WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:16.999 The Weekly Thing, issue 123. Oct 26, twenty nineteen. Published October 26, twenty nineteen. By Jamie Thingelstad. In this issue: Quantum supremacy, superconducting processor, architectural decision records, quitting analytics, James Clear, GitLab political chat. 00:00:17.599 --> 00:00:47.031 Fall is officially here. This is the first Fall in our new house and I’m noting the intense volume of leaves that have fallen thus far, but even worse those that are still waiting to fall. The good news is that raking leaves, at least in our house, is a full family activity. The kids get into it, and if it’s a nice day it’s all very pleasant to do. That will be the plan for Sunday. I expect some piles to be made, some jumping to happen, and some delightful pictures to be taken. 00:00:48.431 --> 00:00:50.329 Now, the Featured Links section. 00:00:50.929 --> 00:00:56.465 Link one. Google AI Blog: Quantum Supremacy Using a Programmable Superconducting Processor. 00:00:56.965 --> 00:01:03.137 Quantum computing has been talked about for well over a decade, but this is the first time we are seeing something real. 00:01:03.637 --> 00:01:29.677 Quote. We developed a new 54-qubit processor, named “Sycamore”, that is comprised of fast, high-fidelity quantum logic gates, in order to perform the benchmark testing. Our machine performed the target computation in 200 seconds, and from measurements in our experiment we determined that it would take the world’s fastest supercomputer 10,000 years to produce a similar output. End quote. 00:01:30.177 --> 00:01:47.960 10,000 years to 200 seconds? I had to do the math. That's 1,578,000,000 times faster. What does that mean, nearly all encrypted documents we have today are probably easily decrypted with brute force tactics. Read more in this Nature article article. 00:01:49.360 --> 00:01:51.208 That's the end of Featured Links. 00:01:52.608 --> 00:01:54.522 Now, the My Weekly Photo section. 00:01:55.122 --> 00:02:02.826 Walking in the woods. October 18, twenty nineteen at 2:49 PM Golden Anniversary State Forest, Grand Rapids MN. 00:02:04.226 --> 00:02:06.283 That's the end of My Weekly Photo. 00:02:07.683 --> 00:02:09.531 Now, the Notable Links section. 00:02:10.131 --> 00:02:14.763 Link one. Cellphone Contract for a Child's First Cell Phone, Feld Thoughts. 00:02:15.263 --> 00:02:28.282 This is an amazingly detailed agreement to walk through with your kid before they get a phone. It’s an interesting idea, and obviously a very clear way to communicate expectations. Perhaps a bit much though. 00:02:29.182 --> 00:02:34.495 Link two. Wayfair Tech Explains It All: David Short on Formulaic Naming, Wayfair Tech Blog. 00:02:34.995 --> 00:02:38.052 What an interesting idea, and a little disconcerting. 00:02:38.552 --> 00:03:01.112 Quote. With Formulaic Naming, Wayfair is transitioning to a structured solution for naming based on other questions we already ask our suppliers about their products. Once we have this structured information, we can pursue Dynamic Naming, where the product name will vary based on where the name is displayed and the customer who is viewing the product. End quote. 00:03:01.612 --> 00:03:11.529 So when you buy the Cleaver Cedar Sofa and your friend that you recommend it to may not see that a product of that name doesn't even exist? Interesting ideas. 00:03:12.429 --> 00:03:16.629 Link three. How to Become Comfortable Being Vulnerable, Matt Norman. 00:03:17.129 --> 00:03:30.750 Being vulnerable is one of many ways to show you are human, and it lets people relate to you as a leader. It’s not comfortable since many leaders, myself included, are not comfortable in that position or feel like it’s not okay. 00:03:31.250 --> 00:03:47.706 Quote. “Group cooperation is created by small, frequently repeated moments of vulnerability,” he explains. “Of these, none carries more power than the moment when a leader signals vulnerability.” It’s paramount for people to know that it’s safe to tell the truth here. End quote. 00:03:48.206 --> 00:03:54.768 I've tried to get more comfortable being vulnerable, knowing that it helps the culture and team I work with. 00:03:55.668 --> 00:04:00.720 Link four. WeWork Founder Adam Neumann Is Still a Billionaire After Bailout, Bloomberg. 00:04:01.220 --> 00:04:04.355 This would be the definition of a Golden Parachute. 00:04:04.855 --> 00:04:36.637 Quote. SoftBank Group Corp.’s proposed rescue package of WeWork involves Neumann selling about 1 billion dollars of stock and getting a 185 million dollars consulting fee from the Japanese firm even as the deal values the struggling office-sharing company at 8 billion dollars, according to people familiar with the transaction. That’s down from an estimated 47 billion dollars at the start of the year. Neumann will leave the company’s board though he still can assign two seats. End quote. 