"They may have a lot of brilliant ideas, but they will not be able to express them."

Part of me thinks this is true...but the amazing thing about programming is how many high-quality tools encapsulate the hard bits so that you can do pretty brilliant things.

Yeah, maybe you won't be a pioneer in computer vision or perception engineering, but you'll certainly be able to build useful products with robust libraries and frameworks.

It's 43 pages where the architecture discussion starts at page 25.

Solidity Cryptography

Can you tell me which day that was and whether there was a way to tell in advance? I'm going to DEVCON4 and would like to avoid that.

Devcon 3 was in Nov 17 when Ethereum had run up from approx $9 to $300 over the past year and launched a wave of 10x ing ICOs so you can understand them being a bit puffed up.

Now that Ethereum is down from $1300 to $200 and most of the ICOs have crashed or run off with the money I think you will have less of that problem.

By the way you can see all 4 days of devcon3 on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=devcon3+day+str...

For those looking to get working knowledge of modern cryptography, I recommend https://www.amazon.com/Serious-Cryptography-Practical-Introd...

I've been working my way through it and it's the most lucid intro text I've read on the subject.

Any recommendations for a quiet mechanical keyword (or switch)?

No. It's too hard to recommend anything. Different people have different tastes.

There are Cherry Browns, Gateron Browns, Kailh Browns, Zealio (bunch of them with different activation weight), and bunch of others. I have 2 keyboards with browns and one with blues. I don't like browns, I want some thing with bigger activation weight.

Buy yourself a key switch tester before you decide, it really helped me out (mostly to know the difference in sound between white/brown and green/blue). I forgot where I bought mine from, but I see you can get them off Banggood for $15 now.

Logitech G810

It looks abridged though, or are all topics just a single page or two?

Peer pressure built up over generations through awareness.

Just as to exhibit homophobia today is seen as brutish, it can be done with this as well if you keep things in people's faces.

This is why companies go to extreme lengths to hide the realities of manufacturing and resource procurement from the public.

Luck plays such a major role in life that:

1) You're better off looking at things probabilistically.

2) You should seek ways to put the odds in your favor whenever you go up to bat and forget about the outcome.

3) When things are going your way, don't get arrogant. And when things aren't, don't get despondent.

4) You should keep going up to bat and let the law of averages work things out in your favor.

I strongly agree with the stray luck / good fortune factor. I'll add that I think there is the considerable potential to enhance the access to lucky outcomes and or the rate at which you can run into good luck events.

Simple, rather obvious things like doing (do a thing, take action) and asking (if you never ask...), dramatically improve your odds of causing and or colliding with good luck outcomes. They often take very little time as well. The biggest cost in asking, is typically being shot down; if you can handle that, then the sky opens up.

I used to be really mediocre at the asking aspect. I remember my mother telling me, when I was a teenager, that I was just like her, I never asked for what I wanted, and she lamented that the squeaky wheel always get the grease. That pissed me off, the projection of her flaw/weakness/non-action choice onto me. I've tried to remind myself since then, to routinely stab at the universe for stray opportunities by inquiring, asking, etc.

The first time I raised venture capital, it was because I sent a cold email to a billionaire. I didn't think they'd reply, and the email only took ten minutes to craft late one night. They replied and were interested in what I was building, and I raised capital from that person shortly thereafter. All I had to do, is do something (build), and ask (network the action I took out into the wider world), and I made a good luck outcome possible. Absolutely nothing would have happened without the ask; such a simple thing.

Great story and agreed. If you can handle any perceived psychic/ego damage from being rejected, then asking for things is essentially "free luck".

Other ways to put things in your favor over the long term:

- Keep increasing your capacity to do things. Learn ubiquitous skills such as sales, basic accounting, negotiation, speaking, etc.

- Keep increasing your network. Asking is a huge part of this.

- Improve your signalling. Signal your achievements, your opinions...share.

- Grow your assets. Even if it means putting a little bit of money away or cutting down on expenses.

I'd add:

Unless you have a good reason to say "No" [1] to stuff, say "Yes". Doubly so in outside of a "work task" context[2]. More experiences/involvements means more opportunities for fortune to look your way.

[1] Good reasons to say "No" - already committed, the ask will hurt you, I need rest, i can't afford that. Bad reasons - this is odd/out of my comfort zone/not interesting, it violates a routine, "I'm waiting for..."

[2] I really really mean "outside of work tasks" because just saying yes to every little request at work can result in work overload and the inability to do life. The point of work is to enable life, not to spend the entirety of it staring at $IDE.