Derek Sivers – “People kept telling me I was just not a singer – that I should give it up”

Derek Sivers: “After 15 years of practice…”.

Derek, you do the same as you did for singing, and you will become a great programmer in 10.

Related: A great thread at Hacker News.

Are you past, present, or future oriented?

Our perspective of time drives how we perceive the now we live in and the decisions we make.

Watch (it’s only 10 minutes) YouTube: “RSA Animate – The Secret Powers of Time by Professor Philip Zimbardo”:

I can actually trace where, in different parts of my history, from living day to day sleeping on the train, to going to Chubb Technical Institute, to meeting Richelle, to becoming a Dad, my perspective has changed.

It reminds me of a short video I posted to my Facebook account I tripped upon earlier that is worth posting here again (2 minutes – watch it): YouTube: “The Unsettling Truth About Life”:

You can tell what orientation Alan Watts thinks we are all being distracted from.

Both of these are worthy of your time – thought provoking stuff.

Matt Linderman – “Mistakes happen. Character is revealed by how you handle them.”

37signals: Bad call, great apology. It should be something we all learn as children, that our culture should encourage, but somehow, that’s not the case, and so this speaks to us a special lesson.

YouTube: “Jim Joyce Tearfully Accepts Lineup Card From Galaraga”:

If you make a mistake, admit it. It doesn’t make you a mistake. By admitting it you can learn from it. Others can learn from it. And hopefully, there is growth.

Recent Journalist-Programmer reads

O’Reilly Radar: Mike Loukides: “What is Data Science?”

Media Shift: Marc Glaser: “Why Journalists Should Learn Computer Programming”

Rafe Colburn: “Why journalists should learn to program” – with a suggestion on what really to be digging into – and I agree.

Resource: Hacks/Hackers

Recent reads on API Design

ACM Queue: Ken Arnold: “Programmers are People, Too”

Communications of the ACM: “API Design Matters”

JavaWorld: “Joshua Bloch: A conversation about design”

InfoQ: Joshua Bloch: “Joshua Bloch: Bumper-Sticker API Design”

InfoQ: Video: Joshua Bloch: “How to Design a Good API & Why it Matters” (and a good thread on Hacker News).

Possible Resource: APIDesign Wiki

Google News adding human editors to promote serendipity

Good move on Google’s part. Nieman Journalism Lab: “Google News experiments with human control, promotes a new serendipity with Editors’ Picks”

Mashable: “Google News and Why Human Editors Still Matter”

Previously: Techmeme: “Guess what? Automated news doesn’t quite work.”