Sunday Papers [2018-07-08]
I thought I would have more time and be able to post about Sandbanks in Ontario this week, but time is a resource that is definitely scarce lately for me. I am in the process of learning a new technology/framework for a side development job (called angular if you are curious) and although I am very familiar with the development environment (called NodeJS), times just flies. One moment I open my laptop to continue my training, and then just a few minutes seem to go by, and it's already close to midnight!
I wish we could just learn while sleeping/dreaming, how awesome it would be !
I can't and won't complain though. Being a software dev has really been a blessing these past years. Not only is this a job I really like, but there is still much more demand than supply. So much so in Quebec, that every one of us is getting 2-3 pings (or more for some I guess) pings per week by HR representatives of other firms.
But... You still have to be constantly vigilant and stay on top: new languages, new frameworks, improved best practices, etc. And also be curious about other domains such a AI, Cloud, IoT, etc. So much to learn, so little time!
I still managed to find a few interesting articles I would like to share though and I hope you'll like them. This is part of the Sunday Papers series that I hope can get more than 2 episodes 😉
The Truth about 'Video Games Addiction' / Kotaku
Cecilia D'Anastasio, senior reporter at Kotaku, wrote a serious article about video games addiction. It describes how 'gaming disorder' might be everything some people need: social interactions, sense of achievements/rewards, clear path to success.
But more than often, this addiction is fueled by other problems. And so, what started as a form of balm/medication to battle other problems starts consuming everything else. It is not as simple as defining how many hours is too much though and this article attempts to explain why.
I love Kotaku's long reads, I think they're not doing enough of them sadly.
The Florida Effect / Priming / Psychology Today
Funnily enough, I read a steemit post that mentioned the Florida Effect this week, but cannot remember which one it was. But I wanted to know more, so I read on the topic a little bit more in Psychology Today, and also the related wikipedia article. What is priming? Here is the excerpt from wikipedia:
An example of this was done by Bargh et al. in 1996. Subjects were implicitly primed with words related to the stereotype of elderly people (example: Florida, forgetful, wrinkle).
While the words did not explicitly mention speed or slowness, those who were primed with these words walked more slowly upon exiting the testing booth than those who were primed with neutral stimuli.
It’s Time for Technology to Serve all Humankind with Unconditional Basic Income / Medium
Scott Santens writes about UBI in a very long read. It is the transcription of a talk he did about UBI late last year. If you don't want to read, you can listen to the audio version on soundcloud or even see the video on vimeo. I chose the audio version, it's about an hour, but it goes by fast as the author is passionate about the subject.
I've read some of his shorter posts on Medium before, and this one is a much more elaborated argument for UBI.
Some of you know how favorable I am to UBI, this may help you get convinced too. And by the way, you can participate to the Steem Basic Income experiment on steemit.
By the way, I really think this is the kind of person that could do a lot to bring more people to steemit. Even if you disagree or have objections on the subject, I objectively think his posts are well written.
That's all for this week, I hope to find enough time to finish and post one of the few longer articles I am currently writing. Have a nice week... and Go France against Belgium in the WC semi-finals ! 🇫🇷 🤞