Martin Jambon 🌍🌎🌏 @mjambon@qoto.org

If half of an airline's flights are full and half are empty, passengers will complain that the flights are full every time, contrasting with the assessment of the crew who report that half of the flights are empty. How do you call this effect/paradox? (I forgot)

The same effect explains that if you have an average number of friends (= popularity), more than half of your friends are more popular than you.

Or when your doctor tells you you're in average physical condition but each time you go cycling, most cyclists you come across are faster than you (because the fast cyclists are also the ones who spend the most time on the roads and are encountered disproportionately).

#stats #statistics #math #paradox

Employee self-reviews be like: Who among you is the most humble?

Unlimited free women! Hurry! Offer expires in 24 hours.

#HappyInternationalWomensDay

I'm compiling a collection of software engineering principles. The idea is to have them in a document with longer explanations and examples. Other than that, they're meant to be cited as justifications for this or that choice we make and left as comments in code or in conversations. Some are special cases or consequences of more generic principles. Here's what I have so far:
- simplicity
- least surprise
- separation of concerns
- design for the worst-case scenario
- explain the intentions behind any piece of code
- minimize future maintenance efforts
- minimize time to fix future problems
- no code duplication
- fail early

Note that this list is limited to "technical" principles in the sense that they're valid even for a team of one. There are more principles and guidelines for the interactions between team members but here I'm limiting myself to what could be or should be written down as part of a code base.

#programming #engineering #ocaml #bestpractices #work

*my interpretation assumes a continuously ascending path from the imaginary sea level to the mountain top. I believe it's almost always the case in practice.

A counterexample is a peak within a crater.

I find the definition of the prominence of a mountain peak very interesting:

"The prominence of a peak is the minimum height of climb to the summit on any route from a higher peak, or from sea level if there is no higher peak. The lowest point on that route is the col."

It's the peak's height minus how much the sea level would have to rise to make this peak the highest on its island.

For intuition, see the examples at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mountain_peaks_by_prominence

#mountains #geography #topography #math

Does anyone understand what Elton John says in the song Sacrifice? It sounds like a made-up tongue to me except for a few phrases here and there.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NrLkTZrPZA4
#music #songs #english #british #sounds

Years ago, I was in a web company whose business was people search. The biggest takeaway from this particular industry is that people love to find details about others but hate to have their details available to others.
#privacy

Xu Hongming exhibit at Qualia in Palo Alto. I recommend seeing this in person if you have a chance. It's huge.
#art #maximalism

Don't read my toots if you're easily offended. My favorite American comedy is Ghost World (2001).

And Jesus said: "Let's block whole online communities in the name of tolerance. That will teach them m***********s."

Kelvin Kiptum died today in a car crash in Kenya, at age 24. He was the world record holder for the marathon in 2:00:35.

https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/marathon-world-record-holder-kelvin-kiptum-died-car-107144332

#running #athletics #sports #marathon

<video of a guy who raised a baby bass in increasingly large aquariums>

Commenter: It's time to release Gerald* back into the wild where he belongs!
Me: Why don't you release your kids?
Commenter: I don't have kids.
Me: Good for them!

*his real name was changed to protect his privacy

Dans une bouteille de Klein !

Une devinette que nous envoie René D.:
J'y pisse donc j'y suis. Où suis-je ?

#devinette #math #maths #philosophie