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First, the US Supreme court has limited federal judges’ power to block Trump orders: “Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson delivered a scathing dissent. ‘The court’s decision to permit the executive to violate the constitution with respect to anyone who has not yet sued is an existential threat to the rule of law,” Jackson wrote. “Given the critical role of the judiciary in maintaining the rule of law … it is odd, to say the least, that the court would grant the executive’s wish to be freed from the constraints of law by prohibiting district courts from ordering complete compliance with the constitution,’” noted The Guardian. ...

the value of crises A crisis doesn’t build character; it reveals it. Nations, like individuals, reveal themselves at times of crisis. All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident. – Arthur Schopenhauer What is power? An individuall’s capacity to modify others’ states by providing or withholding resources or administering punishments. Resources can be social such as friendship, opportunities, or knowledge or materail such as money, job and so on. The value of power is reflected in how dependent the individual is on those resources. The principle of lease interest: the people who has the least interest in a relationship has the greatest power. ...

Here is a link. I’m pretty quiet about the fact I’m a transman usually, but holy shit I need to tell you about the culture shock I’m going through because it’s blindsiding me. There’s a huge sense of social isolation that comes with being perceived as male, because now people are subconsciously treating me as a potential predator. All strangers, no matter their gender, keep their guard up around me. ...

First there was a book, The idea factory by Jon Gertner in 2012. It details some history of Bell Labs. Then there is a blog, why Bell Labs worked? shown up in the hackernews in early May. At last another blog on that blog. Below is a summary. Why Bell Labs worked so well, and could innovate so much, while today’s innovation, in spite of the huge private funding, goes in hype-and-fizzle cycles that leave relatively little behind? A sad note is Bell Labs’s rate of innovation fizzled out after 1980s. ...

Some excerpts from 28 slightly rude notes on writing. I worked in the Writing Center in college, and whenever a student came in with an essay, we were supposed to make sure it had two things: an argument (“thesis”) and a reason to make that argument (“motive”). Everybody understood what a “thesis” is, whether or not they actually had one. But nobody understood “motive”. If I asked a student why they wrote the essay in front of them, they’d look at me funny. “Because I had to,” they’d say. Most writing is bad because it’s missing a motive. It feels dead because it hasn’t found its reason to live. You can’t accomplish a goal without having one in the first place—writing without a motive is like declaring war on no one in particular. ...

“we all filter reality through the same set of feeble sensory organs, so any attempt to portray being as we understand it bears intrinsic limitations.” Lucia Berlin vs Raymond Carver by Julien Levy Apr 23, 2025 We must be willing to get rid of the life we’ve planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us. – Joseph Campbell (1904-1987) Patience is the calm acceptance that things can happen in a different order than the one you have in mind. – David G. Allen ...

CFG in SSA form A CFG in SSA form is a representation where each variable is assigned a value only once within the CFG, and each use of a variable refers to the most recent definition, ensuring simpler analysis and optimization. CFG: control flow graph SSA: static single assignment A CFG is a graph that represents the control flow of a program. Nodes in the CFG represent basic blocks (sequences of instructions that execute sequentially without branches), and edges represent the possible execution paths between those blocks. ...

this is a good piece of advice for investment. it was written in November 2014 by Jason Zweig. I was once asked, at a journalism conference, how I defined my job. I said: My job is to write the exact same thing between 50 and 100 times a year in such a way that neither my editors nor my readers will ever think I am repeating myself. That’s because good advice rarely changes, while markets change constantly. The temptation to pander is almost irresistible. And while people need good advice, what they want is advice that sounds good. ...

Martha Gellhorn How did I come across Martha Gellhorn? It was a search of politics and coward to bring her quote as follows. Chuck Schumer, current Senate minority leader, is a coward like many others. Politics really must be a rotten profession considering what awful moral cowards most politicians become as soon as they get the job. – The Face of War Then other quotes are so good. Add it here. ...

design of a product To design a successful product is an iterative process. How to get it right? Here are two pieces of advice. One is from the Gmail creator Paul Buchheit. What’s the right approach to new products? Pick three key attributes or features, get those things very, very right, and then forget about everything else. Those three attributes define the fundamental essence and value of the product – the rest is noise. For example, the original iPod was: 1) small enough to fit in your pocket, 2) had enough storage to hold many hours of music and 3) easy to sync with your Mac (most hardware companies can’t make software, so I bet the others got this wrong). That’s it – no wireless, no ability to edit playlists on the device, no support for Ogg – nothing but the essentials, well executed. ...