Productivity
🙂
I set up a table of fake tasks to help me experiment with scheduling algorithms. I’m hoping they’ll help me automate more of my task management so I can spend less time and mental energy reviewing my to-do lists. My first approach was to order the tasks by finding a simple way to sort them. I started out with columns for due date, importance, time required, and prerequisite task. The basic sorting on the first three columns was easy, and from that result it was immediately clear that the task dependencies would be harder to incorporate and that I also needed to include the amount of time available. I’ll pick this back up after I get somewhere with Haskell, and I’ll probably use the scheduling script to practice.
To impose even more order on my life, I made a timer for my whole weekday evening schedule. It worked out really well the one day I tried it, and if I can keep it up, I’ll actually be able to fit in some side projects. That day I was able to get started on one of my creative projects, working with Keri Smith’s The Pocket Scavenger. The weekends are harder to schedule because they have both more variety and more time to fill. My approach there is to create a template timer with a bunch of typical blocks and make modifications on a copy to fit the particular day.
Programming
😎
This week I’m focusing on learning Haskell. My general goals with Haskell are to dive deep into the functional paradigm, give myself a potentially easier way to program, shape my thoughts on modeling, and explore a functional approach to math. Functional programming has taken over my mind lately, so I’ve been looking forward to this project.
AI
🤔
On Intelligence is a more workable summary of Hawkins’ theory. This is Jeff Hawkins’ earlier book on neuroscience, and it was much more satisfying to me. My guesses about the way the mind works overlap a lot with his, so I’m looking forward to exploring his work programmatically (when I get around to it). A glance at Goodreads told me people aren’t shy about disagreeing with him, so I’m also interested to read their criticisms.
TV
😎
The Orville is a fantastic show, especially for fans of TNG. I caught up on it last week, and I’m pleased to say it just gets better and better. It’s fun to watch them take a Star Trek premise and veer off in another direction.
