Almonds
> **I ate one almond the other day. Then I felt bad about water usage**, so I thought to myself: Well, I just won’t make the next 15,000 AI queries I was planning on making. &m...
zachwill.com
Zach Williams is currently Director of Data Science for the Portland Trail Blazers.
Latest posts
“Come in”
> On 23 December 1975, Rob Parsons and his wife Dianne were preparing for Christmas at their Cardiff home when they heard a knock at the door. > > **On their doorstep stood a man with a bin bag cont...
Hobbit software
> Thinking about creating a movement to promote **hobbit software**: > > Pretty chill, keeps to itself, tends to its databases, hangs out with other hobbit software at the pub, broadly unbothered by...
Earth's sounds
> Many of these ocean-dwelling ancients evolved sophisticated sensors for light, sound, and chemicals. But, as far as we know, they did not communicate by sound. **It would take about another 200 mil...
Cheap Turpentine
> When art critics get together they talk about form, and structure, and meaning. When artists get together they talk about where you can buy cheap turpentine. — Pablo Picasso...
Then he doesn't need to be out here
> “If Kobe saw that you were afraid, it’s over for you — whether you’re the teammate, or family member, or whatever,” said Brian Shaw, who joined Jackson’s coaching staff in 2005. > > Many tim...
Subreddit
> A good test of whether people are passionate about something: > > Is there a subreddit for it? — Chris Dixon...
Handshake and an introduction
> When everyone present has said something out loud, there is a greater chance that they will join in the discussion later. **Beginning with a handshake and an introduction also immediately levels ou...
How lucky I am
> In the words of Winnie the Pooh: > > **“How lucky I am to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard.”** > > That silly old bear sure did know a thing or two about living your best life, bu...
Ideal note-taking app
> Every once in a while I think about how my ideal note-taking app is essentially just a really nice/flexible GUI for a SQLite database — but I don’t think anything like this exists, and I think that...
Analogies
> **My basic rule is: analogies are great for a sympathetic audience and bad for > an antagonistic one.** > > - If you're trying to illuminate something to someone who wants to understand your point...
Drafting for need
One of the better NBA Draft stories: > GM Billy Knight points out that Zaza Pachulia and Shelden Williams are the only Hawks who are wide in the thighs. "They are the only two guys we have who aren'...
Area Code
> In the age of cell phones, the area code has become the ancestral clan name or heraldry. It is a marker of old stories, loyalties, a statement that says "there was a land I came from but am there n...
Gmail origin story
> The first useful thing Buchheit built was a search engine for his own email. (And it did indeed take only a day to accomplish.) > > His previous project had been Google Groups, which indexed Usene...
Iterations matter more
> The amount of iterations you have on a project matter more than the amount of > time you spend on it. — [Mark Saroufim](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Ldn_nCPNNQ) ...
Complex systems that work
> A complex system that works is invariably found to have evolved from a simple system that worked. **The inverse is also true — a complex system designed from scratch never works and cannot be patch...
Mythical Big Data
> Are we still obsessing over mythical big data? Because the real problem in most orgs is 50,000 very small data sets — some barely maintained — loosely tied together between Slack, Dropb...
Top 5 Apps
> 80% of time on mobile devices is spent in apps. > > 85% of mobile app time is spent in the user's Top 5 apps. — [Ben Bajarin](https://martech.org/nearly-85-percent-smartphone-app-time-conce...
Rivers
> Drinking Rivers is like if you’ve never driven a car before and someone puts you behind the wheel of a rocket ship and says, “Okay, off you go!” More info: [Grenada’s Rivers Antoine Rum Distillery...
Solution Mode
> Not to jump into solution mode, but did you consider adding a fourth _Sign up_ button here? — [Jonas Maaløe](https://twitter.com/jmaaloe/status/1531598102850940929) on the state of Twitter U...