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As we close out, one thing I want to make more time for us studying, which is something I love to do but never seem to find time to get through the massive list of things I want to study. I get all kinds of newsletters with links to articles and videos, then there's the courses I want to take and the long list of books I want to read.

But I thought as I read and study interesting things, I would share them here along with my takes on them. If you would like to reply to something with your thoughts, feel free to! 

Psyche: What does switching from paper to screens mean for how we read?
Link: https://psyche.co/ideas/what-does-switching-from-paper-to-screens-mean-for-how-we-read

The Gist: We have a harder time comprehending when we read long texts on a screen due to the screen inferiority effect, possibly because we've trained ourselves to skim through text on a screen as we read shorter texts like emails and posts on social media. The article suggests that the main way to combat this is to make an intentional effort to slow down when we're reading, and try to do so when we're not short on time (which causes us to get in a hurry). It also suggests that future e-book technology which emulates paper better might be helpful as well.

Wintermoot's Thoughts: I don't think I suffer from this as badly as most others because I've spent half my life reading long posts and articles on screens (<3 forums), but I've also spent a lot of time studying in general. I used to write down notes on paper, but then I realized that I was just collecting notebooks of notes and not doing anything with them, so now I just try my best to summarize what was said...like I'm doing here, actually. And if there's a need to, I try to put what I read into action as soon as I can. I think as a rule of thumb, if you can explain the underlying gist of what a wall of text says (on print or in paper), you've comprehended it well enough.

Psyche: How to live like a Cynic
Link: https://psyche.co/guides/how-to-live-like-a-cynic-and-challenge-social-norms

The Gist: The negative views of the Cynics of ancient Greece spurred them to action (as opposed to the way modern cynics can be spurred to inaction), constantly questioning and breaking the ties that they saw as obstacles to their natural freedoms such as material possessions and social norms. While there aren't any first-hand references to them, seeing as they seem to have believed each person needed to explore/find their own path and possibly viewed teaching as a form of slavery, the article tries to draw conclusions from third-party accounts that modern people can use in everyday life:

• Improvise and be adaptable to your changing circumstances
• Live shamelessly
• Push against all boundaries
• Act with courage and refuse to owe respect to the powerful
• Give up everything you can

Wintermoot's Thoughts: The article gave me a lot to think about, and made me think about my overall personal goal to be more mindful about things. Why are social norms the way they are? What do we get out of them and what do they take away? Are we conforming because its for our good, or because we live in fear of rejection and humiliation? It also made me think about power, something I've been thinking a lot about in the last year...do we give respect to our leaders because of what they've done and accomplished, or merely because they hold a position? Does such respect open us up to corruption or make it harder to speak out about problems? Those seem to be very relevant questions in Wintreath. Towering figure and all that...

It may interest some people to know I've decided not to restore the Monarchy after considering it again in September. I can lead without it, as I've been doing for 10 months.

At the same time, even if we agree these are good points to ponder on, we have to integrate them in our own philosophy. I think most would agree in this day and age that we don't need to masturbate in public to free us from shame, and we have to really question what it means to give up everything you can. I consider myself to be a minimalist, and one big misconception I often get is this idea that you have to get rid of everything you don't absolutely need to survive. Some people may find freedom in that kind of life, but that's not necessarily true. At its core, minimalism is about being mindful of your possessions...do they add something to your life or do they just sit unnoticed collecting dust? Diogenes may have decided that he didn't need a cup, but I would certainly like one (especially my "Let it Snow" cup ).

The article links to a bunch of other articles about ancient Cynicism and mentions a book, and I have to admit that I'm intrigued to learn more...

