My usual answer is that math isn't too concerned with what things are, but with how they work with each other. So the answer would be: anything that works like the Peano axioms says it should. The "what it is" can be filled in later, and that's what makes math so powerful.
I was a very fearful flyer, couldn't stop visualizing possible accident scenarios while on an airplane, sweaty hands, grabbing the arm rest, all that. Today I rejoice the experience so much that sometimes I consider buying a ticked just for the sake of flying. I even get excited for simple short haul flights on economy, flying new airplanes, airlines etc.
At the end, it all came down to three things:
1. Learning about aviation as a hobby
As software engineer, it was very easy to get invested into learning about these wonderful machines and how everything around them works. As soon as you understand what is going around you, all the safety measures, redundancies etc., you feel more in control of your environment. Weird noises don't come as surprises anymore[1]. To help you with this I'd suggest following some aviation related channels on Youtube.[2]
2. Flying a lot
I had to spend a couple of years flying 4+ times per month. Having a ton of positive experiences on airplanes does wonders to your uncouncious fears.
3. Flying upper classes
This is a lot harder to do, depending on your financial condition. I do my best to pick a good seat for my flight, hunt for upgrades, use miles to get business/first tickets. Flying on upper classes does wonders to "soften" your experience.
[1] Some examples:
- Airbus flap actuators are usually very noisy and you can hear them if you sit close to the wings.
- Hydraulic actuators on some Airbus models make a barking noise.
- While sitting upfront on smaller planes, you can get some vibration right after liftoff due to the front landing gear spinning before it is retracted.
Thanks for bringing this back to the surface. I see that SEPs design has greatly improved since I last visited it. The new looks make for a much more pleasant reading experience, right on par with the excellent content.
I think the best way to make people subservient to their government is to keep their subsistence dependent on it. There has to be a better solution for this.
Automation might make many goods and services readily available without requiring extensive labor, but that also means more people will have access to cheaper goods. Who knows what demands might come up in this new society that people with low skills might be able to cover.
We depend on government for such a huge range of services by now that distributing basic income wouldn't be unique leverage the government has over us.
The last thing any government want's is unrest. An you can bet that going late on monthly basic income could cause serious unrest.
My favourite touch screen UI on current cars is the one on the VW Golf 7. It has this proximity sensor that highlights and increases the size of buttons when your hand approaches the screen.
Overall, the interface is very clean and avoids a lot of visual distractions present in many of these UIs.
It lacks the responsiveness/speed we see on modern tablets, tough, this seems to be the rule on the market, even Tesla's screen is quite slow.
I've recently watched this documentary called 'Jiro Dreams of Sushi'. It is about this legendary 85-year-old sushi master in Japan and his two sons who will succeed him in the business. At some point there was an interesting quote that went along the lines: when Jiro dies, his son will need to be twice as good as him, if he is "only" just as good, people will think he is worse.
I think this is quite true in the Apple case, there was a "genius" aura around the Steve Jobs personality that helped inflate the perception of his already impressive achievements. Without that aura, Apple might be doing just as good a job as he would do, but people will think worse of them.
Personally, I think that as long as they keep putting out the excellent quality products they've been releasing lately, pushing into new areas now and then, they will be just fine for quite some time.
Hi, It's great to hear that you are back on it! I stumbled on this page a couple of years ago and was saddened to see it wasn't getting updated. Thank you for this great piece of writing.
Something that has been working very well for us is asking for payment before the work starts on a set of deliverables. Charging gets very simple, if he pays, you start working, if he doesn't, you don't. Not every client may accept these terms, if they give you trouble on this, it may be an early warning for future payment problems.
