Playing Text Adventure is Writing it

Playing Is Writing: 

How Kids Can Turn Solo RPG Journals into Real Text Adventures (Fast) 

 Imagine a child sitting with a notebook, a few dice, and a simple set of prompts. They “play” an imaginary adventure: exploring strange rooms, picking up odd objects, facing locked doors, and tricky obstacles. They write down what happens as they go. An hour or two later, they have a complete play script. Then, with a little help from AI (or even without it), that script becomes a real, playable text adventure they can share with friends and family. 

That is not a distant dream. It is a practical, joyful process that works today — and it was exactly the kind of creative pathway Chris Ainsley had in mind when he built Adventuron. 

 Why This Works So Well for Kids 

 Classic text adventures (the kind many of us grew up with on 8-bit machines) are built from a small set of ingredients: locations you can move between, objects you can examine and use, and puzzles that emerge from the combination of the two. Solo journaling RPGs generate those same ingredients naturally while the player is having fun. The writing is not a separate chore; it is the play. Chris Ainsley designed Adventuron Classroom specifically so that children aged roughly 8–12 could experience this loop. He created a browser-based system with built-in tutorials, gentle syntax, and clear educational goals mapped to computing and literacy curricula. The intended sequence was simple: play text adventures, talk about how they work, and then make your own. Schools have used it. Coding clubs have used it. The tool was always meant to turn natural storytelling energy into working interactive games. 

What has changed is speed. The bookkeeping step — turning a free-flowing journal into clean lists of rooms, objects, and puzzle logic — used to be the slowest part. Today, an AI can do most of that extraction in minutes. The result is a pipeline that feels almost magical to a young creator: play, write, extract, implement, play again. 

The Simple Pipeline 

 Here is the complete process, broken into clear steps any motivated child (with light adult guidance for the first time) can follow. 

1. Choose a solo journaling game and play 

Pick a short, exploratory journaling RPG (recommendations below). Set a modest goal: “I will play for 45–90 minutes and try to visit several places and solve at least one interesting problem.” Write in second or third person perspective as if you are recording a classic text-adventure playthrough. Do not worry about perfect prose. Just keep moving and note what you see, what you take, and what stands in your way. 

 2. Produce the play script

 When you finish the session, you already have the most important document: a continuous record of locations visited, objects found, actions attempted, and outcomes. This is your raw design material, and it has already been “playtested” by you. 

 3. Extract the gameable structure (the step AI makes easy)

 Copy the journal into an AI chat and give a clear prompt such as: “From this play transcript, extract: - A list of distinct locations with short descriptions and exits - Every interactive object with its properties and possible uses - Every obstacle or puzzle, what is needed to solve it, and what happens on success or failure - Any important flags or states that changed Present the result as clean lists or simple YAML ready for a text-adventure engine.” Review the output, fix anything that feels off, and you now have a structured game framework. 

4. Implement in a beginner-friendly tool

 Open Adventuron (or your preferred system). Create the rooms, place the objects, and code the simple conditions the extraction gave you. Because the story and world building already exist and feel coherent, most of the hard design decisions are already made. A motivated 10-year-old can turn a short journal into a small but complete game in a single afternoon or two short sessions. 

5. Play, share, and iterate

 Test the game yourself, then let friends or family try it. Notice what is fun and what is confusing. If you want, go back to the journaling RPG, play a new branch, extract again, and expand the game. The loop stays playful the entire time. 

Journaling Games That Feel Like Classic Text Adventures 

 Not every solo journaling game maps equally well onto the old “rooms + objects + puzzles” structure. These four sit especially close to that tradition and are accessible for younger players or families: 

 Alone Among the Stars (and its many hacks) 

 You travel from planet to planet, landing, exploring, and writing what you discover. The structure is pure location-hopping with discoveries and occasional complications — almost a direct ancestor of classic adventure-game geography. 

 Ironsworn (or the lighter Starforged) 

 You swear vows, travel through regions, and delve into dangerous places. The oracles readily generate locations, obstacles, and objects. The “Delve” rules in particular, produce dungeon-like sequences that translate cleanly into text-adventure maps. 

The Adventurer (and similar short exploratory journaling games) 

 Many one-page or short journaling games focus on a lone traveler moving through a landscape, finding items, and overcoming barriers. They keep the scope small and the classic adventure ingredients front and center. 

 Freeform solo play with a simple oracle

Even without a published game, you can use a basic “yes/no + twist” oracle or a handful of random tables for locations and finds. The discipline of writing the play transcript still produces the same useful raw material. Any of these will give a child a satisfying session and a usable script. 