Aeon: From the Cynics' self-sufficiency to an ecology of wanking
Link: https://aeon.co/essays/from-the-cynics-self-sufficiency-to-an-ecology-of-wanking

The Gist: The article starts with the ancient Cynic view of masturbation being a natural tool for achieving self-sufficiency for the problem of personal and social harm from sexual urges. It then suggested that Cynics viewed anything beyond what is absolutely needed and provided for in nature is a luxury whose pursuit makes us physically and morally weak and is harmful to people and the environment. It then quickly expands on that last point, pulling in later notable figures and sources (the book The Limits to Growth and the essay The Tragedy of the Commons) which argue that our way of life is unsustainable and that the only solution is to curb our appetite for things that we don't really need. Finally, the article goes back to masturbation, this time as a tool for limiting procreation as a needed check on the expanding human population that strains our resources.

Wintermoot's Thoughts: "On a planet of finite, degraded and depleted natural resources, the ecology of wanking is an ethos whose time has come." - that sentence alone was worth the read. Should definitely be in some sort of scientific paper or something.

I would have liked to learn more on the ancient Cynic views on the morality of masturbation...the article suggested that they believed allowing sexual urges to go unresolved made people weak and more likely to do something harmful to sate that urge, which is the direct opposite of what some modern groups like the nofap movement believe. I suspect that the difference is in how the groups view sexual urges...the Cynics as a natural impulse that masturbation takes care of in the most efficient and self-sufficient manner, and the more modern groups as an addiction which masturbation empowers.

On what the article was actually about, I hadn't thought of the impact of our materialism on the environment and the world, but as a minimalist I've certainly thought of its impact on ourselves. I'm a strong believer in the saying "we don't own our possessions, our possessions own us"...everything we own requires something of us, a place to store them, clean them, organize them, not to mention the mental space to keep track of all our stuff and what we need/want to do with them. And I found as I got rid of things (because we were moving to smaller places), I didn't miss anything I got rid of. And like I said in the last post, minimalism isn't about getting rid of everything (though it could be for some), it's about getting rid of stuff that's just physical and emotional clutter in your life.

I suppose minimalism is like vegetarianism or veganism, in that some people do it for the positive impact on the world, and some people do it for the positive impact on themselves.

Psyche: Why a Sufi approach to healing mental illness is so powerful
Link: https://psyche.co/ideas/why-a-sufi-approach-to-healing-mental-illness-is-so-powerful

The Gist: Despite having a massive shortage of psychiatrists, studies have found that people suffering from mental health problems seem to have better outcomes in developing countries. This article tries to explore why that is in the context of Sufi shrines in India. Sufi is described as a mystical form of Islam, and many people visit their shrines to seek alternative treatment...either because they can't afford clinical treatment or because clinical treatment has failed.

These shrines have living spaces that can be rented by people staying for treatment, or communal spaces for people with no income and the homeless. A number of the more controversial treatments are mentioned, such as chaining people to trees and self-flagellation, but ultimately zeros in on the process of finding attunement, which seems to refer to how we relate to our thoughts and feelings as well as how we relate to people close to us. The ritual treatments have two goals that the article points out aren't dissimilar from clincal methods: preventing our thoughts from spiraling downward, and restoring our mental/emotional well-being.

Wintermoot's Thoughts: This article marries two interests of mine: mental health and religious facilities that are dedicated to the improvement of people in some way, such as temples, shrines, and monasteries. A few times in the past, I've done some research on the lives of monks, and I find the peace, structure, and discipline to be appealing. I imagine it must be fulfilling in a way to have a singular purpose in life, with everything around you structured to help you serve that purpose. It must be peaceful in a way that's hard to find in modern living.

And I wonder if that environment helps with to improve the mental health of people staying there. I've come to believe that one reason why people struggle with mental health is the fast pace of modern living and all the technological distractions it has. We're constantly struggling to keep our heads above water in life, and when we do have downtime we tend to use it to tune-out of life with things like videos and games instead of reflecting on what's going on in our lives. I wonder if just being somewhere that's more peaceful, where we can take things a bit slower, and where we're not constantly connected to everyone else online might be a big help. The article mentions that there's space for people who are homeless, and I imagine that just having a place to stay would be a huge burden off their shoulders.

