In a world of extremes, people with no sense of scale disperse
I recently saw a quote which was attributed to Aldous Huxley. The quote said: "The belief in a bigger and better future is one of the most powerful enemies of freedom". I question the veracity of the attribution to Huxley, because I have not been able to find this quote in any of his sources. In fact, I have not been able to find this quote anywhere else; it feels to me like it was made up by…
I have written, in the past (notably here ), on the topic of making programs that boot directly on a computer without requiring an operating system. In order for people to use this information, however, they need to be able to create some kind of boot medium from which the software can be loaded, and this led me to become interested in the formats used for floppy-disk images for popular computer…
I recently read the following proverb which gave me pause for thought: "To understand the world, read. To understand yourself, write." I think I understand the point. In my mind, it's related to a similar proverb which I've heard which posits that human beings have two eyes and two ears but only one mouth, so they should spend more time watching and listening than speaking. The idea is that people…
For some years now, I've had a personal theory that some people love children and animals partly because of the problems they create. Both children and animals are sometimes loud and need to be calmed down, they get hungry and need to be fed, and they soil themselves or otherwise make a mess and need to be cleaned up after. From a rational perspective, it seems to me that these problems are more…
I often write about technology, especially computer technology, not only because it happens to be something of both personal and professional interest to me (since I work in the field and am also active in it as a hobby), but also because I recognize how important technology is for the world and all of humanity, how fundamentally technology shapes the experience of being human in our modern world.…
The United States of America recently celebrated their 250th anniversary. This forms a natural point in time to think about the past, present, and future of a country which is often called "the world's sole superpower" in our current discourse. What made America great? Is it still great today? And will it ever be great again? Perhaps these are the wrong questions. Current president Donald Trump…
(Throughout this post, I will use the term "Renaissance man" in a gender-neutral way, because that's how English is. I could have said "Renaissance person", but that just sounds kind of silly and ridiculous, because nobody says that. Maybe in 100 years, "Renaissance person" will be a standard English term, but it isn't right now, and I don't want to write that phrase 50 times in this post, because…
Today (on July 22, 2026), I woke up and found that the Duolingo app no longer works on my phone. When I run it, I just receive the following message: "Update Available. This version of the app is no longer supported. A new version is available for download." As someone who has worked in the IT industry, my advanced knowledge of computer systems and years of experience working with software helped…
I recently had a conversation with a woman who was still fixated on her ex and couldn't stop talking about him. I often hear women complain that "Every man has an ex whom he still misses and wants to have back", and that this makes dating men painful because they can't forget about their ex, but women who have this problem don't know how good they have it, because even if a man misses an ex, he'll…
The discussion around AI and its rapidly-changing position within human civilization has taken on two very different tracks, and what I find odd is that most articles and videos which address the topic of AI usually only address one of these. On the one hand, you have the long-term view, the perspective of how AI will change human life and human work forever, and this mode of thinking is very…
If you use a computer or any other device which runs software on it, here's something which you might want to know: Software companies are not your friends, and in fact, they are trying to kill personal and home computing. The reason for this is simple: Software companies, like any other business, are out to make money, but what's good for computer users is not good for software companies, and the…
Some years ago, I was in a relationship which had already lasted for several years, when I noticed that I was developing an attraction to another woman. At first, I made nothing of these feelings: Attractions can and do happen, and in fact, they will inevitably happen throughout the course of any long-term relationship, so you shouldn't pay too much attention to them. The human being is naturally…
All of a sudden, it occurred to me that I really don't know what a "simple life" is. What is a "simple life"? First of all, as a linguistic aside, I will note that I specifically chose the wording "a simple life" and not " the simple life". Although I have often heard and seen people speak and write of the latter, I believe that there is not necessarily just one "simple" lifestyle in the universe,…
At various points in human history, I have heard various people describe themselves as "a good judge of character". In theory, such a skill would be a good skill to have: The ability to read people's minds and know what they are thinking and intending just by means of their facial expression and body language would prevent fraud and render dishonesty obsolete. Humanity could abolish computer…
Sometimes, it disturbs me how quickly problems upon which I speculate become actual problems. It's happened multiple times in the past that I've noticed some trend and commented upon it in this blog of mine, along with speculation that this trend could lead to some specific problem in the future, only for the theorized problem to become reality just days later. I'm not a prophet or a psychic, but…
The news recently broke that Elon Musk became the first trillionaire in all of human history. Most wise people would say that this doesn't really mean anything: The distinction between a billionaire and a trillionaire isn't actually that meaningful, because they both live the same lifestyle and do business in the same way. It happens, however, that now is an opportune time to take a look at where…
There are things which human beings have been doing since before recorded history which might sometimes seem stupid, pointless, and wasteful. To people who possess intelligence but not a deep understanding of human nature, there is a constant temptation and desire to try to "fix" humanity, to try to change how people live and behave so that they would live more intelligently, more efficiently, and…
I recently spoke with a young person on the topic of justice reform, which is a topic very popular among Western youth right now, but not a topic which I personally take much interest in, simply because, as I have noted in the past, it is not rooted in any kind of facts, but rather is a reflection of shifting social values: There is no objective right or wrong, no universal set of laws which all…
Nearly 30 years ago, when I still had no personal experience in relationships, someone told me that the most important thing which made them love another person was for that person to love them back. At the time, I had somewhat mixed reactions to this idea. On the surface, it sounded a bit sweet and romantic: You love me, and I'll love you back. That sounded kind of cute, but I had some issues…
There is a long-running trend in user-interface design which I have complained about several times over the years, but I'm going to take a moment to devote an entire post to this subject, because it is big enough and important enough that one could probably write a whole book about it. The problem is the tendency toward minimalism in user-interface design, specifically in the form of hiding…
I have often marveled at how the Internet forms a microcosm of human society, how readily one can use online chat groups as a way of studying human behavior and how different types of human beings interact with each other on a day-to-day basis. A typical pattern seen in Internet chat groups, especially among males, is that people use Internet chat groups for two purposes: First, to express how…
All of a sudden, it occurred to me that the best thing I could be doing with my life was hex-editing the memory contents of a running Apple ][ RPG, so that's what I decided to do. The Missing Ring is an RPG which was only made for the Apple ][. The game's Wikipedia article notes that "In 1984, Softline readers named the game the eighth-worst Apple program of 1983", which is kind of funny since the…
Hey folks, I'd like to take a moment to explain something to the world's humans, because it seems that there has been some misunderstanding. The last time human beings experienced prosperity was at the end of the 20th century. During the 1980s and 1990s, human beings weren't just doing well, they were doing better than ever. Propelled by the development of the computer industry and later by the…
A young woman with whom I am befriended has had something of a tumultuous romantic history. As a teenager, before she had ever been in a relationship with anyone, she was the classic case of a woman attracted to "bad boys", men who appear dark, mysterious, and dangerous. I understand why women are instinctively attracted to such men: Because such men are seen as capable of being good "protectors"…
The Internet, like much of the economy it was built on (and like the economy which, in turn, was built on it), has always been focused on the concept of growth. The Internet has never been an industry like the food industry where businesses could make a long-term living selling the same stable set of products year after year; on the Internet, everything always has to be new and exciting, because…