Generally speaking, my advice on this topic would be: Don’t write comments to describe what the code is doing. Code written in an imperative way can be read line by line to determine what processing is being performed. Re-stating the logic or steps of execution in a comment runs the risk of the comment falling out of sync with the code and becoming outdated. If a section of imperative code gets big, unwieldy, and hard to read, that’s probably a sign that a refactoring is needed and some abstractions need to be introduced....

In quarantine, I like: Having an easy “out” from social obligations. Not having to bother buying or preparing food for myself. Alone time. Generally, not having to be anywhere at any particular time. I dislike: Any food I do get isn’t quite hot enough. No physical exercise. No dance parties (actual dance parties, like with a DJ and fabulous people). Not being able to hang out with my close friends.

I was asked recently to provide advice to a new college grad. Here is the core of what I wrote. My advice to you is to write. Your writing doesn’t need to have a specific structure, and you don’t have to write for a specific audience, but getting your ideas down on paper is a service you can render to your future self. The important thing is to write with some regularity, even if not often....

I’ve been reading Noah Yuval Harari’s Sapiens and have reached the chapter in the book where he tells of the profound impact that the Agricultural Revolution of our species had on ourselves and on the planet. In basic terms, the Agricultural Revolution was the period a little over 10,000 years ago when our species very gradually made the transition from subsisting as foragers and hunter-gatherers to settling down as farmers, living in settlements and villages with accompanying fields of domesticated crops and cattle....

On March 14, I went to see the launch event of Sam Harris’s Waking Up Book Club, where he and Harvard psychologist Steven Pinker shared the stage at the Dolby Theatre to discuss Pinker’s new book Enlightenment Now and a range of philosophical topics. Among the things they touched on were science, humanism, politics, and artificial intelligence. About halfway into their conversation, Sam prompted Pinker to speak about the rise of the alt-right....