Cat Pea

The post argues that knowledge far outweighs any standardized system: traditional teacher‑front‑of‑many‑students setups fail, grades motivate poorly, and tests become a fantasy for teachers who think passing proves learning. It envisions self‑directed schools where students tutor each other, replace grades with monetary bonuses, and view money as an investment in the future of education—yet such schools remain vulnerable to centralization and manipulation by leaders or corporations. The author calls for a gradual worldwide rise in real education, encouraging students’ own initiatives; he critiques teachers who rely on tests, notes humans’ evolutionary tendency to accept elders’ words (and thus be indoctrinated), and suggests speaking with one’s elder self to take responsibility for learning. Programming is presented as the future language of control, while reading free narrated books and experimenting with art are recommended ways to awaken inner genius.

The author argues that academic teachers often act more like charlatans than educators, trapped in a self‑perpetuating cycle of “fake” teaching and fabricated grades that serve institutional finances rather than learning. He proposes that computer programming can replace both teachers and grading systems by having students actively model subjects—such as simulating biological processes or orbital dynamics—to demonstrate mastery through code rather than rote exams. By turning lessons into practical programming projects (e.g., building pixel‑based geometry animations), graduates use the knowledge acquired to launch and manage startups, with profits from these ventures reinvested back into the system, thus closing a loop that rewards real application over traditional grades.

The post proposes creating a simple web‑desktop UI that relies on drag‑and‑drop to manage windows, resize and pan the desktop; this pattern is presented as an easy way for programmers to showcase design skills and add colorful projects to their portfolios, with only under a hundred lines of code needed to share mousedown/mousemove state via functional programming. It highlights how such a lightweight desktop can evolve into an app builder or store—offering users an Automator‑style UI where they can create, sell, and program actions—while designers focus on single‑column layouts that adapt smoothly from large desktop screens to mobile devices. The author concludes that this practical side project provides valuable programming practice and serves as an impressive portfolio showcase for hiring talent.

The poem paints a whimsical picture of programming as a journey guided by three bird‑like companions: the rubber‑duck debugger Alice, who helps you spot bugs by talking through your code; the “chicken” Malice, whose playful antics represent the unpredictable nature of causality and the occasional jello‑like confusion that can arise when things don’t line up as expected; and the goose Obo, a mischievous helper that reminds programmers to be humble, watch for off‑by‑one errors, and keep their logic tight. Together they illustrate how talking through your code (with Alice), embracing its quirks (Malice), and checking every detail (Obo) can make programming both fun and more reliable.

A poetic allegory of JavaScript programming begins by inviting the reader into the world of “spaghetti” code, where variables hold both strings and numbers just as useful as winter sweaters or crispy cucumbers. It explains how objects—like a cat named Alice with a __name__ property—can be assembled, referenced, and even self‑referencing using `this`, while arrays neatly store related numbers. The tale continues with examples of rooms connected by doors to illustrate object composition, then moves on to functions as black boxes that accept arguments and return values, if‑statements that direct control flow, and loops that iterate over lists—all presented as straightforward building blocks for writing small programs. The post ends by encouraging the reader to explore tutorials and YouTube links so they can start coding their own “little programs.”

The post argues that programming is not only about writing code but also about being able to read and understand it in the future, so we should aim for simplicity. It contrasts three common styles—spaghetti code, object‑oriented code that often fails in practice, and functional code—which forces us to write small, pure functions that take an input and produce an output, usually in a single line. By chaining these functions in a simple list or array, we get a program that is easy to inspect, debug, and extend, because each function’s name reveals its purpose and the flow of data is clear. The author encourages building programs from such simple functions without learning a new style; just use the functional approach to make future self’s life easier.

The post outlines a minimal toolkit for building a web‑desktop interface: four core actions—dragging, resizing, focusing and desktop panning (moving all windows at once)—plus a “overwatch” helper that zooms out to reveal the app menu. It recommends starting with simple mouse‑up events or zIndex tweaks, using Svelte for component logic, Bootstrap cards (or BootsWatch themes) for styling, and positioning everything inside one relative container while making individual windows absolute. For persistence it suggests PouchDB, noting that only the username is kept in a session variable across reloads, and encourages later replacing PouchDB with a custom‑built store. Finally, the author sees this as an easy entry for a design portfolio, but hints at future extensions like an Automator‑style window builder or even a visual programming language reminiscent of Blender’s Geometry Nodes.

