VonBlue's comments

I describe this as, “I don’t want to have to think.”

Same here! I am generally not interested in shiny new tech. After I had the experience of a v1 TomTom runner watch, I decided I don’t want a v1 of anything anymore. Also new tech makes me too worried about breaking it or losing it or having it stolen. But the reMarkable 2…. I could not resist! I did the waiting list and was genuinely excited about it and use it every day. My partner also loves his, though he is very much a shiny tech person.

“I make lifestyle choices that do not involve a screen outside of work hours.” This is my line for the past 13 years to apologetically explain why I do not write code in my personal time. Why do people still rely on this as an indicator of passion, or dedication, or competence?

It is also my line to explain why I do not have work Slack or work email on my phone.

Even with all these safeguards in place, I still managed to have a crazy burnout from a project. Migraines and hypertension that eventually landed me in the ER and necessitated a month away from work to recover. This taught me that working a normal 40-45 hour week is not enough. Active self-care is necessary outside of those hours.

Tl;dr: Working less is not enough. What we do when we don’t work also matters.

> just because someone is paying for your room that shouldn't make it impossible for you to say "No" to them.

This is incredibly difficult to do, especially when you are young.

First, having the help and the time of someone who is known and respected in the community can already make you feel like you are imposing but also grateful for their generosity, especially if there are career implications (in your mind).

Second, when you are coming from a different culture, there may already be some battling of own (perceived) “inferiority” due to being an immigrant.

Third, when the person is “saving” you when you are in a situation of stress, the act of paying for a room is a lot more than just that.

Finally, the exact financial aspect of things can make it seem like you “owe” something.

I can picture my college self having a lot of trouble saying no in a situation like this. My current self would have no issues. In my own case, age and experience are very much factors that I would add as a fifth point.

An asymmetrical relationship with a faceless platform is terrifying.

I remember asking Facebook support to update my secondary email. My first one was an old college one that I no longer had access to, but my second one kept coming up as “already in use.” I never heard back. So if ever I am locked out because I forgot my password, it is forever.

The other day I read on here how someone’s Gmail account got suspended for violating terms of service, and how they were randomly locked out and were waiting a long time to hear back (and had not, yet). I got a backup but it opened my eyes.

I have become dependent and powerless and I now have a permanent undercurrent of fear that one of these platforms will make a mistake and have a non-trivial impact on my quality of life, at least for some time.

When I was in my AP Calc class in high school, the teacher began by explaining what a derivative was. He drew a picture with a curve, drew a line across two points on that curve, and explained that the derivative is the slope of that line as the two points get closer and closer together. We knew how to calculate a slope, so it was easy to build on that knowledge and take it further. It’s been 20 years and I can still do this, after having seen it that one time. I don’t know if this way of teaching derivatives is unique, but it felt like a far cry from memorization, even back then. It was effective because it was visual, because it explained something intuitively, and because it added a small piece of information to an existing foundation of knowledge.

Incidentally, the only things I remember from biology are pictures, or the demonstration that a teacher made when someone “stretched” her “intestines” across the room.

I don’t think it’s outrageous to hope that company interests would be the prime goal of someone in a high-level position. Self-interest being the goal is what I find problematic.

I’m surprised I did not see a discussion of whether such behavior can be considered unethical. In my own simplified view, there is a dishonesty in the behavior described. Building strategies in pursuit of self-interest rather than developing a product, helping people grow their skills, and, as someone in the comments mentioned, doing it all without saying it.. feels unethical to me. I personally find a lot of solace in the fact that unethical people live in fear of having their positions be compromised or attacked. Is the money trade-off worth it, this fearful, insecure life?

Does this integrate with something like OneNote? Because this would still be only half my notes. If I can keep my hand-written ones and the ones I type when I work, for example, NOW we’re talking.

Until there isn’t

Hold on... how could they have de-anonymized the blockchain transactions? That seems.. false