Weekly Thing #153 / Values Oasis, Bison, Masks
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I"m writing this on Friday night after we finished commemorating Juneteenth. This is the first year we have done this in our family, but it will not be the last. Our daughter did research and shared with us a report that she did on the day and the history behind it. We also listened to The Daily - The History and Meaning of Juneteenth as a family. Tammy had remembered watching an episode of Black-ish on Juneteenth and we all watched that too!
I love that our company, SPS Commerce, decided to reimburse every employee up to $100 for any purchases that we made at a Black-owned business. We took full advantage of that and then some. I think this is a great way to connect people to businesses and communities that has the potential to create permanent, recurring connections. And with those connections good things happen.
Today also marked a big personal accomplishment for me! I completed Mission 1 of my FitByFifty project, and I completed it successfully! I’m physically feeling great, and have made material progress losing weight and very importantly increasing my strength and aerobic capability. I’m now refining the remaining six missions that I have before my 50th birthday! On to Mission 2! 🚴♂️
Must Read
Trapped in a Values Oasis. — Irrational Exuberance
Will Larson talking to something I've seen, and even personally struggled with at times.
I have also come to appreciate how using it in the wrong circumstances can create a misalignment of values within an organization, that causes a great deal of friction. I call those pockets of values misalignment a Values Oasis, and want to talk a bit about why they’re a problem, as well as how you can avoid creating them.
He doesn't use M&A as an example, but that is where I've seen this. I've seen it and have felt it. When I was CTO for BigCharts and MarketWatch bought us, I created a Values Oasis between the team I was leading before, and the new MarketWatch organization. It almost got the better of me. I was trying to manage all the chaos on one side and effectively sheltering the other side from it. But all that energy had to get absorbed, and I was trying to do it. After a couple of months I realized this wasn't going to work. I had to stop attempting to alter and instead flow with it. If that resulted in challenges down stream from me, I would have to deal with that.
The challenges with these Oasis, to use Larson's term, is that sometimes they are incredible hard to see. And sometimes I think they can even be a mirage.
Bison In The Badlands – Patagonia Provisions
I feel a connection to bison. I refer to them as my spirit animal. I grew up in North Dakota where it wasn't that uncommon to see bison, mostly on farms. They have always struck me as majestic and powerful animals.
Bison seem immune to the harsh weather that often visits the Great Plains, whether it’s the relentless, extreme heat of August, severe thunderstorms that pound torrential rain into the prairie, or winter blizzards that blow sub-zero winds and heavy snows. Regardless of the conditions, bison don’t seek cover in woody draws or behind buttes. They simply continue grazing, or lie down and chew their cud out in the open, often on exposed hills. The thick, curly hair covering the front half of their body insulates them from both heat and cold. It enables them to face into the weather rather than turning away from it or seeking protection. This is why bison are often described as "facing the storm."
This passage conjures one of my favorite scenes of bison. You could see them on the most intense blizzard in a North Dakota January. They would be in the open facing into the snow. Often there mane would be layered thick from blowing snow. And they honestly didn’t seem to care at all. It was as if it didn’t affect them at all. Stoic perhaps.
The Masks Masquerade - INCERTO - Medium
Taleb with a straightforward assessment of the logic behind masks, and why it is critical to our successful response to COVID-19.
SIX ERRORS: 1) missing the compounding effects of masks, 2) missing the nonlinearity of the probability of infection to viral exposures, 3) missing absence of evidence (of benefits of mask wearing) for evidence of absence (of benefits of mask wearing), 4) missing the point that people do not need governments to produce facial covering: they can make their own, 5) missing the compounding effects of statistical signals, 6) ignoring the Non-Aggression Principle by pseudolibertarians (masks are also to protect others from you; it’s a multiplicative process: every person you infect will infect others).
Read each one of these and it does make sense. The math also makes sense.
Wear a mask. For the Sake of Others.
