our

Four short links: 8 April 2020

System Design for Advanced Beginners — a friendly explanation of the what and why of systems, with acknowledgement of the real world like There are many tools out there, each with different strengths and weaknesses, and many ways to build a technology company. The real, honest reasons that we will make many of our technological […]




our

Four short links: 9 April 2020

The Fuzzy Edges of Character Encoding — the history, politics, and computational basics of text-based character encoding and digital representations of text, from Morse Code to ASCII to Unicode (and emoji), as well as alternative text encoding schemes. (via Everest Pipkin) AutoHotkey — an automation scripting language for Windows. The Electronic Nose and its Applications: […]




our

Four short links: 10 April 2020

FairMOT — one-shot multi-object tracking that remarkably outperforms the state-of-the-arts on the MOT challenge datasets at 30 FPS. pipedream — IFTTT for coders. Compiler Explorer — an interactive tool that lets you type code in one window and see the results of its compilation in another window. Using the site should be pretty self-explanatory: by […]




our

Four short links: 13 April 2020

Introduction to COBOL — a 1999 web site (!) with slides from a University of Limerick course. IBM will offer free (presumably more modern) training. zoombot — a highly advanced AI to handle Zoom calls. storybook.js — open source toolkit and sandbox to build UI components in isolation so you can develop hard-to-reach states and […]




our

Four short links: 14 April 2020

The Science of Happiness — free enrolment in Berkeley’s MOOC to teach positive psychology. Learn science-based principles and practices for a happy, meaningful life. The New Business of AI (A16Z) — many AI companies have: Lower gross margins due to heavy cloud infrastructure usage and ongoing human support; Scaling challenges due to the thorny problem […]




our

Four short links: 15 April 2020

Coding vs Programming (John Gruber) — I’d noticed this linguistic change too. See also Engineering vs Programming vs Computer Science. Coding is shorter so it’s probably gaining in popularity because shorter is easier to say and thus more convenient. micrograd (Andre Karpathy) — A tiny Autograd engine (with a bite! :D). Implements backpropagation (reverse-mode autodiff) […]




our

Four short links: 16 April 2020

Kanboard — free and open source Trello-like Kanban boards. Remote Work Playbook — really useful advice on the actual mechanics of working remotely, not just which tools to use but how to use them. E.g., As an individual contributor, is there something you just did that you think a colleague would have to do at […]




our

Four short links: 17 April 2020

Nebula —open source distributed, scalable, lightning-fast graph database. COBOL Programming Course — from the Open Mainframe Project. Serverless Handbook — a resource teaching frontend engineers everything they need to know to dive into backend. Novel Annealing Processor Is the Best Ever at Solving Combinatorial Optimization Problems (IEEE Spectrum) — Dubbed STATICA (Stochastic Cellular Automata Annealer […]




our

Four short links: 20 April 2020

CastleDB — a structured static database […]. CastleDB looks like any spreadsheet editor, except that each sheet has a data model. […] stores both its data model and the data contained in the rows into an easily readable JSON file. […] allows efficient collaboration on data editing. Mainframes Are Having a Moment (IEEE Spectrum) — […]




our

Four short links: 21 April 2020

It’s Time to Learn (Scott Berkun) — a strong response to Marc Andreessen’s It’s Time to Build. It feels like we are in a disrupted time when anything is possible, and folks are wondering where the levers are to pull. pygraphistry — a library to extract, transform, and visually explore big graphs. Desert Island Devops […]




our

Four short links: 22 April 2020

Posthog — open source product analytics. Into the Mainframe (Recurse) — the interviews with two mainframe programmers are a great reminder of how much things have changed. And how they haven’t. For instance, later in my career I kept a weighted punching clown in my office. As programmers, we liked our users, but we also […]




our

Four short links: 23 April 2020

Moloch — Large scale, open source, indexed packet capture and search. 3Dify Instagram Photos — open source toolset for adding a 3d effect to photos on Instagram’s web site. It uses 3d-photo-inpainting running in Colab (free GPU) and Cloud pubsub/storage for communication. A glimpse of the future: we could augment all our apps with deep […]




our

Four short links: 24 April 2020

The Suddenly Remote Playbook — I just want to note that if you have to look after kids when you’re supposed to be working, you’re not working from home. Not everyone’s getting a glorious introduction to the delights of working from home. taichi — a programming language designed for high-performance computer graphics. It is deeply […]




