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curiosity typo fixes

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Wouter Groeneveld 2021-11-29 20:12:24 +01:00
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@ -17,9 +17,9 @@ Herodotus' curiosity about what is happening to ordinary inhabitants of his era
Twenty centuries later, the chaotic but everyday maelstrom of masts creaking, sailors yelling, and waves sloshing indicates a boat is about to set sail. The _Beagle_, under the command of Royal Navy officer and scientist Robert FitzRoy, was tasked with charting the coastline of South America. A twenty-two years old Brit managed to persuade FitzRoy to join the crew as a naturalist. That young man was called Charles Darwin.
The captain sent Darwin ashore to investigate the local geology while the _Beagle_ itself continued surveying and charting the coasts. Darwin's curiosity wasn't limited to geology: it was the perfect excuse for him to explore and collect samples of local fauna and flora, making extensive notes while back on the ship---not only in what he saw, but also on theoretical speculations.
The captain sent Darwin ashore to investigate the local geology while the _Beagle_ itself continued surveying and charting the coasts. Darwin's curiosity wasn't limited to geology: it was the perfect excuse for him to explore and collect samples of local fauna and flora, making extensive notes while back on the ship---not only on what he saw, but also on theoretical speculations.
Darwin wasn't an expert in biology: he only knew a little bit about geology and had the odd beetle collection back home. He was a novice at pretty much all other areas, but his curiosity wasn't diminished because of it: perhaps exactly the opposite happened. Despite suffering from prolonged periods of seasickness, he still managed to write down anything that piked his interest---which was almost _everything_.
Darwin wasn't an expert in biology: he only knew a little bit about geology and had the odd beetle collection back home. He was a novice at pretty much all other areas, but his curiosity wasn't diminished because of it: precisely the opposite happened. Despite suffering from prolonged periods of seasickness, he still managed to write down anything that piked his interest---which was almost _everything_.
In 1836, the _Beagle_ finally returned to Plymouth, after a journey of five years. Six months after the grand adventure, Darwin slowly but surely started connecting the dots. His extensive notes, reworked into papers and his _Journal_, revealed that "one species does change into another". His seminal work, _On the Origin of Species_, eventually published in 1859, would still be a long way off (23 years!), first requiring several more essays, conversations with befriended scientists, more revisions, and very long thought walks.
@ -27,17 +27,17 @@ In 1836, the _Beagle_ finally returned to Plymouth, after a journey of five year
One hundred and sixty years later, the sizzling of molten tin accompanied with small circles of smoke fill a small office space in Colindale, London. The floor is littered with DIY-printed circuit boards and unscrewed _Tetris_ Game Boy cartridges. A couple of software and electronics engineers are hacking together a Game Boy development kit by reverse-engineering _Tetris_.
Jez San, founder of British video game developer Argonaut Games, crossed paths with Nintendo's Game Boy during an electronics fair in 1989. The lovingly "little" Gray Brick immediately attracted his attention. Once back home, San decided to direct programming efforts from the Spectrum and Amiga to Nintendo's ecosystems. Only, Nintendo was very stingy at handing out official development kits, especially outside of Japan. The solution? Build one yourself by connecting wires from a cartridge to chips on a home-made circuit board.
Jez San, founder of British video game developer Argonaut Games, crossed paths with Nintendo's Game Boy during an electronics fair in 1989. The lovely "little" Gray Brick immediately attracted his attention. Once back home, San decided to direct programming efforts from the Spectrum and Amiga to Nintendo's ecosystems. Only, Nintendo was very stingy at handing out official development kits, especially outside of Japan. The solution? Build one yourself by connecting wires from a cartridge to chips on a home-made circuit board.
New programming recruit Dylan Cuthbert was tasked with the development of Aronaut's first Game Boy game that would become _X_, or _Ekkusu_. San thought it would be cool to develop a 3D space simulator for the Game Boy---something they had already achieved on other platforms with the _Starglider_ series. Only, the Game Boy houses a variant of the Z80 CPU, running at `3.5 MHz`. Even worse, it can only display four shades of ~~drab~~ gray. Luckily, Cuthbert proved to be up for the task. The fully 3D-rendered meshes in the game even impressed Nintendo, inviting the team over to Japan.
New programming recruit Dylan Cuthbert was tasked with the development of Aronaut's first Game Boy game that would become _X_, or _Ekkusu_. San thought it would be cool to develop a 3D space simulator for the Game Boy---something they had already achieved on other platforms with the _Starglider_ series. Only, the withered Game Boy technology houses a variant of the meager Z80 CPU, running at `3.5 MHz`. Even worse, it can only display four shades of ~~drab~~ gray. Luckily, Cuthbert proved to be up for the task. The fully 3D-rendered meshes in the game even impressed Nintendo, inviting the team over to Japan.
_X_ would be the beginning of a shared history between Argonaut Games and Nintendo. Nintendo's interest in British boldness got Argonaut and Cuthbert heavily involved in the development of the _Super FX_ RISC co-processor, powering _Yoshi's Island_, the _DOOM_ Super Nintendo port, and of course, _Star Fox_, also developed by Argonaut. Cuthbert's 3D hardware experience eventually landed him a job at Sony, helping developers unlock the power of the first two PlayStation generations. He eventually started his own company Q-Games, well-known for the _PixelJunk_ series.
_X_ would be the beginning of a shared history between Argonaut Games and Nintendo. Nintendo's interest in British boldness got Argonaut and Cuthbert heavily involved in the development of the _Super FX_ RISC co-processor, powering _Yoshi's Island_ (2D sprite scaling), the _DOOM_ Super Nintendo port (Binary Space Partitioning), and of course, _Star Fox_ (true 3D polygons), also developed by Argonaut. Cuthbert's 3D hardware experience landed him a job at Sony, helping developers unlock the power of the first two PlayStation generations. He eventually started his own company Q-Games based in Japan, well-known for the _PixelJunk_ series.
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What is the greatest common divisor between Herodotus' herculean effort to meet people and write down their story, Charles Darwin's extensive notes on geology and biology, and Argonaut Games' soldering hack to peek inside a _Tetris_ cartridge? All three examples showcase a great curiosity: for the tales of others and the history of empires, for the evolution of nature and the origin of species, and for the inner workings of a piece of hardware.
What is the greatest common divisor between Herodotus' herculean effort to meet people and write down their story, Charles Darwin's extensive notes on geology and biology, and Argonaut Games' soldering hack to peek inside a _Tetris_ cartridge? All three examples showcase a lot of curiosity: about the tales of others and the history of empires, about the evolution of nature and the origin of species, and about the inner workings of a piece of hardware.
It it weren't for the curiosity and persistence of these people, we would have lost even more ancient Greek and Persian knowledge, we would still have no idea how nature evolves when sea life crawled upon land, and a _Super FX_ chip might never have been released on time to prolong the life of the Super Nintendo.
If it weren't for the curiosity and persistence of these people, we would have lost even more ancient Greek and Persian knowledge, we would still have no idea how nature evolves when sea life crawled upon land, and a _Super FX_ chip might never have been released on time to prolong the life of the Super Nintendo. Perhaps Sega might have won the 16-bit war!
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi's interviewed geniuses attribute _curiosity_ and _perseverance_ as the two most important personality traits for their creative success. Without curiosity, there is little motivation to learn or build something. Without perseverance, there is little chance of effectively finishing the work. Creativity is not creativity without the initial curiosity that gets everything started.