A provocative essay [https://andymatuschak.org/books/]on the limited effectiveness of non-fiction books.

Why do software companies need thousands of engineers? Surely two people could put together a pretty good social network in six months? As your product is used by more people, you will have to hire hundreds or thousands of engineers to invest in a

Advanced civilisations are hungry for energy. Our own is estimated to use \( 6 \times 10^{20} J \) a year, and that number grows by roughly 1.1% every year. How could an advanced civilisation tap into a source of energy that could feed its

A Russian family [https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/for-40-years-this-russian-family-was-cut-off-from-all-human-contact-unaware-of-world-war-ii-7354256/] , escaping religious persecution by the Bolsheviks, escaped to the remote forests of the Russian Far East. They lived there for over 40 years, cut off completely from the rest of humanity until they were found

How [https://issues.org/learning-from-engineers/]the lack of margins of safety in our systems has made the COVID-19 crisis worse. > with all types of infrastructure, including the medical infrastructure system, efficiency and resilience are in conflict. The most efficient system is one that

Speculation [https://www.collaborativefund.com/blog/who-pays-for-this/]on how governments can pay for the huge debt needed to support the economy during COVID-19. > World War II debt was never repaid, at least at the aggregate level. Old bonds were repaid with new bonds.

Interesting video [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ABIkWS_YavM] on how offshore oil rigs work.

An Australian company found a way to produce surf-able waves in lakes. The machinery basically seems to be a huge metal plunger installed in the middle of a lake.

A review [http://thinkingcomplete.blogspot.com/2019/04/book-review-sleepwalkers.html] of the book Sleepwalkers that discusses the history of astronomy with a focus on Copernicus, Kepler and Galileo. Some interesting bits: On Galileo and the Church: > Koestler attributes Galileo’s persecution by the

How torpedoes work [https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/33018/modern-submarine-torpedo-attacks-are-nothing-like-what-you-see-in-the-movies] . I didn't realize that torpedo technology was so advanced that torpedoes can chase their targets for 100 kilometres! > 65cm torpedoes have enough fuel to travel in excess of 100 kilometers at

Joel Spolsky on when to build and when to buy software [https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2001/10/14/in-defense-of-not-invented-here-syndrome/] . > If it’s a core business function — do it yourself, no matter what. > Pick your core business competencies and goals, and do those

This article [https://fortelabs.co/blog/how-to-take-smart-notes/] has some really solid advice on effective note taking.