Programming is about building and linking small components through simple algorithms, keeping code clear and avoiding spaghetti.

Use a narrated version of Bill Bryson’s “Short History of Nearly Everything” as the scaffold for your self‑education—listen to it instead of reading it. Choose your own path, guided by great achievements rather than family or culture, and be careful who you call “great,” because many pretend to know more than they do. Rely on wise books (especially narrated ones) as real teachers; memorization is only a test‑passing trick used by some teachers to sell out for paychecks. Start early with something light‑weight like programming, build startups at your own pace, and keep synthesizing knowledge from those books to unlock your genius.

The post celebrates the idea that each person is a self‑sufficient adventurer and creator, not merely a worker or poor soul; it suggests that poverty, hunger, and homelessness arise from a lack of learning rather than effort. By issuing a simple universal income card—coded in fewer than 500 lines—each human could be guaranteed a steady livelihood without disrupting regional economies. The author then turns to the power of books: they are the “treasures” that carry wisdom across generations, enabling one to become a thinker, philosopher, artist, and composer; they also guide travelers on trails like the Appalachian and Pacific Crest. Finally, by turning what we learn into poetry and stories, we preserve our spirits for future friends. The piece ends with an invitation to self‑education and curiosity, promising that through such learning each person can rise from “worker” to “great being,” becoming part of humanity’s launch toward a universe where knowledge and creativity light the stars.

The post celebrates personal growth and self‑definition, urging the reader to continually rise above their own “common levels” and build a unique character through daily progress. It reminds us that we are born of stars, capable of defining ourselves and becoming wise by learning from books and adventures. The writer encourages living firmly in the universe, keeping each day better than the last, and believing that constant rising is what lets the world grow.

Programming becomes engaging when it’s taught with real projects, not just theory—side‑projects let you learn by doing, while working for others keeps your future in your own hands. The post proposes building a tiny operating system entirely inside PouchDB: each document is a file or folder, and a simple file manager can open “windows” that are themselves documents. By adding CodeMirror as an editor and xterm.js as a terminal you can manage the files from the command line, sync across machines via CouchDB, and eventually run a full web‑based OS. This DIY approach is not only fun but also portfolio‑boosting; it opens a market for user‑built apps on your platform, with small revenue shares, while drag‑and‑drop builders can generate production‑ready code that users host themselves. In short, the article argues that programming is never dull—when you build, invent, and own your tools, it becomes a living art form.

In this poetic essay the author argues that the secret to building large empires lies in keeping things “cute and tiny”—small, elegant algorithms and data structures such as two‑branch trees. He illustrates how even the ranking engine of a once‑useful search site and the AI powering the biggest video site are built from simple, compact components. The essay then turns into a practical blueprint: by offering developers an easy‑to‑import file‑system library that stores files in memory (with optional expiration and checksum filenames), one can create a lightweight, scalable storage service that many programmers will automatically adopt for their test code, thereby generating a growing empire of users and data. The author concludes that such small, versatile building blocks are the only way to grow a large empire.

The post argues that ending poverty for all people worldwide hinges on a universal income card, but this alone is insufficient without “real” schools that deliver tangible results; it criticizes current schooling systems as shame‑based and punitive, and proposes that learning computer programming—an accessible skill with abundant self‑study resources—provides individuals the ability to create digital goods stores, connect creators and consumers, and generate income that can fund real schools, thereby enabling communities to lift themselves out of poverty through cooperative entrepreneurship.

A self‑referential system—like the “WikiWiki” idea—lets a page edit itself by treating side menus, layout templates, and even server configuration as editable articles; with a simple edit button and a small markup syntax (e.g., `[include ArticleName]`) an editor can pull any article—including the one being edited—into the page, enabling infinite loops that make good Easter‑egg material such as a chatbot that converses with itself in the style of Eliza. By treating program construction as a collection of files and directories (as in Plan 9), developers can build applications where each step is an editable file, assign bounties to tasks, receive alerts when completed, and ultimately assemble a fully functional application simply by managing its files rather than writing code from scratch.

The post argues that self‑editable applications—those built by dragging and dropping JavaScript actions without coding—offer a powerful way for developers to create easy‑to‑manage business tools. By bundling editable programs in the app, users can extend or fix bugs themselves, much like tweaking formulas in spreadsheets. The author cites Apple Automator as a simple example, and suggests that with modern tech such as CouchDB, Svelte, PouchDB views, Gun.js, IPFS and ZeroMQ, one can build web apps (news readers, theme designers, code generators) that sync automatically. He proposes a business model where the app is free for non‑commercial use but monetized when customers generate revenue, encouraging users to bring their own server and allowing the developer to take a small percent of sales.

