Elsewhere
A collection of links to other places that I found interesting.
Check the index page for the current text playlist.
The past is not true
"We think of the past like it’s a physical fact - like it’s real. But the past is what we call our memory and stories about it. Imperfect memories, and stories built on one interpretation of incomplete information. That’s “the past”."
Simple Systems Have Less Downtime
"The Maersk Triple-E Class container ship is 1,300 feet long, carries over 18,000 containers across 11,000 miles between Europe and Asia, and… Its entire crew can fit inside a passenger van."
Notes on home and travel
"We have seen every sunset and almost every sunrise, we have sailed with dolphins, we have climbed mountains on deserted islands, and we have met the most amazing people. When it is our time to go, we will have no regrets, for we were fortunate to have seen more than we could ever hope for."
Attitude And Character
"Where does this strong will and hardness come from? It derives from recognizing desires and goals and then enduring whatever it takes to fulfill them. A strong will grows from suffering successfully and being rewarded for it. Does a strong will come from years of multi-hour training runs or do those runs result from a dominating will? There is no right answer because will and action feed one another."
Zone of Control
"Truth be told, there are a small amount of things that are under our direct control."
Four Lessons from Misogi
"We can no longer plan and control. We have to get our minds right and focus on the present moment. The military leverages this same technique in its Special Forces selection camps."
Uneasy on the Ear: An Interview with Lola De La Mata
"I’ve learned that it’s all about failure, and that they welcome it. People would open discussions by saying, ‘We have no idea how this thing works, we’re not there and we might never be there.’ And just as there’s a lot of failure in science, there’s a lot of failure in our communication, which actually allows spaces for questions, space to dream and innovate."
The Power of Daily Non-Negotiables
"Having some non-negotiables means we get to control at least a portion of our day. We can ensure some of what is important to us, keeps its space when everything else is at risk of being crowded out."
Walking with lightness - Movement as meditation
"Recognise the transient nature of our lives. Appreciate the small, simple, but beautiful moments in the everyday."
Woodworking as an escape from the absurdity of software
"Recently, when people started coming with so many unrealistic and absurd expectations and demands about what my apps should do, I started thinking if it would be possible to leave software development for a more physical trade."
Towards a quieter, friendlier web
"If an algorithm has been developed and implemented by a commercial entity, it will serve that entity's needs, not yours."
Auer Tools
"A collection of simple tools for macOS, iPadOS, and iOS."
I block ads
"I block ads in the browser. I block ads at the DNS level. block analytics, metrics, reporting and diagnostic logging. I block tracking beacons..."
Adblock collection
"A community maintained and organized list of resources to block, limit, evade and otherwise futz with ads, ad tech and web tracking."
Nonprophet
"The exploration of the psyche through the medium of physical fitness; using the body to expand the mind. We train to improve, we improve to better understand our nature. We apply what we learn to foster better relationships and more profound experiences."
Heat Death of the Internet
"You want to order from a local restaurant, but you need to download a third-party delivery app, even though you plan to pick it up yourself. The prices and menu on the app are different to what you saw in the window. When you download a second app the prices are different again. You ring the restaurant directly and it says the number is no longer in service. You go to the restaurant and order in person. You mention that their website has the wrong number and the woman behind the counter says they have to contact the company who designed the site for changes, which will cost them, but most people just order through an app anyway."
Design System News
"Design systems news is a weekly design systems editorial by PJ Onori. Three links, every week. No more, no less."
Sit
"Sit, and do nothing"
The Spaces in Between
"Sunset and sunrise. The spaces in between are busy, full of demons."
Small, Sharp Tools
"...one of the maxims that I heard cited frequently was that of building small, sharp tools, the idea of building minimalist, composable programs that worked in concert to a degree of effectiveness that was more than the sum of their parts."
No, you won’t make time. Because you can’t.
"Your day – and, by extension, your week, your year, and your life – is a closed energetic system. It obeys the first law of thermodynamics: time can be neither created nor destroyed. It can only be transferred from one activity to another."
