168 entries for 2023

Does broadcasting happen because others make copies of the post? Does something exist online forever because someone made a copy?

[To any disagreement, you can ask: What’s really at stake here? If true, what happens? What truth would cause you to change your mind? If this were no longer a problem, how would we get there?]

[‘Nutpicking’ is to select the most extreme viewpoint so that it’s easy to tear apart; an empty victory that invites another cycle.]

[Consider helping the opposition build their strongest arguments and enlist them to build up yours. Iron sharpens iron, and each of you is best suited to find flaws in the others’ approach.]

[We’re easily blind to the loopholes in our own desires.]

[Even if one side wins through power, do they really expect the other side to simply shut up about it forever?]

What is your relationship to the unknown? What is it like to have sensitivity to nature and spirits?

[Reason habituates us to asking black-and-white questions like “what is real?” and “what actually happened?” when actually there’s no need to go there, to the point that some people feel a sense of duty to correct others who believe in something considered unacceptable.]

[Ghosts are more heart-realm metaphors than head-realm beings.]

To ask a good question, walk right up to the perimeter of your current understanding about something and find a question that you don’t know the answer to.

[Instead of “are ghosts real?” ask “what experiences led you to your beliefs?”.]

It’s amazing to have a chance to peek into someone’s belief systems and memories, a treasure trove wasted by a bad question.

[People don’t need to answer, or do so truthfully.]

[Open and honest dialogue requires the information shared to not be weaponized.]

[The fruits of disagreement include: 1. security (negotiating for foundation); 2. growth (taking risks to discover new possibilities and potential security); 3. connection (being able to relate to people with diverse perspectives); and 4. enjoyment, learning to enjoy fundamental disagreements because the discussion brings new nuance each time.]

[Going beyond battling for security diffuses the zero-sum game to enable everyone to gain and grow from the experience.]

[The voice of reason makes sense of things by connecting to all the other things that give authority and power to its wielder.]

[Ghosts and spirits are a more a language to talk about unknown forces that influence us and less a physical being that we can’t interact with.]

Let’s talk about a New Year’s resolution, a message, and change….

I have known you before. The only ones I still know are the ones that left and never looked back.

Some reflections on last night’s hawtt Jew-on-Jew action with @thedandelionking

[‘Might makes right’ disqualifies someone from leftism.]

Let’s talk about balance and advice for the unvaccinated….

Make a plan for your kids, discuss it with them. Write your will. Sign a power of attorney. Talk about DNR/DNI with your family and decide if it’s right for you. Make one box for originals or copies of the following: life insurance policy; home and car owners insurance; medical and vaccination records; tax records; court orders, such as child support and custody; social security card; marriage license; birth certificate; passports; vehicle titles and registrations; important documents and anything you don’t want to lose; copies of last months bills (make it easy for the person taking care)

I see you, with errors in your ways, and I choose compassion.

[It’s a strange time to do ’living’ things.]

@danielbmate x @thedandelionking

[What’s the difference between destroying in the name of your country versus your god?]

Twitter’s game mechanics select for a low-effort posting strategy, the dunking game. The rules are: find a way to misunderstand the tweet so that it is wrong. If you can’t, quote it out of context so that it is wrong. Tired.

Lines — Scenes from Egypt

If you are loud & obnoxious, you’ll most likely get your paperwork done first, because the agent can’t focus with all your noise and just wants to finish your stuff quickly & get it over with. Unless it backfires and the agent decides to turn around for a few minutes and sip his coffee while everyone calms down.

The Tyranny of the Marginal User

a company with a billion-user product doesn’t actually care about its billion existing users. It cares about the marginal user - the billion-plus-first user - and it focuses all its energy on making sure that marginal user doesn’t stop using the app. Yes, if you neglect the existing users’ experience for long enough they will leave, but in practice apps are sticky and by the time your loyal users leave everyone on the team will have long been promoted.

The first thing you need to know about Marl is that he has the attention span of a goldfish on acid. Once Marl opens your app, you have about 1.3 seconds to catch his attention with a shiny image or triggering headline, otherwise he’ll swipe back to TikTok and never open your app again.

Marl’s tolerance for user interface complexity is zero. As far as you can tell he only has one working thumb, and the only thing that thumb can do is flick upwards in a repetitive, zombielike scrolling motion.

You might think Marl just doesn’t know about the settings. You might think to make things more convenient for Marl, perhaps add a little “see less like this” button below a piece of content. Oh boy, are you ever wrong This absolutely infuriates Marl. On the margin, the handful of pixels occupied by your well-intentioned little button replaced pixels that contained a triggering headline or a cute image of a puppy. Insufficiently stimulated, Marl throws a fit and swipes over to TikTok, never to return to your app. Your feature decreases DAUs in the A/B test. In the launch committee meeting, you mumble something about “user agency as your VP looks at you with pity and scorn. Your button doesn’t get deployed. You don’t get your promotion. Your wife leaves you. Probably for Marl.

A substantial fraction of the world’s most brilliant, competent, and empathetic people, armed with near-unlimited capital and increasingly god-like computers, spend their lives serving Marl.

The short instructional manifesto for relationship anarchy

Love isn’t more ‘real’ when acting out of compromise.

Tiktok’s enshittification

This is enshittification: surpluses are first directed to users; then, once they’re locked in, surpluses go to suppliers; then once they’re locked in, the surplus is handed to shareholders and the platform becomes a useless pile of shit. From mobile app stores to Steam, from Facebook to Twitter, this is the enshittification lifecycle.

[The word ‘monetize’ implies there is no ‘attention economy’ in the pure sense: users need to pay fiat at some point.]

Gut-Friendly Fruit Sodas

[Add some ginger bug starter to pressed juice; anything with natural sugars will do, and you can add maple syrup if none. close, and let sit for 3 days or until bubbles form. Burp them daily to avoid that they explode.]

Fermented Ginger Bug!

[Combine 6tsp chopped ginger, 4 tsp unrefined sugar, and 2 cups filtered room temperature water. Close well, shake, and let sit for a 24 hours. Feed daily with 2 tsp ginger and sugar for 3–5 days until bubbles form.]

when should one pay attention to critics? or the choir? or both equally?

Think outside the project.

Exalting data, missing meaning

[Data-centric approaches might better fit fields like manufacturing, transport, and aviation, perhaps less so education, consumer products, and other domains involving messy humans; we risk depriving ourselves of insights from philosophy, intuition, and stories, as they may still be inaccessible through quantitative approaches.]

[Specific initiatives might appear to have no effect on engagement, but might unexpectedly and invisibly affect the actor’s social or political over the long-term.]