WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:18.792 The Weekly Thing, issue 231. UNIX Pipe, Slow Roads, Personal Brand. Published October 29, twenty twenty two. By Jamie Thingelstad. In this issue: Sprint estimation, UNIX Pipe Card Game, Google email privacy, plastic recycling myth, macOS Ventura review, personal brand burnout, Focus Is Saying No. 00:00:19.392 --> 00:00:19.944 Hey there! 00:00:20.444 --> 00:00:22.580 I’m writing this from my isolation room. 00:00:23.080 --> 00:00:48.947 I started getting sick when we were at Disney World and I figured I had caught a cold from my nephew. No big deal… in fact, I’m pretty sure I did catch a cold and a pretty rough one at that. Tyler also got that one. But it seems I also picked up COVID too. On Tuesday morning I was intently focused on getting ready for the day, back at the office, with some really important meetings and presentations I was giving. 00:00:49.447 --> 00:00:53.785 Two positive COVID tests later and that plan was completely changed. 00:00:54.285 --> 00:01:08.850 It turns out I’m not a fan of isolating. I miss being around the family and moving from place to place. But the good news is nobody else in the family has tested positive, so it is worth it to limit this second ride on the COVID train to just me. 00:01:09.350 --> 00:01:24.172 It’s funny that I got sick at Disney World, again. The last time we were there I got Strep Throat. Tyler got an infection. I took him to the urgent care and they helped him out, but that infection jumped to me and gave me a second trip to urgent care. 00:01:24.672 --> 00:01:37.145 I’m 2 for 3 on getting sick on trips to Disney World, but I still love our trips there. It sounds like we'll be heading back again next year. I think I'll bring extra vitamins and hand sanitizer. 00:01:37.645 --> 00:01:45.075 As you are reading this, I will be able to move around the house and not isolate. I still have to wear a mask, but I’m A-OK with that… 00:01:45.575 --> 00:01:46.715 Have a great weekend! 00:01:47.215 --> 00:01:52.751 "I know it is wet And the sun is not sunny But we can have Lots of good fun that is funny". 00:01:53.251 --> 00:01:54.192 — Winnie the Pooh. 00:01:55.592 --> 00:01:56.950 Now, the Notable section. 00:01:57.550 --> 00:01:59.482 There are sixteen links this week. 00:02:00.382 --> 00:02:04.684 Link one of sixteen. Why sprint estimation has broken Agile, VirtusLab. 00:02:05.184 --> 00:02:26.748 This post gets story points all wrong. The author suggests that story points are the same as time, and that is a broken approach. Spring points should be an estimate of complexity. The value of story points comes in making sure that the stories are actually able to be completed, not to estimate the duration of clock time it will take to do them. 00:02:27.648 --> 00:02:30.436 Link two of sixteen. The UNIX Pipe Card Game. 00:02:30.936 --> 00:02:40.336 Oh. My. Wow! This is the most delightful, geekiest thing I think I have ever seen. Sadly it is sold out or I might have to order a dozen of these to give to friends! 00:02:40.836 --> 00:02:47.359 Unix nerds take delight in what you can do with piping commands together. I might have some examples myself. 00:02:47.859 --> 00:02:52.130 Using cards to visually connect commands together seems just brilliant. 00:02:52.630 --> 00:02:55.007 He also has a set of cards to learn Go! 00:02:55.907 --> 00:03:01.763 Link three of sixteen. Google Has Most of My Email Because It Has All of Yours, copyrighteous. 00:03:02.263 --> 00:03:19.843 I use Fastmail to host my mail, and I wouldn't use Google because like the author here I don't want them to see my email. Obviously if you email people that use Google, they then have the email. The author here actually did the work to figure out how much that was for his email usage. 