canva, GIMP, Inkscape, [Blender 4.0](https://youtu.be/B0J27sf9N1Y?si=686gsE74veOZ1vx_), [Manim](https://docs.manim.community/en/stable/) - -9) Python, python community, developer ecosystems, optimizing the CI/CD process, improving code review, encouraging interaction even geometric frustration - -10) Unix, Linux, Containers, Virtual Machines, Operating Systems, CloudKernel - -11) Physics, quantum physics, quantum computing - -12) Mathematics, especially geometric math, cuLitho, computational lithography - -13) Chemistry, computational chemistry, computational materials science - -14) Meta Open Access, beyond Wikipedia, peer review and wikiculture, [Zenodo](https://zenodo.org/) and research data repositories as well as ML repositories like HuggingFace - -15) TRIZ, ARIZ, technical knowledge-graph problem-solving, invention suggestions based on corpus of patents ... for example, consider DRAIN.tips for with the types of techniquess and tools used by a professional to unclog a clogged sewer drain ... the beauty of AI models is that you can keep asking DETAILED questions, ie the model does not get irritated with all of the questions and demand payment for a service call ... you can START by [diligently asking at least five levels of questions of something like Llama2-70] ... the first answer is not going to be enough; many AI answers will be rather useless, eg try some baking soda, then call a plumber ... even questions about what a plumber does will be extremely vague and worthless ... for instance, a plumber typically uses a variety of specialized tools and equipment to unclog a clogged sewer drain; this is rather obvious, but it is necessary to drill down a few questions further to get to *the point where one can be mildly dangerous*. Some of the most common tools and equipment used by plumbers for the drain unclogging purpose include: - -* Drain cleaning or tree root killing compounds: Drain cleaning chemicals are used to dissolve and break up clogs, but tree root killing compounds are herbicides that will not kill most trees, but will kill roots that have penetrated the sewer lines. These compounds are poured down the drain and allowed to sit for a period of time, days not just hours, before being rinsed away with water jets ... in other words, these compunds are not really the solution, they are the preparation for making other measures possible. - -* Drain snake: A drain snake is a long, flexible rod that is mostly used to quickly explore -- a drain snake will not be sufficient to remove tougher clogs from sewer drains, so many plumbers will not even bother with a snake. The snake is inserted into the drain and manipulated to navigate the twists and turns of the pipe, allowing the plumber to reach and possibly remove the clog, but more likely, the snake will only bring back some evidence of what kind of problem is causing the clog. - -* Drain auger or roto-rooter: A drain auger is a long, flexible rod with a spiral end that is designed to break up and remove clogs. The auger is inserted into the drain and turned clockwise to feed the cable into the pipe, and then counterclockwise to remove any blockages. The auger is then pulled out of the drain, bringing the clog with it ... of course, these augers are really tough to handle and extremely heavy to carry into place, so they are not really the first solution ... unless the plumber has bought a new rotorooter and needs to pay the sonofabitch off. - -* Hydro-jetter: A hydro-jetter is a high-pressure water jet that is used to clear out clogs and buildup from sewer drains. The hydro-jetter uses a combination of pressure and heat in a water jet, usually a high pressure water using a source of extremely hot water from the water heater and a variet of specialized nozzles to break up and remove clogs. The world of sewer jetting fittings is almost large enough to be its own industry ... highly specialized sewer jetting equipment is used by masters of this trade, like DrainAddict, to clear out clogs and buildup from sewer drains. Typically, the higher end of this set up involves a trailer with its own generator specialized mobile high-pressure water jetting pumps along with higher-end optical sewer cams and other inspection aides. - -* Camera inspection equipment: A camera inspection is often used to visually inspect the inside of the sewer drain to determine the location and severity of the clog ... but it is necessary to have to drain somewhat unclogged or charged with clear water or else the inspection line cannot even see what it is causing the clog. The camera is inserted into the drain and provides a live video feed to the plumber, allowing them to assess the situation and determine the best course of action. - -* Pipe bursting equipment is used for really serious clogs ... bursting equipment is used to replace damaged or clogged sewer pipes. The equipment uses a specialized cable to burst the damaged pipe and replace it with a new one ... obviously, this is a last resort and not something that is done lightly, but it is less expensive than digging up the yard and replacing the pipe. - -* Trenchless technology: Trenchless technology such as Insituform is used to repair or replace sewer pipes without digging trenches. The technology uses a specialized camera and equipment to navigate the pipes and repair or replace damaged sections. - - -16) Music, Music AI, Music Metadata - -17) Ollam.ai and alternatives for natural language processing tasks such as: spaCY, NLTK, TextBlob, TensorFlow, HuggingFace Transformers, Amazon Comprehend, Google Cloud Natural Language API - -18) Our hero builds, uses and refines [his new AI applications which are built with AI](https://partyrock.aws/u/MarkBruns/IKKJt96W8/Daily-Wellness-Guide) - -19) Future HEDT sandbox configuration: [directly integrated HBM4 GPU memory](https://www.tomshardware.com/news/sk-hynix-plans-to-stack-hbm4-directly-on-logic-processors), [double data rate synchronoous dynamic random-access memory (DDR SDRAM)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DDR_SDRAM) and the [JEDEC memory specifications](https://www.jedec.org/category/technology-focus-area/main-memory-ddr3-ddr4-sdram), NVME flash drives for High-Throughput Generative Inference for LLMs with Multiples GPUs ... the [secret sauce is PagedAttention](https://blog.vllm.ai/2023/06/20/vllm.html) - -20) [JAX](https://jax.readthedocs.io/en/latest/notebooks/quickstart.html) is NumPy on the CPU, GPU, and TPU, with great automatic differentiation for high-performance machine learning research. What’s new is that JAX uses [XLA, the TF Accelerated Linear Algebra compiler](https://www.tensorflow.org/xla) to compile and run your NumPy code on accelerators, like GPUs and TPUs. - -21) [WasmEdge](https://wasmedge.org/docs/) and [TinyLlama](https://github.com/jzhang38/TinyLlama) ... including the use of [crun](https://github.com/containers/crun), [youki](https://github.com/containers/youki), [gVisor](https://gvisor.dev/), [Kata Containers](https://katacontainers.io/) and similar approaches to achieve faster, more secure, smaller footprint, lower-memory requirement [OCI Runtime](https://opencontainers.org/posts/blog/2023-07-21-oci-runtime-spec-v1-1/) containerized resources for edge computing. - -22) [The last week or so's worth of Arxiv pre-print abstracts in Machine Learning](https://arxiv.org/search/advanced?advanced=&terms-0-operator=AND&terms-0-term=cs.LG&terms-0-field=all&terms-1-operator=AND&terms-1-term=&terms-1-field=title&classification-physics_archives=all&classification-include_cross_list=include&date-filter_by=past_12&date-year=&date-from_date=&date-to_date=&date-date_type=submitted_date&abstracts=show&size=200&order=-announced_date_first) ... the current rate of new papers is about 42,000 per year or 800 per week. - -23) [Methods of information geometry](https://www.ams.org/books/mmono/191/mmono191-endmatter.pdf) including things lie the [Fisher information](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fisher_information) carried in an observable random variable about an unknown parameter and how the [Cramér–Rao bound(CRB)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cram%C3%A9r%E2%80%93Rao_bound) or the [Hammersley-Chapman–Robbins lower bound](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chapman%E2%80%93Robbins_bound) used to bound the variance of biased estimators of a given biased. - -24) [The last week or so's worth of Arxiv preprint abstracts on Condensed Matter Physics](https://arxiv.org/search/advanced?advanced=&terms-0-operator=AND&terms-0-term=phase+transitions&terms-0-field=title&classification-physics=y&classification-physics_archives=cond-mat&classification-include_cross_list=include&date-filter_by=past_12&date-year=&date-from_date=&date-to_date=&date-date_type=submitted_date&abstracts=show&size=200&order=-announced_date_first) with an emphasis on [phase transitions](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phase_transition) and a particular emphasis on [geometric frustration](https://arxiv.org/search/advanced?advanced=&terms-0-operator=AND&terms-0-term=geometrical+frustration&terms-0-field=title&classification-physics=y&classification-physics_archives=cond-mat&classification-include_cross_list=include&date-filter_by=all_dates&date-year=&date-from_date=&date-to_date=&date-date_type=submitted_date&abstracts=show&size=200&order=-announced_date_first) - -25) The [pattern of frustration formation in the functional brain network](https://direct.mit.edu/netn/article/6/4/1334/112207/Pattern-of-frustration-formation-in-the-functional) and our [requirement to change of functional brain network across the lifespan](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34793536/) and the [dynamics of the process of cognitive dissonance removal](https://www.connectedpapers.com/main/40acbf791850dc0fc1a2ff04670ef86e20ee95a8/Lifetime-of-links-influences-the-evolution-towards-structural-balance/graph), ie "How can we learn faster?". - -26) Develop the requirements for an EDA design-for-mfg toolchain architecture for going beyond [design-to-tape-out for 180nm CMOS -integrated circuit fabrication technology](https://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/1908/1908.10674.pdf) or simply [integrating GPU & memory semiconductors into a single package](https://wccftech-com.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/wccftech.com/sk-hynix-plans-on-integrating-gpu-memory-semiconductors-into-a-single-package-defying-industry-trends/amp/) which would involve looking at [how GPUs might be made better](https://www.techradar.com/news/computing-components/graphics-cards/how-gpus-are-made-1000923) including an iterative design process which would include cycling through several layers which might be something like: 1) high level design, 2) floorplan and netlist, 3) circuit verification and emulation, 4) mask making, 5) photolithography, 6) several different processes to deposit and etch which produces the patterned oxide layers for the foundation, 7) several different chemical and plasma vapor deposition sub-processes to create the n-channel MOSFETs, p-channel MOSFETs and any other transistor-like components, 8) connecting everything in several sub-processes of deposition, etching, electoplating and chemical-mechanical polishing 9) design for testing including optical image recognition for proper registration to complete wafer probing as well as he potential for minor rework for yield improvement, 10) packaging and thermal optimization - -27) [Generic Mapping Tools(GMT)](https://docs.generic-mapping-tools.org/latest/) - -28) [Alliance/Coriolis](https://github.com/lip6/coriolis),[Electric](https://www.gnu.org/software/electric/), [Glade (Gds, Lef And Def Editor)](https://peardrop.co.uk/) vs the [universe of alternatives](https://www.engineersgarage.com/top-eda-tools-vlsi-design/) for producing/documenting a manufacturable heterogeneous SoC high level design or at least an outline of a product requirement specification ... to be fleshed out with tools like ... [Synopsis Cloud](https://www.synopsys.com/cloud.html), [Cadence Virtuso Heterogeneous Integration](https://www.cadence.com/en_US/home/tools/custom-ic-analog-rf-design/virtuoso-studio/heterogeneous-integration.html), [Siemens EDA [Mentor Graphics]](https://eda.sw.siemens.com/en-US/ic/), [Silvaco TCAD](https://silvaco.com/tcad/) - -29) Key benefits of advanced nuclear reactors ... I try to keep an open mind on these things, but I am not at all convinced that [advanced small modular nukes](https://www.energy.gov/ne/articles/4-key-benefits-advanced-small-modular-reactors) are strictly a good thing since economies of scale are a very huge, very real and inescapable thermodynamic thing in power generation ... decentralized power generation is not good just because it happens to be a current political fad and people are [temporarily] way too excited about decentralized things ... sometimes, as with power generation in particular, centralization is a VERY VERY positive attribute. - -30) [Preevy](https://preevy.dev/) and [Lifecycle](https://docs.livecycle.io/Livecycle%20Overview) ... or [Vercel](https://vercel.com/docs/deployments/preview-deployments) or [Netlify](https://docs.netlify.com/site-deploys/deploy-previews/) or [Ngrok](https://ngrok.com/docs/what-is-ngrok/) ... along with something like the [Prometheus](https://prometheus.io/docs/introduction/overview/#architecture) to scrape metrics from instrumented jobs. It's all part of code review, preview and, to some degree, product test environments for observability of containers and CI/CD development workflow - -31) [Xilinx design tools](https://www.xilinx.com/products/design-tools.html) ... along with AMD's RadeonOpenCompute [ROCm open-source stack for graphics processing unit (GPU) computation](https://rocm.docs.amd.com/en/latest/rocm.html) ... and, not just hardware, but also understanding the [ROCm [Software] Developer Tools](https://github.com/ROCm-Developer-Tools) especially the lower-level [kernel language [of C++ functions] and conceptual programming model of HIP: C++ Heterogeneous-Compute Interface for Portability](https://rocm.docs.amd.com/projects/HIP/en/latest/reference/kernel_language.html) which is intended to be analogous to the [CUDA® C++ general purpose parallel computing platform and program model](https://docs.nvidia.com/cuda/cuda-c-programming-guide/index.html#cuda-a-general-purpose-parallel-computing-platform-and-programming-model) to exploit [Unified Memory Programming](https://docs.nvidia.com/cuda/cuda-c-programming-guide/index.html#unified-memory-programming) in order to be able to tap the massively parallel nature of GPUs and achieve far higher performance than what is even theoretically possible on an advanced CPU. - -32) [JEDEC Committees](https://www.jedec.org/committees) and other means of engaging with professional communities - -33) [Keep up with the PyTorch blog](https://pytorch.org/blog/), follow the [best curated PyTorch list](https://github.com/ritchieng/the-incredible-pytorch) and personally [annotate your own PyTorch list](https://github.com/BrunoScience/the-incredible-pytorch) - -34) Not just prediction markets for politics ... but risk mgmt and microinsurance ... what's the best probabalistic outcome and how can we eliminate or mitigate the failure modes that threaten achievement of that outcome - -35) How should anyone go about the process of trying stay fit? It's primarily a MENTAL exercise augmented with AI for the tedious processes of keeping up with the literature ... but, realistically, it has to be much more practical, much more immediate and an exercise in serious moment-by-moment mindfulness which inevitably involves a physical exercise component and as well as a nutritional component. - -36) How can one optimize one's Github engagement? ... beyond just commitgraph ... actions for build/review/test during dev ... copilot ... discussions ... issues-driven CI/CD ... better commit messages and Git discipline... become the best Github advertisement for everything Github - -37) Remote work, asynch.work, ENGR.co client services, API data access connection, manipulators, system integration, project management, verification/validation ... get your assets ready ... attracting and outreach is huge part of it, but you need to think with the end in mind, ie how do you close deals and monetize? - -38) Universal Scene Description, [Blender 4.0 with Omniverse Connect](https://docs.omniverse.nvidia.com/connect/latest/blender/release-notes.html#usd-201-1), [Revit with Omniverse Connect](https://docs.omniverse.nvidia.com/connect/latest/revit.html) or maybe even [Autodesk Architecture, Engineering and Construction Collection](https://www.autodesk.com/collections/architecture-engineering-construction/overview?term=1&tab=subscription&plc=AECCOL) ... - -39) Tailscale and VPN workflows, DNS, Bind - -40) LIDAR scan data, using smartphone video to develop digital twins - -41) [Oculus Quest 2](https://www.amazon.com/Oculus-Quest-Advanced-All-One-Virtual/dp/B09B8DQ26F/) for martial arts, yoga, tai chi and flexibility training ... practicing martial arts moves, visualizing an opponent, shadow boxing strikes, kicks, and footwork ... maybe boxing games like “Thrill of the Fight” or “Creed: Rise to Glory” to provide a virtual sparring experience and help improve your reflexes and stamina ... fitness apps and guided yoga sessions with virtual instructors to focus on proper form and technique in immersive environments ... emphasizing balance, alignment, breathing exercises with Quest 2 to work on balance poses (e.g., tree pose, warrior pose) while maintaining proper form.... slow, flowing movement in old school martial arts like tai chi, using Quest 2 to practice fluid motions ... warm up/cool down with dynamic stretches in VR ... explore VR experiences that align with goals, practicing katas, holding a warrior pose, enhancing the mind-body connection. - -42) Help [FreeCAD](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FreeCAD) ... ENGR.co/sktch.us ... in order to develop a Python scripting library [which probably depends upon CUDA/ROCm and C++ geometric primitives for coding the function sciptlets] ... the ultimate point is about an add-on to Blender which furnishes the constraints and parametric entities for actually converting a sketch into simulatable Universal Scene Description for CFM/FEA modeling or manufacturable dimensioned and toleranced 3D model with material properties. - -43) Participate in the ***larger*** [FreeCAD development cycle](https://wiki.freecad.org/FreeCAD_1.0_Development_Cycle) especially [OCCT development](https://dev.opencascade.org/) and the [collection of C++ libraries and resources](https://dev.opencascade.org/doc/overview/html/index.html#intro_overview) upon which [OpenCASCADE Technology](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_Cascade_Technology) is based ... in the *larger* dev sense, this means following/understandings developments and future needs of things like the [KiCAD EDA tool](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KiCad) which uses OCCT. - -44) Using [Fermyon Development](https://developer.fermyon.com/) ... or perhaps roll my own [WASM runtime](https://github.com/appcypher/awesome-wasm-runtimes) with something like [Docker+WasmEdge](https://www.docker.com/blog/build-share-run-webassembly-apps-docker/) or [WasmTime](https://docs.wasmtime.dev/) or a maybe a brand new riff on [IceCore](https://github.com/losfair/IceCore) or some other approach to building an [application container for WebAssembly](https://medium.com/webassembly/webassembly-docker-container-c0fce9a30fb1) ... the point is to get a specifically optimized WASM engine for a LIGHTWEIGHT parametric CAD sketch web app to develop a basic entity for use with FreeCAD, Solidworks or Revit ... the sketch app should be extremely lightweight, but include some sort of AIified or cognitive searchable Git-based version controlled model database for standard modeling components, ie BECAUSE SOMEWHERE OUT THERE SOMEWHERE ELSE ON THE PLANET SOMEBODY ELSE HAS BUILT A **STANDARD** COMPONENT FOR almost exactly THIS PURPOSE. - -45) Examples of interfaces between WASM and SLURM to allow users developers to [run WASM-compiled code on HPC clusters](https://next.redhat.com/2023/02/01/running-webassembly-workloads-on-container-runtimes/) managed by SLURM or some other interace ... the WASM-SLURM interface is for compiling and running WASM code on SLURM clusters, and includes features like job scheduling, resource management, and output handling ... slurm-wasm, a SLURM plugin that enables the execution of WASM-compiled code on SLURM clusters, provides a set of APIs for submitting WASM jobs, monitoring their progress, and retrieving output ... wasm-hpc, a library that provides a set of tools and APIs for running WASM-compiled code on HPC clusters, includes support for SLURM, as well as other job schedulers like PBS and LSF ... [MicroShift](https://github.com/openshift/microshift#user-documentation), a K8s cluster interface optimized for edge computing - -46) [Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG)](https://docs.nvidia.com/ai-enterprise/workflows-generative-ai/0.1.0/technical-brief.html) and [accelerating ML vector search](https://developer.nvidia.com/blog/accelerating-vector-search-using-gpu-powered-indexes-with-rapids-raft/) with [RAPIDS RAFT](https://docs.rapids.ai/api/raft/nightly/) using using [an ANN algorithm based upon an inverted file index (IVF) with unmodified flat vectors](https://developer.nvidia.com/blog/accelerated-vector-search-approximating-with-rapids-raft-ivf-flat/). - -47) [i7-12650H](https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/products/sku/226066/intel-core-i712650h-processor-24m-cache-up-to-4-70-ghz/specifications.html?wapkw=i7-12650H), [12th Generation Intel® Core™ Processor documents](https://edc.intel.com/content/www/us/en/design/ipla/software-development-platforms/client/platforms/alder-lake-desktop/682436/) and [manuals describing the architecture and programming environment of the Intel® 64 and IA-32 architectures.](https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/developer/articles/technical/intel-sdm.html) - -48) Google Compute - -49) Microsoft Azure - -50) Amazon Web Services - -51) CoreWeave - -52) Gradient - -53) Lambda Labs - -54) VAST.ai - -55) IBM Cloud: IBM Cloud offers a range of cloud computing services, including computing, storage, and networking. It also provides AI and machine learning services, as well as a serverless computing platform called IBM Cloud Functions. - -56) Oracle Cloud: Oracle Cloud offers a range of cloud computing services, including computing, storage, and networking. It also provides AI and machine learning services, as well as a serverless computing platform called Oracle Cloud Functions. - -57) Rackspace: Rackspace is a managed cloud services provider that offers a range of cloud computing services, including computing, storage, and networking. It also provides AI and machine learning services, as well as a serverless computing platform called Rackspace Cloud Functions. - -58) Salesforce: Salesforce is a cloud-based customer relationship management (CRM) platform that also offers a range of other cloud computing services, including computing, storage, and networking. It also provides AI and machine learning services, as well as a serverless computing platform called Salesforce Cloud Functions. - -59) Alibaba Cloud: Alibaba Cloud is a cloud computing platform that offers a range of services, including computing, storage, and networking. It also provides AI and machine learning services, as well as a serverless computing platform called Alibaba Cloud Functions. - -60) Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) Cloud: HPE Cloud is a cloud computing platform that offers a range of services, including computing, storage, and networking. It also provides AI and machine learning services, as well as a serverless computing platform called HPE Cloud Functions. - -61) Nutanix: Nutanix is a cloud computing platform that offers a range of services, including computing, storage, and networking. It also provides AI and machine learning services, as well as a serverless computing platform called Nutanix Cloud Functions. - -62) VMware: VMware is a cloud computing platform that offers a range of services, including computing, storage, and networking. It also provides AI and machine learning services, as well as a serverless computing platform called VMware Cloud Functions. - -63) DigitalOcean: DigitalOcean is a cloud computing platform that offers a range of services, including computing, storage, and networking. It also provides AI and machine learning services, as well as a serverless computing platform called DigitalOcean Cloud Functions. - -64) Linode: Linode is a cloud computing platform that offers a range of services, including computing, storage, and networking. It also provides AI and machine learning services, as well as a serverless computing platform called Linode Cloud Functions. - -65) OVHcloud: OVHcloud is a cloud computing platform that offers a range of services, including computing, storage, and networking. It also provides AI and machine learning services, as well as a serverless computing platform called OVHcloud Cloud Functions. - -66) Vultr: Vultr is a cloud computing platform that offers a range of services, including computing, storage, and networking. It also provides AI and machine learning services, as well as a serverless computing platform called Vultr Cloud Functions. - -67) Scaleway: Scaleway is a cloud computing platform that offers a range of services, including computing, storage, and networking. It also provides AI and machine learning services, as well as a serverless computing platform called Scaleway Cloud Functions. - -68) cloud.ca: cloud.ca is a cloud computing platform that offers a range of services, including computing, storage, and networking. It also provides AI and machine learning services, as well as a serverless computing platform called cloud.ca Cloud Functions. - -69) UpCloud: UpCloud is a cloud computing platform that offers a range of services, including computing, storage, and networking. It also provides AI and machine learning services, as well as a serverless computing platform called UpCloud Cloud Functions. - -70) Hetzner Cloud: Hetzner Cloud is a cloud computing platform that offers a range of services, including computing, storage, and networking. It also provides AI and machine learning services, as well as a serverless computing platform called Hetzner Cloud Functions. - -71) Contabo: Contabo is a cloud computing platform that offers a range of services, including computing, storage, and networking. It also provides AI and machine learning services, as well as a serverless computing platform called Contabo Cloud Functions. - -72) [Various news in the world of Free and Open Source Silicon (FOSSi)](https://fossi-foundation.org/news) ... [Tiny Tapeout](https://tinytapeout.com/) ... [Google's OpenMPW program](https://developers.google.com/silicon) and its [XLS: Accelerated HW Synthesis toolchain](https://google.github.io/xls/) ... [Qflow open circuit EDA design tools](http://opencircuitdesign.com/qflow/) ... the [qflow open source ASIC EDA dev community](https://github.com/RTimothyEdwards/qflow) ... [OpenLane](https://github.com/The-OpenROAD-Project/OpenLane) ... [OpenROAD open source EDA project](https://theopenroadproject.org/), [the UC SantaCruz VLSI Design and Automation Lab](https://vlsida.github.io/)'s [OpenRAM Python framework for a static random access memory compiler for SRAMs in ASIC design](https://github.com/VLSIDA/OpenRAM) ... [Skywater-PDK](https://skywater-pdk.readthedocs.io/en/main/) ... [the FreePDK process design kit, an open-source, Open-Access-based PDK for the 45nm technology node and the Predictive Technology Model](https://eda.ncsu.edu/freepdk/) ... [Chipyard open-source integrated system-on-chip (SoC) design, simulation, and implementation environment for specialized RISC-V compute systems](https://github.com/ucb-bar/chipyard) ... as well as the [Caravel harness SOC](https://caravel-harness.readthedocs.io/en/latest/) from [efabless](https://efabless.com/) - -73) [Omniverse Nucleus](https://docs.omniverse.nvidia.com/nucleus/latest/index.html) and other multi-GPU, multi-machine, multi-GPU, multi-user frameworks which offer a similar [database and collaborative engine microservices connector archictecture](https://docs.omniverse.nvidia.com/nucleus/latest/architecture.html) with [observability and monitoring plumbing](https://docs.omniverse.nvidia.com/nucleus/latest/enterprise/monitoring.html) engineered into an [moduluar development platflom for building 3D workflows, tools, applications and services](https://developer.nvidia.com/omniverse) like [OpenUSD](https://github.com/PixarAnimationStudios/OpenUSD) and the [USD Working Group](https://wiki.aswf.io/display/WGUSD/USD+Working+Group)'s [projects and resources relating to USD](https://wiki.aswf.io/display/WGUSD/Index) ... to understand what is going on behind Omniverse Nucleus, it is essential to understand the [overall USD purpose and architecture](https://openusd.org/release/api/_usd__overview_and_purpose.html). - -74) Optical Metrology and Photogrammetry ... especially for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles(UAVs) or cameras mounted drones or balloons ... [OpenDroneMap](https://www.opendronemap.org/) and [OpenDroneMap Docker](https://hub.docker.com/r/opendronemap/opendronemap) ... [OpenDroneMap on Github](https://github.com/OpenDroneMap) ...[Geo for All](http://www.agt.bme.hu/osgeolab/index.php?page=start&lang=en) ... [International Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing](https://www.isprs.org/) ... [GEO Week](https://www.geo-week.com/) ... the [ASPRS Community](https://community.asprs.org/home) and terminology and concepts of [Edition 2 of Positional Accuracy Standards for Digital Geospatial Data](https://aagsmo.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/ASPRS_PosAcc_Edition2_MainBody.pdf) such as *three-dimensional positional accuracy* - -75) The architecture of the [IoT data model in Omniverse](https://github.com/NVIDIA-Omniverse/iot-samples), allowing for a data driven approach and separation of concerns that is ***similar to*** [but not exactly equivalent to] a [Model/View/Controller (MVC) design pattern](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Model%E2%80%93view%E2%80%93controller) which could be implemented with an approach that is like [Blazor WASM](https://dev.to/jamattey/what-is-blazor-wasm-4n8) to reuse code components in different environments, ie with Omniverse Nucleus running as a server for an Omniverse Workstation-like environment for everything that Nucleus brings to the table and a much lighter-weight less-connected environment without the Omniverse Nucleus for primarily just looking at the data without connecting to and updating the Nucleus USD database ... for use cases like optical image capture in maps/geo, medical imaging, computervision/robotics, driverless vehicles, industrial automation, smart cities, smart buildings, smart factories, smart grids, smart homes, smart retail, smart transportation, smart utilities ...the further universe of smart everything, smart wearables, smart agriculture, smart logistics, smart supply chain, smart security, smart surveillance, smart energy, smart water, smart waste management, smart lighting, smart parking, smart street lighting, smart traffic management, smart metering, smart sensors, smart devices, smart appliances, smart locks, smart thermostats, smart doorbells, smart cameras, smart speakers, smart displays, smart TVs, smart refrigerators, smart washing machines, smart dryers, smart dishwashers, smart ovens, smart microwaves, smart vacuums, smart air purifiers, smart air conditioners, smart fans, smart heaters, smart humidifiers, smart dehumidifiers, smart water heaters, smart water purifiers, smart water softeners ... - -76) [Omniverse Kit](https://docs.omniverse.nvidia.com/kit/docs/kit-manual/latest/guide/kit_overview.html) aims to be extremely modular: ***everything*** is an extension. [NVIDIA Modulus](https://developer.nvidia.com/modulus) is a modular framework for building building, training, and fine-tuning Physics-ML models with a simple Python interface ... *as* extensions. - -77) [Open Microscopy Environment(OME)](https://github.com/ome/openmicroscopy) and [OME Remote Objects (OMERO)](https://omero.readthedocs.io/en/stable/users/index.html) including how [Bio-Formats library for reading and writing life science image file formats](https://bio-formats.readthedocs.io/en/v7.0.1/about/index.html) processes metadata, and provides other useful information such as version history and how to report bugs and annotate files ... as we can see by looking through the [Eliceiri Laboratory for Optical and Computational Instrumentation](https://loci.wisc.edu/) [materials on Github](https://github.com/uw-loci), open microscopy is really about deeping the commitment to open source and open access in science and moving beyond just open access and open results toward a *almost radically* [much more open, continual, long-term process](https://uw-loci.github.io/oss) of collaborative exploration in the virtual laboratory ... achieving scientific interoperability is like software interoperability, in that it depends upon the adoption, reuse and (as best practices and de facto standards emerge) the exacting definition of [software] standards to obtains those [benefits we associate with standard in all things](https://www.din.de/en/about-standards) to promote greater efficiency, more correct levels of trust and knowledge for much higher levels of real safety [as opposed to the false promise of regulatory safety]. - -78) [Algebraic Multigrid Solver (AmgX) Library](https://github.com/NVIDIA/AMGX) ... [computational fluid dynamics](https://developer.nvidia.com/blog/amgx-multi-grid-accelerated-linear-solvers-industrial-applications/) for thermochemical decomposition of anisotropic materials by AdvancedPyrolytics ... [OpenFOAM open source OpenCFD](https://www.openfoam.com/) ... [OpenFOAM on Gitlab](https://gitlab.com/openfoam) ... [OpenFOAM issues](https://develop.openfoam.com/Development/openfoam/-/issues) - -79) [GH200 server nodes are connected with an NVLink passive copper cable cartridge](https://developer.nvidia.com/blog/one-giant-superchip-for-llms-recommenders-and-gnns-introducing-nvidia-gh200-nvl32/) to enable each Hopper GPU to access the memory of any other Grace Hopper Superchip in the network, providing 32 x 624 GB, or 19.5 TB of NVLink addressable memory ... the CPU to GPU memory interconnect for NVLink is now 900 GB/s, which is [at least 7x faster than the 128 GB/s maximum bidirectiional bandwidth of 16 lane PCIe Gen 5](https://www.howtogeek.com/823732/what-is-pcie-5/). It's sort of important to understand how MUCH faster the NVLink GPUs will be than any found in a PCIe-based interconnection in a home lab or ML cluster which would typically use by something like an Oculink card. Although, PCIe Gen 5.0 is not too shabby compared to the alternative, because it is double the possible 16 GB/s of multilane PCIe Gen 4.0 ... a multi-lane PCIe throughput would deliver higher than the current 25 GB/s possible transmission rate of the [Oculink, "optical copper link" cable](https://www.howtogeek.com/what-is-oculink/) ... way faster than Thunderbolt 4 which caps out at around 5 GB/s or less ... EXCEPT that Oculink card is only going to use ONE lane, so that optical copper link cable will not be the bottleneck ... but [PCIe 6.0 is coming and I/O bandwidth in even little home lab mini-PCs is going to be a lot faster than it is now](https://www.howtogeek.com/786991/pcie-6.0-whats-new-and-when-can-you-get-it/) ... fueled by money that will be spend for remote work and computing workloads on HEDT systems for machine learning, we will likely see [I/O bandwidth double every three years or so](https://www.tomshardware.com/news/pcie-60-spec-reaches-final-draft-milestone) to spur turnover and upgrading for new HEDT systems, so expect that PCIe 6.0 and then PCIe 7.0 will be available and will be a lot faster than the 128 possible GB/s of PCIe 5.0 ... but, for the foreseeable future, the NVLink interconnects available in edgey cloud compute services is the fastest thing going. - -80) Brainstorming the MONETIZATION of bootstrapping of a new venture ... how does the bootstrapped venture pay for itself: #1 ideas are free; use the free stuff first -- anything that you add to a URL or location on the internet has to generate revenue ... but an accelerated negotiation requires gathering a crowd of interested parties -- so build that crowd, build word-of-mouth or linksharing but generating crowdliness is about leading the rabble to become a quasi-coherent crowd and listening to the crowd, really *using* the crowd to fund things that improve life for the crowd and generally make the crowd better for members of the crowd ... so it's ideas, ideas, ideas -- but mostly the ideas have to come from the crowd ... the better quality new ideas and refinement of ideas will come as you are grinding on execution of ideas ... diligently put into action even though they appear to be unsuccessful, ie most of the value is in what lessons you are learning ... keep your costs low and then lower them more ... it's going to be tougher than you think, so be prepare yourself for grinding on the grind ... eventually set up an auction and sell out, but retain ownership and continue to be part of the idea or hold it hostage until someone pays you to go away ... the point is to BE the grinder, the kind of leader who leads from the front - -81) Startupcook ... MVP and Lean Enterprise ... stick with that minimum and polish it ... build the braintrust from the EARS and EYES ... gather information; then improve the gathering of information ... process the information into knowledge and share that knowledge in order to build the braintrust ... the braintrust is the most valuable thing ... the braintrust is the thing that is monetized ... the braintrust is the thing that is sold ... the braintrust is the thing that is the product ... the braintrust is the thing that is the service ... the braintrust is the thing that adds and polishes the value ... the braintrust is the thing that defines the value proposition ... the braintrust is the thing that directs the monetization in a way that adds the most value to the participants of the crowd supporting the lean enterprise -- but in the end, all value created has to be invested in better intelligence gathering, information processing and knowledge sharing ... ultimately, the cashout plan is about putting together a CSOP, a customer-driven stock ownership plan ... the investors have to be evangelists for the crowd ... we asked the [Llama 2 70B playground to furnish ideas for monetizing a startup](https://catalog.ngc.nvidia.com/orgs/nvidia/teams/ai-foundation/models/llama2-70b) ... we then followed up with a question "What are ten different ways learn about X" ... we keep following up with questions and our own noodling around ... it's daunting, but fishing's all about getting your *lines in the water and* ***watching your bobber***, then refining the approach to putting something into practice and then polishing the things that work and polishing more, while continuing to put new lines in the water ... it's daunting ... in other words, while these ideas that AI model like Llama can give you are not exactly bad -- they're just trite and easy ... each one needs the kind of further HARD clarification and expansion that only can come from lean implementation, ie *doing it smart, but using the* ***extra cheap*** *ways and free stuff first.* - -* Identify your target audience and their needs, then create a product or service that addresses those needs. - - * Conduct market research: Conducting market research can help you identify your target audience and their needs. This can include surveys, focus groups, and interviews with potential customers. - * Use social media analytics, eg become proficient with the Twitter API: Analyzing social media data can provide insights into your target audience's demographics, interests, and behaviors. This can help you create a product or service that resonates with them. - * Create realistic buyer personas: Being realistic and concrete about creating and refining buyer personas [from your actual interactions with the kinds of buyers you want] will help you better understand your target audience and their needs ... but it's deeply recursive in that your target customer persona depends upon your current interactions. Until you have iteratively made it concrete, a buyer persona is PURELY a fictional representation of your ideal customer, based on limited market research and insufficient data. - * Conduct customer interviews: Conducting interviews with potential customers can provide valuable insights into their needs and pain points. This can help you create a product or service that addresses their needs. - * Use online tools: There are many online tools available that can help you identify your target audience and their needs. For example, Google Trends can help you identify popular search topics, while tools like Ahrefs and SEMrush can help you analyze your website traffic and identify keywords that are relevant to your target audience. - * Attend industry events: Attending industry events can provide valuable insights into your target audience and their needs. You can network with potential customers, attend seminars and workshops, and learn about the latest trends and developments in your industry. - * Join online communities: Joining online communities related to your industry can provide valuable insights into your target audience and their needs. You can participate in discussions, ask questions, and learn from others in the community. - * Use surveys and polls: Surveys and polls can provide valuable insights into your target audience's needs and preferences. You can create surveys using online tools like SurveyMonkey or Google Forms, and share them with your target audience through social media or email. - * Analyze your competition: Analyzing your competition can provide valuable insights into your target audience and their needs. You can look at your competitors' products or services, their marketing strategies, and their customer base to identify gaps in the market that you can fill. - * Use data analytics: Data analytics can provide valuable insights into your target audience and their needs. You can use tools like Google Analytics to analyze your website traffic, identify popular pages and content, and track user behavior. - -* Develop a subscription-based model for your product or service. - - * Identify your target audience: Before developing a subscription-based model, it's essential to identify your target audience. Conduct market research to understand their needs, preferences, and purchasing habits. This will help you create a subscription model that resonates with them. - * Choose a subscription platform: There are several subscription platforms available that can help you manage your subscription-based model. Research and compare different options such as Stripe, PayPal, and SubscribePro to find the one that best suits your needs and budget. - * Define your subscription offerings: Determine what products or services you want to offer through your subscription model. Consider what your target audience needs and how you can provide value to them. You can offer different tiers of subscriptions with varying levels of benefits to cater to different segments of your audience. - * Set pricing strategies: Pricing is a crucial aspect of your subscription model. You need to set prices that are competitive, affordable, and profitable. Consider offering discounts for long-term commitments or bundling products and services to create a more attractive offer. - * Develop a marketing strategy: Create a marketing strategy that targets your identified audience and promotes your subscription model. Utilize social media, email marketing, and content marketing to reach your audience and drive sign-ups. - * Offer a free trial: Offering a free trial is an effective way to encourage people to sign up for your subscription model. It allows them to experience your product or service risk-free and see the value it provides. - * Leverage customer feedback: Encourage customer feedback to improve your subscription model continuously. Collect feedback through surveys, focus groups, and customer support interactions. Use this feedback to refine your offerings and improve customer satisfaction. - * Monitor and analyze performance: Keep track of your subscription model's performance using analytics tools. Monitor metrics such as customer acquisition costs, churn rates, and lifetime value to identify areas for improvement - * Foster a community: Building a community around your subscription model can help create loyalty and encourage customer retention. Create a forum or group where subscribers can interact with each other and your brand. - * Offer exclusive benefits: Offer exclusive benefits to your subscribers to make them feel valued and encourage them to stay subscribed. This could include early access to new products, exclusive content, or discounts on related products and services. - -* Offer a freemium model, where users can access basic features for free, but pay for advanced features. -* Implement a pay-per-use model, where users pay for each transaction or usage. -* Create a marketplace or platform that connects buyers and sellers, and charge a commission on each transaction. -* Offer advertising opportunities to relevant businesses, and charge based on ad placement, views, or clicks. -* Develop a sponsored content model, where businesses pay for content creation and distribution. -* Create a referral program that incentivizes users to invite their friends and family. -* Offer premium features or services for an additional fee. -* Develop a data analytics service that helps businesses make data-driven decisions. -* Create an affiliate program that allows influencers or bloggers to promote your product or service. -* Offer a white-label solution that allows businesses to brand and resell your product or service. -* Develop a training or education program that teaches users a new skill or technology. -* Create a community or forum that offers exclusive content and networking opportunities. -* Offer a consulting or advisory service that helps businesses solve specific problems. -* Develop a software as a service (SaaS) model that charges users a monthly fee. -* Create a mobile app that offers in-app purchases or subscriptions. -* Offer a customer support or service desk solution that helps businesses manage customer inquiries. -* Develop a chatbot or virtual assistant that helps users with common tasks or questions. -* Create a content creation and distribution platform that charges businesses for access to a network of creators. - -Evaluate each of your own riffs/brainstorms of idea based on its feasibility, potential revenue, and alignment with your startup's mission and values. The essence of a warrior is never quitting on the mission ... as an entrepreneur, you will not know your mission until after you create something and start listening to it's crowd -- it's total up to you as the leader to define and refine that mission! - -82) Security adjacent programming (SAP) and infoSec AI ... [NVIDIA Morpheus](https://developer.nvidia.com/morpheus) ... [NVIDIA Launchpad:Build AI-Based Cybersecurity Solutions](https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/launchpad/ai/build-ai-based-cybersecurity-solutions/) ... DevSecOps ... try [Gitlab Ultimate for a month or maybe a full YEAR, if absolutely necessary](https://about.gitlab.com/pricing/feature-comparison/) ... [Prompt Inject is a security vulnerability](https://simonwillison.net/2023/Nov/27/prompt-injection-explained/) ... SAP involves a number of practices, including: - -* Secure coding practices: Following best practices for secure coding, such as using secure libraries, validating user input, and using secure protocols for communication. -* Security testing: Testing software and systems for vulnerabilities and weaknesses, and addressing any issues that are identified. -* Secure design: Designing software and systems with security in mind, including using secure architecture, design patterns, and principles. -* Secure deployment: Ensuring that software and systems are deployed securely, including using secure hosting environments, configuring firewalls and access controls, and implementing encryption. -* Continuous monitoring: Monitoring software and systems for security vulnerabilities and weaknesses, and addressing any issues that are identified. - -83) Read more books ... thriftbooks ... perlego ... scribd ... Kindle, especially Kindle Unlimited ... - -84) Read more preprints ... not just arxiv, but biorxiv, medrxiv, chemrxiv, bioarxiv, chemarxiv, medarxiv, preprints.org, - -85) Follow more people on different PROFESSIONALLY-focused Twitter and LinkedIn accounts ... more = better, but avoid politics like the plague it is ... - -86) Follow BETTER Github, Gitlab accounts ... explore more open source projects, more open source foundations, more open source communities - -87) Follow BETTER Substacks, Mediums, blogs, newsletters - -88) Follow BETTER Youtube channels, but AVOID any sort of political content - -89) Explore the realm of serious, ie edited/reviewed/promoted electronic publishing ... [BioOne](bioone.org), bioonecomplete.org, bioonepublishing.org ... