"We Need To Rewild The Internet" https://www.noemamag.com/we-need-to-rewild-the-internet/ "Information and decision-making power now flowed straight to the top. Decades later when the first crop was felled, vast fortunes were made, tree by standardized tree. The clear-felled forests were replanted, ready to extend the boom. Readers of the American political anthropologist of anarchy and order, James C. Scott, know what happened next."
Did you know the internet is carried around the world by around 800,000 miles of fragile cables that sit at the bottom of the ocean? It's a precarious system that is constantly breaking, and relies on a global network of ships to be on hand to repair them, and keep the world online.
In this long read, @theverge tells the story of the people doing that job, the struggles with recruitment, and what happens when "the world's most important infrastructure," falls foul of Mother Nature.
I am reading "Shape Up" in the sunshine out on our deck.
One editorial choice I noticed and like, preferring simple words and clear explanation over jargon. The author could have used the term, opportunity cost, but didn't. They pithily described it instead, in about six words.
I think that choice for plain language is making the book faster to read and easier to internalize.
The social norm is constructed: not naturally occurring but created by the society in which it is found.
Hence there are no actions which in themselves are inherently #abnormal or universally condemned by all societies at all times. Deviance is thus situational and contextual.
I just started reading Shape Up by Ryan Singer. My new $boss and $grandboss both recommended it. Apparently it strongly informs how we work at my new $dayjob. So far, makes sense.
I have long believed scope makes the most sense to leave variable. I like how that vow is first class in this approach. I had already picked up the idea of a cooldown period a while back but lacked it's original context in the fixed, usually six week, cycle. #LongRead
I started "Slow Productivity", by Cal Newport (link in earlier post). I am not very far in and already fascinated.
I've found one more reason to be suspect about the concept of 10x developers espoused by managers and execs. First, that is the productivity gain assembly lines brought to factories so suggests an expectation unfounded in the differences with modern knowledge work. Such people in my view are even more telling on themselves. #LongRead
"Three main tendencies compose the anti-trans bloc in America today. The first, and most obvious, is the religious right...The second tendency is also obvious, if smaller: gender-critical feminists, better known as TERFs...But the most insidious source of the anti-trans movement in this country is, quite simply, liberals."
After three long years of struggling with the book and analyzing it I finally put my thoughts into a coherent blogpost. I never expected the Ministry to be #solarpunk , but I hoped that it will paint a future to look forward to.
I think the frame of a frontier to exploit is apt and useful to understand motives and harms. My biggest qualms with LLMs isn't the tech but how it is being used and why. This piece touches on a lot of it through a more unified and historically rooted lens. #LongRead
Insightful analysis on the Apple Vision Pro from someone who worked at Oculus: what Apple got right that Oculus has not, why it’s intentionally “an over-engineered devkit”, and why it’s not worth buying yet.
Om de westerse sancties te ontwijken laat Rusland zijn ruwe olie in afgedankte tankers over de wereldzeeën vervoeren. De schepen uit deze ‘schaduwvloot’ zijn oud, gevaarlijk en slecht verzekerd. Ze hebben zelf ook brandstof nodig, die ze illegaal in Zeeland komen halen.
De vraag is waarom deze tankers in Nederland mogen bunkeren. Waarom faciliteert Nederland dit? En dan ook nog vlakbij een gevaarlijk punt: de kerncentrale van Borssele. De NRC zocht het uit... #longread
"If you ever wonder why state laws and policies are more radical than most Texans would prefer, the answer has a lot to do with Dunn and his checkbook. If you question why Texas’s elected officials no longer represent the majority of Texans’ views, the reason can be traced to the tactics employed by Dunn and the many organizations and politicians he funds and influences."
"There is already more than enough LNG export capacity to meet global demand for the fuel, if countries meet national and international climate goals."
In particular, it is inspiring me to work on my home office to reclaim it from being too closely associated with any $dayjob. My office is more than that--it is my lab, my studio, my work bench, my refuge. The last few years have stripped that down to a desk to churn out code from. I don't like that at all and hope I can change that, invert it. #LongRead
Just for fun, I've now happily skimmed through the Engoron civil fraud ruling (92 pages).
TL;DR? There are tasty bits in the closing pages, including the decisions for much tighter supervision of Trump Org etc that haven't been much mentioned in most reports.
To audiophiles, it was a sonic masterpiece. To his family, it was a monument to neglect. Ken Fritz's million-dollar stereo reigned supreme in the world of hi-fi, but its shadow cast a chilling darkness on his North Chesterfield home.
#Longread Wir wissen alles jetzt und müssen hinterher nicht die historische Aufarbeitung studieren, wie das passieren konnte, dass Deutschland wieder faschistisch wurde. Verbieten wir die AfD und zerschlagen wir die Strukturen. Jetzt.
"About 9 in 10 Chinese parents and two-thirds of American parents place hard work among the most important values to pass along to children. In Sweden, it’s 11 percent. This makes a lot of sense: Parents everywhere want to set their kids up for success, but 'the economic environment really shapes what that means,' Doepke said." https://www.theatlantic.com/family/archive/2024/01/america-failed-parents-rich-countries-raising-kids/677023/