Smerity (n):

Extracts from Vannevar Bush's "As We May Think"

Most recent update: 21st November 2020 - 22:20:46

"The world has arrived at an age of cheap complex devices of great reliability; and something is bound to come of it."
Notes from a16z's "TikTok & Beyond: The Algorithm Question" with Eugene Wei

Most recent update: 22nd September 2020 - 14:23:53

TikTok avoids the cold start problem by having creators have a set of known challenges that they build upon and focusing on an interest graph rather than follower graph
Of the Ancient Romans and public infrastructure

Most recent update: 24th November 2020 - 01:41:39

The city of Rome was a colossal undertaking. At peak the city of ancient Rome had an estimated one million people. We'll use this grand stage as a thought experiment about the requirements for modern society and how they're provided.
Imperfection and community creation

Most recent update: 29th September 2020 - 15:49:40

A key ingredient in creative tooling for a productive community? The inability to achieve perfection.
Of writing and starting pistols

Most recent update: 14th July 2020 - 03:10:45

The most free I'd ever felt writing was when the result was intended to be small, free, and a fun exploration of my own thinking. It's time for that to make a return.
Chasing a ball of linguistic yarn as it rolls around a thousand dimensional space

Most recent update: 28th November 2020 - 01:23:56

Half a century ago the indexes in books were manually written. A quarter of a century ago search engines began to automate this index. Today language models burn through that sequence of abstract symbols.
NPR's How I Built This on Luis von Ahn and reCAPTCHA / Duolingo

Most recent update: 27th May 2020 - 12:42:19

Luis von Ahn was a pioneer in the space of crowdsourcing, building ideas into companies that helped shape the digital world.
An introduction to SIMD and ISPC in Rust

Most recent update: 28th May 2020 - 12:23:51

SIMD isn't easy but it is endlessly fascinating. There's an odd sense of joy gained from peering high level to low through the lens of the compiler and raw assembly.
Notes on Seth Godin's "Your Job is to Make Art"

Most recent update: 29th May 2020 - 14:00:13

"The person who invented the ship also invented the shipwreck"
Notes From Kevin Systrom of Instagram on Seizing the "Aha" Moment

Most recent update: 29th May 2020 - 14:11:51

How do you divine your way to the key differentiators for Instagram: limited format, instant upload, filters, and distribution?
Adam Wathan's Nailing your First Launch

Most recent update: 23rd April 2020 - 14:17:36

Adam recounts lessons learned from creating and selling half a million in digital products over two years.
Deconstructing Bret Victor's "Inventing on Principle"

Most recent update: 29th May 2020 - 14:32:22

"It took me like a decade, ten years, before any real understanding of my principles solidified."
Notes from Douglas Crockford's "Programming Style & Your Brain"

Most recent update: 13th April 2020 - 12:12:03

Strict rules can prevent ambiguities and errors from ever occurring in both natural language and programming.
Notes from Patrick McKenzie's "Leveling Up"

Most recent update: 3rd April 2020 - 22:05:08

How do you, as a solo entrepreneur, build your own skillset and business such that you have a sustainable and long term future?
Notes on Alan Kay's "Rethinking Design, Risk, and Software" (2016)

Most recent update: 3rd April 2020 - 16:01:32

Kay explores the link between traditional engineering and software engineering as well as questioning whether all the existing complexity is necessary.
Notes on Alan Kay's "Power of Simplicity" (2015)

Most recent update: 1st April 2020 - 12:57:15

Xerox PARC was the home for invention - five years, 25 researchers, and $12 million per year - for the PC, GUI, WYSIWYG, ..., and Internet. How does simplicity and vision help you achieve that?
Notes on Alan Kay's "The Best Way to Predict the Future is to Create It. But Is It Already Too Late?" (2018)

Most recent update: 31st March 2020 - 13:50:21

Kay rewrites his own quote "the best way to predict the future is to invent it" to "the best way to predict the future is to empower the children who will invent it"
Summarizing Tomasz Tunguz's S-1 analyses: Zoom, Slack, Salesforce, and Atlassian

Most recent update: 29th May 2020 - 14:52:28

S-1 filings are a key resource in understanding both private and public companies.
Notes on a Steve Jobs interview from 1988

Most recent update: 31st March 2020 - 16:01:59

"This is field where one does not write a Principia which holds up for 200 years—this is not a field where one paints a painting that will be looked at for centuries."
Extracts from a 1985 Steve Jobs Playboy interview

Most recent update: 10th June 2020 - 17:25:41

"If for some reason, we make some giant mistakes and IBM wins, my personal feeling is that we are going to enter sort of a computer Dark Ages for about 20 years."