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Comment Re:Growth (Score 1) 192

Doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result is insanity. 10,000 hours of practice might be better thought of 10,000 hours of experimentation. Each repetition, you try something. If that doesn't work, you vary something slightly, repeat and observe the outcome. You then take that result and make another change, and repeat the whole process. If you just dedicated 10,000 hours doing the exact same thing, the exact same way, you're insane to expect anything other than the exact same result. Athletes don't spend 10,000 hours throwing a pass the same way, taking a shot the same way or swining a bat the same way. They make adjustments based upon (usually) microexperiments. There might be film involved or coaching (for the elite, there is definitely at least those 2 things).

Point is, there is far more to the superficial "10,000 hours will make you an expert" than pure repetition.

For an athlete, once the "ideal" motion has been identified, there is value in repetition insofar as to commit that motion to muscle memory, instinct and passive response instead of actively having to "tell" your body to do some specific set of motions.

Comment Re:I'll just let my sig do the talking (Score 5, Insightful) 478

Loss to infrastructure? Why did the US interstate highway system get built? It was a direct result of the US Army's difficulty in moving troops and equipment cross country. There are also requirements that every so often they roads remain straight long enough to be used emergency runways. I don't buy loss to progress, either. A lot of technological progress has been pioneered through military research. That I'm able to even post this comment right now was a result of DARPA funded work.

Comment Re:Oh yeah (Score 2) 102

I've done 2 non-trivial C++11 projects. While I also like the new shiny, there are some new gotchas in there. One is the implicit capturing of "this" in a lambda. Not a big deal if your lambda doesn't outlive the instance... Another is std::thread calling terminate in the destructor if it is for a joinable thread that hasn't been joined (far different behavior than the boost::thread it was based on). I'm sure there's more, but those are the first two gotchas that come to mind.

Comment Re:What's stopping me you ask... (Score 2) 550

Mine was, too. I ended up having ICL implants, instead of laser surgery. The process wasn't exactly fun, it's basically cataract surgery, but instead of replacing your lens, they effectively add a contact lens behind your iris. The first eye they did, I was blind in for about 2 weeks due to swelling in the eye. The second eye, I could see clearly out of in about 5 mins after surgery. It's been about 4 years since I've had it done, and I don't regret it once.

Comment Re:Black hole? (Score 1) 277

I went through this at my new employer this month. I started this past December and our code signing cert expired this month. Thing is, I noticed back in around February/March timeline that this was going to happen, so I filed a ticket and added a personal reminder to tick off last month. Took us close to 2 weeks to get a new cert from our vendor (they were questioning our identity for some reason). By the time I got the new cert, it was 2 days before I went on vacation. I thought I had everything setup correctly and merrily went on my vacation. Turns out the wrong type of cert was sent and shit blew up after our old cert officially expired. Unlucky coworker had to pick up the pieces.

So, the moral here is, even if you do plan ahead an try and coordinate these things, sometimes it still blows up, and you still end up with unhappy customers.

Comment Re:Uh, sure.. (Score 2) 359

I've used VC6, VS2003, 2005, 2008, & 2013. VS is perfectly fine & performs well for C#. 2008 and earlier absolutely sucked for C++ (I've not done C++ in VS2013), because of intellisense, which you cannot turn off. You're writing code, trying to invoke a function, and intellisense kicks in and you're stuck waiting for minutes, while the UI is hung, for it to give you suggestions on what I already know I want to do. To boot: you cannot disable it. The C# experience is quite different, and the IDE was a pleasure to use for that. The debugger, regardless of the language is still one of the best I've used. For C++, give me vim any day.

Comment Re:"Safety Requirements"? (Score 5, Funny) 314

Its because these non-cabbies tend to drive in a safe and predictable manner, rather the the cabbies that drive erratically, changing lanes without signalling, running lights & stop signs, generally being a nuisance. Obviously not safe to mix the two. (This based on Chicago experiences, I assume CA cabbies are likewise assholes).

Comment Re:Old News (Score 1) 172

I used to donate every other month. I stopped donating when my work hours changed to 7a-7p, and the donor group started calling & emailing weekly asking me to come in. I told the first caller I was unable to donate due to work hours. I kept getting the calls & emails. Even after asking to be removed from their calling/email lists, it continued for years. Even now that my hours would accommodate donating, I refuse to deal with that organization over their previous harassment.

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