Why we at $FAMOUS_COMPANY Switched to $HYPED_TECHNOLOGY
Ultimately, however, our decision to switch was driven by our difficulty in hiring new talent for $UNREMARKABLE_LANGUAGE, despite it being taught in dozens of universities across the United States. Our blog posts on $PRACTICAL_OPEN_SOURCE_FRAMEWORK seemed to get fewer upvotes when posted on Reddit as well, cementing our conviction that our technology stack was now legacy code.
This made me chuckle more than a few times. Spot on.
This is Nothing Like Mat Leave
8 weeks ago things here in Toronto started to shut down. And if they’d only shut down for a week or two, maybe we all could have gone back to what it was. But it’s been two months. You’re different than you were. We all are. We’re hearing from more and more people that they don’t want to go back to the old thing. It’s not who they are any more.
The best productivity hack is getting 8-9 hours of sleep every night. Second best is exercising 30-60 minutes each day. Both are obvious and overlooked, and yet make a more meaningful and immediate impact on the quality of your thinking than 99 percent of productivity tips.
The hobbyists (and one prominent pro — Seth Godin) profess that it’s the opposite that has the most positive impact on your life and mental health: short-form writing, and just getting your ideas out there. They’re correct.
Mind-blowing breakdown from Joelle Parenteau. We’ve tried to support some of our favourite local spots over the last seven weeks. It’s shocking how razor-thin the margins are.
I really enjoyed CGP Grey’s latest video talking about staying sane, healthy, and productive during lockdown. Great analogy.
How Banksy Authenticates His Work
Pretty ingenious.
That torn-in-half banknote though? Never mind signatures, embossing or wax seals. The Di Faced Tenner is doing all the authentication heavy lifting here.
Therefore, it has occurred to me that the problem is not the uncertainty. The problem is in working against the uncertainty. Of wishing and hoping and demanding that which is impossible to gain.
SmileBASIC 4 for Nintendo Switch
I started programming with QBasic back in elementary school, so I can appreciate this being available on the Nintendo Switch for today’s kids. Trying to write code directly on a handheld console sounds like a nightmare, though.
What Social Distance Looks Like Across the World
Filmmakers Jacob Jonas and Ivan Cash have created a short film, called A Social Distance, collecting clips from people in more than 30 countries.
In the self-submitted videos, people dance, play music, take us on a tour of their refrigerator, and introduce us to their pets. Edited together, these intimate moments create a synchronicity of humanity—a feeling of togetherness that’s difficult to conjure when you’re sequestered at home.
Why You Should Ignore All That Coronavirus-Inspired Productivity Pressure
Dr. Aisha S. Ahmad, Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Toronto, shares some advice for adapting to long-term crisis:
Understand that this is a marathon. If you sprint at the beginning, you will vomit on your shoes by the end of the month. Emotionally prepare for this crisis to continue for 12 to 18 months, followed by a slow recovery. If it ends sooner, be pleasantly surprised. Right now, work toward establishing your serenity, productivity, and wellness under sustained disaster conditions.
None of us knows how long this crisis will last. We all want our troops to be home before Christmas.
Almost three years ago, a group of us from TWG participated in management training offered by Jonathan & Melissa from the Raw Signal Group. Their lessons, insights, and values played a huge role in helping to shape who I am as a manager.
The latest edition of their newsletter hit on something I’ve been acutely feeling, this week.
That’s the challenge for all of us as we head into this next phase. The end of the hectic, new information everyday, everything swirling chaos phase. And into the middle part. The I’m bored, my family is bored, every day is Groundhog Day, and I am all out of ways to make chickpeas interesting phase.
Their appearance on BetaKit’s Black Swan podcast1, “Managers Are Not OK”, is also a really great listen. If you’re a manager and you’re struggling right now, I’d suggest checking it out.
After Social Distancing, a Strange Purgatory Awaits
Juliette Kayyem, former Department of Homeland Security official, collected thoughts from folks in a variety of fields and shares a vision of what the world may look like after COVID-19.
The simplistic idea of “opening up” fails to acknowledge that individual Americans’ risk-and-reward calculus may have shifted dramatically in the past few weeks. Yes, I’d like to go meet some girlfriends for drinks. But I am also a mother with responsibilities to three kids, so is a Moscow mule worth it? The answer will depend on so many factors between my home and sitting at the bar, and none of them will be weighed casually.
Explaining the Pandemic to my Past Self
This gave me a much-needed laugh this morning.
Your definition of ‘a pretty big deal’ is going to change for sure.
GitHub just went in for the kill, announcing free unlimited private repositories, unlimited collaborators, and reduced pricing for their (few) remaining paid features.
We’re happy to announce we’re making private repositories with unlimited collaborators available to all GitHub accounts. All of the core GitHub features are now free for everyone.
John Horton Conway: the world’s most charismatic mathematician
John Conway, inventor of the “Game of Life”, has died.
More than 24 years have passed since I first discovered Game of Life while pawing through book bins at the computer shop with my Dad. Farewell and thank you, sir.
This profile from The Guardian is a great read.
Miss working in the office with your team? This (beautiful) noise generator may be just the ticket. The creaky chairs are particularly fun.
Maciej Cegłowski makes a compelling argument for why we should all be wearing a mask. This is the post to send around to your friends & family.
But in this essay, I want to persuade you not just to wear a mask, but to go beyond the new CDC guidelines and help make mask wearing a social norm. That means always wearing a mask when you go out in public, and becoming a pest and nuisance to the people in your life until they do the same.
A Lego Justin Trudeau Talks to Children About the Covid-19 Pandemic
Tyler Walsh and his sons spent a week making a Lego stop-motion animation of Trudeau acknowledging the role of Canada’s children in this pandemic — their hardships and role in stopping the spread. Really heartwarming.
Paul Graham on COVID-19, credibility in the news media, and remembering who lied to us.
But epidemics are rare enough that these people clearly didn’t realize this was even a possibility. Instead they just continued to use their ordinary m.o., which, as the epidemic has made clear, is to talk confidently about things they don’t understand.
Zoom needs to clean up its privacy act
As Zoom explodes in popularity during the COVID-19 pandemic, Doc Searls has done a fantastic job of documenting Zoom’s many privacy concerns and publicly holding them accountable.
What I Learned When My Husband Got Sick With Coronavirus
A deeply impactful story from Jessica Lustig, whose husband fell ill with COVID-19. I was close to tears once or twice.
“You shouldn’t stay here,” he says, but he gets more frightened as night comes, dreading the long hours of fever and soaking sweats and shivering and terrible aches. “This thing grinds you like a mortar,” he says.
The Housekeeping of the Intangible
As we all struggle to adjust to, in some cases, a drastically new way of working, I deeply relate with Michael Lopp’s experience so far.
A full calendar stocked with interesting meetings, and curious people fills me with productive joy. In these non-normal times, I am thankful that the calendar is full, but my most significant learning from the first full week of distributed work is the immense accumulated value of short breaks.
[…]
But there are no breaks.