@DanielleAlberti Do they house birds? Because, I'm just saying, "Netflix & trill" would be a lovely pun.
@girlziplocked Well, I mean, it does have an imperial force subjugating entire cultures to consolidate power and stockpile resources ...
A personal, terrifying account of early-onset Alzheimer's. http://nautil.us/issue/31/stress/what-alzheimers-feels-like-from-the-inside
What is the self in the networked world, and how does it change how we think about character? https://newhumanist.org.uk/articles/4864/who-is-eleni-haifa
"Only a story. Only the most important thing in the whole world." http://www.newstatesman.com/culture/film/2015/12/what-do-when-youre-not-hero-any-more
#TamirRice's life did matter, and it's wrong to let this go uncommented on. This is not who we should be. http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/12/opinion/charles-m-blow-tamir-rice-and-the-value-of-life.html
Rather than taking a retrospective look back at 2015, I think it's interesting to look ahead think about what I want my themes for the next year to be, both personally and professional. Here's mine; I'd love to see yours.
Be more social.
I want to spend more time around more people. Humans are social animals; spending more time around people has an important effect on my mood (as well as opening new horizons and opportunities).
I love people, but I spend a lot of my time behind a screen. When I'm on my deathbed, I don't think I'll look back and think, "gosh, I wish I'd spent more time on the Internet". I want to spend more time away from a screen, not thinking about work or computers, hanging out with people I care about.
And guess what: I bet it'll improve my work, too.
Be healthier.
I’ll turn 37 in the first week of 2016. As much as I hate to admit it, I have to acknowledge that I’m approaching middle age. I intend to live past 90, but that doesn’t happen by chance.
I'm also worried about what happens if I encounter a major health issue later in life. If you have to have a major operation - something many people I love have had to do - your chances of survival and recovery are much better if you're fit. It still feels a bit weird to be accepting my own mortality, but that's just stage one; stage two is embracing it.
Accept the superficial.
I was brought up to believe that appearance doesn't matter; that it's what's inside that counts. This should be true, but it isn't at all.
I know that my personal appearance affects how I feel, even aside from first impressions, but even today, I feel actively guilty for thinking about it. This is a very silly thing to be worried - particularly given what I do for a living. I could write a whole essay about all the issues at play here. It's a weird hang-up.
Be more organized.
Specifically, I'm going to start scheduling more of my off-time in the same way that I schedule meetings.
Not only will this allow me to schedule in gym time and other exercise, but keeping a tighter schedule will give me more free time for chilling out, hanging out, personal creativity, and trying new things: all vital parts of being an actual human being.
Separate creativity and work.
I've repeated this quote before: "the business of business is business". Work can be creative, which is awesome, but very few of us are lucky enough to have a job that is our creative outlet. I think if you try and shoehorn that creative need in, you run the risk of being unsatisfied both with your creativity and with your job.
I want to write more; draw more; publish short stories and write more personal pieces. And in turn, I want to be more focused in my work. What I build does not need to be a reflection of me, and in turn, who I am is not a reflection of what I build. This perhaps sounds trite and reductive, but it's important.
Be more "me".
In 2016, I want to be more political. I'm less interested in tweeting links than actually marching on the streets, phoning representatives and doing real work to support the causes and politicians I believe in. I believe in a fairer society, globally, and I'm not ashamed to want to advocate and fight for that. I want to live in a progressive society.
So politics is one thing. But I value art, and creativity, and outsider culture. I want to spend more of my time in the kinds of anarchic artistic communities I was a part of in Edinburgh. Mainstream culture is deeply conservative, and deeply boring. I think the voices pushing at the edges are usually the most interesting, and I think it's a real shame that there aren't more safe spaces for them.
I want to be more experimental in my personal expression. I want to be more supportive of the voices I value. I want to be clearer in my non-support for the status quo.
I don't think this hurts what I do (although I'd do it even if it did). In a world that's becoming increasingly algorithmic and computational, our humanity is our sustainable competitive advantage.
It's good to be a person. I want to nurture more of myself, and more of the people around me, in the year ahead.
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Reagan was a terrible President. But we all knew that, right? http://www.salon.com/2015/12/27/behind_the_ronald_reagan_myth_no_one_had_ever_entered_the_white_hous...
@iamjohnellison @kevinmarks @ProsperComm It's open source, so you can integrate it with your website, or we have a fully-managed platform.
@iamjohnellison @kevinmarks @ProsperComm It supports a potentially unlimited number of users, publishing in a group w/ directory & privacy.
I'm writing my 2016 year in review, mapping out the year ahead in broad strokes. What does yours look like?
@iamjohnellison @kevinmarks @ProsperComm Let us know if @withknown could be useful as a community platform. Really great cause.
I sometimes wish I could survey people who unfollow me - particularly who I know in real life. Would like to figure out what to do better.
This isn't a backlash against tech as much as against a particular kind of business. An important trend. https://www.washingtonpost.com/classic-apps/techno-skeptics-objection-growing-louder/2015/12/26/e83c...
Best Sunday lunch in the extended Bay Area? There's a British pub in Santa Rosa but it's not good at this.
@matth I ... must have skipped over that bit? In my developer days this would have made me homicidal. Okay. Retconned tweet to sarcasm.
@matth It actually wasn't, but you make a damn good point. Every success story does seem to come down to privileged people with money.
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