00:03:20.343 --> 00:03:46.660 Quote. The answer is surprisingly large. Despite the fact that I spend hundreds of dollars a year and hours of work to host my own email server, Google has about half of my personal email! Last year, Google delivered 57% of the emails in my inbox that I replied to. They have delivered more than a third of all the email I’ve replied to every year since two thousand six and more than half since twenty ten. End quote. 00:03:47.160 --> 00:04:04.149 Ugh. Now, even though Google saw that, since I’m not a Gmail user they cannot use it for ads. They would have to somehow match my Google account to my own domain, which may not be that hard. But then the blockers I run protect me from being monitored and augmenting that email data. 00:04:04.649 --> 00:04:08.371 But keeping data out of big services like Google is really hard. 00:04:09.271 --> 00:04:13.815 Link four of sixteen. Plastic recycling remains a 'myth': Greenpeace study. 00:04:14.315 --> 00:04:17.971 Ugh… recycling isn't gonna be the answer for dealing with plastic. 00:04:18.471 --> 00:04:33.250 Quote. Titled "Circular Claims Fall Flat Again," the study found that of 51 million tons of plastic waste generated by US households in twenty twenty one, only 2.4 million tons were recycled, or around five percent. End quote. 00:04:33.750 --> 00:04:37.806 Neat. Plastic may be mankind's most lasting mark on the Universe. 00:04:38.706 --> 00:04:42.576 Link five of sixteen. What "Work" Looks Like, Jim Nielsen’s Blog. 00:04:43.076 --> 00:04:50.099 One of my own challenges is finding enough time alone, contemplating the big topics, to direct things going forward. 00:04:50.599 --> 00:04:55.541 Quote. The funny thing is, sitting alone thinking doesn’t "look" like work. End quote. 00:04:56.041 --> 00:05:03.713 This made me think of Warren Buffet or even Bill Gates and their work habits around focus time, reading, and a lot of thinking time. 00:05:04.613 --> 00:05:06.605 Link six of sixteen. Slow Roads. 00:05:07.105 --> 00:05:26.329 This thing is mesmerizing! Load it into your browser and press "F" to activate auto drive. Almost like having an aquarium to stare at. The author wrote a great writeup on the project, it was his own attempt to see if he could created a "procedurally generating infinite, scenic landscapes". Looks great to me. 00:05:27.229 --> 00:05:32.089 Link seven of sixteen. POAP x ENS x IYK swag at Devcon 6 by the numbers, ENS. 00:05:32.589 --> 00:05:46.300 This "swag" event that ENS did at Devcon 6 is so incredible, and the recap of the results here is super impressive. I want one of these IYK PAOP Cards so bad now! Check out the connection graph of the POAPs distributed. 00:05:46.800 --> 00:05:56.471 Quote. the participants started swapping each other’s cards and a total of 18,743 POAPs were collected by 2,197 people End quote. 00:05:56.971 --> 00:06:02.277 This should just be standard at any crypto events, or any events at all, going forward. 00:06:02.777 --> 00:06:04.001 Love it all so much. 00:06:04.901 --> 00:06:09.459 Link eight of sixteen. Raoul Pal CEO of RealVision, GMI, etc. web3 talks. 00:06:09.959 --> 00:06:41.514 Good talk with Raoul Pal on macro economics and crypto. His description of the macro cycle is the most easily to digest I've ever heard. Pal also talks about what he sees in crypto. He actually answers something I've wondered about for a while. Specifically, if crypto can be used to create new communities, why would companies like Disney ever allow that. Pal suggests that by doing that, they may be able to show these currently unvalued assets on their balance sheet. That is a very interesting thought. 