Technopoly or not Technopoly

 Came across a new article by Cal Newport. While remaining faithful to the ideas expressed in his recent (or not so) publications, I find the argument one sided : It is only natural that freedom of speech will open gates for all kind of stuff, and usually "not so nice" ideas will also emerge in the public info-field.

This is the usual discussion of how bad a "tool" can be. A smart citizen should not use a tool without reading the user manual, and nobody will give children tools or toys that are restricted for their age.

And it might be an error to consider that the role of "parent" should be endorsed by the government. 

The society needs to be educated, not restricted.

Creativity & Graph Theory

 A blog reading, and a discussion with a friend about graph theory, made me recall a fun book I've read some time ago written by Austin Kleon, author of "Steal like an Artist". The book is -surprisingly enough - about poetry and inspiration: Newspaper Blackout. TLDR : The author connects words from a random text to create new meanings.

Scientists, like artists, create content/concepts/inventions/theories based on some context and existing stuff (we call that bibliography). This overcomes the "blank page" monster, because basically what we need to do, is to catch some existing works (inspirations, words) and to connect them, creating something new.  So basically, we connect dots, or "nodes", and the contribution is the new connexion that completes the graph.

With time and experience, we become able to create nodes (new works) to help close the gap between contexts that might seem beyond reach. In this case, we imagine links, and we connect these links with a new node.

It is a trend nowadays, since so much tools focus on that "spatial" thinking and creation. If you want to test that, and you're a scientist, check that : inciteful.

If you're not, you can apply that to your notes or diary using Obsidian or Logseq and the graph view to find inspiration.

The shift from production tools to organization tools

 Interesting post from Cal Newport on the shift from production tools in business (such as word processors ...) to organization tools (wrike, trello and such). Obviously, it is about knowledge workers.

I have to comment that they (knowledge workers) are rediscovering the wheel. Workflow normalization is an "ancient" concept in industry, and such tools (CAD - CAM and PLM software, then ERP solutions) and philosophies (Fordism, Toyotism, ...) are used widely to improve the production.

One can extrapolate on that saying that "data" is the new "product", and it makes sense in the context of the "data" revolution.

Maybe even some robust workflows will emerge in the actual "far west" of workflow solutions.

Google passe aux passkeys

Bientôt plus de mot de passe !

 Passkeys are now enabled by default for Google users (blog.google)

How to promote research & publications

I just followed on webinar on promoting research using repositories for preprints + social media. Not that I am stranger to this, but never was truly convinced. I still however check this kind of webinar, to see if new ideas appear (and it did - i learned about PCI).

I am convinced though that the correct way to do it is like this for example

A Maclaurin type inequality | What's new (wordpress.com)

You dont need to do it at Tao level, but even for reviewers, students  or casual readers it would be of immense help. It is actualy better to tweet the blogpost that directly the paper.

PS : the funniest thing about the blog above, is that I noticed just today that it was Tao's. And I am following the updates from 2015 something. 

clibu - blocnotes dans le nuage

 Un outil sympathique, dérivé du logiciel surfulater (RIP), vient d'être mis à jour.

Clibu Notes

Permet une prise de notes ubiquitaire, avec des capacités offline et assez robuste (voir ce post en anglais).

Dans le domaine des logiciels PKM, qui est assez saturé par ailleurs, clibu se distingue par une excellente captation des pages web, y compris assez complexes, et reste simple d'utilisation.