Do Fewer Things Better My 2025 theme is "Fewer/Better". Well, that's the working title anyway; I'm trying to do fewer things and do things better. I'm trying to distil, coalesce, concentrate some combination of my draft themes: Focusing one one thing at a time, avoiding unnecessary secondary efforts or dividing/diverting my efforts Going deeper and… Continue reading The State of the Darren 2024
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Drafting 2025 Themes
To warm up for writing the State of the Darren 2025, I thought I'd reflect on some potential themes for 2025 and recap some of my previous themes. A compass to sail by for storms What (I think) I want from 2025 I've observed that this year, my attention is very distributed amongst too many… Continue reading Drafting 2025 Themes
μ: Programming Myself
My job is (ostensibly...) as an AI Engineer, and I spend a lot of time writing instructions and teaching people. Mostly, I instruct and teach computers -- perform this program, following these instructions; obey these logical rules to transform this data; learn from these examples to correct your mistakes and do better next time. Logician,… Continue reading μ: Programming Myself
μ: Failure III
A continuation from an earlier microblog: μ: Failure and Humility, and μ: Failure II The first of September brought with it a new failure. At 7:30 am on a pleasant Sunday Morning, I got a rejection for a job application filed barely 2 days ago. This, while working through day 3 of a 4-day take-home assignment… Continue reading μ: Failure III
μ : Pain
Today's micro is a little different. I don't usually talk about family, but here's a real problem: I fight with my sister a lot. It's sweet, because we've been fighting since we were kids. I'd say we actually have a really good relationship; we talk every day, we have genuine affection and care for each… Continue reading μ : Pain
μ: Failure II
A continuation from an earlier microblog: μ: Failure and Humility I failed another interview, a couple weeks ago. I thought I managed to reason through and answer all the interview questions, but the post-interview chat had a quote: Let me give you some advice. When answering interview questions, instead state your points upfront, give yourself… Continue reading μ: Failure II
Grind
A new self-image: the grindstone [019] The Daily Grind Every morning, I start with a cup of coffee. I'd love to tell a story about how I grind my own beans and weave a narrative of working with my hands, but alas -- a hand-grinder is really expensive, so I get my beans pre-ground by… Continue reading Grind
μ: Failure and Humility
I believe I flubbed an interview today. I made two errors in the interview, and I was told that every error is fatal. Just the other day, I realised that all my (string of) errors from my 20s have accumulated to, possibly, a fatal failure for my life. While my pride was riding high, perhaps… Continue reading μ: Failure and Humility
μ: On Beautiful Minds
Maybe I love learning, or maybe I like going to class because I meet beautiful minds A Mathematician's Lament This term, I'm studying Computer Vision with a prof that barely taught any computer vision. He spent 4 weeks teaching general image recognition technology, 4 weeks on high-dimensional math, and last week he sent us three… Continue reading μ: On Beautiful Minds
μ : 祸从口开
μ: a micro-blog, a quick thought. Today's is a remark about one of the Things Darren Says Often, and something I truly believe: 祸从口开, or "Disasters Starts When The Mouth Opens". Apparently this is a mis-remembering of the original phraseology, whch goes: 病從口入，禍從口出"Illness enters through the mouth; disaster exits from the mouth". A poignant, piquant… Continue reading μ : 祸从口开