I wish the article had gone into more detail into specific treatments and how they're supposed to work. It mentions 'cooling' amulets that are cool people's feelings and prevent them from spiraling, but what's the idea behind it? Are they supposed to have materials that absorb negative energy, the way people believe some minerals and rocks can? Is there something in the incense they use that's psychoactive? Research in the last few years has suggested that psilocybin, the active ingredient in magic mushrooms, may actually be an effective treatment for anxiety and depression (as well as make people more liberal lol).

Of course, I also have to mention the placebo effect...our brains are a powerful force, and it's known that we can feel like we're feeling better just because we believe that something is helping. I have to imagine that especially in more traditional cultures, people might be more likely to believe that a profound religious/spiritual experience will help them more than taking pills or talking to a psychiatrist.

Although I wish there had been more details, I thought the article was fascinating, and a reminder of other things that play a role in our mental health.

It also suggests that future e-book technology which emulates paper better might be helpful as well.

...Have the authors of this article tried e-readers before? They mention them, yet continue to describe paper-like e-readers as some sort of nonexistent futuristic technology, when in reality e-ink (especially black-and-white e-ink) has been a mature mass-market technology for over 15 years.

I definitely enjoy reading longer texts far more on my Kindle than on any LCD screen; it's definitely more similar to print media in how it looks and feels. The limitations of e-ink, such as the high latency and low refresh rate, are perhaps even a good thing in this respect.

I also definitely marinate a lot more on text when reading on my Kindle (and in print books as well; a sharp contrast to how I used to speed-read everything as a kid).

@taulover: When I read the article, I assumed that they didn't believe current e-reader technology was sufficient to overcome the limitations of reading from a screen. However, I've never used an e-reader so I wouldn't know from personal experience. I have been interested in buying one though, because I'm starting to have quite a collection of e-books and would like to read them on something other than my computer or phone. Is there a specific Kindle you would recommend? There are *a lot* of different varieties on Amazon, lol

Zero To Travel Podcast: How to Pivot to a Life With More Freedom (And Travel), Get More Free Time, and Unlock Your Intuition With Jenny Blake
Link: https://link.chtbl.com/z2t-newsletter

The Gist: This podcast episode focused on insights from Jenny Blake, a former Google employee who left the company to start her own business about a decade ago. Currently, she's puts out several newsletters, does a podcast, and has written several books, including Pivot and Free Time: Lose the Busywork, Love Your Business.

Her idea behind pivoting was that if change is the only constant, then lets get better at it, then she introduced her four-step pivoting system: plant (focus on what's working and build/consider your vision), scan (for people, skills, and projects that align with your strengths and vision), pilot (run experiments), and launch (start a big change if needed). When going through these steps, you have to self-reflect and consider what your values are and ask questions such as what does your idea look like on day one/a year from now, what kind of people are you surrounded by (energizers or drainers), what kind of projects are you doing, and what's already going on in that space.

She also shared her freetime framework: Ask where in your life/career/project are you in flow or in friction. Then based on that, decide if there are things you want to stop doing outright or need to change to remove friction (align). Consider the impact you want your activities to have on others (design). Finally, try to double how much we delegate to others (assign). The rest of the podcast focused on general productivity and self-improvement advice, such as focusing on deep work instead of emails/tasks, being intentional about what we do, and and discussion about whether goal setting is important (it depends on the person and the environment, Jenny personally does not).

Wintermoot's Thoughts: It's really hard for me to focus on an audio clip for over an hour, but I managed to do it...it got me to thinking about what I'm doing with my job, with Wintreath, and all the other stuff I want to do. I don't know that I'd formally use Jenny's frameworks, but I'll admit I should be doing more scanning and delegating. I'm the sort of person who wants to do 100 things all at once and I want to be hands-on with every step of all of them. There were two specific things that had an impact...at the beginning, when she said she focused on the people she serves to keep from getting too in her head about ideas, and then at the end when she talked about being intentional, something I had heard before but had forgotten. She brought up that for every episode of her show, Oprah would ask what their intention was for each guest they had and what they wanted their audience to get out of it.

