Name: The time paradox
ISBN: 9781416541998

What Hacker News says

ebcodeSep 2024

I probably should have linked to the original article[1] instead of codinghorror's summary.

I don't think the article being from 2006 (or 2004) makes it dated (though it does have a date). I think it addresses a fundamental issue with ORMs that will always be there, which makes it a bit of a classic.

David Hang's Django ORM article has a bullet-point section on ORM cons, including "difficult debugging", "performance", "hides underlying SQL". Whereas Neward's article goes into depth on each of the following topics:

The Object-Relational Impedence Mismatch

The Object-to-Table Mapping Problem

The Schema-Ownership Conflict

The Dual-Schema Problem

Entity Identity Issues

The Data Retrieval Mechansim Concern

The Partial-Object Problem and the Load-Time Paradox

If you haven't read the original article, I highly recommend it. You'll learn a bit more about "Vietnam" (from a US perspective), and be better equipped to discuss and make decisions about ORMs afterward.

[My own opinion is that ORMs can be useful (I wouldn't say never use one), but that a programmer should be grounded in SQL and the relational model[2] first, so that they'll know when to, and when not to, use one.]

[1] https://web.archive.org/web/20220823105749/http://blogs.tedn...

[2] https://www.seas.upenn.edu/~zives/03f/cis550/codd.pdf

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siversDec 2019

Since 2007, I've taken detailed notes on every book I've read, then posted them on my site with my top recommendations up top:

https://sivers.org/book

My top recommendations here for the Hacker News crowd - with a nudge for the under-rated, are:

The Time Paradox - by Philip Zimbardo and John Boyd

https://sivers.org/book/TimeParadox

Profound idea that everyone has a primary time focus: either Future-focused, Present-focused, or Past-focused. Fascinating implications of each. Because I'm so future-focused, reading this book helped me understand people who are very present-focused. Also great advice on shifting your focus when needed. I read it 7 years ago, but still think about it almost every day.

Mindwise: How We Understand What Others Think, Believe, Feel, and Want - by Nicholas Epley

https://sivers.org/book/Mindwise

Many new brilliant insights, especially about over-estimating the differences between you and others, thereby separating into us-vs-them tribalism. Scan to the end of my notes, to see. If you know more books like this, please recommend them to me. I adore this subject.

The War of Art - by Steven Pressfield

https://sivers.org/book/WarOfArt

Have you experienced a vision of the person you might become, the work you could accomplish, the realized being you were meant to be? Are you a writer who doesn’t write, a painter who doesn’t paint, an entrepreneur who never starts a venture? Then you know what “Resistance” is. This book is about that. Read it.

E-Myth Revisited - by Michael Gerber

https://sivers.org/book/EMythRevisited

Absolutely everyone who is an entrepreneur or wants to be one needs to read this book. I first read it after 10 years of successfully running my company, and was still blown away and totally humbled by its wisdom. Re-reading it today, I'm amazed how my view of business was completely changed by this one little book. See my notes for examples, but definitely read the book itself to get the real impact.

The Courage to Be Disliked - by Ichiro Kishimi and Fumitake Koga

https://sivers.org/book/Disliked

Wow. A profound little philosophy book from Japan, communicating the psychology of Alfred Adler - a rival of Freud. Told as a conversation between an angry student and a patient teacher. A little book so good that I rushed home from other activites to keep reading it, and finished in a day. A surprisingly fresh perspective on how to live. (The “disliked” part is not the point, so don’t let the title distract you.)

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jseligerJun 2010

I am in my twenties. That being said, I would answer your question in book form -- that is, books that changed the way I do things and view the world and that I wish I'd read when I was younger:

1. Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

2. The Guide to Getting It On by Paul Johannides [sp?]

3. The Mating Mind: How Sexual Choice Shaped the Evolution of Human Nature by Geoffrey Miller

4. Hackers & Painters by Paul Graham

5. Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl

6. Stumbling on Happiness by Daniel Gilbert

7. The Time Paradox by Philip Zimbardo.

That last one is particularly important: it points out that, once you've reached a comfortable but, for a highly educated person, relatively low level of income (around ~$40K for an individual), additional income increases do not matter for very for overall happiness.