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BioOne - -90) Follow more RSS feeds, master Thunderbird ... but don't stop looking for a better [AI-ified] RSS reader, eg NewsBlur, Feedly, Inoreader, The Old Reader, Netvibes, Feedreader, Flowreader, Feeder, Feedbin, Feedspot, Feedreader Online, Feeds Pub, QuiteRSS, RSS Bandit, NewsFox - -91) Listen to more podcasts and audiobooks ... more audio, less video - -92) Connectedpapers, pubmed, knowledgegraphs and [reference management software](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reference_management_software) - -93) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_academic_databases_and_search_engines - -94) [Shotcrete and related construction methods](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shotcrete) and especially [the durability of shotcrete in cold region tunnel: A review](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0950061818317616) as well as [ACI's guide to shotcrete](https://www.concrete.org/Portals/0/Files/PDF/Previews/506R_16_preview.pdf) to ensure that it's done correctly ... but generally, we should be looking at overhauling our construction methods to capture the [big sustainability advantages of shotcrete](https://shotcrete.org/why-shotcrete/sustainability/) - -95) Čhaŋgléška Wakȟáŋ, the [ethnobotanical garden at SURF](https://sanfordlab.org/garden) which is designed to honor the complicated history of the Black Hills, encourages learning across generations, and supports dialogue and reflection. There are many other ethnobotanical gardens in North America and related landcape architecture and design projects to explore, but it's probably a matter of looking at the major organizations in this domain although those organizations tend to be dominated by aggressive rent-seeking politcos crusading for funding for academic cause ... for example, the [American Botanical Council](https://www.herbalgram.org/resources/related-links-page/databases/) is a non-profit organization that promotes PUBLIC FUNDING OF ethnobotany, herbalism and botanical conservation but really does not provide all that much in the way of information or directories of ethnobotanical gardens [that people can begin to explore from the internet, before mapping out a trip of different gardens] ... at least, the [Botanical Gardens Conservation International (BGCI)](https://tools.bgci.org/garden_search.php) has a searchable directory of botanical gardens and arboretums, including ethnobotanical gardens, in North America ... it might be better just to stick with Wikipedia's listings of [North American Ethnobotany](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Native_American_ethnobotany) and [listing of botanical gardens and arboretums in the United States](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_botanical_gardens_and_arboretums_in_the_United_States) or its larger [listing of botanical gardens around the world](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_botanical_gardens) ... given that camera sensors and video recording and complex editing capablities of the next generation of multimodal Gemini-AI-enabled phones like the [Google Pixel 8 Pro](https://blog.google/products/pixel/google-pixel-8-pro-camera/) is so astounding it would be good to see hundreds or thousands more of [the virtual tours like that offered by United States Botanic Garden](https://www.usbg.gov/visit/tours/take-virtual-tour). - -96) [Northstar performance](https://northstarperformance.com/) V8 upgrades, including a [Stage 4 Package](https://www.northstarperformance.com/stage4package.php) and [dealers/mechanics using Northstar performance parts/kits](https://www.northstarperformance.com/locations.php) including [ServicePlus](https://www.serviceplussd.com/Automotive-Services/cat/engine-repair-and-diagnostics). - -97) - -98) - -99) - -100) - -101) - -102) - -103) - -104) - -105) - -106) - -107) - -108) - -109) - -110) - -111) - -112) - -113) - -114) - -115) - -116) - -117) - -118) - -119) - -120) - -121) - -122) - -123) AUCT.us is accelerated negotiation business development ... a pre-CRM campaign management tool ... look for ways that it compares with and complements [different levels of Hubspot](https://app.hubspot.com/pricing/44575285/suite-starter?upgradeSource=global-nav-bar) as well as the top alternatives to HubSpot: - -* Marketo -* Pardot -* [Salesforce Small Business CRM](https://www.salesforce.com/editions-pricing/small-business/?d=cta-body-promo-587) -* Oracle Marketing Cloud -* Adobe Marketing Cloud -* Microsoft Dynamics 365 Marketing -* SAP Marketing Cloud -* SharpSpring -* Infusionsoft -* Mailchimp -* Constant Contact -* AWeber -* GetResponse -* Campaign Monitor -* Marketing Automation Platform (MAP) -* SalesforceIQ -* [Zoho Marketing Automation](https://www.zoho.com/crm/zohocrm-pricing.html) -* [Freshsales](https://www.freshworks.com/crm/pricing-compare/) -* [PipeDrive](https://www.pipedrive.com/en/pricing) -* Bitrix24 -* CloudCampaign -* Hootsuite: Hootsuite is a popular SMM platform that allows you to manage multiple social media accounts, schedule posts, track engagement, and analyze performance. It also offers features like social listening, influencer identification, and content curation. -* Sprout Social: Sprout Social is an all-in-one SMM platform that offers features like social media management, content creation, scheduling, and analytics. It also offers a suite of tools for social listening, influencer identification, and content curation. -* Agorapulse: Agorapulse is a comprehensive SMM platform that offers features like social media management, content creation, scheduling, and analytics. It also offers features like social listening, influencer identification, and content curation. -* Sendible: Sendible is a SMM platform that allows you to manage multiple social media accounts, schedule posts, track engagement, and analyze performance. It also offers features like social listening, influencer identification, and content curation. -* SocialPilot: SocialPilot is a SMM platform that offers features like social media management, content creation, scheduling, and analytics. It also offers features like social listening, influencer identification, and content curation. -* Buffer: Buffer is a popular SMM platform that allows you to manage multiple social media accounts, schedule posts, track engagement, and analyze performance. It also offers features like social listening, influencer identification, and content curation. -* Mavrck: Mavrck is a SMM platform that offers features like social media management, content creation, scheduling, and analytics. It also offers features like social listening, influencer identification, and content curation. -* Influencer.co: Influencer.co is a SMM platform that offers features like social media management, content creation, scheduling, and analytics. It also offers features like social listening, influencer identification, and content curation. -* Upfluence: Upfluence is a SMM platform that offers features like social media management, content creation, scheduling, and analytics. It also offers features like social listening, influencer identification, and content curation. - -124) Become an Amazon Kindle Unlimited author for syllabi and reading lists ... not exactly like Goodreads, but more about practical education for career self-improvement and professional skills levelling-up learning ... Explore alternatives to [Amazon Kindle Direct [SELF-]Publishing](https://kdp.amazon.com/en_US/bookshelf) such as: - -* CreateSpace - Amazon's self-publishing platform for print books. -* Smashwords - A self-publishing platform that distributes e-books to major retailers. -* Lulu - A self-publishing platform that offers print, e-book, and audiobook distribution. -* IngramSpark - A self-publishing platform that offers print and digital distribution to major retailers. -* Blurb - A self-publishing platform that offers print, e-book, and audiobook distribution. -* BookBaby - A self-publishing platform that offers print, e-book, and audiobook distribution, as well as marketing and promotional services. -* Author Solutions - A self-publishing platform that offers print, e-book, and audiobook distribution, as well as marketing and promotional services. -* Trafford Publishing - A self-publishing platform that offers print and e-book distribution. -* Xlibris - A self-publishing platform that offers print and e-book distribution. -* iUniverse - A self-publishing platform that offers print and e-book distribution. -* AuthorHouse - A self-publishing platform that offers print and e-book distribution. -* Booklocker - A self-publishing platform that offers print and e-book distribution. -* PublishAmerica - A self-publishing platform that offers print and e-book distribution. -* Infinity Publishing - A self-publishing platform that offers print and e-book distribution. -* Dog Ear Publishing - A self-publishing platform that offers print and e-book distribution. -* Outskirts Press - A self-publishing platform that offers print and e-book distribution. -* BookWhirl - A self-publishing platform that offers print and e-book distribution. -* Ingram Content Group - A self-publishing platform that offers print and digital distribution to major retailers. -* Baker & Taylor - A self-publishing platform that offers print and digital distribution to libraries and retailers. -* Follett - A self-publishing platform that offers print and digital distribution to libraries and retailers. - -Of course, this list, like [Wikipedia's entry on self-publishing](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-publishing) is far from being exhaustive and there will always be other alternatives that are being developed. If you want to be serious about content, you will need to ALWAYS BE LOOKING FOR A BETTER GIG ... you need to develop your intelligence gathering operation to research and compare different new self-publishing platforms to find a better one that you are currently aware of and still best suits your needs and goals. - -125) ***REFACTOR AND PACK THIS LIST*** ... to create room for better lists ... because you are going to develop more exploratory / even wilder Brainstorms of Lists ... *which will become packed, dense reading lists* ... in addition to [VENTURES](https://markbruns.github.io/Ventures/) ... which are all really just curated, packed reading lists ... it's all about *IMPROVING* the intelligence gathering of intelligence gathering. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/_posts/2024-01-25-how-we-develop-reading-topics-lists.md b/_posts/2024-01-25-how-we-develop-reading-topics-lists.md deleted file mode 100644 index 8b12002f..00000000 --- a/_posts/2024-01-25-how-we-develop-reading-topics-lists.md +++ /dev/null @@ -1,424 +0,0 @@ ---- -layout: post -title: "Early Topics List and FUTURE Topics List" -date: 2024-01-25 4:30:00 -categories: template ---- - - -This future topics list is a reflection of my participation in [Peter Attia's EarlyMedical program](https://earlymedical.com/lessons/welcome-to-early/#1-5-our-core-frameworks) ... the MAIN EARLY TOPICS topics on our reading list are about the Four Horsemen of Longevity™: COGNITION and neurodegenerative disease, EXERCISE and atherosclerosis leading to cardiovascular and cerebrovascular disease, NUTRITION and improving immunometabolism to overcome metabolic disease and DETOXIFICATION to reduce cancers, viruses and other poisoning facets of our environments. - -As we go along, we can identify other FUTURE TOPICS that might emerge as being of interest or focus for FUTURE reading ... the point of this EARLY Medical journey is to FIRST focus on being informed about the kinds of things that make it more possible that we somehow are able to survive and get further down our Reading Lists. - -# COGNITION ... neurodegenerative diseases such as feeblethink, pessimism, Parkinsons, Alzheimers - -Reading is a cognitive strengthening exercise ... AND it gives us the tools to get further down the list ... the next item our reading list is about EXERCISE, which gives us the health to be able to get to NUTRITION ... so READING, EXERCISE and NUTRITION are first because we have to survive long enough to care about DETOXIFICATION, although it's pretty important too ... but the main PRIORITY [for the Ancient Guy] is on COGNITION and that means READING to inform our exercise and nutrition ... to be healthy enough to have the luxury of worrying about something like cancer. - -We mostly read as a break from work or to changeup the workday -- **we try really hard to DO THINGS based on what our reading has prepared us to do.** - -We might read in the morning, before the sun comes up if we get up early ... which is all about planning our EXERCISE regimen for the day ... and mapping out our NUTRITION or FASTING regimen. **We do not PRIMARILY read for entertainment or relaxation** but we might do that ... for the most part *we read WITH A POINT of working on strengthening our cognitive abilities and to develop new reading methods and AI skillsets.* - -As we go along developing our reading skill set, we aggressively try to level up the skills ... to speedread and to use various technologies and AI tools to improve our ability to curate better lists of content to revisit and to generally read smarter *with serious, critical intention* to improve the tools. Developing the tools of reading is all about cognitive exercise and improving our mental discipline [especially as we age]. Developing new proficiencies with all the tools at our disposal, such as AI listification and annotification means that our whole point of reading shifts from being just about relaxation and traditional study, to being about cognitive health strengthening as we deploy better reading technologies to gathering intelligence about the road ahead. - -We can stress enough that [**using AI tools, curating and annotating reading and the disicplined upgrading of the whole reading skillstack HAS TO BE a lifelong JOURNEY**](https://markbruns.github.io/Listify/) ... the whole point of reading and listification is about improving cognitive health as one ages ... MAYBE it didn't matter when we were younger and just flopped down in the recliner to watch tv rather than think any more about the workday's aggravations, but we really cannot afford to be dipstick teevee watching zombies after we have retired. - -There's a reason why readers become better leaders when they understand why and how leaderships is about intelligence gathering and skills in reading or gathering the necessary background for future situations. - -# EXERCISE - -How do we make exercise NECESSARY? Seriously, HOW? - -No amount of reading about atherosclerosis leading to cardiovascular and cerebrovascular disease is going to change the fact that we need to find a SUSTAINING WHY that drives our desire to exercise. The SUSTAINING WHY is not just innate ... being scared of heart disease is not going to be sufficient to make people exercise. Pretending that it's not necessary to think about the WHY is basically a matter of ignoring the 8 bajillion pound gorilla in the room ... the culture of affluence is largely the culture of cultivate apathy AND suckering people into watching the teevee [or YouTube videos] and making them depressed enough so that they think they can be fulfilled by a new a vehicle or a home or some new gadget. - -A gym or a dojo membership simply will not do it for an Ancient Guy ... we have to find exercise regimens that can sustain themselves ... that's why we look at things like edible landscape architecture, perenniel foodscaping and soil building ... the POINT is not cheap food, the point of edible landscape architecture is exercise. - -How do we make exercise NECESSARY? - -# NUTRITION - -Including fasting/caloric restriction and ketosis but mainly about optimizing diet to enjoy food while building immunometabolism to prevent metabolic diseases that make us less able to fight off infections and other diseases - -Fasting and caloric restriction is PROBABLY our main focus [right now]... this would not need to be everybody's main focus, but more than anything else ... we NEED TO find ways to fast and to do fast-mimicking diets, like OMAD Warrior Diets ... but the big problem with any kind of dietary regimen is that it gets boring and tedious intellectually ... and since human beings are absolute masters when it comes to rationalizing excuses not to stick with plans ... we [retired folk] need to make caloric restriction *interesting* or to find other things that distract us from thinking that there might be something in the refrigerator that we might want to eat. - -# DETOXIFICATION - -Cancer, viruses, parasites, dumbasses, toxins, heavy metals, radiation - -# FUTURE Topic Lists [otherwise known as *rabbitholes*] - -***NOTE: This LIST is NOT EarlyMedical reading stuff ... that's above this in our Four Horsemen of Longevity™ ... atherosclerosis leading to cardiovascular and cerebrovascular disease, cancer, neurodegenerative disease, and metabolic disease ... this is a place for putting all of those things that cross our mind ... and things that we might go back to later.*** - -Our aim with this **FUTURE TOPICS listing*** is to have a GOTO lists for any downtime, or morning-before-we-wakeup, or times-when-we-just-want-relax and to never want have to think about our next list of items to read/annotate ... generally we want to have 250 items on this list, with at least 125 higher ranked more useful topic ideas in the FUTURE TOPICS hopper ... twenty-five or so of this topics will relate to the startups and philanthropic [VENTURES](https://markbruns.github.io/Ventures/) that we curently are tinkering with -- and in that pool of projects, the point is to have five key projects that we touch once a week ... and to have ONE main one that is operational now and that we are most focused on getting right. - -1) Microscopy, lithography, computational lithography - -2) Atomic layer deposition, atomic layer etching, atomic layer epitaxy - -3) Semiconductor manufacturing, semiconductor physics, semiconductor devices - -4) Flowering plants, particularly trees, woody plants, shrubs, vines - -5) Yoga, kinesiology, martial arts, self-defense - -6) Sculpture, particularly optimal landsculpting, particularly parks and green spaces - -7) Prayer, lojong meditation, eliminating cognitive dissonance, improving neurocapacities - -8) Podcastering ... Revoicer, MURF.ai and other AI-generated audio from text ... [REAPER.fm](https://dlz.reaper.fm/userguide/ReaperUserGuide703c.pdf) and others DAWs for audio engineering ... as well as ***monkeying around*** with Canva, GIMP, Inkscape, [Blender 4.0](https://youtu.be/B0J27sf9N1Y?si=686gsE74veOZ1vx_), [Manim](https://docs.manim.community/en/stable/) - -9) Python, python community, developer ecosystems, optimizing the CI/CD process, improving code review, encouraging interaction even geometric frustration - -10) Unix, Linux, Containers, Virtual Machines, Operating Systems, CloudKernel - -11) Physics, quantum physics, quantum computing - -12) Mathematics, especially geometric math, cuLitho, computational lithography - -13) Chemistry, computational chemistry, computational materials science - -14) Meta Open Access, beyond Wikipedia, peer review and wikiculture, [Zenodo](https://zenodo.org/) and research data repositories as well as ML repositories like HuggingFace - -15) TRIZ, ARIZ, technical knowledge-graph problem-solving, invention suggestions based on corpus of patents ... for example, consider DRAIN.tips for with the types of techniquess and tools used by a professional to unclog a clogged sewer drain ... the beauty of AI models is that you can keep asking DETAILED questions, ie the model does not get irritated with all of the questions and demand payment for a service call ... you can START by [diligently asking at least five levels of questions of something like Llama2-70] ... the first answer is not going to be enough; many AI answers will be rather useless, eg try some baking soda, then call a plumber ... even questions about what a plumber does will be extremely vague and worthless ... for instance, a plumber typically uses a variety of specialized tools and equipment to unclog a clogged sewer drain; this is rather obvious, but it is necessary to drill down a few questions further to get to *the point where one can be mildly dangerous*. Some of the most common tools and equipment used by plumbers for the drain unclogging purpose include: - -* Drain cleaning or tree root killing compounds: Drain cleaning chemicals are used to dissolve and break up clogs, but tree root killing compounds are herbicides that will not kill most trees, but will kill roots that have penetrated the sewer lines. These compounds are poured down the drain and allowed to sit for a period of time, days not just hours, before being rinsed away with water jets ... in other words, these compunds are not really the solution, they are the preparation for making other measures possible. - -* Drain snake: A drain snake is a long, flexible rod that is mostly used to quickly explore -- a drain snake will not be sufficient to remove tougher clogs from sewer drains, so many plumbers will not even bother with a snake. The snake is inserted into the drain and manipulated to navigate the twists and turns of the pipe, allowing the plumber to reach and possibly remove the clog, but more likely, the snake will only bring back some evidence of what kind of problem is causing the clog. - -* Drain auger or roto-rooter: A drain auger is a long, flexible rod with a spiral end that is designed to break up and remove clogs. The auger is inserted into the drain and turned clockwise to feed the cable into the pipe, and then counterclockwise to remove any blockages. The auger is then pulled out of the drain, bringing the clog with it ... of course, these augers are really tough to handle and extremely heavy to carry into place, so they are not really the first solution ... unless the plumber has bought a new rotorooter and needs to pay the sonofabitch off. - -* Hydro-jetter: A hydro-jetter is a high-pressure water jet that is used to clear out clogs and buildup from sewer drains. The hydro-jetter uses a combination of pressure and heat in a water jet, usually a high pressure water using a source of extremely hot water from the water heater and a variet of specialized nozzles to break up and remove clogs. The world of sewer jetting fittings is almost large enough to be its own industry ... highly specialized sewer jetting equipment is used by masters of this trade, like DrainAddict, to clear out clogs and buildup from sewer drains. Typically, the higher end of this set up involves a trailer with its own generator specialized mobile high-pressure water jetting pumps along with higher-end optical sewer cams and other inspection aides. - -* Camera inspection equipment: A camera inspection is often used to visually inspect the inside of the sewer drain to determine the location and severity of the clog ... but it is necessary to have to drain somewhat unclogged or charged with clear water or else the inspection line cannot even see what it is causing the clog. The camera is inserted into the drain and provides a live video feed to the plumber, allowing them to assess the situation and determine the best course of action. - -* Pipe bursting equipment is used for really serious clogs ... bursting equipment is used to replace damaged or clogged sewer pipes. The equipment uses a specialized cable to burst the damaged pipe and replace it with a new one ... obviously, this is a last resort and not something that is done lightly, but it is less expensive than digging up the yard and replacing the pipe. - -* Trenchless technology: Trenchless technology such as Insituform is used to repair or replace sewer pipes without digging trenches. The technology uses a specialized camera and equipment to navigate the pipes and repair or replace damaged sections. - - -16) Music, Music AI, Music Metadata - -17) Ollam.ai and alternatives for natural language processing tasks such as: spaCY, NLTK, TextBlob, TensorFlow, HuggingFace Transformers, Amazon Comprehend, Google Cloud Natural Language API - -18) Our hero builds, uses and refines [his new AI applications which are built with AI](https://partyrock.aws/u/MarkBruns/IKKJt96W8/Daily-Wellness-Guide) - -19) Future HEDT sandbox configuration: [directly integrated HBM4 GPU memory](https://www.tomshardware.com/news/sk-hynix-plans-to-stack-hbm4-directly-on-logic-processors), [double data rate synchronoous dynamic random-access memory (DDR SDRAM)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DDR_SDRAM) and the [JEDEC memory specifications](https://www.jedec.org/category/technology-focus-area/main-memory-ddr3-ddr4-sdram), NVME flash drives for High-Throughput Generative Inference for LLMs with Multiples GPUs ... the [secret sauce is PagedAttention](https://blog.vllm.ai/2023/06/20/vllm.html) - -20) [JAX](https://jax.readthedocs.io/en/latest/notebooks/quickstart.html) is NumPy on the CPU, GPU, and TPU, with great automatic differentiation for high-performance machine learning research. What’s new is that JAX uses [XLA, the TF Accelerated Linear Algebra compiler](https://www.tensorflow.org/xla) to compile and run your NumPy code on accelerators, like GPUs and TPUs. - -21) [WasmEdge](https://wasmedge.org/docs/) and [TinyLlama](https://github.com/jzhang38/TinyLlama) ... including the use of [crun](https://github.com/containers/crun), [youki](https://github.com/containers/youki), [gVisor](https://gvisor.dev/), [Kata Containers](https://katacontainers.io/) and similar approaches to achieve faster, more secure, smaller footprint, lower-memory requirement [OCI Runtime](https://opencontainers.org/posts/blog/2023-07-21-oci-runtime-spec-v1-1/) containerized resources for edge computing. - -22) [The last week or so's worth of Arxiv pre-print abstracts in Machine Learning](https://arxiv.org/search/advanced?advanced=&terms-0-operator=AND&terms-0-term=cs.LG&terms-0-field=all&terms-1-operator=AND&terms-1-term=&terms-1-field=title&classification-physics_archives=all&classification-include_cross_list=include&date-filter_by=past_12&date-year=&date-from_date=&date-to_date=&date-date_type=submitted_date&abstracts=show&size=200&order=-announced_date_first) ... the current rate of new papers is about 42,000 per year or 800 per week. - -23) [Methods of information geometry](https://www.ams.org/books/mmono/191/mmono191-endmatter.pdf) including things lie the [Fisher information](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fisher_information) carried in an observable random variable about an unknown parameter and how the [Cramér–Rao bound(CRB)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cram%C3%A9r%E2%80%93Rao_bound) or the [Hammersley-Chapman–Robbins lower bound](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chapman%E2%80%93Robbins_bound) used to bound the variance of biased estimators of a given biased. - -24) [The last week or so's worth of Arxiv preprint abstracts on Condensed Matter Physics](https://arxiv.org/search/advanced?advanced=&terms-0-operator=AND&terms-0-term=phase+transitions&terms-0-field=title&classification-physics=y&classification-physics_archives=cond-mat&classification-include_cross_list=include&date-filter_by=past_12&date-year=&date-from_date=&date-to_date=&date-date_type=submitted_date&abstracts=show&size=200&order=-announced_date_first) with an emphasis on [phase transitions](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phase_transition) and a particular emphasis on [geometric frustration](https://arxiv.org/search/advanced?advanced=&terms-0-operator=AND&terms-0-term=geometrical+frustration&terms-0-field=title&classification-physics=y&classification-physics_archives=cond-mat&classification-include_cross_list=include&date-filter_by=all_dates&date-year=&date-from_date=&date-to_date=&date-date_type=submitted_date&abstracts=show&size=200&order=-announced_date_first) - -25) The [pattern of frustration formation in the functional brain network](https://direct.mit.edu/netn/article/6/4/1334/112207/Pattern-of-frustration-formation-in-the-functional) and our [requirement to change of functional brain network across the lifespan](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34793536/) and the [dynamics of the process of cognitive dissonance removal](https://www.connectedpapers.com/main/40acbf791850dc0fc1a2ff04670ef86e20ee95a8/Lifetime-of-links-influences-the-evolution-towards-structural-balance/graph), ie "How can we learn faster?". - -26) Develop the requirements for an EDA design-for-mfg toolchain architecture for going beyond [design-to-tape-out for 180nm CMOS -integrated circuit fabrication technology](https://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/1908/1908.10674.pdf) or simply [integrating GPU & memory semiconductors into a single package](https://wccftech-com.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/wccftech.com/sk-hynix-plans-on-integrating-gpu-memory-semiconductors-into-a-single-package-defying-industry-trends/amp/) which would involve looking at [how GPUs might be made better](https://www.techradar.com/news/computing-components/graphics-cards/how-gpus-are-made-1000923) including an iterative design process which would include cycling through several layers which might be something like: 1) high level design, 2) floorplan and netlist, 3) circuit verification and emulation, 4) mask making, 5) photolithography, 6) several different processes to deposit and etch which produces the patterned oxide layers for the foundation, 7) several different chemical and plasma vapor deposition sub-processes to create the n-channel MOSFETs, p-channel MOSFETs and any other transistor-like components, 8) connecting everything in several sub-processes of deposition, etching, electoplating and chemical-mechanical polishing 9) design for testing including optical image recognition for proper registration to complete wafer probing as well as he potential for minor rework for yield improvement, 10) packaging and thermal optimization - -27) [Generic Mapping Tools(GMT)](https://docs.generic-mapping-tools.org/latest/) - -28) [Alliance/Coriolis](https://github.com/lip6/coriolis),[Electric](https://www.gnu.org/software/electric/), [Glade (Gds, Lef And Def Editor)](https://peardrop.co.uk/) vs the [universe of alternatives](https://www.engineersgarage.com/top-eda-tools-vlsi-design/) for producing/documenting a manufacturable heterogeneous SoC high level design or at least an outline of a product requirement specification ... to be fleshed out with tools like ... [Synopsis Cloud](https://www.synopsys.com/cloud.html), [Cadence Virtuso Heterogeneous Integration](https://www.cadence.com/en_US/home/tools/custom-ic-analog-rf-design/virtuoso-studio/heterogeneous-integration.html), [Siemens EDA [Mentor Graphics]](https://eda.sw.siemens.com/en-US/ic/), [Silvaco TCAD](https://silvaco.com/tcad/) - -29) Key benefits of advanced nuclear reactors ... I try to keep an open mind on these things, but I am not at all convinced that [advanced small modular nukes](https://www.energy.gov/ne/articles/4-key-benefits-advanced-small-modular-reactors) are strictly a good thing since economies of scale are a very huge, very real and inescapable thermodynamic thing in power generation ... decentralized power generation is not good just because it happens to be a current political fad and people are [temporarily] way too excited about decentralized things ... sometimes, as with power generation in particular, centralization is a VERY VERY positive attribute. - -30) [Preevy](https://preevy.dev/) and [Lifecycle](https://docs.livecycle.io/Livecycle%20Overview) ... or [Vercel](https://vercel.com/docs/deployments/preview-deployments) or [Netlify](https://docs.netlify.com/site-deploys/deploy-previews/) or [Ngrok](https://ngrok.com/docs/what-is-ngrok/) ... along with something like the [Prometheus](https://prometheus.io/docs/introduction/overview/#architecture) to scrape metrics from instrumented jobs. It's all part of code review, preview and, to some degree, product test environments for observability of containers and CI/CD development workflow - -31) [Xilinx design tools](https://www.xilinx.com/products/design-tools.html) ... along with AMD's RadeonOpenCompute [ROCm open-source stack for graphics processing unit (GPU) computation](https://rocm.docs.amd.com/en/latest/rocm.html) ... and, not just hardware, but also understanding the [ROCm [Software] Developer Tools](https://github.com/ROCm-Developer-Tools) especially the lower-level [kernel language [of C++ functions] and conceptual programming model of HIP: C++ Heterogeneous-Compute Interface for Portability](https://rocm.docs.amd.com/projects/HIP/en/latest/reference/kernel_language.html) which is intended to be analogous to the [CUDA® C++ general purpose parallel computing platform and program model](https://docs.nvidia.com/cuda/cuda-c-programming-guide/index.html#cuda-a-general-purpose-parallel-computing-platform-and-programming-model) to exploit [Unified Memory Programming](https://docs.nvidia.com/cuda/cuda-c-programming-guide/index.html#unified-memory-programming) in order to be able to tap the massively parallel nature of GPUs and achieve far higher performance than what is even theoretically possible on an advanced CPU. - -32) [JEDEC Committees](https://www.jedec.org/committees) and other means of engaging with professional communities - -33) [Keep up with the PyTorch blog](https://pytorch.org/blog/), follow the [best curated PyTorch list](https://github.com/ritchieng/the-incredible-pytorch) and personally [annotate your own PyTorch list](https://github.com/BrunoScience/the-incredible-pytorch) - -34) Not just prediction markets for politics ... but risk mgmt and microinsurance ... what's the best probabalistic outcome and how can we eliminate or mitigate the failure modes that threaten achievement of that outcome - -35) How should anyone go about the process of trying stay fit? It's primarily a MENTAL exercise augmented with AI for the tedious processes of keeping up with the literature ... but, realistically, it has to be much more practical, much more immediate and an exercise in serious moment-by-moment mindfulness which inevitably involves a physical exercise component and as well as a nutritional component. - -36) How can one optimize one's Github engagement? ... beyond just commitgraph ... actions for build/review/test during dev ... copilot ... discussions ... issues-driven CI/CD ... better commit messages and Git discipline... become the best Github advertisement for everything Github - -37) Remote work, asynch.work, ENGR.co client services, API data access connection, manipulators, system integration, project management, verification/validation ... get your assets ready ... attracting and outreach is huge part of it, but you need to think with the end in mind, ie how do you close deals and monetize? - -38) Universal Scene Description, [Blender 4.0 with Omniverse Connect](https://docs.omniverse.nvidia.com/connect/latest/blender/release-notes.html#usd-201-1), [Revit with Omniverse Connect](https://docs.omniverse.nvidia.com/connect/latest/revit.html) or maybe even [Autodesk Architecture, Engineering and Construction Collection](https://www.autodesk.com/collections/architecture-engineering-construction/overview?term=1&tab=subscription&plc=AECCOL) ... - -39) Tailscale and VPN workflows, DNS, Bind - -40) LIDAR scan data, using smartphone video to develop digital twins - -41) [Oculus Quest 2](https://www.amazon.com/Oculus-Quest-Advanced-All-One-Virtual/dp/B09B8DQ26F/) for martial arts, yoga, tai chi and flexibility training ... practicing martial arts moves, visualizing an opponent, shadow boxing strikes, kicks, and footwork ... maybe boxing games like “Thrill of the Fight” or “Creed: Rise to Glory” to provide a virtual sparring experience and help improve your reflexes and stamina ... fitness apps and guided yoga sessions with virtual instructors to focus on proper form and technique in immersive environments ... emphasizing balance, alignment, breathing exercises with Quest 2 to work on balance poses (e.g., tree pose, warrior pose) while maintaining proper form.... slow, flowing movement in old school martial arts like tai chi, using Quest 2 to practice fluid motions ... warm up/cool down with dynamic stretches in VR ... explore VR experiences that align with goals, practicing katas, holding a warrior pose, enhancing the mind-body connection. - -42) Help [FreeCAD](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FreeCAD) ... ENGR.co/sktch.us ... in order to develop a Python scripting library [which probably depends upon CUDA/ROCm and C++ geometric primitives for coding the function sciptlets] ... the ultimate point is about an add-on to Blender which furnishes the constraints and parametric entities for actually converting a sketch into simulatable Universal Scene Description for CFM/FEA modeling or manufacturable dimensioned and toleranced 3D model with material properties. - -43) Participate in the ***larger*** [FreeCAD development cycle](https://wiki.freecad.org/FreeCAD_1.0_Development_Cycle) especially [OCCT development](https://dev.opencascade.org/) and the [collection of C++ libraries and resources](https://dev.opencascade.org/doc/overview/html/index.html#intro_overview) upon which [OpenCASCADE Technology](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_Cascade_Technology) is based ... in the *larger* dev sense, this means following/understandings developments and future needs of things like the [KiCAD EDA tool](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KiCad) which uses OCCT. - -44) Using [Fermyon Development](https://developer.fermyon.com/) ... or perhaps roll my own [WASM runtime](https://github.com/appcypher/awesome-wasm-runtimes) with something like [Docker+WasmEdge](https://www.docker.com/blog/build-share-run-webassembly-apps-docker/) or [WasmTime](https://docs.wasmtime.dev/) or a maybe a brand new riff on [IceCore](https://github.com/losfair/IceCore) or some other approach to building an [application container for WebAssembly](https://medium.com/webassembly/webassembly-docker-container-c0fce9a30fb1) ... the point is to get a specifically optimized WASM engine for a LIGHTWEIGHT parametric CAD sketch web app to develop a basic entity for use with FreeCAD, Solidworks or Revit ... the sketch app should be extremely lightweight, but include some sort of AIified or cognitive searchable Git-based version controlled model database for standard modeling components, ie BECAUSE SOMEWHERE OUT THERE SOMEWHERE ELSE ON THE PLANET SOMEBODY ELSE HAS BUILT A **STANDARD** COMPONENT FOR almost exactly THIS PURPOSE. - -45) Examples of interfaces between WASM and SLURM to allow users developers to [run WASM-compiled code on HPC clusters](https://next.redhat.com/2023/02/01/running-webassembly-workloads-on-container-runtimes/) managed by SLURM or some other interace ... the WASM-SLURM interface is for compiling and running WASM code on SLURM clusters, and includes features like job scheduling, resource management, and output handling ... slurm-wasm, a SLURM plugin that enables the execution of WASM-compiled code on SLURM clusters, provides a set of APIs for submitting WASM jobs, monitoring their progress, and retrieving output ... wasm-hpc, a library that provides a set of tools and APIs for running WASM-compiled code on HPC clusters, includes support for SLURM, as well as other job schedulers like PBS and LSF ... [MicroShift](https://github.com/openshift/microshift#user-documentation), a K8s cluster interface optimized for edge computing - -46) [Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG)](https://docs.nvidia.com/ai-enterprise/workflows-generative-ai/0.1.0/technical-brief.html) and [accelerating ML vector search](https://developer.nvidia.com/blog/accelerating-vector-search-using-gpu-powered-indexes-with-rapids-raft/) with [RAPIDS RAFT](https://docs.rapids.ai/api/raft/nightly/) using using [an ANN algorithm based upon an inverted file index (IVF) with unmodified flat vectors](https://developer.nvidia.com/blog/accelerated-vector-search-approximating-with-rapids-raft-ivf-flat/). - -47) [i7-12650H](https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/products/sku/226066/intel-core-i712650h-processor-24m-cache-up-to-4-70-ghz/specifications.html?wapkw=i7-12650H), [12th Generation Intel® Core™ Processor documents](https://edc.intel.com/content/www/us/en/design/ipla/software-development-platforms/client/platforms/alder-lake-desktop/682436/) and [manuals describing the architecture and programming environment of the Intel® 64 and IA-32 architectures.](https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/developer/articles/technical/intel-sdm.html) - -48) Google Compute - -49) Microsoft Azure - -50) Amazon Web Services - -51) CoreWeave - -52) Gradient - -53) Lambda Labs - -54) VAST.ai - -55) IBM Cloud: IBM Cloud offers a range of cloud computing services, including computing, storage, and networking. It also provides AI and machine learning services, as well as a serverless computing platform called IBM Cloud Functions. - -56) Oracle Cloud: Oracle Cloud offers a range of cloud computing services, including computing, storage, and networking. It also provides AI and machine learning services, as well as a serverless computing platform called Oracle Cloud Functions. - -57) Rackspace: Rackspace is a managed cloud services provider that offers a range of cloud computing services, including computing, storage, and networking. It also provides AI and machine learning services, as well as a serverless computing platform called Rackspace Cloud Functions. - -58) Salesforce: Salesforce is a cloud-based customer relationship management (CRM) platform that also offers a range of other cloud computing services, including computing, storage, and networking. It also provides AI and machine learning services, as well as a serverless computing platform called Salesforce Cloud Functions. - -59) Alibaba Cloud: Alibaba Cloud is a cloud computing platform that offers a range of services, including computing, storage, and networking. It also provides AI and machine learning services, as well as a serverless computing platform called Alibaba Cloud Functions. - -60) Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) Cloud: HPE Cloud is a cloud computing platform that offers a range of services, including computing, storage, and networking. It also provides AI and machine learning services, as well as a serverless computing platform called HPE Cloud Functions. - -61) Nutanix: Nutanix is a cloud computing platform that offers a range of services, including computing, storage, and networking. It also provides AI and machine learning services, as well as a serverless computing platform called Nutanix Cloud Functions. - -62) VMware: VMware is a cloud computing platform that offers a range of services, including computing, storage, and networking. It also provides AI and machine learning services, as well as a serverless computing platform called VMware Cloud Functions. - -63) DigitalOcean: DigitalOcean is a cloud computing platform that offers a range of services, including computing, storage, and networking. It also provides AI and machine learning services, as well as a serverless computing platform called DigitalOcean Cloud Functions. - -64) Linode: Linode is a cloud computing platform that offers a range of services, including computing, storage, and networking. It also provides AI and machine learning services, as well as a serverless computing platform called Linode Cloud Functions. - -65) OVHcloud: OVHcloud is a cloud computing platform that offers a range of services, including computing, storage, and networking. It also provides AI and machine learning services, as well as a serverless computing platform called OVHcloud Cloud Functions. - -66) Vultr: Vultr is a cloud computing platform that offers a range of services, including computing, storage, and networking. It also provides AI and machine learning services, as well as a serverless computing platform called Vultr Cloud Functions. - -67) Scaleway: Scaleway is a cloud computing platform that offers a range of services, including computing, storage, and networking. It also provides AI and machine learning services, as well as a serverless computing platform called Scaleway Cloud Functions. - -68) cloud.ca: cloud.ca is a cloud computing platform that offers a range of services, including computing, storage, and networking. It also provides AI and machine learning services, as well as a serverless computing platform called cloud.ca Cloud Functions. - -69) UpCloud: UpCloud is a cloud computing platform that offers a range of services, including computing, storage, and networking. It also provides AI and machine learning services, as well as a serverless computing platform called UpCloud Cloud Functions. - -70) Hetzner Cloud: Hetzner Cloud is a cloud computing platform that offers a range of services, including computing, storage, and networking. It also provides AI and machine learning services, as well as a serverless computing platform called Hetzner Cloud Functions. - -71) Contabo: Contabo is a cloud computing platform that offers a range of services, including computing, storage, and networking. It also provides AI and machine learning services, as well as a serverless computing platform called Contabo Cloud Functions. - -72) [Various news in the world of Free and Open Source Silicon (FOSSi)](https://fossi-foundation.org/news) ... [Tiny Tapeout](https://tinytapeout.com/) ... [Google's OpenMPW program](https://developers.google.com/silicon) and its [XLS: Accelerated HW Synthesis toolchain](https://google.github.io/xls/) ... [Qflow open circuit EDA design tools](http://opencircuitdesign.com/qflow/) ... the [qflow open source ASIC EDA dev community](https://github.com/RTimothyEdwards/qflow) ... [OpenLane](https://github.com/The-OpenROAD-Project/OpenLane) ... [OpenROAD open source EDA project](https://theopenroadproject.org/), [the UC SantaCruz VLSI Design and Automation Lab](https://vlsida.github.io/)'s [OpenRAM Python framework for a static random access memory compiler for SRAMs in ASIC design](https://github.com/VLSIDA/OpenRAM) ... [Skywater-PDK](https://skywater-pdk.readthedocs.io/en/main/) ... [the FreePDK process design kit, an open-source, Open-Access-based PDK for the 45nm technology node and the Predictive Technology Model](https://eda.ncsu.edu/freepdk/) ... [Chipyard open-source integrated system-on-chip (SoC) design, simulation, and implementation environment for specialized RISC-V compute systems](https://github.com/ucb-bar/chipyard) ... as well as the [Caravel harness SOC](https://caravel-harness.readthedocs.io/en/latest/) from [efabless](https://efabless.com/) - -73) [Omniverse Nucleus](https://docs.omniverse.nvidia.com/nucleus/latest/index.html) and other multi-GPU, multi-machine, multi-GPU, multi-user frameworks which offer a similar [database and collaborative engine microservices connector archictecture](https://docs.omniverse.nvidia.com/nucleus/latest/architecture.html) with [observability and monitoring plumbing](https://docs.omniverse.nvidia.com/nucleus/latest/enterprise/monitoring.html) engineered into an [moduluar development platflom for building 3D workflows, tools, applications and services](https://developer.nvidia.com/omniverse) like [OpenUSD](https://github.com/PixarAnimationStudios/OpenUSD) and the [USD Working Group](https://wiki.aswf.io/display/WGUSD/USD+Working+Group)'s [projects and resources relating to USD](https://wiki.aswf.io/display/WGUSD/Index) ... to understand what is going on behind Omniverse Nucleus, it is essential to understand the [overall USD purpose and architecture](https://openusd.org/release/api/_usd__overview_and_purpose.html). - -74) Optical Metrology and Photogrammetry ... especially for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles(UAVs) or cameras mounted drones or balloons ... [OpenDroneMap](https://www.opendronemap.org/) and [OpenDroneMap Docker](https://hub.docker.com/r/opendronemap/opendronemap) ... [OpenDroneMap on Github](https://github.com/OpenDroneMap) ...[Geo for All](http://www.agt.bme.hu/osgeolab/index.php?page=start&lang=en) ... [International Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing](https://www.isprs.org/) ... [GEO Week](https://www.geo-week.com/) ... the [ASPRS Community](https://community.asprs.org/home) and terminology and concepts of [Edition 2 of Positional Accuracy Standards for Digital Geospatial Data](https://aagsmo.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/ASPRS_PosAcc_Edition2_MainBody.pdf) such as *three-dimensional positional accuracy* - -75) The architecture of the [IoT data model in Omniverse](https://github.com/NVIDIA-Omniverse/iot-samples), allowing for a data driven approach and separation of concerns that is ***similar to*** [but not exactly equivalent to] a [Model/View/Controller (MVC) design pattern](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Model%E2%80%93view%E2%80%93controller) which could be implemented with an approach that is like [Blazor WASM](https://dev.to/jamattey/what-is-blazor-wasm-4n8) to reuse code components in different environments, ie with Omniverse Nucleus running as a server for an Omniverse Workstation-like environment for everything that Nucleus brings to the table and a much lighter-weight less-connected environment without the Omniverse Nucleus for primarily just looking at the data without connecting to and updating the Nucleus USD database ... for use cases like optical image capture in maps/geo, medical imaging, computervision/robotics, driverless vehicles, industrial automation, smart cities, smart buildings, smart factories, smart grids, smart homes, smart retail, smart transportation, smart utilities ...the further universe of smart everything, smart wearables, smart agriculture, smart logistics, smart supply chain, smart security, smart surveillance, smart energy, smart water, smart waste management, smart lighting, smart parking, smart street lighting, smart traffic management, smart metering, smart sensors, smart devices, smart appliances, smart locks, smart thermostats, smart doorbells, smart cameras, smart speakers, smart displays, smart TVs, smart refrigerators, smart washing machines, smart dryers, smart dishwashers, smart ovens, smart microwaves, smart vacuums, smart air purifiers, smart air conditioners, smart fans, smart heaters, smart humidifiers, smart dehumidifiers, smart water heaters, smart water purifiers, smart water softeners ... - -76) [Omniverse Kit](https://docs.omniverse.nvidia.com/kit/docs/kit-manual/latest/guide/kit_overview.html) aims to be extremely modular: ***everything*** is an extension. [NVIDIA Modulus](https://developer.nvidia.com/modulus) is a modular framework for building building, training, and fine-tuning Physics-ML models with a simple Python interface ... *as* extensions. - -77) [Open Microscopy Environment(OME)](https://github.com/ome/openmicroscopy) and [OME Remote Objects (OMERO)](https://omero.readthedocs.io/en/stable/users/index.html) including how [Bio-Formats library for reading and writing life science image file formats](https://bio-formats.readthedocs.io/en/v7.0.1/about/index.html) processes metadata, and provides other useful information such as version history and how to report bugs and annotate files ... as we can see by looking through the [Eliceiri Laboratory for Optical and Computational Instrumentation](https://loci.wisc.edu/) [materials on Github](https://github.com/uw-loci), open microscopy is really about deeping the commitment to open source and open access in science and moving beyond just open access and open results toward a *almost radically* [much more open, continual, long-term process](https://uw-loci.github.io/oss) of collaborative exploration in the virtual laboratory ... achieving scientific interoperability is like software interoperability, in that it depends upon the adoption, reuse and (as best practices and de facto standards emerge) the exacting definition of [software] standards to obtains those [benefits we associate with standard in all things](https://www.din.de/en/about-standards) to promote greater efficiency, more correct levels of trust and knowledge for much higher levels of real safety [as opposed to the false promise of regulatory safety]. - -78) [Algebraic Multigrid Solver (AmgX) Library](https://github.com/NVIDIA/AMGX) ... [computational fluid dynamics](https://developer.nvidia.com/blog/amgx-multi-grid-accelerated-linear-solvers-industrial-applications/) for thermochemical decomposition of anisotropic materials by AdvancedPyrolytics ... [OpenFOAM open source OpenCFD](https://www.openfoam.com/) ... [OpenFOAM on Gitlab](https://gitlab.com/openfoam) ... [OpenFOAM issues](https://develop.openfoam.com/Development/openfoam/-/issues) - -79) [GH200 server nodes are connected with an NVLink passive copper cable cartridge](https://developer.nvidia.com/blog/one-giant-superchip-for-llms-recommenders-and-gnns-introducing-nvidia-gh200-nvl32/) to enable each Hopper GPU to access the memory of any other Grace Hopper Superchip in the network, providing 32 x 624 GB, or 19.5 TB of NVLink addressable memory ... the CPU to GPU memory interconnect for NVLink is now 900 GB/s, which is [at least 7x faster than the 128 GB/s maximum bidirectiional bandwidth of 16 lane PCIe Gen 5](https://www.howtogeek.com/823732/what-is-pcie-5/). It's sort of important to understand how MUCH faster the NVLink GPUs will be than any found in a PCIe-based interconnection in a home lab or ML cluster which would typically use by something like an Oculink card. Although, PCIe Gen 5.0 is not too shabby compared to the alternative, because it is double the possible 16 GB/s of multilane PCIe Gen 4.0 ... a multi-lane PCIe throughput would deliver higher than the current 25 GB/s possible transmission rate of the [Oculink, "optical copper link" cable](https://www.howtogeek.com/what-is-oculink/) ... way faster than Thunderbolt 4 which caps out at around 5 GB/s or less ... EXCEPT that Oculink card is only going to use ONE lane, so that optical copper link cable will not be the bottleneck ... but [PCIe 6.0 is coming and I/O bandwidth in even little home lab mini-PCs is going to be a lot faster than it is now](https://www.howtogeek.com/786991/pcie-6.0-whats-new-and-when-can-you-get-it/) ... fueled by money that will be spend for remote work and computing workloads on HEDT systems for machine learning, we will likely see [I/O bandwidth double every three years or so](https://www.tomshardware.com/news/pcie-60-spec-reaches-final-draft-milestone) to spur turnover and upgrading for new HEDT systems, so expect that PCIe 6.0 and then PCIe 7.0 will be available and will be a lot faster than the 128 possible GB/s of PCIe 5.0 ... but, for the foreseeable future, the NVLink interconnects available in edgey cloud compute services is the fastest thing going. - -80) Brainstorming the MONETIZATION of bootstrapping of a new venture ... how does the bootstrapped venture pay for itself: #1 ideas are free; use the free stuff first -- anything that you add to a URL or location on the internet has to generate revenue ... but an accelerated negotiation requires gathering a crowd of interested parties -- so build that crowd, build word-of-mouth or linksharing but generating crowdliness is about leading the rabble to become a quasi-coherent crowd and listening to the crowd, really *using* the crowd to fund things that improve life for the crowd and generally make the crowd better for members of the crowd ... so it's ideas, ideas, ideas -- but mostly the ideas have to come from the crowd ... the better quality new ideas and refinement of ideas will come as you are grinding on execution of ideas ... diligently put into action even though they appear to be unsuccessful, ie most of the value is in what lessons you are learning ... keep your costs low and then lower them more ... it's going to be tougher than you think, so be prepare yourself for grinding on the grind ... eventually set up an auction and sell out, but retain ownership and continue to be part of the idea or hold it hostage until someone pays you to go away ... the point is to BE the grinder, the kind of leader who leads from the front - -81) Startupcook ... MVP and Lean Enterprise ... stick with that minimum and polish it ... build the braintrust from the EARS and EYES ... gather information; then improve the gathering of information ... process the information into knowledge and share that knowledge in order to build the braintrust ... the braintrust is the most valuable thing ... the braintrust is the thing that is monetized ... the braintrust is the thing that is sold ... the braintrust is the thing that is the product ... the braintrust is the thing that is the service ... the braintrust is the thing that adds and polishes the value ... the braintrust is the thing that defines the value proposition ... the braintrust is the thing that directs the monetization in a way that adds the most value to the participants of the crowd supporting the lean enterprise -- but in the end, all value created has to be invested in better intelligence gathering, information processing and knowledge sharing ... ultimately, the cashout plan is about putting together a CSOP, a customer-driven stock ownership plan ... the investors have to be evangelists for the crowd ... we asked the [Llama 2 70B playground to furnish ideas for monetizing a startup](https://catalog.ngc.nvidia.com/orgs/nvidia/teams/ai-foundation/models/llama2-70b) ... we then followed up with a question "What are ten different ways learn about X" ... we keep following up with questions and our own noodling around ... it's daunting, but fishing's all about getting your *lines in the water and* ***watching your bobber***, then refining the approach to putting something into practice and then polishing the things that work and polishing more, while continuing to put new lines in the water ... it's daunting ... in other words, while these ideas that AI model like Llama can give you are not exactly bad -- they're just trite and easy ... each one needs the kind of further HARD clarification and expansion that only can come from lean implementation, ie *doing it smart, but using the* ***extra cheap*** *ways and free stuff first.