I'm one of those people. I haven't memorized all of the Python standard library, but whenever I run into things that I need to do on a monthly frequency (which is not enough to remember things just by using them), I add them to my Anki deck.
For all the uninitiated, Jacob also runs Findka Essays [0] which is fantastic. My daily reading is Findka Essays and Thinking About Things [1], which is more than enough interesting reading material that I can get through.
There is a certain subset of programmers who get away with this at work. But if you're posting this, it sounds like you're torn between the comfortable quality of life you're living now, and the boredom and knowing you could be doing more.
Some ideas:
* Can you do a rotation on a different team? (For example, if you're devops, you might learn a lot on SRE/ops.)
I run an email newsletter[1] that aims to highlight the interesting content found on personal blogs. It's a single link every other day to something interesting, the kind of blog posts that you come across every once in a while that really make you think. The overwhelming feedback is that being able to read the kind of non-viscerally-targeted news and analyses that aren't easily found online is incredibly valuable.
I've been asked multiple times about starting a community with discussion, but don't currently have the bandwidth. If someone else would like to create one I will happily support it.
[1] www.thinking-about-things.com
Some example articles are at www.twitter.com/thinkingaboutt6.
I run an email newsletter[1] that aims to highlight the interesting content found on personal blogs. It's a single link every other day to something interesting, the kind of blog posts that you come across every once in a while that really make you think. The overwhelming feedback is that being able to read the kind of non-viscerally-targeted news and analyses that aren't easily found online is incredibly valuable.
Seems to be interesting. The description in the landing page is indeterminate. Any examples available?
No privacy statement/policy available. You are asking for someone's email - so you might consider providing this up front before the email address is provided.
I run an email newsletter[1] that aims to highlight the interesting content found on personal blogs. It's a single link every other day to something interesting, the kind of blog posts that you come across every once in a while that really make you think. The overwhelming feedback is that being able to read the kind of non-viscerally-targeted news and analyses that aren't easily found online is incredibly valuable.
I enjoyed the first post I read from this list [1], so I've signed up for the newsletter. But I do take umbrage with some of what it says! When someone asks "Was Brontosaurus an herbivore?" the right answer would be Yes even if brontosaurus as a category of dinosaurs had been removed. (It's still a valid genus name, so the point is doubly wrong. [2]) It is clear that if someone asks about brontosaurus, they mean the animals whose bones were called brontosaurus bones, which were in fact herbivores. The only other possible thing they could mean is "the well-known (but non-factual) dinosaur called Brontosaurus" which is an herbivore in much the same way that a unicorn is an herbivore.
Similarly, the author seems to mistake the difficulty in the question of "What country was George Washington born?" which is primarily the question of what does that even mean? The country that the spot of his birth became or the country which ruled the spot of his birth at the time? In fact, I'm not even sure what answer the author thinks is correct. Washington was a British subject (citizen? not sure) at birth but the "clue" the author provides seems to try to hint that Washington was born "in the US" whatever that would mean prior to the US's existence.
Nonetheless, I stand by the author's overall sentiment that facts should be connected together and not simply memorized, and the other examples were good.
The only times I've ever seen the question "In what country was George Washington born?" it's always been a trick question with the answer "hah hah, it's Britain I bet you didn't think of that!" or some variation thereof.
But he wasn't born in Britain, any more than someone born today in Gibraltar or Montserrat would be. He was born in Virginia, a British colony.
He was an officer in the British colonial army before he became a traitor and a revolutionary, though. That's fairly well known so maybe the "trick question" is that he was actually born in the modern day US?
Can confirm that this newsletter is awesome. On a side note, the blogs that the newsletter links to often have no comments on Hacker News, meaning that I have often never seen them before.
Just an fyi as well. Your site did not load any content for me with the Disconnect.me and uBlock Origin blockers. I had to disable these to get the signup form to appear, and have the loading icons disappear.
I've been subscribed for a few months now and just want to say thank you! The content is always refreshingly outside of the standard topics of news streams and discussions.
This looks intriguing. Welcome to the newsletter space! I run Thinking About Things [0], a newsletter with a similar premise - that of critical thinking and seeing things in a new light.
The demand for content about critical thinking is rising exponentially. I'm happy to collaborate and show you the ropes - you can find our contact info on the site.
One thing I've noticed about a lot of newsletter's landing pages is that they let you see past articles without signing up. I have no idea based on your intro if your content aligns with what I'm interested in, nor do I want to fill my email inbox with more content to just skim. Have you considered making your past newsletters available for prospective subscribers?
It's impossible to underestimate the degree to which curation is becoming the differentiator in the digital economy. Those who can be trusted to provide valuable content from the fire hose of all that's available on the internet will become the new information brokers.