our

Four short links: 27 April 2020

Teleforking a Process onto a Different Computer — a working proof of concept (I just don’t replicate tricky things so that I could keep it simple, meaning it’s just a fun tech demo you probably shouldn’t use for anything real) of a telefork() function call that spawns a process on another machine and returns the […]




our

Four short links: 28 April 2020

Learning a Language — this list of questions facing anyone taking a new language for a test run just burns with truth. (Also: encouraging to see how many of these questions are answered by the Cookbook format) OpenVAS — Open Vulnerability Assessment Scanner, aka “what a cheap external security assessment vendor will run and then […]




our

Four short links: 29 April 2020

podpaperscissors — From the classic “prisoner’s dilemma” to more obscure coördination games, Pod Paper Scissors takes game theory out of the dry textbook and into the real world. … Each episode will feature different kinds of games and situations. Experts in a variety of fields will casually converse with the hosts about how the particular […]




our

Four short links: 30 April 2020

To Microservices and Back Again: Why Segment Went Back to a Monolith — microservices came with increased operational overhead and problems around code reuse. … If microservices are implemented incorrectly or used as a band-aid without addressing some of the root flaws in your system, you’ll be unable to do new product development because you’re […]




our

Four short links: 1 May 2020

Tasmota — Alternative firmware for ESP8266 with easy configuration using webUI, OTA updates, automation using timers or rules, expandability and entirely local control over MQTT, HTTP, Serial or KNX. Selfie 2 Waifu — deep learning constructs an anime character from your photo. Paper for the underlying technique. (via @tkasasagi) The Handbook of Cyber Wargames: Wargaming […]




our

Four short links: 4 May 2020

Popcorn Linux — exploring how to improve the programmability of emerging heterogeneous hardware, in particular, those with Instruction Set Architecture (ISA)-diverse cores, from node-scale (e.g., Xeon/Xeon-Phi, ARM/x86, CPU/GPU/FPGAs) to rack-scale (e.g., Scale-out processors, Firebox, The Machine), in both native and virtualized settings. Additionally, the project is exploring how to automatically compile/synthesize/execute code on ISA-heterogeneous hardware. […]




our

Four short links: 5 May 2020

Leaving Amazon (Tim Bray) — May 1st was my last day as a VP and Distinguished Engineer at Amazon Web Services, after five years and five months of rewarding fun. I quit in dismay at Amazon firing whistleblowers who were making noise about warehouse employees frightened of Covid-19. Observability is a Many-Splendoured Thing (Charity Majors) […]




our

Four short links: 6 May 2020

Raman Spectroscopy — Low Cost, High Performances, 100% Open Source Raman Spectrometer. […] We currently offer the spectrometer in a Starter Edition version designed for teaching Raman spectroscopy and we will soon release a Performance Edition version which achieves a tested 12 cm-1 resolution at low costs. Great to see this getting into the hands […]




our

Four short links: 7 May 2020

Super Bootable 64 — Super Mario 64 shipped before the SDK was finalised, and it had to be compiled with optimisations turned off. This meant the binary was easily reversed to source code, and now the unportable has been ported. This site probably won’t last long, because DMCA, but it’s technically a sweet feat. (via […]




our

Four short links: 8 May 2020

Mathematics for Machine Learning — We wrote a book on Mathematics for Machine Learning that motivates people to learn mathematical concepts. The book is not intended to cover advanced machine learning techniques because there are already plenty of books doing this. Instead, we aim to provide the necessary mathematical skills to read those other books. […]




our

The "psychobiome" is bacteria in your gut that affects how you think and act

An array of scientific evidence suggest that in some cases, the bacteria in your gut–your microbiome–could be tied to neurological and psychological disorders and differences, from anxiety and autism to Parkinson's and schizophrenia. The journal Science published a survey of the field and the Cambridge, Massachusetts start-up Holobiome that hopes to use insight into this "psychobiome" to develop treatments for depression, insomnia, and other conditions with a neurological side to them. From Science:

For example, many people with irritable bowel syndrome are also depressed, people on the autism spectrum tend to have digestive problems, and people with Parkinson’s are prone to constipation.

Researchers have also noticed an increase in depression in people taking antibiotics—but not antiviral or antifungal medications that leave gut bacteria unharmed. Last year, Jeroen Raes, a microbiologist at the Catholic University of Leuven, and colleagues analyzed the health records of two groups—one Belgian, one Dutch—of more then 1000 people participating in surveys of their types of gut bacteria. People with depression had deficits of the same two bacterial species, the authors reported in April 2019 in Nature Microbiology.

