wurp's comments

Goedel's completeness and incompleteness only apply if the initial set of axioms is powerful enough to express addition over all the integers.

The article misstates what 'sanitizing inputs' means.

I agree with posters who recommend passing data as parameters to methods that don't require sanitized input (e.g. stored procedures or KeyValue APIs).

Also, sanitizing input means transforming input so you retain the original content, but without escape or control characters. Sanitizing input does not mean throwing part of the input away (except when you know it is meaningless in your context, e.g. spaces at the end of a name).

While at Amazon, I started a mailing list that sends one curated software engineering tip each day. It still persists, last I heard.

While working there I noticed that other people did productivity hacks I didn't know, and vice versa, all the time, so I created the mailing list. Others had created tip lists before, but they had just posted their own tips on it, and their list fizzled after a few months.

My list had impact because it wasn't "my list" - I just set up a discussion list and a template, and send in the first forty tips or so. After that, it was essentially all other people's tips. My manager had a game-changing suggestion, too: give phonetool icons for people who submit to the list. It served as both motivation and advertising.

And thank you, atum47, for sharing this story! You'll encourage more people to develop and share their ideas in a virtuous cycle.

Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind is blowing my mind.

Meditation. Download a free 20-minute guided meditation and do it every day. Maybe at some point read "The Miracle of Mindfulness" by Thich Nhat Hanh.

I can provide a good guided breathing meditation on request.

Meditation will help you be calm and focused. It will help you recognize and work through emotions with a minimum of harm to yourself or others.

I'm definitely not advocating self-immolation, but the same training that let monks sit calmly as they burned to death in the 60s (in an attempt to call attention to the horrifying war in Vietnam) will definitely help you deal with your breakup, illness, work troubles, or loss of a loved one.

Hi FSK, I'm part of a project to increase loving-kindness in the world through meditation and other techniques; we'd love to hear your thoughts on what practices/mindset/experiences facilitated the change in yourself and your organization.

bo bbym artin (two) (at) gmail (dot) com Bobby

THIS! This was exactly my Main Problem for decades. For me, it took psychedelics to see past it. I could see meditation getting me there (I meditate now), but it would take a LOT of meditation.

I second this. I exercise almost daily, and it makes a difference.

I do a combination of low-impact HIIT (because I can watch TV while I do it :-) ) and push-ups + laying garhammers (because they make me look hawt - abs, pecs & arms.)

I'm reading The Procrastination Equation right now, and it has the following (excellent, IMO) advice:

Find tasks of any sort at all that you can do. Do them, noting your success. Do this every day. Again, pay attention to successes. Recognize that you accomplish your goals, and expand on those goals.

For goals that take multiple days to accomplish, your first task is to plan by breaking the goal down into smaller tasks you can accomplish in a day. Appreciate completion of each of these, including the planning itself.

The book does a better job of pitching it & giving examples. The most relevant bit is in Chapter 8.

Aristoi is my favorite of Walter Jon Williams's work. I reread it every few years, just like Diamond Age, Stranger in a Strange Land, and Fire Upon the Deep.