Category Archives: Uncategorized

I’ve started to migrate this blog to my own website and my own tools. As of end-of-year 2016, the new site seems relatively complete. Please point your browser at https://lost.silvela.org

What a funny, paradoxical thing, ego. I start to recognize it in places where I had not expected to see it. A few months ago, talking with a friend about my new job, I commented how surprised I was that … Continue reading →

My hard science education has left me many sequels, some of which I like. Mostly, I’m happy it has given me a healthy skepticism of “common sense.” In science, you learn many things that shock you, and that, therefore, you … Continue reading →

There’s another Doctor Zhivago quote on my mind these days. “Even Comrade Lenin underestimated both the anguish of that nine hundred mile-long front, and our cursed capacity for suffering.” For a movie I don’t like much, it has left a … Continue reading →

I’m not a big fan of David Lean’s “Doctor Zhivago”. It does contain, however, a line I love: “He approved of us, but for reasons which were subtle, like his verse.” I don’t think one needs to be a poet, … Continue reading →

More and more, I am convinced that narrative is the best way to learn, design, carry out. More and more, I reject books or articles that present information statically, as if it were final, as if there were nowhere to … Continue reading →

It’s not news that there are lots of lies in the news. It doesn’t just come from politicians, nor just from journalists manipulating facts. We live in a world that has vast quantities of research and knowledge, but where everyone … Continue reading →

Ah, Interstellar. On one hand, I like seeing really ambitious movies, like they used to make decades ago. On the other, what is it with this new generation of prestige directors who are not satisfied with understandable plots, because, well, … Continue reading →

Recently I went to see the film Mr. Turner. I had high expectations, what with the positive reviews and my interest in the painter Turner, from my teenage years attempting to learn watercolor painting. What a sore disappointment. I walked … Continue reading →

I’ve been on typography spree lately, motivated partly by esthetics, partly by my increasing dissatisfaction with reading text on computers. Here are some things I’ve learned: Font size in points is misleading. There is no standard, and “11pt” may not … Continue reading →