Scala, Java, Unix, MacOS tutorials (page 135)

Many times when I have dreams of flying — I’m flying, there is no airplane or anything like that — I encounter wires overhead that I feel like I shouldn’t approach. (In the dream I usually assume these are power lines.)

After doing some research this morning, it turns out this is a common phenomenon. One person writes:

“The typical dream goes like this: I am flying; I encounter wires; I try to fly underneath them. Sometimes the dreamer gets caught in the wires; sometimes the wires form an insurmountable barrier. Some dreamers climb the wires; others walk the wires like a tightrope.”

I usually treat them as an insurmountable barrier, though when I have a lot of energy I have tried to work my way through them.

Either way, it’s kinda neat to see that other people encounter the same thing.

~ Notes from March 22, 2013

When I first moved to Talkeetna, I sat down to sign the lease with my new landlord. The conversation went like this:

Her: So, why are you moving to Alaska ... hunter?

Me: No.

Fisherman?

No.

*pause*

Right-wing nut job?

No.

*pause*

You’re not here to write stories about the town for tv shows, like those Northern Exposure people, are you?

*she starts taking off her sweater*

Um ...

*which I eventually realize is so that she can breast-feed her baby while we’re talking*

... no.

So why are you here?

Per this Bloomberg article, “Volkswagen AG secured 20 billion euros ($25 billion) in battery supplies to underpin an aggressive push into electric cars in the coming years, ramping up pressure on Tesla as it struggles with production issues for the mainstream Model 3.”

“The world’s largest carmaker will equip 16 factories to produce electric vehicles by the end of 2022, compared with three currently ... plans to build as many as 3 million of the cars a year by 2025 is backstopped by deals with suppliers including Samsung. LG, and Contemporary Amperex Technology for batteries in Europe and China.”

“In total ... plans to purchase about 50 billion euros in batteries as part of its electric-car push, which includes three new models in 2018 with dozens more following. Volkswagen’s battery plans compare to Tesla’s $17.5 billion worth of purchase obligations as of last year, including $15.4 billion in deals through 2022, primarily related to buying lithium-ion cells from Panasonic, according to a recent filing.”

This is a good quote about Warren Buffett-style investing:

They like to liken their process to a three-legged stool in terms of the kinds of companies they look for:

• The first leg of that stool is the business model that produces high free cash flow
• The second leg is shareholder-oriented management
• And the third leg is the ability to invest that high free cash flow in areas that will produce attractive rates of return

The quote comes from this Morningstar page. That description is consistent with what you’ll find in books like The Warren Buffett Way and The New Buffettology.

These are the “Five Gatekeepers of Speech,” as found in this tweet by Joan Halifax, where she writes, “I feel to repost this now as a guard against lying becoming a norm in our society”:

1. Is it true?
2. Is it kind?
3. Is it beneficial?
4. Is it necessary?
5. Is it the right time?

I learned about these gatekeepers a long time ago, both through my study of Zen and from my yoga teacher.

“Each morning we are born again. What we do today is what matters most.”

~ Buddha (as seen in this Spirit Rock link)

The Dalai Lama offers advice on how to start your mornings:

“Every day, think as you wake up, today I am fortunate to be alive, I have a precious human life, I am not going to waste it. I am going to use all my energies to develop myself, to expand my heart out to others; to achieve enlightenment for the benefit of all beings. I am going to have kind thoughts towards others, I am not going to get angry or think badly about others. I am going to benefit others as much as I can.”

I can especially dig the, “today I am fortunate to be alive” part.

This morning Google announced their Google News Initiative, which is a number of things, but has these three objectives:

• Elevate and strengthen quality journalism  
• Evolve business models to drive sustainable growth
• Empower news organizations through technological innovation

Talent is god given. Be humble.
Fame is man given. Be grateful.
Conceit is self given. Be careful.

~ John Wooden

LeBron James is a basketball player who’s had a back problem and now does a lot of hard work just so he can play basketball. As a former business owner and consultant who has a rare blood disease and is working to get back to a regular 40-hour work week, I found this espn.com story about LBJ’s training regimen inspirational. Two good quotes:

• ...his thoughtful and ever-evolving approach toward training and recovery...
• “It’s every day. Around the clock every single day, working on my body.”

And this:

Work hard.
Train hard.
Play hard.

“Every person in your company is a vector. Your progress is determined by the sum of all vectors.”

That’s a quote from Elon Musk. In this context a vector is what I know about from my engineering background, a company of both a speed and a direction, something like this:

case class Vector(speed: Double, direction: String)

The correct thing about that quote is that the worst employees I ever had pulled in a direction that was somewhere around 180 degrees opposite of the direction we were aiming for. For example, if nine out of ten employees are rowing a boat that’s headed east, an employee that’s rowing towards the west is going to slow everyone else down.

Unfortunately I never had much success turning those people around, so they were always fired or encouraged to find other work. Over the years we had everything from people whose work had to be completely re-done to people who had agendas during the 8-5 work hours that had nothing to do with the company’s agenda.

A few interesting reads of late:

• How to solve 90% of NLP problems: a step-by-step guide
• JVM performance profiling
• Interview questions that cut through the BS to reveal a great hire

“I have no idea who that guy was, but I know that he just reset our karmic destiny.”

(A quote from the book, Love Everyone, that makes me wonder how many times our karmic destiny is reset and we don’t notice it.)

The postal code in Stewart, British Columbia, is “VOT 1WO,” which the locals tell me stands for Very Old Town, One Way Out.