The Week(day) Nerdiary

Episode 3

Well we've all had quite the week. Perhaps this dose of high nerdery can be your temporary respite from 2021 (aka 2020a).

This week we'll shake from a lake, explore tesseracts, sit in an avocado, and maybe even cook a bit better.

To those new to the party: Feedback always welcome, and feel free to forward to a friend who might enjoy!

** Play time **

An epic deep-dive into city-building games - I remember the giddy awe I felt when Sim City first was released on the C64. "You mean...I can build a city and then.....release a tornado into it? Muhahahahahah." The current generation are even better.

 

An in-browser traffic simulation - Hint: Try setting politeness to 0 ;)

{ Code code code code code }

 

Allow me to introduce you to Bartosz Ciechanowski. I don't know him, but I'm in awe of him. He builds long-form interactive blog posts that are some of the most in-depth, creative, and fascinating explanations of technical subjects that I've ever read. Here are three of my favorites, but you should check out his site and dig through them all...

 

DALL·E: Creating Images from Text - The latest from OpenAI is, well, you need to try it yourself.

!! Truth is stranger than truth !!

Last week we saw Croatia's 6.4 magnitude earthquake up close on land. Now check it out from a lake...
 

// Life, The Universe, and Everything //

Here's a really great Twitter thread of hard truths (PDF version) from Nick Huber with some genuinely great advice. Highlights:
  • Starting a business isn’t right for everyone. 95% of folks are better off getting a job. It’s hard AF. Decisions are critical and plentiful. Risk is for real. Stress can be crippling. Delegation can be impossible for poor communicators. Most folks don’t have what it takes.
  • Technology isn’t as far along as the media makes you think it is. We’re 5+ years away from autonomous vehicles. Alexa still can’t play the song I want 25% of the time let alone make decisions and “learn”. Robots fall on their faces when they aren’t on perfectly flat ground.
  • Life is hard. For everyone. Social media makes you think everyone has it made. It’s a struggle no matter how much you have or how successful you are. Embrace the challenge...

~~ Omnomnomnomnom ~~

Ode to the cast iron skillet, a beloved cooking instrument wrapped in so much urban legend ("Don't wash it with soap or ellllllse!"). Here's a deep dive on the chemistry of seasoning your cast iron. This generated quite a bit of dissenting opinions on the accompanying Hacker News thread (worth a skim).

And of course, no good cookware discussion is worth noting without Kenji's 7 myths of cast iron pans.

:: Pretty pixels ::

A great thread of design resources for all your 2021 side project (or main project) needs.
 
Febin Raj is an illustrator/designer from Bangalore whose landscapes I've really been enjoying.
Roman Klčo specializes in both creating and teaching others how to create fun isometric 3D scenes

Dheera Venkatraman shot this ridiculously cool series of photos in Iceland with an FLIR camera

... /dev/urandom ...

Time to take down the Xmas decorations...
 
The hi-rise parachute safety system - I don't want to ever have to try this. And yet, I kinda want to try this?

Thanks again for playing along. If you enjoyed this week's edition, feel free to forward to someone else who might as well. If you got this from a friend, subscribe here.

Until the next one,
--Noah

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