😷
Photograph
We visited Minneopa State Park last weekend and the falls are impressive, but I really liked the smaller upper falls.
Minneopa Falls
Mankato, MN
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Recommended Links
The Return of the 90s Web | Max Böck
I may be over nostalgic but I sure hope that this right.
It might just be my IndieWeb filter bubble talking, but I think there is a renewed interest in personal websites. A lot of big social media giants are falling out of favor, and it becomes cool again to own a space on the web rather then being one of a billion usernames.
I have owned my own website for going on twenty years now and I absolutely adore it. I've created a thing that will have a legacy. It’s not an appendage of some surveillance system. One of my favorite capabilities is the on this day page that shows all posts through time from this day. It is a treasure.
Blogging is gaining popularity again as well, used as a tool for self-marketing or simply to express opinions. There are lots of good options for people who want to pick up blogging - either on their own sites or with platforms like micro.blog, that offer more independence than Medium & Co.
I’m a big fan of micro.blog and would highly recommend it. There are also many, many other tools out there that make it very easy to host your own content.
How to avoid the virus as the world reopens | Free to read | Financial Times
This advice aligns very much with how our family is managing our interactions with others.
Three key factors determine risk of exposure: proximity to people; duration of exposure; and how confined the environment is. The greatest peril lies where the three overlap.
😷
Apple, ARM, and Intel – Stratechery by Ben Thompson
There is a ton of speculation that Apple will announced at WWDC next week that they are switching from Intel CPU's to their own A-series chips. This has been rumored for a long time, but these transitions are not easy and take a long time. However, I think Intel has left Apple with no choice but to do it.
Those seemingly neglected Macs, meanwhile, were stuck with Intel, and Apple saw the Intel roadmap that has only recently become apparent to the world: it has been a map to nowhere.
The performance of the A-series chips in your iPad are phenomenal. And the power efficiency is even more impressive. It will be very interesting to see how this plays out. Owning the full stack, all the way to the silicon, has been key for Apple on the iPhone. We'll likely get to see if that is also true for the Mac soon.
Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man - Episode 3 with Chip & Joanna Gaines + kids - YouTube
Another in what I hope will be a continuing series of videos from Emmanuel Acho. Highlight in this video is when one of the kids asks "Are you afraid of white people?".
A Body of Work – Steven Pressfield
Thought provoking short essay from Pressfield.
You too have a body of work.
Is that your purpose? 🤔
How Can We Win Kimberly Jones Video Full Length David Jones Media Clean Edit #BLM 2020 What Can I Do - YouTube
Tammy shared this video with me and I found it incredibly powerful. The emotion and anger here is raw, and I think for many people it may be hard to watch. But I encourage you to just watch it and feel more than think, at least at first. Ask yourself what would make you feel that way. This is part of listening.
Early test results show few protesters caught COVID-19 – Twin Cities
This is good news.
The 1.4 percent positivity rate is lower than the 3.7 positivity rate of the more than 13,000 test results reported Friday. It is lower than the current seven-day average rate of positive tests, which is also 3.7 percent.
There seems to be strong evidence that being outside with fresh air significantly reduces the risk of COVID-19.
GitHub to replace "master" with alternative term to avoid slavery references | ZDNet
Last week I shared an article about this and suggested that git should be modified to change this upstream by default. Now GitHub, which is by far the biggest player in the Git ecosystem, is taking direct action on it. I also like the call out to various software packages that have stopped using the term "master/slave". Good steps! 👏
Do You Know How Divided White And Black Americans Are On Racism? | FiveThirtyEight
Click through on this article and take the questions. This has several statements that you get to make a best guess using sliders and then see the poll data. It was enlightening to take.
Joanna Hoffman: Facebook is peddling 'an addictive drug called anger'
I've compared social media to tobacco before. I think it’s the only way the tide will change. People will decide that sitting on Facebook just isn't cool, same as we came to the conclusion that smoking that cigarette isn't cool either.
