TITLE: Interesting Sentences, Personal Weakness Edition
AUTHOR: Eugene Wallingford
DATE: July 07, 2013  9:32 AM
DESC: 
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BODY:
<EM>The quest for comeuppance is a misallocation of personal
resources</EM>. --
<A HREF="http://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2013/07/assorted-links-841.html">
   Tyler Cowen</A>

<BLOCKQUOTE>
Far too often, my reaction to events in the world around me is
to focus on other people not following rules, and the unfairness
that results.  It's usually not my business, and even when it is,
it's a foolish waste of mental energy.  Cowen expresses this truth
nicely in neutral, non-judgmental language.  That may help me
develop a more productive mental habit.
</BLOCKQUOTE>

<EM>What we have today is a wonderful bike with training wheels
on.  Nobody knows they are on, so nobody is trying to take them
off</EM>.  -- Alan Kay, paraphrased from
<A HREF="http://www.dougengelbart.org/events/vannevar-bush-symposium.html">
   The MIT/Brown Vannevar Bush Symposium</A>

<BLOCKQUOTE>
Kay is riffing off Douglas Engelbart's tricycle analogy,
<A HREF="http://www.cs.uni.edu/~wallingf/blog/archives/monthly/2013-07.html#e2013-07-06T09_57_32.htm">
   mentioned last time</A>.
As a computer scientist, and particularly one fortunate enough
to have been exposed to the work of Ivan Sutherland, Englebart,
Kay and the Xerox PARC team, and so many others, I should be
more keenly conscious that we are coasting along with training
wheels on.  I settle for limited languages and limited tools.

Even sadder, when computer scientists and software developers
settle for training wheels, we tend to limit everyone else's
experience, too.  So my apathy has consequences.
</BLOCKQUOTE>

I'll try to allocate my personal resources more wisely.
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