Dispatch #21 (November 2024)

By David Eisinger · View original post

Of all the ways I thought Tuesday’s election might go, Trump winning a decisive victory was not something I’d thought possible. 2016 felt so … illegitimate, between the popular vote discrepancy and all the Russia stuff. 2024 feels like the majority of America just wants what he’s selling.

I don’t know what the next four years will bring – our best case scenario is a bunch of chaos and incompetence; our worst is … pretty bad, a major restructuring of American life. I’m going to limit my exposure to all of his nonsense. I lost so much time during his first term on think pieces, Twitter threads, etc. that just made me feel like shit.

It feels kind of dumb putting this post together in light of these major events, but, maybe, the values I’m trying to put out into the world – family, community, creativity, mindfulness around information consumption – are part of the solution to the problems we’re facing. Onward.

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We went down to Wilmington to meet our new nephew/cousin. It was bonkers to see Nico alongside a fresh newborn. LOOK HOW BIG MY BOY IS. LOOK AT MY LARGE SON.

I ran the Bull City Race Fest half-marathon for the third year in a row, hitting a personal best time of 8:50/mile (result, certificate). Claire and Nev met me at around mile seven with a bottle of Gatorade that got me through the hilly final stretch.

We spent a weekend camping (“camping” – the cabins were, uh, quite plush) at Fairy Stone State Park with a big group of friends. Highlights included taking Nev out on a paddleboard, trick-or-treating between the cabins, and cooking a bunch of food for folks. Hope to be back in 2025.

I made several website updates this month:

• Started moving my domains from Gandi to Namecheap. I was a long-time supporter of Gandi’s mission, but they’ve been acquired a few times and started price gouging (~$40/domain/year). Fortunately, it’s easy to switch registrars, and Namecheap’s an independent company that charges roughly a quarter the price.

• Signed up for SourceHut Git hosting, moved this site’s repo over, and wrote about it.

• I end these monthly dispatches with a bunch of links pulled from my Pinboard bookmarks. Compiling the list was a tedious manual process – making backups, formatting Markdown, etc. I wrote a simple script to semi-automate the process, which has taken it from 30 minutes to 30 seconds.

Finally, I’ve had Ian Ewing’s Sunday on repeat all month. Check it out.

This Month

• Adventure: headed back to New York to spend Thanksgiving with my family; doubling up on the Troy Turkey Trot 5K and 10K
• Project: Nev big girl bed; music table
• Skill: still drums + synthesis; this finger drumming course looks super cool

Reading

• Fiction: Tower of Silence, Larry Correia (final entry in this series drops tomorrow)
• Non-fiction:
  • Meditations for Mortals, Oliver Burkeman
  • Dilla Time, Dan Charnas

I’m a big fan of Four Thousand Weeks, Oliver Burkeman’s previous (anti-)time-management book. When I read the description of Meditations for Mortals, I was a little bit skeptical that it might just be trying to capitalize on the prior book’s success without much new to say. Happy to be wrong though! Each short chapter has given me something to reflect on. Favorite passage so far:

It’s not that systems for getting things done are bad, exactly. (Rules for meaningful productivity do have a role to play, and we’ll turn to some of them later.) It’s just that they’re not the main point. The main point – thought it took me years to realize it – is to develop the willingess to just do something, here and now, as a one-off, regardless of whether it’s part of any system or habit or routine. If you don’t prioritize the skill of just doing something, you risk falling into an exceedingly sneaky trap, which is that you end up embarking instead on the unnecessary and, worse, counterproductive project of becoming the kind of person who does that sort of thing.

Links

• Cabel Sasser · Videos · XOXO

  “Don’t waste this. Keep everyone guessing. Make me proud.” When Panic co-founder Cabel Sasser spoke at our second festival in 2013, the Mac software company had just started venturing into games by funding the studio behind Firewatch, an indie blockbuster that launched Panic’s games publishing business and, eventually, the Playdate handheld console.

• The Static Site Paradox | Loris Cro’s Blog

  If you didn’t know any better, you would expect almost all normal users to have [2] and professional engineers to have something like [1], but it’s actually the inverse: only few professional software engineers can “afford” to have the second option as their personal website, and almost all normal users are stuck with overcomplicated solutions.

• Exploring desktop Linux

  Part One in what is likely to be a long series on my explorations in modern Linux desktop land.

• Thinking Like an AI - by Ethan Mollick - One Useful Thing

  However, I do think having a little bit of intuition about the way Large Language Models work can be helpful for understanding how to use it best. I would ask my technical readers for their forgiveness, because I will simplify here, but here are some clues for getting into the “mind” of an AI.

• A Syllabus for Generalists – Syllabus

  A syllabus for generalists is comprised of four weeks of general education; that is, a little bit of everything. It contains something for everyone—for specialists looking to branch out, and for generalists searching for new beginnings of knowledge

• How to do the RSS - annie’s blog

  This is a simple guide for people who are not super tech-oriented. I like the recent You should be using an RSS reader article that’s being shared.  And I think we need a simple little guide for people who might read that article and think, Yeah. Good idea. I should do that.

• World of Warcraft is still here, and it’s still huge

  Reviewing the private record, it’s clear World of Warcraft tore through my life like an experienced raiding party of max-level grinders through the Deadmines. Admittedly, it was the kind of nymph-stage young adult life that was conceptually made of crepe paper and easily shredded by a video game. But something about the predictable rhythm of ordering junk food delivery after an exhausting workday, logging onto World of Warcraft, and hopping through some lush environment searching for herbs to ma…

• It turns out I’m still excited about the web

  My cynicism has been tempered by the discovery that there are still movements out there that remind me of the web’s original promise — efforts that focus on reclaiming independence and fostering real community. Despite the commercialization of the web, these are still places where that original spirit of openness and community-building thrives.

• Pluralistic: You should be using an RSS reader (16 Oct 2024)

  Switching to RSS lets you experience just the good parts of the enshitternet, but that experience is delivered in manner that the new, good internet we’re all dying for.

• I like Go, but only when I don’t have to write it

  I have finally reflected on the experience and found what’s missing in my declared preferences above: expressiveness. I expect expressiveness of a language. I continue to “like” Go, and think it’s a great idea, as long as it’s written and read by others.

• Remind me later

  As of this story, I am forced to make some changes in the format, particularly in the number of panels. Unfortunately, in this new format, the original ending of this comici s not available. I hope you can continue to enjoy more stories from The Secret Knots. Thank you.

• Putting the “Person” in “Personal Website” - Jim Nielsen’s Blog

  Isn’t it crappy how basic human activities like singing, dancing, and making art have been turned into skills instead of being recognized as behaviors? The point of doing these things has become to get good at them. But they should be recognized as things humans do innately, like how birds sing or bees make hives.

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