I believe the dopamine hit from posting to Twitter’s large audience is addictive and very difficult to put down. And for some people, like Simon, they consider their Twitter audience vital to their work.
Fortunately, I do not care about my audience size. I never have. My blog here has always been my primary way to promote what I’m working on. And it has served me extremely well. I have a relatively small audience but I’m very thankful that small audience has a rather large reach.
I stepped away from Twitter some years back for a few reasons, and in the intervening time have had the chance to reflect on the impulses that would drive me to post previously.
On the flip side, I feel like I’ve really lost touch with a lot of folks and, owing a lot to the pandemic as well enforcing this physically, have really become a shut-in. But I’m working on a ton of interesting things and am considering how to start writing about them more. First for me (which is always good) and then, maybe, for others.
I thought @Trevornoah @TheDailyShow was brilliant here. To paraphrase “the most daunting opposition is the one you have to prove actually exists”. That’s it, isn’t it?
To claim that these devices are the result of some kind of ever-improving natural process not only misunderstands how evolution works, but it also suggests that everything from biological weapons to fraudulent startups like Theranos to Juicero (the $400 machine that squeezed juice out of packets) are necessary and natural.
When we bought our bus, the original copy Monty bought in 1970 was still in the back, though now moldy and grease-stained. And I use it almost every time I work on the bus. If for nothing else than to gain a little perspective on why I am working on the bus.
“I grew up when you had to have a file; you had to save it; you had to know where it was saved. There was no search function,” says Saavik Ford, a professor of astronomy at the Borough of Manhattan Community College. But among her students, “There’s not a conception that there’s a place where files live. They just search for it and bring it up.”
In the desert of Joshua Tree, Bobby Furst’s home/studio/compound is an artistic wonderland built from 4 Quonset huts, 3 Airstream trailers, and a shipping container. When Furst left LA for the desert he erected one two-story 50’ by 30’ Quonset hut with a lofted bedroom and industrial kitchen and bathroom.
As his first build became more of a theater/concert space, First bought another kit and erected a second, third and fourth unit. Using just a friend or two and the help of a Genie Lift, he erected the building’s arch by arch with just the simple bolt technology.
The self-taught engineer without a college education was behind one of the most significant inventions of the century: the first video game system with interchangeable cartridges, which revolutionized the burgeoning industry of home video gaming.
For my wife’s birthday, I modified her car (2015 Subaru Impreza) to play “Africa” by Toto if she forgets her keys in the ignition. It can also play a selection of her other favorite songs.
This project was inspired the legendary Volvo 240 video by Chris NG and 8 Bit Universe with a similar “Africa” door chime feature.
This essay is my attempt to show you what the small and independent web can look like, why it’s different from the the sites that dominate web traffic today, why it’s worth exploring and how easy it is for anyone to be a part of it.
A lot of work went into the production of the posters themselves, but the amount of hard-won knowledge the posters represent is mind-boggling. One little arrow on one poster might represent a career’s work.
That’s what I want from my products. I want to putter about, feel connected to the process, and have fun doing so. I want to make things that don’t scale. To see people tuck into them and enjoy them as people, not as stats.