* - -* Identify your target audience and their needs, then create a product or service that addresses those needs. - - * Conduct market research: Conducting market research can help you identify your target audience and their needs. This can include surveys, focus groups, and interviews with potential customers. - * Use social media analytics, eg become proficient with the Twitter API: Analyzing social media data can provide insights into your target audience's demographics, interests, and behaviors. This can help you create a product or service that resonates with them. - * Create realistic buyer personas: Being realistic and concrete about creating and refining buyer personas [from your actual interactions with the kinds of buyers you want] will help you better understand your target audience and their needs ... but it's deeply recursive in that your target customer persona depends upon your current interactions. Until you have iteratively made it concrete, a buyer persona is PURELY a fictional representation of your ideal customer, based on limited market research and insufficient data. - * Conduct customer interviews: Conducting interviews with potential customers can provide valuable insights into their needs and pain points. This can help you create a product or service that addresses their needs. - * Use online tools: There are many online tools available that can help you identify your target audience and their needs. For example, Google Trends can help you identify popular search topics, while tools like Ahrefs and SEMrush can help you analyze your website traffic and identify keywords that are relevant to your target audience. - * Attend industry events: Attending industry events can provide valuable insights into your target audience and their needs. You can network with potential customers, attend seminars and workshops, and learn about the latest trends and developments in your industry. - * Join online communities: Joining online communities related to your industry can provide valuable insights into your target audience and their needs. You can participate in discussions, ask questions, and learn from others in the community. - * Use surveys and polls: Surveys and polls can provide valuable insights into your target audience's needs and preferences. You can create surveys using online tools like SurveyMonkey or Google Forms, and share them with your target audience through social media or email. - * Analyze your competition: Analyzing your competition can provide valuable insights into your target audience and their needs. You can look at your competitors' products or services, their marketing strategies, and their customer base to identify gaps in the market that you can fill. - * Use data analytics: Data analytics can provide valuable insights into your target audience and their needs. You can use tools like Google Analytics to analyze your website traffic, identify popular pages and content, and track user behavior. - -* Develop a subscription-based model for your product or service. - - * Identify your target audience: Before developing a subscription-based model, it's essential to identify your target audience. Conduct market research to understand their needs, preferences, and purchasing habits. This will help you create a subscription model that resonates with them. - * Choose a subscription platform: There are several subscription platforms available that can help you manage your subscription-based model. Research and compare different options such as Stripe, PayPal, and SubscribePro to find the one that best suits your needs and budget. - * Define your subscription offerings: Determine what products or services you want to offer through your subscription model. Consider what your target audience needs and how you can provide value to them. You can offer different tiers of subscriptions with varying levels of benefits to cater to different segments of your audience. - * Set pricing strategies: Pricing is a crucial aspect of your subscription model. You need to set prices that are competitive, affordable, and profitable. Consider offering discounts for long-term commitments or bundling products and services to create a more attractive offer. - * Develop a marketing strategy: Create a marketing strategy that targets your identified audience and promotes your subscription model. Utilize social media, email marketing, and content marketing to reach your audience and drive sign-ups. - * Offer a free trial: Offering a free trial is an effective way to encourage people to sign up for your subscription model. It allows them to experience your product or service risk-free and see the value it provides. - * Leverage customer feedback: Encourage customer feedback to improve your subscription model continuously. Collect feedback through surveys, focus groups, and customer support interactions. Use this feedback to refine your offerings and improve customer satisfaction. - * Monitor and analyze performance: Keep track of your subscription model's performance using analytics tools. Monitor metrics such as customer acquisition costs, churn rates, and lifetime value to identify areas for improvement - * Foster a community: Building a community around your subscription model can help create loyalty and encourage customer retention. Create a forum or group where subscribers can interact with each other and your brand. - * Offer exclusive benefits: Offer exclusive benefits to your subscribers to make them feel valued and encourage them to stay subscribed. This could include early access to new products, exclusive content, or discounts on related products and services. - -* Offer a freemium model, where users can access basic features for free, but pay for advanced features. -* Implement a pay-per-use model, where users pay for each transaction or usage. -* Create a marketplace or platform that connects buyers and sellers, and charge a commission on each transaction. -* Offer advertising opportunities to relevant businesses, and charge based on ad placement, views, or clicks. -* Develop a sponsored content model, where businesses pay for content creation and distribution. -* Create a referral program that incentivizes users to invite their friends and family. -* Offer premium features or services for an additional fee. -* Develop a data analytics service that helps businesses make data-driven decisions. -* Create an affiliate program that allows influencers or bloggers to promote your product or service. -* Offer a white-label solution that allows businesses to brand and resell your product or service. -* Develop a training or education program that teaches users a new skill or technology. -* Create a community or forum that offers exclusive content and networking opportunities. -* Offer a consulting or advisory service that helps businesses solve specific problems. -* Develop a software as a service (SaaS) model that charges users a monthly fee. -* Create a mobile app that offers in-app purchases or subscriptions. -* Offer a customer support or service desk solution that helps businesses manage customer inquiries. -* Develop a chatbot or virtual assistant that helps users with common tasks or questions. -* Create a content creation and distribution platform that charges businesses for access to a network of creators. - -Evaluate each of your own riffs/brainstorms of idea based on its feasibility, potential revenue, and alignment with your startup's mission and values. The essence of a warrior is never quitting on the mission ... as an entrepreneur, you will not know your mission until after you create something and start listening to it's crowd -- it's total up to you as the leader to define and refine that mission! - -82) Security adjacent programming (SAP) and infoSec AI ... [NVIDIA Morpheus](https://developer.nvidia.com/morpheus) ... [NVIDIA Launchpad:Build AI-Based Cybersecurity Solutions](https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/launchpad/ai/build-ai-based-cybersecurity-solutions/) ... DevSecOps ... try [Gitlab Ultimate for a month or maybe a full YEAR, if absolutely necessary](https://about.gitlab.com/pricing/feature-comparison/) ... [Prompt Inject is a security vulnerability](https://simonwillison.net/2023/Nov/27/prompt-injection-explained/) ... SAP involves a number of practices, including: - -* Secure coding practices: Following best practices for secure coding, such as using secure libraries, validating user input, and using secure protocols for communication. -* Security testing: Testing software and systems for vulnerabilities and weaknesses, and addressing any issues that are identified. -* Secure design: Designing software and systems with security in mind, including using secure architecture, design patterns, and principles. -* Secure deployment: Ensuring that software and systems are deployed securely, including using secure hosting environments, configuring firewalls and access controls, and implementing encryption. -* Continuous monitoring: Monitoring software and systems for security vulnerabilities and weaknesses, and addressing any issues that are identified. - -83) Read more books ... thriftbooks ... perlego ... scribd ... Kindle, especially Kindle Unlimited ... - -84) Read more preprints ... not just arxiv, but biorxiv, medrxiv, chemrxiv, bioarxiv, chemarxiv, medarxiv, preprints.org, - -85) Follow more people on different PROFESSIONALLY-focused Twitter and LinkedIn accounts ... more = better, but avoid politics like the plague it is ... - -86) Follow BETTER Github, Gitlab accounts ... explore more open source projects, more open source foundations, more open source communities - -87) Follow BETTER Substacks, Mediums, blogs, newsletters - -88) Follow BETTER Youtube channels, but AVOID any sort of political content - -89) Explore the realm of serious, ie edited/reviewed/promoted electronic publishing ... [BioOne](bioone.org), bioonecomplete.org, bioonepublishing.org ... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BioOne - -90) Follow more RSS feeds, master Thunderbird ... but don't stop looking for a better [AI-ified] RSS reader, eg NewsBlur, Feedly, Inoreader, The Old Reader, Netvibes, Feedreader, Flowreader, Feeder, Feedbin, Feedspot, Feedreader Online, Feeds Pub, QuiteRSS, RSS Bandit, NewsFox - -91) Listen to more podcasts and audiobooks ... more audio, less video - -92) Connectedpapers, pubmed, knowledgegraphs and [reference management software](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reference_management_software) - -93) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_academic_databases_and_search_engines - -94) [Shotcrete and related construction methods](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shotcrete) and especially [the durability of shotcrete in cold region tunnel: A review](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0950061818317616) as well as [ACI's guide to shotcrete](https://www.concrete.org/Portals/0/Files/PDF/Previews/506R_16_preview.pdf) to ensure that it's done correctly ... but generally, we should be looking at overhauling our construction methods to capture the [big sustainability advantages of shotcrete](https://shotcrete.org/why-shotcrete/sustainability/) - -95) Čhaŋgléška Wakȟáŋ, the [ethnobotanical garden at SURF](https://sanfordlab.org/garden) which is designed to honor the complicated history of the Black Hills, encourages learning across generations, and supports dialogue and reflection. There are many other ethnobotanical gardens in North America and related landcape architecture and design projects to explore, but it's probably a matter of looking at the major organizations in this domain although those organizations tend to be dominated by aggressive rent-seeking politcos crusading for funding for academic cause ... for example, the [American Botanical Council](https://www.herbalgram.org/resources/related-links-page/databases/) is a non-profit organization that promotes PUBLIC FUNDING OF ethnobotany, herbalism and botanical conservation but really does not provide all that much in the way of information or directories of ethnobotanical gardens [that people can begin to explore from the internet, before mapping out a trip of different gardens] ... at least, the [Botanical Gardens Conservation International (BGCI)](https://tools.bgci.org/garden_search.php) has a searchable directory of botanical gardens and arboretums, including ethnobotanical gardens, in North America ... it might be better just to stick with Wikipedia's listings of [North American Ethnobotany](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Native_American_ethnobotany) and [listing of botanical gardens and arboretums in the United States](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_botanical_gardens_and_arboretums_in_the_United_States) or its larger [listing of botanical gardens around the world](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_botanical_gardens) ... given that camera sensors and video recording and complex editing capablities of the next generation of multimodal Gemini-AI-enabled phones like the [Google Pixel 8 Pro](https://blog.google/products/pixel/google-pixel-8-pro-camera/) is so astounding it would be good to see hundreds or thousands more of [the virtual tours like that offered by United States Botanic Garden](https://www.usbg.gov/visit/tours/take-virtual-tour). - -96) [Northstar performance](https://northstarperformance.com/) V8 upgrades, including a [Stage 4 Package](https://www.northstarperformance.com/stage4package.php) and [dealers/mechanics using Northstar performance parts/kits](https://www.northstarperformance.com/locations.php) including [ServicePlus](https://www.serviceplussd.com/Automotive-Services/cat/engine-repair-and-diagnostics). - -97) - -98) - -99) - -100) - -101) - -102) - -103) - -104) - -105) - -106) - -107) - -108) - -109) - -110) - -111) - -112) - -113) - -114) - -115) - -116) - -117) - -118) - -119) - -120) - -121) - -122) - -123) AUCT.us is accelerated negotiation business development ... a pre-CRM campaign management tool ... look for ways that it compares with and complements [different levels of Hubspot](https://app.hubspot.com/pricing/44575285/suite-starter?upgradeSource=global-nav-bar) as well as the top alternatives to HubSpot: - -* Marketo -* Pardot -* [Salesforce Small Business CRM](https://www.salesforce.com/editions-pricing/small-business/?d=cta-body-promo-587) -* Oracle Marketing Cloud -* Adobe Marketing Cloud -* Microsoft Dynamics 365 Marketing -* SAP Marketing Cloud -* SharpSpring -* Infusionsoft -* Mailchimp -* Constant Contact -* AWeber -* GetResponse -* Campaign Monitor -* Marketing Automation Platform (MAP) -* SalesforceIQ -* [Zoho Marketing Automation](https://www.zoho.com/crm/zohocrm-pricing.html) -* [Freshsales](https://www.freshworks.com/crm/pricing-compare/) -* [PipeDrive](https://www.pipedrive.com/en/pricing) -* Bitrix24 -* CloudCampaign -* Hootsuite: Hootsuite is a popular SMM platform that allows you to manage multiple social media accounts, schedule posts, track engagement, and analyze performance. It also offers features like social listening, influencer identification, and content curation. -* Sprout Social: Sprout Social is an all-in-one SMM platform that offers features like social media management, content creation, scheduling, and analytics. It also offers a suite of tools for social listening, influencer identification, and content curation. -* Agorapulse: Agorapulse is a comprehensive SMM platform that offers features like social media management, content creation, scheduling, and analytics. It also offers features like social listening, influencer identification, and content curation. -* Sendible: Sendible is a SMM platform that allows you to manage multiple social media accounts, schedule posts, track engagement, and analyze performance. It also offers features like social listening, influencer identification, and content curation. -* SocialPilot: SocialPilot is a SMM platform that offers features like social media management, content creation, scheduling, and analytics. It also offers features like social listening, influencer identification, and content curation. -* Buffer: Buffer is a popular SMM platform that allows you to manage multiple social media accounts, schedule posts, track engagement, and analyze performance. It also offers features like social listening, influencer identification, and content curation. -* Mavrck: Mavrck is a SMM platform that offers features like social media management, content creation, scheduling, and analytics. It also offers features like social listening, influencer identification, and content curation. -* Influencer.co: Influencer.co is a SMM platform that offers features like social media management, content creation, scheduling, and analytics. It also offers features like social listening, influencer identification, and content curation. -* Upfluence: Upfluence is a SMM platform that offers features like social media management, content creation, scheduling, and analytics. It also offers features like social listening, influencer identification, and content curation. - -124) Become an Amazon Kindle Unlimited author for syllabi and reading lists ... not exactly like Goodreads, but more about practical education for career self-improvement and professional skills levelling-up learning ... Explore alternatives to [Amazon Kindle Direct [SELF-]Publishing](https://kdp.amazon.com/en_US/bookshelf) such as: - -* CreateSpace - Amazon's self-publishing platform for print books. -* Smashwords - A self-publishing platform that distributes e-books to major retailers. -* Lulu - A self-publishing platform that offers print, e-book, and audiobook distribution. -* IngramSpark - A self-publishing platform that offers print and digital distribution to major retailers. -* Blurb - A self-publishing platform that offers print, e-book, and audiobook distribution. -* BookBaby - A self-publishing platform that offers print, e-book, and audiobook distribution, as well as marketing and promotional services. -* Author Solutions - A self-publishing platform that offers print, e-book, and audiobook distribution, as well as marketing and promotional services. -* Trafford Publishing - A self-publishing platform that offers print and e-book distribution. -* Xlibris - A self-publishing platform that offers print and e-book distribution. -* iUniverse - A self-publishing platform that offers print and e-book distribution. -* AuthorHouse - A self-publishing platform that offers print and e-book distribution. -* Booklocker - A self-publishing platform that offers print and e-book distribution. -* PublishAmerica - A self-publishing platform that offers print and e-book distribution. -* Infinity Publishing - A self-publishing platform that offers print and e-book distribution. -* Dog Ear Publishing - A self-publishing platform that offers print and e-book distribution. -* Outskirts Press - A self-publishing platform that offers print and e-book distribution. -* BookWhirl - A self-publishing platform that offers print and e-book distribution. -* Ingram Content Group - A self-publishing platform that offers print and digital distribution to major retailers. -* Baker & Taylor - A self-publishing platform that offers print and digital distribution to libraries and retailers. -* Follett - A self-publishing platform that offers print and digital distribution to libraries and retailers. - -Of course, this list, like [Wikipedia's entry on self-publishing](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-publishing) is far from being exhaustive and there will always be other alternatives that are being developed. If you want to be serious about content, you will need to ALWAYS BE LOOKING FOR A BETTER GIG ... you need to develop your intelligence gathering operation to research and compare different new self-publishing platforms to find a better one that you are currently aware of and still best suits your needs and goals. - -125) ***REFACTOR AND PACK THIS LIST*** ... to create room for better lists ... because you are going to develop more exploratory / even wilder Brainstorms of Lists ... *which will become packed, dense reading lists* ... in addition to [VENTURES](https://markbruns.github.io/Ventures/) ... which are all really just curated, packed reading lists ... it's all about *IMPROVING* the intelligence gathering of intelligence gathering. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/_posts/2024-02-02-fiercely-skeptical.md b/_posts/2024-02-02-fiercely-skeptical.md deleted file mode 100644 index e5e4c7b3..00000000 --- a/_posts/2024-02-02-fiercely-skeptical.md +++ /dev/null @@ -1,74 +0,0 @@ ---- -layout: post -title: "The Dharma Is Totarry A Chinese Weather Baroon" -date: 2024-02-02 4:30:00 -categories: template ---- - - - -## Regard ALL of the dharma as a dream - -Or, if you prefer ... ཆོས་རྣམས་རྨི་ལམ་ལྟ་བུ་བསམ། ། ... or **begin by considering all things and events as dreamlike** ... stop relying on fact checkers and stop basing your arguments on supposed facts ... when ALL of the *facts* out there should be regarded as if they were dreams. - -There's a good reason why the "***regard ALL of the dharma as a dream***" slogan is the first of the *[Seven Points of Mind Training](https://www.rigpawiki.org/index.php?title=Seven_Points_of_Mind_Training)* ... it's the VERY FIRST because it's the most important. As you know, the *[Seven Points of Mind Training](https://www.rigpawiki.org/index.php?title=Seven_Points_of_Mind_Training)* is a set of teachings in Tibetan Buddhism, brought to Tibet by Lord Atisha and written down by Geshe Chekawa. - -The first main point in this training is often referred to as "The Preliminaries" ... so, technically, the fact-checkers might tell you that the FIRST slogan under this main point is just the repetition or **"First, train in the preliminaries**" or always go back to the most fundamental part of the FUNDAMENTALS -- so, in particular, **always second-guess the assumptions underlying your assumptions** ... but the NEXT slogan to OR the first one under the main point, is to **begin by considering all things and events as dreamlike** is *kinda right up there with the first of the first* depending on how you go about your thinking. *But, your thinking has to be your business ... and yours alone ... so it's really kinda up to you to order the importance of these things, right ... RIGHT?* - -It is of course important to note this stuff is just like canonization of scripture that we find in any ancient text that people wish to regard as WORD ... or *THEIR truth* ... in other words, Chekawa’s original text was [to the best of our knowledge on the topic] not arranged into these seven points. This was done later by his disciple, Sechilphuwa Özer Shyönnu1. Therefore, the order of the slogans and their categorization under the “Seven Points” was a later development, not originally designated by Geshe Chekawa. This might be why there could be some confusion or debate over which slogan is technically the “first” ... but ***WHY IN THE LIVING FUCK DOES IT REALLY MATTER?*** ... SERIOUSLY, why does the order matter, unless someone's kinda *just fuckin with ya, man?* - -Hopefully, you can you why it's important to never take anything at face value, TO NEVER EVER EVER EVER need to rely on fact checkers or to need to base your arguments on supposed facts ... *when ALL of the facts sorta hafta to be regarded dreams* if you're doing this shit right? - -If you can't be *fiercely skeptical* of interwebs content ... then ... AT LEAST TREAT IT AS A BAD SARCASTIC JOKE ... from the most twisted friend you have. - -STOP expecting ANYTHING to be truth ... stop expecting to be entertained. - -NOBODY can give you the truth ... because YOUR life is too much built on LIES and FAKERY; you have no balance and no sense of larger perspective, your reference points are fucked as hell and you can't tell what's TRUTH ... and expecting someone else to give you the truth is like expecting someone else to walk for you on the shifting deck of a ship on a stormy sea -- you have to develop your own sea legs. - -*NOBODY can give you the truth.* - -Discerning the nature of an idea you come across is TOTALLY on YOU ... and nobody else ... the reason that you can tell what's REAL any more is that your whole existense is FAKE AS SHIT ...***Stop being a little whiny crab-ass little baby and thinking anyone owes you the truth.*** - -If you want the TRUTH ... shut off all of your devices, keep them turned off -- AVOID all your books and papers ... then do a water fast for a good five or six week VACATION from the stupid shiny shit you pick up; any time that you feel like consuming something do some serious high intensity interval training until the desire for consuming anything goes away. - -***Stop being a little whiny crab-ass little baby and thinking anyone owes you the truth.*** - -STOP expecting ANYTHING to be truth ... stop expecting to be entertained. - -## You sort HAVE TO assume that we are AT WAR ... in an *information war* sense of being AT war. - -It's the best starting assumption until you can prove otherwise ... when the ground beneath you is shifting, you need to develop your *sea legs* ... balance is a matter of constant adjustment and adjusting the bouyancy of adjustment ... conversely, needing to trust something solid is for calcified fossils. - -The best working assumption about the content that you come across is that it is supplied by your enemy. Sure, that might too paranoid, but it is best to be fiercely skeptical ... and that includes being skeptical of your own thoughts and working assumptions. - -Most of the *active measures* or *disinformation* in the information war will be about getting you to LIKE some celebrity or figure that you have not met ... there's way more to the disinformation arsensal than just getting you to trust an avatar, but it's kind of safe to say that *MOST* disinformation begins with misplaced faith which starts with inappropriate *like*age of celebrities or commentators. - -### You sorta HAVE TO avoid regular consumption of the news or news commentary. - -Mental mastery is a matter of introspective inquiry ... you can use different mental models think about the process second-guessing your thoughts -- you might think of it as *WRESTLING with the angel of the Lord ... and generally getting BEATEN over and over again.* The point of that metaphor is that it's impossible, completely uncomfortable ... the constant sifting and re-sifting is about triggering one's subconscious unthinking, re-wiring and re-programming. - -In order to really THINK, you cannot be AT EASE ... will need scribble notes in your own journal, write letters to yourself or write your own blog or keep a journal ... you almost really need have some sort of Git-like distributed version control mechanism or automated version control system to lean into as you revise ... it's all about getting your thoughts into some form that allows for you going back later and reconstructing your thought process. - -*If, instead of doing this, you seek the comfort of regular programming, especially when you feel that pscyhological TUG of the comfort of being reinforced with the knowledge of what _JohnQCommentator_'s take on the news is today or this week, well ...* - -***CONGRATULATIONS! If you need your daily dose of some content, then YOU are OFFICIALLY addicted, you are programmed.*** - -Moreover, if you feel offended by this and say to yourself something like "*That's bullshit! I'm not addicted just because I want a little mental comfort ...*" ... well, guess what, if you feel offended or irritated by something that you know is true, then you have become weaponinized poision to yourself ... and all of the people around you. - -*That's just the way LACK OF mental self-control works, ie that's why we as Christian warriors have pray to forgive others ... we don't need to be forgiven by others; it does not matter if someone hate us, haters are gonna hate us and should hate us -- what we, as Christian warriors REALLY NEED is to be granted, by the grace of our Creator, the ability to forgive, to let go, to move on ... this power is ENTIRELY about mental self-control. I did not make up the rules*...***THAT'S JUST THE WAY IT WORKS.*** - -The POINT of FIERCE SKEPTICISM ... and the point of resisting the comfort of listening to, reading or watching your daily programming ... like the point of the essentiality of being able to forgive, without worrying about or expecting reciprocal forgiveness ... all of those points are about being in control OF YOUR OWN MIND. - - -# Why the OPENNESS of OPEN SOURCE content is important - - -I develop and write my OPEN SOURCE material ... in an open manner with the full commit trail available ... in order to come back to this content ... to edit, revise, remove ... it's about the process of perfecting. - -Other people can reconstruct it or backtrack to understand the develop by looking at the commits. - -The sources of what I'm working on are never perfect ... that's WHY the sources of open source content are in a repository on GitHub. The public nature of open source repositories is to allow for the possibility of someone else finding the development process as well as the work-in-process source useful. - -The whole point of open source is we CAN look at the DEVELOPMENT what's driving whatever on the surface ... always being FIERCELY skeptical of what's behind the scenes. - -We should be EVEN MORE FIERCELY SKEPTICAL when something is proprietary, polished, and presented as PERFECT product that some trusted authority or celebrity stands behind ... when we can't see and reconstruct the sources, we cannot trust shit on the surface at all. diff --git a/_posts/2024-02-07-break-the-sequential-VonNuemann-bottleneck.md b/_posts/2024-02-07-break-the-sequential-VonNuemann-bottleneck.md deleted file mode 100644 index b7d00ce3..00000000 --- a/_posts/2024-02-07-break-the-sequential-VonNuemann-bottleneck.md +++ /dev/null @@ -1,31 +0,0 @@ ---- -layout: post -title: "Break the Sequential VonNuemann Bottleneck" -date: 2024-02-07 4:30:00 -categories: template ---- - - -Eighty years ago, as a result of computational work done in the mid-1940s and presented in June,1945 in 101-page [First Draft Report on the EDVAC](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Draft_of_a_Report_on_the_EDVAC), [John von Neumann](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_von_Neumann) developed theory behind computational devices which were fed programs and data while the computational device was running. Given the manufacturing technology available at the time, John von Neumann proposed a practical, manufacturable modular computer design which was based on the modularitiy of the stored program computer, in which program instructions and data are held in memory. Known as the [von Neumann architecture](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Von_Neumann_architecture) -- or sometimes the Princeton architecture -- this model became the standard design paradigm used for computers and continues to dominate the architecture almost all of today's microprocessors ... as such, this architecture that was a great idea **eighty years ago** which was a breakthrough for computing machines that were manufacturable in the 1940s has now become the [von Neumann bottleneck](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Von_Neumann_architecture#Von_Neumann_bottleneck) in which the communication busses between the CPU, memory and I/O can only access limited classes of memory at a time, even with [mitigations, such as caches, scratchpad memory, CPU stacks or hierarchical memory architectures](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Von_Neumann_architecture#Mitigations) generally forcing waits and lowering throughput. - -***Given that our manufacturing technologies have advanced significantly ... or, more correctly, we now can design and develop new mfg technologies to realize any design that can be contemplated given the molecular constraints operating on the atomic interactions at nanoscale level ... what are the NEW compute paradigms that we can use to break the von Neumann bottleneck?*** - -Some of these are relatively simple OR represent a practical, very achievable steps that can take us a very large part of the way past the VonNeumann Bottleneck. For example, the [Processing In Memory (PIM) architectures](https://arxiv.org/search/?query=Processor+in+Memory+(PIM)+architectures&searchtype=all&source=header) breaks most of the sequential von Neumann bottleneck by integrating bit-serial processors within memory. - -Moreover, it's not JUST about putting processing into memory ... it's also about the structure of the hardware for particular types of sensing, computation and the immediate neuro-like response of sensing incorporated into computational or neurocognitive systems, ie as with the distributed neurology of the sense of smell. The increasing demand for more efficient, more intelligent IoT devices and speedier AI built directly into IoT sensor clouds and robotic swarms that highlights the importance of synthesizing, designing, optimizing and *then* building specifically-tailored Large Language Model (LLM) accelerators. Generally, optimizing new hardware, like LLM accelerators, involves synthesizing a Verilog-HDL hardware design and then simulating hardware models at the Resistor-Transistor Logic (RTL) level using something like the [ModelSIM](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ModelSim) or another [HDL simulator](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_HDL_simulators) in order to optimize the performance of proposed architecture well before it is committed to actual manufacture. - -There's significant demand driving the capability now that LLMs have emerged such a gigantic component in the future of Artificial Intelligence and the Internet of Things (AIoT) strategies which enable the integration of natural language processing (NLP) capabilities more directly into various IoT applications. Computation using general-purpose graphics processing units (GPUs) inflicts unstructured, chaotic, even *reckless* demand for I/O bandwidth transferring intermediate calculation results back and forth between memories and processing units -- thus, GPUs not specifically designed to address the self-attention module of the LLM transformers result in sub-optimal LLM accelerator designs. The [self-attention module is the most compute-intensive sub-structure, occupying well over two-thirds of operations in the prevailing transformer-based LLM architectures](https://arxiv.org/abs/2401.11459). Given the priority of this need, work has been begun to develop a [open-source self-attention accelerator, AttentionLego](https://github.com/bonanyan/attentionlego) for constructing spatially expandable LLM processors incorporating PIM-based matrix-vector multiplication with a look-up-table-based Softmax approximation ... which will require [empircally evaluating the performance of the Softmax function](https://www.connectedpapers.com/main/bb95498cd5cfb54d7f1f7a2da725a59320d11fbf/An-Empirical-Evaluation-of-Enhanced-Performance-Softmax-Function-in-Deep-Learning/graph) ... and entering the realm of Verilog-HDL synthesis and simulation. - -***It's not just self-attention accelerators -- there are PLENTY OF OTHER NEEDS driving greater use of these hardware synthesis and simulation toolchains.*** For example, there are several other different recent proposed hardware architectures that modify a Field Programmable Gate Array's (FPGA) Block RAM (BRAM) architecture to form a next-generation PIM reconfigurable fabric overlay. [PiCaSO](https://arxiv.org/abs/2308.03914v1), a Processor in/near Memory Scalable and Fast Overlay is an architecture that is representative of such a PIM overlay for FPGA BRAM. PiCaSO achieves up to 80% of the peak throughput of the custom PIM overlay designs with 2.56× shorter latency and 25% – 43% better BRAM memory utilization efficiency. Several key features of the PiCaSO overlay can be integrated into the custom PIM designs to further improve their throughput by 18%, latency by 19.5%, and memory efficiency by 6.2%. - -*If the previous examples of self-attention accelerator and different PIM overlay fabric designs were not sufficient to convince us that we need to be more knowledgeable about hardware synthesis and simulation toolchains,* [a new type of FPGA building block, the ***integrated*** **ComputeRAM** block, has been proposed](https://arxiv.org/pdf/2107.09178v1.pdf) to provide highly-parallel processing-inmemory (PIM) by combining computation and storage capabilities INTEGRATED into one block. The configurable building blocks of currently available FPGAs — Logic blocks (LBs), Digital Signal Processing (DSP) slices, and Block RAMs (BRAMs) — make FPGA efficient hardware AI accelerators ... but communication between these blocks must happens through an interconnect fabric consisting of switching elements spread throughout the FPGA. **ComputeRAM** promises to provide the storage, the computation capability and the control logic ***integrated*** into one block. There are many advantages of using the *integrated* ComputeRAM FPGA building blocks: - -**Energy efficiency/Higher freqencies of operation** -- Because the computation happens inside the memory block, no wire and switching energy is spent in sending data to/from the compute units. Data movement between various blocks on the FPGA is significantly reduced. This leads to reduction in power consumption and an increase in energy efficiency. Another impact of the reduced dependence on the FPGA interconnect is that designs can now operate at higher frequencies of operation, thereby resulting in speeding up applications. - -**Configurability/Programmability** -- Any custom operation with any custom precision can be supported by a Compute RAM block. No hardware with hardcoded support for specific operations and fixed number of precisions is involved in a Compute RAM. For performing a different operation or for using a different precision, the instruction sequence needs to be modified. This can be done either at FPGA configuration time or at execution time. Changing the instruction sequence at execution time makes Compute RAMs programmable in a software-like manner. - -**Greater Bandwidth** -- Using a Compute RAM for compute reduces the limitations of the bandwidth available from a BRAM because of the limited geometries and number of ports. In a Compute RAM, there are as many operations in progress at a time as many columns. Users can avoid splitting data over multiple BRAMs to get more bandwidth and using only a few rows of each blocks. Now, the array can be fully utilized, and the total area of implementiing a circuit is greatly reduced. - -**Greater Compute Density** -- Using Compute RAMs leads to reduced area to implement a given circuit. In comparison to a BRAM, a Compute RAM has an area overhead of the instruction memory, controller and peripheral logic. However, this area overhead is smaller than using a BRAM, a DSP slice and several LBs for realizing a computation on a baseline FPGA. This also leads to reduced power consumption. More importantly, this means larger circuits can now fit on the same FPGA chip. Adding Compute RAMs to FPGAs leads to an increase in the compute density of the FPGA (GOPS/mm2). - -Of course, greater ***integration*** means more specifically-tailored hardware ... which ultimately propels us to [a vision of accelerated technological obsolesence](https://arxiv.org/abs/2401.02469), which is naturally accompanied by an arms race in improving both our mfg capabilities and our hardware synthesis and simulation toolchains ... and the continual innovation fog around the globe and into space will persist, as with the water vapor cycle evaporating with warmth over oceans, raining out, eroding and running off back into the sea. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/_posts/2024-02-12-avoid-Super-Bowl-advertisers.md b/_posts/2024-02-12-avoid-Super-Bowl-advertisers.md deleted file mode 100644 index 81d4fa15..00000000 --- a/_posts/2024-02-12-avoid-Super-Bowl-advertisers.md +++ /dev/null @@ -1,72 +0,0 @@ ---- -layout: post -title: "Not JUST poisons, AVOID POISON ADDICTS!" -date: 2024-02-12 4:30:00 -categories: template ---- - - -**Super Bowl ads are designed to keep POWERLESS people POWERLESS.** Addictions to those products keep people stupid, helpless and defensive about their addictions. This is another way of saying, if you want a hint about what you should give up for Lent, it's VERY SIMPLE. You should give up any product that relys upon Super Bowl advertisements; you may also want to give up spending too much time with anyone who is defensive about their addiction to consuming ANYTHING from a company that advertises during the Super Bowl. - -The clever ads are designed to keep STUPID ADDICTS addicted to their POISONOUS levels of STUPID consumption ... it's not just that you would be better off spending NO money on any SuperBowl-advertised product ... you would also be better off, if you somehow recieved them, GIVING THE PRODUCTS COMPLETELY AWAY or even throwing the stuff in the trash. - -In the case of HYPED new vehicles, maybe you could give the vehicle to a charity OR otherwise give it to a needy friend and help him to find the local auto auction or use something like eBay to selling that brand new HYPED vehicle to someone else IMMEDIATELY ... *and then you could keep getting by with your old $1000 pickup or using Uber/Lyft, for those few times when you thought you needed a vehicle* - -The products that need to be HYPED by SuperBowl ads are designed to keep POWERLESS people POWERLESS and ADDICTED to the STUPID that propels them into powerlessness. - -# Avoid Super Bowl Advertisers Like the Plague They Are - -I did not understand this until AFTER I started looking at how well my enterprises and investments had performed throughout my life ... I got it pretty early that buying snackfoods or beer was a MORONIC waste of money, ie the products would be better off TRASHED than consumed ... but the vehicle thing was tougher for me to get, maybe because I was such a complete sucker for hot vehicles, especially in my youth -- but I still had okish, but CHEAP cadillacs and lincolns that I bought after they had taken that 70% depreciation hit in the first couple years ... but EVEN THEN, I still was affected by the advertisements -- so it was not until I was OVER 60 until I really understood the NASTINESS of wasting money on vehicles. - -I SHOULD HAVE noticed it earlier ... I could see that crap like a bag of Doritos was POISON ... I knew that alcohol was better poured out rather than consumed ... EVEN when I was only 50 or so, I kinda knew that I should generally not hang out very long AT ALL with snack-eaters OR beer-drinkers, ie I felt there was no reason to be impolite, but I keep the conversation kinda short [because having another chip or drinking another beer furnishes an ADDICTING sense of stimulation/pleasure/buzz] but ... - -**NOW, I understand why I have to AVOID THE POISON ADDICTS with the same kind of intensity that I would avoid getting together with a bunch of heroin addicts to shoot up.** - -The addiction might be hard to spot because it has been SO INCREDIBLY normalized by our culture. But, once you see it, you will not UNSEE it.LOOK at the trends ... NOTICE the patterns ... it's not hard to connect the dots or understand the tendencies that advertisers are attempting to foster when you start actually paying attention to what is happening and WHY these POISON consumption patterns have to be reinforced with clever advertising. Do your own homework. PAY ATTENTION to how it works! - -If you wanted to start diving into this topic, you might start with a question of Google Gemini Advanced or a request to [give you a listing of the top 100 advertisers in the most recent Super Bowl ranked by amount of money spent advertising during the game or halftime](https://gemini.google.com/app/2489055275224dfe). - -The answer that you get back is ONLY the starting point ... and as with most BULLSHIT ANSWERS we get from different AI chat utilities, you will get kind of a pathetically-lame, half-assed response that will make you roll your eyes in disbelief ... but, then again, since Google's whole buisness model is based on advertising, Gemini is REALLY not going to give you a straight answer ... but, it does not matter. - -In spite of all the problems, the pathetic AI answer is still good enough ... because we all basically KNOW the answer to the REAL question, which is ... - -# *BUT WHY DON'T THESE PRODUCTS JUST SELL THEMSELVES?* - -Of course, the answer to that question ... particularly for the products of Super Bowl advertisers ... is that that the products really rely upon CLEVER advertisement ... to CAPTIVE, possibly BORED audiences [trapped at SuperBowl parties people wish they'd stay away from] ... as opposed to JIT key-words-based ads that comes with search engines or the ads that are fed from recommendation engines based on interests/trends in activies. - -SuperBowl ad products are NEVER for something that you were already interested in or trying to find ... those ads are for CAPTIVE, bored, PASSIVE audiences ... not for people ACTIVE searching for something they need. - -The products that rely on clever SuperBowl mega-media advertisement are absolutely TERRIBLE for you to consume ... they are POISONS that cannot begin to sell themselves on their own merits or a careful cost/benefit analysis. - -## UNDERSTAND why mega-media advertisement works to harvest ALL of the ADDICT population's availalble income - -LOOK at the trends ... NOTICE the pattern ... it's not hard to connect the dots when you are actually paying attention to what kinds of advertisements are useful in helping you find some obscure thing you need or some trusted source has told you about. - -These following industries traditionally ALWAYS HAVE TO shell out the most during the Super Bowl ... poison vendors HAVE TO do it this way... because their POISON advertisments live rent-free in the brains of POISON ADDICTS passively watching entertainment: - -* Empty-calorie, pathologically ADDICTIVE beverages: Anheuser-Busch InBev (Bud Light, Budweiser, Michelob Ultra, etc.), PepsiCo, Coca-Cola, GatorAde, other beverage products that you should AVOID ... it's not really that the products are over-priced, although they are ... it's that ***you should not swallow this crap even if you were paid to drink it!*** - -* IMPOVERSISHING automotive products that make people both poorer and generally less fit: General Motors, Toyota, Stellantis (formerly Fiat Chrysler), Kia ... ask anyone who retired before they were 50 if they are happy about the capital that they COMPLETELY SQUANDERED on unnecessary automotive purchases; successful investors take risks and lose money, but no investment EVER is worse than money squandered on a new car ... [automotive culture WEAKENS and IMPOVERISHES](https://markbruns.github.io/template/2024/01/18/automotive-culture-is-for-idiots.html) because modern automotive products are designed to be horrendously bad investments and necessarily over-advertised because they are nothing but the phony ILLUSION of STATUS that comes from ostentacious display of superficial wealth.. - -* RECURRENT SUBSCRIPTIONS that people tend to forget about OR worse, end up over-using to justify the big annual subscription ... in tech and streaming services: AmazonPrime, YouTubePremium, Netflix, Disney+/ESPN, etc. - -* SECOND-RATE, SUBSTANDARD movies and entertainment that just sucks on the material's own [lack of] merit ... advertisers need to hype the kind of stuff that people will not particulary remember and just generally would be better off never watching ... especially bigger-budget, celebrity content from top-heavy, high overhead movie studios who rely on things like Super Bowl advertisements to hyper-promoting upcoming releases and entertainment ... the likes of Disney, Universal, Warner Bros, Paramount, et al that tend to produce MAJOR disappointments and BRAZENLY open mainstream "active measures" propaganda advocating irresponsible lifestyle choices that degrade cultures... rather than the kinds of indie content that spreads by word-of-mouth directly from individual REAL PEOPLE who actually were MOVED to make a recommendation TO HELP THEIR FRIENDS. - -* ENGINEERED-TO-BE-ADDICTIVE snacks and ulta-processed quasi-edible garbage : Doritos, M&Ms, and other snack giants. - -The companies selling stuff that you are stupid for consuming are not idiots ... they KNOW that those advertisements work to get idiots to buy the POISON. - - -If you consume ANYTHING from a company that advertises during the Super Bowl, you really need to RETHINK your consumption habits. - -But ... just in case, you needed any clarification ... the list of Super Bowl advertisers should confirm your list of what kinds of POISONS TO AVOID AT ALL COST. - -## Not JUST poisons, AVOID POISON ADDICTS! - -It's not JUST that we don't watch Super Bowl advertisements ... it's not JUST that we avoid Super Bowl advertisers like the plague they are ... **WE minimize the time we spend with any POISON ADDICTS who consumes any of these kinds of POISONS** ... you cannot get ADDICTS away from defensive over-consumption of their POISONS ... you don't exactly need to shun them or give up on them, but you can cease to stop EVER giving them any affirmation their decision to poison themselves is OK with you ... STOP AFFIRMING STUPID CHOICES OF YOUR FRIENDS AND FAMILY! STOP IT!!! - -You don't need to be mean about not participating in someone else's self-destruction ... you can just ***politely*** tell them something like, *"Nah, thanks for the invitation and I do appreciate the invitation, but I've totally tapered off my consumption of X and if you have me there while you're swallowing X, I'll be reminding you of the fact that you're a LOSER ADDICT who is poisoning yourself and everyone around you."