00:04:37.137 --> 00:04:42.671 So after creating no profits at all, the founder of WeWork leaves a billionaire. This is wrong. 00:04:43.571 --> 00:04:45.390 Link five. Quitting Analytics. 00:04:45.890 --> 00:04:58.230 I did this myself in twenty seventeen. I go back to intent and zoning. When I visit friends houses I don't want to think that their is a KPI being incremented. For me, the same is true for personal websites. 00:04:59.130 --> 00:05:02.422 Link six. Architectural Decision Records, adr.github.io. 00:05:02.922 --> 00:05:05.048 Interesting structure for architecture. 00:05:05.548 --> 00:05:42.958 Quote. An Architectural Decision (AD) is a software design choice that addresses a functional or non-functional requirement that is architecturally significant. An Architecturally Significant Requirement (ASR) is a requirement that has a measurable effect on a software system’s architecture and quality. An Architectural Decision Record (ADR) captures a single AD, such as often done when writing personal notes or meeting minutes; the collection of ADRs created and maintained in a project constitute its decision log. All these are within the topic of Architectural Knowledge Management (AKM). End quote. 00:05:43.458 --> 00:05:51.273 I think it is very critical that you define how architecture is executed so that teams and architects know what to expect from each other. 00:05:52.173 --> 00:05:55.867 Link seven. Creating the Habit of Not Being Busy: zen habits. 00:05:56.367 --> 00:06:11.798 There is some good stuff here. I wonder, is being busy addictive? Does it give you a reinforcement about your importance and the work you do? Does not being busy make people nervous? I wonder if there is a lot more "busy" than necessarily needs to be. 00:06:12.698 --> 00:06:17.328 Link eight. The Internet and the Third Estate, Stratechery by Ben Thompson. 00:06:17.828 --> 00:06:25.477 Wide ranging reaction to Zuckerberg's framing of Facebook, or generally social media, as the Fifth Estate. An interesting read. 00:06:26.377 --> 00:06:30.361 Link nine. Why Richard Stallman doesn't matter, Stefano Maffulli. 00:06:30.861 --> 00:06:40.008 There is so much truth to this. I like the vision and mission of the Free Software Foundation, but under Stallman's "leadership", it has ignored the internet. 00:06:40.508 --> 00:07:09.777 Quote. That’s because Stallman’s world was and still is, stuck in the 80s: computers are physical devices that users can own and keep in their homes. For that use case, the four freedoms, the definition of source code and installation tooling introduced in GPLv3 made a lot of sense. Nothing else seemed to matter to him. The decision for the Linux kernel not to adopt GPLv3 wasn’t considered a problem and it was often downplayed by FSF leadership. End quote. 00:07:10.277 --> 00:07:33.418 I shared my story of meeting Stallman before and he really didn’t see the Internet as a thing that mattered. Mostly this was because he wouldn't use it? He famously is the person who used an emacs, email, bash script thing to pull web pages when he needed information. That's crazy. The real Free Software challenge has moved online and Stallman was still thinking about a open BIOS. 00:07:34.318 --> 00:07:39.406 Link ten. Highlights from "The Checklist Manifesto" by Atul Gawande, Chester Grant. 00:07:39.906 --> 00:07:52.531 This is one of my favorite books ever. I highly recommend you get a copy and read the whole thing. Read it a couple times actually. But if you still need to be convinced this article has some good highlights. 00:07:53.431 --> 00:07:56.769 Link eleven. Which Way Do You Run? Andreessen Horowitz. 00:07:57.269 --> 00:08:23.526 There is nothing limited to Founder/CEO's about the feeling in this article. Leaders tend to have these feelings. "I used to become physically ill whenever there was something wrong in the company — even if I didn’t know what it was." I totally get that and feel it myself. The act of running towards what scares you and your fears is one of the hardest things about leading. You have to, and you have to be the first to do it. 00:08:24.426 --> 00:08:30.064 Link twelve. The Atomic Minimalist: My Conversation with James Clear, Study Hacks, Cal Newport. 00:08:30.564 --> 00:08:43.383 If you are a fan of either Cal Newport or James Clear this will be an interesting listen. I find the core concepts that both of them are writing about interesting and found this podcast informative and thought provoking. 00:08:44.283 --> 00:08:51.653 Link thirteen. GitLab reset --hard bad1dea: Biz U-turns, unbans office political chat, will vet customers • The Register. 