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Google’s hiring philosophy involves always raising the bar. They strive to find people who are better and smarter than the ones already working there, so that the average level of intelligence and ability across Google employees actually increases over time. This should be contrasted against a more traditional model where the smartest people start the [...]

There’s nothing inherently wrong with the popularization of useful techniques in any field, but the process by which this takes place has profound implications for the overall comprehension of knowledge and the quality of the products produced in that field. The explosion of attention toward the web applications arena was inevitable and has produced numerous [...]

Wikipedia notes a definition of qualia: …qualia are properties of sensory experiences by virtue of which there is something it is like to have them. Much of the debate over the existence of qualia lies in the definition of the term, so I’ll give my conception and subsequently refute it. Qualia are the things like [...]

People assured me that it was only “the MySpace crowd” or the teenage girls spouting off nonsense like “omg ur teh bst frd in wrdl!!11″. I believed them, telling myself that it’s just a phase that people will go through and grow out of. It’s just a series of shortcuts, right? They still know how [...]

Why? The most relevant standards body for the internet, the W3C, has stated the purpose of the World Wide Web as, “a network of information resources. The Web relies on mechanisms to make these resources readily available to the widest possible audience.” Most important in that statement are the phrases “information resources”, “readily available”, and [...]

There are two factors concerned with the morality of sex and sexual behavior: consent and maturity. Archaic definitions of sexual morality are unnecessarily restrictive, following the “fear the unknown” mantra, and fail to logically address the issue with anything more than circular arguments. There have been several court cases in the recent past involving two [...]

“Well, it works.” The pathetic proverb of contemporary capitalist dogma. Getting something done with minimal cost and maximal return is what it’s about. Cut corners. Get away with everything you can. Lie. Cheat. Deceive. Embezzle. So long as you’re making money doing it, you’re doing it the right way. American capitalism, like all other relatively [...]

I’ve favored the term “geek” to describe myself moreso than “nerd” or any of the other similar words because I take them to have specific definitions, only one of which applies to me. Essentially, a geek is someone who is passionate about and deeply involved with a subject. There are computer geeks, car geeks, art [...]

I am a fanatic about not getting sick. In the rare case that I do come down with a little of something, I do whatever it takes to get better as fast as humanly possible. Many people don’t take this approach and it bothers me when they complain. My aggressive routine is as follows: At [...]

Some books that I’ve read recently and recommend: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values Lila: An Inquiry into Morals Why I am Not a Christian Hackers and Painters Joel on Software: And on Diverse and Occasionally Related Matters That Will Prove of Interest to Software Developers, Designers, and Managers, and [...]