Month: December 2024
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Project Euler and Other Programming Challenges
Looking for something to flex your programming puzzle skills after Advent of Code? Me too, so I was researching some options. A perennial favourite in my household, the classic Project Euler is a more mathematics-driven collection of programming puzzles. If the maths-driven style is not for you, I also have two lists of programming contests:…
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Tina Fey’s Rules of Improvisation (and Parenting?)
Tina Fey’s Bossypants was one of the top 5 books I read this year (that I listened to, actually, but I don’t make the distinction). It’s a great mix of sharp humour, personal anecdotes, and insightful commentary on life and the entertainment industry. One part I think of frequently is Fey’s ‘rules of improvisation’. They’re…
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Googlewhacking and Hapax Legomena
One benefit of following and occasionally being a contributor to the crossword creator community is that its full of linguistics nerds (in the nicest possible sense of the word). Thanks to them, I often find myself diving into obscure Wikipedia holes and learning fascinating new topics. One such dive introduced me to hapax legomena: words…
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Comfort Noises and Electric Vehicle ‘Soundscapes’
Before noise-cancelling microphones, voice activity detection algorithms, and the crisp audio clarity of modern phone and video calling, lulls in conversation were naturally filled with analogue background noise. These imperfections provided continuity, making silence feel natural. Without them, the silence in digital communication would be unsettling. To address this, synthetic background ‘comfort noise’ is added…
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Locksmiths, Benevolent Deceptions, and the Benefit of Fake Effort
In my last post, I discussed ‘the labour illusion‘—the idea that transparency about the effort involved in a process can enhance our perception of its value. I think of it as the ‘cousin’ of the IKEA effect. More intriguingly, this principle holds true even when the effort and delay is entirely unnecessary and fabricated. We…
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The Labour Illusion, or Why Visible Effort Matters
The accuracy of loading bars has long been a joke: reaching 66% takes mere moments, but 99% to 100% feels endless. Yet, progress bars—designed to offer “operational transparency”—play a key psychological role in building trust and satisfaction. A lot of business and marketing research has gone into identifying ways to improve idle wait times to…
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Advent of Code
Looking for a festive programming challenge? Advent of Code might be just what you need: Advent of Code is an Advent calendar of small programming puzzles for a variety of skill levels that can be solved in any programming language you like. People use them as interview prep, company training, university coursework, practice problems, a…