TITLE: Three Things I Read This Morning
AUTHOR: Eugene Wallingford
DATE: July 28, 2018 11:37 AM
DESC: 
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BODY:
&bull; <A HREF="https://blog.infinitenegativeutility.com/2018/7/why-i-dont-love-godel-escher-bach">
          Why I Don't Love G&ouml;del, Escher, Bach</A>

 I saw a lot of favorable links to this post a while back and
 finally got around to it.  Meh.  I generally agree with the
 author: <EM>GEB</EM> is verbose in places, there's a lot of
 unnecessary name checking, and the dialogues that lead off each
 chapter are often tedious.  I even trust the author's assertion
 that Hofstadter's forays beyond math, logic, and computers are
 shallow.

 So what?  Things don't have to be perfect for me to like them, or
 for them to make me think.  <EM>GEB</EM> was a swirl of ideas
 that caused me to think and helped me make a few connections.
 I'm sure if I read the book now that I would feel differently
 about it, but reading it when I did, as an undergrad CS major
 thinking about AI and the future, it energized me.

 I do thank the author for his pointer (in a footnote) to Vi Hart's
 wonderful
<A HREF="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4niz8TfY794">
   Twelve Tones</A>.
 You should watch it.  Zombie Schonberg!

&bull; <A HREF="https://alistapart.com/article/the-web-aesthetic">
          The Web Aesthetic</A>

 This post wasn't quite what I expected, but even a few years old
 it has something to say to web designers today.

<BLOCKQUOTE><EM>
 Everything on the web ultimately needs to degrade down to plain
 text (images require alt text; videos require transcripts), so
 the text editor might just become the most powerful app in the
 designer's toolbox.
</EM></BLOCKQUOTE>

&bull; <A HREF="http://wiki.c2.com/?XpChallengeCompilers">
          XP Challenge: Compilers</A>

 People outside the XP community often don't realize how seriously
 the popularizers of XP explored the limitations of their own ideas.
 This page documents one of several challenges that push XP values
 and practices to the limits:  When do they break down?  Can they
 be adapted successfully to the task?  What are the consequences of
 applying them in such circumstances?

 Re-reading this old wiki page was worth it if only for this great
 line from Ron Jeffries:

<BLOCKQUOTE><EM>
 The point of XP is to win, not die bravely.
</EM></BLOCKQUOTE>

 Yes.
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