Station XV
"We make bags and accessories for people who are going places"
Wayfinder
"...an animated journey across the poetry of the land."
Death to Bullshit
"We're bombarded by more information than ever before. With the rise of all this information comes a rise of the amount of bullshit we're exposed to. Death to Bullshit is a rallying cry to rid the world of bullshit and demand experiences that respect people and their time."
Thrudark
"Endeavour through adversity."
POISON Playlist
"Music is critical to my writing. I use it to explore and establish a mood and then to preserve it — looping and looping until the feeling no longer supports the theme. When "Twitching" was first published in Gravity Magazine it included a playlist, a soundtrack for personal reinvention. That list reflected where I was at the time, what I had been through and how I was changing. Thirty two years later, when confronted with the idea of making a playlist for the second edition of POISON, my thoughts on the subject are different. Confrontational music and feeling can only take one so far. Sooner or later we must sit with ourselves in the quiet moments."
Plain Text Journaling
"I cobbled together a journaling system with {neo,}vim, coreutils and dateutils. This system is loosely based on Ryder Caroll’s Bullet Journal method."
Copying is the way design works
"...what makes something “original” (the first, the best, the most famous, the most true) or a “copy” (an identical copy, an unauthorized replica, an interpretation or a remix) isn’t always obvious — or important."
Concise explanations accelerate progress
"If you want to progress faster, write concise explanations. Explain ideas in simple terms, strongly and clearly, so that they can be rebutted, remixed, reworked — or built upon."
What Peter Attia Taught Me about Anger Management
"Peter Attia speaks about how he had trouble controlling his temper and about the consequences. He spoke about techniques and solutions he had tried. He only had success by fully exploring his anger."
File over app
"In the fullness of time, the files you create are more important than the tools you use to create them. Apps are ephemeral, but your files have a chance to last."
Removing stuff is never obvious yet often better
"Except for one person, it never occurred to this very smart group of people that removing the source of confusion could be a good option."
Rage Against The AI
"AI is dangerous. Technology should serve people, not the other way around."
Staggeringly Valuable
"I could probably count on two hands the things I’ve bought that I consider to be staggeringly valuable, in the sense that they empower me in important ways, or add something truly vital to my life."
What can we remove?
"A good system is designed to be periodically cleared of cruft. It has a built-in counterbalance. Without this pressure, our bias drives us to add band-aid after band-aid, until the only choice is to destroy the whole system and start from scratch."
Less is more, more or less
"No changes should increase the amount of UI seen by default. For every new button or option, we will remove an existing one."
Would Anything (of Value) Be Lost?
"'Wabl' is a principle I instill in my own and my team's work. (Pronounced like “wobble”.) I want to share it with you because it could help you do better work with less time and agony."
Hear > Mind
"Mind is a trap that insists upon its supremacy, all the while restricting our access to the irrational, to imagination and exploration — to possibility."
5 Easy Steps To Get Your Head Out Of Your Ass
"1. stop looking to fucking internet lists to fix your life. realize that it will not be easy. it will not be quick. it will be fucking hard and uncomfortable and it will change you. if you want to be different you are going to have to do different things. it will hurt. it will be scary. deal with it."
I See the Way
"Solitude, time to hear the call inside."
Frugal vs. Independent
"Most people are wired to seek status and success, not necessarily happiness. It’s remarkable to watch someone fight back against that trend. From the outside they appear frugal. But in fact they’ve rejected what the world tells them they should want and looked deeper, finding their happiness elsewhere."
Professionals Are Consistent
"Professionals simply show up. Especially when they don’t feel like it."
Great Software Design Looks Underwhelming
"Years ago I spent a lot of time reviewing coding challenges. The challenge itself was very straightforward - building a CLI tool that hit an API and allowed the user to page through and inspect the data. We allowed any language, so I saw all kinds of approaches1. At one point I came across a challenge I thought was literally perfect. It was a single Python file (maybe thirty lines of code in total), written in a very workmanlike style: the simplest, most straightforward way to meet the challenge requirements."
To Be Productive, Be Prepared
"In the end, it's all about preparation."