 An Invitation 

 The barrier that used to exist between “I had a cool adventure in my head” and “I made a real game other people can play” has never been lower. Chris Ainsley built Adventuron so that children could cross that barrier through storytelling and light coding. Solo journaling RPGs supply the storytelling in the most playful way possible. AI handles the tedious translation step. What remains is pure creative momentum. 

So try it. Pick one of the journaling games above (or any other you like). Play for an hour. Extract the rooms, objects, and puzzles. Open Adventuron — or Twine, or Inform, or Bitsy, or whatever tool feels friendly to you — and turn the journal into a living game. 

Then share it. The first time a friend types a command and the world you imagined answers back, you will understand why this process feels like magic. The tools are ready. The method is simple. The only thing left is to begin.

Pragmatic Computer Programming: 4P Production Pipeline

Modern software development has a major problem: it has been hijacked by process. The tech industry took Agile—which was supposed to be a flexible, adaptable mindset—and locked it into the strict, bureaucratic straight-jacket of Scrum. Today’s young programmers are growing up in a world of AI technogarble, performative metrics, and daily micromanagement meetings that destroy actual productivity.

If you have a high-functioning, unified team, you don't need administrative bloat. You need a return to common sense. We call this alternative paradigm Pragmatic Computer Programming. It is an execution-focused, high-utility framework built on radical team trust, engineering logic, and clear accountability.

The Core Philosophy: Trust Over Tracking

Traditional managers panic without a fixed plan, using "velocity charts" and "burndown rates" as weapons to monitor exactly what employees do every hour. This is "Dark Scrum," and it serves only to protect the manager, not deliver value.

Pragmatic Computer Programming operates on a different rule: Trust your team or change your team. In a high-trust environment, you do not need to watch over a developer's shoulder. Accountability is absolute. If a team member consistently breaks trust or fails to produce, they are shuffled off the squad. If the team is solid, management intervention should be kept to a near-zero minimum.

The Redundancy Design Strategy: Elegant vs. Clumsy

To guarantee deadlines without sacrificing code quality, Pragmatic Computer Programming introduces a funded safety buffer margin to run parallel engineering tracks on high-risk tasks:

• The Primary Worker: Solves the problem natively, cleanly, and elegantly to ensure long-term stability and clean architecture.
• The Parallel/Backup Worker: Simultaneously solves the exact same problem, even if the resulting solution is clumsy, quick, or dirty.

The Drop-Dead Cutoff Rule: Every parallel task has an unyielding deadline. If the elegant solution is not production-ready by the cutoff hour, the clumsy-but-functional solution is instantly merged and deployed. The deadline is secured, and a working solution is delivered. The moment the elegant solution is verified or integrated, the backup worker instantly drops the redundant track and pivots to the next priority on the task list.

The 4P Production Pipeline

Standard task boards tracking vague states like "In Progress" do not reflect real-world engineering realities. In Pragmatic Computer Programming, work moves strictly through four linear columns representing Product Maturity:

1. PLANNING	2. PROTOTYPE	3. PRODUCTION	4. PUBLICATION
Task: Core Engine Primary: Worker A (Elegant) Backup: Worker B (Clumsy) Cutoff: Aug 25	Task: UX Framework Primary: Worker C Backup: [None] Cutoff: Aug 24	Task: API Layer Primary: Worker A Backup: Worker B Cutoff: Aug 28	Task: Client Mod Primary: Worker D Backup: [None] Delivery: Sept 01

1. Planning: Direct meetings with the customer to explicitly lock down and specify mission parameters. No engineering begins until parameters are signed off.
2. Prototype: A rapid, "Quick and Dirty" creation phase to build a Minimum Viable Product (MVP). The sole purpose is to prove the concept is usable and worth the engineering capital.
3. Production: The core execution phase. Features are actively added or removed, and the core code may be completely rewritten to reflect evolving expectations through constant, direct communication loops with the consumer.
4. Publication: The final hardening and delivery phase. Crucially, Phase 4 is the exact stage where the Primary Worker's elegant solution is finally integrated into the final build, cleanly replacing any temporary baselines used during Phase 3. Manuals are written, service schedules are locked, and the project is marked Done and Delivered.

Conclusion

Pragmatic Computer Programming strips away the agile buzzwords and gives the power back to the builders. By combining a strict linear workflow with a smart parallel redundancy strategy, you protect your timelines while keeping your architecture clean. It's natural, it's accessible, and above all, it's productive.

