Norm and Nature
It is not unusual to hear people make claims such as “it is not natural” or “it is not normal”. Often, they say this with reference to what we may call “alternative lifestyle” behaviors such as say, homosexuality or perhaps vegetarianism. Usually they take issue with these lifestyles. And so, with their sense [...]

When I was a kid my father liked to repeat an anecdote from his youth. Apparently, my father was quite impressed with the old cowboy westerns that appeared on cinema at the time. He was so impressed, that he decided that if he would ever become a real cowboy, he needed to learn how to [...]

The problem with information
Your information about the world around us comes in unlimited supply from a great variety of sources. To start with, it might be a good idea to separate between processed and unprocessed information. Any raw data, such as actual observations, is immediately processed by the person observing the event. Here’s [...]

And into the meeting room comes a noise maker. He asks you when you can have (insert any new feature / product that you have never heard anyone mention before) ready. So you reply, as always, with the patience of a zen monk on valium:
“It depends”, you say, as you have said so often [...]

Theories are theories – no more, no less.
Many of the things we hold to be true, and “think” we know are based on either assumptions or at best theories of some sort (which most of the time also rest on the foundation of some assumptions). Theories have the benefit of having to suffer the [...]

So there are lots of people making a whole lot of noise. It’s “We need to do this”, “We need to do that”. And it sounds as if the world will surely come to an end if someone does not act upon this noise right fu**ing now, or preferably yesterday. Who this “someone” is [...]

Correlation, Causality and What are you measuring?
Basic understanding of life, universe and the whole mess, involves understanding the difference between things that correlate and things that can demonstrate causality. This is a bit of a pet peeve of mine. In arguments, I tend to focus on the logic presented to me, more than the actual [...]