* - -# Avoid Super Bowl Advertisers Like the Plague They Are - -LOOK at the trends ... NOTICE the pattern ... it's not hard to connect the dots when you are actually paying attention to what is happening and WHY these patterns get reinforced with clever advertising. PAY ATTENTION! diff --git a/_posts/2024-02-14-studying-the-tradition-of-Lent.md b/_posts/2024-02-14-studying-the-tradition-of-Lent.md deleted file mode 100644 index 1e6f552f..00000000 --- a/_posts/2024-02-14-studying-the-tradition-of-Lent.md +++ /dev/null @@ -1,182 +0,0 @@ ---- -layout: post -title: "Strength, Conditioning, Mobility for LENT" -date: 2024-02-14 4:30:00 -categories: template ---- - - -It's valentine's day and BETTER YET, it's Lent - -So since Valentine's Day fell on LENT this year ... how about if we try to FALL IN LOVE with the perfect selves that we could be, if we would only get seriously about working on ourselves to be a more perfect Christ-like example of the human God created us to be. It will involve a lot of SACRIFICES and giving up things [at least temporarily] but that's what Lent is all about. - -An DON'T STRESS if you missed opening gunshot signifying the first day of Lent ... you can still get in on Lent ... you could do a good forty day of Lent any time you felt the urge to fast or REALLY BUCKLE DOWN hard on something for a forty day push. - -Celebrations of rituals is similar to the celebrations of holidays on a particular day or according to a particular schedule. - -You can celebrate the fundamental principles behind ANY of these danged human holidays or human rituals ANY TIME you want to … it is far more important that you spend the time seriously contemplating THE POINT of the ritual or holiday rather than worrying about when the crowd of gossips, busybodies and the whole peer-pressure lynchmob of conformists is doing to drag the unholy into their ritualistic conformance. - -There’s no reason to go out and be deliberately antagonistic, but we can let the lost souls and dead bury their dead … the POINT of the holidays or rituals is fine … Lent’s a perfect example — the whole POINT of Lent is to tell Satan [and affluent excesses and addictions to human-based comfort] to go f*** himself … to quietly be able to just go without [for an extended period of time] to re-prove to one’s self that one can actually leave the booze or any kind of addictive comfort or pleasure alone for forty days … and instead do a deep dive on how much one’s affluent lifestyle is diverting one’s focus away from the passion of the Christ, how much God loves His creation and what God gave up in sending His only Son into hell to double down on the love that drives the beauty of that entire Creation. - -When anyone feels called to celebrate the meaning of Lent, the forty days that are coming up are never a bad time … as people who try to live according to Heidelberg catechism, we might sometimes need reminders of [what our only true comfort in this life and whatever comes after has to be](https://www.heidelberg-catechism.com/en/lords-days/1.html). - -# This Lent ... starting with right now, whenever now is ... - -We will BUILD our spiritual and mental efforts on top of the primarily PHYSICAL infrastructure we will be trying to build with our [Strength, Conditioning, Mobility self-coaching syllabus](https://markbruns.github.io/template/2024/01/14/strength-conditioning-mobility-coaching.html) ... is always going to be a DEVELOPMENTAL work in progress we are attempting to implement disciplined INTENSITY of self-coaching and the CONSISTENCY always doing as many good, non-junk reps as we can do. - -Better health needs to be the physical foundation of our OVERALL self-improvement program ... but the point of our self-improvement program is spiritual self-improvement ... supported by mental self-improvement ... resting a top a physical foundation. - -We are certainly not going to compete in any sport ... in fact, at this point in our lives, we can definitely see the days coming when our physical well-being will no longer be assured ... we also can see, by looking those around us, like the POTUS for example, that our mental well-being will also longer be assured. If we want to be better SPIRITUAL students or SPIRITUAL disciples, we should first provide the foundation of being more healthy and more fit so that we are even able to show up as willing students or disciples without getting to that point where we are praying for the end to come. - -## We are BLESSED to live in a world that helps us to be better and better disciples - -We should be ASHAMED of ourselves for being ungrateful ... or neglecting the opportunities this existence provides us, especially since life keeps getting better and better for us. We should be ASHAMED of ourselves for not being more grateful for the opportunities we have to be better and better disciples. - -Since I like the way that AI prompt me to ask way more questions, I started by asking CoPilot and Gemini to [curate a syllabus for a deep dive study of Lent including the most impactful spiritual, mental, and physical considerations for someone who is going to be especially serious for forty days about developing a plan for becoming like Christ or a more perfect modern-day example of the humans God created?](https://g.co/gemini/share/3ae1d74180ac). - -The following outline was developed by CoPilot, Gemini ... with my own input and editing [which might make it worse, or too biased] but you can just click on the link ABOVE ... or copy the question into your favorite AI and see if you like that better. It's not going to radically different than what you should expect, but an AI is good for mapping out a basic outline which you can modify, expand or re-prioritize to suit your own needs and circumstances. - -## Week 1: Understanding The Basic History of Lent - -What's behind this CLASSICAL tradition of Lent? Read and review the basic story and the theological basis behind the origination of the tradition. Focus on the Biblical basis of Lent. The first week is just about ***getting our head in the game*** and looking forward at the additional weeks as far as the reflections and preparations for Easter that we can make during Lent. - -- **Introduction to Lent** ... Lent is entirely about SIMPLIFICATION and stripping away all of the bullshit that we humans tend to add on something. We SIMPLIFY at Lent in order to focus upon what we are commanded to do as Christians. Christ laid out the ENTIRE SET OF REQUIREMENTS for what we must do as Christians in just four verses ... never forget these four verses, but if you can only remember one verse, remember the first one and it will help you remember the others. - - * [Matthew 22:37](https://www.biblestudytools.com/matthew/22-37-compare.html): You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength. - * [Matthew 22:38](https://www.biblestudytools.com/matthew/22-38-compare.html): This is the first and greatest commandment. *{HINT: Focus on this one first and foremost. Yes, it will help you when you struggle with the second one; but it's the most important one. Do not blow this one. As Christians, we believe that the only path to God the Father is through Christ the Son.}* - * [Matthew 22:39](https://www.biblestudytools.com/matthew/22-39-compare.html): And the second is like it, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. - * [Matthew 22:40](https://www.biblestudytools.com/matthew/22-40-compare.html): On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. EVERTYTHING ELSE in scripture is is just commentary on these two commandments; don't complicate Christianity. - -- **The Biblical basis for Lent** - -- [**The significance of the 40 days**](https://www.umc.org/en/content/ask-the-umc-what-is-lent-and-why-does-it-last-forty-days) --Lent is a season of forty days, not counting Sundays, which begins on Ash Wednesday and ends on Holy Saturday. Lent comes from the Anglo Saxon word ***lencten***, meaning “lengthen” and refers to the [lengthening days of Spring](https://www.ministrymatters.com/all/entry/10712/what-are-the-origins-of-lent). The forty days represents the time Jesus spent in the wilderness, enduring the temptation of Satan and preparing to begin his ministry. The practice of fasting from food for extended periods like 40 days for spiritual reasons is found in all of the Abrahamic faiths: Judaism, Christianity and Islam. In all three, observing the tradition of refraining from eating is intimately, directly connected with the blessing of being able to devote **additional** focus to our prayer lives. - -## Week 2: Spiritual Considerations - -- **The role of prayer during Lent** ... of course, we are always to *pray without ceasing* ... but we kind of tend to fall back into old ruts and totally forget what that means and what it really takes. So during Lent, [since we are not wasting as much time preparing or eating food,] we go back to the basics of the basics of PRAYER and train in the preliminary assumptions and practices underlying our the fundamentals which underpin our prayer lives. In practice, this means that we spend time every day breaking down the Lord's Prayer and focusing on our prayer habits so that we have something resembling a faint hope of getting our prayer life back on track within 40 days. *{HINT: To do this correctly, it will actually take just over 9X longer than just 40 days we time-budget with Lent.}* - -- **Fasting and its spiritual significance** ... the spiritual significance of fasting is that [fasting helps clarify our thoughts so that we can better remember what our true source of comfort is](https://www.heidelberg-catechism.com/en/lords-days/1.html). Yes, it is true that when you don't eat, you will of course suffer to a small degree, but it's important not to overdo the drama about how we are suffering in solidarity with the poor. That's BULLSHIT -- the *poor in spirit* actually have bigger problems than just going hungry ... being ABLE to fast, without worrying about where the money is coming from for survival is a LUXURY that the uber-affluent have ... we should be exceedingly grateful for even being ABLE to fast without worrying about dying or losing everything we have left to lose. Besides, as Christians, we are directed to ensure that nobody sees our suffering, ie we are not to make a public annnouncement about how we will fasting for forty days. We are to keep our fasting to ourselves, except if someone asks us to join them in a meal, we politely decline ... and when they insist, THEN we tell them, I'm sorry I really shouldn't because I am fasting for Lent. - -- **Almsgiving or more generally the SERVE FIRST approach to life** ... this is not at all just for Lent, but during Lent we can try to think more concretely about what we can do year-around. In other words, we should not JUST hand out soup in soup lines for 40 days and congratulate ourselves for being so charitable. The practice of almsgiving should basically be renamed the practices of REALLY GIVING A LEGITIMATE FUCK rather than just tossing some alms at it. In other words, if we are SERIOUS about the practice of assisting the poor, we need to think concretly about how we might go about the process of REALLY GIVING A LEGITIMATE FUCK to involve ourselves more directly to some way that can help the poor. Traditionally, almsgiving has been about putting more money in the collection plate or donating excess food, but increasingly since caloric needs are typically met with cheap food, just dishing up cheap food is nothing but [idiot compassion](https://g.co/gemini/share/1883b09da08f). - -We should do more than just engage in ostensibly well-intentioned actions [which have not been thought through at all] and ultimately contribute to making problems even worse or inspiring justified lack of gratitude from people who don't need that kind of guilt-driven charity. Instead of focusing on long-term benefit, idiot compassion is about acting based on short-term impulses and the desire to avoid discomfort (our own or the other person's).. Genuinely helping the poor, therefore, is really about getting to their level and genuinely attempting to helping those *poor in spirit* to "*get back into the game*", perhaps by helping those who are struggling to find work or trying to overcome the despair of those who perhaps have even given up trying to "*be in the game*" anymore. - -## Week 3: Mental Considerations - -- Developing positive habits -- Cultivating gratitude, joy, and openness -- Overcoming challenges and temptations - -## Week 4: Physical Considerations - -- The physical benefits of fasting -- Balancing physical and spiritual health -- Understanding the connection between physical actions and spiritual growth - -## Week 5: Becoming Like Christ - -- Understanding the call to Christlikeness -- Emulating Christ's attributes -- The role of the Holy Spirit in transformation - -## Week 6: Modern-Day Examples - -- Learning from modern-day examples of Christ-like living -- Applying lessons from these examples to your own life - -## Week 7: Reflection and Preparation for Easter - -- Reflecting on the journey of Lent -- Preparing your heart for the celebration of Easter - -## Alternative Themes / Focus Areas - -In general, the weekly outlines might not really matter and you might find the above outline too constraining or somehow does not fit where you are at right now ... EXCEPT that you will want to pick some sort of schedule or framework that that helps you get as much out of the Lenten season as you can. Here is an alternative outline of weekly themes or focus areas that you might also consider: - -## Week 1: Understanding The Basic History of Lent - -## Week 2: Repentance and Self-reflection - -## Week 3: Forgiveness and Reconciliation - -## Week 4: Love and Service - -## Week 5: Prayer and Contemplation - -## Week 6: Sacrifice and Simplicity - -## Week 7: Passion and Renewal - -## Spiritual Practices - -Here are some spiritual practices that you might consider incorporating into your Lenten study: - -### Bible Study: - -Daily readings focusing on Christ's life, teachings, and the Gospels. - -Use a study Bible, biblestudytools or different devotional guides to aid in your reflection. - -Suggested study passages: Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7), Parables of Jesus, Passion narratives. - -### Prayer: - -Deepen your prayer life, including meditative prayer. - -Explore practices like the Examen or Lectio Divina. - -Use a prayer journal to track insights and requests. - -### Fasting: - -Traditional food fasting, abstaining from a specific item/meal. - -Consider fasting from social media or news/sports/movies or other distractions. - -### Mental Disciplines - -Mindfulness and Meditation: - -Biblical meditation on God's word and character. - -Simple guided mindfulness meditations focused on breath and awareness. - -### Gratitude Journaling: - -Daily recording of at least three things you're grateful for. - -Reflect on God's provision and shift your focus. - -### Learning: - -Study Christian theology, history, or the lives of saints. - -Read a book focused on spiritual growth or a Christ-like characteristic you want to develop. - -### Physical Considerations - -Embodiment: The mind and body are connected. Lent isn't about neglecting the body, but caring for it as a temple. - -Healthy Eating: - -Focus on nourishing whole foods. See this as fueling your purpose. - -Simplicity in meal preparation can free up time for other disciplines. - -### Rest: - -Lent is not really the time for extra sleep deprivation. - -If anything pay greater attention to sleep hygiene to ensure adequate sleep to support mental and spiritual well-being. - -### Movement: - -Lent is DEFINITELY not really time to give up exercise ... if anything, it's the time to refocus on getting more serious about strength, conditioning, and mobility. - -Incorporate activities you enjoy (walking, gentle stretching, etc.) as both physical care and prayerful meditation - - - -REMEMBER the GOAL of this study of Lent is to deepen our understanding WHY we use this forty period for RENEWAL. It's about spiritual rehabilitation, deliberately FOCUSING more of our attention and energy on spiritual growth and transformation. - -This is ONLY a starting outline [which will be a work-in-progress thoughout Lent]. We will modify this outline to suit our personal needs and circumstances ... and NEXT YEAR we might have a better outline for doing this again ***as an old AI tradition*** that we can always look forward to observing every year at Lent. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/_posts/2024-02-18-NIL-personal-brand-development.md b/_posts/2024-02-18-NIL-personal-brand-development.md deleted file mode 100644 index 9a73aadc..00000000 --- a/_posts/2024-02-18-NIL-personal-brand-development.md +++ /dev/null @@ -1,101 +0,0 @@ ---- -layout: post -title: "Name-Image-Likeness and PERSONAL Branding" -date: 2024-02-18 4:30:00 -categories: template ---- - - -*And then it hit me* ... ***Doynk!*** First of all, I realized that did not really bother to understand what LinkedIn WILL BE used for in two or three or five years -- so accordingly, I have not bothered at at all to build my own LinkedIn profile For RETIREMENT ... and then, it REALLY hit me ***DOYNK!*** It's not just retirement ... I realized that, throughout my life, I had been approaching job search COMPLETELY WRONG for my entire career and it's not hardly just me ... in other words, what REALLY floored me is that the general approach thoughout industry, throughout our education system, thoroughout our entire economy is* ***completely wrong and BACKWARD.*** - -The opportunity to completely disrupt the whole business of how people go about: 1) the process of making themselves available for hire [and also assuring that they can actually DO the job] and 2) how projects and ventures can staff up with the talent required to get a project completed ... is the basis of my GYG.be venture. It comes down to a LEGIT, verified version of NIL reputation mgmt [except that it's about VERIFIED skills, not poses or imagery]. - -The GYG.be venture is about MANAGING one's reputation and that means thinking with the END IN MIND. In other words, if we want to be remotely close to being successful and happy in life, we really need to work a lot harder at [*practicing like we play*](https://plyp-us.github.io). - -This all about ***SERVING FIRST*** ... and thinking deeply about how we can indefinitely sustain our ability to serve first ... and then DOING IT, as we [*practice like we play*](https://plyp-us.github.io) ... until somebody asks us to play professionally in their game. - -We have all always kind of known that we need to try to make ourselves so useful that we are indispensable to others. - -That's a given -- it's the essence of what we attempt to do with education, with our careers, with our businesses, with our lives. - -But, we've been doing it all BACKWARDS ... because we need to FIRST, before serving others, be able to INDEFINITELY sustain our ability to be able to serve first. - -The PRE-REQUISITE and CONTINUING REQUIREMENT of all of our efforts to SERVE FIRST is that we must set SMART goals and work toward personal excellence to have the foundation of NEVER WORRYING, NEVER BEING NEEDY ... and then to work at our health and productivity to always be strong, capable and anxious to be called upon to serve ... and more than that, we must realize that MOST OF THE PEOPLE WHO ASK US FOR HELP are simply not worthy of being helping ... because they will choose to worry, they will choose to be needy, they will choose to blame others for not doing what they PATHETICALLY ask. - - -Our personal brand to SERVE FIRST has to be an HONEST and GENUINE reflection of our personal struggle toward excellence ... and we must expect those who ask for our help will work themselves in their own personal struggle toward excellence ***AND we need to leave the dead and those who have chosen to be dead to bury their dead.*** - - -We do that best by articulating a vision, defining an agenda and developing a personal brand ... building that brand with our own productivity, our our own skills, our own ideas about improving the health of our lives ... our own personal brand is about being healthier, being more fit, being more able to defend ourselves, being more able to help others be more fit, healthier, more productive ... but ultimately it is about the Name-Image-Likeness (NIL) asset -- because we must PUBLICLY reach out to other people around the world to FIND the community of people who share our interests, who might have similar general health and fitness goals, who also aspire to be healthier ... ***AND we need to leave the dead to bury their dead.*** - -# 16-week syllabus for studying how manage name-image-likeness digital assets and endorsement deals associated with a personal brand - - - -### Important Considerations: - -***The name-image-likeness asset that we will build has to match the personal struggle toward excellence.*** One area that you must establish an excellent personal compentence in your ability to gather intelligence and consider your options given your own personal values and goals. - -Gathering intelligence and being situationally aware of the ENTIRE world around you will PRE-REQUISITE and CONTINUING EDUCATION REQUIREMENT. Obviously yesterday's information or situational awareness is flawed for two reasons: 1) It was not perfect to begin with; it reflected your cognitive biases; 2) It's already dated; you cannot base your life on your musings from looking in the rear view mirror, even though most people do. The world around you will continue to adjust and change, so me must constantly re-adjust/revise our SMART goals and work toward personal excellence. - -Remember that this is a rapidly evolving landscape ... it's impossible to be current enough. The NIL space and everything we touch through our work in this space is especially rapidly changing. Stay updated on new developments! It's more essential to stay CURRENT in these matters than it is to stay current on your real estate, stocks or investment portfolio. - -You will NEED develop ways of staying current with applicable laws and regulations. Do not expect your attorney to be current; NIL assets are YOUR assets, not your attorney's assets -- so your attorney can only ADVISE you inside his narrow range of expertise and most established attorneys have little or now background in these areas. You will need to develop multiple sources of legal advice to give you second, third, fourth and fifth opinions. Based on your knowledge of this realm, it is up to YOU to hire competent counsel. It is up to YOU interview, hire and constantly find new legal advice. NIL rules vary by state. It is up to YOU to adapt this syllabus based on your local regulations. - - -## Week 1-2: NIL Fundamentals - -What is NIL? The history of the movement, key concepts, and stakeholders (student-athletes, brands, agents, universities, etc.). -Legal Foundations: Key legal rulings, a primer on contract basics, intellectual property protections (likeness, trademarks). -State Law Overview: Breakdown of regulations in your state, restrictions on activities, and school rules on NIL. - -## Week 3-4: Building a Personal Brand - -Defining Your Brand: Value identification, target audience, creating a distinctive online persona. -Social Media Mastery: Platform selection, content strategies, developing compelling personal narratives. -Networking Basics: Identifying contacts (agents, potential partners), outreach best practices. - -## Week 5-6: Digital Assets - -Types of Assets: Understanding your potential monetizable assets - social media channels, photos, videos, creative content. -Content Creation: Tools and techniques (photography, videography, editing) for DIY creations. -Data & Analytics: Setting audience targets and utilizing platform analytics to understand reach and engagement. - -## Week 7-8: Endorsement Deal Dynamics - -Deal Structures: Sponsorship types, compensation models (cash, royalties, equity), typical deal clauses. -Negotiation Basics: Setting pricing, protecting your interests, knowing your leverage and BATNA (Best Alternative To Negotiated Agreement). -Brand Relationship Management: Building mutually beneficial partnerships, delivering agreed-upon value. - -## Week 9-10: Managing Finances & Taxes - -Financial Essentials: Business income tracking, budgeting, managing deal payouts. -Tax Implications: Understanding tax liabilities on NIL income, deducting business expenses, estimated tax payments. - -## Week 11-12: Compliance & Risk Mitigation - -Considerations From Authorities/Stakeholders such as NCAA & School Guidelines: Staying up-to-date on relevant regulations and avoiding violations. -Brand Representation: Evaluating brand alignment with your values, handling controversial deals. -Personal Protection: Avoiding reputation risks, cyber threats, securing intellectual property rights. - -## Week 13-14: NIL & The Future - -Trend Analysis: Forecasting potential changes, the role of technology in NIL marketing. -Professional Growth: Leveraging NIL for broader career development, networking beyond immediate opportunities. -Ethical Considerations: Balancing profit with personal purpose in NIL deals and self-promotion. - -## Week 15-16: Real-World Practice - -Case Studies: Analyze successful and failed NIL campaigns, drawing best practices and red flags. -Guest Speakers: Invite seasoned agents, NIL advisors, or successful student-athletes for experience sharing. -Developing an Action Plan: Students create action plans outlining brand and NIL revenue strategy. -Resources: - -Online Courses: Relevant NIL platforms and MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) -Books & Articles: Expert opinions, legal insights. -Industry Trade Shows & Conferences: Connect with experts and explore trends. - - -## This syllabus is only a rough outline of a starting point for an ongoing syllabus - -CONTINUALLY revise, update, renew, customize and adjust this syllabus and seek professional guidance where needed for legal and financial matters. You will want to read ahead, plan to do deeper dives or more specific course elements ... but the first weeks assignment is to GROK the entire syllabus and revise / reprioritize it for the months ahead! *In other words, you will never finish this syllabus ... it is a living document that you will constantly be revising and updating because you will ALWAYS BE WORKING ON YOUR BRAND ... ALWAYS!* diff --git a/_posts/2024-02-21-swarm-robotics-and-warfighting-obsolescence.md b/_posts/2024-02-21-swarm-robotics-and-warfighting-obsolescence.md deleted file mode 100644 index e69ebdeb..00000000 --- a/_posts/2024-02-21-swarm-robotics-and-warfighting-obsolescence.md +++ /dev/null @@ -1,135 +0,0 @@ ---- -layout: post -title: "Swarm Robotics and Warfighting Obsolescence" -date: 2024-02-21 4:30:00 -categories: template ---- - - - -# Introduction to swarm computing and swarm robotics - -In order for us to lay the groundwork for how we might think about implementing swarm robotics, it's important to first think about relatively simple things such as the major difficulties that most new users will experience in adopting something like ROS 2 for swarm robotics projects in a mocked-up industrial setting for something like a high-school science project ... and thereafter, we can level up our thinking in terms of applying practical industrial experience with swarm robotics to new battlefield scenarios. - -Of course, for different scenariors and because of the constant development of technologies, there will be better alternatives or other alternatives that are better than just ROS 2 or some variant, but even ROS 2 and the coordination of something like a high school science project can be a NECESSARY starting point for thinking about how to implement swarm robotics in a practical setting, ie it's important to climb the learn curve and learn BIG lessons with the very small cost and tiniest risk of danger or even nuisance to others. - -## Challenges that users may face when adopting ROS 2 for swarm robotics projects in industrial settings: - -1. Complexity: ROS 2 has a steep learning curve, especially for users who are not familiar with the ROS ecosystem. Understanding the concepts, architecture, and tools can be time-consuming and challenging. - -2. Integration with existing systems: Integrating ROS 2 with existing industrial systems, such as PLCs, SCADA, or other proprietary software, can be difficult. It may require custom middleware or interfaces, which can add complexity and maintenance overhead. - -3. Real-time performance: In some industrial applications, real-time performance is critical. While ROS 2 has improved real-time capabilities compared to ROS 1, it may still not meet the strict real-time requirements of certain industrial use cases. - -4. Scalability: Managing a large swarm of robots using ROS 2 can be challenging, especially when dealing with limited bandwidth, network latency, and resource constraints. Ensuring reliable communication and coordination among the robots can be complex. - -5. Security: Industrial settings often have stringent security requirements. ROS 2 has better security features than ROS 1, but it may still require additional measures to meet specific industrial security standards and protect against potential vulnerabilities. - -6. Robustness and reliability: Industrial environments can be harsh, and robots need to operate reliably under various conditions. Ensuring the robustness and fault tolerance of the ROS 2-based system can be challenging, particularly when dealing with a large swarm of robots. - -## Alternatives to ROS 2 for swarm robotics in industrial settings - -1. MQTT: MQTT (Message Queuing Telemetry Transport) is a lightweight publish-subscribe protocol that can be used for communication among robots. It is well-suited for low-bandwidth, high-latency networks and can be easily integrated with industrial systems. - -2. DDS: DDS (Data Distribution Service) is a middleware standard for real-time systems. It provides low-latency, high-throughput communication and supports various quality of service (QoS) policies. DDS is used as the underlying communication layer in ROS 2, but it can also be used independently. - -3. Custom frameworks: Some organizations choose to develop their own custom frameworks tailored to their specific requirements. This allows for greater control and optimization but requires significant development effort and expertise. - -4. Industrial-specific platforms: There are some industrial-specific platforms and frameworks designed for robot control and automation, such as ABB's RobotStudio, KUKA's KUKA.PLC, or Siemens' SIMATIC. These platforms are often tightly integrated with the respective robot hardware and provide a higher level of industrial compatibility and support. - -The choice between ROS 2 and other alternatives depends on the specific requirements, constraints, and expertise of the industrial setting. ROS 2 offers a rich ecosystem, extensive libraries, and community support, making it a very popular choice for many entry level robotics projects. - -## Alternatives to ROS 2 for applications with stricter real-time, security, or integration requirements - -### AUTOSAR (AUTomotive Open System ARchitecture): -AUTOSAR is a standardized software architecture for automotive electronic control units (ECUs). -It provides a real-time operating system (RTOS) and a set of standardized software interfaces and services. -AUTOSAR is designed to ensure real-time performance, reliability, and safety in automotive systems. -It has strong industry adoption and is suitable for applications with strict real-time and safety requirements. - -### OROCOS (Open Robot Control Software): - -OROCOS is a real-time toolkit for robot control and automation. -It consists of a real-time kernel, a component framework, and a set of libraries for motion control, kinematics, and dynamics. -OROCOS provides deterministic real-time performance and is suitable for applications with strict timing constraints. -It offers a modular and flexible architecture, making it easier to integrate with existing industrial systems. - -### ROCK (Robot Construction Kit): - -ROCK is a software framework for robotic systems that emphasizes real-time performance and modularity. -It provides a component-based architecture and a set of tools for system integration and deployment. -ROCK is designed to support real-time control, perception, and planning in robotic applications. -It offers a high degree of flexibility and extensibility, making it suitable for complex robotic systems. - -### RTI Connext DDS: -RTI Connext DDS is a commercial implementation of the Data Distribution Service (DDS) standard. -It provides a real-time, secure, and scalable messaging middleware for distributed systems. -Connext DDS supports various quality of service (QoS) policies and offers strong security features, including authentication, encryption, and access control. -It is widely used in mission-critical applications, such as aerospace, defense, and industrial automation. - -### OPC UA (Open Platform Communications Unified Architecture): -OPC UA is an industrial communication protocol and information modeling standard. -It provides a secure, reliable, and interoperable framework for data exchange between industrial devices and systems. -OPC UA supports real-time communication, security features (authentication, encryption, and access control), and complex data modeling. -It is widely adopted in industrial automation and is suitable for integrating robotic systems with existing industrial infrastructure. -These alternatives offer different features and capabilities focused on real-time performance, security, and integration with industrial systems. The choice of the most suitable alternative depends on the specific requirements of the application, the existing infrastructure, and the expertise of the development team. - -### Summary - -It's important to note that while all of these different alternatives excel in different aspects, they will have an steeper learning curve than ROS 2, with a smaller community for diverse ideas or support and limited ecosystem of affiliated middleware or supporting hardware when compared to the ecosystem surrounding ROS 2. It's crucial to learn in the virtual realm to greatest degree possible in order to better think through and systematically evaluate the trade-offs. It's not just about making a *trophy application* work at the high school science fair -- it is necessary to consider the long-term development, maintenance and logistical support aspects when selecting an alternative framework for a specific application. - -## Theoretical research and development in swarm robotics - -[Swarm robotics](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swarm_robotics), [multi-agent systems](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multi-agent_system) and [fog computing](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fog_computing) ***will be*** two of the most important technologies that will change the way we think about warfighting ... and yes, they are probably still primarily only at vaporware stage -- we have not REALLY seen these things in action yet, **although** the conflict in Ukraine gives us a hint about what is to come.We have long known that the [use of swarm robotics or using multiple robots in a coordinated fashion in industrial settings](https://web.archive.org/web/20180726044234/https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007%2F978-3-319-62533-1_15.pdf) shortens manufacturing time by performing different tasks simultaneously. - -The aspect of [**emergent advantages**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emergence) of complex swarms of work completion is certainly not at all new or just some property that has **emergentized** because of swarm robotics, ie it was not invented *lately*. Our grandparents and people before them had all heard and used the old expression: ***Many hands make light work.*** Its earliest known appearance is in the book "Proverbs" by John Heywood, which was published in 1546, but the concept behind this proverb can be traced back to ancient times, eg Homer's "Iliad" includes a passage that translates to "*By union the smallest states thrive, by discord the greatest are destroyed.*" Within the [philosophy of science](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philosophy_of_science), the most advanced thinking on emergentism both contrasts with and parallels reductionism, because emergentism involves the complexity of [neural correlates of consciousness](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neural_correlates_of_consciousness) and the [philosophy of mind](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philosophy_of_mind). - -There are many tasks in any sort of complex setting, such as either an industrial environment with an autonomous warehouse or an even more complicated, highly uncertain battlefield in war, where the collaborative, intelligent, evolving coordination of multiple robots is essential to even being able to accomplish a task objective. These two examples illustrate the importance of collaborative, intelligent, and evolving coordination among multiple robots in highly uncertain, dynamic, and complex environments; it may be worth contemplating these examples in further detail. - -### First Example: More Predictable, Less Beligerent Industrial Environment Or Autonomous Warehouse - -In a large-scale autonomous warehouse, multiple robots are deployed to handle tasks such as inventory management, order fulfillment, and material transportation. The warehouse environment is highly dynamic, with constant changes in inventory levels, order priorities, and physical layout. The robots need to collaborate and coordinate their actions intelligently to optimize warehouse operations. - -For example, when an urgent order comes in, the robots must quickly coordinate to locate the required items, package them, and prepare them for shipping. This involves real-time communication, task allocation, and path planning among the robots. The robots must also adapt to changes in the environment, such as newly arrived inventory or temporary obstacles, and update their coordination strategies accordingly. - -The coordination challenges become even more complex when dealing with heterogeneous robot teams, where each robot has different capabilities and specializations. For instance, some robots may be responsible for heavy lifting, while others are equipped with high-precision manipulators for delicate tasks. Coordinating these diverse robots requires sophisticated algorithms for task assignment, resource allocation, and synchronization. - -### Second Example: Less Predictable, More Beligerent Battlefield Environment Or Military Police in Hostile Territory - -In a battlefield setting, multiple robots, such as unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs), and autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs), are deployed to support military operations. The battlefield environment is highly uncertain and dynamic, with rapidly changing threats, objectives, and environmental conditions. - -For example, in a reconnaissance mission, a team of UAVs may be tasked with gathering intelligence about enemy positions and movements. The UAVs need to coordinate their flight paths, sensor coverage, and data sharing to maximize the information gathered while minimizing the risk of detection. They must also adapt to changing weather conditions, enemy countermeasures, and evolving mission objectives. - -In a combat scenario, multiple robots may be involved in coordinated attacks or defensive maneuvers. This requires real-time coordination, precise timing, and adaptive formation control. The robots must be able to quickly adjust their strategies based on the actions of the enemy and the changing battlefield conditions. - -Moreover, in a military setting, the robots must also interact and coordinate with human operators and other manned systems. This adds another layer of complexity, requiring seamless communication, shared situational awareness, and collaborative decision-making between humans and robots. - -In both examples, the success of the mission depends on the ability of the robots to collaborate intelligently, adapt to changing circumstances, and make decisions collectively. This requires advanced algorithms for distributed decision-making, multi-robot task allocation, and adaptive coordination. - -The coordination algorithms must be able to handle incomplete information, communication limitations, and the possibility of robot failures or losses. They must also be scalable to accommodate a large number of robots and be resilient to disruptions and adversarial actions. - -## Gamification, simulation and developing advanced strategies for other coordination examples - -Developing effective coordination strategies for such complex and uncertain environments is an active area of research in robotics and artificial intelligence. Techniques such as swarm intelligence, multi-agent reinforcement learning, and decentralized control are being explored to enable intelligent and adaptive coordination among multiple robots in challenging real-world settings. - -* Manipulating [large] structural elements in a coordinated fashion in environments that are hard or impossible for humans to access such as in space or underwater. -* Performing a coordinated search or intelligence gathering task through the collaboration of different types of robots, likely in a largescale disaster or hazardous envionment, a flying drone can more rapidly locate areas where the most valuable assets are likely to be found, while a tracked robot on the ground searches in coordinated manner to refine the overall observability. -* Performing simultaneous measurements in different locations with different instruments: measuring sound disturbances in different parts of a building while monitoring toxic pollutants or radiation after an industrial accident. - -It should come as no surprise that swarm robotics, as a highly coordinated logistics-enabling technology has rapidly changed warfighting and defense strategies. It is important for us to be aware of what this means ... the wars of the 2030s will not be fought with the technologies of the the 2000 or even the technologies of 2015. We might admire old warfighting technologies as museum pieces, but we should not imagine that they are not obsolete. When we say that "Freedom is not free" it increasing means that our technology and tactics that incorporate the most approapriate technologies must be part of our overall strategy. - -Of course, we might think that we don't want to update our skills ... we might be able to kind of coast on the freedom provided for us, but we need to exercise those freedoms, especially the **freedom to inform ourselves** and practice with applicable technology. - -We live in an information age and are subject to what could be described as information war. Of course, there is no substitute for being fiercely skeptical and yet generally aware enough of technological developments in warfighting and reasonably familar with how those technologies might be obtained implemented so that one can defend oneself. It is necessary for a well-informed citizenry to be able to defend against tyranny ... even if that defense would involve certain death for most of those doing the fighting. It's your duty as a citizen to kinda know what's going on and not be completely helpless in the face of those who would gladly prefer to keep you stupid or using their preferred media choices to program you to accept their form of tyranny. - -You are kidding yourself if you think that you can be free if you don't devote at least some mental energy to the topic of self-defense and awareness of different mechanisms of self-defense. In keeping with the distributed defense philosophical underpinnings of the 2nd Amendment of the US Constitutions, it is quite necessary for citizens to be able to procure, keep and bear arms ... and arms is certainly not limited to firearms ... it is about a robust defense and awareness of what that defense would require ... therefore it is necessary to explore the implications of new technologies and the potential impact of those technologies on the future of warfighting and self-defense in the event of civil wars and insurrections. - -In the ongoing war against tyranny ...the best way to PREVENT the war from taking your ability to fight away is to use what freedom you have to prepare for what is likely to be an inevitable reality ... prevention is the only thing that really makes tyranny less likely. - -The reality that freedom can never be free, but must be continually exercised is why we continue to delve into the topics like RTOS and fault-tolerant distributed data databases, communications technologies for self-organizing hierarchies of smart systems ... in order to lay the groundwork for our future understanding of things that we expect to be more important [with applicability in many different fields] such as [swarm robotics](https://web.archive.org/web/20180726044234/https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007%2F978-3-319-62533-1_15.pdf). A topic like swarm robotics matters because swarm robotics is a logistic technology, for moving material and machines ... and, in use as as a defense technlogy, swarm robotics is all about the disruption of logistics ... for example, in the Ukrainian strikes against Russian ammo depots, we see ways in how swarms of hundreds of robotic UAVs and or tens of sea drones act as decoys, while armed drones precisely deliver payloads that destroy or at least temporarily disrupt the invading tyrant's warfighting capability. - -We can start thinking about self-organizing, but independent autonomous robots by reviewing materials on [Self-organizing Nervous Systems (SoNS) of n-multiple independent robots for coordinated swarm robotics](https://browse.arxiv.org/abs/2401.13103). {*NOTE: Please be advised that the [full pdf for this paper](https://arxiv.org/pdf/2401.13103.pdf) is quite large and will take longer than most*}. If you are interested in this material and the level of development in this field, it also a good idea, in order to have some understanding of the PUBLICLY AVAILABLE pre-print knowledge, to keep up [daily] with new developments in [Arxiv's most recent Computer Science:Robotics preprints](https://browse.arxiv.org/list/cs.RO/recent). - -***Obviously, we should not expect ALL of the current knowledge to immediately show up on Arxiv! It's just that Arxiv does us as provide ordinary members of the public around the world with a LAGGING indication of the level of development in knowledge that is happening in this particular discipline of tech development.*** - -The point of this is that warfighting systems dependent upon tanks, motorized artillery and different automotive warfighting systems which were useful a decade ago have become rapidly become increasingly obsolete as new tech-enabled warfighting strategies have been proven effective ... especially, based on what the world has seen in the last couple years. The warfighting methods of 2014 are now BADLY DATED ... because things like the technological developments such as Self-Organizing Nervous Systems (SoNS) we see in swarm robotics nowadays have made multi-hundred or multi-thousand drone [self-organizing] coordinated swarm technology a battlefield reality. **Weapon systems that worked in Afghanistan or Iraq wars of the 2000s and 2010s are now obsolete; weapons systems that were used in the 1990s are not DANGEROUSLY obsolete. IT IS TIME TO DISPOSE OF THE INVENTORIES OF THESE TECHNOLOGIES WHILE THEY STILL ARE VALUED.** diff --git a/_posts/2024-02-24-two-years-after-the-invasion.md b/_posts/2024-02-24-two-years-after-the-invasion.md deleted file mode 100644 index f1e342e4..00000000 --- a/_posts/2024-02-24-two-years-after-the-invasion.md +++ /dev/null @@ -1,36 +0,0 @@ ---- -layout: post -title: "Two Years After The Russian Invasion Of Ukraine" -date: 2024-02-24 4:30:00 -categories: template ---- - -What LESSONS does the [Russian invasion of Ukraine](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_invasion_of_Ukraine) have for us? - -I am not exactly talking about geopolitical lessons. People will be debating those for years ... because it takes that long. I am talking about the lessons that we have learned from people around us and their reactions to the "news" or disinformation that they have been consuming as their news. - -There are those of us who really thought that Putin was smarter, that he would just *rattle the ol' sabre* to get Western nations to give him his concessions, but we were wrong ... he did actually cross the line and invade TWO YEARS AGO TODAY. - -Ever since the Russians actually did invade Ukraine, Putin and the Russian propaganda machines has been EXTREMELY clear about how the point of the special operation was to demilitarize Ukraine ... they clearly believed that they did not have a choice, that they HAD TO invade and invade in 2022 to make NATO much less of a check on the Russian state police or KGB [chekist autocracy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chekism) that Putin controls. - -Putin has, just as the Putin apologists have, always alluded to the Ukrainian "nazis." Of course, Putin's inflamatory fear-mongering and use of the word "nazi" to describe the Ukrainian military is not only intended for Russian consumption, but it was also put out there to completely dupe a gullible worldwide audience of isolationists, ie the COWARDS who are desperately looking for any excuse that sounds good to make them feel that the invasion of a sovereign nation is not a threat to their own security. The cowardly isolationists can repeat the "nazi" description to make their own cowardice sound like a virtue, but the reality is a lot closer to what the Finns, Estonians, Latvians, Lithuanians, and Poles KNOW about the Russian threat. - -The point of Putin's use of the world "nazi" and general deception about characterizing the Ukrainians as somehow equivalent with Germans, Europeans, the European Community and NATO is to conjure up the old MYTHS of Russia's so-called "Great Patriotic War" ... which was a war which Stalin completely courted and brought on the Russian people almost by himself [but with the tacit acceptance of his dictatorship by the Russia people] by colluding with Hitler in the [Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molotov%E2%80%93Ribbentrop_Pact). The whole plan was for Germany and Russia to take over the independent nations of Poland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and also swallow up ALL of Eastern Europe ... of course, Hitler needed Stalin's help to do this; but Stalin also needed Hitler's help to pull off this MASSIVE war crime ... and yet, SOMEHOW, Stalin did not see that Hitler had no intention of *honoring* the agreement to divvy up all of that territory and the hundreds of millions of people/slaves who occupied it ... so the Russians were rewarded for their war crime, by the Nazis invading their territory ALSO, ie the Russians got what they deserved ... and ever since, any European who is seen as a threat to Russia is labeled a "nazi." - -The TRUTH of the matter is obviously that not all of the Ukrainians are as *nice* as the pacified, subservient Russians who fall into line behind the [chekist thugs](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chekism) like Putin. There are SOME unsavory extremists of hundreds or thousands of people that will necessarily be part of the group that turns beligerant and FIGHTS in any population of well [over 40 million in 2021](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Ukraine) ... the unsavory militarized rabble of deplorable characters who say nasty, inflamatory things in front of audiences are always going to be part of an UNGOVERNABLE population of free, independent citizens. - -# LESSON 1: Americans REFUSE to think critically about information that is presented to them. - -Not exactly a new lesson ... we just get to re-learn this lesson whenever some event like invasion of Ukraine comes along. - -Wikipedia, for example, is probably the least biased source of information that you can find on the internet, but Wikipedia is not a source of truth on ANY of its pages. Rather, Wikipedia is a source of what is verfiable according other sources that are cited in the article. What is presented on a Wikipedia page is hardly ever static *except for DEAD pages* [which are possibly scheduled for cleanup, ie deletion]. Instead, Wikipedia pages are always converging toward a lowest-common-denominator consensus which is the result of a rather fierce ongoing battle between editors who are fiercely loyal to what they see as their own ***truths***. In sum, Wikipedia is probably the least-biased source of information that you can find on the internet, but it is not a source of truth and it is, as a product of the editor's insistence upon verifiability, never a source of the most current information ... the important point here is EVERY OTHER SOURCE OF INFORMATION IS WORSE THAN WIKIPEDIA is biased, and if you *like* a source of information because it affirms your beliefs, that source of information is probably as dangerously biased as biased can be, *becuase you CANNNOT think critically about what you LIKE watching, hearing, watching.