Book Review: No Hurry in Africa

No Hurry in Africa

by Theresa Munanga

The Premise

The book is a collection of Journal written by Theresa Munanga, who served as a Peace Corp Volunteer in Kenya from 2004 to 2007. The book was published via iUniverse, copyright dated 8/11/2010, so there was quite a few years in between experience and publication. It was a common story at the time where there was a Dot-Com meltdown, followed by a terrorist attack, followed by general recession. This is her story, about being a Peace Corp Volunteer.

The Beginning

Of course, there's a beginning. She detailed a short bio before going into the process of Peace Corp Application process. It was short on details, though, since by Chapter 1, the story starts in Kenya. This is also where August 2004 Newsletter, which is how she kept in touch with her friends and family, began. Pictures are small and rare. However, they are illustrative enough to hint the lifestyle in Kenya, which is primitive and frequently without electricity.

Chapter 2 involves a lot of observations regarding life in Kenya as she settles into the Peace Corp lifestyle. A lot of comments how without reliable electricity, there's no refrigeration, nor there is indoor plumbing, something Americans take for granted. Filthy roads, filthy house, filthy toilet; such is life without modern conveniences. 

The Culture

She wrote some cultural notes by the time of late November 2004, which was soon enough after her arrival. There was constant awareness of HIV/AIDS epidemic, made worse by cultural tradition of polygamy. How the culture also discriminate against women, treating them as second class citizen to have less rights and freedom than men. There are also some interesting tidbits, about how cell phones with text messages is the way to communicate since it's very cheap to text people, whereas voice communication is extremely expensive in comparison.

She didn't stay long in the assigned Catholic School teaching CISCO system. The way she wrote it, it seems like the nuns of the school is taking advantage of Peace Corps program to hire cheap teachers, instead of contributing to the community. Greed will result in nothingness, as she parted way with the school. That was in May 2005, or less than one year of serving.

The Rest of the Story

The rest of the book deals with comparatively pleasant activities: taking a vacation, going shopping, dealing with scorpions, frogs, and other bugs and creatures in the house. There's also a second location that was much better than the first. In fact, she loves it there that she decided to extend her service. Unfortunately, it was cut short due to medical issues. Still, except for occasional corruption and fighting, her later experience was relatively smooth in comparison with the earlier ones. This is a sign of growth.

The Conclusion

The author wrote well, and a great example of a brave, dedicated Peace Corp Volunteer. She wrote well, and the book reflects the written language the newsletters are written. The narrative style isn't of oral, but literary. A thing I notice about the newsletters is that they are heavy on impressions, but light on details. As someone who values detailed descriptions, that is somewhat disappointing for me. However, I understand that not everyone is as detail-oriented as me. I think that her primary intention is to convey emotional feelings, and in that endeavor, she succeeds very well. I can read the passages and feel as if I can feel her feelings. Highly recommended for good emotional content and lifestyle of a Peace Corp Volunteer.

Book Review: The Essentials of Living Aboard a Boat

The Essentials of Living Aboard a Boat

by Mark Nicholas

The Premise

Smelling the sweet salty air of the ocean. Living on a boat, gently rocked by the swells, selling the house for a dream boat and sail the mighty ocean. That is the dream that many people have and willing to pursue. Except, as Mark Nicholas wrote in the book, doesn't happen in real life. First time buyers, surprised by the "hidden" aspects of living aboard a boat, decided to sell the boat after that one big sailing journey. The author pulled no punches. Most liveaboards aren't sailing their boats. They're stuck in a marina, which depending upon management, maybe closer to being a dump than an exotic marine experience.

The Decision

Assuming that you have already decided to buy a boat, not for pleasure, but for liveaboard, then the author details the steps necessary to find, choose, and actually purchase said boat. Another aspects of living aboard a boat is the marina. Do you have access to a marina? Is it a good one? The best boat in the world won't save you from a bad marina. The author made that abundantly clear. The good news is you can just sail away to another marina, assuming you're not tied down to the land, such as having a 9 to 5 job, or worse, a house!

The Lifestyle

Even worse, if you decided to buy a boat with faulty electrical wirings, on the northern states, in the dead of winter. That is exactly what the author did, and to his credit, managed to turn the poor experience into learning experience. So many people consider only the cost of money, and yet, there's so much to consider. The support of friends and family does factor it significantly. If your spouse in a landlubber, instead of a sailor that you are, then you would want to keep a house, raising the expenditure significantly. The author specified his experience of having to stay in a hotel because his cat was seasick! Yeah, that happens sometimes. You have to be prepared for such eventualities.

