Recent links
- History of Uncertainty by Microcosmographia.
The assembling of a sufficiently complex and satisfying answer to what is true and good is up to each of us individually, and takes a lifetime. Whether we are cut out for it or not, whether it’s fair to ask this of every individual or not, each of us is on the hook to piece together some coherent sense of certainty about how to live, from the material available. Or to invent new material when what’s already there is insufficient.
- Hanlon’s Razor by Sketchplanations.
And, usually, I think people aren’t smart or capable enough, or in fact wicked enough, to carry out the conspiracies that people credit them for. Very often it’s the person assuming bad intentions and getting mad who suffers the most.
- What’s the best phone to do crimes on? by Search Engine. Podcast about how the FBI created, distributed, and controlled the most popular phone for doing illegal activities on. Excellent storytelling by PJ Vogt, as usual.
- The agile comms handbook by Giles Turnbull. Highly recommend it to anyone who is doing stuff in the world and wants to communicate that to others. Pretty short and wildly actionable, packed full of useful information. Geared for organizations but definitely useful for individuals, too.
- How to Live By Your Values This Year by Casey Rosengren and a hat tip to Sasha Chapin’s I was not acting like me, are you acting like you?. Good articles about values and how we live (or don’t live) in alignment with them. Really liked the idea of a value being a verb + adverb. The verb is an action and the adverb defines how you show up when doing that verb.
- The Moral Implications of Being a Moderately Successful Computer Scientist and a
Woman
by Irene Y. Zhang. It’s easy to hand-wave the existence of sexism away by saying “yeah, yeah, I would never
discriminate against a woman, I treat men and women equally, etc.” It’s important to remember the unconscious bias
and moral fallacies men hold towards women, especially in STEM fields.
For example, my very existence as a moderately young, moderately successful computer scientist threatens some men’s sense of identity, thus making them uncomfortable and/or lash out. But if a successful woman in computer science makes men in our community uncomfortable, then we are not likely to have too many successful women in the community.