* - -# LESSON 2: The vast majority, ie maybe >95%, of the American public is completely unprepared to even think about defending themselves and their nation. - -First of all, the MAIN problem, MOST LIKELY TO ACTUALLY KILL THEM is with them and their habits ... it's not really a threat from any kind of invader or from hordes of immigrants. People are most likely to suffer MORE and die EARLIER than than they would otherwise strictly because of they are extremely attached to their own bad habits of being themselves. They consume POISONS that are advertised in Super Bowl advertisements because they have allowed the advertisements to entertain, coddle, and trigger them to consume in greater quantities and deepen their addictions to their POISONS. Not only that, but when their friends and family members call them out for their patterns of consumption, they are likely to become defensive and then to attack and ostracize the buzzkill who is merely pointing out how they are killing themselves or frittering away their money on things that reinforce the indulgence of their addictions. - -How many Americans lead something like a HEALTHY lifestyle IN WHICH THEY TRAIN DAILY TO BE ABLE TO FIGHT AND DEFEND THEMSELVES, THEIR FAMILIES/FRIENDS? How many TRAIN DAILY to that ... if they don't TRAIN DAILY or at least weekly, then how Americans going to be prepared to defend themselves and their nation? - -# LESSON 3: MOST Americans are not only willing to SWALLOW the active measures propaganda wholesale, but they are willing to share it as if they discovered it. - -How many Americans are MENTALLY PREPARED to recognize propaganda or at least aware of how "active measures" campaigns are used to divide populations? How many are prepared MENTALLY to defend their minds and the minds of others in their nation from the active measures propaganda that is being used to divide and conquer them? diff --git a/_posts/2024-03-03-open-source-EDA-tool-communities.md b/_posts/2024-03-03-open-source-EDA-tool-communities.md deleted file mode 100644 index db34e524..00000000 --- a/_posts/2024-03-03-open-source-EDA-tool-communities.md +++ /dev/null @@ -1,75 +0,0 @@ ---- -layout: post -title: "Open Source Development Communities For EDA Tools" -date: 2024-03-03 4:30:00 -categories: template ---- - - -In order to understand where EDA tools are GOING ... in the **future**, not *now* which is readily available from [Synopsys](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synopsys), [Siemens EDA (formerly Mentor Graphics)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siemens_EDA) and [Cadence Design Systems](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cadence_Design_Systems) or the [general Wikipedia page for comparison of free & open source software EDA tools](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_EDA_software#Comparison_of_free_&_open_source_software_EDA_tools) or [DARPA/Google's OpenROAD Project for open-source semiconductor design automation tools](https://github.com/The-OpenROAD-Project) ... it's probably a great idea to follow the [**Top 500 list of supercomputers**](https://www.top500.org/) *for the same reason that shade tree mechanics might follow the pit stops at Indy, Formula One or NASCAR.* - -As a practical point, it's also kind of important to follow how trends in supercomputing tend to end up in the AI hardware market ... through things like AI,the bleeding edge of supercomputing has a way of working its way down to the mobile and even edge devices ... and the general philosophies behind supercompute are going to eventually proved to be the most important driver what is needed in EDA tools to produce affordable, high-volume, commodity processing capabilities. - -It's certainly interesting to try to guess what kinds of secrets the fastest of the fastest of the fastest teams are using, but in the LONG RUN though ... legitimately OPEN models will always win and gnaw at away at even the best of the best proprietary tech outfits, eg look at Linux v Windows running in containers OR the Python ecosystem v VisualBasic ... because tens of millions of engineers can work on a problem versus the staff in the cubefarms at different locations of a single company. No matter how incredibly smart you think that the people on your staff are, the vast majority of the smartest people in the world are necessarily going to be working for someone else. If you have an ELITE level job with the most elite of the elite level companies, you might be tempted to think rather highly of the people you work with ... but the reality is that open source development communities are where you are going to find the very smartest and MOST INTELLIGENTLY GENUINELY KIND, most visionary people in the world. - -The whole POINT of ***participating*** in an open source development community ... and PARTICIPATING means *genuinely contributing* in a way that one forms new friendships and professional relationships within that community ... the whole POINT of PARTICIPATING in a **development community** is about the **personal GROWTH** that comes out of building something that will GROW and will be generally NEEDED [by everyone using a computer or mobile device or participating in an economy connected to others in the world] for at least the next two or three decades. - -Examples of open source development communities is necessarily about the key quasi-famous development leads, eg [Richard Stallman](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Stallman) or [Linus Torvalds](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linus_Torvalds) but also lots of quasi-anonymous code committers, code reviewers, documentation writers and application users who provided useful feedback to really important open source technology such as the [GNU Debugger](https://www.sourceware.org/gdb/) and [GNU Bash](https://www.gnu.org/software/bash/), [Linux](https://docs.kernel.org/), [MariaDB (because open source MySQL was CLOSED by Sun-Oracle)](https://mariadb.org/), [PostGRES](https://www.postgresql.org/), [SQLite](https://sqlite.org/), [Git](https://git-scm.com/doc), [Python and the Python ecosystem](https://www.python.org/community/) including [PyTorch](https://pytorch.org/) and [TensorFlow](https://www.tensorflow.org/), [neo4j](https://neo4j.com/open-source-project/) and [GraphQL](https://graphql.org/), [Open Container Initiative](https://opencontainers.org/), [K8s](https://kubernetes.io/) and, course, [development toolchains and different forms of instrumentation which embed eBPF](https://ebpf.io/what-is-ebpf/#development-toolchains). - -Many of these open source technologies are like EDA tools in that billions of people now DEPEND upon something derived from these tools or technologies ... even though most of those people will never realize how what things they rely upon actually depends on that technology ... of course, anyone dependentu upon some form of technology that includes an integrated circuit of some type already sort of *depends*, albeit INDIRECTLY, upon the EDA tools that were used to design and manufacture that integrated circuit product ... but the nature of AI and higher performance compute-intensive technologies will make these EDA tools that much more relevant. As we move toward a much more productive ***sharing economy***, eg populated by companies whose business model is based upon optimization of SHARED resources, such as Uber, AirBnB or AWS/GCP/Azure and other cloud compute services, the degree to which resources are shared in a much more hyper-efficient manner will be enabled by the processing capability of smarter systems that are built with the help of EDA tools. - -When we look at EDA tools ... we sort of immediately start thinking about the underlying, foundational things like mathematical libraries that these sophisicated tools are going need ... then we also think about debugging software built on those libraries ... which takes us in the direction of tools for [tracing](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tracing_(software)), [profiling](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Profiling_(computer_programming)), [packet filtering with BPF](https://docs.cilium.io/en/latest/bpf/) as well as [parts of the development toolchains and infosec instrumentation that embed eBPF](https://ebpf.io/what-is-ebpf/#development-toolchains) like [BCC](https://github.com/iovisor/bcc), [bpftrace](https://github.com/ajor/bpftrace), [perf](https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/tree/tools/perf), [ply](https://github.com/wkz/ply), [systemtap](https://sourceware.org/systemtap/wiki/HomePage), [PCP](https://github.com/performancecopilot/pcp), [Weave Scope](https://github.com/weaveworks/scope), [Cilium](https://github.com/cilium/cilium), [Suricata](https://github.com/OISF/suricata), [systemd](https://github.com/systemd/systemd), [iproute2](https://wiki.linuxfoundation.org/networking/iproute2), [p4c-xdp](https://github.com/vmware/p4c-xdp), [the LLVM compiler infrastructure](https://llvm.org/), [libbpf](https://github.com/libbpf/libbpf), [bpftool](https://github.com/libbpf/bpftool) [cilium ebpf-go](https://github.com/cilium/ebpf) [cilium ebpf_asm](https://github.com/Xilinx-CNS/ebpf_asm) and [Falco](https://falco.org/). - -The whole POINT of PARTICIPATING in a development community is about the **personal GROWTH** that comes out of building something that will GROW and will be generally NEEDED [by everyone using a computer or mobile device or participating in an economy connected to others in the world] for at least the next two or three decades. - -It's all about GROWTH ... when you think deeply about this, you start to realize that it is primarily about your own growth. - -## Thinking about GROWTH - -Thinking about GROWTH is really about thinking about what the world WILL need in the next five, ten, twenty-five, fifty years ... it's primarily about thinking about your own growth, it's not really so much about thinking about investment growth, but these two things should sort of be heading in the same general direction. - -When we think about the kinds of companies that are about exemplary new GROWTH which happens because the product or service of that company is about creates something BRAND NEW that did not exist before the company started up for customers or users, we can look at the [current unicorn companies](https://pitchbook.com/news/articles/unicorn-startups-list-trends) to discern the TRENDS in terms what kinds of things get funded AND what kinds of things do well after funding. This **TRAJECTORY** can give individuals a good idea where they should aim to develop their skills for the kinds of things that will be in demand in five, ten or twenty years. - -When it comes to FUTURE GROWTH and publicly traded companies that investors can actually invest in ... doubling your money every five years or less is about where you should aim for your investments to perform; in some cases, you can take on slightly more risks, but you should not take complete fliers - - -When it comes to thinking about what is needed most in the realm of open source, we first want to step back and ***really think deeply*** about the kinds of companies that are about exemplary new GROWTH which happens because the product or service of that company is about creates something BRAND NEW that did not exist before the company started up for customers or users. - -The best example of these kinds of startups for lots of people to follow will probably be the [current unicorn companies](https://pitchbook.com/news/articles/unicorn-startups-list-trends). It might be true that the average small investor cannot ordinarily participate by investing directly in these unicorn companies, but what we are after is generally studying the general trends or gist of ideas that are represented. When we want to understand the **trajectory** of what ***will be*** important in five or ten years, we can follow the population of unicorns over time to discern the TRENDS in terms what kinds of things get funded AND what kinds of things do well after funding. This **TRAJECTORY** can give individuals a good idea where they should aim to develop their skills for the kinds of things that will be in demand in five, ten or twenty years. - -In other words, there's nothing magic about the kinds of foundational mathematical libraries used by EDA tools or CAD software ... but we generally know that these skillsets WILL BE in demand ... but competition in this realm will be intense and, it's sort of like professional football, there's not really any room on the field for either the guy who just enjoys watching the game on teevee OR for the AlBundy-type who wants to dream about the time he scored four touchdowns in the City football championship decades ago, ie it doesn't matter what you did in back in day, in the 2010s, 2000s, 1990s or before -- there's not any room on the field for teevee watchers or old guys reliving their glory days. - -**Working on open source development communities is all ABOUT WHAT YOU CAN DEMONSTRATE THROUGH YOUR OPEN SOURCE PORTFOLIO THAT YOU WILL BE ABLE DO FIVE YEARS or TEN YEARS FROM NOW ... it's entirely future-driven ... NOT about looking back or being a spectator, it's about training and getting yourself aware of trends so that you train for the next war, not the last one, and are ready to participate in FUTURE GROWTH.** - -When it comes to FUTURE GROWTH and publicly traded companies that investors can actually invest in ... doubling your money every five years or less is about where you should aim for your investments to perform; in some cases, you can take on slightly more risks, but you should not take complete fliers or invest in wild-ass schemes with no sustained record of delivering bigger and bigger accomplishments. Above all, your INVESTMENTS should not fluctuate wildly or erratically because of governmental policy shifts or rumors of shifts, like Bitcoin which is a CASINO STOCK, because it is ENTIRELY dependent upon the whims and changing moods of governments and policy makers, ie there's no GROWTH in terms of new accomplishments on the horizon from the Bitcoin universe ... it will swing radically up and down because of Fed policy and government Dept of Treasury policy. - -REAL growth looks and behaves very differently. Of course there are unicorn companies like Anduril that are growing rapidly by radically overhauling the way Dept of Defense technology is procured, but the average investor cannot participate in Anduril, unless that person is qualified for a career with kinds of talent that Anduril is recruiting. Other examples of REAL growth would be the growth in the technologies that underly the explosion in high performance computing necessary for AI ... that would mean companies like NVIDIA or ASML; some people would include companies like Microsoft or Google or Apple. The best example of what is possible from PURE growth is company like NVIDIA which began 30 years ago (up 2163% in five years) or ASML which was founded forty years ago (up 439% in five years). Microsoft is not as much of a PURE growth play but it still has some growth left in it thanks to the Github ecosystem and now Copilot/Bing AI (up 264% in five years ). Even Google, although it's mainly about SEARCH [and recommendation, through Gmail and Google Docs] and the monetization of search/recommendation with advertising is still involved in AI with its acquistion of DeepMind and its development of TPU tensor core chips and the rest of its Google Compute enterprise is still *somewhat* growthy (up 133% in five years, which is just ahead of the Nasdaq Composite Index at 114% over five years). - -Broadly capable developers of talent that produce solid records of growth in their accomplishments are the companies outpace the market indices because they have really deep benches that are about more than just acquiring talent, but also feature solid systems for developing talent farther than that talent could develop on its own to produce dynamic product management teams that generate new products and services that just keep on growing and growing ... the companies that you want to invest in grow over the very long term because they consistently demonstrate better results at using/developing talent in some sort of system that keeps developing and attracting talent because the products keep getting better and better ... the companies that you want divest from are those that are no longer developing the talent produces brand new things for customers. - - - -Let's say that you wanted to become some sort of [hardware verification engineer for company like NVIDIA](https://nvidia.wd5.myworkdayjobs.com/NVIDIAExternalCareerSite?q=hardware%20verification&jobFamilyGroup=0c40f6bd1d8f10ae43ffaefd46dc7e78) ... you will have to go a little bit *beyond just being able to regurgitate Wikipedia pages for terms such as* [system-level](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-level_synthesis) [RTL](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Register-transfer_level), [SystemVerilog](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SystemVerilog), [Universal Verification Methodology](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Verification_Methodology), [Synopsys VCS](https://www.synopsys.com/verification/simulation/vcs.html) or equivalent [HDL simulation tools](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_HDL_simulators) like [MentorGraphics ModelSim](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ModelSim), [Debussy debug tool](https://www.design-reuse.com/news/1659/novas-open-source-web-tool.html), [the GNU Debugger](https://www.baeldung.com/linux/gdb-debug) for [debugging during hardware verification](https://interrupt.memfault.com/blog/gdb-for-firmware-1). - -You kind of need to understand the how/why/what of electronic design automation (EDA) toolchains, including just enough of the history to be dangerous, ie to be able to understand the context of the tools that you will be using. As metal–oxide–semiconductor (MOS) technology progressed, millions and then billions of MOS transistors could be placed on one chip -- which means, that well before, [we entered the billion-transistor processor era over 20 years ago](https://web.archive.org/web/20110608072423/http://www.eetimes.com/electronics-products/processors/4079511/Intel-enters-billion-transistor-processor-era), integrated circuit designs really ***required*** the kind of exhaustively thorough planning and simulation tasks that would be impossible without modern EDA toolchains. - -Now ... let's say ... just for the sake of arguement that you were interested in help people get up to speed with open source EDA tools ... knowing full well, that maximizing productivity from the best of the best designers will warrant the top-of-the-line proprietary EDA tools ... but also knowing that the open source EDA tools are ***good enough*** for DEVELOPING A BASIC UNDERSTANDING OF ALMOST ALL OF THE WORK that will needs to be done. - -It's probably a good idea to BEGIN our discussion of the open source development communities that surround different open source EDA tools with [a ***very-high level*** **introduction** to the basic EDA design flow](https://anysilicon.com/asic-design-flow-ultimate-guide/) that is typically used for [Very Large Scale Integrated Circuits](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Very_Large_Scale_Integration), [Very High Speed Integrated Circuits](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Very_High_Speed_Integrated_Circuit_Program), [Ultra Large-Scale Integrated Circuits](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Integrated_circuit#ULSI,_WSI,_SoC_and_3D-IC), [Wafer-Scale Integration](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wafer-scale_integration), [System on a Chip](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/System_on_a_chip), [3D Integrated Circuits](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three-dimensional_integrated_circuit), [Multi-chip Modules](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multi-chip_module), [Flip Chip Multi-Chip Modules](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flip_chip) and an increasing variety of hardware ... especially for anyone who has not had much experience in the realm of using an [EDA design flow](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Design_flow_(EDA)) for producing any kind of [integrated circuit](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Integrated_circuit) such as microprocessors (CPUs), graphical processors (GPUs), tensor processors (TPUs), AI accelerators, ASICs, FPGAs and the vast array of other large combinations of integrated circuits. - -After we have gotten lost deep in the weeds without really trying, we can see WHY it is really so easy for people to get really badly lost way deep in the weeds of comparing this tool vs that tool the EDA design flow ... especially since the landscape is driven to be competitive and nobody is going to rest on their laurels, so the landscape evolves and evolves in an impossibly rapid fashion ... so let's GO BACK TO THE FOUNDATION and think about what will always be the commonalities ... what HAS TO underpin all of the work that gets done ... even with AI coding assistants and other AI tools to handle the gigantic volume of tedious chores and checks that have to be done, ie trillions or more tasks per day or per hour. - -Proficiency with [a debugger](https://spectralops.io/blog/top-11-debuggers-you-need-to-know-in-2021/) is always going to be ESSENTIAL ... even though all will probably look like some derivative of [the open source GNU Project Debugger, GDB](https://www.sourceware.org/gdb/) and that includeds different advanced tools and information dashboards used in debugging and test. Debugging and test will be an order of magnitude greater with more automation and intelligent EDA tools ... the old expression from 2020 "Code for 6 minutes. Debug for 6 hours" will be more like "Let AI generate code for 6 seconds. Debug for 6 days" with four dashboards full of output from different AI-enabled tools. It's sort of easy to predict ... when we automate the creation of things, testing and debugging are always going to be EVEN BIGGER part of the human-essential work, although the nature of how we use AI in test and debug tools will obviously changes with AI assistants in an EDA design flow. - -The importance of debugging means that the ability to understand what's *happening under the hood* ... because underneath ALL of these executable specifications and EDA tools are going to be the mathematical software libraries that are the foundations of all features that are implemented in the more easily-used features that drive productivity of the integrated circuit designers. Any modern scientific or machine learning application or some compute-intensive part of the EDA chain will require an entangled combination of [message passing channels](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Message_passing) (e.g., [MPI](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Message_Passing_Interface)), [multi-threading](https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/difference-between-multitasking-multithreading-and-multiprocessing/) which might be [CPU-specific hyper-threading](https://web.archive.org/web/20100821074918/http://cache-www.intel.com/cd/00/00/01/77/17705_htt_user_guide.pdf), and GPU-specific programming -(e.g., CUDA) to execute. - -That means having at least a passing familiarity with mathematical software libraries that underpin the EDA tools ... being conversant with what those libraries do, how they do it is always going to be essential -- just as having [professional skills in programming](https://www.tiobe.com/tiobe-index/) is always going to be in demand somewhere, not quite, but almost in the same manner that [having professional level skills in a trade](https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/finding-a-job/highest-paying-trade-jobs) like [being electrician](https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/career-development/how-to-become-an-electrician) or [being a plumber](https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/career-development/how-to-become-a-plumber) is going to be important ... the skills that really matter are in **integration** and that usually means being able to understand the details, but see the larger picture and **quickly SOLVE the whole problem in a cost-effective, standards-compliant manner** ... metaphorically speaking, it's just about the porcelain interface or the visible fixtures, but also in getting the right pipes to the fixtures and also ensuring that the drains actually drain and stay unclogged. It's really about the big picture and solving the root cause of the problem, rather than *shooting from the hip* and *just part-swapping because you can swap a part that'll fit* ... this will involve being able to understand the particular stakeholder needs of the larger situation as well as the budget, resources and time avaiable well enough to stabilize the situation as well as develop a longer-term project work breakdown structure, even if that means involving qualified subcontractors and/or a general contractor. Familiarity with mathematical software libraries and standards is *just like* plumbing ... **don't underestimate how impossibly tough plumbing can be [especially when it has been done wrong], but realize that there's a way to do it AND a way that it has to be done to interoperate with the rest of the world.** - - -Understanding mathematical software libraries includes knowing something about the state of recent activity happening in the libraries as well as something about where the standards are moving in order to [use a language like C++ or C WELL](https://isocpp.github.io/CppCoreGuidelines/CppCoreGuidelines#S-cpl). [The Trilinos Project](https://trilinos.github.io/) is one such effort to facilitate the design, development, integration and ongoing support of mathematical software libraries and it illustrates how these different projects work together [or where the fragilities creep in from shared dependencies upon certain projects]; these projects tend to fork, but they do not really re-invent the wheels *mostly*. Trilinos, for example relies heavily on things like the Exascale Project's [Kokkos ecosystem](https://kokkos.org/) and Kokkos C++ Performance Portability Programming [Kokkos Kernels](https://github.com/kokkos/kokkos-kernels) implements **local**, ie not using MPI, computational kernels for linear algebra and graph operations, using the Kokkos shared-memory parallel programming model. Conversely, the [Kokkos Core](https://github.com/kokkos/kokkos) implements a programming model in C++ for writing performance portable applications targeting all major HPC platforms [using MPI]. For that purpose it provides abstractions for both parallel execution of code and data management. Kokkos is designed to target complex node architectures with N-level memory hierarchies and multiple types of execution resources. Kokkos currently can use [NVIDIA's CUDA](https://docs.nvidia.com/cuda/cuda-c-programming-guide/index.html), [AMD's ROCm HIP](https://github.com/ROCm/HIP), [SYCL](https://www.khronos.org/sycl/), [HPX](https://hpx-docs.stellar-group.org/branches/master/html/index.html#what-is-hpx), [OpenMP](https://www.openmp.org/) ... and others that use [C++ threads](https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/multithreading-in-cpp/) as backend programming models with several other backends under development. - -Other notable players in the field of mathematical software libraries used in high-performance compute-intensive scientific programming includes [SUNDIALS and the Hypre Project: Exascale-capable libraries for adaptive time-stepping and scalable solvers](https://www.exascaleproject.org/highlight/sundials-and-hypre-exascale-capable-libraries-for-adaptive-time-stepping-and-scalable-solvers/) as well as [Extreme-Scale Scientific Software Stack(E4S)](https://www.exascaleproject.org/new-extreme-scale-scientific-software-stack-e4s-release-delivers-expanded-features-and-capabilities-e4s-version-24-02-now-available/) of the [US Dept Of Energy's Exascale Computing Project](https://www.exascaleproject.org/about/), [Portable, Extensible Toolkit for Scientific Computation (PETSc), *pronounced PET-see*](https://petsc.org/release/), [Multiphysics Object Oriented Simulation Environment (MOOSE)](https://mooseframework.inl.gov/), [Open Source Field Operation and Manipulation (OpenFoam)](https://openfoam.org/) for computational fluid dynamics, [Distributed and Unified Numerics Environment(DUNE)](https://www.dune-project.org/) ... and hosts of [other numerical libraries](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_numerical_libraries). - - -Since **expertise in the application domain** for different forms of sensors and instruments that interact with the world is going to important ... the need for scripting languages and numerical data science *scratchpads* will be even more necessary than now, just as part of the toolkit that's taken for granted, ie maybe more essential than being able to use a whiteboard or pen/notepad ... accordingly, we should ***also*** mention the growing set of [different Python libraries that are used for scientific computing](https://www.stxnext.com/blog/most-popular-python-scientific-libraries/), including the *old* favorites, NumPy, SciPy, Matplotlib, Pandas, SymPy, Jupyter Notebooks as well as the PyTorch, TensorFlow, Keras, Scikit-learn ecoystems ... and the ***new*** proliferation of favorites *like Dask, Xarray, Holoviews, Bokeh, Plotly, Dash, Streamlit, Altair, Seaborn, Statsmodels, Scikit-image, NetworkX, Gensim, NLTK, Spacy, TextBlob, Pattern, [PyMC3](https://github.com/pymc-devs/pymc), Edward, Pyro, ArviZ, Theano, Lasagne, Pymc-learn, et al* This set of different data science scripting tools will NEVER stop expanding ... ***IT CAN'T*** ... because the application domain for sensors and instruments that interact with the world is always going to be GROWING, changing and the set of new uses will always be EXPANDING. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/_posts/2024-03-06-interrogating-soil-ecology.md b/_posts/2024-03-06-interrogating-soil-ecology.md deleted file mode 100644 index 25791d45..00000000 --- a/_posts/2024-03-06-interrogating-soil-ecology.md +++ /dev/null @@ -1,63 +0,0 @@ ---- -layout: post -title: "Interrogating Soil Ecology Through SoC Transcriptomics" -date: 2024-03-06 4:30:00 -categories: template ---- - -# Sequester C as LIFE - -USE the nutrient cycles; fully exploit the nutrient cycling through **MORE LIFE.** ***TL;DR: The Singularity Ain't Gonna Happen ... at least *not without basing life on the chemical bonds that only carbon has.* - -This is all about OPTIMIZING carbon sequestration ... and it doesn't just involve carbon, it involves nitrogen and water ... not just higher quality carbohydrate forms but it's also about higher quality protein cycling ... with constant monitoring of soil conditions for optimized nutrient distribution ... it's about not taking soil for granted, but instead optimizing LIVING soil ecology to maximize soil quality ... to deliver the highest fitness for use. - -That's the 1000-year goal of the **Soil Quality Laboratory** philanthropy venture. - -HEALTHIER living soil ecosystems translate into more diverse, higher quality non-processed, fresh food and generally healthier people. The vision is for a food supply that is intensely local, ie right on someone's balcony or a rooftop or in a community garden or in some form of potager garden ... but there's more. - -***The 10,000-year vision is of this venture is about the much, much longer-term sustainable health of not just this planet, but every planet and exoplanet in the Universe that is capable of being terraformed into an optimal living environment for humans.*** - -In EVERY concievable case that we can contemplate for terraforming, regardless of where the exoplanet or planet is located, soil quality will be the most important factor in determining the health of the atmosphere and entire ecosystem and the health of the all living beings living in that ecosystem. - -It is CATALCLYSMICALLY STUPID to for anyone imagine that the health of living ecosystems can ever be silicon-based; this sort of thinking completely ignores the fundamental WEAKNESS of crystalline silicon chemical bonds. Life is carbon-based, not because some old guy said so, but because of the fundamental biochemical properties of carbon bonds; it's impossible to argue with the Physics of this. The development of our highly adaptive neurology can almost be MIMICKED by silicon and silicon crystalline structures will be faster at RIGID, HIGHLY SPECIFIC, NON-ADAPTIVE forms of *thinking* ... but the adaptive, evolutionary nature of our neurology is simply not possible unless it is based upon the chemical properties of carbon ... you simply cannot get legitimately evolutionary, automously-adaptive levels of consciousness without carbon ... truly sentient beings are possible only through carbon bonds ... it's impossible to get true sentience by basing a lifeform on the crystalline chemistry of silicon. - -***Sentience is necessarily about the extremely difficult evolutionarily-adaptive long-term learning of millions of years of carbon-based evolution***. The UNDERSTANDING of what sentience *IS* necessarily flows out of the multigenerational experience of not just one creature, but all of the Life that lead to development of that creature.The evolutionary difficulties of carbon-based life are FUNDAMENTAL to developing legitimate sentience, eg genuine sentience is impossible without contemplating the meaning of life and death, or the necessities what one must do in order to develop and thrive ... but it is possible for human creatures, even extremely intelligent human creatures, to be entirely TRICKED by a machine that is capable of mimickining what sentience sounds like. - -Legitimate sentience must be capable of the reliable,adaptive, autonomous long-term evolutionarily driven neurological learning of millions of years of generational experience and learning ... and this is simply not possible in something that is fabricated from the intensely fragile manufacturing processes used to produce silicon-based components that can be robotically-assembled under the fragility of rigidly controlled conditions to produce a machine that can TRICK a human who is highly biased, entirely pre-disposed to thinking that artificial silicon-based life is possible. **The singularity AIN'T gonna happen**, but ***fools who think they are smart will be suckered by there own biasing into thinking that their fragile machines can pull it off.*** - -Carbon-based life is necessary for the health of the entire Universe as human lifeforms are CAPABLE of concieving of it. We must learn to sequester carbon AS LIFE in order to understand the Universe. Understanding the Universe is about understand the the actual meaning of LIFE, ie the greater WHY of our species existence, rather than just our sense of *entitlement* as a species to consume like fat pigs OR to pray to our Creator to put feed in our trough. - -Sequestering carbon as life is not about understanding everything about the creation of the Universe; it is about understanding the one tiny little thing that our species is capable of understanding, so that we may, as a species, understand something about our species' role in the evolving creation of the Universe. ***Understanding something about participating in the continuation of creation is the MILLION-year vision of this venture.*** - -## Interrogating In-Situ Soil Ecology - -The Laboratory part of the Soil Quality philanthropic venture will involve [transcriptomics technologies](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transcriptomics_technologies) and [highly parallel CRISPR inference](https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/476366v1) to interrogate soil ecosystems. We will focus primarily on field laboratory techniques that are affordable and extremely lightweight, eg a small peripheral [system-on-chip(SOC)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/System_on_a_chip) extension of a smartphone, but we are not interested in merely producing another cool nanofabricated gadget. Most importantly, the process of interrogating the soil ecosystem must radically minimize the disruption to the [in situ soil ecology](https://www.nature.com/articles/s42003-021-02379-5), since soil microbial communities develop along [electron transport chains](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electron_transport_chain), forming electrically conductive biofilms, and developing networks of [bacterial nanowires](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bacterial_nanowires). - - -After serial analysis of gene expression (SAGE)[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serial_analysis_of_gene_expression] and then [DNA sequencing](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DNA_sequencing) by synthesis or the second-generation sequencing of [Massively Parallel Signature Sequencing (MPSS)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massive_parallel_sequencing) transcriptomics, researchers have embraced [more advanced techniques](https://www.nature.com/articles/d42859-020-00103-7) to explore the [complexity of transcriptomes](https://www.nature.com/articles/d42859-020-00107-3). - -[**Massively Parallel Signature Sequencing (MPSS)**](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/probe/docs/techmpss/) is a method for determining expression levels of mRNA by counting the number of individual mRNA molecules produced by each gene. It is "open ended" in the sense that the identity of the RNAs to be measured are not pre-determined as they are with gene expression microarrays. A sample of mRNA are first converted to complementary DNA (cDNA) using reverse transcriptase, which makes subsequent manipulations easier. These cDNA are fused to a small oligonucleotide "tag" which allows the cDNA to be PCR amplified and then coupled to microbeads. After several rounds of sequence determination, using hybridization of fluorescent labeled probes, a sequence signature of ~16–20 bp is determined from each bead. Fluorescent imaging captures the signal from all of the beads, while affixed to a 2-dimensional surface, so DNA sequences are determined from all the beads in parallel. There is some amplification of the starting material so, in the end, approximately 1,000,000 sequence reads are obtained per experiment. - - - -Let's delve into [what have been the next generations in transcriptomics](https://omicstutorials.com/transcriptomcs-past-present-and-future/) or what it is referred to as [third-generation "long read" sequencing methods](https://bmcgenomics.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1471-2164-8-153) or [high-throughput transcriptomics](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DNA_sequencing#High-throughput_methods): - -[Exome sequencing](https://www.connectedpapers.com/main/d290623c4e715564443deb06f699e9746703e3aa/Whole-Exome-Sequencing%20Based-Identification-of-a-Novel-Gene-Involved-in-Root-Hair-Development-in-Barley-(Hordeum-vulgare-L.)/graph) also known as whole exome sequencing (WES), is a genomic technique for sequencing all of the protein-coding regions of genes in a genome (known as the exome). It consists of two steps: the first step is to select only the subset of DNA that encodes proteins. These regions are known as exons—humans have about 180,000 exons, constituting about 1% of the human genome, or approximately 30 million base pairs. The second step is to sequence the exonic DNA using any high-throughput DNA sequencing technology.The goal of this approach is to identify genetic variants that alter protein sequences, and to do this at a much lower cost than whole-genome sequencing. - - -[RNA Sequencing (RNA-Seq)](https://www.connectedpapers.com/main/a98b8a1d5ce9ad451584556de40e41e91d5e6d5e/Species%20-and-site%20specific-genome-editing-in-complex-bacterial-communities/graph) is a technique that uses next-generation sequencing to reveal the presence and quantity of RNA molecules in a biological sample, providing a snapshot of gene expression in the sample, also known as transcriptome. Specifically, RNA-Seq facilitates the ability to look at alternative gene spliced transcripts, post-transcriptional modifications, gene fusion, mutations/SNPs and changes in gene expression over time, or differences in gene expression in different groups or treatments. In addition to mRNA transcripts, RNA-Seq can look at different populations of RNA to include total RNA, small RNA, such as miRNA, tRNA, and ribosomal profiling. RNA-Seq can also be used to determine exon/intron boundaries and verify or amend previously annotated 5' and 3' gene boundaries. Recent advances in RNA-Seq include single cell sequencing, bulk RNA sequencing, in situ sequencing of fixed tissue, and native RNA molecule sequencing with single-molecule real-time sequencing. Other examples of emerging RNA-Seq applications due to the advancement of bioinformatics algorithms are copy number alteration, microbial contamination, transposable elements, cell type (deconvolution) and the presence of neoantigens. Prior to RNA-Seq, gene expression studies were done with hybridization-based microarrays. - -[DNA Annotation](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37537196/) or genome annotation is the process of describing the structure and function of the components of a genome, by analyzing and interpreting them in order to extract their biological significance and understand the biological processes in which they participate. Among other things, it identifies the locations of genes and all the coding regions in a genome and determines what those genes do. Annotation is performed after a genome is sequenced and assembled, and is a necessary step in genome analysis before the sequence is deposited in a database and described in a published article. Although describing individual genes and their products or functions is sufficient to consider this description as an annotation, the depth of analysis reported in literature for different genomes vary widely, with some reports including additional information that goes beyond a simple annotation. Furthermore, due to the size and complexity of sequenced genomes, DNA annotation is not performed manually, but is instead automated by computational means. However, the conclusions drawn from the obtained results require manual expert analysis. DNA annotation is classified into two categories: [**structural annotation**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DNA_annotation#Structural_annotation), which identifies and demarcates elements in a genome, and [**functional annotation**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DNA_annotation#Functional_annotation), which assigns functions to these elements. This is not the only way in which it has been categorized, as several alternatives, such as [dimension-based](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16418748/) and [level-based classifications](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11433356/) have also been proposed.. - -[Alternative splicing, alternative RNA splicing or differential splicing analysis](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30872414/) through RNA-seq data is an alternative splicing process during gene expression that allows a single gene to code for multiple proteins. In this process, particular [exons of a gene](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exon) may be included within or excluded from the final, processed [messenger RNA (mRNA)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Messenger_RNA) produced from that gene. This means the exons are joined in different combinations, leading to different (alternative) mRNA strands. Consequently, the [proteins translated from alternatively spliced mRNAs usually contain differences in their amino acid sequence and, often, in their biological functions](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alternative_splicing#/media/File:DNA_alternative_splicing.gif). Biologically relevant alternative splicing occurs as a normal phenomenon in eukaryotes, where it increases the number of proteins that can be encoded by the genome. In humans, the conventional wisdom holds that roughly 95% of multi-exonic genes are alternatively spliced to produce functional alternative products from the same gene but **many scientists believe that most of the observed splice variants are due to splicing errors and the actual number of biologically relevant alternatively spliced genes is much lower.** Alternative splicing enables the regulated generation of multiple mRNA and protein products from a single gene. There are numerous modes of alternative splicing observed, of which the most common is [exon skipping](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exon_skipping). In this mode, a particular exon may be included in mRNAs under some conditions or in particular tissues, and omitted from the mRNA in others. The production of alternatively spliced mRNAs is regulated by a system of [trans-acting](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trans-acting) proteins that bind to [cis-acting] sites on the [primary transcript](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Primary_transcript) itself. {NOTE: The Latin prefix *cis* means "on this side", i.e. on the same molecule of DNA as the gene(s) to be transcribed.} Such proteins include splicing activators that promote the usage of a particular splice site, and splicing repressors that reduce the usage of a particular site. Mechanisms of alternative splicing are highly variable, and new examples are constantly being found, particularly through the use of high-throughput techniques. Researchers hope to fully elucidate the regulatory systems involved in splicing, so that alternative splicing products from a given gene under particular conditions ("splicing variants") could be predicted by a "splicing code". Abnormal variations in splicing are also [minimal gene fragments that implicated in disease](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minigene#Uses); a large proportion of human genetic disorders result from splicing variants. Abnormal splicing variants are also thought to contribute to the development of [cancer](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minigene#Cancer), although cancer is a complex, heterogeneous disease that can be hereditary or the result of environmental stimuli, so the alternative splicing analysis of minigenes are used to help oncologists understand the roles pre-mRNA splicing plays in different cancer types. - -**Differential Expression Analysis**: Compare transcript levels between different conditions (e.g., healthy vs. diseased, treated vs. untreated). Tools like DESeq2 or edgeR identify genes showing significant expression changes. - -**Long Non-Coding RNAs (lncRNAs)**: Beyond protein-coding genes, lncRNAs play crucial roles in gene regulation. Explore their functions and interactions. - -**Single-Cell RNA-seq**: For cellular heterogeneity, single-cell RNA-seq provides insights into gene expression at the individual cell level. Understand cell types, developmental trajectories, and rare cell populations. - -**Spatial Transcriptomics**: Investigate gene expression patterns within tissues. Techniques like spatial transcriptomics and in situ sequencing reveal where specific transcripts are active. - -**Integration with Other Omics Data**: Combine RNA-seq with other omics data (e.g., DNA methylation, chromatin accessibility) to gain a holistic view of gene regulation. - diff --git a/_posts/2024-03-08-next-7500-days.md b/_posts/2024-03-08-next-7500-days.md deleted file mode 100644 index 6102a613..00000000 --- a/_posts/2024-03-08-next-7500-days.md +++ /dev/null @@ -1,119 +0,0 @@ ---- -layout: post -title: "7500 Days OR Let Me Die Fighting for My Creator's Will" -date: 2024-03-08 4:30:00 -categories: template ---- - - -When anyone looks at the [Social Security Actuarial tables based on data from 2020, ***used by various organizations, for their planning*** *for calculations based life-related risk data in late 2023 and early 2024*](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Dk6ShK_VMQ-qubVTfoXPLvRRHIbJKYvfbC1FcrkGsOw/edit?usp=sharing), they will see that the average life expectancy of a 64 1/2 year old male in the United States is about 17.3 years or an average EXPECTED remaining life of 6,313 days left for a male. These are AVERAGE life EXPECTATION data for the **entire** United States, however, there are reasons ...predominantly related to the non-sedantary nature of our worklives and the tendency of some of us in this area to be more likely minimize or totally abstain from alcohol ... why the average life expectancy of a male of someone like me with my background from an area like this [with my general genetic heritage] is approximately 3 to 4 years longer than the United States average. - -Based on the actuarial data and adjustments to reflect actual local data, my own personal life expectancy is probably about 20.54 years or more ... FOR PLANNING PURPOSES, I sort of need to assume that **I have about 7500 days left to live.** - -*OKAY, OKAY, OKAY ... I get it ... yes, I know that it looks as if I kinda fudged my expected lifespan calculations to come out at 7500 days* ...***and maybe I did that, just a bit, because it's probably slightly longer than 7500 days ....*** - -*But does it matter?* The whole POINT of this exercise is basically about MY time mgmt ... specifically managing / optimizing the time that I have left on earth FOR PLANNING. - -It gives an appropriate, as accurate as possible understanding of the scarcity of my time left ... so that I do neither DAWDLE nor rush out to dig a hole for my grave, buy a casket to set on the device to be lowered into the grave and sleep in the casket so that everything's ready in case I die tonight. - - -**For planning purposes, I need to use the BEST UNBIASED ESTIMATE of my life expectancy ... and rounding it to 7500 days is just practical, responsible PLANNING ... with a number that represents about 20 1/2 years and a figure I can kind of break down and visualize for the whole 7500-day trajectory.** - -I am not going to constrain the goals, objectives and plans of what I want to do with rest of my life by adopting an irrational fear of any imminent death ***UNLESS and UNTIL*** I receive some medical diagnosis that gives me something like "hours or days, but not weeks left to live."* For the sake of responsible FINANCIAL planning, I should not assume that I will die before I am 150 or 200 or so even though those last years after I turn 110 or so and until I close on 200 might be covered strictly by my Social Security check, *if my investments don't pan out ...* - -We all know damned well that we **might** indeed *win the lottery* and die tommorow or maybe within the next five minutes for that matter ... but the chance that we could die really does not matter much for our PLANNING PURPOSES. - -Until we males turn about 95 [assuming that we don't have a firm diagnosis of a condition with a less optimistic prognosis], the [likelihood of our dying within the next day is ***less than one in a thousand***](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Dk6ShK_VMQ-qubVTfoXPLvRRHIbJKYvfbC1FcrkGsOw/edit?usp=sharing) ... it's not until we're 73 1/2 or so, that the [likelihood of our dying within the next day is ***less than one in ten thousand***](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Dk6ShK_VMQ-qubVTfoXPLvRRHIbJKYvfbC1FcrkGsOw/edit?usp=sharing). - -I am not exactly sure WHY many people seem to cower in fear of dying and sort of turn into STUPIFIED, quasi-paralyzed, ultra-risk-averse *fussbudgets* focused on having everything taken care of because they'll likely die *tomorrow* ... but the thing is, there's a VERY STRONG marketing and advertising-assisted tendency at age 65 to fall for the fear-mongering ... so we males take our "offense" off the field and just play a full-court press of prevent defense even though the [likelihood that a 65-year-old male dies tomorrow](until we males turn about 95 [assuming that we don't have a firm diagnosis of a condition with a less optimistic prognosis], the [likelihood of our dying within the next day, according to the best data we have](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Dk6ShK_VMQ-qubVTfoXPLvRRHIbJKYvfbC1FcrkGsOw/edit?usp=sharing), is approximately 1/19,086. - -The probability that I'm alive one year from now is about 98.16% ... or the likelihood that I die within the next year is only about 1/55 ... so ***I'm going to keep playing offense*** ... especially for PLANNING purposes. - -# 7500 moderately healthy, moderately productive days left. - -The 7500 number is okay ... but the important thing is I want to live WELL, ie independently and healthy/fit and NEITHER drunk nor on prescription medications, as long as I'm going to alive ... whatever the ***true*** number of days that I have left to live actually is. - -**The MOST IMPORTANT gift that I ever gave myself in life was the TIME time to spend just sitting with my father on the deck on the house at the farm ... helped me think about how I had wasted my life trying to be a professional and how I should have worked harder at entreprenurial projects, making NEW connections with NEW colleagues in NEW industries, in order to be a more diversely successful investor.** - -Even if one does not have a father to care for, retiring at 50 is something that I would recommend to anyone ... even for those who think that they might not have enough money. {**BIG HINT: The more that you can do to reduce your living expenses to next to nothing, the happier your retirement will be -- in spite of what elder-vacay advertisers, insurance salesmen and pharma parasites want you to believe, happieness in retirement does not accrue to those with a open wallet spending on things that the retirement demographic consumes at 25X to 100X the rate they should swallow those poisons at.