Kinko's Culture of the Mid 90's
I needed a job when I started college. Kinko’s seemed like a good place to work, so I applied at the location nearest to where I lived in Las Vegas. I immediately liked it. It was fast-paced and had just enough computer-related things to hold my interest. Best of all, I worked the second shift, which meant we were left without the store manager to fend for ourselves. The customers at this store were an interesting mix of local businesses and people, both needing something in a hurry.
Moral Grandstanding
The Inescapable Rise of Moral Superiority by Michelle Cyca
As cathartic as venting one’s outrage can be in the moment, it’s clear that moral grandstanding accomplishes very little beyond the fleeting satisfaction that it brings. Shaming people doesn’t seem to change their behavior, and invoking mass shooting victims in an argument about hamburgers doesn’t move the needle on gun control. Social change doesn’t come from posting but from purposeful collective action: organizing, voting, protesting.
My Rules for a Spiritual Practice
Does your spirituality involve working on your character?
Does your spirituality acknowledge we are all deeply flawed?
Does your spirituality prioritize lowering others over working to elevate you?
Does your spirituality exclude groups of people based on rules that require you to actively judge your peers?
Does your spirituality require marketing efforts that pester others over attracting by their good works?
Does your spirituality encourage you to serve fellow humans outside of your circle?
New Running Hat
My new wonderfully ridiculous running hat is from https://getsprints.com.
Running Injury Progress
I’ve had a running injury since April. It has been an ongoing source of annoyance and demoralizing to my spirit. I had thought it was plantar fasciitis, but through the magic of the YouTube algorithm one night, I stumbled upon this video:
This is exactly what I have. I have been following the strengthening exercises and overall framework that she lays out. Just in one and a half weeks, most of the pain has gone away and in week two, I’m adding one additional run to the week.
Tech Hubris is Endless
Does Sam Altman Know What He’s Creating? by Ross Andersen
On a Monday morning in April, Sam Altman sat inside OpenAI’s San Francisco headquarters, telling me about a dangerous artificial intelligence that his company had built but would never release. His employees, he later said, often lose sleep worrying about the AIs they might one day release without fully appreciating their dangers. With his heel perched on the edge of his swivel chair, he looked relaxed.
The Absurd Human Mind
The brain that lets us analyze, model, and conceptualize systems tends to see itself as being outside of the system. This most clearly manifests as being a consumer of the environment in which we live and not a member of it. We routinely do not integrate into our environment but look to shape it to our needs. We interrupt the system instead of participating in it. Perhaps we are not able to comprehend how to participate and are just following our animalistic programming.
Bookstore Ritual
I visit the bookstore at least three times per month. I find it relaxing to see what is new and discover what I have not seen. Books were always important to my father. He eventually managed a large bookstore for a few years. I started working at Bookstar when I was twenty, which was purchased and finally converted to Barnes & Noble. Then I worked at Borders, the superior bookstore with a much better and more diverse selection.
Dirt vs Soil
I often wonder how many people understand the difference between dirt and soil. The human species has spectacularly consumed much of the planet’s soil that has been generated over millennia in such a short period.
Dirt - includes sand, silt, and clay. It may also contain rocks or pebbles. It generally does not contain minerals, nutrients, or any type of organized, live ecosystems. [ source ]
Soil - the biologically active, porous medium that has developed in the uppermost layer of Earth’s crust.
How I Host a Site
I compose my site on Apple devices using the Draft application. It’s quick, easy, and syncs across devices. It is a fabulous application to just open and start writing. I keep a draft of running field notes ideas where I will write out the next post. It’ll expand, revise, and edit continuously over two weeks.
The next step to publishing a site is on my home Linux machine. I use Hugo to generate my site, so I’ll issue the command hugo new notes/fn006.