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Showing posts from August, 2025

The 4 Pillars of Integrity (Jim Dethmer via The Knowledge Project)

Integrity : (from integer) to be whole or complete. In Jim Dethmer's meaning the word drops its ethical connotations and assumes the meaning of energetic wholeness and being fully alive . radical responsibility : we move from blaming others and external circumstances to taking full responsibility for our actions and emotions feel your feelings : sweeping emotions under the rug is a sure way of not being whole with ourselves and will eventually move us from being in control to being controlled by the amazing amount of energy that it takes us to suppress those emotions candor : when we hold back we detach, and when we detach can't feel energetic wholeness be impeccable in your agreements : in Charlie Munger's words be dependable. When you cannot keep your agreements, say so as early as you can Sources: https://fs.blog/knowledge-project-podcast/jim-dethmer-2/ https://conscious.is/concepts/the-four-pillars-of-integrity   Addendum: on Rituals A ritual is an invitation to somet...

"AI is commoditizing expertise"

We are essentially taking expertise and making it a commodity, and I think that as generally democratizing, I think many of the things I mentioned, if you have wealth, you have a lot of access to, and if you don't, you don't . What a cool thing that we've made this like universally accessible. From: https://www.acquired.fm/episodes/how-is-ai-different-than-other-technology-waves-with-bret-taylor-and-clay-bavor  (slightly edited)

Refactoring podcast with Martin Fowler: dosage and context

A while back I listened to this conversation between Martin Fowler and Luca Rossi on the refactoring podcast. Since then I made a note to write down the most important things I learned (or re-discovered), but always postponed until today I was able to make some time for it. Here's my take on the two most important things in that one hour long conversation. Dosage The concept of dosage is very familiar and very important to me. I've already written about it, under the name quantity . I appreciate how Martin Fowler was able to find a better (and fancier) name for it. Context Software engineering, being as elusive as it is as a proper engineering discipline, is perhaps one of the most studied and written about fields of engineering . And yet, we struggle to come up with truly universal practices that work everywhere. One way to understand why some things work sometimes and don't work or fail miserably other times is by considering the context that was present when the solu...

Opportunity/cost: lessons from a plumber

My uncle taught me this thing when I was a teenager about how he used to price his business. He ran a plumbing company. What he did was basically the first 75% of hours were priced at 100%, so the regular rate, but at 75 to 80% [of hours], he would increase the rate; at 80 to 100% [of hours], he’d increase it, and at over 100% of a normal work week, he’d increase the rate even more . And he was super transparent with people about this, like, “I’m really busy right now. I hate to give you this quote, but to do the job properly, here’s what we’d have to price it at.” From  Ryan Holiday: How to Win the War with Yourself [The Knowledge Project Ep. #208]