A collection of notes on general Knowledge.

The knowledge portal serves as a clipboard, a place to collect various bits of knowledge from various books and their authors.

programming

— Lion Kimbro

programming knowledge

• The freedom to run the program as you wish, for any purpose.
• The freedom to study how the program works, and change it.
• The freedom to redistribute copies so you can help others.
• The freedom to distribute copies of your modified versions to others.

programming practices

• Prototype before polishing. Get it working before optimizing it.
• Separate policy from mechanism, separate interfaces from engines.
• Write simple modular parts connected by clean interfaces.
• Design programs to be connected to other programs.
• Write programs to write programs when you can.
• Design for the future, because it will be here sooner than you think.
• In interface design, always do the least surprising thing.
• When a program has nothing surprising to say, it should say nothing.
• When a program must fail, it should fail noisily and as soon as possible.
• Write big programs only when it is clear by demonstration that nothing else will do.
• Consider how you would solve your immediate problem without adding anything new.

design

design knowledge

• Good design makes a product useful.
• Good design makes a product understandable.
• Good design is unobtrusive.
• Good design is honest.
• Good design is long-lasting.
• Good design is thorough down to the last detail.
• Good design is environmentally friendly.
• Good design is as little design as possible.

design pragnanz

• The mind perceives objects as being symmetrical and forming around a center point.
• The mind perceives objects that are near, or proximate to each other, to be grouped together.
• The mind can only keep 7 (plus or minus 2) items in their working memory, on average.
• The mind has a propensity to best remember the first and last items in a series.
• The mind remembers uncompleted or interrupted tasks better than completed tasks.
• The mind will perceive and interpret ambiguous or complex images as the simplest form possible.
• The time it takes to make a decision increases with the number and complexity of choices.
• The time to acquire a target is a function of the distance to and size of the target.

work

— Parkinson's law

— 老子(Lao Tse), 道德經(Dao De Jing)

work knowledge

• Find your passion and figure out how to get paid for it.
• Do whatever you want to do, but be the best at it.
• Strive for simplicity and competence, but embrace the messiness along the way.
• Under-promise and over-deliver, and own up to your screw-ups.
• Doing what everybody else is doing feels like the safest thing to do, making it the most competitive, and thus the riskiest.
• No one is on their deathbed is wishing they spent more time at work.
• Never stop learning.

work habits

• Doing the right tasks is more important than doing your tasks efficiently.
• Write down your goals. Break them down into manageable tasks.
• Tackle one task at a time, and group similar tasks together.
• You're more attentive in the morning, tackle hard stuff then.
• If you can't do it in 8 hours, you can't do it in 10.
• Don't forget to stretch, and drink plenty of water.
• Keep a record of your time use.

work charisma

• Always look a person in the eye when you talk to them.
• Always stand up to shake someone's hand.
• Be conscious of your body language.
• Ask more than you answer.
• First impressions matter.
• When you walk, look straight ahead, not at your feet.
• Never hit anyone unless they are an immediate threat.
• No matter their job or status, everyone deserves your respect.

writing

— Blaise Pascal, The Provincial Letters

writing knowledge

• Never use a long word where a short one will do.
• If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out.
• Never use the passive where you can use the active.
• Never use a foreign or scientific word, if you can think of an English equivalent.
• Never use a figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print.
• Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous.

health

health knowledge

• Eat varied foods, biodiversity in the diet means less monoculture in the fields.
• Pay more for foods grown or raised less intensively and with more care, eat less.
• Eat mostly plants, especially leaves. Cook, and if you can, plant a garden.
• Avoid food products with unpronounceable ingredients, or more than five in number.
• Don't eat anything your great-great-grandmother wouldn't recognize as food.

health breathing

• Expel all of the air from your lungs.
• Keep them empty for four seconds.
• Inhale through your nose for four seconds.
• Hold for four four seconds, don’t clamp down or create pressure.

ascetism

— Epicurus

Last update on 18V12, edited 3 times.