Selective Memory

Internet findings and notes by Breno Baldrati var _gaq = _gaq || []; _gaq.push(['_setAccount', 'UA-19266972-1']); _gaq.push(['_trackPageview']); (function() { var ga = document.createElement('script'); ga.type = 'text/javascript'; ga.async = true; ga.src = ('https:' == document.location.protocol ? 'https://ssl' : 'http://www') + '.google-analytics.com/ga.js'; var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(ga, s); })();

[breno]

My take is: When you make a tool, people are relying on your expertise to make good choices for them. If we have a situation where we know for sure something is bad, we shouldn’t do it, even if that means we have to explain why.

M. Edwards

[breno]

Be obsessed with one thing

I’ve seen this advice time and time again.

been speaking at some college writing classes lately and one thing I’ve been telling the youths is to cultivate and nurture an authentic obsession for at least one subject on the side; you may never write about it but then again you might write moby dick

— rachel syme (@rachsyme)

April 2, 2019

[breno]

The Emotion Police

How anger, regret and grief are ok feelings. And much like fever:

Anger is how love survives the bumps and bruises of innocent misunderstandings and the gashes and lesions of less innocent betrayals and disappointments. Anger is precious as fevers are: without them, the road from infection to death would be much shorter. The same basic argument applies to regret, empathy and grief—yes, they are ways of being psychologically wounded; and no, that is not a bad thing. When invulnerability is not in the cards, vulnerability can be a form of health.

Hate, on the other hand, is a feeling with no good sides. 

Each of us is on the lookout for safe spaces in which we can allow our hatred to flourish; we cultivate our garden of contempt, we surround it with walls of self-righteousness. If you think I’m wrong, ask yourself: why do Hitler-comparisons continue to flourish in political conversations? What other thought do they express but “this person is so bad, we are allowed to hate him as we hate Hitler”…?

by Agnes Callard

[breno]

Nick Cave on AI music

What we are actually listening to is human limitation and the audacity to transcend it. Artificial Intelligence, for all its unlimited potential, simply doesn’t have this capacity. 

Link

[breno]

The lone-inventor fiction

“Yet the lone-inventor concept lives on. It’s a deeply appealing way to consider the act of innovation. It’s simple, compelling, and seems morally right—the hardworking person with brilliant ideas who refused to give up earned his fortune with toil and personal sacrifice. It’s also a counterproductive and misleading fiction”

From The One Device.

[breno]

Twitter and “deadnaming”

This is quite a good thread on Twitter’s ban on “deadnaming” and what it means. From @corinna_cohn:

Twitter revised its terms of service to ban “deadnaming”. I am trans and this is a thread on what “deadnaming” is.On its face, “deadnaming” is merely mentioning the christened name of a person as given by their parents if that person has subsequently changed their name as part of declaring a different gender identity.It’s considered rude to approach a trans person who would prefer to be known as Caitlyn and say to them, “Hey, Bruce!” Recently (last five years) this was coined as “deadnaming”.With Twitter choosing to punish or ban the mention of a chistened name, “deadnaming” has now emerged as a highly privileged, extremely broad privacy right which removes others’ rights to speak about the past.From the first time I heard the malapropism “deadnaming”, I’ve criticized it for promoting the idea that changing one’s name or pronouns is a form of death. It is’t. Changing your name introduces a new chapter; it doesn’t destroy the book.There is not a unified position in the trans community on “deadnaming”. For Twitter to add it to its prohibited speech restrictions, it means that Twitter has taken a specific, ideological stance and is choosing to ban a wide swath of speech.A ban on “deadnaming” is categorically identical to a ban on heresy. If Twitter bans “deadnaming”, there is no distance from here to banning sacriligious speech. “Deadnaming” is a term from the most modern of theological movements.in practice, Twitter’s “deadnaming” policy will be a boon to anyone who wants to hide their past, particularly sex offenders and other violent offenders. This policy strips a victim’s ability to name their abuser.(As a side note, a former senior engineer at Twitter is now protected by this policy)Twitter has been cracking down on all types of challenging speech. Challenging speech is by its nature offensive because it attacks ideas or beliefs that one party sincerely holds and which another party passionately disagrees.Twitter is not a platform for discussing ideas. This new change to the terms and conditions proves that beyond a doubt. #FreeMeghan

[breno]

Lyft’s iconography rules

[breno]

Text rendering in the browser

Safari and Sketch use Core Text/Quartz for text rendering. IE/Edge uses ClearType. Chrome uses Skia/FreeType. There really isn’t one way to render text that matches “the web”, because it’s many things. The premise of your tweet seems jumbled up.

— Marc Edwards (@marcedwards) 18 November 2018

[breno]

Brittany and Briana married Josh and Jeremy.  http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6028727/Identical-twin-sisters-marry-identical-twin-brothers.html

[breno]

Coherence

Coherence. A group dinner and small decisions that impact everyone’s future. Reminded me of one of David Eagleman’s Sum: 40 tales from the Afterlives. Do low-to-no budget movies have better scripts overall, as they rely so much on the plot and writing to work?

[breno]

When life deals a bad hand, the clever gambler will twist, not stick

If you’re facing a dilemma, and can’t figure out whether to take the plunge, then all else being equal, you should. Few of us are immune to the “status quo bias”: we prefer the way things are over the frightening unknown. So when you consult your gut about whether to seek a divorce, abandon your PhD, or move to Iceland, the answer you receive will be biased toward inertia. Correct for that, and your feeling of being on the fence is really an argument for action.

From Oliver Burkman

[breno]

How to walk through a museum

1. In every room ask yourself which picture you would take home (if you could take just one) and why.  This forces you to keep thinking critically about what you are seeing.  More crudely, you have to keep on paying attention.

2. Almost all museums (MOMA is one exception) hang large numbers of second-rate paintings by first-rate artists.  Try to find them.  Don’t think it is all great, it isn’t.

3. You are probably better trained at shopping than looking at pictures.  Do some basic research on prices and pretend you are shopping for pictures on a budget.  This will improve the quality of your viewing.

4. Go with a variety of people (but not all at once).  It forces you to see the art through their eyes.

5. If you are visiting a blockbuster exhibit, skip room number one.  There is too much human traffic, as the people have not yet admitted to themselves they don’t care about what is on the wall.

From Tyler Cowen. 

[breno]

[breno]

Facebook’s value

Great article by Ben Thompson on Facebook:

...the reality is that not everyone wants to build bridges all the time. Zuckerberg’s insistence that every individual on Facebook have one identity may have been a masterstroke when it comes to building value, but the truth is each of us contains multitudes: there are parts we want to show the world, and parts we want to show only our closest friends, and the sooner Facebook accepts they can’t have everything the more valuable the parts they own will become.

[link]

[breno]

Can a Trip Ever Be ‘Authentic’?

Our notion of places — which is to say the romances and images we project onto them — are always less current and subtle than the places themselves. […] That disconnect is even more acute because so many travelers have been everywhere (if only on-screen), which in turn means that reality — all that is unmediated and nonvirtual — holds a greater premium than ever.

[via NYT]

[breno]

[breno]

best factual podcasts

1. This American Life 2. Radiolab 3. Serial 4. 99% Invisible 5. WTF with Marc Maron

There are another 45 on the list. 

ink: http://kk.org/cooltools/the-best-factual-podcasts/