what triggers you, teaches you.
[Get comfortable asking “what does that say about me?” to learn about why you have buttons people can push in the first place.]
what triggers you, teaches you.
[Get comfortable asking “what does that say about me?” to learn about why you have buttons people can push in the first place.]
Great hacks to know to start to New Year Clean!
[Put half a lemon in a Ziploc plastic bag and fill with vinegar, then tie to let your shower head soak inside for about an hour to descale and remove dirt inside.]
I changed the game from “online debate” to “potluck at my house.” I changed the goal from “let’s debate ideas” to “let’s enjoy each other’s company while having a stimulating conversation.” I changed the conversational medium from “type into a comment text box” to “discuss over food and drink.” And I changed the question from “What do you believe?” to the biggest unanswered question in my own head: “What’s the endgame for the gun-control debate?”
[By realizing that we knew less, we felt somehow wiser.]
A traditional essay makes a single case and puts all its weight behind it. A problem brief collects the best proposals [and criticisms] that attempt to answer the open question. That means it might have two or five or a hundred different proposals, each with supporting evidence and proposed actions, each a result of a collaboration between supporters and opponents.
[Focus on end-games instead of arguing specific points.]
the low doorway is meant to remind guests to enter with respect.
Be Kind, Everyone is Fighting a Social Atrophy You Know Nothing About
And so we struggle to reach out, and to respond with our fragile hurting brains. We want connection, and we also find the possibility potentially very difficult when we’re not doing so well. After all, if you invite someone over, they will see your messy house, and maybe judge you. And everyone’s “house” is a mess right now in one way or another.
love the hack to reach out right before ‘correspondence bankruptcy’ to reduce pressure on the recipient 👍🏽 i also try to generally cultivate a norm of ’no response necessary’ with anything i send; if it’s urgent i’ll call or say so.
this made me reflect on my frequent desire for solitude, often by saying or feeling that ‘my social cup is full’. i never thought that it might cost me some ‘social muscles’ but i can see that as a possibility if it goes on for too long. nevertheless, i’d like to think that i know when i want to have company and when not, that i have good judgement in balancing this within myself.
in what seems to now be a previous life, where i felt an overwhelming lack of social interaction, friendship, or companionship, i practiced what i called ‘shake the tree’ once or twice a year: dm everyone with warm wishes and my current city. many were happy i sent this, many reacted with a simple emoji, many didn’t respond, but it generally felt worthwhile for me.
Israel’s Genocide Betrays the Holocaust
A new world is being born. It is a world where the old rules, more often honored in the breach than the observance, no longer matter. It is a world where vast bureaucratic structures and technologically advanced systems carry out in public view vast killing projects. The industrialized nations, weakened, fearful of global chaos, are sending an ominous message to the Global South and anyone who might think of revolt — we will kill you without restraint.
Evil is protean. It mutates. It finds new forms and new expressions. Germany orchestrated the murder of six million Jews, as well as over six million Gypsies, Poles, homosexuals, communists, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Freemasons, artists, journalists, Soviet prisoners of war, people with physical and intellectual disabilities and political opponents. It immediately set out after the war to expiate itself for its crimes. It deftly transferred its racism and demonization to Muslims, with racial supremacy remaining firmly rooted in the German psyche.
Germany today is Israel’s second largest arms supplier following the U.S.
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)
@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.
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.
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.]