With Wintreath, we did some streamlining in 2023, and I think it's been a success, but it made me realize that we have a hodge-podge of different things that I'm not sure is serving anyone well. Take our NS region...I've been keeping it active since the Split, but at the same time is it what people coming into a political simulator want? Do they want general chat and getting to know each other? To some extent sure, but it's not why anyone joins NS, and it duplication of what we do on the forums and especially Discord. So I'm thinking...let's pivot the NS side of things to focus on nation-building. Instead of general questions of the week, questions that encourage people to flush out their nations, build factbooks, maybe eventually have politics (not politics as in the old regional government, but politics as in interactions between nations).

And the same goes with other areas of Wintreath...Werewolf is doing well thanks to @☆ Princess Abigail ☆, but how do we bring in players from people who join Wintreath in general? And how do we make it something that stands out in its own unique way, that makes people who play Mafia/Werewolf on other sites excited to come to Wintreath to play? I said on Discord awhile back that we're never going to out-MU MU, but I think we could definitely do something unique and standout.

What do we want people to get out of each part of Wintreath?

Psyche: Prejudice is more of a problem for some disabilities than others
Link: https://psyche.co/ideas/prejudice-is-more-of-a-problem-for-some-disabilities-than-others

The Gist: Based on the hypothesis that ableism reflects peoples biases about specific conditions rather than a general biases toward people with disabilities, scientists set up a study where people where 2,000 people were asked to judge the acceptability of certain situations (for example, a woman with a spinal disorder being overlooked for a job vs a woman with an anxiety disorder). Different people were given different situations, and the genders were changed up too.

The study found that people did display different levels of ableism based on the condition, and that specifically people tended to judge discrimination against people with mental illnesses than those with physical disabilities. The scientists theorize that this is due to a stereotype content model in which people perceive those with physical disabilities to be warm people (think Tiny Tim) and those with mental illnesses to be 'low in warmth'. The scientists conclude that in order to fight ableism and discrimination, specific conditions will need to be taken into account.

Wintermoot's Thoughts: The article talks about perceived warmth in people with physical disabilities vs mental illnesses, but I wonder if there's another factor behind it as well. You can often see physical disabilities, but not mental illnesses, which leads me to wonder if people believe mental illnesses aren't as serious. People might believe that if it doesn't impact their physical body, they should be able to 'deal with it' and go to work and school and do things just like anyone else. I wonder if there are people who even believe people fake or exaggerate their mental illness to get accommodations or to get out of work/school. Or maybe they believe that because there's medication and therapy for various mental illnesses, people should be able to get 'cured' and return to 'normal' (those are treatments, not cures, and there is no such thing as normal).

Either way, it's obvious that there's specific biases against people who have mental illnesses, and there's an urgent need for education about it. Mental illnesses can be as crippling as physical disabilities, and can lead to terrible outcomes in their own way (like suicide). If people aren't taking it seriously for whatever reason, that's an obstacle for people who suffer from them and who need acceptance and support as they seek healthy ways to handle them.

I like your point, and it should be worth considering whether people take invisible disabilities (such as Crohn's or CFS) less seriously (they definitely do).

@taulover: When I read the article, I assumed that they didn't believe current e-reader technology was sufficient to overcome the limitations of reading from a screen. However, I've never used an e-reader so I wouldn't know from personal experience. I have been interested in buying one though, because I'm starting to have quite a collection of e-books and would like to read them on something other than my computer or phone. Is there a specific Kindle you would recommend? There are *a lot* of different varieties on Amazon, lol

I'd probably recommend something that supports adjustable warm lighting and night mode. I see good things about the 2021 and 2022 Paperwhite models. But if you're looking to save, anything with a lit screen is already going to have the big advantage of being able to read in the dark. (I personally just use a really ancient Paperwhite that only has a basic lit screen and no dark mode.)

If you already own Kindle books then you probably want to stay with Amazon, but if not, and you'd like to avoid Bezos, then Kobo is a good brand, especially their Libra 2.

Also one thing I think I didn't mention is that e-readers are just much nicer to hold and use than books in everyday situations.

