µblog
Dev startups: “It’s important to listen to your developers, like really listen to them. That’s how we have achieved such amazing usability.”
Google: “It is physically impossible to contact us. Do not try.”
Something is wrong when even Microsoft is easier to get ahold of (an engineer replied to my email within an hour!)
Just had the most fascinating Internet dopamine* experience.
This afternoon, I realized today was a bad one re: consuming hyper-addictive media content—a Hacker News rabbit hole and then YouTube. Became aware of this while walking through the park and was like, glued to some video I didn’t even care about on YouTube. This is unusual for me. The day’s park walk is nearly always relaxing and naturally media-free.
So I became aware of it, and after I got home, I knew I probably had to apply the two-step strategy which, ironically, I saw once on YouTube:
- put the phone down
- after inner screaming dies down, resume work
(The important part is the introduction of Step 1, because if you try to go directly to Step 2 (which is natural), you probably won’t be able to stop media consumption because the dopamine stream, while pathetic and shitty, is still better (more immediate) than whatever your work is.)
So I put the phone down, and here’s the fascinating part: my brain began absolutely howling.
It was so desperate for that stupid trickle of satisfaction. I immediately wanted more food, or coffee, or sweets. I almost picked my phone up several times. I did pick my phone up several times but managed to put it down. I put the phone in another room. All I could do was pace madly.
Eventually, I decided I could probably go sit down and close my eyes for a bit to let it subside. That worked.
But WOW. What was so surprising is that the need was so physically and emotionally weak—no dramatic sensation—but that it was still somehow experienced so strongly. So unbelievably potent. Utterly controlling. It was a true mind tantrum, this micro addiction withdrawal.
* I wrote “dopamine” but substitute whatever brain reward chemical is correct throughout.
All I want for Christmas is to design for fixed pixel dimensions.
(Rather than, say, 93 vastly different screen sizes.)
Boy howdy I get the appeal print design too now.
If I’m feeling greedy, I’ll ask for browsers to stop having myriad subtle incompatibilities too. (What is this, 2009?)
Went through a sculpture garden. Sweet idea: sculpture gardens should make 3D-printed mini models of sculptures for visually impaired folks. Kids would love them too. Heck, adults probably would as well.
After writing TypeScript for (how many years?!) I just discovered their reference sheet for utility types and I can’t believe what I’ve been missing. Even just the simple Record<K,T> I could have used so many times.
This is one side benefit of having GPT-4 try to write code for you: it will use common stuff you didn’t realize was common and you’ll learn about it.
I just realized that trying to make something pretty when you’re making a first draft is like trying to edit your writing while you write.
(It’s harder, don’t do it.)
It seems that now, it’s nearly impossible to know about niche things. Not because it’s too hard, but because it’s too easy. In other words, knowledge that used to be niche is now easily accessible.
The reason is that any niche thing you know about is now covered on YouTube. So whether you know a niche thing is just whether you’ve watched a particular YouTube video.
My example: I remember learning that the original Roller Coaster Tycoon was programmed in assembly by a single guy. I have held onto this as a bizarre and fascinating nugget. I was recently suggested a YouTube video explaining this fact.
I am sure people felt this phenomenon about the Internet itself.* But something about the explosion of knowledge on YouTube has made rare knowledge feel less valuable. Maybe it’s because YouTube video makers are incentivized to make videos as engaging as possible. So acquiring niche knowledge used to be a function of whether you were sufficiently interested in something such that you would pass the activation energy required to look it up. People who weren’t interested in it would never know about it because they would be too bored to tolerate the process of finding the information. But since YouTube videos are entertaining, this barrier no longer exists.
* Thinking more about this re: the Internet in general, it is certainly true. Going to a library and finding a book was a lot more effort than Googling something. I guess people probably felt the same about libraries. And writing.
Fake diary entries in a language textbook are surreal when you think about it a bit. You have an adult human going about their day and then writing about it using pre-preschool-level grammar.
Whoops it’s been a minute, huh? Here’s some low quality content to keep this alive.
Huh, low quality content to keep something alive. That this does something psychologically is interesting.
All I want for Christmas is for Nunjucks to support trailing commas instead of crashing.
After one month of exposure and careful consideration I would like to confirm that, yes, indeed, stinky tofu smells bad.
Encountered a cool instant ramen format twice now on accident. It comes with two bowls. Thought it was a packing mistake, but the instructions say to use one bowl + seasoning to make a soup from the noodle broth, and the second bowl for noodles + paste.
Big soup culture. Most restaurant meals seem to come with a starter soup. Nice.
Playing so much Pokémon Puzzle League that not only do I dream about it, but my normal dreams—i.e., where I am in some bizarre situation and must accomplish some task—have Pokémon Puzzle League gameplay as the substance. E.g., I have to solve some relationship problem, but the way I do that is trying to get a vertical 4-combo on water blocks. It’s actually too much.
Second place we’ve visited now because of a really high Google maps rating that turns out to offer bribes for Google maps reviews. This one was a bar that gives you a free beer (!) if you left a review. Evil, but brilliant.
Karaoke. Every day. Starting midday. I want to appreciate the cultural context that allows total abandon, atonal bellows, long and confused vibrato following along to what I can only imagine are classics. I want to.
But I cannot.
Karaoke. Every day. Starting midday.
Interesting design: this overhead light changes the number of bulbs that are on every time you turn it off and on again. It goes between 3, 2, 1, and 0 (probably could have skipped that one), and then cycles back to 3.
Haven’t scrolled twitter in a long time. Wondered whether opening it up would release… wait, is there a name for the version of impostor syndrome where it’s not that you’re not capable, but it’s that everyone in the world is doing more interesting & successful things than you? Anyway, it did.
