Stuff I Looked Up

I consume a lot of content, and I analyze things to death. As a result, I look up a lot of stuff.

For one month (August 2021), I decided to keep track of all the stuff I looked up. It came to almost 100 things. I enjoy researching and writing, so I’ve kept it up since then.

Some of these are things I had never heard of before. But a lot of them are things I “sort of knew.” I tend to figure out things from context a lot, and just fake my way through things. Many of the items below fit that category – stuff I was just faking or fudging, but finally decided to look up and settle.

If it’s just a single term, then I was looking up the definition. Its existence in the list doesn’t mean I was totally ignorant of the term, rather it means that I wasn’t totally sure I knew it, or was wondering if I had been wrong about it.

If I was trying to figure out something more specific, I have listed the more specific question answer below it.

I hope I’m smarter because of it. And I hope you enjoy it.

Recently Added

Recently Updated

See a list of all updates

Common Tags

See a list of all tags

The Stuff I Looked Up

Links to this – Deane Barker's Resume
A long-form resume I keep generally up-to-date.
Links to this – Everything is Figureoutable August 3, 2022
I feel like an idiot for this one, I really do. I’m very curious. I look up stuff all the time, and I even keep track of it all. So, the title of this book made me thinking it was about…I don’t know what? Research? Learning? Satisfying your curiosity? It’s not. This is a mainstream self-help book....
Links to this – Spark: How Genius Ignites, From Child Prodigies to Late Bloomers July 18, 2023
This is a pretty simple book. It tells short, chapter-length biographies of 12 people (plus one bonus person). It tries to get at the source of what made each of them special. Some examples: Shirley Temple had a strong bond with her mother who managed her career. She avoided Hollywood child actor...
Links to this – Lost in Thought: The Hidden Pleasures of an Intellectual Life September 1, 2025
I loved the title and subtitle of this book. I was enamored with the idea of an “intellectual life.” And this is a neat thing. I mean, we have love lives and social lives and sex lives, but how many people talk about an intellectual life? I feel like I have this, but I never really had a word for...
Links to this – Personal Content
A list of non-tech content that I have created and sometimes maintain.
Links to this – What I'm Doing Right Now March 4, 2025
Well, this is long overdue. Here’s what’s happening in general –
Links to this – Powering the World's Airliners: Engine Developments from the Propeller to the Jet Age July 1, 2024
I normally find things to research by reading books. This time I read a book because I wanted to learn more about a thing I was researching. I was writing this entry: Types of Aircraft Engines . I wanted to know more about the differences between turboprops and turbofans. So I found this book, and...
Links from this – Updates
This is a list of content in this section that has been updated, along with the most recent updated annotation.