Simon Griffee
Design consulting, art direction, photography.

September 2016

Broadway and East 20th Street, New York City, February 2016

Published 2016 September 29

Broadway Near Soho, New York City, March 2016

Published 2016 September 29

Learning to Program in Python

A drawing Monty Python’s foot from the original in Venus, Cupid, Folly and Time.
The Python programming language was named after the BBC’s comedy series Monty Python’s Flying Circus created by, among others, John Cleese. Perhaps this in itself says much about the language.

A friend with no programming experience asked how to learn to program a computer using the Python language, so I wrote this list:

  1. Read What is Code.
  2. Download and install a nice free and open source text editor.
  3. Try these tutorials aimed at new coders. You can also try an interactive tutorial directly in the browser.
  4. Dig in by working on a personal project. Making a website about something that is meaningful to you is a good choice. Django is a web framework — a set of programming patterns to make websites — written in Python. It is one of the best ones, with plenty of good tutorials.
  5. Read Pragmatic Thinking and Learning and keep practicing the fundamentals.

Remember the Zen of Python:

Beautiful is better than ugly.
Explicit is better than implicit.
Simple is better than complex.
Complex is better than complicated.
Flat is better than nested.
Sparse is better than dense.
Readability counts.
Special cases aren’t special enough to break the rules.
Although practicality beats purity.
Errors should never pass silently.
Unless explicitly silenced.
In the face of ambiguity, refuse the temptation to guess.
There should be one– and preferably only one –obvious way to do it.
Although that way may not be obvious at first unless you’re Dutch.
Now is better than never.
Although never is often better than right now.
If the implementation is hard to explain, it’s a bad idea.
If the implementation is easy to explain, it may be a good idea.
Namespaces are one honking great idea – let’s do more of those!

42nd Street, New York City, May 2016

Published 2016 September 25

5th Avenue, New York City, June 2016

Published 2016 September 25

42nd Street, New York City, June 2016

Published 2016 September 23

East 60th Street and Lexington Avenue, New York City, October 2016

Published 2016 September 23

Washington Square Park, New York City, July 2016

Published 2016 September 23

Women’s Forum Education Fund 2016 Fellow Amber Paulen at Penguin Random House Publishers, New York City, September 2016

Published 2016 September 19

34th Street, New York City, October 2015

Published 2016 September 18

5th Avenue and 42nd Street, New York City, October 2015

Published 2016 September 17

Bedford Avenue and N 7th Street, Brooklyn, New York City, July 2016

Published 2016 September 15

Fuck Fashion Week, New York City, September 2016

Published 2016 September 15

Learning How to Learn #

Also available in Portuguese (Português), Spanish (Español) and Chinese (中国).

Pope John Paul II Lying on the Ground After Being Struck by a Meteorite #

I like this one better than the golden toilet.

A Timeline of Earth’s Average Temperature Since the Last Age of Glaciation #

Uh oh.

Quote of the Week: Proust on Discovery

The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.

Proust

Sunlight, Naples, Italy, April 2012

Published 2016 September 14

5th Avenue, New York City, August 2015

Published 2016 September 12

5th Avenue and 42nd Street, New York City, May 2016

Published 2016 September 12

Love is Wise #

Hatred is foolish.

Job Search, Career Advice and Graduate School Preparation Articles by Donald Asher #

Invaluable for both students and midlife career changers. Be sure to watch one of his presentations, too.

Books Read in Rough Chronological Order

A list of books, stories and essays I have read made from memory in rough chronological order. Also: books that have been particularly helpful.

One World Trade Center from West and Vesey Street, New York City, September 2015

Published 2016 September 11

STEM to STEAM #

Science, technology, engineering, math + art & design = STEAM. Coincidentally, Steam is also the leading computer games digital distribution platform.

8th Avenue and Jane Street, New York City, June 2016

Published 2016 September 8

Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France, May 2013

Published 2016 September 6

Quill WYSIWYG Browser Text Editor 1.0 #
Marc Riboud 1923–2016 #

Portfolio of his photographs.

8th Avenue, New York City, July 2015

Published 2016 September 4

Fighter Pilot’s Road Survival Guide #

A fighter pilot’s advice on road safety to cyclists and drivers.

From the comments in the HN discussion :

Tldr: if a vehicle is on a collision course with you, it will always be in the same position of your field of view, so there may not be enough apparent motion to draw your attention. To combat this, slow down a bit as you approach intersections to generate relative motion between yourself and anyone on a collision course with you. Also scan left/right twice to double your chances of seeing hazards. The brain is very good at stitching together a coherent scene as your eyes dart around, but this might hide the fact that you have blind spots where your eyes have jumped over potentially important details.

To improve your chances of being seen, turn your lights on and wear bright colors to improve contrast. Be aware that if the sun is right behind you, people ahead of you will have a very difficult time seeing you.

There is no such thing as peripheral vision. All you have is peripheral “awareness” at your disposal. “Vision” requires looking directly at something.

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