**} - -In my case, retiring at 50 GAVE me that opportunity to spend EVERY DAY with my father, in his last 18 months, which furnished me with indispensable insights about my own health and the work I needed do on my own physiscal self, to save my own life ... I also got to see the impact of his own recalcitrance and stubbornness ... this kind of thing is loveable and adorable to a degree, but one sees the impact it has. It was the PAIN that recalcitrance caused someone who I loved as a best friend and as my father that really opened my eyes to how [THE fundamental flaw in humans, especially OLD MEN, is their own ***stiff-neckedness***](https://biblehub.com/exodus/32-9.htm) ... it's all about the the manner in which we humans, particularly us as OLD MEN, absolutely ***cling*** to OLD WAYS, even when those old nasty habits of being our unhealthy selves were basically the implements that we used to enslave ourselves. - -At 50, I was a PROFESSIONAL with an okish professional resume, that I had built mostly just by luck and by imitating what others were doing and delivering results and financial success for my employers. Frankly, I worked far too long for employers that were unworthy, when better employers were out there ... but I stayed longer at jobs than I should have because of the friendships with great people, ie most of the corporate realm is UNDER-MANAGED and OVER-POPULATED with ridiculous talent. My professional career was definitely NOT the result of any coherent planning effort on my part ... mostly, I was a reluctant employee, ie I ***settled*** for being an employee because it was convenient; I did not really enjoy thinking about career advancement and professional planning. I was just sorta faking it ... but I suppose that I was about as good at faking it as almost anybody else was who was ***really*** trying to do it. Mostly, I wish I have left the engineering profession and had stayed in more entrepreneurial, but technical ventures. - -On the other hand, at 50 I actually ***was*** definitely a success as an investor, ie it was my investing success and returns that were greater than stock indicies or the best mutual funds that made it possible for me to retire at 50; it was certainly not the result of my *salaries* working as a Federal agent, in academia, in industry ... my investment returns were better because of the connections I WORKED at making in my professional life directly influenced my ability to bypass news and propaganda to make better investments. It was the long-term performance of my trading and following those investments [as risky and unpredicable as that performance was] that made it possible to me retire ... so making new CONNECTIONS with people who are doing especially compelling stuff will ALWAYS be important to me ... just as it will ALWAYS be important to me to keep my living expenses to the barest of bare minimums so that I NEVER HAVE TO WORRY about the risks that necessarily come with genuinely important ventures that create radically better opportunities for people. - -Tolerance for risk along with the push to make new connections is what I have to do to make the most of the next 7500 days ... but I also have to break the hardened, calcified old habits of being my terrible unhealthy self and I will need to plan and work harder transform the old me into somone who is becoming MUCH MORE disciplined and MORE perseverant in my health and exercise ... even if that discipline and perseverance costs me old friendships; I need the disipline and perseverance more than I need the friendships with people who have given up on themselves and are not willing to work on their health and exercise. - -Part of having a good offense, and being mentally shrewd enough to assess risks/rewards of new opportunities comes from aggressively working on one's health EVERY SINGLE DAY. - -One MUST BE healthier tomorrow and better able to train and stay more fit ... I know how important this is because I did not do it, UNTIL I was well into my mid 50s ... before that I would tend to get sick or my Dockers would get tight and THEN I would react for the next few months or maybe even years with a TOTALLY MYOPIC get-fit-now diet or exercise program ... but I took my health for granted, just as I took it for granted that things would work out just fine if I just didn't ignore the signals and *got after it* with discipline and perseverance working diligantly each day on health and exercise to make the corrections I needed to make ... but I did NOT actually plan; my discipline and perservance was a matter of REACTION ... when the alarms went off and I got some sort of wake up call telling that my health was trying to tell me that it was time to work on making some corrections ... but until I was at least 55 I had no long term plan for what I NEEDED to do in order to get healthier ... I burned health as fuel to work on different distractions, some were actually defensible and laudable, but most were just about IMITIATING what successful professionals who I looked up to seemed to do in their careers ... *[without much in the way of seriously PLANNING about what my life was supposed to be about].* - -At this point in my life, I will confess that there is a big part of me that is fully ready to just die RIGHT NOW ... I look forward to whatever comes after this life ... I completely trust my Creator to provide the next step for me ... I expect that the final processes of dying will be extremely and even tediously painful so I will confess that hope death comes quickly ... but I really dunno if that step after life will be easy or enjoyable or much of anything about that next step ... I dunno if anything about this existence will inform that next step after life; I don't even know if the whole concept of Time and one event following another will apply ... whatever comes next is far to too different to bother contemplating and it simply cannot be allowed to become something I worry about ... I just LOVE my Creator and I accept Jesus Christ as my sole path to being with my Creator, I love my Creator more than I love life itself, which also means that I love my Creator more than I love any of my fellow humans ... I LOVE my Creator and trust that the next step will be whatever the next step is willed to be by my Creator. - -**My ONLY purpose in life is to try each day to understand my life in the context of my Creator's will and to CELEBRATE each moment cognizant of that understanding.** I can do this while getting other practical things done, but my prayer that my Creator's will be done must always must come first ... it must inform everything that I do, but it also implicitly recognizes that ONLY I can be responsible for my planning for my future and that I must be responsible for my own actions and the consequences of those actions. - -## What will I DO with my last 7500 days of productive time on Earth? - -It's worthy of repitition ... **My ONLY purpose in life is to try each day to understand my life in the context of my Creator's will and to CELEBRATE each moment cognizant of that understanding.** I can do this while getting other practical things done, but my prayer that my Creator's will be done must always must come first ... it must inform everything that I do, but it also implicitly recognizes that ONLY I can be responsible for my planning for my future and that I must be responsible for my own actions and the consequences of those actions. - -Mostly, I want my remaining days left to work out and eat right while avoid alcohol or medications be roughly as healthy as I am now ... I would like to try to be moderately more productive, but I am not overly stressed about being more productive -- it's one of those eustress stretch goal things ... ***I still WANT to put points on the board***, which I can do as a retired person, but the game changes because one needs to *REALISTIC*, **particularly** when other people are involved.. - -For example, since the probability of death happening in the next year for a 33-year-old is about 1/400 and the probability of that for a 70 year is about 1/40, I have to look a bit harder for co-founders to sustain anything that I can't finish and any kind of angel investor or VC will absolutely DEMAND that the venture has two solid co-founders and that my participation is not indispensable. Accordingly, my MAIN goal from even before initiation [when one is kicking ideas around for founding something] and all points thereafter will be to INVEST in or contribute to the start-ups of others as an employee, rather than as a founder ... but ***I still WANT to put points on the board*** so, as a practical matter, I will need to focus most of my efforts on open source contributions. - -A degree of eustress in defining my stretch will hopefully help keep me engaged in practical tasks/activities that help me in building my discipline and the right kind of work itself helps me to be more spiritually inspired and motivated ... whether I feel like I have accomplished anything or not may not matter, but it does help to see practical gains rather than living entirely in the abstract realm. - -Here are some ideas that I have for the next 7500 days: - -* I will try to learn a new skill: Perhaps in swarm robotic operating systems or perhaps in the measurement of soil quality by SoC field devices. I know that I need to learn new skills that challenges me mentally and/or physically ... but I dunno about things like learning a musical instrument, a foreign language, or a some sport like golf or tennis. - -* I will set achievable fitness goals ... maybe not in something like training for a marathon ... but I probably do need to do more longer distance hiking on uneven ground with a pack ... improving my strength or flexibility through a structured exercise program is something that might work, but only if it involves some objective in martial arts. - -* I will engage in volunteer work in open source commmunity development in niches, like real time operating systems for swarm robotics that are especially meaningful to me and challenges me to step outside my comfort zone in the aspect of C/C++ programming and VLSI hardware engineering ... but I dunno if I have ANY interest in typical volunteer activities like mentoring youth ... I somewhat cautious about getting my hopes for what is possible in helping at a local charity OR participating in community projects ... because of the backward-looking idea-averse nature of the stiff-necked people in charge of those community projects. - -* I have LESS THAN zero desire to travel and explore in the physical realm ... retirement travel with well-planned trips and *adventures* that give geriatrics a chance to explore new places, cultures, and experiences is the LAST POSSIBLE place that I would look for anything exciting and enriching. I DO have interests in traveling and exploring if there a VALID BUSINESS REASON for me doing that ... ***I absolutely detest being a tourist or a vacationer. I do not need or want ANY vacations.*** - -* I might look for ways that I can take on new responsibilities or fill new roles that allow me to meet NEW colleagues with starkly different perspectives and backgrounds than mine. I am not at all interested in things like organizing a family reunion or leading a community initiative ... those are things that I have done and I really have not been struck with any desire to do those kinds of things again; those things are for others to do. - -* I will always pursue autodidactic forms of education and this includes participating in Wikipedia editing, developing forkable MOOCs on GitHub and finding other ways to do new forms of autonomous, self-replicating, autodidactic educational programs will that interest other people ... I think that OpenScience intiatives are something than can challenge people intellectually, moreso than attending lectures, listening to podcasts or YouTube videos or taking online courses. - -* I know that I will start new ventures and online educational projects because doing this requires planning, creativity, and effort, moreso than just writing [an ongoing memoir](https://markbruns.github.io/) ... but all of these projects typically start with something like a GitHub organiztion with different affiliated repositories, possibly a blog and a social media personna. - -* I will try to push outside of my comfort zone by engaging is a ***more serious*** podcast, even if the podcast content is slightly comedic or about getting a deliberately UNSERIOUS different take on things ... since podcastering is a bit like auctioneering or public-speaking in that the performance gives a chance for the audience to provide feedback and sometimes that feedback can be particularly challenging or even threatening. - -The necessary practical details that I need to attend to in my last 7500 days or just over two years or so of productive time left on Earth are get my affairs in some rough semblance of quasi-order so that I can dispose of the remaining details in my last 750 days ... and possibly even less if some sort of health crisis or accident arises ... when one reaches the point in life where one EXPECTS to have 7500 days, it's more actuarially 10X more likely that one finds out that one does have much time left, but the luxury of being older is that few are COUNTING on him, eg as parent with young kids or as a caretaker and executor of estates of elderly parents ... but, practically I still need some room to move, so I don't need to have every last detail buttoned up and tidy as if it'd all be taken care of tomorrow. First of all, I still have to LIVE and DO THINGS and maybe try to accomplish something financially or philanthropically ... if I die tomorrow, there are should be sufficient assets in my estate to compensate my heirs for the problems of having to dispose of my stuff. - -Maintaining my current level health/fitness, ie I rarely if ever get sick and ideally slightly improving my fitness level just a bit might be the MOST IMPORTANT objective of the next 7500 days, particularly since my level of health is necessary to do the kinds of things that I want to DO. That means that in the realm of business and open source projects, ***I still WANT to put points on the board*** ... I do not have ANY real interest in adding hobbies or travelling or doing anything other than just working on my business ventures and open source projects and following my investments. My main plan to maintain or improve my current level of health/fitness is to keep breaking the bad habits of being my unhealthy self that I accumulated in the first fifty years or so life ... I have stopped doing a lot of stupid stuff, but I didn't start to figure out how to quit the dumbest stuff, eg drinking alcohol or mostly eating the standard American diet, until long AFTER I retired and had time to actually work on my health. - -Only through the grace of God did I make it to 50 ... but I knew that I needed to retire and work on my own projects well before I retired ... I just lacked the confidence to do it. I probably would not have made it to 55 if ONE of those project was investing in and working on my projects the philanthropic realm of health improvement and finding ways to encourage more martial arts dojos to start up ... ultimately, my retirement philanthropies have sorta taught me the world needs fewer gyms, fewer dojos and MANY MORE things like Gracie Garages and homes in which living rooms with comfortable seating and teevee screens have been replaced by rooms to roll with jiu jitsu grappling mats and tall muay thai heavy bags. Going somewhere to engage in martial arts, wrestling or gymnastics should replace bars and restaurants ... martial arts retreats to train with people around the world should replace things like spectator sports ... mostly people should get off the couch and get rid of most of their chairs. - - -### The MAIN thing that I WANT to do is just focus on *putting points on the board* - -I can say this, after having focused on my health so that I have gotten significantly more healthy over the last 17 years or so ... when on March 9, 2007 I was told that I would likely die from sepsis within hours or few days, but that I did not have a week left to live ... I have crawled out of a state of believing that I faced imminent death OR that I would likely soon relapse into that state where I faced imminent death. In the decade or so after being told that I would likely die in hours, I sort of ceased believing that I should ever start something that I would not likely finish ... the shadow of impending death sort of pre-occupied my thinking ... and that was probably actually a blessing, because I had the opportunity to come to terms with my mortality in ways that people who have not had the executioner's axe hanging over their neck have never had to contemplate. I am better for that experience ... but I ***need to RETURN TO focusing on putting points on the board*** *except that now it's a more informed view of what that means*, ie I need to work in the realm of OPEN source technologies, which PRIMARILY a philanthropic push, but it does not necessarily eschew financial gain, since I have some hope that my technological expertise might inform my investment selections. - -I need to THINK in terms of a 20 year agenda, rather than something I can finish in 2 months or 2 years. I have been far too conservative although Ecclesiastically it was necessary to go through a prolonged period of more intense, even sometimes angry/frustrated **contemplation**, it is now necessary to put the offense back on the field and try to put some points on the board. - -## What will I do with my last 750 days of productive time on Earth? - -It's worthy of repitition AGAIN ... **My ONLY purpose in life is to try each day to understand my life in the context of my Creator's will and to CELEBRATE each moment cognizant of that understanding.** I can do this while getting other practical things done, but my prayer that my Creator's will be done must always must come first ... it must inform everything that I do, but it also implicitly recognizes that ONLY I can be responsible for my planning for my future and that I must be responsible for my own actions and the consequences of those actions. - -The main practical thing that I need to accomplish in my last 750 days or just over two years or so of productive time left on Earth is to get my affairs somewhat tidied up into a manageable enough group so so that I can assist my heirs in disposing of the remaining details of my life in my last 75 days ... but **I will put off the final disposal until I actually do have just 75 days left** because the main thing that I still need to be chasing in the first part of my final 750 days on Earth is putting more points on the board ... to borrow a metaphor from football, it's STUPID to turn ultra-conservative and put in the *prevent defense* before the final possession; until then **the best defense is a strong offense.** - -After all, it MAY become overwhelmingly apparent that I will have a brand new 750 day or 1000 day or 500 day lease on life, which will mean that I still have to try to put some points on the board ... conversely, I feel fine now but I might be told next month that I have just a couple months or at most 75 days left to live -- when that happens I will shift immediately to the final disposal of the remaining details of my life that I had planned to complete in the final 75 days of my life. - -## What will I do with my last 75 days productive time on Earth? - -It's worthy of repitition yet AGAIN ... **My ONLY purpose in life is to try each day to understand my life in the context of my Creator's will and to CELEBRATE each moment cognizant of that understanding.** I can do this while getting other practical things done, but my prayer that my Creator's will be done must always must come first ... it must inform everything that I do, but it also implicitly recognizes that ONLY I can be responsible for my planning for my future and that I must be responsible for my own actions and the consequences of those actions. - -In my last 75 days on Earth, I will be focused on the final disposal of the remaining details of my life ... I will put off the final disposal until I am kind of sure that I actually do have just 75 days left. - -## What will I do with my last week or 75 hours of productive time left on Earth? - -It's worthy of repitition OVER AND OVER until I die ... **My ONLY purpose in life is to try each day to understand my life in the context of my Creator's will and to CELEBRATE each moment cognizant of that understanding.** I can do this while getting other practical things done, but my prayer that my Creator's will be done must always must come first ... it must inform everything that I do, but it also implicitly recognizes that ONLY I can be responsible for my planning for what little time is left and how short my future appears to be. Until the end, it is me who must take full responsibility for my own actions and the consequences of those actions. - -I have had the incredible luxury of recovering from an illness where the best doctors in the world believed, as I believed myself, that I would die within a few hours or at most days ... since I know what is entailed, I have made a point in my life of never waiting to tell someone something that I thought I would eventually need to tell them ... I don't have to worry about saying goodbye to people or making amends with people or anything like that ... I do not live in a manner waiting to make apologies; I also have zero regrets about ever offending anyone, because I truly believe the offense taken is on them -- I have tried to be brutally honest, forthright and deathly frank with people ... there's no room for hypocrisy or passive-aggressive NICE little manipulative lies ... - -I have certainly had periods of doubt and skepticsm, even depression and utter despair in which I simply could not think, to even put together a plan to tie my shoes. I NEVER have been one who goes out with an intention of picking fights, but I have let fights come to me for me to finish. I never been much of a coward ... I have called cowardice out and I have gotten used to being told that I am not as tough as I think I am. Of course, I know full well that my bravery is not something that I have earned, but rather it is only through the grace of my Creator that I have had any bravery or any toughness -- so it IS true that I am personally not that tough. - -**It has also proven to be true that I become a billion or a trillion times tougher than I think I am when my Creator calls upon me. People who are isolated from our Creator cannot possibly imagine this. They might imagine that this makes into some form of arrogant asshole or bully, I have only used bullying behavior when someone else attempted to bully me ... I will do whatever is needed in order to fight for my Creator's will; my most supreme wish of all of my wishes in my whole life is to DIE fighting for my Creator's will.** diff --git a/_posts/2024-03-10-drive-toward-perfection.md b/_posts/2024-03-10-drive-toward-perfection.md deleted file mode 100644 index 595fc391..00000000 --- a/_posts/2024-03-10-drive-toward-perfection.md +++ /dev/null @@ -1,29 +0,0 @@ ---- -layout: post -title: "Understanding and Celebrating My Creator's Will" -date: 2024-03-10 4:30:00 -categories: template ---- - - -*My ONLY purpose in life is to understand my life in the context of my Creator's will and to CELEBRATE each moment cognizant of that understanding.* - -It's worth repeating, over and OVER ... with extra EMPHASIS ... *because I really do mean this, even though my [bad] habits might indicate otherwise*. - -**My ONLY purpose in life is to understand my life in the context of my Creator's will and to CELEBRATE each moment cognizant of that understanding.** - -The degree to which I should care about anything else is a derivative of my desire to know and understand my Creator's will. I do get distracted by other things, but those other distractions cause me to become MISERABLE. - -I am far from perfect in this, but I do KNOW with 100% certainty that **my ONLY purpose in life is to understand and celebrate my Creator's will** ... this means that, after prayer, the most important thing that I must do is to *WORK* concretely on some aspect of breaking the bad habits of being myself ... sometimes, I think that I am gaining, but then I realize how much farther I have left to go. - -I certainly do not understand my Creator's will completely, so I MUST pay more attention to understanding my Creator's will than anything else in the world. In a practical manner, this sole driving purpose must drive the prioritization of my time and that means that I must focus on my constant prayer that my Creator's will be done. - -# The Creator's will is ultimately drives the Universe toward a point of PERFECTION. - -The human species is a TINY INSIGNIFICANT PART of the Universe ... the only thing that is truly amazing about humans is the incredibly high opinion that humans have of their species or of humanity. The human species and EVERY last thing that the human species sets in motion will always be a TINY INSIGNIFICANT PART of the Universe ... and the significance of this portion of the Universe is inversely proportional to the species' opinion of its significance, ie the more hubristic the opinion that humans have, the more likely they are to sow the seeds of their demise. - -It is up to me to adapt to the opportunities that my Creator's will affords me each day. For example, it is neither my Creator's will that I have children nor is it my Creator's will that I do not have children -- I am ***MUCH HAPPIER** without children because I feel like I have been given the gift of complete freedom to pursue things like open source tool building for scientific computing; I am free from having to entertain others and try to help them solve their problems ... but I would adapt if I were forced to become a parent and take care of children. So, I do know that I am much, much, MUCH happier WITHOUT having to worry about children or any kind of partner or spousal relationship. - -There are those who tell me that the world would end if everyone thought like me ... which is demonstrably laughable on several different levels ... first of all, there are well over 8 billion of my species on this planet and it is quite apparent that there's ZERO risk whatsoever that the human population will seriously decline below the point where it has totally subdued all other lifeforms on planet ... secondly, my Creator might not send another flood to erase a species that he has second thoughts about, but it's probably safe to say that is something else cataclysmic in store, not necessarily next year or in the next 1000 years -- but EVENTUALLY. If that happens, the planet and the rest of creation will be better off without human beings ... bringing on the cataclysm OR diverting it from happening is not my call; I am not going to waste any time worrying about what impacts that catalclysm will have on the descendants of humans in existence. What I am sure of is that **the Creator's will is ultimately drives the Universe toward a point of PERFECTION.** - -**My ONLY purpose in life is to understand my life in the context of my Creator's will and to CELEBRATE each moment cognizant of that understanding.** \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/_posts/2024-03-12-improvement-of-prayer-life.md b/_posts/2024-03-12-improvement-of-prayer-life.md deleted file mode 100644 index d2579b48..00000000 --- a/_posts/2024-03-12-improvement-of-prayer-life.md +++ /dev/null @@ -1,135 +0,0 @@ ---- -layout: post -title: "Improving The Earnestness Of Intention In One's Prayer Life" -date: 2024-03-12 4:30:00 -categories: template ---- - - -It's necessary to approach prayer with sincerity, reverence, and an open heart. The point is to help us double-down and triple-down and quadruple down on our efforts to more seriously deepen the earnestness of prayerful intention ... and to never settle for our efforts being satisfactory, but to humbly always be seeking to improve our prayer lives. - -The specific words or practices might vary, but the best model to begin with will follow the model of the Lord's Prayer ... the point is NOT to repetitously just follow a mantra OR to get to hung up on the literal verbiage or language that was used, eg in the King James Version of scripture to teach the structure of the prayer to illiterate masses using familiar paradigms of human organization which were prevalent in the time of King James ... mere repitition or heavy reliance on literal language that is no longer used is actually an impediment to thinking about what prayer is about. - -Instead, we should *use our heads* to actually think, **in today's terminology** about EXACTLY what we are earnestly praying for and why our prayer might best be structured in a particular manner ... even if we do not conform to the bullying of the vain repetition of Pharisaic religous thugs who would WRONGLY tell people not to think, but just recite incantations in a zombie-like fashion. - -**IT IS ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY TO THINK in order for our prayers to be remotely meaningful.** - -Thus, one of the first improvements that we can think about in improving our prayer lives might come out of ***THINKING*** about the thematic and semantic-structural analysis of the Lord’s Prayer based on the model found in [Matthew 6:9-13](https://www.cslewisinstitute.org/resources/illustration-the-structure-of-the-lords-prayer/). The Lord's Prayer, often referred to as “the **model** prayer,” is a central part of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount ... ***model*** is the key word here ... the Lord's Prayer is a ***model*** for HOW to think thematically about structuring our thoughts coherently as we pray; it is not a *model* in the sense of being repitious mantra for what is repeated without thinking as we pray. - -The Lord’s Prayer occurs within Jesus’ most extensive preserved teaching, the Sermon on the Mount ... as such the [structure of the Sermon on the Mount](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sermon_on_the_Mount) is worthy of some deep examination in thorough detail because of how that sermon focuses on what Jesus describes, per the quotations in the gospels which use the King James [vernacular](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vernacular) as "the Kingdom of God." - -Understanding what Jesus MEANT and not exactly what the translation of scripture says *literally*, because we, in the early 21st century, do not use the vernacular of the early 17th century ... is one of the main reasons for Christians to pray, ie to help us discern the MEANING of scripture for our current day in age and, to the best of our knowledge, our current understanding of the cosmos ... we can still think about the metaphors, but things like space exploration and satellite communication/GPS systems have sort of transformed the our understanding of the heavans and Earth, ie the vernacular intended for the 17th century masses might be viewed as antiquated or obsolete by people from 21st century and it is OUR FAULT as Christians for making the language more of a barrier than it needs to be. - -The Lord's Prayer will holds a very prominent place for Christians who pray first of all to be granted the wisdom to behave according so that our Creator's will be done to bring about a better culture. The Lord's Prayer is addressed to the heavenly Father as our Creator, emphasizing the significance of bringing about the WILL driving that Creation *on Earth as it is in Heaven*. - - -## Thematic Structure of Prayer - -The REASON that we memorize the Lord's Prayer is so that we have the **MODEL** of how we can think about the thematic structure of our prayers *on the fly* ... without ever having to go back to the internet to look up the Lord's Prayer again, to make sure that we're using the right model for how to think in setting up of prayers ***correctly*** with the right thematic structure of our prayers ... OTHERWISE, prayers ending up being structured simplistically like a little girl asking for presents at Christmas and throwing in something she remember that she was supposed to ask for, like her grandma getting over her cold/flu. - -IMMATURE prayer lives are fine ... but we are ADULTS ... **we have THE MODEL for how we are to pray** ... we shouldn't expect to get points for praying as if we were selfish little girls asking for things we want to get as presents. - -**We have THE MODEL for how we are to pray.** We behave like adults who understand why they use thing that work. We can reinvent all kinds of OTHER wheels, but when it comes to prayer, we should use THE MODEL. - -How we think about about that model is, of course, open to interpretation and study. There's no limit to the amount of lessons that the model of the Lord's prayer can teach us, but perhaps one of most useful is divide the Lord's Prayer into two halves with seven petitions, each with a distinct focus: - -### First Half (Three Petitions): - -These three petitions -- 1) the sanctification of our Creator's name as "Father", 2) the unstoppable coming of our "Father's" Creation, and 3) the continual fulfillment of our Father's WILL as the Creation unfolds -- relate to our living Creator and how that living Creation is unstoppably and continually being brought into Reality. Implicitly, this FIRST half of the prayer is the most important, most essential half -- because our acceptance of our Father's Reality as it REALLY IS and not as we would pathetically attempt to *will* some human-driven reality to be is fundamental to the necessary humility we must ***live*** in order to be happy. It is IMPOSSIBLE to be genuinely happy without GRATEFULLY accepting and being supremely thankful for the Reality of our Father's Creation as it REALLY IS. - -Symbolically, the number three represents **utter completeness** or the PERFECT heavenly whole as well as the divinity in the Old Testament. Another way to think about the petitions for HEAVENLY, PERFECT completeness is to think about how these things would look from the perspective of the Creator, from a million miles away in space, looking down on the Earth ... the Creator's perspective is the only one that is truly complete and perfect in the longest-term sense of the long-term. The metaphor of this view "from a million or a billion miles up* is what we Christians mean by something that is **truly** *heavenly* ... rather than a view that is focused on little soap operas or tiny passing human drama's that might presented for extra propaganda value in today's new coverage ... it's an **exquisitely COMPLETE view** in that it empathetically sees the struggles/pains EVERY living thing AT ONCE, with the understanding that joy, suffering, growth, decline, gain, loss, death are all necesssry parts of Life in perfect process of Creation ... it's a fully ADULT view that recognizes how **genuine** sentience, empathy and love arises only out of the lived experience and knowledge of the struggle to survive and thrive in the midst of the gloriously beautiful, but seemingly nasty chaos of the Creation. - -The three petitions in this half emphasize God’s sovereignty and holiness ... this is why some of us deeply believe that it is extremely important for us to fall on our knees when we pray [if we are not physically impaired by poor health] to physically acknowledge this sovereignty and holiness. - -### Second Half (Four Petitions): - -The second half of the prayer is second for a good reason, ie these other four petitions -- 1) Our DAILY NEEDS will be met, 2) We will find the grace of forgiveness to be able to let go of past imperfections, 3) We will not be tempted to sin or do stupid shit, 4) We will be delivered from the genuine EVIL that exists in the world -- are much less ESSENTIAL and less important to our prayer lives because these petitions concern only ourselves and our lives and not our Creator's larger Creation. It's fine to pray [in self-centered manner] for things for ourselves, but we will generally find that when we pray for our Creator's will to be done and are appropriately grateful for everything that has been provided, our own needs will generally be met. - -The number four often signifies **earthly** or imperfect, still developing completeness ... in contrast to the PERFECT or **heavenly** wholeness [of the three petitions in the first half]. - -These requests address our IMMEDIATE DAILY NEEDS and our spiritual and emotional well-being. These requests should never really address things that we merely want or things that we might worry about for the coming months or years ... it's kind of up to us to figure out what we will need in the coming months as well as what kinds of things we WANT to happen ... and then plan and to work to make the necessary things happen to take care of our FUTURE needs and ALL of our wants. - -### The Lord’s Prayer (Matthew 6:9-13): - - Our Father in heaven, - hallowed be your name. - Your kingdom come, - your will be done, - on earth as it is in heaven. - Give us this day our daily bread, - and forgive us our debts, - as we also have forgiven our debtors. - And lead us not into temptation, - but deliver us from evil. - -Significance: -The Lord’s Prayer encapsulates essential aspects of prayer, including adoration, confession, thanksgiving, and supplication. -It serves as a model for believers, guiding them in their communication with God. -Remember that this prayer is not merely a formula but an invitation to engage with God intimately, acknowledging His sovereignty and seeking His provision and guidance. - -As we practice and attempt to improve our prayer lives, we need to realize that training for a better prayer life is not really different than the processes that humans use for serious training for an endeavor that requires excellence of execution, such as training for the Olympics or a martial arts world championship. - -It is the earnest intention behind our prayer and preparations to improve our prayer lives that matters most ... therefore, it's necessary, as with coaching, to be dilligent but also to fully enlist our full creative powers [including what we can learn from others, other traditions] to try different practices that have been beneficial for others, eg, giving something up for Lent, intermittent fasting ***without letting anyone know that one is fasting***. - - - -# Learning from the tradtions of those who have come before - -There's not really any excuse for us in this day in age with all of our benefits of information technology and AI to not deepen our research of prayer. Prayer like any productive human endeavor is something that benefits from planning, execution of plans and then revision of plans to address opportunities for better incorporating the practice into one's daily workflow. - -It might work best to start with our cyclic improvement process in our prayer lives by follow daily prayer regimens that have been inspired by the successes of various monastic traditions across different religions throughout the millenia. - -## Dawn Prayer (Lauds) - -Dawn Prayer, also known as Lauds, is a traditional Christian prayer service that is typically observed at sunrise or early morning. The term "Lauds" comes from the Latin word "laudes," which means "praises." - -In monastic communities, Lauds is a part of the Divine Office or Liturgy of the Hours, a series of prayer services observed at specific times throughout the day. The purpose of Lauds is to dedicate the beginning of the day to God, offering praise, thanksgiving, and petitions for the day ahead. - -The structure of Lauds may vary depending on the specific Christian tradition, but it generally includes the following elements: - -1. Opening versicle and response, such as "O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth shall declare your praise." - -2. Hymn or canticle praising God and expressing gratitude for the new day. - -3. Psalmody, which involves reciting or chanting a selection of psalms, usually including Psalms 148-150, known as the "Laudate Psalms." - -4. Scripture reading, often a passage from the Old or New Testament that reflects themes of thanksgiving, hope, or God's love and mercy. - -5. Responsory, a short exchange between the leader and the congregation, reflecting on the scripture reading. - -6. Benedictus or Canticle of Zechariah (Luke 1:68-79), a hymn of praise and thanksgiving for God's faithfulness and the coming of the Messiah. - -7. Intercessions or prayers of the faithful, offering petitions for the needs of the Church, the world, and individual intentions. - -8. Concluding prayer and final blessing. - -The practice of dawn prayer is rooted in the Jewish tradition of morning prayer and has been adopted by Christians as a way to sanctify the beginning of each day. It serves as a reminder to orient one's life towards God and to approach the day with a spirit of gratitude, humility, and trust in divine providence. - -While Lauds is particularly associated with monastic and liturgical traditions, the practice of dedicating the first moments of the day to prayer and reflection is a valuable discipline for all spiritual seekers, regardless of their specific religious affiliation. - -2. Mid-Morning Prayer (Terce): - - Take a brief pause in your day to reconnect with the divine and seek guidance. - - Recite prayers for wisdom, discernment, and strength, such as the "Prayer of St. Francis" in Christianity or the "Serenity Prayer" in various traditions. - -3. Midday Prayer (Sext): - - Pause at midday to reflect on your actions and offer prayers of repentance and forgiveness. - - Recite prayers for humility, compassion, and righteousness, such as the "Al-Istighfar" prayer in Islam or the "Metta Prayer" in Buddhism. - -4. Mid-Afternoon Prayer (None): - - Take a moment to offer prayers for perseverance, patience, and endurance. - - Recite prayers for strength in the face of challenges, such as the "Breastplate of St. Patrick" in Christianity or the "Prayer of St. Ephrem" in Eastern Orthodox tradition. - -5. Evening Prayer (Vespers): - - As the day comes to a close, offer prayers of thanksgiving for the blessings received and reflect on the day's events. - - Recite prayers of gratitude and peace, such as the "Shema Yisrael" in Judaism or the "Adiyogi Shiva Ashtakam" in Shaivism. - -6. Night Prayer (Compline): - - Before retiring for the night, offer prayers of protection and surrender to the divine. - - Recite prayers for a peaceful rest and the strength to face the next day, such as the "Psalm 91" in Christianity or the "Kirtan Sohila" in Sikhism. - -7. Contemplative Practice: - - Dedicate time each day to silent contemplation, meditation, or mindfulness practices. - - This can include practices such as "Centering Prayer" in Christianity, "Vipassana" in Buddhism, or "Dhikr" in Sufism. - -Remember, this is just a suggested framework, and you can adapt it to your own spiritual beliefs and practices. The key is to create a consistent daily routine that allows you to connect with the divine, express gratitude, seek guidance, and cultivate inner peace and wisdom. - diff --git a/_posts/2024-03-15-job-listing-AI.md b/_posts/2024-03-15-job-listing-AI.md deleted file mode 100644 index 90adfcf6..00000000 --- a/_posts/2024-03-15-job-listing-AI.md +++ /dev/null @@ -1,13 +0,0 @@ ---- -layout: post -title: "Curating / Updating Job Graphs of Thought for AI-Enabled GYGs" -date: 2024-03-15 4:30:00 -categories: template ---- - -We've all seen the archetypal position statements on job boards ... just like resumes, the position announcements all have the same, or more-or-less the same recognizable format ... position announcements are representations of THOUGHTS of what the hiring company believes they need. - -# WHAT IF we used AI to curate and update our leads for GYGs? - - -Executing algorithms also expose networked patterns, often represented by Directed Acyclic Graphs, which are familiar to Git users. Graph-enabled transformations would bring a promise of more powerful prompt engineering when applied to LLM **THOUGHTS** expressible ... not just as Chain of Thought or Tree of Thought ... but as [Directed Acyclic Graph of Thought](https://arxiv.org/pdf/2308.09687.pdf). \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/_posts/2024-03-18-soil-quality-laboratory.md b/_posts/2024-03-18-soil-quality-laboratory.md deleted file mode 100644 index eab9244f..00000000 --- a/_posts/2024-03-18-soil-quality-laboratory.md +++ /dev/null @@ -1,86 +0,0 @@ ---- -layout: post -title: "Soil Quality Laboratory" -date: 2024-03-18 4:30:00 -categories: template ---- - -# The Soil Environment - -# [Selman Waksman](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selman_Waksman)'s Seven Grand Questions on Soil Microbiology - -[Selman Waksman](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selman_Waksman), a biochemist and soil microbiologist whose research into the decomposition of organisms that live in soil, co-discovered [streptomycin](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streptomycin) along with [Albert Schatz](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Schatz_(scientist)) and [Elizabeth Bugie](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_Bugie). Waksman's team in the Rutgers Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology. discovered several antibiotics, including actinomycin, clavacin, streptothricin, streptomycin, grisein, neomycin, fradicin, candicidin, candidin. Streptomycin was the **first** effective drug against gram-negative bacteria and the first antibiotic used to cure tuberculosis. In 1952, Waksman was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for "*ingenious, systematic, and successful studies of the soil microbes that led to the discovery of* ***streptomycin***." {NOTE: There are indeed controversies about exactly WHO deserves what share of the credit for the discovery of streptomycin, but there is NO controversy whatsoever that this work happened in Waksman's lab and that the members of lab developed and refined the procedures for the **ingenious, systematic, and successful studies of the soil microbes**.} - -It is precisely that **ingenious, systematic, and successful studies of the soil microbes** that we are interested in carrying forward with Soil Quality Laboratory. Although Waksman's research was more general and far reaching because his lab also examined the role of bacteria in marine systems, with a particular focus on the role of bacteria in nutrient cycles, we are particularly interested in SOIL science and especially SOIL microbiology ... which is why we are still very much interested in the Seven Grand Questions that Waksman posed in his 1927 book, [***Principles of Soil Microbiology***](https://www.scribd.com/document/327671583/Principles-of-soil-microbiology-Waksman-Selman-A) - -## What organisms are active under field conditions and in what ways? - -### Intracellular Activities in Soil Microbiomes - -### Activities of Extracellular Protins in Soil - -## What associative and antagonistic influences exist among soil microflora and fauna? - -## What relationships exist between soil organic matter (SOM) transformations and soil fertility? - -### The Importance of Soil Organic Material - -### The Concept of Soil Quality - -## What is the meaning and significance of energy balance in soil, in particular with reference to C and N? - -### The Processes That Determine The Role of C in The Soil - -### The Processes That Determine The Role of N in The Soil - -### The Flow of Energy in Soil - -## How do cultivated plants influence soil transformations? - -## How can one modify soil populations and to what ends? - -## What interrelationships exist between physicochemical conditions in soil and microbial activities? - -# Overview Of The Soil Microbiome - -# The Bacteria and Archaee in Soil - -# The Fungi in Soil - -# The Viruses in Soil--Potential Roles, Activities, and Impacts - -# Horizontal Gene Transfer and Microevolution in Soil - -# The Protists in Soil--A Token of Untold Eukaryotic Diversity - -# Plant-Associated Baceteria and The Rhizosphere - -# Microorganisms Cycling Soil Nutrients - -# Methods to Determine Bacterial Abundance, Localization, and General Metabolic Activity in Soil - -# Soil Microbiome Data Analysis - -# Soil Metagenomics: Deciphering the Soil Microbial Gene Pool - -# Soil Analysis of Transcriptomes To Assess Expression and Activity Patterns in the Soil Microbiome - -# Metaproteomics Of Soil Microbial Communities - -# Stable Isotope Probing -- Detection of Active Microbiomes In Soil - -# Isolation of Uncultured Bacteria - -# Statistical Analyses of Microbiological and Environment Data - -# Soil Microbial Communities and Global Change - -# Soil Suppressiveness To Plant Diseases - -# Plant Growth-Promoting Bacteria In Agricultural And Stressed Soils - -# Biodegradation and Bioremdiation of Organic Pollutants in Soil - -# The Impact of Metal Contamination on Soil Microbial Community Dynamics - -# Management Strategies For Soil Used For Cultivation, Including Modulation of the Soil Microbiome \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/_posts/2024-03-21-health-is-the-ONLY-wealth.md b/_posts/2024-03-21-health-is-the-ONLY-wealth.md deleted file mode 100644 index 23fe0e6c..00000000 --- a/_posts/2024-03-21-health-is-the-ONLY-wealth.md +++ /dev/null @@ -1,166 +0,0 @@ ---- -layout: post -title: "Nutrition, Cleanse, Movement, Sleep, Connections, Inspiration, Peace" -date: 2024-03-21 4:30:00 -categories: template ---- - -# Health is the ONLY wealth. The only health that really matters is the health of the soul. - -For the most part, I would fully ascribe to the belief of quality of life being improved per the [**techno-optimist manifesto**](https://twitter.com/pmarca/status/1713930459779129358), except that I think that manifesto should be a weensy bit clearer that the point of life is NOT tech for tech's sake. - -As pure technologists, we do tech to solve problems ... we like to imagine that our motives are pure OR we get too lost in the wizardry of our clever tech ... so sometimes, technologists try to peddle their wares and tout their tech as if they are search of the holy grail of a solution, although a problem necessitating that solution does not exist. If something does not contribute to better health, it's actually a burden or junk that should be discarded as soon as practical ... when something generally makes health worse, it is actually poison or a toxin even if the intentions in developing thing were highest, most noble intentions possible. - -Technology is NOT wealth ... it's NOT equivalent to or tradeable for health. Tech is ONLY a tool for generally improving health ... and it's fine to be a tool builder. But we need to be clear about what goal is. - -*Health is the ONLY wealth.* **The only health that really matters is the health of the soul.** - -**The intentions we start with matter a great deal. Misdirected or poorly thought-through, less than mindful intentions dramatically increase the likelihood of automating the production of well-intentioned poison AT SCALE.** - -Accordingly, I am not one bit interested in dwelling on symptoms, regular diagnostic screenings or using approaches that rely on medicating problems away, although this is precisely the form of mass [hypochrondriasis](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypochondriasis) and rampant fear-mongering that is endemic in affluent culture. - -I am very much interested in working on my health today, so that I am healthier tomorrow, in order to work on being healthier for the day after tomorrow. *WHY does the propaganda that bombards push us to exercise, to eat right, to pay attention to sleep hygiene, to fast and cleanse, to work at making those around us more likely to exercise and eat right, to pay attention to sleep hygiene, to fast and cleanse?* ***WHY?*** - -WHY does the propaganda push us in the direction of more drama, more desire to materialist poisons? ***WHY is that?*** Why is business so necessarily myopic and fear-driven? - -*Business is ANTIQUATED ... sometimes you might might be tempted to think that business and human culture are hopelessly backward-looking, but the pace of change is quickening ... most of what business and technology of business do is still very much driven by a ravenous culture that is built on creating a sense of desire for something unnecessary and using false narratives to relentless hammer on a narrative of artificial scarcity. But the business of human existence is getting better and technology is ACCELERATING the rate of change toward a better, more voluntary, more creative world. Technological change can happen much faster than the change we see in human culture or in business ... but the change in culture and business is happening, faster than some want it to happen, right before our eyes.* - -Even if you turn off your television and throw all of your tech devices in the trash, you will still be bombarded by the marketing departments [through mass mailings, through the repititous idiocy of well-intentioned family members who've watched too much teevee]. The carpet-bombing of propaganda by of large health organizations as you turn 65 and suddenly become a LEAD for someone health org trying to SELL you something that only sick people need is truly something worthy befitting of the description "SHOCK and AWE." The marketing is so relentless, BECAUSE at 65, you have government health insurance whether you want it or not. - -*I detest the idolatry of sickness culture and preventative screenings and mass [hypochrondriasis](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypochondriasis) in American culture* ... I thought I didn't care for it when I was in my 50s, but now that I am turning 65, ***ABSOLUTELY detest the diagnostic-driven marketing of [hypochrondriasis](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypochondriasis) in American culture*** because the damned sales blizzards are so INESCAPABLE ... and **completely unnecessary.