From Avoid the nightmare bicycle:

Imagine a bicycle where the product manager said: “people don’t get math so we can’t have numbered gears. We need labeled buttons for gravel mode, downhill mode, …”

Good designs expose systematic structure; they lean on their users’ ability to understand this structure and apply it to new situations. We were born for this.

Finished reading Lost in Math by Sabine Hossenfelder.

This book is about Sabine being frustrated with the current state of physics and science in general. She makes a strong case for why she’s upset: many physicists devote their efforts to unfalsifiable theories, motivated purely by their aesthetic appeal.

It’s hard to deny that ideas like the multiverse and wormholes are fascinating, but if they’re closer to science fiction than science, what’s the point? Why do we invest so much time and money into theories that can never be tested or applied?

PhD stands for Philosophiae Doctor because science was once called natural philosophy. Before Newton, theories were accepted based purely on plausibility. Then came the scientific revolution, when ideas had to be tested against reality. Today, many theories are chosen solely for their mathematical beauty, making it feel as if we’ve taken a step back by a few hundred years.

I recommend this book to anyone interested in science, history of science, philosophy of science, and epistemology. It’s well-written and provides all the context needed to go through it.

Definition of stupidity from The Basic Laws of Human Stupidity (haven’t read):

A stupid person is a person who causes losses to another person or to a group of persons while himself deriving no gain and even possibly incurring loss.

The Ideal Candidate Will Be Punched in the Stomach is one of the best things I’ve read in a long time. It feels like reading Camus or Kafka set in modern times.

It’s good to see more people talking about the strange mix of apathy, anxiety, and boredom they feel. I haven’t figured out whose fault this is, but something has changed in the past ten years in how we work.

Great as always from Lucidity, Brainwash An Executive Today where he writes about how management makes decisions. I kept nodding every a few seconds, fueling my confirmation bias.

It’s such a strange world we live in. So much seems dysfunctional, even perverse — millions spent on software that barely works and hinders productivity, followed by layoffs to save on the salaries of a few engineers. And yet, some things do work — turn on a tap, and fresh water flows; flip a switch, and you draw power from a nuclear plant — how awesome is that?

I don’t know what to make of it — I’ve been struggling with it for a few years. Now, I’m coming to realize that if my expectations clash with reality, the fault is mine — I asked the world to be something it never promised to be. The only thing I can do is to seek things that work, hold to what makes sense, and let the rest pass as the wind over stone.

McMaster is a U.S. supply company with more than 700,000 products, from nails to air pumps. It might be the best example I’ve seen of how to present information to an audience.

It’d be interesting to go over the details here.

Their catalog is excellent. Each entry has both an image and text, making it easy to understand what’s inside. It strikes the perfect balance between being granular and general.

It gets even better when you click a link. Each category has an image and a short description—no fluff, just clear, concise information.

Then come the filters. Each filter has a small image, so I don’t have to waste time deciphering what OD or ID mean.

Different options are presented in a dense table, but it’s easy to navigate.

This is what most websites should aim for. People don’t need excessive white space, pop-ups, or email sign-up prompts. They need a functional website where they can quickly find and order what they need.

Apparently, Moria loves dishwashers. She climbs onto the countertop and just lies there. To distract her, I’ve started playing dishwasher sounds on Spotify. Spotify Wrapped is going to be hilarious.