I Was on a Podcast
Some time last year I started a company-wide email conversation about an article by Tim Bray: But Should I Code? Seriously, it’s reasonable to ask that question at this stage of my career. It’s a con
Category: Personal
The Line Between Censorship and Moderation
Ben Thompson of Stratechery has a fantastic piece discussing a few of the issues surrounding content moderation on the Internet. As to the dynamics of publishers vs infrastructure… It makes sense to
30 Day Facebook Sabbatical
Well I was going to leave completely but I know myself well enough that I probably can’t commit to an absolute position straight away so I will instead exit Facebook for 30 days. Let’s go a bit farthe
New Look
Part of the reason I’m leaving Facebook is to spend more time on thoughtful content here on my site. I was never completely happy with the old theme but I left it in place for quite awhile. Recently I
Leaving Facebook
I’m not sure I ever trusted Facebook with my personal data but I have most of the time found enough value in its service to overlook the drawbacks. With news of the 2016 election influence and underhanded decisions by Facebook since then, I have decided to tip the scales the other way and leave the service.
Conversations
I recently came across this collection of drawings by Julia Evans. This one resonated with me: trick: talk about statements being wrong, not people being wrong. (“that’s not correct”, etc). We’re al
Coldplay in Miami Aug 28, 2017
I’ve rewritten the intro to the post twice, sparing you all the history of missing the last few Coldplay shows and why we finally wanted to see them in Miami. You’re welcome.
I Was Wrong About the United Debacle
Not being quite content with the color of this particular bike shed, I posted this on Facebook April 10: The forceful removal of the UAL passenger is very unfortunate and seems to smell pretty badly.
Hail Mary voting
There are plenty of reasons and justifications for why Donald Trump “beat the odds” and won the presidency last November. The most compelling, I think, is this one laid out by Mark Cuban in his interview with Nate Silver: I made a huge mistake in how I evaluated it, obviously. I thought logic and common sense and facts mattered to most voters. But the reality is, we all — including all of us here — tend to take the path of least resistance.
Compelling Take on Right vs Left
I’ve been reading – and greatly enjoying – Scott Alexander’s writing over at Slate Star Codex. I don’t recall how I first ran across this trove of deep though but it’s worth noting that /r/slatestarcodex is also a thing. Among his (self-selected?) best-of list is this gem from 2013 entitled A Thrive/Survive Theory of the Political Spectrum. Part way through, he gives up the goods: Okay, I’ll put you out of your misery and tell you my hypothesis now. My hypothesis is that rightism is what happens when you’re optimizing for surviving an unsafe environment, leftism is what happens when you’re optimized for thriving in a safe environment.