Plus, a lot of talk about Java and Spring in large organizations.
Soviet spas
“There is ambient music for spas - and there is ambient music for former Soviet spas.” Music for (Former Soviet) Spas
“an encapsulated volume of pre-Fascist space-time” Alan Jacobs
“I don’t know what it is other than what it does.” Tyler Cowen on Tetragrammaton
The original sentiment: “The purpose of a system is what it does.”
”Tech is a pop culture."
”Tech is a pop culture. Very few of the decisions made in the industry are made rationally or empirically. Studies and tests are used to justify the emotional decisions of the executive or management class. Infrastructure and stack decisions are made hedonistically – “cool” tech that makes the engineers and devs feel good about themselves almost always gets a priority over “boring” tech that has no risks.
The industry, especially the software side of tech, is driven by emotion and a sense of what is fashionable.
Setting up other people to pitch your idea for you
With some generalization, this is good advice for any pitch, from corporate presentations to call for papers. The point that you need to make it easy for other people to advocate for you is a good one, rarely mentioned.
🔗 What Grant Reviewers Actually Look For (and What They Ignore)
Today’s lock-in was yesterday’s promise to open architectures.
"Touch of Water," from Uncaged, volume 2
I solo played “Touch of Water” last night. It’s a good representation of the adventures in the Uncaged series.1
Claude did a good job adapting it my campaign setting and evolving the story. The rusalka is a good monster - it’d make a good Eryines-like creature for Auril the Frostmaiden. You can recast Auril regionally, call her Marzanna or the like, and then have a little frosty pantheon.
The story never resolves what happened to the drowned four year old boy that starts the adventure.
Checking in neocon globalization dreams, ~40 years later
The decline of the US Rust Belt is directly linked to the rise of China, driven by US free trade policies that incentivized companies to relocate manufacturing overseas for cheaper labor and less regulation.
Apple should cave to regulators
The Gruber: “When is the last time an investigation regarding the legality of the App Store’s dominant market position went in Apple’s favor, in any country? I can’t recall one.”
🔗 Apple Loses Landmark U.K. Lawsuit Over App Store Commissions