Sunny sunday...

Ah, yet another hot day here in Singapore. Sitting here in front of my computer when I can be outside in the sun.. arghh guilt :) Tomorrow I will get a new laptop so that I can sit outside instead. Cool thing with Singapore is that WiFi we be free from 2007 with more and more hotspots coming up every week.

Have been thinking a bit about the balance between knowing the specifics of something (like an API) and the generic (like how to build an API.) Knowing an algorithm, mechanism, approach or process that produces something specific must intrinsically be better than knowing the specifics only, right? I mean specific knowledge is hard to obtain because it requires exposure of one or another kind.

So in order to solve a problem for example, our ability to do that within an acceptable amount of time and with quality must be a function of our experience and a combination of generic and specific knowledge. How can we measure knowledge or the level of? What constitutes great knowledge as opposed to lack their of? One could argue that keeping lots of facts in ones mind constitutes a great level of knowledge.

But what about the ability to extract facts from a huge mass of data and derive some kind of knowledge from that? We typically filter away huge amounts of information every second but some we keep, why do we keep some and filter away some? And why don't I sometimes remember something I know I should remember? Its like my mind selectively "forgets", and other times I remember things that carry much less value.

So please brother Brain, can you please remember to turn off the aircon in the living room next time I leave for a 2 weeks holiday to Sweden.