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Views - Volume 10:
Issue 2 (January 27 - February 2, 2009):
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How Crafty Word Order Can Instantly Improve Your Writing
Philip Yaffe feels there is really only a handful of fundamental writing principles. Before this extraordinary tip can be properly revealed, we need to review three of them: 1) clarity, 2) conciseness, and 3) density.
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The Fallacy of Premature Optimization
Every programmer with a few years' experience or education has heard the phrase "premature optimization is the root of all evil." This famous quote by Sir Tony Hoare (popularized by Donald Knuth) has become a best practice among software engineers. The purpose of this article is to examine how software engineers have (incorrectly) applied Hoare's statement as a way of avoiding the effort necessary to produce a well-performing application. Hopefully, this article can encourage many software engineers to change their views on application performance.
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How to Rapidly Improve Speaking Skills
Most scientists and technologist today recognize the need to write well in order to better convey what they do to colleagues, managers, administrators, and the general public. But how about oral skills? After all, we spend much more time speaking than we do writing. Philip Yaffe admits that he used to be a poor speaker. Read his story.
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Mind Hygiene for All - a Concept Map
Maintaining mental sharpness and clarity is important to most everyone, and doing so is valuable for maintaining our professional edge. Goutam Saha, has put together a very concise summary of everything contributing to mental hygiene, including the challenges and actions to meet them. He expresses this with mind maps, which themselves contribute to mental clarity.
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Is Design the Preeminent Protagonist in User Experience?
A user interacts with physical items, builds up experiences, and as a result creates a mental model over time. This mental model can contribute to the success of product marketing and software. At the rapid rate of progression of technology, the acceptance of software with identical functionality can come down to user experience. A product can leverage itself above the rest by the superiority of its design. This article will discuss the emphasis on design as a primary vehicle for strategy, flow, and affordance as it pertains to user experience in a device or system.
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How to Generate Reader Interest in What You Write
Scientists and technologists today increasingly recognize the need write in order to convey interest and excitement in what they do to colleagues, managers, administrators, and even the general public. Unfortunately, most would-be authors cling to the myth that if they just put in enough effort, people will automatically want to read what they write. Recognizing and acting on the idea that no one necessarily wants to read what you write is known as the "expository writing challenge". The importance of the expository writing challenge cannot be over-stated, because it can completely transform the way you approach your subject. And the success it achieves.