riga @riga@refactorcamp.org

#introduction

~ Hi Everyone ~

I'm glad this space exists and looking forward to spending some time here. Some things about me:

- web developer for money
- slow burning music projects on the side
- politics/philosophy/psychology buff
- ribbonfarm afficionado

in the spirit of further #introduction, some random things that preoccupy me:

- maintaining a generous sphere of personal freedom while being embedded in society in a fulfilling way
- dreams of next-gen composition tools for virtual modular synthesizers
- thinking about how to make North American cities beautiful and functional in spite of decades of car culture
- recognizing and grappling with spooky psychological antipatterns: mine and others'

I'm not sure to what degree this relationship is workable.... he's not a bad guy, but we seem to have some anti-chemistry.

Does anybody have tips for dealing with a direct superior who is moderately ineffectual, extremely opinionated, and weirdly sensitive (seems to want approval sometimes)? I'm trying to not let myself get overtly condescending.

We were definitely under the impression that life was a "respectable effort in --> predictable acceptable outcome out" kinda situation. Weirdly it was the 2012 student strikes and the police beating the shit out of everyone and arresting them by the busloads that started to cure me of that illusion.

When I think back to those days, I kinda understand where the 'entitled millenials' meme comes from. Some of us had some pretty optimistic ideas about how things would work after we finished school, and didn't exactly put in the work to test those ideas systematically until late in the game. Looking back on it, young Riga could have probably done with the insight that it was going to take awhile to figure their shit out, so they'd better start early.

It's also weird to think about how tame my life is now compared to then. I rarely go out and dislike drinking in any large quantities (mostly cause I want to do stuff instead of being hungover the next day). I guess it would be concerning if this wasn't really the case. Habits that look like fun when you're 20 look like alcoholism when you're 27.

It's weird to think that my cohort was probably one of the last to be 'social media naive' in uni, i.e. to not really understand the full implications of our wasted antics being up on the internet forever. I wonder how much less the kids party these days cause of that shit. We went hard XD.

Sounds like a civilized country innit?

https://www.vox.com/2015/7/21/8974435/switzerland-work-life-balance

#beenthere

When will this ‘millennials be too sensitive with their safe spaces’ meme finally be over?

Faced with tons of scary shit we can’t control - the economy, climate change - we’re trying to make the things we can control a little less shit - not being slurred at or having our dignity as a person questioned. Straight white ppl plz remember that gay and poc are still killed for being gay or poc. Now fuck right off.

Damn, Weber’s The Protestant Ethic is way more on point than I thought it was gonna be

I think I thought I was a software conservative because I was living in ultra-software-liberal ruby on rails land -- the true wild west of programming where you're sometimes not quite sure what method you're actually calling (hello dynamic dispatch/duck typing). Now that I'm working at a conservative shop I think I probably fall somewhere between the two.

Folks, we have the Most Lavish Bikeshed you have ever seen

The problem with pair programming (for me) is that coding is a pretty intuitive exercise. You can point to general principles as heuristics, but often those principles need to be balanced against each other. At that point, having a discussion about the right course of action is pretty stupid. Either you have a similar aesthetic (in the broad sense) vision, or you don’t, and one or both of you gets butthurt.

omg
https://www.cbc.ca/news/trending/dindim-o-lindo-pinguim-1.3487668

"Can you learn quickly, think critically and pivot twice before breakfast?" lol.

Looking at job postings -- the amount of high calibre brainpower funneled into adtech is insane. If we get roasted by global warming we definitely deserve it.