Researchers see ways in which gut microbes could influence the brain. Some may secrete messenger molecules that travel though the blood to the brain. Other bacteria may stimulate the vagus nerve, which runs from the base of the brain to the organs in the abdomen. Bacterial molecules might relay signals to the vagus through recently discovered “neuropod” cells that sit in the lining of the gut, sensing its biochemical milieu, including microbial compounds.

Read the rest




our

Puppy training doesn’t have to descend your house into chaos thanks to these online classes

One positive upside of the past two months is how sheltering at home has all but emptied area animal shelters. It’s tough to get solid numbers nationally, but shelters in cities and regions all across America are reporting massive surges in animal adoptions

Even the steep increase in Google searches for “adopt a pet,” up a whopping 335 percent in April, proves what we probably all knew anyway — that in times of stress, having a furry friend is a huge comfort for millions.

Unfortunately, one of the downsides of the past two months is there are no trainers available to help whip some of these new family pets, particularly puppies, into shape. From barking and jumping to house training and scratching, The Complete Guide to Puppy and Dog Training Bundle is a full plan for getting the newest member of your family integrated into the house safely and sanely all by yourself.

The collection includes eight courses all geared toward getting a new dog or puppy behaving the right way. And if you’ve ever had any thoughts about starting a dog training business of your own, this coursework is a perfect starting spot.

Puppies: A-Z Guide to Puppy & Dog Training kicks off the learning, explaining the best way to train, teach and socialize your puppy so they grow into a joyful, well balanced, and well-behaved dog. 

Of course, most puppies each have their particular issues, so a handful of courses look more closely at some of the tactics for helping your puppy overcome certain challenging behaviors. Read the rest




our

Sport24.co.za | Sharma hoping Aussie tour gets the go-ahead

India top-order batsman Rohit Sharma is hopeful their tour to Australia at the end of 2020 is allowed to proceed.




our

Sport24.co.za | TOUR TALES | When Polly's boys went 'zero to hero' Down Under

Including a shoulder-brush with a livid Steve Waugh, Rob Houwing remembers witnessing SA's heroic finish to an otherwise stormy 2001/02 Australian tour.




our

Signs of Slowing Unemployment; U.S. Jobless Claims Decline for Four Weeks in a Row

Signs of Slowing Unemployment

Although millions of people lost their jobs because of the coronavirus, a surge of companies is hiring additional employees due to increased demands.




our

Every Home Sale Adds More than $88,000 to the Economy. How Do Home Sales Affect the Economy in Your State?

How Do Home Sales Affect the Economy in Your State?

Real estate is the foundation of wealth building for the middle class and a critical link in the flow of goods, services, and income for Americans.




our

Signs of Slowing Unemployment; More Than Half of States Had Fewer Jobless Claims for Four Weeks in a Row

Signs of Slowing Unemployment

Following an unprecedented surge in jobless claims in March due to the coronavirus, unemployment is continuously slowing in April in 26 states.




our

7 Must-Do Hacks for When Your Motivation Dips

Do you know that feeling when you are hyped and ready to take on a new challenge? You are taken over by a surge of motivation and excitement and you’ve made a commitment you fully intend to stick to. It sounds familiar, right? Perhaps you declared your intention to dedicate more time to self-care, or […]

The post 7 Must-Do Hacks for When Your Motivation Dips appeared first on Dumb Little Man.




our

Expand Your Brand Using Business Cards

Every successful business expecting high returns should have investment projects. Just like any other advertisement plan, a business card is crucial. It links up your company and the potential customers easily. It’s cheaper to design and distribute the cards. However, for a startup business which is low on budget and high on initial expenses, designing […]

The post Expand Your Brand Using Business Cards appeared first on Dumb Little Man.




our

Start Your Coin Collection With These Rare Coins

Rare coins can add beauty and value to any collection. It is a piece of history that any man or woman hold in their hand. It could belong to an ancient era and certain empires such as the Romanian world or maybe it’s a silver dollar that pioneered in the wild east. Coin collectors are […]

The post Start Your Coin Collection With These Rare Coins appeared first on Dumb Little Man.




our

9 Online Resources for Effective Learning

Technology is continuously leaving an indelible mark on many conceivable fields and industries, and education hasn’t been left behind either. Today, you no longer need to take admission classes and physically attend all your classes to earn a degree. All that is required of you is a working web connection and an incontestable thirst for […]

