How we end up marrying the wrong people | Philosophers' Mail Anyone we could marry would, of course, be a little wrong for us. It is wise to be appropriately pessimistic here. Perfection is not on the cards. Unhappiness is a constant. Nevertheless, one encounters some couples of such primal, grinding mismatch, such deep-seated incompatibility, that one has to conclude that something else is at play beyond the normal disappointments and tensions of every long-term relationship: some people simply shouldn’t be together. How do the errors happen? It’s all the sadder because in truth, the reasons why people make the wrong choices are easy to lay out and unsurprising in their structure. One: We don’t understand ourselves When first looking out for a partner, the requirements we come up with are coloured by a beautiful non-specific sentimental vagueness: we’ll say we really want to find someone who is ‘kind’ or ‘fun to be with’, ‘attractive’ or ‘up for adventure…’ All of us are crazy in very particular ways. Two: We don’t understand other people
7 Design Principles, Inspired By Zen Wisdom One of the best-known photographs of the late Steve Jobs pictures him sitting in the middle of the living room of his Los Altos house, circa 1982. There isn’t much in the room, save an audio system and a Tiffany lamp. Jobs is sipping tea, sitting yoga-style on a mat, with but a few books around him. As Warren Berger wrote on Co.Design, Jobs’s love for elegantly simple, intuitive design is widely attributed to his appreciation of Zen philosophy (Jobs was a practicing Buddhist). To understand the Zen principles, a good starting point is shibumi. James Michener referred to shibumi in his 1968 novel Iberia, writing that it can’t be translated and has no explanation. Shibumi was first introduced to the West by House Beautiful in 1960. The process may be complex, but these seven Zen principles can help you approach shibumi in your own designs: The Shibumi Seven 1. Koko emphasizes restraint, exclusion, and omission. 2. Zen lesson: Eliminate what doesn’t matter to make more room for what does.
How to Solve a Rubik's Cube for BEGINNERS - With Animations! Choosing the Right Metrics for User Experience By Pamela Pavliscak Published: June 2, 2014 “Metrics are the signals that show whether your UX strategy is working. Metrics are the signals that show whether your UX strategy is working. Although most organizations are tracking metrics like conversion rate or engagement time, often they do not tie these metrics back to design decisions. UX strategists need to take charge of the metrics for online experiences. The Signal Problem “The data that is available from off-the-shelf analytics, A/B tests, and even follow-up surveys does not always result in insights that inform the user experience.” There is so much data available on sites and applications that it seems amazing insights would be sure to surface, yet that does not happen without smart decisions. The signals that are easiest to track don’t show what is really important. So, it’s difficult to find the right signals for user experience amidst all the noise in your data. The Early, Modern History of UX Metrics The (U)X Factor Usability
Open Culture digs up a 1954 animated adaptation of... Coursekit is now Lore. What’s the Story? Culture & SocietyHistory & LiteratureMedia & Communication Open Culture digs up a 1954 animated adaptation of Orwell’s Animal Farm, funded by the CIA – the best thing since Ralph Steadman’s brilliant illustrations for it. Read the story here. #Animal Farm#George Orwell#lit#animation#film 69 notes
The 50 Coolest Book Covers Ever - Entertainment Title: American Psycho Author: Bret Easton Ellis Artist: Marshall Arisman Artist George Corsillo, who designed the cover art for Bret Easton Ellis' first two books turned down the chance to design the artwork for American Psycho, stating "I was disgusted with myself for reading it". However, this just opened up the door for Marshall Arisman, who responded with this haunting, and very cool, representation of Patrick Bateman as part-man, part-devil. Kierkegaard on Anxiety & Creativity by Maria Popova “Because it is possible to create — creating one’s self, willing to be one’s self… — one has anxiety. One would have no anxiety if there were no possibility whatever.” “Anxiety is love’s greatest killer,” Anaïs Nin famously wrote. But what, exactly, is anxiety, that pervasive affliction the nature of which remains as drowning yet as elusive as the substance of a shadow? In his 1844 treatise The Concept of Anxiety (public library), Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard (1813–1855) explains anxiety as the dizzying effect of freedom, of paralyzing possibility, of the boundlessness of one’s own existence — a kind existential paradox of choice. Anxiety is a qualification of dreaming spirit, and as such it has its place in psychology. He captures the invariable acuteness of anxiety’s varied expressions: Anxiety can just as well express itself by muteness as by a scream. Donating = Loving Bringing you (ad-free) Brain Pickings takes hundreds of hours each month. Share on Tumblr
BlueCopter - Arduino Quadcopter Hey, I spent the summer working with a new hobby of mine, Quadcopters =D! The quadcopter board is homemade (atmega32u4). Because my board has the same pinout as a leonardo, I decided to go with the multiwii firmware. So I etched a shield for my board containing headers for the receiver, motors and the IMU (cheap chinese found on ebay, ADXL345, L3G4200D, HMC5883 and BMP085). I was happy with the quadcopter, it flew very nicely (after some PID changes of course).. Three days later, I got a working code.. Anyhow I'm not going to bore you out with my story. If there is a big demand for a code explanation/theory about quadcopters and how everything works, shout out here, and I'll come up with something for you... Here is the code: See attachment for pinout.. And here is the video: Edit: I've updated the code.. //Basel
Beginner Quadcopter Kit Buying Guide - Hovership I frequently get asked how much it costs to build a quadcopter or other multi-rotor helicopter. I usually try to add together a number real quick based on equipment I own. Which could come close to $1000. I decided to look closer at the real cost for a basic complete setup to get started flying (if you own zero RC gear). Below is a buying guide that includes everything needed to put a quadcopter in the air. Best news, it is less than $275 before shipping. PLEASE NOTE: I picked these items based on their low cost yet good reviews. UPDATE: 02-23-2014 HobbyKing now sells a very similar ready-to-fly kit, just add batteries and a charger. The Frame – $14 Hobbyking X525 V3 Glass Fiber Quadcopter Frame This frame is based on a tried and true frame design for multirotors. Purchase the frame at HobbyKing.com »Purchase replacement parts at HobbyKing.com » Frame option #2 -$8 Purchase the frame at HobbyKing.com » The Motors – $57 Purchase the motors at HiModel.com » The Speed Controllers (ESCs) – $40
Affordances The concept of an affordance was coined by the perceptual psychologist James J. Gibson in his seminal book The Ecological Approach to Visual Perception. The concept was introduced to the HCI community by Donald Norman in his book The Psychology of Everyday Things from 1988. There has however been ambiguity in Norman's use of the concept, and the concept thus requires a more elaborate explanation. Norman's use of the term According to Norman (1988) an affordance is the design aspect of an object which suggest how the object should be used; a visual clue to its function and use. "...the term affordance refers to the perceived and actual properties of the thing, primarily those fundamental properties that determine just how the thing could possibly be used. [...] Norman thus defines an affordance as something of both actual and perceived properties. Gibson's use of the term An affordance according to Gibson exists relative to the action capabilities of particular actors. Open Access License