📢 A Maker Manifesto
Imposter syndrome is the belief that because you are capable of the virtue of doubt, you're somehow less prepared for the challenges of life than the many hubristic arseholes who lack the sense to recognize any consequences of their own poor judgment.
The world doesn't need more overconfidence. It needs more folk comfortable with doubt, of themselves, of their practices and institutions. Questioning our ability or preparedness to do a thing is not the same as being unable to do that thing.
Making is all about screwing up.
It's about having the confidence to screw up in increasingly creative ways.
It's the art of getting it wrong with such flair and panache that you can't help but be entertained by your own ineptitude.
It's the ability to foil so many of your own plans that you are left with no option but to stumble into a solution that works.
A solution, that when found, leaves you awestruck by what you have accomplished.
And it is in pursuit of that awe that the Maker makes.
Programming, a story:
"I want to create X." *start creating X*
"Oh, no. I'll need to create Y to properly do X." *start creating Y*
"Oh, wait, Y really would make better sense with Z." *start developing Z*
"Meh, I'm sick of doing this work without Ω." *start putting together Ω*
"This would all work better if only I had ß." *start building ß*
Jack, ✓. House, ✓. Malt, ✓. Rat, ✓. Cat, ✓. Dog, ✓. Cow, ✓. Turtle, ✓. Turtle, ✓. Turtle, ✓. Turtle, ✓...🐢↓ 🐢↧ 🐢↯
When developing, we begin with a standard model and choose a stack tailored to building variations on that model up from such stack. Through experience on multiple builds, we develop familiarity with navigating the pitfalls and limitations of said stack.
When programming, we begin with a problem non-standard to the stack we've chosen. Like a 4X gamer, we then explore, expand, exploit the sedimented layers of our stack, perhaps even replacing layers entirely with our own handcrafted solution(s).
When developing, we begin with a standard model and choose a stack tailored to building variations on that model up from such stack. Through experience on multiple builds, we develop familiarity with navigating the pitfalls and limitations of said stack.
When programming, we begin with a problem non-standard to the stack we've chosen. Like a 4X gamer, we then explore, expand, exploit the sedimented layers of our stack, perhaps even replacing layers entirely with our own handcrafted solution(s).
@cwebber
Once somebody has snarked, they have a vested interest in not changing their mind even if evidence shows that it was they who were being stupid! So the hard work of being convincing & seeking consensus needs to come first.
In a dogfooding context, it is fine to break everything because all users are capable of fixing everything themselves.
If you have non-technical users, or you are providing a service (such that your technical users cannot modify your code to fix problems), that is a power relation, and your first responsibility is to avoid fucking over the people who you hold power over.
When the only person your decisions affect are yourself, then wasting time with wild experiments is not just acceptable but noble.
But "move fast and break (other people's) things" & "ask for forgiveness (for screwing people over unnecessarily) instead of permission (to do things you can predict are likely to do more harm than good)" is not acceptable behavior (despite being pretty normal in tech).
Most of the problems in the tech industry come from applying those two sayings exactly when they are least appropriate (i.e., outside of small-scale dogfooding & personal hobby projects).
Most cultures have proverbs that could be misinterpreted as irresponsible without an awareness of the inherited cultural wisdom they encode. Imagine any of these applied to dating and sex:
* a stitch in time saves nine
* he who hesitates is lost
* a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush
Similarly, "let he who is without sin cast the first stone" could sound like a call to violence, instead of nonviolence, without the story that goes with it to give it context.
Docker and Electron are the most hyped new technologies of the last five years. Both are not about improving things, figuring out complexity or reducing it. Both are just compromised attempts to hide accumulated complexity from developers because it became impossible to deal with.
This is exactly why I hate using Docker.
COVID-19, BLM, fucking pigs, subpost
Realize that this shit is happening before you concern-troll about protests during the pandemic.
“Buying supplies and food for people who are on the ground works too. It’s all a chain… Protesting is on a spectrum.” https://www.wired.com/story/how-to-protest-safely-gear-tips/
re: silly, uspol-adj
@beadsland because I can't, I won't, and I don't stop
Today I released the first edition of Riot Medicine, a public domain book to help street medics in the struggle for liberation, autonomy, and dignity for all. You can download all 466 pages for free here: https://riotmedicine.net/downloads
The coronavirus swab factory President Asswipe visited yesterday has to toss the whole days production into the trash because he didn't wear a mask.
Alberta government, Protest rights, indigenous rights, petition
Sooooo, trying to capitalise on social and political turmoil right now, the Albertan government is trying to pass a law to prevent people from protesting for indigenous land rights.
More information, and petition links, here:
https://coda.io/@fffdigital/canada-storm
Tweet from a Comrade Medic on How Do you Know Who is a Legit Medic
Plz retweet because this is a problem.
Dave Winer on Bad Apples
“If we can't find the bad apples, we could just start firing police randomly. Maybe at that point, they'll see the value in helping find, remove and prosecute the bad ones.”
— Dave Winer
For many years I worked with man who insisted a company our size should fire somebody every month. There’s always somebody who *should* be fired and if management doesn’t know who that is, just ask the other employees. They know and can’t imagine why the person wasn’t fired long ago. Cops know, too
Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ Intersectional writerly programmer—manhattan makerspace denizen—seeks to build radical new infrastructures—not more code.❄Ace enby (3rd) 4w5 WP❄They.