The post 9 Online Resources for Effective Learning appeared first on Dumb Little Man.




our

How To Be Efficient As a Busy Mom And Still Chase Your Dreams

Haven’t we all been there? Going from being frazzled and all over the place to being efficient and feeling like a super-woman, then back down again? I’ve been through my fair share of daily vicissitudes that have left me in shambles plenty of times. Being a mom of two kids or having a professional career […]

The post How To Be Efficient As a Busy Mom And Still Chase Your Dreams appeared first on Dumb Little Man.




our

The Simplest Hack to Be Your Most Organized Self

Finding a good system to be organized can be intimidating. There are so many options! Useful tips on how to get your life together are all over the internet. From minimalist planners to detailed systems, something is bound to draw you in. Choosing the best system to use will be the biggest decision you’ll have […]

The post The Simplest Hack to Be Your Most Organized Self appeared first on Dumb Little Man.





our

Brighten Up Your After-Dark Road-Tripping with Lanmodo’s Vast Automotive Night Vision System

With a bright, 8.2-inch HD display and the flexibility to work in almost any vehicle, the Lanmodo Automotive Vast Night Vision System is a near-perfect alternative to factory-installed systems.

The post Brighten Up Your After-Dark Road-Tripping with Lanmodo’s Vast Automotive Night Vision System appeared first on Vagabondish.




our

7 Must-Have Gadgets to Trick Out Your RV Kitchen for 2019

We love to cook. But RV kitchens are notoriously — almost impossibly — small. The limited workspace can challenge even the most skilled food truck chefs. The key to actually enjoying cooking in such a confined space is finding the right tools that pack maximum versatility into a compact, lightweight, and durable package. Here are seven of our favorite RV kitchen gadgets. The Best RV Kitchen Gadgets for Every On-the-Go Chef Flexible Wood Cutting Board The easiest way to keep […]

The post 7 Must-Have Gadgets to Trick Out Your RV Kitchen for 2019 appeared first on Vagabondish.




our

Top Travel Mistakes Foreign Tourists Make

Travel is fun, when you plan things properly. If you have visited many countries, then surely you have made many mistakes such as booking resorts at wrong places or buying costly souvenirs which are easily available in your country. We all make silly mistakes when we visit a new country and there is no need to feel ashamed. What you need to do is make sure that you don’t repeat those mistakes.

When it comes to mistakes, I am not talking about flight or hotel ticket booking blunders. There are many more small oversights that can ruin your vacation. Let’s explore some of the common mistakes that tourists make every year.

No research about the place: You may know the name of the country, its capital and its currency exchange rate, but do you really know the place you are visiting? For example, in India, there are many prepaid taxi booths that charge right amount for a trip, but if you just pick any cab from the road, the driver may charge you double because you don’t know the route to your destination. Similarly, it is important to know the things you can and can’t do in the place you are visiting. For example, taking pictures is prohibited in many religious places.

Over-packing: Never carry too many clothes, because you are going to carry your bags, and if those are too heavy, you will curse yourself. Besides, the airlines charge hefty amount if your luggage crosses the weight limit. Always pack only those things that are necessary for the place you are visiting. For example, if you are going to Tadoba tiger reserve forest and staying at Tadoba tiger resort, then you don’t need to pack a cocktail party dress. It is better to pack a few jeans and t-shirts.

Speaking English only: Try to learn a few sentences in the local language. For example, words of greetings, how to ask for road directions and how to ask the price of something. The more you communicate with the locals in their own language, the more confident you will feel.

Disrespecting the customs: India is a conservative county, and the culture of Indians is very different from Americans. However, that does not mean you can mock or disrespect their culture. For example, Americans enter churches wearing shoes, but in India, you can’t wear shoes in a temple. Respect the rule while visiting any temple in India. After all, you are visiting a new country to understand its culture.

Reading guidebooks only: Guidebooks are for references and they can’t give you all the information about the place. For example, a guidebook may tell you that Taj Mahal is wonderful, but unless you raise your face from the book, can you truly appreciate its beauty?

Booking hotels and flights separately: Take a look at the famous travel portals and you will find that they are offering great hotel + airplane deals. When you book return tickets and also hotel rooms, you can save a few hundred dollars. Besides, it is a hassle free process as you are getting everything from one site.

