Interesting reading

Lately I’ve been trying to get back to my roots of exploration. Part of that is reading as much as I can on pretty much any topic I find interesting.

The approach really served me well many years ago, so I’m giving it another shot. Here’s some things I’ve read recently that really got my attention.

The meat

• I was wrong. CRDTs are the future - A really interesting high-level look at an old approach that didn’t work and how the author is now looking at a new brighter future for Conflict-free Replicated Data Types. Also, at the end the article really hits home for me with some talk about how we should own our bits instead of just letting Google (or whomever) just take over and tell us what we can or can’t write to disk.
• The Art of Automation - Now more than ever I am seeing how critical automation is not only in work environments, but even in our day-to-day lives. Why should I be working for a computer? Shouldn’t it be the other way around? As always Jess gives a great take on this important topic.
• John Carmack and American McGee’s liner notes to the Quake Soundtrack - id Software was and continues to be a huge inspiration for me. NIN released the quake soundtrack and since a certain company wouldn’t let them include these notes I think it is even more awesome to see them here.

The veggies

I have been reading some some sci-fi to try and tickle some thoughts I’m having around computation and space exploration. I will write more about this in the future after I a) finish a few of the books and b) digest some of the ideas in them.

I’m also going to re-pick up a text book and work through another chapter or two. Its important to stay sharp, and I am fortunate that I can jump around in an algorithms book and learn what catches my eye.

Till next time

Keep positive, have fun, and make something awesome!