Personal

• I Was on a Podcast

  Feb 12, 2022 - 2 min read

  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 conversation that arose at both of my last two jobs, Amazon and Google. Should your most senior engineers, the ones with decades of experience and coding triumphs and tragedies under their belts, actually invest their time in grinding out semicolons and unit tests? Or do you get more leverage out of them with mentoring, designing systems and reviewing others’ designs, code reviews, and being the bridge between businesspeople and geeks?

• The Line Between Censorship and Moderation

  Aug 7, 2019 - 1 min read

  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 think about these positions of the stack very differently: the top of the stack is about broadcasting — reaching as many people as possible — and while you may have the right to say anything you want, there is no right to be heard.

• 30 Day Facebook Sabbatical

  Jan 20, 2019 - 2 min read

  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 farther and say March 1. If I don’t miss it during that time, I’ll just make it permanent.

  For the most part I enjoy my FB experience as it relates to friends & family and sharing what we’re all up to. There are a couple things that are accessible only on Facebook, such as a local kids’ science meet up. I will need to find another way to participate in the event planning.

• New Look

  Jan 17, 2019 - 1 min read

  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 found Hueman and quite like its simplicity and performance. I’ve had to edit a few posts here and there and create a “logo” for the header but overall I’m pleased.

  I will be evolving the site logo and logotype as part of my focus on the site so I’m hoping to improve it greatly.

• Leaving Facebook

  Jan 4, 2019 - 1 min read

  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

  May 2, 2018 - 1 min read

  I recently came across this collection of drawings by Julia Evans.

• Coldplay in Miami Aug 28, 2017

  Sep 3, 2017 - 2 min read

  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

  Apr 17, 2017 - 2 min read

  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. But here’s the thing: UAL is within its right to do this. They ask the guy to leave after random selection. He doesn’t (or sneaks back on). Security arrives. Then what? How does this go anywhere but straight to hell? I don’t get it. Do they just plead with him for a few hours? Move onto the next person? The security guy was apparently not acting appropriately (duh) but I still don’t see how the passenger can think this goes anywhere favorable for himself. Ditto for traffic stops that go badly (modulo some very bad incidents involving obviously biased behavior). Guy with gun tells you to do something, fucking do it. Challenge it in court once it is over.

• Hail Mary voting

  Mar 7, 2017 - 2 min read

  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

  Feb 19, 2017 - 2 min read

  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.

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