brief reflection on feedback

My friend fdmts recently posted a brief note regarding some unexpectedly positive feedback from one of his customers. Apparently he's somewhat taken aback (albeit partially in jest) at this.

In the comments, I noted that this sort of thing is why I like working on JUNG.

More fundamentally, though, it's occurred to me that this is part of why I like working in a setting in which I have "customers" of some sort or another. In academia, positive feedback arrives in the form of accepted papers, citations, promotions, and perhaps occasional positive comments after presentations ("that's really cool--I wonder what happens if you..."). This is all cool...but rarely, however, will you hear something of the form "hey, what you did really helped me solve this problem--thanks!"

It's not just that I want to work on real problems, but I like being _seen_ to be have helped people with real problems. Vain, perhaps, but there you go.

random webbage

Top 10 Strangest Lego Creations

Not sure I believe that these are the top 10--what happened to the Lego chocolate printer? (Plus, that Lego car at Legoland? Only the exterior is made out of Legos, although it's still impressive.) But interesting.

Very cool optical illusion. Brains are weird.

Why Schools Don't Educate

Not new--it's from 1990--and I'm not sure that I agree with his conclusions (and I'm not sure that what he proposes works on a large scale). But very interesting reading.

a modest proposal for compensation for derivative works

They're taking the hobbits to Isengard! (Flash; high res version)

This is funny (and short enough not to be annoying). It's also caused me to think more about solutions to the whole "derivative works" problem.
( read on, if you're curious; gets somewhat technical )