Interrupting the guide: You can be the history professor in a college, but if you interrupt the guide when he is talking about a historical place, then you are being rude. All the other tourists have paid for the guided tour and by interrupting the guide frequently you are making everyone angry.

So, when you visit a foreign country this year, make sure that you don’t make the mistakes mentioned above. Enjoy nature, history and culture of the place you are visiting and you will feel rejuvenated by the end of your vacation.

If you like traveling to exotic places, check out our Machu Picchu Tours page



  • Tips and Things To Know

our

A live tour of how Basecamp uses Basecamp to run Basecamp

David and I spent nearly 2-hours giving a livestream tour of our very own Basecamp account. We wanted to show you how Basecamp uses Basecamp to run projects, communicate internally, share announcements, know what everyone’s working on, build software, keep up socially, and a whole bunch more. Our entire company runs on Basecamp, and this… keep reading




our

We’ve refreshed our policies

Spring is emerging in the US and as part of our company spring cleaning, we took a peek at our product policies, noticed some cobwebs, and got out the duster. You can read our current product policies here. Besides rewriting sections to be more readable, we made four substantive changes: 1. We’ve consolidated our policies… keep reading




our

Watching the Corners: On Future-Proofing Your Passion

On May 16, 2010, at 10:02 AM, "Xx" wrote:

You mentioned you gave a talk at Rutgers about future proofing your passion. Is this available as a podcast? I'd love to listen!

This poor kid emailed me to ask a really simple question. And I went and saddled him with the world's most circuitously long-winded answer. Surprise, surprise.


Hey, Xx,

Thanks for the note, man. No I'm sorry its not up as audio AFAIK.

FWIW, it's a talk I'm asked to do more often lately so I wouldn't be surprised if it turns up sooner or later.

Since you were kind enough to ask, the talk—which comes out super different each time I do it— consists of a discursive mishmash of advice I wish I'd had the ears to hear in the year or five after graduating from college: primarily, that we never end up anywhere near where we'd expected, and that most of us would have been a lot happier a lot faster if we'd realized that we were often obsessing over the wrong things—starting with how much the world should care about our major. ("Liberal Arts," with a concentration in [ugh] "Cultural Studies," thanks.)

The talk started as a way to encourage students to learn enough about what they care about that any temporary derails and side roads wouldn't scare their horses too badly. But, today, I see it as something a lot bigger that's demonstrably useful to anyone who hopes to survive, evolve, and thrive in this insane world.

A handful of bits I'm (obviously) still synthesizing into something notionally cohesive:


My Kingdom for Some Context!

For myself, I wish I'd known the value of developing early expertise in interesting new skills around emerging technologies (rather than just iteratively pseudo-honing the 202-level skills I thought I "understood"). Alongside that, I wish I'd learned to embrace the non-douchier aspects of building awesome human relationships (as against "networking" in the service of landing some straight job that, as with most hungry young people, locked me into a carpeted prison of monkey work at the worst time possible).

Also how I wish I'd paid more attention to events, contexts, relationships, and change that were happening outside my immediate world —rather than becoming, say, the undisputed master of fretting about status, salary, and whether I was "a success" who had "arrived".

Hint: I was not a "success," and I had not, by any stretch, "arrived."

To my mind, "success" in the real world is much more the equivalent of achieving a new personal best; it's not about whether you won the "Springtime in Springfield SunnyD®/Q105™ 5k FunRun for Entitilitus," and got a little ribbon with a gold crest on it.

Truly, pretty much anyone who feels they've "arrived" anyplace is about to learn a) how much more they could be doing outside the narrowness of an often superficial ambition and b) the surprising number of things they had to give away through the opportunity costs and trade-offs that lead up to every theoretical milestone. It's a real goddamned thistle, and it's more than a little depressing.


Do You Still Really Want to be a Fireman?

[N.B.: I really hope you're taking bathroom breaks here, Xx]

Related, I think this is about how being an adult is not only unbelievably complicated in ways that you can't begin to imagine—that it's frequently defined by impossible decisions and non-stop layers of "hypocrisy"—but that there's an invisible but entirely real risk to doggedly chasing the theoretically laudable notion of "following your dream." Especially if it's a dream you first had while sleeping on Star Wars sheets in a racecar bed.

Not because it's a bad idea to want things or to have ambitions. Quite the opposite. More because, for a lot of us, the "dreams" of youth turn out to be half-finished blueprints for wax wings. And not particularly flattering ones at that.