Having sources of entertainment in a boat is crucial since living on a boat can be, well, boring. Even if you sail, you're pretty much limited to just the sight of water in all directions. The magic, if you will, is in the journey, and if you're not a sailor to begin with, then perhaps you would want to rent a boat first before buying one. Preferably, a boat that you can sleep in overnight, although I doubt the weather would be stormy as to let you check the seaworthiness of the boat!

Safety and Regulation

Of course, you also need to be fully insured, but that's not all. You also need to navigate the regulations of a boat. That is, your boat must be up to code to in full compliance of government regulation. This goes double if you want to travel internationally. The book does not detail every regulations out there, and most likely, those will quickly go out of date anyway. The important thing is, the author touched the subjects, and it is up to you to research further.

The Conclusion

I suppose it's not the best book possible. It's not the most thorough, most detailed, most comprehensive book available. However, what it lacks in details, it makes up in readability. The author did a good job interweaving his personal experience into what could possibly be a boring informational dump. There's many of them, sure, since that is the purpose of the book, but the snippets of author's experiences here and there makes reading the book very tolerable, and even entertaining at times. If you're not sure about wanting to liveaboard a boat, yet unwilling to read encyclopedic tomes, this book is a perfectly good way to start. Well recommended.

Book Review: 9 Things a Leader Must Do

Book Review: 9 Things a Leader Must Do

The Premise: Good Leaders are all alike

There is this Premise of a book, that a good leader have similar habits and characteristics. This allows them to solve problem efficiently and effectively. They are confident in their ability, and have achieve success in their area of interest. The book has lots of parables and stories, and I keep thinking, "Isn't there a more efficient way to tell these qualities?" But if you can handle the stories, then you're in for a treat because the characteristics and qualities that makes good leaders are well explained in the book.

The Goal: Follow Your Dream!

The first assumption, or premise, is that you can follow your dream. If you don't have the talent to achieve it, then you can develop it. Little is explained in how to exactly do that, but from my personal experience, it is true that if you don't have the proper talent, then you can develop it. It may take years, but you certainly can develop it. The book also have this assumption that you know what your True Dream is. There's a line in there that guards you against mistaking Jealousy as Dream, but on the whole, it is light on the subject. As it is a thin book, I can understand the author chose not to elaborate on it. 

Another thing to worry about is the presence of negative factor and/or people. These are the kind of people who would dominate you and steer you away from your dreams. In other words, they tell you to give up on your dreams. The book advises you to steer away from such people. I believe that is wise. You need to stay away from negative people, and create your own positive environment. 

The author didn't mince words. He titled the chapter "Yank the Diseased Tooth."

The Future

The book advise that you should live out the future today. Choices that you make today will affect your future, and of all the possible futures, you should choose the rosy ones. The ones where you life happily, having achieving your dreams. I concur with that sentiment. The best part? It's not that difficult activity to do.

Generally speaking, all you have to do is extrapolation. If you do a little bit now, and a lot later, what will happen? Also, the book mention something about "War Games", which is basically a "What If?" scenarios. Good leaders habitually seek the worst possible outcome and then do something to avoid it. Keep doing that, and the worst outcome won't happen to them. I think that's good advice. 

The author, as usual, didn't say it outright, but illustrates the point with stories and parables.

The Present

The stories are intermingled both with author's experiences and those of the Bible. If you're okay with that, then you're in for a treat. Have an open mind as to where knowledge comes from, and you will be amply rewarded. The parable of the ants advise that you should have patience and take things one step at at time. That's a very good advice. Do what little you can today, and avoid the burdensome task tomorrow! I think the story perfectly matches the advice.

The Leader

The book explains different characteristics of good leadership. Love, hate, pride, etc. The author believes that as creatures of God, we are destined to have those characteristics, but advises to apply those properly. Love to give. Hate to steal. Proud of life. By parceling the proper destination for each emotion, we can manage our life well.

Certainly, there are more to it, and the book explains the situations and conditions in deeper explorations. The book ends with 12 steps to applying the 9 things. Find wisdom in others, Add structures, Fear not failures nor impediments. Put Your Goals on Paper. And Pray! Honestly, I was surprised to see the advice of writing down your goals. I believe it is necessary, but the book hasn't hinted it so far, so it comes as a surprise at the end.

The Conclusion

The book is full of wisdom and knowledge, but these things do not come easy. I think there are good lessons in there, but to have the most benefits to you, you need to read and re-read the book, pondering about different interpretations and possibilities. A lot of good advice, even important ones, are frequently just one sentence. They're there, but oh so easily missed!

