To do or not to do

This time, I want to discuss one of the life's most important questions. Should I do it or not. I believe the answer to this question is at best elusive. In one end we have hyper active people that try to do as much as possible with varying degree of success. On the other end we have depressive lazy people that do as little as possible again with varying degree of success.

Here we need an objective function to decide on where to stand on this dilemma. My criteria is frusturation, defined as the ratio of successes/failures. I expect hyperactivity would increase the number of successes but it will also increase failures. Since it is easier to make mistakes then finding the right answer, i expect this ratio to diminish with increasing activity. Lazyness, on the other hand can provide a higher ratio provided the tasks are chosen carefully.

We need another concept to analyze this in more detail. Sense of accomplishment can be another drive in our decisions. I'll define accomplishment again as a ratio of success/expected number of successes. Hyperactivity can certainly improve accomplishment but it is frusturating due to large number of dissapointments. Lazyness protects us from frusturation but doesn't give a sense of accomplishment.

So I solved nothing...

But I must note here that, it is usually better to do your way than listen other people sometimes. This is topic for another discussion.

More transactions than a DB

Well, i just feel like that. Currently I'm trying to fix TRANSACT implementation I've been working on. This is by no means interesting for anybody but me. The thing is, implementation of such distributed programs are difficult no matter what. Further complications arise from my reluctance for implementing additional protocols, such as a separate uart for debugging and statistics.

This brings us to a general philosophical question. What is the best amount of generalization in any implementation. I stick to as general as possible rule. But I probably overdo :P. For instance, currently i am reporting using the same system as the experiments. This is not only limited also wierd since I need to decipher what is what. Dedicated implementations are better in this respect. They are specialized to some aspects.

My problem is just doing something means i need to change a lot of things when i change my mind, which is often. With a proper degree of abstraction, I also limit my options and hopefully I am more productive. Does this work for anyone else I have no idea. By the way, this kind of reflective writing looks really lame. Whatever. It is useful for creating content for a web page :)

let's get going... my small to do list

• Web page...
• it is currently a shame for me.
  
• Publications should be updated,
• I should link in things i did
• Links to friends etc.
  
• more stuff about my interests
• pictures!!!
• links to my other online entities like this
• CV
• needs update like publications
• Transact
• Needs implementation details possibly a link for the package
• see todo.txt
• CVS
• make that work on the lab pc.
  
• Drivers licence
• Trip to Turkey
• Canadian visa
• Paperwork
• health insurance thing
• transfer credits
• on leave application to metu
• Deciding on summer plans
• Secret projects
• bkft
• dwarf fortress clone
• Starting to do some sports
  
• really? I mean this is not a real to do entry. Putting a 'dance on dark side of moon' is more realistic.
  
• Finish or German the books in line
  
• Fix your sleep schedule
• Tidy your room and your desk
  
• Clean the house
• Check this out
• Do i really think this is funny i don't know
• Italic code doesn't work properly here. I should complain about it
• western/country/folk/cowboy dancing tutorial for maya
• bruce springsteen (we shall overcome: seeger sessions) a nice album. Download and listen
  

Well i told it is exponential. I doubt if it will every be complete. By the way this blog interface is getting me nervous. I just caught another weird bug. I really don't have much patience for these kind of quirks. I am getting old probably.
I want to finish this post with a long forgotten phrase:
"Until next week... Good bye"

A brief introduction to what is this...

Things to do depend on the current things done. Since we can be at a unique place in time and space, we usually accomplish things in a serial order. But possiblities and new things to be done are increased multiple fold with each of our accomplishments.

This is more or less my life. I have millions of things to do but i end up doing a very small percentage of them. I fear this small percentage is getting smaller each day...

So the todo list grows exponentially and things done linearly. This means life is both full of novelity and regrets. I think it is up to us to see the half/empty part of the glass.