Mindblown: culture, urbanism, leadership, technology.
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What could have been
Coalescing thoughts about what I’m calling “the Web decorporation” – the return of smallish communities connected by Web technologies not for financial gain, not to advance the interests of a corporation, and not to help you climb a ladder but just because you want to have friends, hear from folks who aren’t your friends but…
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EIS: Building Integrated Systems
Anyone can set-up a computer, and if you can set up one, you can set up two. Almost anyone can plug those two computers into a hub or switch and get them to talk to each other. If you can do that, then replacing the hub or switch with a broadband router isn’t much harder,…
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The Milwaukee Road’s Pacific Extension
The Pacific Extension was the successful attempt by the Chicago, Milwaukee and Saint Paul Railroad (the Milwaukee Road) to build a transcontinental line over the Rocky and Cascade mountain ranges and reach the Pacific Northwest, specifically the Seattle area. Construction on the line began in 1906 and completed in 1909; the line represented the shortest…
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Shortcuts
There are three kinds of shortcut: 1. Discovered shortcuts. These are the original shortcut. They were always there, but needed to be discovered. When you cut through a yard or a canyon because it is a shorter path from point A to point B, you are using this kind of shortcut. 2. Cheating. Cheating feels…
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Democracy and capitalism
Democracy is about removing the friction of living well amongst people. Capitalism has realized there is money to be made by monetizing in perpetuity that friction that democracy is trying to remove.
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The problem with tech companies
Part of the problem with tech companies in general is that they don’t actually have to exist and I think everyone knows it, like in their soul. Tech, particularly Silicon Valley tech, is not actually valuable in any intrinsic way, and so if the Internet were to suddenly vanish, and everyone who knows how to…
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taxonomy of the data landscape
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The only safe computer
The only safe computer is a computer that has no electricity. The rest of the time you are just counting on probability to be on your side, which is an inherently horrible strategy to manage risk because it conveys the illusion of safety while also affording zero agency in that safety. E.g.: We probably won’t…
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Rule: Naming things
There is a trend to give a project or effort a catchy name. This isn’t always a great idea, because when that name gets in the hands of the customer, and it will, it becomes a hook for conversations that don’t lead to providing your chosen value. Naming is hard, and you need a symbol…
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Consequences
There is a natural spectrum of consequences in human society. Shame Confinement/Confiscation Exile Death. We have created two problems. The First is that Corporations are not, in practice, permitted to be killed. The Second is that Exile is almost entirely gone from our social structures. This reduced set was halved again when we effectively saw…