Letter from the Internet #5
My casually curated collection of neat things from around the internet. Fridays at π o’clock.
For a bit of fun
Gentoo penguins gift one another stones to show their love. [Link]A compelling visual story
The Maths is Visual Facebook account brings maths (sic) to life. Check out the link for a moving picture: sine, cosine, and tangent of a triangle inscribed in a circle. I was “yesterday years old” when I realized that tangent could be described as the measurement of a line. [Link]Something awesome I’ll be playing with
Metabase 51 introduces starburst charts, a variant of pie charts. For as much hate as pie charts get, there’s a reason they persist. Ignorance, Indolence, or Empathy? [Link]Bubbling under
I’m working on a Free “Data Office Hours” program, launching in Q1/2025. Advice given, questions answered, and ideas explored.Someone wrote something interesting
Gergely Ororsz, of Pragmatic Engineer’ing fame, recently wrote about How GenAI is reshaping tech hiring. It’s a wake-up call. I don’t know many people happy with how recruiting and hiring happens: process, methods, outcomes. We need to have a fundamental re-think about how we do this. Most people applying for jobs are bad at interviewing, and most people interviewing them haven’t been trained. That’s not a recipe for success. [Link]A podcast I enjoyed
In The Daily Stoic, Ryan Holiday talks about how a stoic will flip-flop if the facts demand it. It parallels Jeff Bezos's oft-attributed position of “Strong opinions, loosely held.” This is the essence of scientific philosophy. And, there’s a contrary perspective. [Link]What I’m reading
How to Read a Book. First published in 1940, it was revised in 1972, giving guidelines for critically reading good and great books of any tradition. [Link]ICYMI Building Apps isn’t just for programmers. But we knew that. [Link] (Braggy time: I beat Peter Yang to publication by 2-½ months.)
This week I’m grateful for the art and act of pebbling. Those memes, gifs, or articles that you share with someone just because? First, there’s a name for it: pebbling. Second. You can thank those gentoo penguins in Antarctica. (Kind of) [Link]
Job Hunt Guide
Job hunting is hard. Each week I’ll provide a couple of references that I’ve found helpful.
Do you feel trepidation in your networking outreach? Some thoughts that anchor how I think about networking.(TL;DR: Everyone benefits!) [Link]
What Prison Taught Me: The Three Big Questions of Job Interviews [Link]
Alistair Cooke was a beautifully polished writer whose column, Letter from America, was a cornerstone of my weekends. He was a master of his craft and wrote for over 60 years until he was 95.
Comments & Feedback
What do you think? Where am I wrong? Informed debate can be a beautiful learning process. I'd love to hear from you. Here's my calendar.