I realized the other day that my favorite form of content discovery is other people’s curated newsletters. I’ve mostly ditched big social media in favor of news sites like NPR and aggregators like Hacker News, but they’re still designed to keep me coming back pulling for new updates. I much prefer Emily Short’s regular Link Assortment posts, or Ed Thorn’s The Sunday Papers over on RPS: Someone else did the digging, found the standout bits, wrote a blurb.
So here’s a roundup of what’s on my mind and what I found interesting of late.
A friend and I have been working on an interactive fiction side project. He was out sick for a bit, and in the meantime I had great fun building out tools to make authoring and testing easier. Now that he’s feeling better, we have some writing to do – 1000 words per week or more, if we want to join IFComp in October. So I’m digging for writing advice, and started listening to a couple of podcasts on the topic. I’m enjoying the podcasts about writing more than I expected.
The project has been super fun, and it feels great that we have a few substantial scenes and are building outward. I’m confident we will release something, it’s now a question of timing and quality and quantity. I haven’t made it this far with an IF project (or writing project) before. I’m excited about it and look forward to sharing more when I can.
For a great payoff be especially curious about the things you are not interested in.
Kevin Kelly, “103 Bits of Advice I Wish I Had Known”
Speaking of advice, there’s this advice article that’s been making the rounds (and became a Freakonomics Radio episode) – and also this article which is more specifically career advice. Lists like this are fun to dig through together because there’s plenty to argue about, but also it seems worth pulling favorite bits into my own collection.
The romantic image of an über-programmer is someone who fires up Emacs, types like a machine gun, and delivers a flawless final product from scratch. A more accurate image would be someone who stares quietly into space for a few minutes and then says “Hmm. I think I’ve seen something like this before.”
John D. Cook, “Why programmers are not paid in proportion to their productivity”
This article reran through HN the other day, and it characterizes my work pretty well. The flawless-from-scratch thing is also useful and impressive – and I definitely know people who can do it – but it’s folly without the staring quietly into space. This also echoes the payoff for curiosity, above. Like after the recent Radiolab episode on the Thymus gland, I’m wondering what software problem would benefit from a negative-space defense mechanism.
Why managers should encourage interruptions:
Really good – they don’t interrupt you with a non-urgent thing.
Good – they interrupt you with an urgent thing.
Bad – they interrupt you with a non-urgent thing.
Catastrophically Bad – they don’t interrupt you when there’s an urgent thing.
onion2k, Hacker News 2022-06-29
I like to say “Interruptibility is a virtue,” because I think it’s good for team communication. I’m going to steal this argument that it’s especially important for leaders.
Meanwhile over at HBR, this article feels to me like a fresh language and framework for something we mostly know: The value of being an authentic whole self at work. But I like the reminder.
One, they bring the same intention to these moments: How can I bring out the best in myself and the best in others in the pursuit of our common positive purpose?
Hitendra Wadhwa, “Small Actions Make Great Leaders”
Two, to achieve this intention, they seek to activate one or more of five energies in themselves and others: […]
Three, they use simple actions to activate these energies in themselves and others.
Take a moment for this absolutely lovely bit of truth-telling.
Drive a stake into the shining moment, if you can.
Simon Evans, Chronicle of a Death Foretold
I’m taken by these lines from the very end of Alan Jacobs’ article, which echo my own long-held thoughts on free will: We have less will in-the-moment than we feel. True agency begins with knowing that which moves us.
Any freedom from what torments us begins with a proper demonology. Later we may proceed to exorcism.
Alan Jacobs, Something Happened By Us: A Demonology
But that’s a thin slice of what Jacobs explores. We’ve popularly used virology to discuss the effects of social media. What if our mythology is a better coping mechanism? We are certainly subject to great forces claiming to be under human control but resisting comprehension. A few months ago I caught the image of the Internet as Yggdrasil, the worldtree that holds all of history and binds us to our past selves, bringing us the consequences of our actions. Not too say such notions should replace rigorous study, but that they might provide useful heuristics for surviving modern powers and principalities.
Videogame legend confirmed by Yuji Naka: Michael Jackson contributed music to Sonic 3.
RIP Zachtronics. Their niche was such a fit for me. Glad to hear they can close on their own terms. I still need to play Opus Magnum.
A song that got my attention this week is “Mercy, Mercy, Mercy” by Cannonball Adderley. I was familiar with the tune, but didn’t know until this week that it once hit #11 on the Billboard charts. Thanks for reading! I’ll be back with another roundup in about a month.