01 Apr 2009, 7:40 a.m.

The Long View

Throughout Jody Procter's memoir Toil: Building Yourself, a diary of his work helping build one specific house in a small Oregon city, Procter aches for the weekend, feels hopeful and buoyant working through Friday afternoon, …

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01 Apr 2009, 0:49 a.m.

Cost-Benefit Analysis For Projects: Caution!

We often say that something is/isn't "worth it" based on a reflexive guess. The important thing isn't quantifying all those guesses to the tenth decimal point, it's getting into the habit of interrogating them. How …

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31 Mar 2009, 22:05 p.m.

Serious

I'm at a restaurant eating dinner with 7 others, including Nina Paley, Bradley Kuhn, and Richard Stallman.

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31 Mar 2009, 11:03 a.m.

Fanac

I've booked my flight to WisCon and will be in Madison from Thursday evening, May 21st, to the morning of Tuesday, May 26th. This encompasses the entire schedule so that completist Sumana won't miss anything. …

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28 Mar 2009, 14:33 p.m.

A Book Review About Leadership

I mostly wrote this book review in the fall of 2008. On the Psychology of Military Incompetence by Norman Dixon 1976 On The Psychology of Military Incompetence is 400 pages long, and worth savoring. Its …

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27 Mar 2009, 14:46 p.m.

Ada Lovelace Day, Belatedly

I am abashed and thankful that Rachel and Danny thought to mention me in speaking of women in tech on Ada Lovelace Day. I offer a sidelong glimpse into a short list of my influences …

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27 Mar 2009, 10:22 a.m.

A Quiz! And, Thoughts on Ads for Nonsensical Products

Last night Ron came over and we played The Big Idea, the Cheapass Game where you get cards with nouns and adjectives on them and have to combine them to create products that you then …

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26 Mar 2009, 11:51 a.m.

Links

I usually keep stuff like this in Delicious but I wanted to bring a few things to your attention. Dreadwhimsy is incredibly short stories inspired by weird photos. Flea of One Good Thing linked to …

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26 Mar 2009, 8:50 a.m.

Fine Line

It's such a small step from a shotgun wedding to a shogun wedding.

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24 Mar 2009, 0:06 a.m.

'Well, I'm back,' she said

I finished Toil by Jody Procter, read Five Point Someone by Chetan Bhagat, and got most of the way through Infected by Scott Sigler during my journey back home (via bus, subway, rail, airplane, AirTrain, …

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