My suggestion is to use this book as a guide, and supplement the good advice given here elsewhere. This book belongs to the recommended section, with advisory of having to re-read the book from time to time.

Book Review: On Writing by Stephen King

On Writing

by Stephen King

The Premise

There's a series of books titled "On Writing" by various writers. This book is written by the one Stephen King. Fascinatingly told, he described his life from the beginning, about his extremely hard life from childhood to marriage, to Carrie, his first big sale, and to general advice he gives to other prospective, hopeful writers to be. It's a pleasant read, one that can entertain, as well as educate. Or so I like to think.

The Early Life

The fact is, the author relived his childhood life for the first one-third of the book. Brilliant read as always, but what's that got to do with writing? If the author had intended that a sorry boy like him can make it big with hard work, despite all the hard knocking life throws at him, then I'd say that he's successful. However, the passages are rather light on advice, and more of an expository nature. Sometimes I wonder if there's a life lesson in it, but as far as I can discern, there's none.

The Writing Life

A rather abrupt change can be found during the passage of him describing the event when the manuscript of Carrie get sold. After that, it's easy living being a writer. A big desk in the middle of the room. Alcoholic drinks. All that jazz of being a writer.

Which, of course, as he later pointed out, that's not what being a writer is all about. Being a writer means to write, and you need to read, and do it judiciously. He later described the change. The big desk is out, and a smaller cozier desk is in. Make yourself comfortable, and that's what's being a good environment for a writer. I think I can describe it using fewer words than him, but there's no disputing that his words flow well.

He also eschews the use of plotting, preferring the spontaneity of the characters to steer the plot. Unfortunately, I don't work like that, but I understand the constant division between plotter and pantser. Both method are equally valid, but the author belongs firmly of the latter.

The Writing Work

The latter part of the book details the process of writing: Two drafts and a polish. Wait a minimum 6 weeks between drafts. Work on something else in the meantime until you forget the old draft. How first reader is the most valuable of all. These things are things that experienced professionals know, gained from hard experience. And yet, it's all narratively told. Like a kind, elderly grandpa telling his life's story in order to impart wisdom to the grandchildren. 

It also book ended with the tale of his accident. An unfortunate meeting with a van, as it were. It's just as tragic in the latter phase of life as it was in the early one. Yet, it gives me a glimmer of hope, that maybe, I can make it, too, despite being no longer young and strong. That, no matter what may come, I can be a writer. I just need to write 1000 words per day, every day. That's 4 double spaced pages per day. And you can, too.

The Conclusion

Reading the book gives me somewhat conflicted feeling. The book itself is eminently readable, and actually pleasant to read. However, I keep thinking, what's a concise autobiography has anything to do with "On Writing"? Now, if the book is actually called "On Stephen King", then it would be a wonderful book. Brilliant, even. However, after reading one third of the book, it was still on the author, and not on authorship. So, I was confused. Read the book if you want to know what a highly successful writer, being an expert in his craft, is like, to appreciate the book's whole worth. Highly recommended.

Book Review:Getting Started with Processing

Getting Started with Processing

by Casey Reas and Ben Fry

The Premise

The existence of Processing programming language is a godsend. This is a computer programming language that I tell everybody to learn, and this little computer programming book has a lot to do with it. It is both approachable and logical, something I wish more book writers will follow. Mostly, I'm disappointed. Most computer programming book writers, either imply or outright stated, that the skill of Computer Programming cannot be learned in a book! This is one of the few books that not only stated that it can, but also expected!

Since the intended demographic is for Artists, the technical info is necessarily brief. For further reading, I suggest that you search for books by Dan Shiffman, who also have a YouTube channel. He's a great educator and motivator, and someone you should look up to!

The Beginning

The book begins simply, as is most computer programming book. Between pages 1 and 6, the authors laid down the reason for being, the reason for existence, and the implied purpose of the book. This isn't a book full of heavy technical issues. It's not a complete Reference, or even a complete Tutorials. This book is a good collection of introductory info where you can begin to be productive immediately. The value of this book isn't in what this book includes, but it is in what this book excludes.

After the obligatory installation procedure, the text shows a simple one line program. It draws an ellipse on screen. The fact that the program starts with a graphical interface, where other books starts with "Hello World" program, speaks volumes about the intention of the authors, and I marveled by its efficiency in getting the message across. Not as impressed, though, as the second program shown, which is a simple drawing program using mouse, both as button press and as positions. Interestingly enough, the discussion of variables is still a few chapters away!