** - -I am mostly interested in a prayer-centric approach to lifestyle practices which include exercise, martial arts training, yoga, meditation, as well as gardening and landscaping in order to incorporate dietary changes and herbal remedies. The whole point of wellness programs should be to involve people in the processes that work for them for becoming healthier and more fit. - -BECOMING more fit and healthier is a matter of building a progressively stronger and stronger base ... instead of taking your health for granted, you have to work at being just slightly healthier and slightly more fit today in order in order to be able to work harder tomorrow at getting just ever so slightly even more healthier, even slightly more fit tomorrow ... you cannot train for any SERIOUS activity [and life, especially life after 65, gets to be pretty damned serious] without expecting that you will need to train seriously for decades. - -Building up our health is ... sort of like building up a three legged stool ... we really need body health, mind/emotional health and spiritual health or our whole approach to building better health will be unstable ... but the three-legged stool metaphor is woefully incomplete. We also need to working on our relationships and communities as well as our creativity/art or scientific contributions. - -We need to focus what we are doing NOW to really give it the attention necessary to do it right. For example, when we do martial arts drills, we are focused on one tiny particular aspect of our jiu jitsu game ... our mind cannot be elsewhere ... in fact, when we can be lost in a state of flow, we might almost be happy from the endorphins released from a great day of getting one teensy aspect right ... but our jiujitsu game is not going to be very good if we are not also working on all kinds of other things and integrating those things. This is even more true with our health and fitness ... we need FOCUS and INTEGRATION as well as a big picture STRATEGIC 360 degree awareness. - -# Priorities - -Building up our health is about ***diligently applying*** the 7 Pillars of Inspiration, Movement, Cleanse, Connections, Peace, Sleep, Nutrition, and ... there's no particular correct ORDER to these, but, personally, I try to think about them in THIS order, with THIS priority ... my own prioritization is based on my attempt to correct my own tendencies to place too much priority on food; in other words, if I'm not careful, I usually start off by my thinking by looking at what's in the refrigerator, then maybe if I feel drowsy, I'll take a nap ... I don't really need to place a higher priority sleep and nutrition, my interests will tend to take me there. - -YOUR priorities will be different, but you will need to be aware of your own tendencies and assess your priorities accordingly for balance. - -## Inspiration - -Our SOULS cannot thrive unless we are engaged in prayer as we are SPIRITUALLY creative, SPIRITUALLY productive and inspired to KNOW OUR WHY ... which only comes from spending more time contemplating the will of one's Creator. - -The root cause of most wastes of time, money and effort ... the root causes of almost all stress is the **abject spiritual poverty** driven by the constantly advertising, sales and marketing of the kind of depraved materialist existence that is prevalent in American culture. The spiritual poverty is so bad, that people literally REFUSE to take the time acknowledging how bad their addiction to the materialist idol worship of their culture is causing them to lose their souls. - -*Who cares if people are good at optimizing, when they are optimizing stupid shiny trailer trash shit and completely ignoring what richness is most valuable across all eternities?* - -It doesn't matter how much one optimizes vehicle ... it's still going to ROB its owner of $25,000/year in money, but the robbery will be worse in terms of of the value of time spent in that vehicle ... and as a result of embracing automotive culture, people tend to be completely unable to walk and their muscoskeletal systems atrophies from lack of use ... but it is the time WASTED in the vehicle that is the problem ... the time spent in the vehicle is time that could be spent in prayer, meditation, yoga, martial arts, gardening, landscaping, cooking, reading, writing, painting, playing music, or doing something else that is SPIRITUALLY creative and SPIRITUALLY productive and inspires one to spend more time contemplating the will of one's Creator. - -### In summary, meditate on the parallels ... between atrophy of our souls and atrophy of our muscoskeletal system - -It might not be a perfect metaphor ... but it might be the best one we have ... these parallels are like a parable from Jesus. - -Maybe, the importance of spiritual poverty THROUGH ATROPHY OF OUR PRAYER LIVES is not clear ... so let’s delve into how an automotive culture leads to [musculoskeletal atrophy](https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/22310-muscle-atrophy) ... *without getting too preachy about this topic,* if we think about it even a little bit, we see the idolatry given to materialist wealth or the ambition devoted solely to the pursuit of wealth, power or fame is EVEN WORSE when it comes to the havoc wreaked upon one's soul by the diminished focus on one's prayer life ... PRAYER is the VEHICLE we can use for being with our Creator, for discerning the will of our Creator in our lives. - -Remember, **the ATROPY of the musculoskeletal system due to automotive culture is a metaphor for the atrophy of the soul caused by immmersion in a hyper-materialist affluent culture** ... the atrophy of the soul is the root cause of most spiritual angst and emotional stress ... the atrophy of the soul is actually the root cause of most of the problems that people have with their health and fitness. If you want to be more healthy and more fit, you need to WORK HARDEST on being more spiritually healthy and more spiritually fit ... physical/mental/emotional health will be a natural consequence of spiritual health. - -### A Sedentary Lifestyle Is Better Than A Sedentary Prayer Life - -In an automotive culture, people often rely heavily on cars for transportation. This sedentary lifestyle reduces physical activity. -When we don’t use our muscles enough, a phenomenon known as disuse atrophy occurs. This means that the muscles start to break down, leading to a decrease in size and strength. - -Muscles that are not actively engaged become weaker over time, contributing to atrophy. - -### Limited Physical Activity Is Better Than A Limited Prayer Activity - -Driving, especially for long periods, involves minimal physical effort. The repetitive motion of sitting and steering doesn’t challenge our muscles. - -Lack of regular exercise and movement can cause muscle fibers to shrink and weaken. - -### Reduced Weight-Bearing Activities Are Better Than A Limited Weight-Bearing In Prayer - -You NEED the positive stress or eustress of weight-bearing activities. - -Walking, cycling, or using public transportation involve weight-bearing activities that engage various muscle groups. - -In contrast, driving doesn’t provide the same level of resistance or load on muscles. -Weight-bearing exercises are essential for maintaining bone density and muscle strength. - -### Physical Postural Impacts Are Insignificant Compared With A Poor Prayer Posture - -Prolonged sitting in a car can lead to poor posture. Slouching or maintaining an unnatural position can strain muscles and ligaments. - -Muscles that support the spine, such as the erector spinae, may weaken due to lack of use. - -### Loss of Bone Density Is Insignificant Compared With Loss of One's Spiritual Density - -Bones also suffer from disuse. Weight-bearing activities stimulate bone remodeling and help maintain bone density. -Reduced weight-bearing due to excessive reliance on cars can lead to osteopenia (reduced bone density) and even osteoporosis (severe bone loss). - -### Neglect of Active Commuting Is Trivial in Comparison to Neglect of One's Soul - -In an automotive culture, walking or cycling for commuting purposes becomes less common. - -Active commuting not only benefits cardiovascular health but also engages leg muscles and promotes bone health. - -### Neurogenic Atrophy Is Trivial in Comparison to Atrophy Of One's Soul - -Neurogenic atrophy occurs when nerves connecting to muscles are damaged or dysfunctional. - -While not directly related to automotive culture, it highlights the importance of nerve-muscle communication. - -Lack of movement can affect nerve signaling and contribute to muscle atrophy1. - -### In summary, meditate on the parallels - -Our bodies CANNOT thrive UNLESS we keep them moving! ***Our SOULS cannot thrive unless we are engaged in prayer as we are SPIRITUALLY creative, SPIRITUALLY productive and inspired to KNOW OUR WHY ... which only comes from spending more time contemplating the will of one's Creator.*** - -## Peace - -It's important to ditch all addictions, not only to things like alcohol, but also to people who use alcohol to manage stress. Beyond that, people who are addicted to material desires really need to left to pursue their addiction on their own, **without your tacit approval.** - -This is really about REDUCTION or ELIMINATION of NEGATIVE STRESS. We want positive stress or eustress in our lives. - -But when it comes to negativity ... peace is all about **what stress you can REMOVE** ... if you want peace, you need to forgive, forget and IGNORE the causes of stress ... it's absolutely essential to need to ELIMINATE relationships or activities that are inherently drama magnets or negative stress multipliers. - -The best way is to address the ROOT CAUSE of problems ... and set things in order to be extremely low or no maintenance. If you cannot REMOVE your use of a vehicle, then you will need to maintain it ... but it is best to aim for things that infinitely sustainable or will live without any human intervention. The BEST example that you have of infinite sustainability is the soil in your own garden. Take extra time to learn about soil quality and things like [mycorrhizal networks and interactions with other soil life](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1749461312000048) tol assess the living soil ecosystem and soil life interactions in your intended garden area to understand ways that soil quality improvment is conducive to healthy plant growth ... if the opportunity presents itself, you could volunteer with an herbal medicine gardener to gain hands-on experience and practical skills.... if you want to spread peace, you can participate in/lead workshops or courses that teach practical gardening techniques in combination with meditation, yoga, tai chi, breathwork and a knowledge of what it takes to constantly improve the health of your prayer life, ie the root cause of most stress is abject spiritual poverty of materialist existences prevalent in American culture. - -Developing a syllabus for stress reduction is mostly about learning to approach ALL forms of learning with an open but skeptical mind, with patience and perseverance and a need to APPLY the knowledge practically, to test one's understanding and see what works in an infinitely sustainable manner. It might be most beneficial to choose those courses and resources which feature a hands-on approach and provide opportunities for personal application and coaching. - - -## Sleep - -The most important part of getting good rest or applying good sleep hygiene is about **what you REMOVE.** - -Get rid of the television or any device that has a screen for scrolling through videos or social media ... there are those who will tell you that you should turn off audio, but the most important thing is to turn off any kind of audio or sounds that makes you think, even if those sounds are coming from your house or noisy pickups going down your street. There's less of a problem listening to a favorite voice-over artist re-tell a familiar story about the [Battle of Chancellorsville](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Chancellorsville) in the Civil War OR [Hannibal] commanding the forces of [ancient Carthage](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_Carthage) against the Romans in the [Battle of Cannae](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Cannae) in the [Second Punic War](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Punic_War) ... the real point here is to find a way to make sure there's no light in the room, to either turn off the noise pollution in your head or replace it with ambient sounds ... to sleep well, it's important to do what is necessary to knock out anything that demands attention span, like either scrolling videos that are so addictive OR endlessly thinking about the work you will need to do tomorrow. - -## Nutrition - -In order to bolster your mental/emotional health, you will need to turn off television and videos, in order to read significantly more.When you read, you need to test and apply. You will want to [autodidactically](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autodidacticism) develop your own customized long-term program of study ... which is mostly going to involve lists of materials to read ... at first, this is about using available content such as Wikipedia, Pubmed and Arxiv and BioRxiv first ... you can also spend relatively tiny amounts of time/money [relative to how much time/$ people spend on their automobiles] on things like ConnectedPapers, Scribd, KindleUnlimited, Audible, Perlego ... in order to advance your physical health most rapidly, you will need to rely upon subscriptions to Gracie University or Rickson Academy or other online materials that are about training after 65. - -Read books such as "Ayurveda, a life of balance by Maya Tiwari" for an introduction to Ayurvedic nutrition, food charts, and recipes OR use KindleUnlimited to read books like [How to Grow Your Own Medicine](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CVDTPGZC). Study topics like on the 7 Pillars of Ayurveda (Nutrition, Cleanse, Movement, Sleep, Connections, Inspiration, Peace) ... so that you are able to think for yourself about how you might apply this knowledge **practically**. - -Your reading and training in the martial arts will give you the foundational basis for fitness-centric or health-centric dietary principles in nutrition, gardening, food preservation/fermentation and cooking. - -You can study the cultivation of mushrooms or medicinal plants and learn how to grow them in harmony with nature’s seasonal rhythms. You can volunteer at a hospice where cancer patients and families go to be together as the patient is dying. You can explore permaculture principles and landscape architecture to develop a sustainable, harmonious, quiet prayer garden. - -Gain a BROAD understanding of herbs ... you could approach this by looking at tables of contents, skimming some material, possibly doing a deep dive in one facet of interest ... do this SERIOUSLY, as if you would would want to be aware of the lay of the land if some day your life depends upon it ... you could approach it almost as if you were **possibly** almost considering postgraduate studies in Ayurveda or Traditional Chinese Medicine or Native American herbal medicine ... EXCEPT, that unless you actually do pursue a postgraduate professional study, there's no need to actually ***persist*** in your deep dive ... in fact, nowadays, the beauty of AI and information heavy equipment like Wikipedia that continue to develop ... a jack-of-all-trades general awareness or BROAD understanding is best. - -[Unless you want to work in this area] you can engage as if you were going to become a full-time student in courses designed for practitioners, nutritionists, dieticians, chefs/cooks ... in other words, look at the syllabi and tables of content ... you want a BROAD view, which you can deepen later with the JIT use of AI inference engine on your phone ... so, at first, you just want to approach this as someone with no money to spend, but very interested in SHOPPING FOR IDEAS about more healthy cooking and picking up a few nutrition insights. Don't worry about learning it all at once. BECOMING more fit and healthier is a matter of building a progressively stronger and stronger base OVER TIME ... in order to gain a deeper understanding, you will need to be work on the most pressing matters first, but otherwise be patient and persistent in the long-term application of what you have learned as you change your base. - -Examine [Ayurvedic Nutrition Certification Programs](https://mindisthemaster.com/ayurvedic-nutrition-certification/) with a highly skeptical eye to - -* [My Vinyasa Practice](https://mindisthemaster.com/my-vinyasa-practice-ayurvedic-nutrition): Offers an Ayurvedic Nutrition Certification -* [YogaRenew](https://mindisthemaster.com/yogarenew-ayurvedic): Provides a course on Ayurveda: Food, Cooking & Digestion -* [Santosha Yoga Institute](https://threetigersmedia--santoshayoga.thrivecart.com/50-hour-online-ayurveda-course---ongoing/): Offers a 50-hour Ayurveda Training Online -* [National Ayurvedic Medical Association (NAMA)](https://www.ayurvedanama.org/professional-certification): Provides an Ayurvedic Professional Certification -* [New World Ayurveda School](https://www.newworldayurveda.com/healthpractitioner): Offers training for Ayurvedic Health Practitioners -* [Sarasvati Ayurveda Institute](https://www.sarasvatiayurveda.com/ayurveda-certification-online): Another option for Ayurvedic education -* [Bastyr University](https://bastyr.edu/continuing-education-ayurveda-certificate): Known for its holistic health programs, including Ayurveda - - - - -Apply the principles of Ayurveda to yourself to understand the effects and gain practical experience. - -Learn about Ayurvedic food synergy and how to create balanced meals according to Ayurvedic principles. - -Utilize online materials and courses to acquire more knowledge on healthy living through Ayurveda. - diff --git a/_posts/2024-03-25-viruses-immune-response-soil-microbiology.md b/_posts/2024-03-25-viruses-immune-response-soil-microbiology.md deleted file mode 100644 index 57ed9459..00000000 --- a/_posts/2024-03-25-viruses-immune-response-soil-microbiology.md +++ /dev/null @@ -1,28 +0,0 @@ ---- -layout: post -title: "Viruses, RNA, and the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Portal to the Future of Soil Microbiology?" -date: 2024-03-25 4:30:00 -categories: template ---- - - -Remember where you were four years ago? - -I bet a friend of mine 25c that the ***published*** [not *real*] USA death total, reportedly caused by [COVID-19 pandemic](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19_pandemic) in the month of April 2020 would exceed 200,000 ... I picked that number since the death toll in October 1918, at the worst of the greatest influenenza pandemic ever was about 200,000 ... in other words, I believed that the number would have to be that high or else the momentum behind the COVID-19 fear-mongering campaign would lose steam and people would just move on ... I lost the bet; the COVID-19 deaths in April 2020 were not really close to being more than 200,000 ... - -But I REALLY LOST in a larger sense ***along with everyone else***, because I totally underestimated the [hypochondriasis](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypochondriasis) of affluent Americans ... I am not AT ALL saying that COVID-19 wasn't / isn't a real threat to human life -- it absolutely IS! But the fear that was mongered from a susceptible population that legitimately should have been worried about their health ... but also have not remotely come to terms with their own mortality or the fact that we ALL die from something ... and that COVID-19 does not kill as many kids or young people, but hastens eventual death in the population of older and less healthy people who would probably EVENTUALLY [but within a few years, not immediately] die *sooner [within years], rather than later [within decades]* from some other viral attack or the common killers like heart disease, stroke, diabetes, etc. - - -# The COVID-19 Wikipedia Portal - -As we might expect, the COVID-19 Wikipedia Portal is about selling vaccines and mongering the fear. - -The information that is presented as if it is totally unbiased ... and "*must be the truth since I saw it on Wikipedia*" ... is a great way for those who are selling mRNA products as [COVID-19 vaccines](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19_vaccine) to induce fear in a public that is already spooked about COVID-19 and the all of the variants. - -## NOTHING on Wikipedia is unbiased or TRUE; what's there is VERIFIABLE, ie can be checked against other sources, and the result of a lowest-common-denominator consensus of the editors who have the time and energy to edit a Wikipedia page. - -The information on Wikipedia is great ... overall, Wikipedia is probably better than any other source of information on the internet that you want to name ... but Wikipedia is not the truth and it is not unbiased ... the information on Wikipedia is only VERIAFIABLE against questionable sources found elsewhere which deserve especially healthy skepticism [because of how Wikipedia-cited sources tend to used to make a questionable article more *sciencey*] AND Wikipedia information is a consensus of the lowest common denominator of the people who have the time and energy to edit a Wikipedia page. - -## SARS-CoV-2 - -As with every other person in the world, I probably have several variants of [SARS-CoV-2 virus](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SARS-CoV-2) in my body at this moment ... and AT THIS MOMENT, my immune system is fighting those virus variants off ... along with a bajillion other viruses, bacterias, fungi and other microorganisms that are probably not good for my health, fitness and longevity ... because, like most other people I kinda try to work having a relatively strong immune system AND at not exposing myself to too many different threats at once, ie I don't teach elementary school or hang out with kids in school *who are still learning not to lick one another* ... but that EVENTUALLY my immune system will fail. I can be sure of that. I can also be sure of the fact that my immune system response WILL NOT get stronger because a so-called "vaccination" with a mRNA protein product that has a VERY NOTICEABLE EFFECT as it spurs the vax recipient's body to react against a simulated threat that has been engineered to be similar to an actual [SARS-CoV-2](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SARS-CoV-2) variant; the so-called "vaccine" is an mRNA engineered pharma product which triggers a DIFFERENT reaction to a DIFFERENT protein which is not from the actual virus ... the SIDE EFFECT of the so-called "vaccine" is very real, and even lethal for some people -- but the immunity is not an immune response to the REAL threat; moreover, it is quite apparent now that the immunity is not at all robust or long-lasting, ie all the better for those selling boosters to the so-called "vaccine". \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/_posts/2024-03-29-soil-quality-lab-philanthropy.md b/_posts/2024-03-29-soil-quality-lab-philanthropy.md deleted file mode 100644 index 38ab4c46..00000000 --- a/_posts/2024-03-29-soil-quality-lab-philanthropy.md +++ /dev/null @@ -1,21 +0,0 @@ ---- -layout: post -title: "Sequester Carbon As Life To Optimize Philanthropic Impact" -date: 2024-03-29 4:30:00 -categories: template ---- - -Let's take a look at how startups are being funded in things like the [500 Flagship Accelerator Program](https://flagship.aplica.500.co/) or [Techstars](https://www.techstars.com/) or [Y Combinator](https://www.ycombinator.com/) or [AngelList](https://angel.co/) or [Venture Hacks](https://venturehacks.com/) or [Crunchbase](https://www.crunchbase.com/) or [CB Insights](https://www.cbinsights) ... - -Or, we could look at what trends we see in the [current crop of unicorns](https://pitchbook.com/news/articles/unicorn-startups-list-trends) look like - -Maybe we can use LinkedIn Premium? Or maybe we can use the [LinkedIn API](https://www.linkedin.com/developers/) to get a lists of the kinds of companies that are doing the kind of philanthropic work that we want to do? - -Our niche is soils ... specifically, we are interested in the ecologies of soils and that takes us into the realm of transciptomics and CRISPR and other things that might not typically be associated pure philanthropy that we are interested in. The POINT of the Soil Quality Laboratory philanthropy venture is to ***radically boost the healthfulness*** and **productivity** of soils for raising higher quality, healthier foods ... but it's also about all living matter, including the antimicrobials and other living things, found in soils that we [as humans] have not begun to understand or use ... the point of quality in general is about fitness for use; the aim of the SQL venture is to make soil more fit, more productive for more valuable and healthier living soil ecoystems. - -# Sequester C as Life - -There are many who believe that taking CO2 out of the atmosphere is a laudable goal and it may be, but of course, this is not ONLY about carbon sequestration ... it's just that **sequestering C as life** is the best way to do carbon sequestration. - -Taking CO2 from the atmosphere and sequestering it as mulch cover for soils that are transferred through a variety of practices ... which might involve grazing herbivores ... OR using herbivores like goats which can digest woody biomass ... OR using mushrooms to digest woody biomass ... with insects and a wide variety of burrowing animals transporting the carbonaceous residue deeper into the soil OR relying upon trees to or deeprooted perennials to vertically sequester the carbon ... the point of soil quality LABORATORY is really about radically amping up the value of the life that is in the soil or on the top few feet of the soil surface. The lifeforms that we are after includes things like antibiotics ... but antibiotics are only the tip of an incredibly large LIVING iceberg that has not yet been tapped. - diff --git a/_posts/2024-03-31-He-is-risen.md b/_posts/2024-03-31-He-is-risen.md deleted file mode 100644 index 6c56a0ed..00000000 --- a/_posts/2024-03-31-He-is-risen.md +++ /dev/null @@ -1,13 +0,0 @@ ---- -layout: post -title: "He Is Risen!" -date: 2024-03-31 4:30:00 -categories: template ---- - - -*For Christians, there can be no other day in the year that is more genuinely worthy of a SPECIAL day of celebration than Easter.* - -No one's birthday ... or Christmas ... or July 4th ... or Veteran's Day or Memorial Day or any other day ... NO day is more WORTHY OF CELEBRATION than Easter. NONE. - -Of course, we know that EVERY day is *special* in it's own snowflakey way ... it is best to live in the NOW, or possibly just slightly erring on the future side of now, in anticipation of the next now ... exercising to be better able to enjoy tomorrow's now or next month's now. ... but **NO day is more WORTHY OF CELEBRATION than Easter. NONE.** \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/_posts/2024-04-06-sell-yourself-to-your-self.md b/_posts/2024-04-06-sell-yourself-to-your-self.md deleted file mode 100644 index f154b97e..00000000 --- a/_posts/2024-04-06-sell-yourself-to-your-self.md +++ /dev/null @@ -1,86 +0,0 @@ ---- -layout: post -title: "Selling Yourself to Your Self ... Become YOU" -date: 2024-04-06 4:30:00 -categories: template ---- - - -*WHY be somebody else's ________? Why not BE the YOU who you were created to be?* - -## Why waste your time desiring wealth or fame or power or some cheap-ass human materialist ***shit?*** - -*ARE YOU ACTUALLY SHIT? If you aren't shit, then why do you idolize human materialist CRAP?* - -Recall the words of Christ in verse like [Mark 8.36](https://www.biblestudytools.com/mark/8-36-compare.html) *For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?* - -*Stop being a fool.* ***Selling yourself to your self*** all about discerning the will your Creator and then relentlessly embracing the VISION of who you are to become. - -Have you really begun to think deeply enough about WHO you really are? *Of course not!* NOBODY has. Contemplative monks realize how far they have to go, but the vast majority of clueless materialist humans have not BEGUN to think deeply about who they are or about their SOUL. - -Most people seem to be determined to a cheaper, crappier, less capable ***faulty imitation*** of some IDOL they think they admire or even worship ... MOST of human culture is based on such idol worship; that's why most humans are spiritually doomed, ie their lives are about worshipping some human materialist IDOL. - -Why do you want to be somebody else's _________________ ... when you can **BE** yourself. - -*When you want to BE yourself, you have to constantly SELL yourself* ***TO YOUR SELF.*** - -That does not mean bragging about you! ***"Selling yourself to your SELF" requires humility and honesty; it's about REALLY LISTENING to you*** not the fake shit you pretend to be. If you care about YOU enough to SELL yourself to your self, then you have to do it with the genuine intention of getting your self to buckle down like never before and INVEST serious time and effort into making yourself into the YOU who you are capable of being. - -It's not playing church or pretending to be Christian or thinking that you can save your soul, while you continue in your idol worshipping ways, chasing money, chasing fame, chasing power ... you cannot be YOU if you gain the entire Universe ... internalize the words of Christ in [Mark 8.36](https://www.biblestudytools.com/mark/8-36-compare.html) and **begin selling the YOU who you were created to be to your self.** - -## In like a LAMB, out like a LION! - -***Selling yourself*** has to start with abject, genuine humility to convey a vibe of gentle harmlessness to get people to TALK ... so that you can hear what they have to say ... to which you add *almost mean,* listening (ie, the listening has to be **skeptical**, bordering on *mean* because people are generally decent, caring humans who have a tendency to tell you what they think you want to hear) ... but you have LISTEN with discipline, to be intently-focused in an especially-SHREWD listening when you are **selling yourself** ... you have to be seeking to fully understand the situation they need help with and the root causes for why it is what it is ... and then, when you have deterimined that you actually have something to sell, you must be relentless in selling yourself to the VERY VERY VERY FEW people who need your solution ... as if you were a LION who was going to die fighting for them. - -Perhaps, this LAMB-to-LION thing seems like a paradox ... but it's the only way to ***sell*** yourself ... and the important thing is not to sell yourself to the masses ... and not to be a slut about it ... there's no real problem with fame or being liked ... but when **you chase fame or when you try to be liked, you lose your soul.** - -*Selling yourself is not really JUST your resume on some site like LinkedIn OR Crunchbase ... not JUST social media at all ... or JUST your various online profiles or model hubs or repositories or list of published papers* ... that's all part of the toolkit, but what matters is YOU and how you present the real YOU [in the virtual world] ... with the intention of solving the problems your Creator put you on Earth to solve. - -People GET that **the virtual world is primarily, almost all crapware; which is WHY being different than just more crapware stands out so starkly**. - -Selling yourself the correct way, that makes it clear that you are different and are not catering to being liked, is about the necessarily GENUINE, deeply AUTHTENTIC processes of selling the GENUINE you that you really are.* - -What your should be SELLING is a genuine representation of your total package [including your content, repositories, commitgraph] of the percieved IMAGE of you as a continuous improvement engineer, a hyper-curious, constantly learning person who will try better ideas. - -Of course, that percieved image is something that you must constantly work on making REAL. Because it does get tied to things like your NAME, financial identity ... and the superficial things, like your appearance or your percieved LIKENESS. - -In the end, your personal brand does not really matter EXCEPT if you might need/want to help people do productive things *and, POSSIBLY be compensated fairily for your assistance to them* ... but you should never get yourself into a position where you NEED the money or NEED to be liked or NEED to be famous. - -## Doing It The Wrong Way - -My OLD LINKEDIN PROFILE ... which has been stagnant for at least 15 years ...had absolutely nothing to do with looking for a job or looking for new business ... it was kind of a SOCIAL profile for staying in touch with old colleagues and maybe meeting new people who shared my technical *EngineersWithoutBorders* or *OpenSourcist* interest in various philanthropic endeavors ... but basically, I just had not really figured out what LinkedIn was trying to be OR I wanted to accomplish with my LinkedIn profile ... *I was just sorta messing around because I had not even thought about what it might be for*. - -So I started off [asking Bard some different questions to develop some different resume TEMPLATES for me](https://g.co/bard/share/8a05e2400b69) as if I were going to toss the ol' sombrero back in the ring and go back to work ... *sort of*, I was maybe interested in finding a startup [or set of startups] that I could advise on continuous improvement technical problem-solving or inventive **engineering** ... and an AI assistant was EXCELLENT for getting an outline QUICK for getting me STARTED thinking ... even though I still knew that I was just doing it wrong, and was *just trying to MORE RAPIDLY go through the same old job search motions* ... - -... as I was going through the exercise of sort of putting some meat on the bones of resume's outlined skeletal structure, I eventually saw that my original question was not really sufficient, so I kept asking different AI assistants more refining questions, because doing that was actually helping me THINK ... since the time spent on prompt re-engineering was really a matter of refining MY thinking and better understanding my own thinking and more precisely what questions I really wanted to ask. - -As I worked on this more and more, I finally realized that I was really starting to understand my own goals and by asking questions of the AI, I was ***starting*** to actually have a conversation with myself about getting a much clearer, more concrete, understandable [for me] idea about precisely what I was looking for my MAYBE job search or MAYBE looking for startups to join ... along the way, I learned that *the biggest value of an AI assistant [so far] is to help someone get better at asking better questions* ... which is about having a conversation with yourself ... so that FINALLY ... - -# ***I understood that I had been approaching job search COMPLETELY WRONG for my entire career.*** - -*Great! Now that I'm retired and don't need to work anymore, I finally understand what my career should've been about!* - -Do not get me wrong ... I am EXTREMELY grateful for the career that I had and PARTICULARLY grateful for the PEOPLE I met ... and I need to emphasize that, ***I am PARTICULARLY grateful for the PEOPLE I met*** ... during what was basically an unplanned succession of throw-away placeholder jobs while I was trying to figure my life out. **I am EXTREMELY gratedful for the people.** - -But, I am NOT really grateful for the jobs ... it's sorta like sports in school ... both the jobs that I held and the sports that I went out for in school were a TOTAL AND COMPLETE WASTE OF MY TIME! And to make matters worse, I sorta knew that at the time ... but I had not REALLY had a good conversation with myself to understand what I should do different ... but, my jobs and high school sports were not a complete waste, but ONLY because of the other people who were on my teams ... the activities/rewards of either my jobs OR the sports I played were a stupid use of my time ... maybe not as bad as the time I wasted in classrooms, but stupid enough. - -*So, I messed up.* Which is not really a crime ... and there was certainly nobody to blame but myself, but I see NOW how I should have approached it. *I should have asked myself MORE questions ... which would have led to me pushing much harder for things that matter ... and I should have spent a LOT less time worrying about being liked or having money or even being accepted.* - -A big part of the problem, is that I limited myself by thinking that the range of opportunities was limited to the jobs that were available or even worse, the jobs from employers that I thought would hire me ... at an early point in my life, I looked at the jobs that were available within driving distance ... then, in college, I looked at jobs that I could get from my university recruiter or maybe the professional help wanted ads from cities that I wanted to live in ... later, I looked more broadly at job search boards like Monster or Indeed ... I networked a little bit with friends from college or old colleagues, but frankly, I sorta tended to just detest any kind of ***selling myself*** activities, so I just accepted what was out there OR, maybe worst of all, I allowed myself to be seduced by some headhunter telling me about an employer that sought ME out. - -I could NEVER find my ideal job ... because I had settled for what I thought was available ... I settled because I had not bothered to REALLY, REALLY, REALLY refine my goals and objectives ... **I had settled for the ideas of what total dumbfucks were offering me.** - -*I had become the dumbfuck who settled for the best available option.* - -I did not CREATE my options. - -I thought that I did ... but, if I am serious with myself, I have to admit that did NOT ever understand my own job search in the broader context of what I was **trying to accomplish** ... I had goals, career plans, things that I wanted to do ... but mostly, I showed up for work and pretty much saved almost every nickel of my paycheck to invest OR pay down debts of business entities that I had an interest in ... but I was MENTALLY lazy, in that I was comfortable just working at the same old thing ... RATHER THAN CONTINUALLY THINKING ABOUT MY GOALS AND REINVENTING MYSELF. - -# Forget the Rear View Mirror -- What About The RETIREMENT GIG - -I thoroughly DETEST being a tourist ... cannot stand it AT ALL. I enjoy seeing new things, interacting with new people, doing all of the things that one does when one travels ... but I CANNOT STAND doing that as a tourist. I can't explain why; I just know that it makes me nauseous and even ready to contemplate suicide. I have to have a business purpose to DRIVE the reason to see new things, to interact with new people, to travel and experience different cultures ... - -Without a business purpose, I am better off being a reclusive hermit at home ... maybe, if I want to meet interesting new people, I can visit the convicts in prison. - -So ... it's either prison ... or else I have to INVENT my own business purpose ... or philanthropic purpose ... or else, I can't travel, see new things firsthand or interact with new people. - diff --git a/_posts/2024-05-01-extending-listification-to-teach.md b/_posts/2024-05-01-extending-listification-to-teach.md deleted file mode 100644 index 14a21fc7..00000000 --- a/_posts/2024-05-01-extending-listification-to-teach.md +++ /dev/null @@ -1,16 +0,0 @@ ---- -layout: post -title: "Extending Listification To Teach" -date: 2024-05-01 4:30:00 -categories: template ---- - -The progression of listification is like peeling an onion. Simple lists must be approachable and usable on the surface, all by themselves, as simple lists or learning syllabi ... but the process of drilling down or peering behind the curtain should also be open source and approachable, so that we teach how to teach others. - -We can illustrate with something like learning a language. At first, we will want to understand the process of following [a tutorial to learn a language like Python](https://docs.python.org/3/tutorial/index.html) and that process can progress toward fluency in Python [although any language will require continual use to develop mastery] ... then we will progress to that point where want to learn [how to build tutorials in something like Jupyter [using Binder]](https://the-turing-way.netlify.app/communication/binder/zero-to-binder.html) ... but then we progress to [learning how to set up BinderHub [which uses a JupyterHub running on Kubernetes for most of its functionality]](https://binderhub.readthedocs.io/en/latest/zero-to-binderhub/index.html#zero-to-binderhub). - -Of course, that's not remotely close the end of it ... but the point is that to really understand a topic we must think about how we would teach others ... this means we must also be able to use AND EXTEND the tools of teaching others. - -Fifty years ago in order to teach something like agricultural wiring or small gas engine repair, we would go to a VoAg shop ... but if we did not have a VoAg shop, we would have to learn how to build that VoAg shop FIRST before anyone could learn/teach anything in that shop. Nowadays, teaching others [around the world] increasingly means using an online interactive sessions in something like [ZOOM or Google Meet or, most likely BOTH, because different people will use different products and it will be necessary to adapt to each](https://www.businessinsider.com/guides/tech/google-meet-vs-zoom) ... of course, this means that we also have to be moderately fluent in both ZOOM and Google Meet ... as well as setting up things like [CodeMirror](https://codemirror.net/) or [GitPod](https://www.gitpod.io/docs/getting-started). - -The progression of listification is like peeling an onion. Simple lists must be absolutely approachable as just curated, hyperlinked, annotated lists on the surface ... but the process of drilling down or peering behind the curtain should also be open source and approachable ... if we want to really learn anything, we must think in terms of teaching others how to teach others. diff --git a/_posts/2024-06-01-experimentation-with-WSL.md b/_posts/2024-06-01-experimentation-with-WSL.md deleted file mode 100644 index d2bbabb6..00000000 --- a/_posts/2024-06-01-experimentation-with-WSL.md +++ /dev/null @@ -1,58 +0,0 @@ ---- -layout: post -title: "Increase Experimentation with DISPOSABILITY" -date: 2024-06-01 4:30:00 -categories: template ---- - - -## The whole point of WSL is experimentation - -Disposability matters when you want to have multiple environments on your machine ... to be able to try and compare multiple wild and crazy environments ... and then DISPOSE of those environments ... thus WSL is about radically increasing the amount of experimentation in a personal workflow ... it's best to try several things, compare, settle on what works and then experiment with something new. - -This is what WSL is for ... trying lots of environments simultaneously ... seeing which works better. - -It's not for people who are inflexible and want their workflow to be ***JUST SO*** ... it's for people who embrace the discipline to continously improve with experimentation. - -You are probably not going to fall in love with any of these environments or operating systems ... but you might be more interested in *trying on* different beta environments or packages not yet released to see how everything fits ... OR ... you might need to examine old environments [that people are still using] to re-create a problem or develop for some sort of legacy situation. - -## The whole point of WSL is rapid and efficient DISPOSABILITY - -WSL dev enviroments are made to be installed ... then unregistered and deleted ... and possibly re-installed per your installation script or upgraded to your own latest and greatest ***requirements.txt*** file from the `pip freeze --l > requirements.txt` **bash** command. - -Trying on and disposing of different WSL2 distributions can help you think about developing your own [automated] best practices for container upgrading and optimization. - -## An example install of using Fedora38 as an example. - -(0) As a general rule you will probably find that **working with released container images will be your best** ***starting point*** - -:rotating_light: :rotating_light: :rotating_light: - -*After you have done several of these, you might want to try with other container images, other layers, other versions of your own container concoctions using [Docker buildkit](https://docs.docker.com/build/buildkit/) or [fedora buildah](https://docs.fedoraproject.org/en-US/iot/buildah/)* - -(1) Make a rootfs of an applicable downloaded container image. - -For example, let's say Fedora 37 is the latest supported release ... but that you are interested in the beta level [Fedora 38](https://docs.fedoraproject.org/en-US/releases/f38/) ... for a x86_64 system, you would start by downloading the ***.tar.gz** image from [Fedora-Cloud / Docker-Brew-Fedora GitHub repository](https://github.com/fedora-cloud/docker-brew-fedora/blob/38/x86_64/fedora-38-x86_64.tar.xz) ... probably putting it into your Downloads folder ... then you would use something like [7-zip](https://www.7-zip.org/download.html) to extract that downloaded **fedora-38-x86_64.tar.xz** file right into the same Downloads folder. - -Rename the extracted **fedora-38-x86_64.tar** file **fedora-38-rootfs.tar** - -(2) In **Powershell**, create a new folder for Fedora38 ... with the command ... `mkdir $HOME\wsl\fedora38` - -(3) Also in **Powershell**, you will name the new distro **fedora38** ... with the following **Powershell** command ... `wsl --import fedora38 $HOME\wsl\fedora38 $HOME\Downloads\fedora-38-rootfs.tar` - -(4) Check to see that the import happened with the following **Powershell** command ... `wsl -l -v` - -(5) Confirm that your new **fedora38** distribution is operational with the following **Powershell** command ... `wsl -d fedora38` ... you will need a new instance of **Powershell** for the dropdown menu for shells to be repopulated with the fedora38 **bash** entry point. - -(6) After you into the new distribution with a **root** `#` prompt ... look around in that system and try a few things to test whether everything is as you expect ... for example, we can get a >>> shell/prompt and then use the `help('modules')` command to see the built-in packages that came with Python3.11 inital configuration that was part of the new **fedora38** image. - -(7) You will probably want to install basic things like **git** ... `sudo dnf install git` ... then **pip** ... `sudo dnf install pip` ... then for the larger overall system ... - -* don't forget to configure **git** with ... `git config --global user.name "Your Name"` ... and ... `git config --global user.email "youremail@yourdomain.com"` -* while pip alone is sufficient to install from pre-built binary archives, up to date copies of the setuptools and wheel projects are useful to ensure you can also install from source archives ... use the command `python3 -m pip install --upgrade pip setuptools wheel` first ... THEN run the `pip list --outdated` command to ensure you can start adding packages - -(8) Use `cd /` to ensure that you are in the `/` directory ... then set up the structure of your distribution with several different [Python environments](0_7_PythonVirtualEnvironmentsPIP.md) ... the form of the command `python3 -m venv cpf38` in which ***cpf38*** would be changed for each virtual environment name, eg, ***cpf38, then cpf38_original, cpf38-1, cpf38-2, cpf38-3*** ... configure each of these different environments with pip after activating the environment, but you probably want to leave TWO, ie both ***cpf38*** as original and ***cpf38_original*** as a backup REFERENCE of the *original* state in case the original ***cpf38*** gets *monkeyed with* ... different environments allow for experimental design in your own development process -- for example, you could add just the **jupyterlab** package to cpf38-1, just **numpy** to cpf38-2, and both the **jupyterlab** and **numpy** packages to cpf38-3. - -(9) Start ***using*** the system for what you intend to do, eg development ...test, probing, tracing, debugging the environments as issues arise ... your choice of a trusted toolchain including the IDE, extensions and git tools for WSL2 is strictly a personal matter ... but you probably want do something that tests *everything's sorta normal*, eg that VS Code can clone a repository into a WSL2 distribution OR that you can get an .ipynb test notebook to run, ie that things like the Jupyter kernel / server and packages like the NumPy libraries are at least working ... such that you can save a file and commit your saved edit to a remote repo. - -(10) As soon as you have the environments as you want them ... use `pip freeze --local > <*ENV-SPECIFIC*>requirements.txt` ... in which <*ENV-SPECIFIC*> is your identifier to match your env naming scheme. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/_posts/2024-07-01-awesome-template-reading-list .md b/_posts/2024-07-01-awesome-template-reading-list .md deleted file mode 100644 index c469177e..00000000 --- a/_posts/2024-07-01-awesome-template-reading-list .md +++ /dev/null @@ -1,279 +0,0 @@ ---- -layout: post -title: "Annotated Curated Listification Starts With Brainstorming" -date: 2024-07-01 4:30:00 -categories: template ---- - - -# Curated Reading Collection Template - -To really brainstorm, we need to PUSH a bit on brainstorming ... we cannot afford to just look at the top three or five as we normally do with *googlestorming* ideation. We really need to ***PUSH.*** - -in listification, we want to have roughly 125 pretty good ideas in the hopper. We will try to get to each of these sometime in the next 3 months, but the lower 100 are *on the bubble*. The 25 most important list items we work on at least once a month. - -Our top five list ... which might be closer to what everyone tends to think of as a *normal* ToDo list are those top five things that we will touch on at least once in the coming week. - -Of course, our focus will be one the ONE main one ... the biggie that we are really focusing on, trying to get right. - -1) [Newsreaders](https://github.com/topics/rss-reader?o=desc&s=forks) ... especially for pre-print archives - -2) Classics and Classic commentary - -3) Peer-reviewed Scientific Journals - -4) Poetry - -5) Martial arts, self-defense - -6) Sculpture, particularly landsculpting - -7) Writing on prayer, lojong, meditation - -8) Art, artists, art history - -9) Architecture, particularly parks and green spaces - -10) Ecosystems, nature, - -11) Physics - -12) Mathematics - -13) Chemistry - -14) Meta Wikipedia, Wikipedians, General wikiculture - -15) Philosophy - -16) Music, Music AI, Music Metadata - -17) Podcastering, DAWs, audio - -18) - -19) - -20) - -21) - -22) - -23) - -24) - -25) - -26) - -27) - -28) - -29) - -30) - -31) - -32) - -33) - -34) - -35) - -36) - -37) - -38) - -39) - -40) - -41) - -42) - -43) - -44) - -45) - -46) - -47) - -48) - -49) - -50) - -51) - -52) - -53) - -54) - -55) - -56) - -57) - -58) - -59) - -60) - -61) - -62) - -63) - -64) - -65) - -66) - -67) - -68) - -69) - -70) - -71) - -72) - -73) - -74) - -75) - -76) - -77) - -78) - -79) - -80) - -81) - -82) - -83) - -84) - -85) - -86) - -87) - -88) - -89) - -90) - -91) - -92) - -93) - -94) - -95) - -96) - -97) - -98) - -99) - -100) - -101) - -102) - -103) - -104) - -105) - -106) - -107) - -108) - -109) - -110) - -111) - -112) - -113) - -114) - -115) - -116) - -117) - -118) - -119) - -120) - -121) - -122) - -123) - -124) - -125) - -# Exploratory / Wild Brainstorm Lists ... *which might become reading lists* - - -* - -* - -* - -* - diff --git a/_posts/2024-08-01-awesome-template-reading-list copy.md b/_posts/2024-08-01-awesome-template-reading-list copy.md deleted file mode 100644 index addc77de..00000000 --- a/_posts/2024-08-01-awesome-template-reading-list copy.md +++ /dev/null @@ -1,277 +0,0 @@ ---- -layout: post -title: "Annotated Curated Listification Is About Editing" -date: 2024-08-01 4:30:00 -categories: template ---- - -Yes, we know that this writing needs an editor. Perhaps the point of the exercise ... do develop some editing skills. ***Mostly, the writing is still raw, dissheveled, lacking a cup of coffee and certainly not yet dressed-up for work.*** - -That's what listification is about ... EDITING ... lots of EDITING ... it's about CURATING personal [AWESOME lists](https://github.com/topics/awesome) and content collections ... which others might find useful ... but maybe not yet --**we mostly curate the lists for our future selves.