I finished Undone last night. Spoilers follow, so be warned. In the story, a teacher urges a student to be the sky (paraphrasing), observe your feelings the way the sky might observe the flow of a river. This is something I've learned, it comes with age and experience, self-knowledge. I think you can learn it at a young age, if you're taught and you practice. Once you can observe your feelings, fully feel them, but not let them become you, that's when you come into your power. Some reviewers say the series is about mental illness, but that's only one theory of the show, and not the one we're left with, waiting for season 2. I'm probably going to watch it again, it's such rich story and so beautifully told. #
Scott Love, via email: "I want to star or rate your best gems!" I always listen to Scott. He was hired as a product marketing manager at Living Videotext in the mid-80s, but he was so much more. We went to dinner probably two or three nights a week, and mostly about where to go with our outliner products, and what the competition in the Valley was doing. I would try ideas out on Scott, give him limited background, to see where his mind would go. Very creative and hard-working mind. Scott reads this blog via the nightly email. It's a lot like the old days at Chef Chu's in Los Altos. So Scott, there are features in the web version of Scripting News that aren't in the email version, for security reasons. They also aren't in the RSS version. You can Like any item on the blog, but only in the web browser version. 💥#Lots of catching up to do betw Scott and myself. For example, here's a 2009 piece, Narrate Your Work, I'm pretty sure Scott will like. #
A feature I've been thinking about. When I mention someone who's a long-time personal friend, they might have a blue checkmark after their name like this: Bull Mancuso
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. #The key to politics and media of today is giving the people a role beyond couch potato, social media sharer and marcher. You want people to be involved in your mission? Then involve the people. #
Farhad Manjoo and Ezra Klein are both wrong about Obama’s biggest mistake, which was thinking “President” and “community organizer” are different jobs. He should have moved his excellent campaign into the White House instead of disbanding it. #
Another mistake Obama made that history will probably judge him on is that he underestimated Trump and Putin, openly. Don't motivate your enemies. Never slam the door on the way out. #
Fascinating op-ed in the NYT by two political science authors about why the Repubs play dirty. They illustrate more generally that political parties play dirty when they realize they can't stay in power any other way. But -- consider this sentence -- "The only way out of this situation is for the Republican Party to become more diverse." As a programmer, which teaches me to challenge my assumptions, it's a critical part of design and debugging, I see that it's not the only way out. Political parties aren't like baseball teams. As long as there's baseball, your favorite team will continue, though they could move or change their name. For example, the Washington Nationals are the former Montreal Expos. But the same must not be true of political parties. The Repubs had a good run, but they went down a path that didn't work. So they lose elections. What of it. There's no way the Democrats will rule the whole country unopposed for any amount of time -- a new party will form. In all likelihood two new parties will form. There aren't enough white Christians in the US to rule, and many of them, esp the young ones, see themselves as part of a diverse America. Eventually the Repubs will disappear, the question is how much damage will they do on their way out.#BTW, the radical adjustments in the US political system are an obvious response to big changes in the Soviet Union in the 80s and 90s. People thought at the time there would be a peace dividend, and that it signalled the end of history. I didn't believe it at the time, I saw both ideas as tempting fate, the same way you brag that your candidate can't lose. God hears you and as my dear departed uncle would say goofs on you. #