BiteofanApple

brianschrader.com · English

Thoughts, and ramblings about technology, programming, history, and whatever else I'm interested in.

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The Medieval Origin of the Ph.D. Dissertation
Sep 14, 2026 · original
Radical change can seem small when seen up close. I was deep in the weeds, reading again about Mr. George Starkey , a doctor and alchemist living in London in the 1650s. Starkey's life has been a subject of some study by historians of science precisely because a lot of his work survives. We have his numerous published works, those of his contemporaries, and his especially valuable private work diaries. It was in the passages of one of these diaries that Dr. Lawrence Principe and Dr. William Newman puzzled through precisely how Starkey and his collaborators (Newton, Boyle, and Van Helmont) formulated and practiced what would become the modern scientific method. Starkey, for example, records his experiments in a traditional Scholastic style. In those days schools taught using a method derived originally from Roman jurisprudence later adopted for use in theology: the disputation. There were
Gatekeepers are Dead, Long Live the Gatekeepers
Aug 24, 2026 · original
Before the Internet things were different; this was the First Age. If you wanted to get your message out there you needed either a lot of money, fame, or power. Usually you needed some combination of all three. Barring that you needed to find someone with money, fame, or power (or some combination) who was also willing to help you. These people were often elites of some kind. They could be professionals with an industry journal, the editor of a local magazine, a rich patron with connections, or even political party officials. These were the people who held the keys needed to pass into the public sphere: gatekeepers. Their job was to search out people of interest, people with something interesting to say, and promote them. Musicians needed talent scouts, authors needed agents, writers needed editors. Guarding the entrance to the bridge. The Saturday Magazine, 1836–03: Vol 8 Iss 240 Attent
With Flying Pen, When Mortals Sleep
Aug 10, 2026 · original
It was a sweltering August day. I made my way across the promenade, and through the bustling crowd, to a small line forming outside the Timkin Art Museum. Inside, I stumbled on Pieter Bruegel the Elder's Parable of the Sower , painted in 1557, nearly five centuries ago. Photo: The Yorck Project (2002) 10.000 Meisterwerke der Malerei When Bruegel took his brush to this canvas, the New World had just been found by Europeans, and the United States was still long into the future. Around me then were all those people, those wandering souls, who across those centuries stood before this same piece and idly mused at a thing made by the hands of a long-dead Flemish man. I thought about him . Not Bruegel—another man—one whom I've come to know these past few years. He does not know of me, yet we both could have seen this very painting. We were connected through the mists of time by this canvas port
What is Potential Energy, Really?
Jul 27, 2026 · original
As with seemingly every other man my age, I've taken up running to stay fit. Your metabolism slows as you age and what used to come for free with youth now takes time and deliberate effort to maintain. I don't care for the running, but it needs to be done. The thing is: it does give me lots of idle time to think, just like a long walk. Both have become for me a form of meditation, a way to de-stress and to mull over complex ideas. I find that I think better when I'm moving, regardless of precisely how. Yet, near the end of every run my thoughts inevitably return to the same idea: When will this be over? I want to be done. Of course I want to complete my run, to go the distance I set for myself, but I also want, very badly, to do it in the most efficient way possible. The Optimal Route To end where you started, any route must go south for just as long as it goes north and the same goes fo
Friendship is an Exponential Function
Jul 13, 2026 · original
What allows you to make friends and to keep them? Being a social person helps with making friends, surely. As does putting in the effort to be a good friend. But I'm sure we've all had the experience of wanting to become friends with someone, but yet it never really happens. Maybe there's never the time. Maybe you're too far apart, and I mean that literally. This is something I've observed over time, as friends move around and as people's lives grow, evolve, and change: the total friendship between two people evolves as a function of distance. I think this is how we want or expect friendship to behave. This means that two people, given the inclination to become friends, will see their friendship improve and decay based on their physical distance from each other—how far they live from each other. I think this makes intuitive sense. Two people who live together obviously see each other mor