"You know it’s just like tobacco, it’s no different than the opioids," she added. "We know anger is addictive, we know we can attract people to our platform and get engagement if we get them p----d off enough. So therefore what, we should capitalize on that each and every time?"
Last week I referred to Facebook as an "Arms Dealer in a War of Rage". Seems pretty similar.
We are implementing a one-year moratorium on police use of Rekognition
This is a good move from Amazon, but please remember that Amazon also owns Ring. Ring has been shown to flag Black people as "suspicious" at an incredibly high rate. The marketing for the product is entirely sold on fear. I would suggest that Amazon look further than just Rekognition. Ring has always been a privacy nightmare, but it’s use of algorithms that reflect racist patterns is and fear mongering needs to be dealt with.
Dana Blankenhorn: The Cost of Free Money
A good critique on the way that money has been pumped into our economy.
Just as tear gassing peaceful protestors is destructive to democracy and letting police act like armed thugs is destructive to liberty, so bailing out investors is destructive to capitalism. It lets people think they can act with impunity. It removes the risk necessary for the system to function. It turns the rich into a class apart from their fellow men and women.
💸
The Problems, The Privilege, and the Pain of Being Invisible – Rhoneisms
My friend Patrick Rhone reflecting on his own Blackness and how it is perceived and received by White and Black people.
Stream
Game of Life with the kids tonight. 🎲
Dad: $2,710,100
Tyler: $5,000,000
Mazie: $3,300,000
Hit a new 30-min PR spinning this morning. 376 kJ, +10 kJ over previous PR. 🙌 #FitByFifty
We visited Minneopa State Park today and I can’t believe I haven’t seen these falls before. Impressive double falls with great viewing areas.
🐖🍽🍺
Cracked the plate setter on my Big Green Egg but was able to position it to still hold the grid up. The smoke must go on!
I hit my Century Ride on Peloton today! Did my 100th ride with Ally Love’s 30-min 90s Ride. #FitByFifty
We had BarrkArt Fencing come and fence in our back yard so Lucky can have a space to run around. They did a great job matching the fence in with the existing segments and connecting to some difficult terrain. They even put a small privacy fence in to hide our trash bins. Great company. Would absolutely recommend working with them!
FYI
Fold 'N Fly » Paper Airplane Folding Instructions
Hours of fun home projects right here.
End-to-End Encryption Update - Zoom Blog
Good to see Zoom doing the right thing here and providing encryption for all users, not just paid users. 👏
City Enters Phase 4 Of Pretending Coronavirus Over
😬🤣😬🤣😬🤣 → 😷
How Can You Help the Internet Archive? - Internet Archive Blogs
I’m a fan and supporter of the Internet Archive. Here are some great ways to support it beyond donating. 💚
updown.io — Simple & Inexpensive Website Monitoring
Simple, robust and simple business model for monitoring websites.
Shosho - Write More. Better.
Interesting writing environment with collaboration, grammar, and style suggestions built in.
Local
SPS Named #1 Tech Firm in the Twin Cities by Business Journal
Nice recognition for SPS! 🏆
Where to Support Black-Owned Businesses in the Twin Cities - Mpls.St.Paul Magazine
Great list of places in the Twin Cities to visit. Make a few of these part of your Juneteenth activities!
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Fortune
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Fine day for friends. So-so day for you.
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About
The Weekly Thing highlights helpful, engaging, or insightful articles from the week. I am a voracious reader of technology, culture, leadership, privacy, and many other topics as my interests roam. Each item I share is framed with personal commentary combining my decades of experiences. My goal is to positively impact your journey with knowledge and insight.
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Recent Issues
- Weekly Thing #152 / Juneteenth, Uncomfortable Conversations, Facebook
- Weekly Thing #151 / George Floyd, I Can’t Breathe, Black Lives Matter
- Weekly Thing #150 / Speed, Insane Videoconferencing, OmniFocus, LaTeX
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