Podcast debt cleaned!
Reading
Technical
What can strong engineers do that weak engineers can't?
Gentoo 2025 in retrospect & happy new year 2026!
I have a habit of skimming the OpenJDK commit log every few weeks. Many commits are too complex for me to grasp in the limited time I have reserved for this ... special hobby. But occasionally something catches my eye.
How a 40-Line Fix Eliminated a 400x Performance Gap reminds me of The slow currentTimeMillis()
Why We've Tried to Replace Developers Every Decade Since 1969
From Microsoft to Microslop to Linux: Why I Made the Switch
A 9M-parameter Mandarin pronunciation tutor
Non technical
Youtube
~10 minutes
He Helped Him Fix His Helmet!🥰
Longer
Chinese vegan food is just better ( Northern Glass Noodle )
The BEST (sounding) Premium Wireless Headphones
Podcast
The human stain remover: what Britain’s greatest extreme cleaner learned from 25 years on the job
2002 Oxford study: Visualizing tranquil scenes helped insomniacs fall asleep 20 minutes faster; counting sheep actually made sleep worse Attention research (Wendy Wood, Colin Camerer): Much of healthy living comes from beneficial habits on autopilot—the opposite of constant mindfulness "Human attention is like a pinhole"—we filter out almost everything
Are You as Observant as You Think?
Company went public in 1968, then private again in 1985 via $315 million leveraged buyout—she refused Wall Street pressure to cut recognition spending 1960s context: Women couldn't get credit cards without male cosigners; help-wanted ads were segregated by gender; only 5-7% of U.S. businesses were women-owned People support what they help create—involve them in decision-making Culture isn't what you say, it's what you systematically reward
Mary Kay Ash: The Greatest Salesperson In History
Public security now has near-complete information on what every overseas organization is doing in China Safe lanes remain in poverty alleviation, environmental remediation, disaster relief, technical services, school and clinic building, and some Belt and Road-adjacent capacity building Some organizations converted to for-profit social enterprises or consulting firms to exit the NGO law framework; public security is aware and selectively tolerates this
Mark Sidel on China's Oversight of Foreign NGOs: Eight Years of the Overseas NGO Law
Left MI6 in 1964 after The Spy Who Came In From the Cold became a bestseller, giving him financial independence Traveled to locations, met experts, read extensively, embedded himself in each subject before writing Everything was nonfiction and factual up until reimagined into fiction Humanitarian worker Yvette Pierpaoli, who died in Bosnia, inspired Tessa in The Constant Gardener — le Carré wanted to honor her sacrifice Second wife Jane likely appears across nearly all female characters in different forms Le Carré resented the "spy fiction" label; saw himself as a literary artist who happened to use espionage as subject matter ("If I'd only written about cowboys, would you think I was a cowboy?")
Incentives shape behavior — a core economic insight. Observed selfishness may reflect circumstances, not character. Before concluding any group is better or worse, account for how their situation itself affects the choices available to them.
Are the Rich Really Less Generous Than the Poor?
Why economists got free trade with China so wrong