Because it Speaks in Words
Jun 29, 2026 · original
There is a difference between knowing something, and truly understanding it. I think we've all had those moments, the ones where a truth you learned a long time ago really sits with you for the first time. It rests in your mind and stretches out, finally showing off the great expanse of nuance hidden deep within. Photo: mine. Most nights when you happen to spy the Moon, Jupiter, and Venus sitting in a line in the sky, you see them as the dots beside a crescent that they are. Yet sometimes, when framed amid the sunset sky above the wisps of silver cloud, you see them differently. You realize in that moment that you, your great-grandparents, Julius Caesar, and Aristotle all saw this same sky. It has always been for us. We know so much about Jupiter and Venus today, yet no human eye has ever seen more than you're seeing now. I think we are all, in this time, realizing the true power of word
Would You Believe that This is It?
Jun 15, 2026 · original
Last year I heard this song from a band called Loser Demon. The song is called Holding Ground and here's the chorus that has been stuck in my soul ever since (added words, mine): would you believe that this is it and it is good? doesn't surprise me and i hope that it never would (I'm) holding ground I heard that phrase and was immediately repulsed the first time, yet something about it lingered in my heart. I think that reaction is likely the same for lots of people these days. I mean, look at the world? Look at the strife and the trouble and the heartache? How can this be good? I think for me the real wisdom in those lyrics is that it's not describing what ought to be, but what is. Can the world be better? You better believe it. In so, so many ways. Yet the first part of that line reminds me of something else: the feeling of growing up and seeing that the adults are just as scared and c
The True Expense of Nature
Jun 1, 2026 · original
It's Saturday morning, and you have no plans. Perhaps your schedule happened to line up that way, perhaps the kids are gone, or maybe it's just luck. Regardless, it's glorious. You bask in the glow of a lazy morning while you decide just how you're going to spend today. In your mind you go over different ideas, considering each and its consequences. You could go to the beach! No, too much effort. You could stay in and read a book, but it's a nice day. You could read outside. Perhaps though it's better to go for a long walk first, grab a coffee maybe? You need to grab some things at the store, and that's on the way. Eventually you arrive at a plan: walk to get coffee, read for a while at the café, then stop by the store on the way home! An excellent plan—efficient and relaxing! What have you just done? How did you arrive at this decision? There were so many variables, a nearly infinite po
A Field Guide to Learning
May 11, 2026 · original
Let's say you're someone who wants to learn about an academic discipline. Perhaps advanced Physics, Sociology, Early-Modern History, or Cognition Science. Of course, there's YouTube pop-sci videos (which I love) and no shortage of products and services that purport to teach you the basics. But what do you do when you want to go beyond those basics? I'm not an expert, but I have been on a few of these journeys myself and so I want to lay out the paths I've taken and offer some advice to those who, like me starting out, had a very hazy view of the terrain and no idea who to trust with your education. Starting Simple As you can see, I like this series quite a bit For anything vaguely academic in nature, I highly recommend trying out one of the books in the Very Short Introduction series. The books are, as expected, very short (~100 pages) and cover a quick survey of the topic at hand and it
Why You Can't Write That Book
Apr 27, 2026 · original
I could do that, I just need more time. In life we are constantly wishing we had more of something: time, money, friends, energy, etc., and we develop plans to try and meet these goals. We alter our diets, our schedules, we start exercising or reading more. Often times these changes result in significant improvements to our lives. Yet, we never have the energy, the time, or the money that we want. Even when we do succeed in making changes, something else comes up and blocks further progress. The eternal curse. Let's say you want to write a book. You change your schedule to allow for dedicated writing time. However during that time, you're unmotivated. You diet and exercise and read interesting books, trying to kindle the enthusiasm you know you have, but now you have no energy left to write. You have the time, but only to spend staring at a blank page. Life is a constant balance of parti

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