Monday, February 23, 2026
Saturday, February 21, 2026
live simply and travel light
The best things in life are free, and most of the rest are dirt cheap. Sure, be careful with your money, but not too careful. Whatever's left when you die will just go to someone else anyway. Make it a goal to die broke and try not to collect too much stuff.
A popular and famous hippie named Jesus once said, "take nothing for the journey but the staff". That's overkill if taken literally, but close enough to the truth. Possessions literally and figuratively weigh you down. If I was a smarter man, I'd have figured that out sooner. Oh well, better late than never.
Friday, February 20, 2026
Tuesday, February 17, 2026
it is possible to ride zebras
Behold:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ph8Vag9VxRU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lDqNLqd_O3g
The zebra race in the above begins around the 3:50 mark. The video also includes a camel and an ostrich race.
the useful things you learn in school
I knew from the beginning school was preparation for adulthood, but it took me awhile to figure out exactly how. Here are some of the useful things I learned in school: show up on time, follow instructions, keep track of important papers, fill out forms, communicate clearly, and other skills directly useful in daily life. All that stuff about vocabulary and geometry was just there to keep my brain busy, not because I was going to need it later. Even so, keeping your brain busy (with anything) is a good habit.
Of course, learning can also be fun, and the word school itself is garbled Greek for leisure or free time. In the ancient world, only rich people were free to study things like poetry and music. Everyone else was too busy learning and doing practical work to study. In a similar way, reading for pleasure only became common when advances in technology made books cheap enough for average people to afford. The free time most people enjoy today was also made possible through better technology, particularly mechanized agriculture.
You don't need to read a lot of books to be wise, but it certainly helps. The longer I live, the more I think that intelligence is less a list of things to know and more a set of habits to practice. Most knowledge is not particularly useful, but good habits always make life easier.
As far as social skills, I learned that people mainly get judged on how they look, what they sound like, and how much money they have. High academic achievement or intelligence doesn't get much respect. If I was a smarter man, I would have figured that out sooner. However, I don't regret my education because it's enriched my life in unexpected ways. That's the real lesson.
Monday, February 16, 2026
Sunday, February 8, 2026
Saturday, February 7, 2026
Tuesday, February 3, 2026
Monday, February 2, 2026
Saturday, January 31, 2026
Friday, January 30, 2026
Google Translate uses English as an intermediary?
Bilingual dictionaries often don't exist for pairs like Greek and Thai, so in order for translation software to work, a third language would be needed. This is similar to the problem of UN interpreters who only interpret to and from the UN's six official languages. Other interpreters are needed who speak a UN language and other languages.
To translate from Greek to Thai, you need either: someone who speaks both languages or a Greek speaker and a Thai speaker who are also bilingual in some other language. This is how we ended up with lingua francas like Latin in the past or English now.
I suspect that translations to and from English are probably more accurate than translations that require English as a middle step. I doubt very much Google has or has made bilingual dictionaries of every language pair.
Thursday, January 29, 2026
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