By starting adult life with an autistically explicit "goal" that's never been tested against any kind of real-world experience or reality-in-context, we can paradoxically miss a thousand more useful, lucrative, or organic opportunities that just…what?…pop up. Often these are one-time chances to do amazing and even unique things—opportunities that many of us continue to reject out of hand because it's "not what we do."

It took me a full decade to learn to embrace the unfamiliar gifts that kismet loves to deliver on our busiest and most stressful days, and which gifts might (maybe/maybe not) even end up bringing the real-life, non-racecar-bed, now me a big step closer to something that's 1000 times more interesting than a hollow, ten-year-old caricature of "what I wanna be when I grow up."


Finding Your "Old Butcher"

Also related, it strikes me that the indisputable wealth of information and options that are provided by the web often comes with a harrowing hidden tradeoff. While we can certainly learn a lot on our own and become (what feels like) an instant expert on any topic in an afternoon, we usually do so in the absence of a mentor and outside the context of applying expertise to solve actual problems. In my opinion, a cadet should have to survive more than a few Kobayashi Maru scenarios before he gets to declare himself, "Captain."

Call it a guru, a wizard, an old butcher, or what have you, the mad echo chamber of a young mind often benefits from the dampening influence of an experienced grownup who can help you understand things that raw data, wikipedia entries, and lists of tips and tricks can't and wont ever do.

We benefit from a hand on the back and a gentle voice, reminding us:

  • "Try not to obsess over implementation until you really understand the problem," or
  • "Worry more about relationships than org charts or follower counts," or
  • "Don't quit looking after you've found that first data point," or—my favorite—
  • "Spend less time fantasizing about 'success' and way more time making really cool mistakes."

Conversely, though, I think this means that everything we think we know, as well as all the fancy advice that gets thrown around—absolutely including the material you're reading now—is the product of what one person knows and what another person has the ears to hear. For us. For now. For who really knows what. But it is a transaction that takes place in a very specific time and within the bounds of a set of "known" "facts." So, fair warning, doing your own due diligence never hurts.


What's Almost Not Impossible?

[N.B.: I swear to God this ends at some point, Xx]

One big pattern for "future-proofing" your passion? Keep your eyes open and your heart even "opener." And, be more than simply tolerant of the notion of change—sure, take it as read that nothing is ever fixed in place for more than a little while.

But, to the extent that your sanity can bear it, always keep an eye on the corners, the edges, and especially learn to watch for those infinitesimally tiny figures starting to shuffle around near the horizon. Because a lot of the things that seem ridiculously small and inconsequential right now will eventually cast a shadow that people will be chasing for decades. It's just that we're never sure which tiny figure that will turn out to be.

So, yeah. It really is true that no one but you cares about your major. But, trust me: everybody is interested in the person who repeatedly notices the things that are about to stop being impossible.

Be the curious one who soaks in all that "irrelevant" stuff. And, even as you stay heads-down on the "now" projects that keep the lights on, remember that the guy who invented those lights made hundreds of "failed" lightbulbs before fundamentally upending the way we think about time, family, industry, and the role of technology in how we live and work. But, yes, first he "failed" a lot a lot at something which more than a few of his contemporaries thought was pointless in the first place.

Ask: What's out there right now that's about to stop being impossible? Where will it happen first? Who will (most loudly and erroneously) declare it's total bullshit? Who will mostly get it right—but possibly too early? Who will figure out what it means to our grandkids? Who will figure out how to put it in everyone's front pocket for a quarter?

Y'know who? I'll tell you who: practically anybody BUT that guy in the racecar bed who wants to talk about his major.


Important: Merlin's Advice is Only Future-Proof to 10 Meters

A few years back, most watch manufacturers decided to come clean and stop categorically declaring that their timepieces were "waterproof." Instead, today, the more credible vendors admit their product is merely "water-resistant"—and, even then, they'll only guarantee the underwater functionality at so many meters, and for so long, and under thus and such conditions.

Truthfully, the same applies here. Nothing can actually "future-proof" anything. Anyone who claims to know the future is either a madman, a charlatan, or, often as not, both.

Thing is, regardless of the passions (or goals or values or priorities or whatever) that we hope to protect or defend, we'd all do well to remember that it is still ultimately OUR passion that's at stake.

That means we're the only one responsible for seeing that its functional components survive and adapt in a world in which each one of us has just north of zero control.

