Ryan Tomayko

Beauty and truth in physics —

Murray Gell-Mann’s (quarks, Nobel prize winner, peer to Feynman at Caltech) TEDtalk from 2007 on the relationship between beauty (simplicity) and truth in science and mathematics:

What is especially striking is that in fundamental physics a beautiful or elegant theory is more likely to be right than a theory that is inelegant.

He goes on to give a bunch of anecdotes that show this playing out over and over during the development of particle physics.

Programming and Minimalism —

Jonathan Dahl talks about minimalism and clarity in writing and how to use these principles in programming. Great talk. He uses a lot of analogy and audio/visual stuff at the beginning, which (in my experience) typically means that the presenter has no fucking idea what they’re talking about. Not here. Excellent, well-rounded talk.

The Google Search Redesign —

It was terrifying to think that they may have actually considered making the page more edgy in some retarded acknowledgement of bling.com. Best redesign ever.

Things I hate about kitchen user interfaces —

For real. The best microwave is one that has a single timer dial that moves as time elapses. No one ever uses all those buttons. I use exactly one button on my current microwave: “Quick Minute” (hitting it as many times as needed) but I’d prefer a dial.

Minima —

Alex Payne’s tumble-like blog on minimalism in coding and design. I didn’t realize @al3x was such a huge conscious follower of the minimalist aesthetic, although I’ve definitely noticed it in his work.

On Bacon and Simplicity —

Thomas Jefferson: “I had rather be shut up in a very modest cottage with my books, my family and a few old friends, dining on simple bacon, and letting the world roll on as it liked, than to occupy the most splendid post, which any human power can give.”

Spotted on bacon.reddit.com…