Life is Short
I love Paul Graham’s essays. This one, from 2016, truly hits home.
Life is short, so it’s worth eliminating the time wasters. For one, defending yourself online.
Your instinct when attacked is to defend yourself. But like a lot of instincts, this one wasn't designed for the world we now live in. Counterintuitive as it feels, it's better most of the time not to defend yourself. Otherwise these people are literally taking your life.
But that’s just one of many powerful ideas in this essay. Please take 10 of your precious remaining minutes to read it.
One heuristic for distinguishing stuff that matters is to ask yourself whether you'll care about it in the future. Fake stuff that matters usually has a sharp peak of seeming to matter. That's how it tricks you. The area under the curve is small, but its shape jabs into your consciousness like a pin.
As I come to the waning years of my life, I want to make every minute count.
Relentlessly prune bullshit, don't wait to do things that matter, and savor the time you have. That's what you do when life is short.
Stop the Insanity
Normally I wait until Spring to start complaining, but I’ve gotten nothing else done this summer, so I’m going to start the campaign early. End Daylight Saving Time!
The august Academy of Sleep Medicine has finally proclaimed the truth.
The AASM supports a switch to permanent standard time, explaining in the statement that standard time more closely aligns with the daily rhythms of the body’s internal clock. The position statement also cites evidence of **increased risks of motor vehicle accidents, cardiovascular events, and mood disturbances following the annual “spring forward” to daylight saving time**.“Permanent, year-round standard time is the best choice to most closely match our circadian sleep-wake cycle,” said lead author Dr. M. Adeel Rishi, a pulmonology, sleep medicine and critical care specialist at the Mayo Clinic in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, and vice chair of the AASM Public Safety Committee. “Daylight saving time results in more darkness in the morning and more light in the evening, disrupting the body’s natural rhythm.”
The AASM position statement on daylight saving time has been endorsed by the following organizations:
- American Academy of Cardiovascular Sleep Medicine
- American Academy of Dental Sleep Medicine
- American College of Chest Physicians (CHEST)
- American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine
- California Sleep Society
- Dakotas Sleep Society
- Kentucky Sleep Society
- Maryland Sleep Society
- Michigan Academy of Sleep Medicine
- Missouri Sleep Society
- National PTA
- National Safety Council
- Society for Research on Biological Rhythms
- Society of Anesthesia and Sleep Medicine
- Society of Behavioral Sleep Medicine
- Southern Sleep Society
- Start School Later
- Tennessee Sleep Society
- Wisconsin Sleep Society
- World Sleep Society.
And, I’d like to add, by the Leo Laporte Sleep Society.
OK President Trump, you want to do something that would ensure your re-election in November? Stop the Insanity! What’s the use of being an autocrat if you can’t use your power for good!
RIP Joze
Five Years Later: The TWiT.tv Web Site
It’s a story as old as time. Well at least as old as HG Wells…
The lawgiver, of all beings, most owes the law allegiance. He of all men should behave as though the law compelled him. But it is the universal weakness of mankind that what we are given to administer we presently imagine we own.
– H.G. Wells
Sigh.
Petaluma During the Pandemic
Pictures of Petaluma during the height of the quarantine. An historic record.
Fame is a Vapor
I use fortune and cowsay1 to spit out pithy sayings when I launch my terminal2. This morning’s seemed very apropos.
Fame is a vapor; popularity an accident; the only earthly certainty is oblivion.
– Mark Twain
After the game the king and the pawn go in the same box.
– Italian proverb
The universe speaks.
And now, a little movie3 to demonstrate. Pay no attention to the locomotive.
-
Mac users can use brew to install the
fortuneandcowsayprograms. Arch users can combine both withcowfortunein the AUR. And for extra fun, installlolcatand get rainbow fortune cookies. I’ve posted the fish shell code I use in the comments below (the footnote formatting mangles code blocks). ↩︎ -
This movie brought to you by asciinema. Install on macOS with the command
brew install asciinema. ↩︎
And this is why I love living in Petaluma.
Definitely confused.
And off we go to Barcelona.
Oops. letsrobot.tv/robocaste…
Come control robots in our studio live. letsrobot.tv/robocaste…
Watch from the other end live on the New Screensavers. TWiT.tv/live
Am I misunderstanding something @manton? Leo.micro.blog has everything I post. Micro.blog/Leo does not.
Micro.blog Conundrum
I’m setting things up for my vacation but some of my posts aren’t appearing in the timeline. They DO appear at Leo.social which is my micro.blog site. Maybe there’s a lag?
Triple threat: toot, tweet, and micro.blog… all from my Apple Watch. Technology, what a concept.
Let’s try this again. Drafts ➡️ micro.blog.
Spent an excellent Friday with Apple legend Bill Atkinson. We talked for five hours about Lisa, Macintosh, Hypercard, psychedelics, the Iboga ritual. General Magic, and neuroscience.
Part one is out now at twit.tv/shows/tri… Part two in a week or so.