@taulover: I have a friend who has had an irritated bowel over the last few years, to the point where there was bleeding. He went to a doctor last year, who was really rough when looking at it and made a lot of jokes, and overall didn't help much. So he went to another doctor this year, and he learned that the first doctor had put down that he'd had anal sex and got a STD, when that wasn't the case at all (he's straight, and definitely isn't into anything involving that area). He's now being tested for IBS and Crohn's...but this is a doctor of all people! If there are doctors doing this, how prevalent is it among the regular population?

Thanks for the suggestions! I've picked out a Kindle I intend to buy when I have some extra money. I have a few books on Kindle that I've either read on the computer or plan to read. I also have an Everand subscription that sadly won't work with any e-reader, but their selection doesn't seem as great as it was in the past. It's been awhile since I've read anything on there.

Internet Archive + Metropolitan New York Library Council: The Decentralized Web: An Introduction
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6OWBGrQNcDU

The Gist: This hour-long video served as an introduction to what the decentralized web is, the first in a 6-part series. After a brief overview of how the Web has evolved and the differences between centralized (data exist on a single place under the control of one authority), and distributed networks (data exists on a group of servers that can still be under the authority of one person/group (Amazon Web Services was used as an example), decentralized networks were introduced as data and sites residing in multiple areas that no one person or group has control over. At this point the presentation was turned over to other speakers:

Brewster Khale, the founder of the Internet Archive, talked about how he came to propose a decentalized web to start with in 2015 and the issues he set out to resolve, especially the fact that data often lives in one place and can be lost if that site/server is taken offline or can be blocked by companies or governments that don't want people to access the information. He also promoted a decentralized web as a way to end capitalistic surveillance, return power to individual creators and away from large publishers, and do away with large payment processors by allowing funds to be paid directly to content creators.

Mai Ishikawa Sutton, formerly of the Electronic Foundation Frontier and now Founder and Editor of Compost Magazine, talked about starting the magazine as an experiment in building the web as a shared resource using 'solidarity-based systems' (not sure what that means tbh). In addition to having a traditional webpage, Compost Magazine can be viewed using the IPFS and Hypercore protocols (which I take to be decentralized equivalents to HTTP, and she demonstrated how you could use a browser like Agrigore to view, download, and share the magazine with others, much like a traditional peer-to-peer network like Napster (that name was thrown around a lot in the presentation).

Finally, Paul Frazee, founder of the Beaker Browser, demonstrated how people could view, download, share and build websites using the Beaker Browser through the IPFS protocol, showing how the site is saved and shared as you build it on your computer so you don't need a webhost. He also demonstrated a microblogging site that pulls posts from each person's website (so there's no centralized database). He then went through the challenges with the technology at present. While he demonstrated the microblogging website, he acknowledged the difficulties of scaling it up beyond a few people, making it work across platforms and devices, and how to discover sites to begin with. Currently, you have to find a site's decentralized address on the traditional web or ask the person for it.

As the length of this summary suggests, it was an information-packed session that both explained why they feel this technology is needed and how it can be used today.

Wintermoot's Thoughts: Recently I've read a few relevant articles: one about how Reddit was being sued to turn over the IP addresses of users who had posted about pirating as part of a lawsuit against Frontier, one about how an Indian court had forced Reuters to take down an investigative report worldwide, and one about, and one about how Russia is segregating its portion of the web from the rest of the world. They all point to the need for a better model that isn't so easily controlled by companies or governments. I could see why digital librarians would want this, especially as they come under attack by publishers.

I was particularly intrigued at the phrase "blockchain registration", which wasn't elaborated upon but I assume would allow users to register with sites and verify that they are them without passing along data like an IP address.

That being said, I think something was missed at least in this first video: the need for convenience for end-users. The same traits that Web 2.0 came under scrutiny here for are also some of the traits that allowed the internet to become ubiquities. Most people don't want to make their own website, so platforms like Facebook and Twitter made it easy for people to share their thoughts without having to. Not to mention the matter of finding a site to start with. Paul Frazee suggested somebody put together a site with a list of links, in what sounds a lot like what Yahoo! was before search engines became a thing, but then you give the author of that site power over what sites people can easily find, which seems to defeat the purpose of a decentralized web.

