Friendship Forever 2024 Dec 3
People are lonelier today than ever before. It's not just a rumor – the data backs this claim up. This article from 2022 delves into how the nature of friendship has changed over time and culture.

Nobody knows what the criminal system's purpose is 2024 Dec 3
Prior to Running Commentary, I bookmarked this Hacker News comment by leobg reacting in 2022 to the criminal sentencing of that Theranos con-women Elizabeth Holmes, and am only now sharing it here:

The criminal system’s purpose is not just prevention.

Actually, nobody is really sure what its purpose is.

Why do parents, when they get really angry, sometimes hit a child? Psychology has proven that doing so is a really terrible way of preventing further infractions. So the impulse to punish is not necessarily rational.

A whole religion has been built on the idea of consciously letting go of the urge to judge and punish - and it hasn’t worked out for 2000 years.

So one reason why the government punishes criminals is to take the wind out of the sails of all the private parties that otherwise would cry for punishment of that person, or take it into that own hands. In that sense, it is essentially a power move by the state in order to remain in control and “keep the peace”.

Your life is a room full of alligators and kittens 2024 Aug 15
Oddly wise reddit comment:

Your life is a room full of alligators and kittens. Adding more kittens will do a bit to make life less stressful and more enjoyable. But getting rid of those alligators. Damn. All that fear and anxiousness about how the alligator will react is gone. And now you can enjoy each kitten so much more because your daily fear is gone.

An Extremely Thorough Guide to ‘Who TF Did I Marry’ 2024 Feb 28
When I was a kid, my best friend's stories never added up. As I grew up and my penchant for believing fantasy withered, I came to realize that he wasn't living a spectacular life, but was just a pathological liar. That part of my life is now over, and has left me vigilant for bullshit. And so I'm fascinated by others' tales of encounters with these liars, such as this woman in the linked post who apparently married a habitual liar. Why do these liars spin their lies? Is it just wish fulfillment, attempting to be the person they wish they were? No, I believe it's something deeper, some compulsion to manipulate the people around them, to push the limits of their gullibility.

How We Judge Others Is How We Judge Ourselves 2024 Jan 4
I went into this link prepared to be annoyed – the thesis seems tautological and the author a self-help twat. But despite that (and aided by the sleek website design) I read the article and actually gleaned some insight from it, possibly even used it as a moment for self-reflection. No, it doesn't say anything new, but maybe it says old things in a new way using language appropriate for my own generation (the author is two years younger than me, and there's little more aggravating than learning from someone younger than yourself).

Anyway. How do you judge yourself? What is your own innate metric for failure and success?

The B Lane Swimmer 2023 Nov 8
In storytelling, a hero's motivation is frequently easy to understand. Who amongst us cannot identify with someone trying to do the right thing? Villains, however, are much more difficult to understand, and therefore more difficult to write well. Children's authors and lazy writers make it deceptively simple – this villain does bad things because they are "evil," as if there are people out there who survey the options before themselves and automatically default to the most wrong. Life, I'd argue, is not that straightforward. So, why then are some people assholes? I don't mean the big evil people – the fascist autocrats and serial killers and psychopaths – I mean the smaller villains, the everyday villains who key your car at the library, who say rude things at the family dinner table, who steal your bike from in front of the store?

This linked blogged post is about the mildest of all villains: those who push their teammates down, who ignore calls from help among their own colleagues. It offers some insightful ruminations on the motivations behind these people, suggesting why they may act the way they do.

On the importance of staring directly into the sun 2023 Oct 29
What discovery about the universe remains unmade yet will be seen as exceedingly obvious in retrospect? It is difficult to overcome our own biases which make us blind to what we take for granted.

Beyond introvert vs. extrovert 2023 Oct 29
I've always been annoyed at how simplistic is the pop-psychology deconstruction that categorizes people as being either an "introvert" or an "extrovert." This reduction lacks so much nuance that it robs the original concept of its use. In the linked blog post, Vipul Shekhawat feels similarly, but then goes to the next step and works up an attempt at replacing the entire model with something that more closely matches the world he sees. His ideas resonate, and although it seems there's some gaps (such as, he never addresses performing or public speaking), there's insight in his words. An excerpt:

Interaction profiles are just like flavor preferences. Every preference is valid, even if someone else's taste might seem horrendous to you! And if you took someone who loves salty food and fed them only salt, they would eventually reach a point where they've just had too much. Interaction preferences are like that: even if you love solitude, there is such a thing as too much solitude. Nobody wants just one thing or the other; you need balance.

Turning my Passion/Hobby into a Business Made Me Hate It 2023 Jul 4
I have made a career out of my fascination with the pragmatic side of technology's utility and capabilities. I have deliberately not made a career out of photography, or anything else I love. I feel like I'm doing ok. But I abhor hustle culture nonetheless.

The Secret History And Strange Future Of Charisma 2023 Jun 29
Grifters, conmen, and cult leaders are fascinating in how they are able to bring people into their orbit and convince them to do things against their own best interests. This long article talks about the nearly-undefinable term "charisma" and how it is, and has been, understood throughout time.

How to Run an Event That Doesn't Suck 2023 Jun 26
A quick, off-the-cuff rundown of how to run a short, useful event/panel/conference/whatever, written by someone with a bevy of very pertinent, very specific advice.

Infinite Games 2023 May 31
What's yet another article about 'living your life for the journey and not the destination' doing linked here? Well, this one I found particularly insightful and direct, and resonated with me as both maybe something I'm hopefully already doing, or at least an aspiration of a way to be. Even if I shudder to learn that the author is some 25yo influencer.

Embrace the Failure 2023 May 15

Fear of failure, in its myriad forms, leads to a repetition of what you (and others) know you are good at, in order to avoid failure. Professional success reinforces the tendency to do what you are good at and not to risk failure, and gradually anything that may have been interesting in the initial work, idea or dream has been squeezed out.

A Call to Rebellion 2023 Apr 17
This article is subtitled "A New Way of Thinking About Depression, Anxiety & Burnout" and it offers some ideas I haven't heard before. I don't know that I'd recommend taking the ideas all that seriously, but they were an interesting thought experiment to me.

Anti Anti Social Social Club 2023 Mar 16
I'm wary of over-self-reflective navel-gazing, but this essay resonates with me when it decries being 'anti-social' as an identity. The author writes, "It used to be kind of edgy or rebellious to claim antisociality, but ... we're sinking into our comfort zones and padding the walls." And I completely agree.