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Ithaka C.P. Cavafy, translated by Edmund Keeley As you set out for Ithaka hope your road is a long one, full of adventure, full of discovery. Laistrygonians, Cyclops, angry Poseidon—don’t be afraid of them: you’ll never find things like that on your way as long as you keep your thoughts raised high, as long as a rare excitement stirs your spirit and your body. Laistrygonians, Cyclops, wild Poseidon—you won’t encounter them unless you bring them along inside your soul, unless your soul sets them up in front of you. Hope your road is a long one. May there be many summer mornings when, with what pleasure, what joy, you enter harbors you’re seeing for the first time; may you stop at Phoenician trading stations to buy fine things, mother of pearl and coral, amber and ebony, sensual perfume of every kind— as many sensual perfumes as you can; and may you visit many Egyptian cities to learn and go on learning from their scholars. Keep Ithaka always in your mind. Arriving there is what you’re destined for. But don’t hurry the journey at all. Better if it lasts for years, so you’re old by the time you reach the island, wealthy with all you’ve gained on the way, not expecting Ithaka to make you rich. Ithaka gave you the marvelous journey. Without her you wouldn't have set out. She has nothing left to give you now. And if you find her poor, Ithaka won’t have fooled you. Wise as you will have become, so full of experience, you’ll have understood by then what these Ithakas mean. 伊萨卡岛 【希腊】卡瓦菲 当你启程前往伊萨卡， 愿你的道路漫长， 充满奇迹，充满发现。 吃人的巨人，独眼的巨人， 愤怒的波塞冬海神——不要怕他们， 你的路上不会有怪物， 只要你心气高扬， 只要那宝贵的兴奋， 在你的身心中翻涌。 吃人的巨人，独眼的巨人， 狂暴的波塞冬海神——你将无缘遇见， 除非你在灵魂中滋养它们， 除非你的灵魂让他们立在面前。 愿你的道路漫漫， 愿夏日的清晨常驻当你 带着欢乐，带着欣喜， 进入初次相见的海港。 愿你在腓尼基人的集市停留， 购买精美的物件， 珠母和珊瑚，琥珀和黑檀， 迷人的香水，各种各样， 迷人的香水，尽情挑选。 愿你拜访埃及众城， 一一请教先贤。 让伊萨卡常在你心间， 那里是你注定的终点。 但别急着匆忙赶路， 最好让旅程持续多年。 而你登岛时已然苍老， 带着一路所得的财富， 对伊萨卡已无期盼。 伊萨卡曾赐予你神奇的旅行， 没有她你不会扬起风帆， 而今，她没有什么再可给你。 若你发现她贫瘠，她从未曾骗你， 当饱经风霜，领悟睿智， 你就会明白伊萨卡人的真意。

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. ...