00:08:52.153 --> 00:09:12.277 This is the followup to another article highlighting the change being made to policies at Gitlab. Just one day later another article and a reversal of the policy change highlighted in the first article. These matters are complicated and right or wrong, it seems like Gitlab's initial action was poorly planned and executed. 00:09:13.677 --> 00:09:15.573 That's the end of Notable Links. 00:09:16.973 --> 00:09:17.886 Now, more links. 00:09:18.486 --> 00:09:33.477 First, zuck Testified Before the House Financial Services Committee and It Did Not Go Well for Him — Pixel Envy pxlnv.com At some point people should read stuff like this and ask why they continue to participate in such a broken ecosystem. 00:09:33.977 --> 00:09:42.332 Second, the Quantum Computing Breakthrough + Other Nonsense – On my Om om.co Om highlighting the silliness of so much tech industry coverage. 00:09:42.832 --> 00:09:53.497 Third, without deal, WeWork would have been out of money next week, sources say www.cnbc.com One week of cash flow. Supposedly was worth 47 billion dollars a few weeks ago. 00:09:53.997 --> 00:10:02.770 Fourth, minecraft becomes a board game, and the results are faithful, fantastic | Ars Technica arstechnica.com Wait a second? Minecraft as a board game? 00:10:03.270 --> 00:10:13.388 Fifth, dapr - portable, event-driven, serverless runtime. dapr.io Interesting runtime. "An event-driven, portable runtime for building microservices on cloud and edge.". 00:10:14.788 --> 00:10:16.349 That's the end of More Links. 00:10:17.749 --> 00:10:19.386 Now, the Microposts section. 00:10:19.986 --> 00:10:21.906 Thursday @ 10:27 PM. 00:10:22.406 --> 00:10:36.644 Tammy and I enjoyed Cabal tonight, from the Walking Shadow Theatre Company. Billed as a “Play with Puzzles”, it mixed actors, puzzle room concepts and an elaborate story. If you like puzzle rooms at all, this is highly recommended. 00:10:37.544 --> 00:10:39.368 Wednesday @ 8:19 PM. 00:10:39.868 --> 00:10:48.518 Mark O’Leary and I shared some context and excitement with one of our teams as we continue our adoption of Scaled Agile practices. #TeamSPS. 00:10:49.418 --> 00:10:51.242 Wednesday @ 7:37 PM. 00:10:51.742 --> 00:10:58.275 Game 2 of the World Series and there has already been so much action in the first inning! Tied 2-2. 00:10:59.175 --> 00:11:00.913 Tuesday @ 11:39 PM. 00:11:01.413 --> 00:11:05.520 Mazie got to go on stage and dance and sing with Michael Franti tonight! 00:11:06.420 --> 00:11:08.364 Tuesday @ 11:37 PM. 00:11:08.864 --> 00:11:19.257 Michael Franti was amazing tonight. His music is so inspirational and uplifting. It’s a joy to experience. I love that he ends his shows with everyone singing “Imagine” together. 00:11:20.157 --> 00:11:22.101 Tuesday @ 11:28 PM. 00:11:22.601 --> 00:11:27.906 My Mom, Sister, and our family all went to the Michael Franti show tonight! Amazing show! 00:11:28.806 --> 00:11:30.366 Sunday @ 7:20 PM. 00:11:30.866 --> 00:11:36.821 We are kitted up and ready to cheer for the United in their first postseason game! Go Loons! #MNUFC. 00:11:37.721 --> 00:11:39.473 Saturday @ 2:20 PM. 00:11:39.973 --> 00:11:49.374 We had a fun quick trip to my brother’s place on Pokegama Lake. Too late to be on the water, but we got a family selfie on the dock before heading out! 00:11:50.274 --> 00:11:51.978 Saturday @ 1:17 PM. 00:11:52.478 --> 00:12:00.261 Some bowling today at Thunder Alley XL in Grand Rapids! I struggled more than I would like to admit to get over 100. 00:12:01.161 --> 00:12:03.177 Saturday @ 11:15 AM. 00:12:03.677 --> 00:12:12.037 We checked out the US Army Corps of Engineers work at the Pokegama Lake Dam today, and did some hiking around the area. Nice place to hang out. 00:12:12.937 --> 00:12:14.654 Friday @ 11:08 PM. 00:12:15.154 --> 00:12:19.919 We had a fun evening watching Queen Machine in Grand Rapids on their first US tour! 00:12:20.819 --> 00:12:22.451 Friday @ 6:01 PM. 00:12:22.951 --> 00:12:28.661 We had great pizza and equally great beer at Rapids Brewing Co. Some deliciously hoppy beers! 00:12:29.561 --> 00:12:31.169 Friday @ 2:58 PM. 00:12:31.669 --> 00:12:39.486 We had a nice morning hiking around Golden Anniversary State Forest. The light and fall leaves were pretty and inspired a lot of photographs. 00:12:40.886 --> 00:12:42.583 That's the end of Microposts. 00:12:43.983 --> 00:12:45.376 Now, the Fortune section. 00:12:45.976 --> 00:12:49.768 You've made it all the way to the end! Here is your fortune for this week. 00:12:50.268 --> 00:12:52.754 You will pioneer the first Martian colony. 00:12:53.254 --> 00:12:55.661 Thank you for subscribing to the Weekly Thing! 00:12:57.061 --> 00:13:04.045 That brings us to the end of the Weekly Thing, issue 123. Thanks for listening, and I'll see you next time.