Today I ... by James Nadeau

I've been hosting my site now on a statically generated site since 2014, and it's been a fantastic journey. I'm on my thrid platform that generates the site. The amount of choice and flexibility offered by just using flat files is hard to beat. I imagine I'd still be stuck on whatever DB driving app I had choosen, those migrations are hard to wrap your head around.

Previous Platforms

Previous to 2014 - Drupal 5 & jQuery Mobile
I had used Drupal as a CMS for clients for a long time and it became out of date quickly.Take a look!
I decided a redesign was in order. I switched to Bootstrap 3(4 was just an idea at this time) and went on the hunt for something that could be hosted as a static site for almost nothing.
Why?
Pico CMS
My first commit to the repository was my first draft of my site. I was writing php solutions for the HVAC industry in PHP at the time and was very comfortable with it. PHP 5 was the latest and greatest at the time. The twig template language was easy for me to adapt the bootstrap template site too, and off I ran.
I created a php script to export my nodes from drupal, but ultimately didn't use much of the content from before.
Webpack Static Site Loader
I was working with webpack v1 and wanted to make my own loader so I could work on static sties and have the content automatically reload. I threw this together and it wokred just how I wanted. It was customizable to my needs and I've been able to reuse it in several projects

Forcing a build with node-pre-gyp

James Nadeau — Tue, 11 Oct 2016 00:00:00 GMT

TIL: about node-pre-gyp

node-pre-gyp allows compiled binaries to be included with node modules easily!

I had a problem with a pre-built binary not working with musl libc, which I'm using with docker and alpine linux. Luckily, there's and easy work around to this. Adding the following to my docker build install/rebuild step forces a build.

npm install --build-from-source=problem_module

That's it! from now on, that will be built for musl libc when I build my docker image.

Algorithms and Complex decision making

James Nadeau — Tue, 21 Mar 2017 00:00:00 GMT

Today I Read

Do Algorithms Beat Us at Complex Decision Making?

Short Answer: Yes, and in a lot of cases, better than experts.

Turns out biases get the better of us all, and sticking to simple hueristics gives good results because of consistant input/output and the focus on what's important

Take aways:

The surprising success of equal-weighting schemes has an important practical implication: it is possible to develop useful algorithms without prior statistical research. Simple equally weight formulas based on existing statistics or on common sense are often very good predictors of significant outcomes

If you are serious about hiring the best possible person for the job, this is what you should do. First, select a few traits that are prerequisites for success in this position (technical proficiency, engaging personality, reliability, and so on). Don't overdo it — six dimensions is a good number. The traits you choose should be as independent as possible from each other, and you should feel that you can assess them reliably by asking a few factual questions. Next, make a list of questions for each trait and think about how you will score it, say on a 1-5 scale. You should have an idea of what you will call “very weak” or “very strong.” These preparations should take you half an hour or so, a small investment that can make a significant difference in the quality of the people you hire.

Decision Making Noise: Given the same set of data twice, we make two different decisions. Caused by internal contradiction.
"It's possible to create useful algorithms without prior statistical research. Simple equally weight formulas based on existing statistics or on common sense are often very good predictors of significant outcomes."
"In a memorable example, Dawes showed that marital stability is well predicted by a formula: Frequency of lovemaking minus frequency of quarrels."
"the vast majority of human stock-pickers cannot outperform a simple S&P 500 index fund"

Spiraled into reading...

Simple Rules:

First, they are limited to a handful. Capping the number of rules makes them easy to remember and maintains a focus on what matters most.

Second, simple rules are tailored to the person or organization using them. College athletes and middle-aged dieters may both rely on simple rules to decide what to eat, but their rules will be very different.

Third, simple rules apply to a well-defined activity or decision, such as prioritizing injured soldiers for medical care. Rules that cover multiple activities or choices end up as vague platitudes, such as “Do your best” and “Focus on customers.”

Finally, simple rules provide clear guidance while conferring the latitude to exercise discretion.

