Pinned toot
Venkat  

To all contributors: please keep the comment short and sweet. Preferably just use the title of the link, or if that's not clear, a 5-10 word precis. Don't do big quotes. Save that for follow up comments. See my latest for examples of good style. ribbonfarm.com/2018/10/09/refa

0
Venkat  

PSA: If you'd like to help support this instance (which costs $20/mo and some admin labor, primarily from Zach Faddis and to a lesser extent, from me) please contact Zach at @zacharius for a venmo to send $ to. Limit contributions to $5/mo and max $20 (~4 mo) at one time, since we don't want to manage large balances or deal with the expectations that come with larger contributions.

I will continue to underwrite the cost and cover any shortfalls. We will set up some accountable tracking too.

1+
Venkat  

I haven't been super active here lately, but keep checking in every few days at least. But if anyone wants to ping me urgently for anything, use a different channel. This is something of an easy pace relaxation zone channel for me :D

0
Venkat boosted
Elliot  

I spent about an hour today fanning through various books on Italian architecture in the 15th-16th centuries and came to this conclusion: we have gotten a lot worse at building (partially bc the average person is legally forbidden to make substantial modifications to the property that they own) but we have gotten so much better at architecture.

1+
Venkat  

@Bert I see you sent me a paypal payment for this instance without asking me. This creates an annoying book-keeping headache for me. If it shows up as "unclaimed" on your account, please see if you can reverse it. If not, I'll be refunding it.

1
Venkat boosted
riga  

Oh man, I just learned that the main internal communication tool at facebook is a corporate version of facebook. This explains a lot.

1+
Venkat  

Grr. Weird euro style appliance integrated into cabinetry.

0
Venkat boosted
nindokag  

somebody at work is giving away Banana Republic coupons, and it just reminded me how utterly strange it is that there's a clothing store chain named Banana Republic. That's like naming your store "Failed State" or "Tinpot Dictatorship"

1+
Venkat  

7. Chartered private jet: pick an evil-twin beef/subvert them. Imitation is not the highest form of flattery. Subversion is.

8. Your own private jet: include-and-transcend in a bigger idea, forcing authority to turn into student if they don’t want to retire

0
Venkat  

5. Business class: cite for a specific idea that you actually need to build on, but in a sufficient way, not necessary. There are other competing sources to cite that would serve as well, so choosing one is some mix of buy-in to a subcultural game, voting, buying influence, and respect,
6. First class: cite for a specific and necessary idea that’s available nowhere else, or is so clearly best of breed it would be small-minded/ungracious to cite the competition. Taleb operates here.

1
Venkat  

The intellectual influence freemium hierarchy citation airline
1. Basic economy tier: tag on twitter
2. Economy: cite in general terms, mostly to CYA and insure against them sending their troll mobs after you or beefing with you
3. Premium economy: faithfully imitate their patterns, acknowledging influence
4. Mileage program early boarding: summarize their work for others, evangelize

1
Venkat  

Having a drink in memory of my father-in-law-law, who passed away today. He will be missed. 🥃

1+
Venkat boosted
Matthew Sweet  

Update + Request 

0
Venkat boosted
Rusty Swarf  

Young sciences are so much more fun. Trying to identify a mushroom, I come across this:

"At the time of this writing (April, 2015) the genus "Polyporus" is headed for major changes; DNA studies (for example Sotome et al., 2008) have made it clear that the genus we thought we had a handle on is actually fairly incoherent, requiring a number of taxonomic changes."

0
Venkat  

So I recently turned on protected tweets on Twitter

Interesting experience. Slight mastodon feel as a result. Though too many followers to feel truly relaxing.

0
Venkat boosted
temujin9  

Hey millennials: did you destroy an industry last week? Did you *try* to destroy an industry last week?

1+
Venkat boosted
Elliot  

I still find it's weird that customs officers are like:

man: *sigh* anything to declare sir

me: yes, two liters of alcohol, and-

man: you can only bring one liter. remember that next time. *gives back passport* next!

not very thorough...

1
Venkat boosted
Calm  

We need new vocabulary, intuitions, parables, idioms, and jokes to handle recursive complexity. The alternative is a human face, frowning at a css file, forever.

0
Venkat boosted
nindokag  

sometimes my wife will notice that I'm quietly staring off into space and she'll ask "What are you thinking about?"

Invariably, at the moment she asks my train of thought will be on something incredibly stupid, but I'll answer honestly: "I was thinking about Insane Clown Posse. You ever wonder how their fans got the name Juggalos?"

or, you know, whatever nonsense i was thinking about at that moment

1
Venkat boosted
temujin9  

Folks, no matter how hard you try, you cannot smack-talk an idea to death.

The only thing that can kill a bad idea is a better one.

Go build those.

1
Venkat  

The world is just janky as hell, that is all

1
Show more
Refactor Camp

Mastodon instance for attendees of Refactor Camp, and members of various online/offline groups that have grown out of it. Related local groups with varying levels of activity exist in the Bay Area, New York, Chicago, and Austin.

Kinda/sorta sponsored by the Ribbonfarm Blogamatic Universe.

If you already know a few people in this neck of the woods, try and pick a handle they'll recognize when you sign up. Please note that the registration confirmation email may end up in your spam folder, so check there. It should come from administrator Zach Faddis.

Resources

Developers

What is Mastodon?

refactorcamp.org

More…