Starting to Code

The next few chapters, chapter 5 to 8, explores the concept of computer programming in greater details. Notice that I didn't say in great details. It is an expansion of ideas, yet not comprehensive. What is there, though, is enough to get you started. Again, I was impressed with the examples. This is what efficient coding is all about. To be able to get something that is not only beautiful to look at, but also very quickly coded, that is something to be admired.

About the only thing that I would change is the inclusion of Arrays. The authors, for some reason, decided to present the Array concept in chapter 10. About the only reason that I can think of, is that Processing programming language allows the existence of Array of Objects and therefore shows you the Object creation method before showing you the array. But this is nitpick on my part. I never found the concept of Object Oriented Programming Style to be useful. OO is a good alternative, but I never found the concept of Procedural Programming to be a limitation. 

Looking back into it, I am impressed about the ease the materials were introduced. What other books treat as a big deal, this book presented the materials as a common everyday occurrence. Even the concept of setup() and draw(), which is unique to Processing, is presented as something that naturally occurs. This, of course, is the heart of Event based coding and is a whole paradigm itself. To have such concepts presented naturally, is something that I have never seen done, before or after.

External Materials

In fact, it makes the last chapters inclusion to feel like an afterthought. "Oh, by the way, Processing platform is also capable of doing these things..." is the statement presented. And yes, I find the fact that there is a built-in 3D features to be present is a good deal, but little guidance is spent in how to properly use it. I guess this is a limitation of the format. It's a very slim book, after all. What it successfully presented as non-threatening subject, it fails in comprehensiveness. This is compensated by the fact that the authors includes website addresses, so I don't mind it all that much.

The Conclusion

I think that the book succeeds for the demographic beyond expectation. The materials included are strictly traditional coding practice, but the presentation is such that not only it is fun, but is non-threatening to the lay person. I wish more books would be like that because then the computer programming profession will truly belong to the people. This book is one of the few books that I decided to purchase in paper format, despite the fact that I already have it in digital format. The book is just that good. A must have in my library.

Book Review: The Effective Executive

The Effective Executive

by Peter F. Drucker

The Premise

Peter Drucker argues that an effective executive is neither about "talent" nor "genius". I have a great reservation about that premise. Hence, the highly popular and influential book in the business world had started with the wrong foot. I read the rest of the book with critical eyes toward its weakness. Unfair? Maybe. But it is important for a non-fiction work to be accurate, instead of pandering to every demographic in order to sell as many books as possible.

The Practice of Effectiveness

This is not to say that it's useless to try and learn to be effective, or rather more accurately, more effective than before. In this regard, the author is correct, and that a relevant set of practical habit can make a talented, genius executive to be even more effective and productive in his environment. 

In the first chapter, the author makes a distinction between smart and highly intelligent people with effective ones. What this tells me, in simple terms, is that Work=Force*Distance, or in business term, Productivity=Effort*Efficiency. I'm sure the author will happily substitute the term "Effectiveness" in there somewhere.

I note with glee that the second chapter deals with time. Among producers and other productive people, time is the most coveted resource of all. 

Time Blocking Practice

The author noted that the most effective executive practice time blocking. This is basically gathering enough uninterrupted time that is reserved for the most heavy duty thinking. Knowledge workers are valued for their knowledge, after all, and that thinking is a sizable activity for them. My personal experience agree with his observation, and I note in my observations that managers have, with deterministic observation, increasing the amount of time the workers must be available for instant consultations, and thus, breaking any effort in time blocking activities. 

Also included in the mismanagement practice, is the occurrence of endless meetings! In fact, an absurd amount of text is devoted to the denouncement of the practice. I can't help but wonder just how many meetings are there in the daily routines of a big company. Do the managers really ends up with having too many meetings? Perhaps these demanding managers can benefit a read of this book!

Part of effective time management skill is pruning: Identify the most important things and do them first. it certainly results in not having done all the things desired, but at least those things that get done are the most important ones. That is better than having distracted to death, or having overwhelmed by numerous tasks before you. This is something that I personally struggle with, that I was only able to manage it once I practice journaling. My journal is a pen and paper variety, which most informational tech nerds deride as being inefficient, but the flexibility it afforded means that I can customize it however I want, and what I want is: Everything! At least, this way, I know what to discard, and what sparks joy!

Contribution

This is another pet peeve of mine. Why bother working hard if you're not accomplishing anything? That is the very opposite of the desired result! And yet, how many managers do you know demands that the workers be working a set number of hours per day? While that may work for physical labor where you have to be on a certain place at a certain time, the knowledge workers can work from anywhere. In fact, my best, most productive time was generally spend on the bed, trying to sleep. Certainly, if the most desirable executive is the most effective one, then one must assume to spend as much time as possible in place where the most productive work is observed. Which, in my case, is my bed. Say hello to Zoom meetings!

