New Rule: Commit to posting weekly
(or donate to the Flat Earth Society)
The criteria are simple:
I must post something (anything) by Friday afternoon each week.
If I fail to post by Friday afternoon, I must donate $50 to the Flat Earth Society for every violation.
I would need to report this violation as my missed post for the week.
While working with someone on committing to writing regularly, an idea emerged: stake a punitive bounty if I fail to ship my writing and donate that money to a charity of my choice if I missed a post. This way, there is pain (I have to part with some money, but the money goes to a good cause). The thing is, the motivation needs to be aligned. I should donate to those charities if I value them. Also, I don't like the idea of not donating to a worthy cause being my reward for sticking to my goals. So instead, I’ve decided to do something awful: support a cause I don’t believe in if I miss my goal. This adds insult to injury, which is my kind of motivator. Why the Flat Earth Society? Because their conclusions about the universe are absurd. The fact that they exist makes me chuckle.
So here I am. This is my first weekly post. I’m still working out the kinks in the format, so bear with me.
What’s this all about anyway?
The law of work does seem utterly unfair-but there it is, and nothing can change it: the higher the pay in enjoyment the worker gets out of it, the higher shall be his pay in cash, too.
Let's celebrate the pursuit of knowledge for its own sake.
Let’s explore topics we find interesting and bring us joy.
Let’s play with new ideas, challenge our long-held beliefs, build weird things, and share the journey that gives each of us richer lives.
That’s what Functionally Imperative is all about.
I know my life is more fulfilling when I’m honest with myself and make time for that exploration. So my goal is the share this joy that I have and to unlock this joy in my readers.
This is why the tagline for Func Imp is: learn things for the lulz.
I learn best by learning through building and play. This means I write code and sometimes make videos to tease out ideas. I also constantly consume books, videos, podcasts, and blog posts to expand my knowledge. In this final section, I’ll share some highlights of my media consumption this week.
Books I’m reading
Philosophy of Physics: Space and Time by Tim Maudlin
For the uninitiated, Tim Maudlin is a philosopher focused on the foundations of physics and logic. He has a masterful ability to speak plainly on complex topics. If you are interested in Bell’s Theorem and Quantum Non-locality, Tim’s writing on the subject is a must. If you aren’t ready to dive in, you can see his approach in this video from IAI.
(I’m pretty sure a blurry person in the background is skinny-dipping at 30 seconds in, so you won’t want to miss that, the commenters certainly didn’t)
Books I’m listening to
Noise: A Flaw in Human Judgment by Kahneman, Sibony, and Sunstein
This is from the author of Thinking, Fast and Slow and co-author of Nudge. I’ve been listening to this on my running and rowing workouts. I’m enjoying it so far. I’ll write about it in more detail when I finish.
Favorite Video this week
GradIEEEnt half decent: The hidden power of imprecise lines by Suckerpinch (Tom7)
This video is 55 minutes of pure joy to me. Honestly, all of Tom7’s videos are great. I particularly loved the cryptography and NES sections. I’ll dedicate a post to his work as well. It’s well worth it.
End Note
That’s about it. These Friday posts will shift and change over time, but my practice right now is to get into the habit of publishing weekly. I hope you find the ideas I share here interesting. If you read, listened to, or watched any links I’ve shared, I’d love to hear about it in the comments. Finally, I hope you subscribe to see if I can pull off this weekly challenge (and get some inspiration to build and play with your ideas).
If you know someone who might enjoy this content (or want to see if I crash and burn in my personal challenge), please share this post and encourage them to subscribe. Of course, these Friday posts will always be free and open to the public.
Have a great weekend.