Author: neil

Back to…?

It was the “first day back” for everyone in the household today.  Kids started back at school. I started back in the office. We’re all starting the routines we had in days BC (Before Covid).

Almost instantly for me, the amount of wasted time was rattling.

Yes, meeting a scarce few colleagues in person was lovely. Time to read on the train was good. A little break in the afternoon to have lunch, in a nice shady spot overlooking the harbour, in great weather, was definitely welcome.

BUT:

My three hour 2-way commute was exhausting. The preparation for the commute was stressful. The change in energy levels throughout the day was palpable.  Going into the office to get onto video calls seemed pointless.  Productivity was down 50% or more today.

Doing this multiple days a week seems an awful waste of time. I have to ask : Who’s actually gaining anything by this return to BC rituals?  What are we all going back to? Why?

 

 

[Link] AI systems design with purpose

An important subject, and Josh Lovejoy, Head of Design for Ethics & Society at Microsoft, tackles it here. The abstract:

For an industry that prides itself on moving fast, the tech community has been remarkably slow to adapt to the differences of designing with AI. Machine learning is an intrinsically fuzzy science, yet when it inevitably returns unpredictable results, we tend to react like it’s a puzzle to be solved; believing that with enough algorithmic brilliance, we can eventually fit all the pieces into place and render something approaching objective truth. But objectivity and truth are often far afield from the true promise of AI

 

[Link]: Clean the Tiles, Not the Floor

David Cain describes his mental switch to focus on one tile at a time instead of worrying about the pain of having to clean the whole floor.

As long as zeroed in on the current tile, rather than think about the dozens of tiles I had yet to clean, there was minimal discomfort and no tedium. Whenever my mind started to drift that way, I remembered my elegant strategy: look at a tile, and clean that tile. As far as I could tell, nothing more was required.

Rhetorical Devices: Accismus

Accismus (pronounced ak-SIZ-muhs) is the rhetorical refusal of something one actually wants, to try and convince themselves or others of a different opinion. It is  showing no interest in something while secretly wanting it. It’s a form of irony where one pretends indifference and refuses something while actually wanting it

An example from Aesop’s Fables:

Driven by hunger, a fox tried to reach some grapes hanging high on the vine but was unable to, although he leaped with all his strength. As he went away, the fox remarked ‘Oh, you aren’t even ripe yet! I don’t need any sour grapes.’ People who speak disparagingly of things that they cannot attain would do well to apply this story to themselves.