TITLE: Not So Random Sentences
AUTHOR: Eugene Wallingford
DATE: May 08, 2013 12:11 PM
DESC: 
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BODY:
I start with a seemingly random set of sentences to blog about
and, in the process of writing about them, find that perhaps
they aren't so random after all.

<EM>An Era of Sharing Our Stuff</EM>

<BLOCKQUOTE><B>
 Property isn't theft; property is an inefficient distribution
 of resources.
</B></BLOCKQUOTE>

This assertion comes from
<A HREF="http://techcrunch.com/2013/04/27/economies-of-scale-as-a-service/">
   an interesting article</A>
on "economies of scale as a service", in reaction to
<A HREF="http://twitter.com/#!/paulg/status/323875236225363968">
   a Paul Graham tweet</A>:

<BLOCKQUOTE><B>
 Will ownership turn out to be largely a hack people resorted to
 before they had the infrastructure to manage sharing properly?
</B></BLOCKQUOTE>

Open-source software, the Creative Commons, crowdsourcing.  The
times they are a-changin'.

<EM>An Era of Observing Ourselves</EM>

<BLOCKQUOTE><B>
 If the last century was marked by the ability to observe the
 interactions of physical matter -- think of technologies like
 x-ray and radar -- this century is going to be defined by the
 ability to observe people through the data they share.
</B></BLOCKQUOTE>

... from
<A HREF="http://www.technologyreview.com/news/514346/the-data-made-me-do-it/">
   The Data Made Me Do It</A>.

I'm not too keen on being "observed" via data by every company
in the world, even as understand the value it can brings the
company and even me.  But I like very much the idea that I can
observe myself more easily and more productively.  For years,
I collected and studied data about my running and used what I
learned to train and race better.  Programmers are able to do
this better now than ever before.  You can learn a lot just by
watching.

<EM>An Era of Thinking Like Scientist</EM>

... which leads to this line attributed to John C. Reynolds, an
influential computer scientist who passed away recently:

<BLOCKQUOTE><B>
 Well, we know less than we did before, but more of what we know
 is actually true.
</B></BLOCKQUOTE>

It's surprising how easy it is to know stuff when we don't have
any evidence at all.  Observing the world methodically, building
models, and comparing them to what we observe in the future
helps to know less of the wrong stuff and more of the right
stuff.

Not everyone need be a scientist, but we'd all be better off if
more of us thought like a scientist more often.
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