What does? Friends, family, your sex life, meaningful work.

What doesn't help for happiness? TV. See the journal article "Does watching TV make us happy?" by Bruno S. Frey, Christine Benesch, and Alois Stutzer for more on the answer: "no."

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siversJan 2010

(The links here bring you to my notes from each book, and the ISBN number for each so you can find it easily at your favorite library/store/whatever.)

How We Decide - by Jonah Lehrer: Brilliant book with one clear message: our emotional brain is faster and usually smarter than our logical brain. Our emotions are trained by years of logic and experience, retaining it all for real wisdom. Many decisions are better made by going with the gut feeling. Gets a little too technical with deep brain/neuro/cortex talk, but brings it back to usable points. http://sivers.org/book/HowWeDecide

The Investor's Manifesto - by William J. Bernstein: Absolutely my favorite author and advisor on the subject of investing. Anyone with any money to invest (or already invested) please read this book. Such clear thinking, using only facts, and using numbers not guesses. Modern portfolio theory: use passive indexes of the entire market, no speculation, no stock picking, and avoid the entire fee-sucking financial industry. http://sivers.org/book/InvestorsManifesto

Sum: Forty Tales from the Afterlives - by David Eagleman: Fiction. Awesomely creative think-piece of 40 different short stories of what happens when you die. To be clear: the author is not pretending this is fact! The framework is inspiring for anyone: coming up with 40 different answers to any one question. http://sivers.org/book/Sum

The Talent Code - by Daniel Coyle: A great book showing that deep practice - (struggling in certain targeted ways - operating at the edges of your ability, where you make mistakes - experiences where you're forced to slow down, make errors, and correct them) - is what really makes you improve at anything. http://sivers.org/book/TalentCode

Influence - by Robert Cialdini: Classic book on the psychology of persuasion. I read it 15 years ago, thought about it ever since, and re-read it now. How to get a 700% improvement in volunteers. How to sell more by doubling your prices. How to make people feel they made a choice, when really you made it for them. http://sivers.org/book/Influence

The Time Paradox - by Philip Zimbardo and John Boyd: See my in-depth article about this book at http://sivers.org/time http://sivers.org/book/TimeParadox

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jseligerApr 2009

"I'm introverted and spend most of my time reading or obsessively working on hobbies like programming"

You might want to read the book The Introvert Advantage by Marti Laney, "Caring for Your Introvert" in The Atlantic (http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200303/rauch) and Philip Zimbardo's The Time Paradox, which I wrote about here (http://jseliger.com/2008/09/01/the-time-paradox-—-philip-zim...).

Notice this commenter's idea: "[...]the academic part of high school is not challenging enough for you, but what about the other parts? Are you on one of your school's sport team? Are you part of any clubs? Did you try to take on some kind of leadership position at your school? How big is your friend circle?"

High school still offers many, many challenges, even if you don't realize it; for me, working on the school newspaper and joining the book club made a tremendous difference in how I perceived much of life.

"I was just wondering if you guys had any experiences or suggestions to share about school."

School is a game. Make it your mission to learn how to crack the game, which doesn't mean you have to neglect your "real" education, as it sounds like that will happen chiefly on your own time. And what you consider "wastes of time" aren't always: they're opportunities to network, or to learn how to flirt, or to learn how to get away with things, and so on and so forth. These are important skills too, but many nerds ignore them for too long.

A final book recommendation: try Curtis Sittenfeld's novel "Prep." It's not about someone in your situation, but it is about someone who, I think, finally learns how to "do" school. If you're as analytic as your post implies that you are, it's possible to learn this. Anyway, the personal website I linked to above has my e-mail address if you're interested in hearing more.

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emanreusMay 2017

The Time Paradox by Philip Zimbardo and John Boyd explores different time perspectives and how the affect our lives.

6 min TED talk that covers some of the ideas in the book https://www.ted.com/talks/philip_zimbardo_prescribes_a_healt...

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