Today I spent several hours trying to help a friend think up ways to take control of the messaging for his dance organization. It's more or less just him running it at the moment but it's on the order of 100 people who are interested and sometimes come to his dance events. Right now it's communicating mostly through Facebook and Instagram. We talked about ways to make a website, forum, blog, sell subscriptions, calendaring 1/
It quickly became obvious how much "enclosure" there is in tech. You can't even add a webcal .ics file to your android calendar! (Not directly, requires login to desktop Google calendar). And you can't export a Google calendar as an ics! (At all). In any case lots of companies want to be the middleman in your business eventually taking a huge chunk of revenues for what is essentially a trivial service.
Someone asked me recently about the ability to "Read the Room" and whether or not this was a skill that can be developed. I certainly believe it is a skill and can be cultivated. Perhaps the most impactful maxim which can guide us in this regard was taught to me by a Jedi Knight who went by the name Zenchi from the Temple of the Jedi Order. He told me, "Learn to Observe without needing to React."
The Internet, particularly the social media algorithm demon, has created an incentive not just to React to everything, but to Observe specifically to React. In this way we often bias our interpretation of that which we observe with a skew towards the least charitable interpretation so that our reaction can be as extreme as possible.
To counteract this and hone this skill of reading the room, we can practice several behaviors that will improve our lives.
First, be the last person to speak in an interaction. When you allow everyone else to have their say, it gives you a chance to examine their perspectives and gauge their intentions.
Second, questions are better than statements. The cultivation of curiosity leads to more robust conversations. A statement can often be viewed as dismissive or ultimate in nature, sometimes leaving a conversation partner feeling as though there's nothing left to say. Curiosity, by contrast, is almost always viewed as an invitation to continue discourse.
Third, speak in a way that is pleasant. We've been taught to rely on flippancy and sarcasm in modern discourse as we assume the intentions of others or deliberately misconstrue them to make ourselves look superior. By engaging with someone in a pleasant way, we can disarm hostility. Even if others fail to uphold this standard, we will still maintain our own peace which is of a value beyond measure.
The developer of LastLogin.io has implemented FedCM on his end, but he needs the help of a Discourse plugin developer to test the complete login pipeline with his own community forum.
Liebe Leserinnen und Leser. Mich erreichen viele Anfragen. Ich freue mich über das Interesse, gleichzeitig kann und werde ich nur einen Bruchteil der Fragen beantworten können. Es ist einfach eine Frage der Zeit. Ich würde mich daher freuen, wenn ihr eure Fragen über das Kuketz-Forum stellt. Dort gibt es kompetente Teilnehmer, die euch in den meisten Fällen weiterhelfen können. 👇 💬
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