If they can't solve the problem of convenience, it'll never be mass-adopted and it'll remain a niche for techies and intellectuals. Even on the traditional web, the concept of federated servers has been an obstacle to surpassing Twitter. Turns out people don't want to figure out what server things are on and which one they should reside on...they just want to register and have everything be there.

That being said, I understand the technology is still in its infancy, and I'm intrigued enough to want to watch the rest of the videos, though I'm not sure I'll be able to anytime soon. I do agree that the web is in danger of falling completely under the control of a handful of companies that have few restrictions on how to use the data they're given or how to treat the people on their networks.

The Guardian: 30 Dying People Explain What Really Matters
Link: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2024/jan/27/advice-from-30-people-who-really-started-living-when-they-found-out-they-were-dying

The Gist: These are insights of 30 people who have terminal illnesses, usually cancer. They talk about what they've learned since being told they were going to die and have they're living life differently now.

Wintermoot's Thoughts: Every few years I run across one of these articles, and each time it ends up being sorely needed. Their insights aren't profound or revolutionary...on some level we already know these things, but we tend to forget them in the normalcy of everyday living. We get caught up in things that don't matter in the end, that don't do anything good in our lives, and that in time nobody will care about. At the same time, we don't think about our own deaths much...at some point we accept that it will eventually happen, but it's always in the far distant future. We always assume that there'll be plenty of time to do the things we want, or live the life we want, or to spend time with people...you know, when we're not so busy. But we're always busy.

Last year I learned about the concept of Memento Mori, the practice of reminding yourself that you will eventually die. I have it at the top of my daily to-do list, but I admit even then I usually skip the top and proceed right to the things I need to do that day. Even then, the abstract knowledge that you will die pales compared to the vivid experiences of the people who are facing that right now, and that is what makes it a good thing to study.

I tried to summarize their advice, but if anyone is reading about this, you really need to read the article to get the full impact.

Spend more time on people, less time on work
Really live, go out and do anything you want
Do what makes you happy
Find and follow a sense of purpose
Don't get stressed over things you can't control
Work out the things you can control
Share your feelings with others
Don't let your fears control you
Find gratitude for what you have, focus on the positives
Be spontaneous, do things when they cross your mind
Don't compare yourself with others
No matter how you feel, get up, get dressed, and go out
Stop caring what other people think of you, you never need to impress anyone or try to fit in
Nothing needs to be done by a certain age or time, you can always change what you want to do in life
Enjoy yourself, but never at the expense of someone else
Let go of perfectionism
We live in a toxic world, but it's your choice what you expose yourself to
Keep things as simple as possible

@taulover: I have a friend who has had an irritated bowel over the last few years, to the point where there was bleeding. He went to a doctor last year, who was really rough when looking at it and made a lot of jokes, and overall didn't help much. So he went to another doctor this year, and he learned that the first doctor had put down that he'd had anal sex and got a STD, when that wasn't the case at all (he's straight, and definitely isn't into anything involving that area). He's now being tested for IBS and Crohn's...but this is a doctor of all people! If there are doctors doing this, how prevalent is it among the regular population?

Yep, this has been termed medical gaslighting. I think all of us have experienced this to some degree, but especially women and people of color in the US. Further reading: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/29/well/mind/medical-gaslighting.html

Thanks for the suggestions! I've picked out a Kindle I intend to buy when I have some extra money. I have a few books on Kindle that I've either read on the computer or plan to read. I also have an Everand subscription that sadly won't work with any e-reader, but their selection doesn't seem as great as it was in the past. It's been awhile since I've read anything on there.

If you want to legally read lots of books for free, the OverDrive/Libby service is pretty great and has Kindle/Kobo integration. You can also add multiple library cards to expand your network to different library collections.

