The Dice — 031

Alright, we made it to the flipside! The sun continues to rise each day and our dark roasted coffee supply chain is strong, and I migrated this site to a new host†. This year I’m going to celebrate every win possible no matter the size.

Thinking back on 2024, one of the joys from last year came from subscribers who reached out to share they’re inspired to write this year. Hot damn, it’s working! To keep the momentum going I’ve collected some stories and thoughts to ponder and inspire y'all this week.

Welcome back, let’s roll.

One of my godchildren recently shared that he wants to learn how to write better. I told him that to write better he has to read more. As Stephen King wrote, “You have to read widely. If you don’t have time to read, you don’t have the time (or the tools) to write.” To inspire his drive, I sent him a Kindle and an annual subscription to Rolling Stone magazine.

For more takes on writing, here are 12 Books To Help You Write Better from the folks at Do who know a thing or two about the craft. 

Somewhat related: Simon Willison’s excellent My approach to running a link blog. I’ll add: Keep it simple! My god, how difficult we make things for ourselves by overthinking what has to be just right before we write. Knock it off.

Whilst on the subject of reading, a dear friend shared The Essays of Michel de Montaigne Online. The collection has been translated many times so I suggest finding one that resonates or makes plain sense. Within, you will find some fairly fundamental truths like Mike’s thoughts On Idleness: “A soul with no fixed goal is sure to lose its way for, as they say, to be everywhere is to be nowhere.” Pair this with reading The Daily Stoic and on the quick it would seem that humans haven’t evolved much. For instance, take this fantastically titled  Whether the Commander of a Place Under Siege Ought to Go Out to Parley. To summarize: Honor is great for speeches, but strategy wins battles. Oh, and don’t mistake a handshake for safety.

Fun fact, Montaigne is the inventor of the essay. 

Let’s continue learning about how to make improvements by studying the enshittification of tech companies. “In hypergrowth mode, you solve every problem by throwing more resources at the system. Hypergrowth encourages a raft of bad habits, and attacking every problem by hiring more people is one of them.” Charity Majors shreds bro-founders and the path of carnage they have left behind in her article “Founder mode” and the Art of Mythmaking. It's a long, visceral, tear-down of the dysfunctional leadership behind many name-brand startups. While Charity tells stories from Airbnb, you can insert any “unicorn” startup—like InVision—and the painful problems and lessons still apply. A highly recommended read for everyone working in technology or those who want to study poor leadership. 

“I’m considering moving to Japan. Whatever you’re doing, it makes you want to do it 10 times better. They do so much at a high level,” said André 3000 in a recent interview with Rolling Stone. 

While that sounds incredibly inspiring, for many of us without an integer in our name it’s not a practical move. However, thanks to the timing of our annual fondness for starting new habits, here are 33 ways to improve your life, Japanese style, written by Ashley Ogawa Clarke.  Number twelve: “Take inspiration—but with respect. In Japan, we excel in applied science. We can’t go from zero to one, but if we can find one, then we can go straight to 200.” 

Speaking of 33, it was that many years ago when Magnum P.I. was taught, “Japan takes the best from all over the world and makes it her own.”

While I’m not a fan of the end-of-year “best of...” lists, I do enjoy the personal reflections that bloggers create. A few highlights from this year are Patrick Tanguay’s 24 Things I Learned in 2024, Dave Rupert’s Twenty Twenty-Four (especially the format of his monthly recap), Winnie Lim's Looking Back at 2024 (beautiful), and Jon Hicks’ distinctive round-up of Festive Sandwich Reviews 2024. Then there are the music themes recaps. Naz Hamid’s Music in 2024, Jared Christensen’s 2024 Music Report, and fellow Duran Duran enthusiast Luke Dorny with his Top 2024. Saving the very, very best for last is Anh’s Media Recap 2024 which takes this blog post type to an entirely different level.

Maybe it’s the 80s-War-Games-computer-nerd in me, but using Linux has always had a weird, attractive counter-culture caché. As if the simple act of using a different OS came bundled with |337 hacker cyberpunk street cred. So I have respect for Mat Marquis who recently shared his experience of switching from MacOS to Unbuntu—“I like it.”

If that’s not enough for you, I came across a guide for Computing Like Eric Snowden (sans living in the Soviet Union). It’s like Neo came back from the dead and gave us this guide. “My dark machine. This aLmost NEVER connEcts to the internet; the webcam and microphone have been removed. It's wiped after use - every single time. It's also nEver more than 12 months old. Use your imaginaTion.”

I can’t tell if the random capital letters have some special hacker meaning or if the author’s mechanical keyboard was gLitching.

Published in Tacoma, Washington with Sneaker Pimps 1999 masterpeace Splinter on repeat.

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