# papi (blogs) — RSS Amplifier Recent posts from the 1 feeds in the RSS Amplifier directory that cover papi. Page: Feed: --- ## [curl | sudo bash isn't a security issue (on Linux)](https://yawn.io/posts/curl-bash/) _2025-07-30 · Papi Picante's Spice Log_ When I want to try out a new tool and its “Getting Started” page kicks off with curl https://thingy.dev/install.sh | sudo bash , I usually turn 360° and walk away 1 . It’s not worth it. But this is not because I’m worried about security. In fact I don’t think there’s any real security issue with the curl | sudo bash here. To understand why, let’s start by… ## [Learning an alphabet is easy](https://yawn.io/posts/alphabet/) _2025-07-29 · Papi Picante's Spice Log_ I studied Russian at school. People often say, “Wow, Russian, that must be so hard, with the different alphabet and all.” I think this reveals that they’re thinking wrongly about learning a language. I think this wrongness is instructive. Learning a language is a really, really big deal. But you can memorise the Cyrillic alphabet in an hour’s work. You could probably master… ## [The YX Problem (Reverse XY Problem)](https://yawn.io/posts/yx-problem-v2/) _2025-03-02 · Papi Picante's Spice Log_ XY Problem interactions go something like this: Tess : How do I disable SELinux? Burt : Don’t disable SELinux. Go and read https://xyproblem.info then ask your ACTUAL question. Tess : My webserver is crashing with “can’t read /etc/foo.conf: permission denied” Burt : You need to do chmod a+r /etc/foo.conf . And yeah, fine, in this case Burt had a point. But what about this… ## [Meandering nonsense about the YX Problem](https://yawn.io/posts/yx-problem/) _2025-01-25 · Papi Picante's Spice Log_ Note : There’s now a punchier, less silly and obtuse version of this argument here . The XY Problem is a name for the phenomenon that people asking for help often “skip ahead” to questions about the solution they envisage, instead of asking questions about their problem. The classic example goes something like this: Schlörbert : How can I disable SELinux on my GRUNDUS device?…