I hope you enjoy your Kindle when you get it! Even if you get an older base model Kindle it's probably more feature-complete than my suuper old Paperwhite lol.

Internet Archive + Metropolitan New York Library Council: The Decentralized Web: An Introduction
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6OWBGrQNcDU

I'm incredibly skeptical of anything blockchain or web3 related (see Line Goes Up, which I recommend watching in its entirety if you can), but I suppose with this being from early 2022 it was inevitable that that came up. I appreciated the referenced Medium post by Jay Graber defining Web3 as "user-generated authority, enabled by self-certifying web protocols." It's a very nice vision of a decentralized future enabled by these decentralized technologies, of which blockchain is probably the least important and perhaps does not even really belong at all. (Unfortunately Hanamura then goes on to discuss DAOs, which uhhh just watch Line Goes Up.) The main issue here is that tech visionaries are attempting to use technology to solve societal problems instead of actually solving the problems present in society, and the result is that they generally end up tackling problems which do not really exist in the way that they imagine them, with solutions that don't really help address the problem.

That being said, I think something was missed at least in this first video: the need for convenience for end-users. The same traits that Web 2.0 came under scrutiny here for are also some of the traits that allowed the internet to become ubiquities. Most people don't want to make their own website, so platforms like Facebook and Twitter made it easy for people to share their thoughts without having to. Not to mention the matter of finding a site to start with. Paul Frazee suggested somebody put together a site with a list of links, in what sounds a lot like what Yahoo! was before search engines became a thing, but then you give the author of that site power over what sites people can easily find, which seems to defeat the purpose of a decentralized web.

If they can't solve the problem of convenience, it'll never be mass-adopted and it'll remain a niche for techies and intellectuals. Even on the traditional web, the concept of federated servers has been an obstacle to surpassing Twitter. Turns out people don't want to figure out what server things are on and which one they should reside on...they just want to register and have everything be there.

I don't think decentralization really presents a usability problem. Email works fine decentralized, and podcasts are probably the biggest decentralized tech success story that I'm only beginning to see people talk about recently. There is no viable replacement to Twitter because of the network effect, and the result is that Twitter is increasingly unusable while people attempt to make use of other existing networks such as Instagram as an imperfect replacement. Capitalist profit motives incentivize centralized systems and so in general, especially as corporations become increasingly entrenched on the internet, centralized systems will continue to be favored.

BBC: 30 Dying People Explain What Really Matters
Link: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2024/jan/27/advice-from-30-people-who-really-started-living-when-they-found-out-they-were-dying

Small nitpick but that's the Guardian not the BBC lol. Both transphobic British news orgs but they're not the same

Yep, this has been termed medical gaslighting. I think all of us have experienced this to some degree, but especially women and people of color in the US. Further reading: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/29/well/mind/medical-gaslighting.html

I wasn't aware of that...but then again, I haven't been to a doctor in a long time, and obviously I'm not a person of color anyways. I tend to believe that most general health needs can be met through exercise and nutrition, so I don't go unless something's wrong. The last time I went, I had a MRI scan that was $400 after insurance and they still couldn't figure out what was wrong...good thing it went away on its own lol.

If you want to legally read lots of books for free, the OverDrive/Libby service is pretty great and has Kindle/Kobo integration. You can also add multiple library cards to expand your network to different library collections.

I hope you enjoy your Kindle when you get it! Even if you get an older base model Kindle it's probably more feature-complete than my suuper old Paperwhite lol.

I got my Kindle last Thursday, and I love it! It was a bit smaller than I thought it would be, but it turned out to be a good size for reading. It's lightweight but sturdy, and I've enjoyed reading my Amazon library on there so far...much more than reading it on the computer screen lol. One reason for wanting one is because I want to spend more time away from the computer...I spend so much time in front of it that these days it feels relaxing just to get away from it for awhile. This is the model I ultimately went with.

I'll have to check out OverDrive/Libby...I think I saw sometime before that even my local library supports it. I have no shortage of books to read at the moment, though.