This Article Won’t Change Your Mind

James Nadeau — Sat, 25 Mar 2017 00:00:00 GMT

“This Article Won’t Change Your Mind”

(The Atlantic, 25 minutes, March 2017). The subhead: “The facts on why facts alone can’t fight false beliefs.”

The theory of cognitive dissonance—the extreme discomfort of simultaneously holding two thoughts that are in conflict—was developed by the social psychologist Leon Festinger in the 1950s. In a famous study, Festinger and his colleagues embedded themselves with a doomsday prophet named Dorothy Martin and her cult of followers who believed that spacemen called the Guardians were coming to collect them in flying saucers, to save them from a coming flood. Needless to say, no spacemen (and no flood) ever came, but Martin just kept revising her predictions. Sure, the spacemen didn’t show up today, but they were sure to come tomorrow, and so on. The researchers watched with fascination as the believers kept on believing, despite all the evidence that they were wrong.

“A man with a conviction is a hard man to change,” Festinger, Henry Riecken, and Stanley Schacter wrote in When Prophecy Fails, their 1957 book about this study. “Tell him you disagree and he turns away. Show him facts or figures and he questions your sources. Appeal to logic and he fails to see your point … Suppose that he is presented with evidence, unequivocal and undeniable evidence, that his belief is wrong: what will happen? The individual will frequently emerge, not only unshaken, but even more convinced of the truth of his beliefs than ever before.”

Feynman Technique

James Nadeau — Sun, 14 May 2017 00:00:00 GMT

Feynman Technique

https://curiosity.com/topics/learn-anything-in-four-steps-with-the-feynman-technique-curiosity/

Learn Anything In Four Steps With The Feynman Technique

This skips over a lot of work between 1 and 2... but I love how teaching it, or pretending to, gets you

Pick a topic you want to understand and start studying it. Write down everything you know about the topic on a notebook page, and add to that page every time you learn something new about it.
Pretend to teach your topic to a classroom. Make sure you're able to explain the topic in simple terms.
Go back to the books when you get stuck. The gaps in your knowledge should be obvious. Revisit problem areas until you can explain the topic fully.
Simplify and use analogies. Repeat the process while simplifying your language and connecting facts with analogies to help strengthen your understanding.

A Great Semantic Web Analogy

James Nadeau — Mon, 15 May 2017 00:00:00 GMT

The Semantic Web, aka SemWeb

http://thehistoryoftheweb.com/rss-well-formed-log-entry/

Take an analogy: the current web is a decentralized platform for distributed presentations, while the SemWeb is a decentralized platform for distributed knowledge.

- Joshua Tauberer

Makes me wonder if the ai will beat us to organizing this ourselves. Probably.

The loneliness of Donald Trump

James Nadeau — Wed, 31 May 2017 00:00:00 GMT

Rebecca Solnit: The Loneliness of Donald Trump

http://lithub.com/rebecca-solnit-the-loneliness-of-donald-trump/

Lot's going on here, but this stuck out to me as awesome:

But the opposite of people who drag you down isn’t people who build you up and butter you up. It’s equals who are generous but keep you accountable, true mirrors who reflect back who you are and what you are doing.

Today I ... by James Nadeau

Today I ...

Today I ...[ Found, Learned, Saw, Read, Experienced, Grew ]

First

Today I learned

Conservative Empathy

Conservative Empathy

This site has been statically hosted since 2014

Statically Generated Since 2014

Previous Platforms

Previous to 2014 - Drupal 5 & jQuery Mobile

Pico CMS

Webpack Static Site Loader

Forcing a build with node-pre-gyp

TIL: about node-pre-gyp

Algorithms and Complex decision making

Today I Read

Take aways:

Spiraled into reading...

This Article Won’t Change Your Mind

“This Article Won’t Change Your Mind”

Feynman Technique

Feynman Technique

A Great Semantic Web Analogy

The Semantic Web, aka SemWeb

The loneliness of Donald Trump

Rebecca Solnit: The Loneliness of Donald Trump

Today I ...
[ Found, Learned, Saw, Read, Experienced, Grew ]