internet culture
Why do people construct and then give away free languages? Well, the creation of a good computer language is the work of an apex programmer. To have produced a successful language is acknowledged as a monumental effort, akin to publishing a multivolume history of a war, or fighting in one. The reward is glory.
Changing a language is like fighting... See more
Changing a language is like fighting... See more
PAUL FORD • Paul Ford: What Is Code? | Bloomberg
Adam Kirsch, in his piece about the Amtrak residency, theorized: “Perhaps there is a certain charm in the fact that the train is an obsolete mode of transportation, much as literature sometimes suspects that it is an obsolete form of communication.”
Jasmine Sun • the scenic route
“The fast shall inherit the earth.” This was previously printed in the Facebook internal book they’d give new employees. Now we can read it as “the fast will catch Elon’s attention, which will influence an army of fans to mimetically adopt the message.” Unfortunately that’s not as catchy.
Reggie James • Political Expectations
The one thing I thought was funny about Anu’s piece is that it claims “no one owns taste” but then sort of poo-poo’s the anticipated reaction of people that views the subject of taste as their “special territory”.
You can’t have both of these things. And it’s what tech people broadly get wrong about many other intersectional dialogues. Either no... See more
You can’t have both of these things. And it’s what tech people broadly get wrong about many other intersectional dialogues. Either no... See more
Reggie James • Product Lost by @hipcityreg | Reggie James | Substack
i think people need to deeply examine what MSCHF has done right and wrong if they want to take this approach this time around - killers at the attention playbook but not really able to gain any meaningful network effects for value
x.comOur search for solutions should begin with the binary thinking that is at the heart of the problem. Psychologists suggest that we can mitigate binary thinking by developing cognitive flexibility — that is, engaging with the complexity and variability of real life by taking into account multiple points of view. This is part of what we call empathy.
Tim Gorichanaz • Finding Heroes In A Messy Digital World | NOEMA
If technology-inflected solitarist identity makes it difficult or impossible to identify and admire heroes, saints and sages, then it will be difficult or impossible for us to learn how to live well in the digital age.
Tim Gorichanaz • Finding Heroes In A Messy Digital World | NOEMA
For all the hype that surrounds them, neural networks can’t reflect or explain anything deeper about cultural or societal phenomena any more than sharing a favorite character from The Office can predict long-term compatibility with a Tinder match. These systems can only instrumentalize taste; they turn any expression of self into a reductive data... See more
Alex Vuocolo • Nameless Feeling — Real Life
Adobe created PostScript in the early 1980s and licensed it to Apple, its first success. Three-plus decades later, Adobe is valued at $38 billion. PDF is a direct descendant of PostScript, and there are PDFs everywhere. In code as in life, ideas grow up inside of languages and spread with them