I re-read Mark Manson’s “Subtle Art” yesterday. I enjoyed it more this time than the first time through back when it was released. I guess am more ready to hear it. A part that that really clicked with me was on struggle. It’s a piece I used to mention often, but I guess I’d forgotten recently. We all struggle. Struggle is growth, it’s life. But, we can pick our struggle. ...
I just finished “He’s Not Lazy” by Adam Price. Good book. Read more pre-emptively I guess. Preventative maintenance. Lots of things I need to remember, especially in the heat of things when thinking turns off. The most important being that any “fight” with a teenager is probably about power and you will lose because they will go further. They have less to lose. “However, there is one type of conflict you should learn to avoid: a power struggle. Without even knowing you, I can predict who will win the next one: your teen. He will always win. That’s because he has so much more at stake than you: He’s fighting for his independence. He will best you because he’s willing to go to any length to win—screaming, swearing, embarrassing you in public, whatever it takes.” ...
I’ve been working on trying to acquire hardware for the “Old Desktop PCs for Learning” project for my eldest. We have a few bits and are hoping to get a few more. It’s harder than I thought. I guess the e-waste initiatives are working. In the old days, there were tons of old hardware out there in hard rubbish and in peoples garages. Anyway, once we get a good base stock of hardware we need workshop projects to work through. ...
My eldest is getting interested in PCs and building his own desktop system. Cool. I did that around his age and it was a lot of fun. A thing I did was I acquired many old systems from people (e.g. hard rubbish) and cobbled together my own little LAN of 286/386/486 systems running Linux. It forced learning in both hardware and OS/software and was a lot of fun. I was thinking we could do something similar. ...
With two sons, three males in the house, exercise is a big deal. We all work out to different degrees. Fitness, strength, etc. is discussed often. I’m getting a set of dumbbells for the boys to use. I will use them too, to complement my gym stuff. Weights: 1.5kg (we have already), then 3kg, 5kg, 8kg, 10kg. They’ll stick with the lighter weights for now, with room to grow. I don’t want them to get hurt, so I asked grok3 to help me make some posters to stick up. ...
I built a simple custom GPT for Python code review. Mainly for my algorithm and data structure implementations for the thing described here. Here it is: Python Code Reviewer: Suggest improvements to your pasted Python code Here’s the logo I made for it:
My kids often come home (from school) talking about how the environment is ruined or all of the bad things “we” did in “our” past, as Australians. Perhaps. I push back. Bad things may have been done, perhaps even for messed-up or noble reasons, but “we” don’t have to carry that guilt in order to learn/change/etc. Yes, I think we can explore this argument without downplaying all the bad things of the past. We can handle two or more ideas in our heads at once. And so can children. e.g. collective responsibility without personal guilt. ...
Regarding Code Simple Algorithms and Data Structures: Which algorithms and data structures did we have to understand + code up back in introduction to compsci? I asked gemini 2.5 flash (why doesn’t it have a prominent copy button?): Data Structures Arrays Linked Lists (Singly, Doubly, Circular) Stacks Queues Trees (Binary Trees, Binary Search Trees) Hash Tables Algorithms Sorting Algorithms (Bubble Sort, Selection Sort, Insertion Sort, Merge Sort, Quick Sort) Searching Algorithms (Linear Search, Binary Search) Recursion Graph Traversal Algorithms (Breadth-First Search - BFS, Depth-First Search - DFS) This is a helpful reference to my future self so I can keep coding these things up without having to think “what next”. ...
Vibe coding is amazingly productive, at least for experiments and prototypes. And fun. Recently, I’ve noticed something missing. A feeling. The feeling you get when thinking hard while crafting a piece of code. Of desk checking it in your head. Of thinking through edges cases. I’m missing the feeling of making my brain sweat while crafting some code. I had an idea: Why not code up simple algorithms and data structures from scratch for “fun”? ...
If you’re feeling bored or lost or directionless: serve. Go and find people you can help. Jump onto reddit. Find a subreddit of beginners in an area you know a lot about and start answering questions. Give your opinion. Quote experts. Suggest directions. Help. Serve. It works wonders.