Links #1: Don't give to beggars, more rational resolutions, one hour R, write for yourself

Choice bits of the Internet. Alyssa Frazee shows how to teach R to a non-programmer in an hour. I’ve also been having fun with Code School’s free Try R course. Matt Mullenweg writes about The Intrinsic Value of Blogging:

We’ve gotten better at counting [likes, +1s] and worse at paying attention to what really counts. The antidote I’ve found for this is to write for only two people. First, write for yourself[.] … Second, write for a single person who you have in mind as the perfect person to read what you write, almost like a letter…

Angela Chen at the Wall Street Journal attends a CFAR rationality workshop and outlines some of the exercises they did:

“I learned that if I want Max to do something in December, I should think about December Max as a different person,” he says. Instead of just putting a reminder to do something in a few months, he’ll plan ahead and send email reminders and incentives for his “future self.”

Dave Hill at The Guardian implores us not to give money to beggars:

For 10 years Thames Reach and others have been trying to persuade us that handing loose change to sad, dishevelled, beseeching suitors on high streets does more harm than good … “because of the incontrovertible evidence that the vast majority of people begging on the streets are doing so in order to purchase hard drugs”. … If you want to help with money, give it to a relevant charity.

How have I never heard of this before?:

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