I'm incredibly skeptical of anything blockchain or web3 related (see Line Goes Up, which I recommend watching in its entirety if you can), but I suppose with this being from early 2022 it was inevitable that that came up. I appreciated the referenced Medium post by Jay Graber defining Web3 as "user-generated authority, enabled by self-certifying web protocols." It's a very nice vision of a decentralized future enabled by these decentralized technologies, of which blockchain is probably the least important and perhaps does not even really belong at all. (Unfortunately Hanamura then goes on to discuss DAOs, which uhhh just watch Line Goes Up.) The main issue here is that tech visionaries are attempting to use technology to solve societal problems instead of actually solving the problems present in society, and the result is that they generally end up tackling problems which do not really exist in the way that they imagine them, with solutions that don't really help address the problem.

I'll take a look at that video as soon as I can. I felt proud of myself for getting through a one-hour video haha.

A few years back I read on one of my content creator newsletters that it's important that you control your own platform...that doing everything on social media put you at the mercy of algorithm changes that could damage your business, and so you need to try to get as many people to join your website or email newsletter as possible. It made sense to me...I had read where people's businesses were ruined because Facebook had changed their algorithms so they received a fraction of the traffic they once did. Then I read sometime later about how more and more the web isn't even designed for humans but for Google's algorithms through SSO, which has led to a bland internet where many websites look the same. I'll admit as cringe as they could be, I sometimes miss the personality of old Web 1.0 sites where the design showed something of the author who created it. And more recently, I've read a number of articles about governments seeking to control the internet (and unfortunately not just authoritarian governments).

I could see the benefits of a decentralized internet, one that isn't easily controlled by blocking or shutting down a website, where collectives of individuals could choose whether to support a site not just by donating, but by hosting a copy of the site themselves...the idea of having a website hosted on your own computer and not having to go through a webhost is something that I think would be empowering and freeing for a lot of people. I remember when I was thinking about getting hosting, it was kind of intimidating trying to find a webhost and then figuring out things like FTP. Of course, that being said I know it would present new challenges for misinformation and moderation, but I can't imagine it would be worse than on sites that are literally too big to effectively moderate even if the tech giants behind them wanted to (which I don't completely believe they do).

I don't know anything about blockchains or Web3 (other than that a year ago people were hyping it like they were NFTs), but I can see the power and the appeal of the basic concept. I think a more individualistic internet would be a good thing...in a way a return to its roots.

I don't think decentralization really presents a usability problem. Email works fine decentralized, and podcasts are probably the biggest decentralized tech success story that I'm only beginning to see people talk about recently. There is no viable replacement to Twitter because of the network effect, and the result is that Twitter is increasingly unusable while people attempt to make use of other existing networks such as Instagram as an imperfect replacement. Capitalist profit motives incentivize centralized systems and so in general, especially as corporations become increasingly entrenched on the internet, centralized systems will continue to be favored.

The thing with email and podcasts is that they work alongside today's centralized web. If you want to find a tech podcast for example you can look on up on Google or one of the podcasting sites like Google Podcasts (which I know is being shut down, it's just what I used back in the day). You can look up an email address or you can find it in your organization's directory (I think email is mostly used in work settings these days as a means of communication, my personal email is mostly for receiving newsletters). And that's fine...but it's odd if a technology that aims to replace the modern internet is using it as a way for people to find things. At some point it's counterproductive to tell people to Google links to decentralized websites.

That said, the internet really became ubiquitous with Web 2.0, because it finally became convenient enough for most people to contribute to...the posted web, as the Median post you linked to called it. Suddenly, you no longer had to create your own website to put something online...you just had to create an account somewhere and start posting. I was just saying that if the decentralized web really wants to become a mainstream replacement or alternative to the current web it's going to have to take convenience for non-technical people into account or it's just going to end up being a niche for techies and passionate "data wants to be free" people that never goes anywhere.

Small nitpick but that's the Guardian not the BBC lol. Both transphobic British news orgs but they're not the same

Haha, I don't know why my mind went to BBC, but thinks for letting me know. I've updated the post.