If we embrace the fact that no one can or should ever care about the health of our passions as much as we do, the practical decisions that help ensure Our Good Thing stays alive can become as "simple" as a handful of proven patterns—work hard, stay awake, fail well, hang with smart people, shed bullshit, say "maybe," focus on action, and always always commit yourself to a bracing daily mixture of all the courage, honesty, and information you need to do something awesome—discover whatever it'll take to keep your nose on the side of the ocean where the fresh air lives. This is huge.

Anything else? Yeah. Drink lots of water, play with your kid every chance you get, and quit Facebook today. No, really, do it.

Thanks again for the note, Xx, and sorry for the novella. I'll ping you if the audio ever turns up. Til then, forget your major, and break a leg!

yr internet pal,
/m

Watching the Corners: On Future-Proofing Your Passion” was written by Merlin Mann for 43Folders.com and was originally posted on May 18, 2010. Except as noted, it's ©2010 Merlin Mann and licensed for reuse under CC BY-NC-ND 3.0. "Why a footer?"






our

Local health unit credits public with slowing COVID spread, encourages cottagers to stay home

While infection rates remain steady across the region, the Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit is reporting more than half of all 360 cases have now recovered.




our

BREAKING: Sen Marsha Blackburn Introduces Stop COVID Act…Allowing US Citizens To Sue Communist China For Damage They’ve Inflicted On Our Nation

The following article, BREAKING: Sen Marsha Blackburn Introduces Stop COVID Act…Allowing US Citizens To Sue Communist China For Damage They’ve Inflicted On Our Nation, was first published on 100PercentFedUp.com.

Yesterday, Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), along with Senator Martha McSally (R-AZ) introduced the Stop COVID Act, giving Americans the ability to sue Communist China for the damage they’ve inflicted on our nation. Senator Blackburn appeared on Fox News with host Judge Jeanine where she explained the act to Jeanine Pirro. Blackburn told the Fox News […]

Continue reading: BREAKING: Sen Marsha Blackburn Introduces Stop COVID Act…Allowing US Citizens To Sue Communist China For Damage They’ve Inflicted On Our Nation ...




our

BREAKING: MI Lawmakers File Lawsuit Challenging Governor’s “Improper” and “Invalid” Emergency Orders: “We’ve attempted to partner with our governor, but she’s rejected”

The following article, BREAKING: MI Lawmakers File Lawsuit Challenging Governor’s “Improper” and “Invalid” Emergency Orders: “We’ve attempted to partner with our governor, but she’s rejected”, was first published on 100PercentFedUp.com.

In addition to crushing Michigan's economy, the governor's reckless, one-size-fits-all executive orders are harming an untold number of Michigan citizens.

Continue reading: BREAKING: MI Lawmakers File Lawsuit Challenging Governor’s “Improper” and “Invalid” Emergency Orders: “We’ve attempted to partner with our governor, but she’s rejected” ...




our

‘Schiff in Panic Mode’: Sources Say Russia Probe Transcripts Affirm Officials Found Nothing on Collusion

The following article, ‘Schiff in Panic Mode’: Sources Say Russia Probe Transcripts Affirm Officials Found Nothing on Collusion, was first published on 100PercentFedUp.com.

Transcripts of House Intelligence Committee interviews have been cleared for release, and Adam Schiff is reportedly in panic mode. Unfortunately for Schiff, top law enforcement and intel officials said they saw no evidence of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia in the transcripts. Republicans sought and got approval for the release of the transcripts […]

Continue reading: ‘Schiff in Panic Mode’: Sources Say Russia Probe Transcripts Affirm Officials Found Nothing on Collusion ...




our

BREAKING: President Trump’s Fiery Interview On Fox & Friends…”These are dirty politicians and dirty cops…They put our nation in danger with other nations, including Russia” [VIDEO]

The following article, BREAKING: President Trump’s Fiery Interview On Fox & Friends…”These are dirty politicians and dirty cops…They put our nation in danger with other nations, including Russia” [VIDEO], was first published on 100PercentFedUp.com.

This morning during a nearly one hour interview with Fox & Friends, President Trump addressed the decision by the DOJ to drop the case against the innocent General Michael Flynn. Trump ripped into the “dirty politicians and dirty cops” who went after General Michael Flynn. President Trump called the players involved in the horrible plot […]

Continue reading: BREAKING: President Trump’s Fiery Interview On Fox & Friends…”These are dirty politicians and dirty cops…They put our nation in danger with other nations, including Russia” [VIDEO] ...