Permaculture principles There are two basic steps to good permaculture design. The first deals with laws and principles, while the second is more closely associated with practical techniques. The principles are inherent in any permaculture design, in any climate, and at any scale. They are, briefly: Relative location: every element is placed in relationship to another so that they assist each other Each element performs many functions. Each important function is supported by many elements. Efficient energy planning for house and settlement. Emphasis on the use of biological resources over fossil fuel resources. Energy recycling on site. Using and accelerating natural plant succession to establish favourable sites and soils. Polyculture and diversity of beneficial species for a productive, interactive system. Use of edge and natural patterns for best effect. Bill Mollison, Introduction to Permaculture principles
Software developers have stopped caring about reliability An Article by Drew DeVault drewdevault.com Of all the principles of software engineering which has fallen by the wayside in the modern “move fast and break things” mentality of assholes modern software developers, reliability is perhaps the most neglected, along with its cousin, robustness. Almost all software that users encounter in $CURRENTYEAR is straight-up broken, and often badly. softwareprinciples
Misinterpretation as inspiration A lot of people think dreams and drugs involve some magical inspiration. I think otherwise. I rarely get inspired by dreams or drugs, but I have my own secret source of inspiration: mishearing other people. Somebody says something, I misinterpret it, and the misinterpretation is quite interesting – more interesting than anything I would have come up with on my own if asked to generate an interesting idea. Maybe it’s a clever joke or turn of phrase. Maybe it’s a neat idea. Sometimes I misunderstand people’s entire positions, and end up with positions much more interesting than the ones they were trying to push. Scott Alexander, Negative Creativity slatestarcodex.com Mondegreen mistakesinterestdrugsdreamscreativitymondegreens