There is a special "Nurse Bryan" section where the question asked is "Are we doing the best we can do to help this patient?" When the workers regularly asked the question, the result is better than the most official, formal problem solving technique. This, I think, encapsulates the best framing of problem solving technique, and I'm glad to see it in the book.

There are other considerations mentioned in the book, too, but to me, "Nurse Bryan" is the core idea of the book, and represents the most valuable idea in the book!

The Conclusion

Most of the book deals with time management. As I have said in the beginning, this alone isn't sufficient to be an effective executive. You have to be smart as well. However, the importance of managing time cannot be understated. I learned this the hard way. It's easy enough to say that you have to manage your time effectively, but it's another regarding how to do it. In my case, I end up keeping a journal, heavily inspired by Ryder Carroll's Bullet Journal, heavily patterned toward Project Management bias. 

Yet, that practice is validated by this book, or rather, predated by this book since this book has existed before my journaling activity. In short, if you're truly interested in being an effective executive, or just a very productive person in general, get this book!

Book Review: A Rulebook for Arguments

A Rulebook for Arguments, fourth edition

by Anthony Weston

The Premise

One would think that arguments are rather unpleasant and undesirable, and that most people would go to great length trying to avoid it. However, if you really want to broaden your horizon, then discussion of clashing ideas with other people is unavoidable. There will be some pain, to be sure, but those are good pain. Those are the growing pains of learning new things. Here, in this book, Anthony Weston has distilled the most common argument techniques, as well as various fallacies that is common in discussing ideas. If arguments are unavoidable, at least by using the techniques described here, it would be a civil one.

The Rules and Generalizations

The basic elements of a properly constructed argument includes a premise and a conclusion. The art of arguments, therefore, is to draw a logical thought that goes from premise to the conclusion. It bothers me to no end that people still engage in random arguments, using nothing but vague terms, when in fact, this book specified that you need to use concrete terms, "(4 Be concrete and concise").

You can use examples as your arguments, of course. That is described on part 2, Generalizations. You do need to use representative examples, rather than outlier, and preferably that you use more than one. Also that you're not supposed to cherry pick your examples, of what I term "Myopic arguments". Part 4 explains that you can use experts' opinions for your arguments, just be sure that they have the right expertise! In my personal experience, sometimes people are hell-bent to win an argument, that they fail to realize that they're arguing with top expert in the field, just because. 

Different Types of Arguments

The book does a great job surveying different types of arguments. In my opinion, the types of arguments presented represents a good balance between usage, utility, and coverage. Does Anthony Weston provides the most comprehensive type of arguments? He does not, and he should not. In fact, Wikipedia has more argument types, yet I do not consult Wikipedia because it's so boring! The selection here is thorough without being boring, a testament to the skill and experience of the author.

Common Fallacies

About the only weakness that I can find is about "straw man" argument. It does refer to Rule 5: Build on substance, not overtone. However, the frequent misuse that I encounter in daily basis merits, in my humble opinion, that he should expand the subject in more comprehensive manner. Since that is a weakness, and not a flaw, I can definitely say that it's a great book, indeed!

Again, the surveyed fallacies does represent most instances where they get misused. Hence, reading and utilizing the techniques described in this book will get you far ahead than most people.

The Conclusion

There are many, many times, that people relentlessly argued back and forth in some on-line community. The result is always the same: Bruised ego, hurt feelings, and no improvement whatsoever. Repeat that often enough, and the community died a lonely death. The best one can hope for is for the community to limp along, propped by a few loyal users. And yet, it is not necessarily be so. Had the people involved actually read this book, and practice the discipline to have a proper, reasoned arguments, the community would have thrive, indeed. So, you own it to yourself to read this book, a slim and easily digested volume, in order to have a good healthy community around you. 

This book may not be the most comprehensive nor authoritative, but it is eminently readable and accessible to the common person, and hence receive my utmost recommendation. It's a must read.

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Tech Support Trouble

 I'm trying to pay off my credit card bills, and instead of pay by phone, I get transferred to Support Representative. Every time. And every time, I get thickly accented person, which I assume is Indian by the accent. Trouble is, I have trouble understanding them.

I tried 6 times already. I keep having trouble understanding what they're saying. Mind you, each representative said their name and id number. I never understand any of their names and only managed to write down one id number: 101912792. There are other numbers such as 961315900 and 12271302, but I'm sure I got those wrong.

