2014-10-24

Notes.

I've been in Taiwan for the past week, developing designs and helping oversee production for Brilliant Bicycles. I've enjoyed it very much; just being in a truly industrial place is one of my favorite things. But not only is it about seeing how stuff gets made; it's about the cultural and physical infrastructure that allows a culture to build value.

Which is kind of what this newsletter is about: Preparing oneself to create value, and cultivating a mind state that allows that process to flourish.

I'll be writing up more thoughts on my trip in the coming weeks. In the meantime, here's a video of cardboard boxes being made.

Pathing.

• Ben Thompson has some really interesting comments (and concerns) about Google's future.
• Get better at Bezier curves.
• A Million Random Digits with 100,000 Normal Deviates is a book, published in 1955 by the RAND corporation, that literally contains a bunch of random numbers - and was apparently really important in mathematics and science when it was published. Also, its Amazon Customer Reviews are pretty funny.
• The Mosuo culture is matrilineal and *super* interesting. In particular, check out their "walking marriages."

Building.

• Lockheed's announcement re: compact fusion is really interesting in contrast to the way that ITER's tokamak has been going.
• A *really* pretty video of some amazing Korean pottery being made.
• A Dutch team is working to breed potatoes that can survive on salt water.

Logistics.

• A super cool video showing the delicate process of quarrying marble blocks.
• An effort to allow bike & pedestrian traffic on the Verrazano bridge.
• 802.11ad is *fast*, but doesn't propagate through walls. :(

Reflecting.

• Your cat probably doesn't love you.
• A good overview of chili pepper rating scales, and how they're used.
• A bunch of photos from North Korea's "Air Koryo" airline, which is way outdated but all in all not half bad.

Stuff that doesn't fit into my dumb/arbitrary categories.

• Monte Carlo methods use random sampling to obtain numerical results.
• Craig Cannon's thoughtful take on how to buy your first road bike.
• Apparently NASA's 1960s codebase was *really* durable; they used it up into the 2000s.

And.

A bunch of *awesome* photos of the Maersk Triple-E being built.