00:06:42.414 --> 00:06:46.809 Link nine of sixteen. Michael Tsai, Stage Manager in macOS 13.0. 00:06:47.309 --> 00:07:15.044 I tried Stage Manager on iPadOS for about 5 minutes and turned it off. It doesn't make sense to me unless you regularly connect an iPad to an external display and use it like a laptop. However, on macOS I've been playing with Stage Manager and sort of like it. I’m still getting used to it, but it is a novel way to collect windows and applications together. I wish that the collections you created were persistent, but maybe that will come. 00:07:15.944 --> 00:07:19.350 Link ten of sixteen. macOS Ventura: The MacStories Review. 00:07:19.850 --> 00:07:32.035 Incredible detail about every new thing in macOS Ventura. These are long reads but it is a good way to make sure you discover all the new stuff. The Ars Technics writeup is also a really good read. 00:07:32.935 --> 00:07:37.090 Link eleven of sixteen. Burned Out on Your Personal Brand, Tom Peters. 00:07:37.590 --> 00:07:52.258 Not terribly surprising that many influencers and social media personalities find it exhausting over time. Many turn their entire life into a performance. Performative living! That isn't going to be fulfilling even for a little while. 00:07:53.158 --> 00:07:57.285 Link twelve of sixteen. Focus Is Saying No To Good Ideas, Commoncog. 00:07:57.785 --> 00:08:02.636 Great article and stories around focus and choosing what is going to get attention. 00:08:03.136 --> 00:08:42.232 Quote. Ultimately, "focus is saying no to good ideas" takes aim at the lies we tell ourselves as business operators: that we fear missing out on everything that is good, that we think much of what is good is worth doing, and that we think that somehow chasing multiple good things at the same time is doable. In reality, everything has some cost, and the number of things you can execute concurrently is extremely limited. Hiring that SEO expert is going to cost you time and energy; focusing on F and B is going to introduce a huge source of constant distraction into your company. Focus is saying no to good ideas. End quote. 00:08:42.732 --> 00:08:48.211 I prefer to say this as "What makes you successful is what you don't do, as much as what you do.". 00:08:49.111 --> 00:08:54.070 Link thirteen of sixteen. Russell Napier: The world will experience a capex boom. 00:08:54.570 --> 00:09:08.389 There are a lot of financial people continuing to highlight various situations in "never before seen" spots. This interview frames a view that wea re shifting to a very different economic environment, and explains the reasons why and how. 00:09:08.889 --> 00:09:39.827 Quote. Back in two thousand eight, the world economy came to the brink of a deflationary debt liquidation, where the entire system was at risk crashing down. We’ve known that for years. We can’t stand normal, necessary recessions anymore without fearing a collapse of the system. So the level of debt – private and public – to GDP has to come down, and the easiest way to do that is by increasing the growth rate of nominal GDP. That was the way it was done in the decades after World War II. End quote. 00:09:40.327 --> 00:09:42.789 Interesting read, and the timeline is long. 00:09:43.289 --> 00:09:57.793 Quote. Absolutely. I think we’ll need at least 15 years of government-directed investment and financial repression. Average total debt to GDP is at 300% today. You’ll want to see it down to 200% or less. End quote. 00:09:58.293 --> 00:10:07.209 There is some potential to avoid he states, if we can figure out a way to drive real productivity up faster. Who knows where that could come from though. 