I just don't see why there's no system in place that basically ensures minimum acceptable performance. There's such a thing called TOEFL (Test of English as Foreign Language), so that customer service can service customer. 

Oh, well, I guess I'll have to write off Citibank and get something else. There's really no reason why you would make it hard for people to settle their bill, after all. All good business will want to easily get paid. 

Stansport Lantern

 

This is a high resolution rework of ballpoint pen art posted on May 5th of this month. Strangely enough, I like the rough sketch better! I shouldn't have spent the time redrawing it.

Liz Upton of Raspberry Pi

 

Ballpoint pen art. I'm afraid it's unfinished. Sorry. The original photo is from Raspberry Pi website https://www.raspberrypi.org/

Drawing of Liz Upton.

Eben Upton and his Raspberry Pi

 

An ballpoint pen art rendering of Eben Upton holding a Raspberry Pi. Reference photograph is taken from the website https://www.raspberrypi.org/

Drawing Stansport Lantern

 

Stansport Lantern. Quick sketch with ballpoint pen. I actually prefer the rough sketch to extremely accurate life drawings. 

Drawing Monalisa

 

A rendering of Leonardo DaVinci's Monalisa. It's done using ballpoint pen on copy paper. I should have used a better paper. That white squiggles above her left arm is the ripped paper. Or should I say: Monalisa RIP (paper).

Monalisa in dots

 

I decided to create my own filter. This is my attempt to simulate Stipplegen. The good news is, it works! The bad news is, it's too limited to be usable is broad applications. Also, the user interface is practically non-existent. 

Code: WaterColorBot

 The code for interfacing with WaterColorBot directly seems to be buggy. The AxiCli program just doesn't do it. This annoys me very much since Inkscape works just fine. The problem is Inkscape has big User Interface (UI) problem,  and I can't do good work in any reasonable way. 

So, I did what I had to do so many times, and that is write my own code. The biggest obstacle is the SVG format. The info on SVG out there is somewhat sketchy and incomplete, by which I don't mean the feature set. I mean how to Interface into different programs. 

Fortunately, I found out later, after 5 hours of frustrating research, that Inkscape is capable of exporting different format. I simply exported an optimized, minimal SVG, and cut out the data part. I still don't know how the header is formed, but it's good enough for me to insert my own data.

The result is good enough for me to get something worthwhile to show. Of course, it's still very rough, but I successfully did the hires grace.jpg example picture that is supposed to be used by Stipplegen. I couldn't get Stipplegen to work, either. It's not updated to Processing 3, after all. 

Life Reset 2022

Today is the first day of the rest of my life. How many times have I been saying these things? Well, here's another reset coming up. I decided to embrace minimalism lifestyle. That means I'm discarding everything I own that does not fit into the car. I guess it helps that I have a cargo van. The fact that I'm moving to another state is a great impetus of doing so. I guess I just lost confidence in Colorado. It was neutral for the longest time, but not anymore.

Still, there's a lot that I'm discarding. DVD movies, certainly. Books, magazines, and other reading materials. Nintendo games. I have already focused on Nintendo games, but I'm keeping only Nintendo 3DS. Gameboy is out. So do many other games, mostly board games. Lots of clothes and kitchen implements. Toys and computer stuff.

I'm still sorting the stuff, so that it will pack nicely. Marie Kondo book is nice. It helps me pack efficiently. Or, as efficient as can be. It still took me about 3 tries, throwing out half the stuff each time. The last packing was only 4 hours. That's a great improvement from 3 days. Still, I don't want to spend more than a couple of hours.

It's interesting to see what's left. A carry-on luggage of clothes. Raspberry Pi computers, with portable monitor and battery pack. There's a YouTube studio package in a bag. Some precious collection of books. Some food prep stuff, which is included in camping equipment, both backpack and car camping. 

There's other miscellaneous stuff, but if I can't remember using them, then may as well discard them. I learned it the hard way. There's no need to store stuff you don't use. Make sure that you use all the stuff you keep, and your life will be more fulfilling as a result. Above all, don't wait. Keep at it everyday, and treat it as daily personal improvement habit.

My goal is to fit my life into 3 bags: A personal bag, filled with precious paper and other irreplaceable item. A carry-on backpack, enough to go globe trotting. And a big wheeled duffel bag. Furthermore, there's also extra stuff, such as camping equipment, and work related items. Otherwise, that's it.

It's a great thing that we have cloud services. I can do quite a bit of things with my phone. About the only thing that it can't do is heavy duty data entry. Even that is not impossible, just very, very slow. So, I'm happy with the current pace of technology. Everything else is extra.