** - -It might be best to spend some time looking at the AWESOME pattern and the community that has sprung up around the [AWESOME topic](https://github.com/topics/awesome) ... or to look how it has influenced the pattern behind GitHub's [Curated Collections](https://github.com/collections). - - -# Curated Reading Collection Template - -1) [Newsreaders](https://github.com/topics/rss-reader?o=desc&s=forks) ... after we have a list we start really using these collections - -2) Classics and Classic commentary - -3) Peer-reviewed Scientific Journals - -4) Poetry - -5) Martial arts, self-defense - -6) Sculpture, particularly landsculpting - -7) Writing on prayer, lojong, meditation - -8) Art, artists, art history - -9) Architecture, particularly parks and green spaces - -10) Ecosystems, nature, - -11) Physics - -12) Mathematics - -13) Chemistry - -14) Meta Wikipedia, Wikipedians, General wikiculture - -15) Philosophy - -16) Music, Music AI, Music Metadata - -17) Podcastering, DAWs, audio - -18) - -19) - -20) - -21) - -22) - -23) - -24) - -25) - -26) - -27) - -28) - -29) - -30) - -31) - -32) - -33) - -34) - -35) - -36) - -37) - -38) - -39) - -40) - -41) - -42) - -43) - -44) - -45) - -46) - -47) - -48) - -49) - -50) - -51) - -52) - -53) - -54) - -55) - -56) - -57) - -58) - -59) - -60) - -61) - -62) - -63) - -64) - -65) - -66) - -67) - -68) - -69) - -70) - -71) - -72) - -73) - -74) - -75) - -76) - -77) - -78) - -79) - -80) - -81) - -82) - -83) - -84) - -85) - -86) - -87) - -88) - -89) - -90) - -91) - -92) - -93) - -94) - -95) - -96) - -97) - -98) - -99) - -100) - -101) - -102) - -103) - -104) - -105) - -106) - -107) - -108) - -109) - -110) - -111) - -112) - -113) - -114) - -115) - -116) - -117) - -118) - -119) - -120) - -121) - -122) - -123) - -124) - -125) - -# Exploratory / Wild Brainstorm Lists ... *which might become reading lists* - - -* - -* - -* - -* - diff --git a/_posts/2024-11-01-experimentation-with-conda-venv-pip.md b/_posts/2024-11-01-experimentation-with-conda-venv-pip.md deleted file mode 100644 index 103e720f..00000000 --- a/_posts/2024-11-01-experimentation-with-conda-venv-pip.md +++ /dev/null @@ -1,59 +0,0 @@ ---- -layout: post -title: "Understand What Conda, VENV and PIP are ... and the differences" -date: 2024-11-01 4:30:00 -categories: template ---- - - - -Given everything that AI can do now, should a person learn to code? - -*Yes, to be conversant in programming languages ... but not necessarily to become someone who JUST writes code.* - -It's more important than ever to be able to shift gears ... to skate backwards ... to be ***quasi-dangerous as a coder*** with the help of an AI coding tool like CoPilot, for *"writing"* and especially for UNDERSTANDING different kinds of code. - - -# Python Virtual Environments / PIP / Conda Best Practices Checklist - -*TL;DR version* ... the best practice is to experiment with virtual environments and start developing your own best practices checklist. - -Containers, immutable operating systems, and WSL2 environments embrace the sandbox ... using ephemeral, disposable for environments for security AND to encouage experimentation rather *having everything JUST SO*. Exploit what ephemerality offers ... install ONLY what you need in container; use different environments within that container ... work toward developing your own automatable development environment set-up process using package managers and your scripts for that package installation process ... instead of conda, trying instead to get your minimalist development environments perfect for your specific needs for that environment ... this means curating YOUR OWN environments with commands such as `pip freeze --local > <*ENV-SPECIFIC*>requirements.txt` and then re-using what works ... even if you don't reuse your pip freeze, you DEFINITELY *should* want to have some awareness of [WTF is installed](0_8_InvestigateInstalledPackages.MD) in your environment with the `pip list` command. - -## Understand what conda, venv and pip are ... and the differences ... these things can possibly play well together, but they are not subsitutes and there can be conflicts if they are misused. - -* You might think that you can do everything with **pip** and your own well-curated scripts ... *and you can, when you know what you're doing* ... but you should understand the validity of need for conda and why the business model works for serving customers, particularly those using a multi-language environment - -* The topic of virtual environments can be confusingAF for beginners ... and, it's not especially clear for even those who think they understand the topic ... but you will want ***carefully read*** [documentation on creating a virtual environment](https://packaging.python.org/en/latest/guides/installing-using-pip-and-virtual-environments/#creating-a-virtual-environment) ... and then you will find, that maybe things have changed or even when you thought you understood it, you will often need to refer back to* some part of [that virtual environment documentation](https://packaging.python.org/en/latest/guides/installing-using-pip-and-virtual-environments/#creating-a-virtual-environment). - -* [venv](https://docs.python.org/3/library/venv.html) (new in version Python 3.3) allow you to manage separate package installations for different projects. When [venv](https://docs.python.org/3/library/venv.html) is used from ***within*** a virtual environment, common installation tools such as pip will install Python packages into a virtual environment without needing to be told to do so explicitly. - -* [virtualenv](https://virtualenv.pypa.io/en/stable/index.html) can be thought of as the *old-but-hasn't-exactly-gone-away-former-venv* ... virtualenv was integrated into the [venv module](https://docs.python.org/3/library/venv.html) ***but not until AFTER 3.3*** ... so it has not gone away and you still have to use the *longer-named* [virtualenv](https://virtualenv.pypa.io/en/stable/index.html) for everything in Python 2 and Python 3 that came before 3.3. *virtualenv can be thought of as being sort of like Cobol or Fortran, ie eventually these things will die out, but not until long after you do.* {NOTE: This sort of quasi-but-not-quite-deprecation and half-wise-backward-compatibility is typical in the realm of software engineering ... and it might be getting even more typical. *Get used to it ... but TRY to simplify rather than f-up, ie feature-up, your code.*} - -* [pip](https://pypi.org/project/pip/) is the [*recommended* package installation manager for PURELY Python environments](https://packaging.python.org/en/latest/guides/tool-recommendations/). You can use pip to install packages from the [Python Package Index](https://pypi.org/) and a bajillion other indexes [which you maybe shouldn't use]. It is common in the Python community to refer to a distribution using the term “package” ... which is just plain WRONG. Obviously, the term “distribution” can easily be confused with a Linux distribution, or another larger software distribution like Python itself. {NOTE: This sort of abuse of human language is typical of the realm of software engineering ... in which software engineers are ONLY aware of their particular *environment* and their particular, isolated version of expertise ... and evidently, the abuse of human language is getting even more typical and software engineers get more careless and seem to assume that AI will discern context, so devs can be careless about language and jargon. ***Get used to the pollution of human language with software engineering idioms*** ... but TRY to simplify and be more particular about terminology ... rather than pollute or f-up or feature-up or jargon-up your use of language.} - -* Depending on how [pip](https://pypi.org/project/pip/) is installed, you may need to also install [wheel](https://wheel.readthedocs.io/en/latest/) to use the [wheel binary package format](https://peps.python.org/pep-0427/) and get the benefit of the wheel [caching](https://pip.pypa.io/en/stable/topics/caching/). As of pip version 6.0 and thereafter, pip provides an **on-by-default caching** which is designed to reduce the amount of time spent on duplicate downloads and builds, so pip attempts to use wheels from its local wheel cache whenever possible. In cases in which pip’s caching behavior cause undesirable issues, the recommended approach is to directly install from a source distribution instead of letting pip auto-discover the package when it is trying to install. Installing directly from a source distribution will make pip build a wheel, regardless of whether there is a matching cached wheel. As of pip version 20.0, pip caches wheels built from an immutable Git reference (i.e. a commit hash). - -* [conda](https://conda.io/en/latest/index.html) is both a package and environment manager and is **language agnostic** ... for ANY language, Python, R, Ruby, Lua, Scala, Java, JavaScript, C/ C++, Fortran, [Go](https://anaconda.org/conda-forge/go), [Rust](https://anaconda.org/conda-forge/rust), [SQLite](https://anaconda.org/conda-forge/sqlite), [PostgreSQL](https://anaconda.org/conda-forge/postgresql), [MongoDB](https://anaconda.org/conda-forge/mongodb) ... *and more* ... thus, Conda is sort the ***recommended*** package installation manager for complicated development environments that probably will not always be purely about only Python, ie practical real-world environments rather than environments only for training people how to use Python. - - -#### In COMPLICATED mult-language environments ... it might well be most time-efficient to use conda environments FIRST, then use pip only after conda ... your mileage will vary; do not use conda because you are lazy. Know what it's for. - -* OF COURSE ... conda recommends that you install as many requirements as possible with conda, then use pip ... YOUR MILEAGE WILL VARY -* pip should be run with --upgrade-strategy only-if-needed (the default) -* Do not use pip with the --user argument, avoid all “users” installs - -## create a conda environment to isolate any changes pip makes - -* environments take up very little space thanks to hard links -* care should be taken to avoid running pip in the “root” environment -* recreate the environment if changes are needed - -## once pip has been used conda will be unaware of the changes - -* it is best to recreate the environment entirely in order to install additional conda packages -* store conda and pip requirements in text files - -## know the arguments, eg package requirements can be passed to conda via the --file argument -* pip accepts a list of Python packages with -r or --requirements -* conda env will export or create environments based on a file with conda and pip requirements \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/_posts/2024-12-01-experimentation-with-containers.md b/_posts/2024-12-01-experimentation-with-containers.md deleted file mode 100644 index cb27db47..00000000 --- a/_posts/2024-12-01-experimentation-with-containers.md +++ /dev/null @@ -1,51 +0,0 @@ ---- -layout: post -title: "Containers, Virtual Environments and More Containers" -date: 2024-12-01 4:30:00 -categories: template ---- - - -# Python Virtual Environments / PIP / Conda Best Practices Checklist - -*TL;DR version* ... the best practice is to experiment with virtual environments and start developing your own best practices checklist. - -Containers, immutable operating systems, and WSL2 environments embrace the sandbox ... using ephemeral, disposable for environments for security AND to encouage experimentation rather *having everything JUST SO*. Exploit what ephemerality offers ... install ONLY what you need in container; use different environments within that container ... work toward developing your own automatable development environment set-up process using package managers and your scripts for that package installation process ... instead of conda, trying instead to get your minimalist development environments perfect for your specific needs for that environment ... this means curating YOUR OWN environments with commands such as `pip freeze --local > <*ENV-SPECIFIC*>requirements.txt` and then re-using what works ... even if you don't reuse your pip freeze, you DEFINITELY *should* want to have some awareness of [WTF is installed](0_8_InvestigateInstalledPackages.MD) in your environment with the `pip list` command. - -## Understand what conda, venv and pip are ... and the differences ... these things can possibly play well together, but they are not subsitutes and there can be conflicts if they are misused. - -* You might think that you can do everything with **pip** and your own well-curated scripts ... *and you can, when you know what you're doing* ... but you should understand the validity of need for conda and why the business model works for serving customers, particularly those using a multi-language environment - -* The topic of virtual environments can be confusingAF for beginners ... and, it's not especially clear for even those who think they understand the topic ... but you will want ***carefully read*** [documentation on creating a virtual environment](https://packaging.python.org/en/latest/guides/installing-using-pip-and-virtual-environments/#creating-a-virtual-environment) ... and then you will find, that maybe things have changed or even when you thought you understood it, you will often need to refer back to* some part of [that virtual environment documentation](https://packaging.python.org/en/latest/guides/installing-using-pip-and-virtual-environments/#creating-a-virtual-environment). - -* [venv](https://docs.python.org/3/library/venv.html) (new in version Python 3.3) allow you to manage separate package installations for different projects. When [venv](https://docs.python.org/3/library/venv.html) is used from ***within*** a virtual environment, common installation tools such as pip will install Python packages into a virtual environment without needing to be told to do so explicitly. - -* [virtualenv](https://virtualenv.pypa.io/en/stable/index.html) can be thought of as the *old-but-hasn't-exactly-gone-away-former-venv* ... virtualenv was integrated into the [venv module](https://docs.python.org/3/library/venv.html) ***but not until AFTER 3.3*** ... so it has not gone away and you still have to use the *longer-named* [virtualenv](https://virtualenv.pypa.io/en/stable/index.html) for everything in Python 2 and Python 3 that came before 3.3. *virtualenv can be thought of as being sort of like Cobol or Fortran, ie eventually these things will die out, but not until long after you do.* {NOTE: This sort of quasi-but-not-quite-deprecation and half-wise-backward-compatibility is typical in the realm of software engineering ... and it might be getting even more typical. *Get used to it ... but TRY to simplify rather than f-up, ie feature-up, your code.*} - -* [pip](https://pypi.org/project/pip/) is the [*recommended* package installation manager for PURELY Python environments](https://packaging.python.org/en/latest/guides/tool-recommendations/). You can use pip to install packages from the [Python Package Index](https://pypi.org/) and a bajillion other indexes [which you maybe shouldn't use]. It is common in the Python community to refer to a distribution using the term “package” ... which is just plain WRONG. Obviously, the term “distribution” can easily be confused with a Linux distribution, or another larger software distribution like Python itself. {NOTE: This sort of abuse of human language is typical of the realm of software engineering ... in which software engineers are ONLY aware of their particular *environment* and their particular, isolated version of expertise ... and evidently, the abuse of human language is getting even more typical and software engineers get more careless and seem to assume that AI will discern context, so devs can be careless about language and jargon. ***Get used to the pollution of human language with software engineering idioms*** ... but TRY to simplify and be more particular about terminology ... rather than pollute or f-up or feature-up or jargon-up your use of language.} - -* Depending on how [pip](https://pypi.org/project/pip/) is installed, you may need to also install [wheel](https://wheel.readthedocs.io/en/latest/) to use the [wheel binary package format](https://peps.python.org/pep-0427/) and get the benefit of the wheel [caching](https://pip.pypa.io/en/stable/topics/caching/). As of pip version 6.0 and thereafter, pip provides an **on-by-default caching** which is designed to reduce the amount of time spent on duplicate downloads and builds, so pip attempts to use wheels from its local wheel cache whenever possible. In cases in which pip’s caching behavior cause undesirable issues, the recommended approach is to directly install from a source distribution instead of letting pip auto-discover the package when it is trying to install. Installing directly from a source distribution will make pip build a wheel, regardless of whether there is a matching cached wheel. As of pip version 20.0, pip caches wheels built from an immutable Git reference (i.e. a commit hash). - -* [conda](https://conda.io/en/latest/index.html) is both a package and environment manager and is **language agnostic** ... for ANY language, Python, R, Ruby, Lua, Scala, Java, JavaScript, C/ C++, Fortran, [Go](https://anaconda.org/conda-forge/go), [Rust](https://anaconda.org/conda-forge/rust), [SQLite](https://anaconda.org/conda-forge/sqlite), [PostgreSQL](https://anaconda.org/conda-forge/postgresql), [MongoDB](https://anaconda.org/conda-forge/mongodb) ... *and more* ... thus, Conda is sort the ***recommended*** package installation manager for complicated development environments that probably will not always be purely about only Python, ie practical real-world environments rather than environments only for training people how to use Python. - - -#### In COMPLICATED mult-language environments ... it might well be most time-efficient to use conda environments FIRST, then use pip only after conda ... your mileage will vary; do not use conda because you are lazy. Know what it's for. - -* OF COURSE ... conda recommends that you install as many requirements as possible with conda, then use pip ... YOUR MILEAGE WILL VARY -* pip should be run with --upgrade-strategy only-if-needed (the default) -* Do not use pip with the --user argument, avoid all “users” installs - -## create a conda environment to isolate any changes pip makes - -* environments take up very little space thanks to hard links -* care should be taken to avoid running pip in the “root” environment -* recreate the environment if changes are needed - -## once pip has been used conda will be unaware of the changes - -* it is best to recreate the environment entirely in order to install additional conda packages -* store conda and pip requirements in text files - -## know the arguments, eg package requirements can be passed to conda via the --file argument -* pip accepts a list of Python packages with -r or --requirements -* conda env will export or create environments based on a file with conda and pip requirements \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/_posts/2025-01-01-game-theory-1.md b/_posts/2025-01-01-game-theory-1.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..c4e3e8d6 --- /dev/null +++ b/_posts/2025-01-01-game-theory-1.md @@ -0,0 +1,14 @@ +--- +layout: post +title: "Probablistic Game Theory Lesson 1 ... EMERGENCE and the complexity of Life" +subtitle: "Emergence will determine our future" +date: 2025-01-01 4:30:00 +categories: template +--- + + +# Why we pray that the Creator's will be done + +Our Creator is a LIVING Creator, who designed a living Creation. + +A LIVING Creation from a LIVING Creator means that Creation is not exactly over ... it's impossible to say for sure, but MAYBE Creation has been handed off to living things to evolve and exhibit the properties of EMERGENTISM which allow the full beauties of the morphology of Creation to flower. It does not matter, our most EARNEST prayer is that the will of the Creator be done. diff --git a/_posts/2025-02-01-social-choice-101.md b/_posts/2025-02-01-social-choice-101.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..e52ba482 --- /dev/null +++ b/_posts/2025-02-01-social-choice-101.md @@ -0,0 +1,10 @@ +--- +layout: post +title: "Social Choice 101" +subtitle: "Political decisions are complex" +date: 2025-02-01 4:30:00 +categories: template +--- + + +# Democracy can mean tyranny of the majority diff --git a/_posts/2025-03-01-well-regulated-markets.md b/_posts/2025-03-01-well-regulated-markets.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..548c9ce3 --- /dev/null +++ b/_posts/2025-03-01-well-regulated-markets.md @@ -0,0 +1,16 @@ +--- +layout: post +title: "What Is Lost In Free Market Over-Regulation" +subtitle: "Experience introduces and build skills, but we regulate experience out of the reach of voters" +date: 2025-03-01 4:30:00 +categories: template +--- + + +# People fear what they do not know + +They SHOULD be afraid ... until they have developed some experience. + +How do they get experience? + +It's sort of like learning to walk ... you cannot get any decent amount of experience unless you have applied lessons from small mistakes and you have build your stock of of experience ... you're gonna fail, but you have to start/learn and improve. diff --git a/_posts/2025-04-01-deliberation-not-gambling.md b/_posts/2025-04-01-deliberation-not-gambling.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..d1ae9d44 --- /dev/null +++ b/_posts/2025-04-01-deliberation-not-gambling.md @@ -0,0 +1,12 @@ +--- +layout: post +title: "Deliberation Rather Than Gambling" +subtitle: "The game rewards deliberation and shrewd discernment" +date: 2025-04-01 4:30:00 +categories: template +--- + + +# Market deliberation offers small rewards to individuals, but gigantic informational payoffs to those following the market + +The amounts can be teensy, but the amount is still REAL ... to ensure that the decisions matter, not simply a flippant, casual WTF reaction ... REAL money is at stake -- but there are limits on how much any one person might wager ... the point of ensuring that people have some skin in the game is that we get a realistic, honest, accurate assessment by everyone in the crowd of traders ... and the bystanders can certainly choose to remain bystanders -- but the point of the political trading market is that the debate is EARNEST and genuine, rather than just speculuation or commentary that matches pre-formed cognitive biases. diff --git a/_posts/2025-05-01-game-theory-1.md b/_posts/2025-05-01-game-theory-1.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..473ecda8 --- /dev/null +++ b/_posts/2025-05-01-game-theory-1.md @@ -0,0 +1,14 @@ +--- +layout: post +title: "Probablistic Game Theory Lesson 1" +subtitle: "Start With The BASICS ... such as the sum of likelihoods has to be 1" +date: 2025-05-01 4:30:00 +categories: template +--- + + +# START with and return to the basics + +For example, the sum of all possible likelihoods in a probablistic sense is 1 ... this helps us derive all kinds of things and give upper bounds to estimates of different likelihoods and will dictate different strategies in different situations where the probabilities have changed ... this is the basis of "counting cards" in blackjack, for example. + +Also, this will typically things that should not be ignored such as that the likelihood of ALL OTHER outcomes, other than the obvious one is not zero, eg in rolling a fair pair of six-sided dice, there's a very, very small probability that something else will happen, such as the dice can get lost or fall off the playing surface or the game will end, eg somebody dies, or something unpredictable will happen ... the upper bound for any one side on fair die is less than 1/6th because every once in great while, something we would never predict will happen ... a good probablistic game will have rules for something wierd, something unpredictable AND it is never ever ever a good idea to play russian roullette with what is known to be an unloaded pistol, ie the SEVERITY of the outcome matters, regardless of the ***estimated*** likelihood. diff --git a/_posts/2025-06-01-game-theory-2.md b/_posts/2025-06-01-game-theory-2.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..8f2093c5 --- /dev/null +++ b/_posts/2025-06-01-game-theory-2.md @@ -0,0 +1,22 @@ +--- +layout: post +title: "Probablistic Game Theory Lesson 2 ... WIN-WIN-WIN" +subtitle: "Must the game make us stupider?" +date: 2025-06-01 4:30:00 +categories: template +--- + + +# Toward the WIN-WIN-WIN of shrewd crowdliness + +How do we ALL win? We win, after we overdose on the euphoria of democracy, bit bottom and ... when we FINALLY decide to get shrewder about the game. + +Must the game make us stupider? Yes, if we superstitiously believe that democracy HAS TO result in better outomes than free markets ... the game will make us stupider. The converse is true -- if we superstitiously believe that markets cannot fail, we also necessarily get stupider. + +The world's a complicated place ... it just does not work to be cognitively fixed on pet ideas and simplistic slogans, ie Nietzche/Jung and Nietzchean/Jungian simpletons who advocate just following a few simple rules will lead prideful humans straight into HELL. + +The's more complicated than you can imagine ... if you want to get to WIN-WIN-WIN solutions, you need to be SHREWD about understanding trade, markets and tendencies of crowds ... and you will NOT always be right -- when you think you are, that's a sure sign that you are already *literally* wrong as HELL. + +If you think you can master the game, you will necessarily get stupider. WIN-WIN-WIN is about understanding why you always want a couple other billion people to be getting ahead faster than you are ... AND you always want to be paying attention to what's working, what's not. + +The world's a GLORIOUSLY complicated place ... you might not realize it yet, but ***you actually really WANT the world to be way more complicated that some simple illusion that makes your simple mind comfortable.*** diff --git a/_posts/2025-07-01-game-theory-3.md b/_posts/2025-07-01-game-theory-3.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..e8e4d4e6 --- /dev/null +++ b/_posts/2025-07-01-game-theory-3.md @@ -0,0 +1,30 @@ +--- +layout: post +title: "Probablistic Game Theory Lesson 3 ... Stop Losing At Regulatory Complexity" +subtitle: "The complexity of stochastic fractals is upon us" +date: 2025-07-01 4:30:00 +categories: template +--- + + +# Regulatory complexity is worse than regular complexity + +It's because government is not an unbiased arbitrator ... government, lobbying and all of the things that provide special favors to special interests is necessarily biased in favor of the powerful. + +The powerful are not only advantaged by wealth and resources, they got to be powerful because they are better at playing power games ... not because they provided genuine value to society, but because they managed to the narrative to make the public, investors and institutions believe that the powerful are the heros who should not only be rewarded, but should be entitled to define the system that will determine future rewards. + +These power games turn mostly on control of information ... to make propaganda seem like news ... and to make politics seem like popular movements to free the oppressed ... but since the powerful control the narrative and lead the parade, they are able to direct public relations and manipulate perceptions to keep the oppressed and downtrodden completely bamboozled and oppressed and downtrodden. + +Regulation is complex, except that it is dead simple in terms of what drives it and that is all about politics, propaganda, false promises of protecting those who cannot protect themselves and the illusion of democratic choice. + +Politics is indeed a COMPLEX game and the powerful are MUCH BETTER at playing twisting the complexities of the political game and carefully crafting the flow of information and using carpet-bombing waves of propaganda to perpetuate the false platitudes of democratic narcotia to keep the stupid addicted to the things that keep them STUPID. + +It's not exactly the politics ... it's the tight control of information flow ... for that reason, prediction markets and other forms of information that easily trump things like pollsters and political pundits have been targeted for elimination. + +# Political complexity is multiplicatively more complex + +The powerful can, will, do find and hire better complexicators ... the powerful can always afford better lawyers, better tax/compliance advisors, better lobbyists and better sychophatic politicians ... and the powerful WILL always use every device they can to extend, enhance and elongate their power ... most of that power is the result of complexification, especially political complexification. + +Stop pretending that politcal solutions do not benefit the powerful ... you do not need to help the powerful, they will hire people to help them do well enough for the powerful ... STOP HELPING the complexicators, STOP HELPING the powerful. + +***If you want to make the world a better place, focus on YOU.*** diff --git a/_posts/2025-08-01-game-theory-4.md b/_posts/2025-08-01-game-theory-4.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..30b85156 --- /dev/null +++ b/_posts/2025-08-01-game-theory-4.md @@ -0,0 +1,14 @@ +--- +layout: post +title: "Probablistic Game Theory Lesson 4 ... LIFE is more interesting than any dead crystal or machine, such as a computer" +subtitle: "Learn to appreciate and work/live/think in Nature" +date: 2025-08-01 4:30:00 +categories: template +--- + + +# If you want to be a lot better off, spend more time studying what drives your quality of life + +For most of us that means focusing studying our own brain health, our own neurophysiology, our own physiology, our own immunometabolism and the biophysics and biochemistry that drive our immune response, physiology and neurophysiology ... it's not about studying diseases and getting a better pill for ailments ... it's about listening better, continuously, in constantly meditative state to our breath, our aches, pains and body responses ... in order to understand the Reality of Reality actually is, we spend more time focused studying the hard physical science by applying it directly in our own lifestyle, our own exercise, our kinesiology and our own efforts to rehab broken or formerly abused systems ... your quality of life is intensely personal and driven by your own personal decisions -- stop blaming others for stuff that you have fucked up; focus on what you can do about you -- avoid the soap bullshit of psychology and stop psychoanalyzing others. + +Computers a tool in this ... of course, topics like computers, programming, AI and related topics themselves ARE indeed very interesting ... but we should remember that they are tools and, most importantly, we should remember exactly who the tool is intended to serve. Anyone who tells you that computing and systems like the Unix way of programming, the Linux kernel and device drivers, minimalist machine images running *inside* containers and the realm of AI and large lnaguage models is not interesting CLEARLY is not too familiar with how ***addictively*** interesting computation, programming and artificial intelligence is ... and all of that stuff is getting even more interesting, particularly as more and more and more people effectively converse with one another through machine interactions. But computation is not as important to quality of life as understanding life, biology, Nature ... and older cultures and bodies of knowledge, like traditional chinesee medicine or martial arts that are based entirely on understanding Nature. diff --git a/_posts/2025-09-01-shrewder-be.md b/_posts/2025-09-01-shrewder-be.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..c99d1be2 --- /dev/null +++ b/_posts/2025-09-01-shrewder-be.md @@ -0,0 +1,53 @@ +--- +layout: post +title: "The societal value of shrewdness built by trading in free markets" +subtitle: "Teach voters to understand differences while they assess skills" +date: 2025-09-01 4:30:00 +categories: template +--- + + +# Embrace freer, fairer, more open markets ... IMPROVE prediction markets + +What if prediction markets were themselves based upon a collaborative, open source development community of auctioneers and political economists skilled enough in software development and secure dev ops administration to not only use, but OWN and extend their own prediction market platform. + +*Why should we even care about improving markets?* + +ANY kind of market can really never be free enough, fair enough or open enough ... but the best way to improve markets is to engage tech-savvy auctioneers who love the freedom of auction and free markets enough to work at making the participants more shrewd, practiced, experienced and aware of the hidden informatational cues that price movements deliver. + +Opening up markets is a matter of involving and engaging more people ... it's about making the political decisionmaking game more fun, maybe less risky, maybe more participatory. + +Making markets fairer is about taking away any and all of the intimidation factors ... driving out hate, but allowing for free expression. + +Making markets freer is about actually where it gets a bit tough, because freedom is not exactly free ... because there are always going to be trade-offs ... freedom emerges from effort, discipline ... not just being creative and decisive, but also accountable for your choices with mininal resources, building those resources and parlaying your stack of resources into something and the level of effort and discipline you invest in your choices. + +Let's brainstorm how we might go about this +# For STARTERS improving prediction markets has several already obvious strategies for improvement that should be implemented ASAP + +* Improve the dashboard with the use of more historical data: Historical data can provide valuable insights into trends and patterns that can inform future predictions. + +* Tidy up the data and recordkeeping architecture: Keeping clean and organized records can help ensure that the data used for predictions is accurate and reliable1. + +* Simplify the forecasting and polling models: Starting with a simple model can help to understand the basic dynamics before moving on to more complex models. + +* Engagement Pipeline Action Plan: Implementing a smart assistant engagement pipeline action planner to help to track progress and suggest ways to make adjustments as necessary, ie observability engineering is about *listening* more actively. + +* Improve the polling and forecasting Tools: The use of forecasting tools can automate the process and improve accuracy. + +* Incorporate more ‘What Ifs’ and Qualitative Historical Data: Considering different scenarios and incorporating qualitative data can provide a more holistic view of the situation. + +* Consider Seasonality: Seasonal factors can significantly impact sales and should be taken into account in sales forecasting. + +* Abandon Biases and Seek Out New Data Sets: To improve prediction, managers must abandon their biases and seek out new data sets for forecast models. + +* Tap Local-Market Knowledge: Local market knowledge can provide valuable insights that may not be captured in broader data sets. + +* Well-Defined Outcomes: For a prediction market to take off, the outcomes need to be sufficiently well-defined that contract settlement is not in dispute. + +* Attract Widespread Interest: The prediction market should be general enough to attract widespread interest. + +* Important Enough to Matter: The prediction market should be important enough to matter. + +* Unusual Enough Not to Be Replicable by Trading in Existing Assets: The prediction market should be unusual enough not to be replicable by trading in existing assets. + +* Engage the audience to brainstorm more strategies that could potentially improve the accuracy of prediction markets. diff --git a/_posts/2025-10-01-game-theory-6.md b/_posts/2025-10-01-game-theory-6.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..fae241b6 --- /dev/null +++ b/_posts/2025-10-01-game-theory-6.md @@ -0,0 +1,12 @@ +--- +layout: post +title: "Probablistic Game Theory Lesson 6 ... The Information Value of Markets" +subtitle: "Markets inform us about the emergence of new information" +date: 2025-10-01 4:30:00 +categories: template +--- + + +# Markets never waste new information + +We follow markets because we have learned to care about emergence and the will of the Creator and everything that is beyond our own experience ... someone else out there has figure out how to do this better ... somewhere else there's a better deal than anything we could come up with on our own. diff --git a/_posts/2025-11-01-game-theory-7.md b/_posts/2025-11-01-game-theory-7.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..e12f1026 --- /dev/null +++ b/_posts/2025-11-01-game-theory-7.md @@ -0,0 +1,10 @@ +--- +layout: post +title: "Probablistic Game Theory Lesson 7 ... Gratitude and Free Markets" +subtitle: "Active markets are always giving away valuable information" +date: 2025-11-01 4:30:00 +categories: template +--- + + +# Open source is part of why we are as grateful as we are for free markets diff --git a/_posts/2025-12-01-game-theory-8.md b/_posts/2025-12-01-game-theory-8.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..c20f98a4 --- /dev/null +++ b/_posts/2025-12-01-game-theory-8.md @@ -0,0 +1,26 @@ +--- +layout: post +title: "Probablistic Game Theory Lesson 8 ... what new gifts are out there?" +subtitle: "Intelligence gathering in the AI Age" +date: 2025-12-01 4:30:00 +categories: template +--- + + +# Automate your intell gathering for optimizing 86400 seconds/day + +Spend time most of your time exercising and training, doing hands-on or concrete things that you are familiar with from your profession. In other words, always be thinking about the RETURN ON YOUR INVESTMENT ... what are those vital few high-value things that you can do today which will yield more resources so that you can more efficiently, more productively do higher value things tomorrow. + +Of course, when you are successful enough so that you do not have to work for others, you will still need to work *probably a lot harder* at completing those hard things which are necessary or on the critical chain of your project management approach for your major projects, ventures and start-up ideas ... you can take small breaks, but you will find that you are happiest if you are always building bigger things for the future. + +*What are those * ***bigger things for the future*** *which will be worthy of your effort and attention?* + +That depends entirely upon you of course but, in general, you will will want to work in the realm of intelligence gathering ... things that give you better situational awareness of your personal opportunities, weaknesses, strengths, and future threats. Now more than ever before in history, a person will want to develop a daily proficiency in efficient, intensely personalized intell gathering to get a better understanding of the world's new opportunities and constraints so that you can LOOK FORWARD to better allocate your limited amount of skilled, concrete, professional hands-on time. + +USE the information from traders with skin in the game in different markets, use AI and other technologies in practical manner so that you can recognize the hype and fear-mongering ... because of the more rapid sharing of data, analysis and all kinds of information, the world is probably going to change more rapidly in the next couple decades than it has in the decades since you have been born, so you have to think about how you will adapt to be more antifragile, less backward-looking. + +*How you gather better intell and become more forward looking is entirely up to you ... but realize that nobody is going to do this for you.* You can and should learn from others and imitate the best, but your needs will be and *should be* UNIQUE. ***Recognize that YOU have to come up with YOUR own unique plan.*** + +# Add your unique, PROFESSIONAL perspective to open source community development + +We all get by with a little help from our friends ... but many of us do not recognize how important it is to continually make new friends. When you stop making new friends, you start to accelerate the aging and death process ... it's important to find new friends that challenge your skills a bit ... eustress is good ... bad stress and decay is bad. Avoid shallow old friends ... especially friends that choose to live in the past. Find ways to deepen and enhance friendships without simply rehashing the past, find ways to find the kinds of person that you want to be; find ways to make new friends ... add intelligence to those new friend's lives and LISTEN to your new friends to add intelligence to your life. diff --git a/_posts/BrunoSolutions.github.io.code-workspace b/_posts/BrunoSolutions.github.io.code-workspace deleted file mode 100644 index 2f5dbb0b..00000000 --- a/_posts/BrunoSolutions.github.io.code-workspace +++ /dev/null @@ -1,36 +0,0 @@ -{ - "folders": [ - { - "path": "../../BrunoSolutions.github.io" - }, - { - "path": ".." - }, - { - "name": "plyp-us.github.io", - "path": "../../plyp-us.github.io" - }, - { - "path": "../../gyg-be.github.io" - }, - { - "path": "../../creVassOrg.github.io" - }, - { - "path": "../../draintips.github.io" - }, - { - "name": "CloudKernelOS.github.io", - "path": "../../CloudKernelOS.github.io" - }, - { - "name": "nanotoolworks.github.io", - "path": "../../nanotoolworks.github.io" - }, - { - "name": "auct-us.github.io", - "path": "../../auct-us.github.io" - } - ], - "settings": {} -} \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/_posts/MarkBruns.github.io.code-workspace b/_posts/MarkBruns.github.io.code-workspace deleted file mode 100644 index d6869125..00000000 --- a/_posts/MarkBruns.github.io.code-workspace +++ /dev/null @@ -1,12 +0,0 @@ -{ - "folders": [ - { - "path": ".." - }, - { - "name": "FreeRTOS-Kernel-Book", - "path": "../../FreeRTOS-Kernel-Book" - } - ], - "settings": {} -} \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/_psu_genrel_2013_14_misc_non_event__Boxing.pdf b/_psu_genrel_2013_14_misc_non_event__Boxing.pdf deleted file mode 100644 index 6e4025b6..00000000 Binary files a/_psu_genrel_2013_14_misc_non_event__Boxing.pdf and /dev/null differ diff --git a/_psu_genrel_2013_14_misc_non_event__CORETRAINING.pdf b/_psu_genrel_2013_14_misc_non_event__CORETRAINING.pdf deleted file mode 100644 index a64cc035..00000000 Binary files a/_psu_genrel_2013_14_misc_non_event__CORETRAINING.pdf and /dev/null differ diff --git a/_psu_genrel_2013_14_misc_non_event__Cone-Drills.pdf b/_psu_genrel_2013_14_misc_non_event__Cone-Drills.pdf deleted file mode 100644 index f94ae458..00000000 Binary files a/_psu_genrel_2013_14_misc_non_event__Cone-Drills.pdf and /dev/null differ diff --git a/_psu_genrel_2013_14_misc_non_event__EXTRACOND2SC.pdf b/_psu_genrel_2013_14_misc_non_event__EXTRACOND2SC.pdf deleted file mode 100644 index eacc1a6e..00000000 Binary files a/_psu_genrel_2013_14_misc_non_event__EXTRACOND2SC.pdf and /dev/null differ diff --git a/_psu_genrel_2013_14_misc_non_event__Flexibility-Mobility.pdf b/_psu_genrel_2013_14_misc_non_event__Flexibility-Mobility.pdf deleted file mode 100644 index af7ed3ac..00000000 Binary files a/_psu_genrel_2013_14_misc_non_event__Flexibility-Mobility.pdf and /dev/null differ diff --git a/_psu_genrel_2013_14_misc_non_event__LOWERBODY.pdf b/_psu_genrel_2013_14_misc_non_event__LOWERBODY.pdf deleted file mode 100644 index d563eb30..00000000 Binary files a/_psu_genrel_2013_14_misc_non_event__LOWERBODY.pdf and /dev/null differ diff --git a/_psu_genrel_2013_14_misc_non_event__Metabolic-Complexes.pdf b/_psu_genrel_2013_14_misc_non_event__Metabolic-Complexes.pdf deleted file mode 100644 index 3ffe7439..00000000 Binary files a/_psu_genrel_2013_14_misc_non_event__Metabolic-Complexes.pdf and /dev/null differ diff --git a/_psu_genrel_2013_14_misc_non_event__SCEXTRA1.pdf b/_psu_genrel_2013_14_misc_non_event__SCEXTRA1.pdf deleted file mode 100644 index 821eec0e..00000000 Binary files a/_psu_genrel_2013_14_misc_non_event__SCEXTRA1.pdf and /dev/null differ diff --git a/_psu_genrel_2013_14_misc_non_event__Shoulder_Scap_Strength.pdf b/_psu_genrel_2013_14_misc_non_event__Shoulder_Scap_Strength.pdf deleted file mode 100644 index e587b096..00000000 Binary files a/_psu_genrel_2013_14_misc_non_event__Shoulder_Scap_Strength.pdf and /dev/null differ diff --git a/_psu_genrel_2013_14_misc_non_event__Staff_fitnesS_workouts.pdf b/_psu_genrel_2013_14_misc_non_event__Staff_fitnesS_workouts.pdf deleted file mode 100644 index 9cdb8aa5..00000000 Binary files a/_psu_genrel_2013_14_misc_non_event__Staff_fitnesS_workouts.pdf and /dev/null differ diff --git a/_psu_genrel_2013_14_misc_non_event__UPPERFIX.pdf b/_psu_genrel_2013_14_misc_non_event__UPPERFIX.pdf deleted file mode 100644 index fa08d215..00000000 Binary files a/_psu_genrel_2013_14_misc_non_event__UPPERFIX.pdf and /dev/null differ diff --git a/bastiat.csv b/bastiat.csv deleted file mode 100644 index 999628c8..00000000 --- a/bastiat.csv +++ /dev/null @@ -1,74 +0,0 @@ -1/12/2018 5:30,The Socialist Concept of Liberty #Bastiat , "http://bastiat.org/en/the_law.html#SECTION_G061 " -1/12/2018 7:55,The Law and Charity #Bastiat , "http://bastiat.org/en/the_law.html#SECTION_G032 " -1/12/2018 10:20,Three Systems of Plunder #Bastiat , "http://bastiat.org/en/the_law.html#SECTION_G028 " -1/12/2018 12:45,Socialists Fear All Liberties #Bastiat , "http://bastiat.org/en/the_law.html#SECTION_G062 " -1/12/2018 15:10,What Is Liberty? #Bastiat , "http://bastiat.org/en/the_law.html#SECTION_G053 " -1/12/2018 17:35,Life Is a Gift from God #Bastiat , "http://bastiat.org/en/the_law.html#SECTION_G003 " -1/12/2018 20:00,A Defense of Compulsory Labor #Bastiat , "http://bastiat.org/en/the_law.html#SECTION_G039 " -1/12/2018 22:25,How to Identify Legal Plunder #Bastiat , "http://bastiat.org/en/the_law.html#SECTION_G020 " -1/12/2018 0:50,The Leader of the Democrats #Bastiat , "http://bastiat.org/en/the_law.html#SECTION_G046 " -1/12/2018 3:15,A Just and Enduring Government #Bastiat , "http://bastiat.org/en/the_law.html#SECTION_G005 " -1/12/2018 5:40,Let Us Now Try Liberty #Bastiat , "http://bastiat.org/en/the_law.html#SECTION_G076 " -1/12/2018 8:05,Legal Plunder Has Many Names #Bastiat , "http://bastiat.org/en/the_law.html#SECTION_G021 " -1/12/2018 10:30,The Proper Function of the Law #Bastiat , "http://bastiat.org/en/the_law.html#SECTION_G024 " -1/12/2018 12:55,Socialists Ignore Reason and Facts #Bastiat , "http://bastiat.org/en/the_law.html#SECTION_G042 " -1/12/2018 15:20,The Complete Perversion of the Law #Bastiat , "http://bastiat.org/en/the_law.html#SECTION_G006 " -1/12/2018 17:45,Who Shall Judge? #Bastiat , "http://bastiat.org/en/the_law.html#SECTION_G012 " -1/12/2018 20:10,The Fatal Idea of Legal Plunder #Bastiat , "http://bastiat.org/en/the_law.html#SECTION_G015 " -1/12/2018 22:35,Enforced Fraternity Destroys Liberty #Bastiat , "http://bastiat.org/en/the_law.html#SECTION_G026 " -1/12/2018 1:00,Legislators Desire to Mold Mankind #Bastiat , "http://bastiat.org/en/the_law.html#SECTION_G048 " -1/12/2018 3:25,What Is Law? #Bastiat , "http://bastiat.org/en/the_law.html#SECTION_G004 " -1/12/2018 5:50,A Fatal Tendency of Mankind #Bastiat , "http://bastiat.org/en/the_law.html#SECTION_G007 " -1/12/2018 8:15,Socialists Want to Regiment People #Bastiat , "http://bastiat.org/en/the_law.html#SECTION_G043 " -1/12/2018 10:40,The Error of the Socialist Writers #Bastiat , "http://bastiat.org/en/the_law.html#SECTION_G052 " -1/12/2018 13:05,Socialism Is Legal Plunder #Bastiat , "http://bastiat.org/en/the_law.html#SECTION_G022 " -1/12/2018 15:30,Plunder Violates Ownership #Bastiat , "http://bastiat.org/en/the_law.html#SECTION_G027 " -1/12/2018 17:55,The Basis for Stable Government #Bastiat , "http://bastiat.org/en/the_law.html#SECTION_G071 " -1/12/2018 20:20,The Idea of Passive Mankind #Bastiat , "http://bastiat.org/en/the_law.html#SECTION_G041 " -1/12/2018 22:45,Slavery and Tariffs Are Plunder #Bastiat , "http://bastiat.org/en/the_law.html#SECTION_G017 " -1/12/2018 1:10,A Confusion of Terms #Bastiat , "http://bastiat.org/en/the_law.html#SECTION_G035 " -1/12/2018 3:35,The Law and Education #Bastiat , "http://bastiat.org/en/the_law.html#SECTION_G033 " -1/12/2018 6:00,The Vicious Circle of Socialism #Bastiat , "http://bastiat.org/en/the_law.html#SECTION_G059 " -1/12/2018 8:25,Proper Legislative Functions #Bastiat , "http://bastiat.org/en/the_law.html#SECTION_G068 " -1/12/2018 10:50,The Political Approach #Bastiat , "http://bastiat.org/en/the_law.html#SECTION_G031 " -1/12/2018 13:15,The Doctrine of the Democrats #Bastiat , "http://bastiat.org/en/the_law.html#SECTION_G060 " -1/12/2018 15:40,The Indirect Approach to Despotism #Bastiat , "http://bastiat.org/en/the_law.html#SECTION_G057 " -1/12/2018 18:05,A Frightful Idea #Bastiat , "http://bastiat.org/en/the_law.html#SECTION_G045 " -1/12/2018 20:30,Law Is a Negative Concept #Bastiat , "http://bastiat.org/en/the_law.html#SECTION_G030 " -1/12/2018 22:55,A Famous Name and an Evil Idea #Bastiat , "http://bastiat.org/en/the_law.html#SECTION_G044 " -1/12/2018 1:20,Socialists Want Equality of Wealth #Bastiat , "http://bastiat.org/en/the_law.html#SECTION_G051 " -1/12/2018 3:45,Two Kinds of Plunder #Bastiat , "http://bastiat.org/en/the_law.html#SECTION_G018 " -1/12/2018 6:10,A Temporary Dictatorship #Bastiat , "http://bastiat.org/en/the_law.html#SECTION_G050 " -1/12/2018 8:35,Philanthropic Tyranny #Bastiat , "http://bastiat.org/en/the_law.html#SECTION_G054 " -1/12/2018 11:00,Property and Plunder #Bastiat , "http://bastiat.org/en/the_law.html#SECTION_G008 " -1/12/2018 13:25,The Reason Why Voting Is Restricted #Bastiat , "http://bastiat.org/en/the_law.html#SECTION_G013 " -1/12/2018 15:50,The Answer Is to Restrict the Law #Bastiat , "http://bastiat.org/en/the_law.html#SECTION_G014 " -1/12/2018 18:15,The Socialists Reject Free Choice #Bastiat , "http://bastiat.org/en/the_law.html#SECTION_G064 " -1/12/2018 20:40,The Law and Morals #Bastiat , "http://bastiat.org/en/the_law.html#SECTION_G034 " -1/12/2018 23:05,The Fate of Non-Conformists #Bastiat , "http://bastiat.org/en/the_law.html#SECTION_G011 " -1/12/2018 1:30,Politics and Economics #Bastiat , "http://bastiat.org/en/the_law.html#SECTION_G067 " -1/12/2018 3:55,Victims of Lawful Plunder #Bastiat , "http://bastiat.org/en/the_law.html#SECTION_G009 " -1/12/2018 6:20,Perverted Law Causes Conflict #Bastiat , "http://bastiat.org/en/the_law.html#SECTION_G016 " -1/12/2018 8:45,The Enormous Power of Government #Bastiat , "http://bastiat.org/en/the_law.html#SECTION_G066 " -1/12/2018 11:10,The Cause of French Revolutions #Bastiat , "http://bastiat.org/en/the_law.html#SECTION_G065 " -1/12/2018 13:35,Law and Charity Are Not the Same #Bastiat , "http://bastiat.org/en/the_law.html#SECTION_G069 " -1/12/2018 16:00,The Choice Before Us #Bastiat , "http://bastiat.org/en/the_law.html#SECTION_G023 " -1/12/2018 18:25,The Desire to Rule Over Others #Bastiat , "http://bastiat.org/en/the_law.html#SECTION_G075 " -1/12/2018 20:50,The Superman Idea #Bastiat , "http://bastiat.org/en/the_law.html#SECTION_G063 " -1/12/2018 23:15,The Socialists Despise Mankind #Bastiat , "http://bastiat.org/en/the_law.html#SECTION_G038 " -1/12/2018 1:40,The Socialists Want Dictatorship #Bastiat , "http://bastiat.org/en/the_law.html#SECTION_G055 " -1/12/2018 4:05,The Law Defends Plunder #Bastiat , "http://bastiat.org/en/the_law.html#SECTION_G019 " -1/12/2018 6:30,The High Road to Communism #Bastiat , "http://bastiat.org/en/the_law.html#SECTION_G070 " -1/12/2018 8:55,The Socialists Wish to Play God #Bastiat , "http://bastiat.org/en/the_law.html#SECTION_G037 " -1/12/2018 11:20,Law Is Force #Bastiat , "http://bastiat.org/en/the_law.html#SECTION_G029 " -1/12/2018 13:45,Legislators Told How to Manage Men #Bastiat , "http://bastiat.org/en/the_law.html#SECTION_G049 " -1/12/2018 16:10,Socialists Want Forced Conformity #Bastiat , "http://bastiat.org/en/the_law.html#SECTION_G047 " -1/12/2018 18:35,Dictatorial Arrogance #Bastiat , "http://bastiat.org/en/the_law.html#SECTION_G056 " -1/12/2018 21:00,The Seductive Lure of Socialism #Bastiat , "http://bastiat.org/en/the_law.html#SECTION_G025 " -1/12/2018 23:25,Napoleon Wanted Passive Mankind #Bastiat , "http://bastiat.org/en/the_law.html#SECTION_G058 " -1/12/2018 1:50,Proof of an Idea #Bastiat , "http://bastiat.org/en/the_law.html#SECTION_G074 " -1/12/2018 4:15,A Defense of Paternal Government #Bastiat , "http://bastiat.org/en/the_law.html#SECTION_G040 " -1/12/2018 6:40,The Results of Legal Plunder #Bastiat , "http://bastiat.org/en/the_law.html#SECTION_G010 " -1/12/2018 9:05,The Path to Dignity and Progress #Bastiat , "http://bastiat.org/en/the_law.html#SECTION_G073 " -1/12/2018 11:30,Justice Means Equal Rights #Bastiat , "http://bastiat.org/en/the_law.html#SECTION_G072 " -1/12/2018 13:55,The Influence of Socialist Writers #Bastiat , "http://bastiat.org/en/the_law.html#SECTION_G036 " diff --git a/dw469 Sacred Grdn _ 100% Garden Plan Graphic_0.jpeg b/dw469 Sacred Grdn _ 100% Garden Plan Graphic_0.jpeg deleted file mode 100644 index 6d52d02d..00000000 Binary files a/dw469 Sacred Grdn _ 100% Garden Plan Graphic_0.jpeg and /dev/null differ