00:10:08.109 --> 00:10:12.512 Link fourteen of sixteen. How to Build Software like an SRE, willett dot io. 00:10:13.012 --> 00:10:28.899 Good list of practices to focus on resiliency of solutions. Some of these are challenging, like strict RPC settings. It is easy for teams to to just add retries and extend timeouts to work through issues, but it creates unpredictability during execution. 00:10:29.799 --> 00:10:32.461 Link fifteen of sixteen. Federation ◨-◨. 00:10:32.961 --> 00:10:39.779 This is a super interesting piece of DAO capability coming out of the Nouns ecosystem, which I have a lot of fun playing with. 00:10:40.279 --> 00:10:56.535 Quote. For example, Lil Nouns DAO purchased Nouns NFTs with their treasury, giving them voting power in NounsDAO. With Federation, members of Lil Nouns DAO can collectively decide how to vote on NounsDAO proposals directly without any human intermediaries. End quote. 00:10:57.035 --> 00:11:01.995 I've seen this directly and the DAO-to-DAO connection here has some interesting use cases. 00:11:02.895 --> 00:11:06.415 Link sixteen of sixteen. Portfolio Allocations, Endaoment. 00:11:06.915 --> 00:11:25.720 Endaoment is one of the cooler crypto applications, allowing you to set up a Donor Advised Fund completely on your own using Ethereum. They've been adding additional features and they just now launched the ability to invest your fund assets into portfolios so you can grow the DAF after it is funded. 00:11:27.120 --> 00:11:28.466 That's the end of Notable. 00:11:29.866 --> 00:11:31.306 Now, the Journal section. 00:11:31.906 --> 00:11:33.562 Tuesday @ 8:57 PM. 00:11:34.062 --> 00:11:50.519 I first got COVID 664 days into the pandemic, and 294 days later I tested positive today, twice. This time feels very different than last time. I’m hoping it passes quick. I’m also isolating from the family since everyone else is negative so far. 00:11:51.419 --> 00:11:53.147 Sunday @ 11:00 PM. 00:11:53.647 --> 00:11:55.227 Disney World Log Day 9. 00:11:55.727 --> 00:12:00.002 Weather: Warm and sunny. Steps: 29,580 Most steps on any day! 00:12:00.502 --> 00:12:02.585 First, check out of Sapphire Falls. 00:12:03.085 --> 00:12:04.813 Second, drive to Polynesian. 00:12:05.313 --> 00:12:07.364 Third, leave luggage at Polynesian. 00:12:07.864 --> 00:12:09.688 Fourth, take monorail to Epcot. 00:12:10.188 --> 00:12:12.082 Fifth, breakfast at Patisserie. 00:12:12.582 --> 00:12:17.148 Sixth, kids ride Guardians of the Galaxy (third for Mazie, second for Tyler). 00:12:17.648 --> 00:12:19.106 Seventh, ride Test Track. 00:12:19.606 --> 00:12:21.190 Eighth, experience Figment. 00:12:21.690 --> 00:12:23.346 Ninth, disney Pixar shorts. 00:12:23.846 --> 00:12:26.043 Tenth, explore Canada, UK, Morocco, Japan. 00:12:26.543 --> 00:12:28.510 Number 11, lunch at Via Napoli. 00:12:29.010 --> 00:12:31.525 Number 12, monorail to Magic Kingdom. 00:12:32.025 --> 00:12:33.897 Number 13, ride Peter Pan. 00:12:34.397 --> 00:12:36.736 Number 14, ride Splash Mountain. 00:12:37.236 --> 00:12:40.120 Number 15, ride Seven Dwarves Mine Train. 00:12:40.620 --> 00:12:42.700 Number 16, ride Haunted Mansion. 00:12:43.200 --> 00:12:45.369 Number 17, ride Space Mountain. 00:12:45.869 --> 00:12:48.138 Number 18, monorail back to Epcot. 00:12:48.638 --> 00:12:51.815 Number 19, amazing dinner at Tappen Edo in Epcot. 00:12:52.315 --> 00:12:52.411 Number 20, monorail back to Polynesian. 00:12:52.911 --> 00:12:57.131 Number 21, watch the fireworks over castle from the Polynesian. 00:12:58.031 --> 00:12:59.783 Saturday @ 7:28 PM. 00:13:00.283 --> 00:13:04.495 We got a family picture with Optimus Prime at Universal Studios today. 