Fri Oct 13 18:03:29 UTC 2017

Welp, it's Friday 13th in the month of October.

Spoofy.

Anyways, time-block.

Gots some fun stuff planned today.

Sat Oct 14 02:31:55 UTC 2017

Moar "Basic Economics" reading!

I have just finished "Chapter 2: The Role of Prices", and it's a well-written justification of the magic of the free-market. It is well-written in that it is fun to read and gives valid examples of the impossibility of top-down control, and how fluctuating prices redistribute resources effectively. It also is clearly avoiding any of the harder examples that show what happense when the free market fails.

Monopolies? Conflicts of interest? Really, it seems so far that the concept of "leverage" is completely ignored. Who has ownership or control and how does that affect the economic game? It's a really important part of economics, and a significant reason why a pure free-market simply can not exist. The people who end up controlling the scarce resources, whatever their means in acquiring such power, now have arbitrary control over those resources, thus destroying the free market. They effectively become a government, and there's nothing stopping them from being a particularly poor government.

His arguments against top-down control are valid, but they are not complete. The system we have currently arrived at is still imperfect. There are flaws, and how we go about addressing the flaws may indeed require retrying strategies that didn't work universally, but may work in specific situations.

There are 27 chapters in the book. So either I'll need to be comfortable stopping in the middle of a chapter, or some days I need to read more than others.

We'll see what I do.

The next chapter is "Price Controls". I'm sure I'll enjoy that.

Thu Oct 12 18:14:33 UTC 2017

Time-block time

Fri Oct 13 05:52:23 UTC 2017

I have gotten a library card and checked out my first book: "Basic Economics" by Thomas Sowell. I anticipate that I will be very critical of it. Someone who expresses opinions I disagree with, but in a manner that shows he has put thought into those opinions thinks highly of this book. From what I understand of the author, and the book, it will not be a book whose main priority is a well-rounded introduction to economics, but a book about economics with a libertarian agenda.

I'm keeping that bias in mind as I head into the book. It will paint my opinion of the book, and unfairly so, unless I keep the bias in check and properly balance it out. It can be an exercise in managing first impressions, as "Hire with Your Head" recommends.

This book is due back at the library on November 2^nd. This gives me 22 days (counting today) to 634 pages. So I gots about 30 pages to read per day. I just read 13 pages in about 15 minutes, so I have a little over a half-hour of reading to do on average per day.

Totally doable.

Though, I must say, I'm already noticing the libertarian slant the book has. Consider this rather mundane quote: "In a market economy coordinated by prices, there is no one at the top to issue orders to control or coordinate activities throughout the economy."

I think, already, I'm noticing a lack of consideration of who controls the wealth, and the role that leverage plays in economies. Though right on the cover there is a note about this edition of the book: "See Especially the Newly Added Chapter on International Wealth Disparities".

So, perhaps I will be happily proven wrong here.

In any case, I'd like to keep a running commentary on this book whilst I read it. I think it'd prove valuable as a means of keeping track of my reactions to the book, and whether or not those reactions are fair, or more-importantly if those reactions are true.

So far, the book started off strong, but has already started implying libertarianism to be the one true economic strategy. I've liked the definition of economics, and the statement that: "regardless of our policies, practices, or institutions [...] there is simply not enough to go around to satisfy all our desires to the fullest. [...] These various kinds of economies [socialist, capitalist, feudal, etc.] are just different institutional ways of making trade-offs that are inescapable in any economy."

I'm thinking that I will gain some good vocabulary, concepts, and valid economic lenses even if this book ends up painting pure capitalism as the best economic strategy in every case.

It will be like learning a game from a particularly good player, but that player only believes in one methodology of playing. As long as I learn good fundamentals and keep potential flaws in mind, I should still be better off than starting from scratch, and maybe even better off than reading the opinions of an expert whose conclusions I agree with or trying to navigate the labyrinth of blatant and nuanced disagreement amongst experts at once.

In any case, for the two of you who might follow me on this journey, if I manage to keep posting my thoughts, know that they are a work-in-progress whilst I read this book, and hopefully I'll come back to these notes after I finish the book and then consolidate everything into a well-constructed opinion.

Having already written a lot today, I'll stop reading for the day. I should still finish the book if I manage to do a proper 30 pages per day starting tomorrow. I'm thinking I'll attempt to stop by the library on my way home everyday for a solid hour of a reading per day. We'll see, though, as I also want to try running home from work, and carrying a rather large book while running makes me think that these are mutually exclusive ideas.

I have some thoughts about fixing this exclusivity, but they have pros and cons themselves. We'll see what I decide to do.

Wed Oct 11 19:15:52 UTC 2017

Time block

Finally setup an appointment with the sleep doctor. The appointment is not until the end of November.

Thu Oct 12 03:28:15 UTC 2017

Heading home now.

Tue Oct 10 17:29:33 UTC 2017

Tue Oct 10 17:38:30 UTC 2017

Woke up "early" today. Managed to get some personal maintenance done. Tickler is caught up and inbox is mostly empty. Also scanned a few receipts. I'll try to do ten receipts a day.

Wed Oct 11 01:45:52 UTC 2017

Lots of talking with people while out for "drinks" on work event. Interesting VR talk.

Heading to grocery shop now.

Mon Oct 09 19:00:11 UTC 2017

Time block, woo.

Tue Oct 10 01:30:22 UTC 2017

Today's reading:

• The many faces of this in javascript
• Understanding V8's Bytecode
• Temptation Bundling

Tue Oct 10 01:41:33 UTC 2017

Heading home.

Sun Oct 08 21:25:13 UTC 2017

Sat Oct 07 18:24:26 UTC 2017

Seattle Indies meetup time block.

Fri Oct 06 20:44:22 UTC 2017

Time-block

Feeling really tired today. Sleep and good working hours are starting to fight for time. That reminds me, I should call the sleep specialist and setup a time.

Thu Oct 05 20:23:12 UTC 2017

Time-block.

Been playing a lot of Overwatch lately so I'm explicitly planning for 2 hours instead of just 1.

Fri Oct 06 03:31:02 UTC 2017

To quote my private work diary: "Today was a hard day for focus and work, but I got things done and kept timeblock honest. Considering how bad days where I feel like being unproductive usually go, I'm counting today as a win."

Heading home now.

Wed Oct 04 18:48:17 UTC 2017

Time-block, woo.

It's no-meeting Wednesday at work. Gots to get things done today.

Thu Oct 05 01:53:36 UTC 2017

Really wanted to have working thing done today. Not quite there but super close. Tomorrow I get it working and plan a refactor to make the code not horrible.

Today's reading (done during LUNCH): The Control Group is Out of Control. An interesting read about scientific studies and parapsychology, Stephan.

Heading home now.