In this whimsical poem, winter’s chill invites us to treat small, lucky creatures—whether playful squirrels or “mini kittens”—with warmth, food, and care; by scattering nuts and offering a cozy home, we can keep them happy, proud, and affectionate, and in return they bring joy, companionship, and lasting good luck.

The author argues that we have only enough time to tackle the root causes of global problems—chiefly world poverty and a lack of real education—rather than merely treating their symptoms, which will never bring lasting change. He proposes “Universal Income Cards,” computer‑managed benefits that reset each midnight, as a concrete tool to lift people out of poverty; but he notes that politicians will use such ideas for political gain until the system is properly understood and implemented by truly educated leaders. The solution, he says, requires creativity, brilliance, and hacker‑like ingenuity to design deployment strategies (e.g., giving cards to those born after a set date so future generations can plan ahead). By freeing people from misery and opening borders, these cards could spark real schooling, disarm nations, and unify the world. He ends by urging self‑education—reading, listening, re‑listening—to unleash hidden genius in all of us, because only by unlocking that talent can we finally hold a candle to the future and truly repair what our past generations failed to do.

Philosophy—though misspelled—serves as a guiding force for human growth, cultivating authenticity, dignity, and noble character rather than mere obedience or convenience; it fuels intellectual fire, enriches minds, and provides continuity across generations by linking past research to future discoveries. Drawing on thinkers like Frankl and Martin Luther King Jr., the post argues that true happiness stems from character shaped by philosophy’s historical lineage. It presents philosophy as a family of wise humans whose collective wisdom builds armor around our being, enhances systems, and offers insight into all curiosities. By teaching it early, we could eradicate poverty, hunger, homelessness, mass incarceration, and strengthen education—philosophy is portrayed as the very culture that fixes everything in human life.

The post argues that growing up without exposure to wise philosophy books signals a cultural failure, noting how dictatorships burn them and modern societies neglect them. It stresses that teachers often overlook the power of narrated texts, which can expand a child’s vocabulary and understanding, and calls for a ready‑made, accessible collection of the best parts of great books—an easy gift parents can give to spark learning. By combining reading with listening, children can fully grasp what books are like, preventing the loss of knowledge that occurs when books become boring or optional.

The post celebrates continuous learning and creative growth: upgrading systems expands everything, and the more we know the more we grow and encompass a multitude of ideas. It links this process to art—music, programming, writing, poetry—and frames each component as part of a concept map that can be connected and reconnected like pixels turning into notes. The writer muses on how fire and sunset scenes inspire reflection, while self‑education emerges as the sole true form of learning.

The author argues that while there are countless ways to live, a few fundamental truths—such as those championed by thinkers like Rand, Sagan, Gell‑Mann, King Junior and Thoreau—remain constant; he urges the present generation to urgently revitalize education, nurture brilliant ideas that will endure beyond the inevitable fade of novelty, and actively transmit these ideas through tangible media (journals, typewriters, cassette recorders) so that future generations can inherit, build upon, and ultimately become giants in their own right.

Programming should be central to education because it teaches how to learn, making learning more efficient and meaningful; students can build useful projects instead of memorizing facts, leading to clearer future plans and self‑driven preparation for startups. By focusing on programming, lessons become practical rather than abstract, reducing student boredom and giving them tangible results that motivate further study. With abundant free tutorials, learners can start with little cost or resources, making the subject accessible and promising a bright future.

This post explains how combining CouchDB on the server, PouchDB in the browser, and Svelte’s store‑based data binding turns the tedious problem of UI synchronization into a simple, automatic process: values are wrapped with unique identifiers for storage and tracking so that any change is immediately reflected in the UI without extra code. The author illustrates this with a basic “a = 1; x = a + a” example, showing how most frameworks over‑complicate variable monitoring, whereas CouchDB/PouchDB/Svelte handles it natively. By treating even low‑level sensor data (e.g., RPMs or GPIO reads) as CouchDB objects and using tiny filter programs, developers can build networked applications that update automatically with just a few lines of code, making the whole approach both powerful and surprisingly straightforward.