367 entries for Canada

Inflation means: after working to earn money, you need to work again so that “your money works for you”.

SCAMPER is a procedural idea generator

S: Can I substitute a material? A key ingredient? A process? What happens if I substitute an emotion? Can I substitute the packaging for something else?

C: Can I combine different components to create something new? Can I bundle things in a new way? Can I combine different use-cases, such as author and reader, or seller and buyer?

A: Can I adapt a process from somewhere else? A component from something else? Can I adapt it to existing infrastructure? Can I adjust something just 3% to create something new?

M: Can I modify the form factor? Shape? Color? Can I magnify the key idea? What happens if I magnify an attribute beyond all reason? Or minify it?

P: Can I put a component to other uses? A mechanism? A process? An idea? A set of rules? Can I transform a waste product into an input? Can I put it to use in another context? Can I translate it into another medium? Create spinoffs?

E: Can I eliminate a rule? Can I simplify it? Make it compact? Eliminate a feature? Remove a complication?

R: Can I reverse a relationship? An assumption? What happens if I reverse my point of view? Can I rearrange the sequence? The layout? The structure? Can I rearrange the components to create something new?

Jan

[Run AI LLMs locally on your computer]

Yancey Strickler on Metalabel and Post-Individualism

[Revolutions inspired by Catholic church forbidding intra-family marriage gave rise to cities, universities, guilds as ways for people related by blood to meet eachother.]

A Fediverse, if you can keep it

Companies might serve as on-ramps, but at the end of the day this is a network of people sharing things with other people. You’re not blocking Meta; you’re blocking countless people who would otherwise stand to benefit from the open nature of the network. And the cruel irony here is that preemptive blocking is what will ultimately destroy the Fediverse as we know it. People want to connect with one another, and they’re going to do it one way or another. (And we’re right back to WhatsApp again.)

How do we evaluate people for their technical leadership?

Programmers’ chief value does not come from producing code. It comes from knowing enough about the situation to solve automation and scaling problems. Code that doesn’t solve those problems is worthless to the organization. If code that doesn’t solve those problems gets deployed somewhere, it’s worse than worthless because it incurs maintenance costs in addition to being worthless.

Perhaps even more importantly, though, they ensure that the wrong thing does not get done. And that is what makes them look worthless: their chief outcome is the absence of something. […] It’s the breaches that didn’t happen because someone double-checked what this SQL did. It’s the multi-server failure that did not occur because two separate engineers saw the warning signs and one responded to the other in a messaging channel. It’s the disaster feature that got killed because someone who understands inclusion demonstrated how it might be used to attack a marginalized constituency.

It’s all about appearing nice so they never have to be kind.

Make time for flowers.

how to disagree better

[Disagree without getting them defensive with phrases like “I see it differently”, “I have a different way of getting there”, and “I lean towards the opposite”.]

Fascism, Beauty and Truth

[Having to argue for equality reveals that the situation is already failed.]

[If that’s the best you’ve got, I can see why you’re so eager to use it.]

[There’s a difference between agreeing and choosing agreement as your ‘move’ in a specific context.]

Super glue with baking soda

[Combine baking soda with glue to strengthen the bonding.]

Spreadsheets are like functions with built-in visualization of meaningful inputs and outputs.

What incentivizes a business to treat existing customers better than new ones?

Let’s talk about what a concept of Japanese art can teach us about masculinity….

[Masculinity embodies effortless perfection, and a giveaway that someone’s pretending is to see them trying.]

Let’s talk about 1916, 1984, thought, and rebellion….

[Anything that can be taught by a meme can be countered by one.]

Let’s talk about what happens “if you don’t get an education”….

[Don’t confuse credentials with education.]

[‘Representatives’ should also have something in common with you.]

Profound difference in approach between recreating something familiar and the curiosity of relating to where you currently are.

How Jacob Collier Reinvented The Guitar

[Being uncertain and curious is a more interesting place for me than knowing what I’m doing.]

[More important than recognizing the name or function of the notes played, I have an awareness of their emotional properties and how they will pull the listener into specific spaces.]

[It’s popular and valid to recreate and enjoy something you heard before; try to be clear when you want that versus something new.]

[Rather than have a disciplined practice regime, I find myself in specific and tsrgeted moments of deep exploration.]

[One of the best gifts you can give to an audience is to fumble, because it’s an invitation for them to join you at the edge of your own exploration where mist of the interesting stuff is. Music isn’t really that serious.]

A master with the humility to learn on camera.

Who does it serve when an economy costs you more and more over time?

Money is not timeless.