Wisdom I Pondered This Week

• “Most people are fast to stop you before you get started but hesitate to get in the way if you’re moving.” ― Timothy Ferriss, The 4-Hour Workweek
• “Synchronicity is an ever present reality for those who have eyes to see.” — Carl Jung
• “You can’t be happy unless you’re unhappy sometimes.” — Lauren Oliver, Delirium
• “There is neither happiness nor misery in the world; there is only the comparison of one state with another, nothing more. He who has felt the deepest grief is best able to experience supreme happiness.” – Alexandre Dumas
• “That’s what real love amounts to - letting a person be what he really is. Most people love you for who you pretend to be. To keep their love, you keep pretending - performing. You get to love your pretence. It’s true, we’re locked in an image, an act - and the sad thing is, people get so used to their image, they grow attached to their masks. They love their chains. They forget all about who they really are. And if you try to remind them, they hate you for it, they feel like you’re trying to steal their most precious possession.” — Jim Morrison

Things I Learned This Week

• The SR-71 Blackbird was a strategic reconnaissance aircraft for the U.S. Air Force in the 1960s. Capable of Mach 3.2+ speeds, altitudes above 85,000 ft, and a range of ~3,200 nautical miles, it could outrun surface-to-air missiles and was never shot down. In service from 1966 to 1998, it became a Cold War icon, nicknamed the “Habu”, and still holds the official speed record for a manned, air-breathing aircraft.
• A Code Freeze, also known as a feature freeze or a hard freeze, is a designated period in software development during which no new code changes or modifications are introduced to the codebase. Its primary goal is to stabilize the codebase in preparation for a major release or other milestone. During this time, developers shift their focus from implementing features to testing and debugging, ensuring that the software remains stable, reliable, and production-ready.
• Ligatures are when two or more characters are joined into a single symbol for improved aesthetics, readability, or style, originating from traditional typography (e.g., ”fi“ → fi, ”fl“ → fl) to prevent awkward letter collisions in printing. In modern digital fonts, they are a design choice, used in normal fonts for polished text and in programming fonts (like Fira Code) to visually join sequences such as != → ≠ or -\> → →. The transformation is purely a visual effect — the underlying characters remain unchanged. Ligatures just make certain patterns look cleaner or easier to read.
• The Bar Exam (律師資格考試) is a professional licensure test required to legally practice law in a given jurisdiction. Its purpose is to assess whether a candidate possesses the necessary legal knowledge, reasoning ability, and ethical standards to serve competently as a lawyer.
• Ground Meat (絞肉), also known as minced meat, is finely chopped meat commonly made from beef, pork, lamb, chicken, turkey, or plant-based alternatives like soy or pea protein. It’s prized for its versatility and quick cooking time, making it a staple in dishes such as hamburgers, meatballs, tacos, Bolognese, and meatloaf. The fat content varies by blend (e.g., 80/20 or 90/10), affecting juiciness and flavor—higher fat yields richer taste, while leaner meat is healthier but can be drier. For safety, ground beef, pork, and lamb should be cooked to 71°C (160°F), and ground poultry to 74°C (165°F), as bacteria can be distributed throughout during processing.