In Econ, Mr. Bosanko was talking about adults wanting to live high school again because they screwed up the first time. Then, I got it. Go back a couple hours and I was at home (~9:20AM) reading this: it’s long, but definitely worth the time PC Gamer: About that lecture you gave recently. I wanted to ask you about social games. And I know you don’t like that as a title. Jonathan Blow: Did I say that in my speech actually? PC Gamer: Well, you called them evil. Jonathan Blow: No, I mean the name “social games.” PC Gamer: I think you said you don’t like it being attributed to some of those games? Jonathan Blow: Well, they’re not very social. A game like World of Warcraft or Counter-Strike or whatever is way more social. Because you actually meet new people in clans or guilds. You… more →

AP Biology certainly makes a big deal out of ecological preservation and endangered species. What’s the deal? Things die off, and then there’s more to replace them. I read 4 chapters and I still can’t answer the “Why is it important to protect endangered species?” question. But I think I’m finally starting to get it. Now, understand that I relate a lot of things to programming. It just works for me. Spanish is like a massive programming language. Certain functions only take certain kinds of parameters. You can mash a bunch of words up and sound smart, but the code won’t compile. Learning spanish is like reading an enormous book of documentation: ”The Spanish Programming Lanuage: 2nd edition”. Then it all fits in. Physics is a lot like programming too, but that doesn’t even need to be explained. But biology. Oh biology.… more →

There are stereotypes. Then there are people who point out these stereotypes, in their cultured/hip unconformity. Then others write history books about beat poets, “writers and artists [who] harshly criticized what they considered the sterility and conformity of American life ... and the emptiness of popular culture.” These arguments are endless. Once in a while, somebody speaks out about unconformity though media: video, blogs. Then people on all tiers of cultivated, pessimistically-cynical sophistication form a dazzling gradient of reactions—first total confusion and indifference, then massive mindfucks and life-changing enlightenment, and finally qualified scoffs—based on their personal standing, or perhaps perceived personal standing. It’s relaxing to know the controversy backwards and forwards before it spreads to your peers, because then, you can go ahead and take your hipster analytical view about it. (It being the responses of your hipster-peers) You will… more →

Saving time is an odd tendency. It’s great to conserve time finishing a task and allocate the time elsewhere, but if you’re so concerned with keeping those tiny few minutes, it must mean that you are absolutely strapped for time. In other words, you are already using every minute of the day to its fullest possibility. But that’s not right. We spend time eating, showering, in commute, shooting birds in the backyard. That time could supposedly be spent on working, since at one point, you were so low on time that you had to intentionally think to conserve it. But because you still spend time on daily nonsense, you could not actually be wasting time! You might think leisure likewise contributes to overall happiness and therefore is a legitimate ”time expense” equal to homework and project work. But come on, we… more →

Why are streetlamps yellow? Perhaps it flows with white headlights, green traffic lights and red taillights. Maybe the lamps brighten the alleys to deter crime. Or maybe the most economic bulb available just happens to be naturally yellow. Someone, sometime ago, had to engineer this, and he certainly did it with brilliance because streetlamps are so widespread today. So why did his plan of action—yellow sodium street lights—succeed? It was because his idea worked. It was his engineering genius, diligence, and spot-on prediction of unintended consequences that gave him the power and influence to implement his idea. With the onset of this new age, that isn’t true anymore. Take the story of Mr. Streetlamp one step further: his idea became widespread because people listened. People, both technically educated and not, listened because his ideas made sense. But made sense to whom?… more →

If you genuinely hate school, I encourage you to rethink your views. There’s this peculiar, self-perpetuating idea that exists. It’s already so thoroughly analyzed and commonplace that it’s ridiculous, forbidden even, to speak about it. It is this: the entirety of education is great. While guys in other countries have to deal with real problems, we have our easy pretend-problems that surprisingly can be corrected, sitting at a desk. It’s disturbing how easy education is, away from any sort of trouble. Even more disconcerting is the complacency with which this gift is accepted. So much so, that people will complain about it. That is an undesirable extreme. There are few things in reality that search for moderation or some sort of middle-ground. Our culture excessively focuses on the few examples of supposed ”balance” in nature because they are usually so rare: one… more →