00:13:05.395 --> 00:13:07.147 Saturday @ 6:39 PM. 00:13:07.647 --> 00:13:12.535 The Thingelstad's sporting our Dr. Seuss Things shirts at Universal Studios today! 00:13:13.435 --> 00:13:15.188 Saturday @ 1:41 PM. 00:13:15.688 --> 00:13:20.179 The Butterbeer Ice Cream is incredible at Florean Fortescue’s in Diagon Alley. 00:13:21.079 --> 00:13:23.030 Saturday @ 11:42 AM. 00:13:23.530 --> 00:13:26.145 We found the Mystery Machine! Scoooooby Doo! 00:13:27.045 --> 00:13:29.079 Saturday @ 11:41 AM. 00:13:29.579 --> 00:13:30.611 Lard Lad Donuts. 00:13:31.511 --> 00:13:32.996 Friday @ 2:45 PM. 00:13:33.496 --> 00:13:36.523 Having a Frozen Butterbeer at the foot of Hogwarts Castle. 00:13:37.923 --> 00:13:39.369 That's the end of the Journal. 00:13:40.769 --> 00:13:42.042 Now, the Briefly section. 00:13:42.642 --> 00:13:44.230 There are ten links this week. 00:13:45.130 --> 00:13:48.871 Link one of ten. Open Source Podcasting Client, Matt Mullenweg. 00:13:49.371 --> 00:13:58.885 I love that Matt Mullenweg continues to push forward on the same core principles of software and the web. It blows me away that he is still only 38 years old. 00:13:59.785 --> 00:14:01.249 Link two of ten. Lucide. 00:14:01.749 --> 00:14:05.088 Simple and clean icons for whatever uses you may need. 00:14:05.988 --> 00:14:10.316 Link three of ten. WalletChat, Wallet to Wallet messaging for web3. 00:14:10.816 --> 00:14:20.947 Allows people that hold the same NFT to create private chat rooms. Best used with POAPs to create a messaging interface between people that have the same POAPs. 00:14:21.847 --> 00:14:27.495 Link four of ten. The Block: CFTC and SEC chairs may disagree over whether ether is a security. 00:14:27.995 --> 00:14:36.597 Is Ether a security? A commodity? I think the answer is that digital assets are a new thing and should be addressed in their own regulatory framework. 00:14:37.497 --> 00:14:43.240 Link five of ten. Trying Cloudflare Pages: Best Server Tech Since cgi-bin, Perf and other stuff. 00:14:43.740 --> 00:14:49.814 Aside from these examples being in Typescript, this is a really powerful capability in Cloudflare pages. 00:14:50.714 --> 00:14:55.057 Link six of ten. 33 Behavioral Interview Questions to Ask Candidates. 00:14:55.557 --> 00:15:02.267 Interviewing is always hard, and this is a good list of questions to use to get deeper insights into the candidate. 00:15:03.167 --> 00:15:08.303 Link seven of ten. World Scouting launches first green NFT badge at JOTA-JOTI, WOSM. 00:15:08.803 --> 00:15:11.383 Scouts can now get an NFT badge. Brilliant. 00:15:12.283 --> 00:15:14.201 Link eight of ten. Pearl: POAP Inbox. 00:15:14.701 --> 00:15:22.424 There are a number of apps working on creating communities around POAPs, this one looks interesting but is still very much in beta. 00:15:23.324 --> 00:15:29.060 Link nine of ten. The Best Leaders Know 3 Things Average Leaders Don’t, Leadership Freak. 00:15:29.560 --> 00:15:30.208 I like it. 00:15:31.108 --> 00:15:35.438 Link ten of ten. Astronomers are captivated by brightest flash ever seen. 00:15:35.938 --> 00:15:43.137 Astronomy fascinates me and makes my head hurt at the same time. "18 teraelectronvolts of energy" sounds like a lot! 00:15:44.537 --> 00:15:45.932 That's the end of Briefly. 00:15:47.332 --> 00:15:48.724 Now, the Fortune section. 00:15:49.324 --> 00:15:50.406 Here is your fortune… 00:15:50.906 --> 00:15:54.894 Your object is to save the world, while still leading a pleasant life. 00:15:55.394 --> 00:15:57.800 Thank you for subscribing to the Weekly Thing! 00:15:59.200 --> 00:16:06.052 That brings us to the end of the Weekly Thing, issue 231. Thanks for listening, and I'll see you next time.