431 entries for 2024

An overflowing of difference

Conviviality is an overflowing of difference in the environment. There is so much difference being communicated that the only device possible to transmit it is the world itself. The map expands to the size of the territory. When in the presence of so much information, we feel it is incommunicable. I can’t explain it… I don’t even know where to begin.

On Storytelling

[Find shared language by replacing 'true statements' with words that convey the emotional experience around your solution.]

[Finding ways to solve multiple issues simultaneously helps tell a stronger story than a list of bug fixes or closed issues: try to holistically answer 'what actually happened?']

What is Success?

[Community is about helping each other, rather than having similar interests or agreements or approaches.]

Social media keeps the locus of attention on small formats, which makes it easy to weaponize for misinformation.

"don't want to do tech but doing it anyway"

Don't Fuck It Up!

[Randomize your MAC address often.]

[Tor is for anonymity, not encryption: you need to configure it to avoid sending unencrypted data.]

The Economics of Programming Languages

[People expect the same project execution from a single-person as with a company without the 'traffic and acquisition' money that often finances such development.]

[Businesses who commercialize other open source projects save the cost of developing them, whereas authors who try to commercialize their own projects will be out competed by any entity with more resources.]

"The Open Source Way" is for businesses.

following the signs toward an imminent hopeful cybernetic future.

agency over platform

in it, but not of it

Fishbowl

[An unconference gathering structure with chairs in the middle of the audience where anyone can sit to speak but it requires another person in the center to leave; one chair left empty invites new people to join anytime.]

Neologisms

Hospice Mode: The stage your when your phone / fitness tracker / laptop is in its final months and you're just prolonging its death through a series of coping techniques. Carrying around extra battery packs. Patiently giving it 10 minutes to restart. Resetting the system at regular intervals.

Manel: Panel made up entirely of men. Usually honouring work done entirely by other men.

Pinkering: Named for Steven Pinker - a common phenomenon among do-gooder elites who cite the long arc of human history in order to downplay and minimise any immediate suffering.

Privacy Veganism: Unnecessarily shaming people who aren't willing to delete their Facebook account when it’s a functional necessity in their social context

If it's obvious to you, it's for someone else.

Mailbag #2

[You can avoid keeping up with news directly by listening to podcasts that might give a sense of important issues indirectly.]

One Pot Pony

A lazy person's guide to delicious meal prep

This is the power of Combinatorial Cooking. From a seemingly limited set of base ingredients, there is a whole universe of food options you can prepare quickly and easily.

The wok lets you boil, saute, stir-fry, and simmer. The spaghetti spoon lets you stir, mix, scrape, and mash. They're both incredibly versatile and easy to clean. It's all you need to make any Combinatorial Cooking recipe. Plus, using a wok makes you look and feel like a real chef, that's just science.

Untools

Thinking tools and frameworks to help you solve problems, make decisions and understand systems.

Open Source Is a Restaurant

Open Source is a restaurant. At a restaurant, you eat your meal first, and then you are expected to pay for it. Yes, we could dine and dash. But we don’t. When presented with a tab for a meal we have just eaten, we pay the tab.

Asymmetry might be a synonym for power.

Listing your options sensitizes you to notice them.