A work in the wisdom literature genre that deserves to be more widely known is Spanish philosopher Balthasar Gracián’s 1647 Oráculo Manual, AKA The Art of Worldly Wisdom. It consists of 300 numbered paragraphs, each starting with a very short proverbial saying and then explaining some insight about human nature and how to get on in the world. As the title suggests, it is definitely on the pragmatic side, with surprisingly few expressions of traditional piety, especially considering that Gracián was a Jesuit.

This is a description of my own variation on ErgoEmacs-style key bindings for Emacs. Xah Lee’s writings on the inefficiency and poor ergonomics of Emacs’ standard key bindings stuck in my mind from the first time I read them and permanently changed how I think about keyboard shortcuts. The single biggest idea is that the Alt key is a more ergonomic modifier to use than Ctrl, because you can hit it or hold down with your thumb by curling it under the other fingers.