PRODUCTION

I haven’t done much by way of production besides studying and training, but I had a few fun things to share below and recalibrate what I’m working on!

CONSUMPTION

Read

Producing Open Source Software: How to Run a Successful Free Software Project (2nd Edition) by Karl Fogel—It’s free to read online, and I’ve been reading through excerpts for a grad school assignment. I really enjoyed the section titled Difficult People (a short read) that gets to the root of managing team dynamics with interpersonal tact. I like how they separated “rude” and “difficult,” too.

Rude:

Rude people are annoying, but they’re not necessarily difficult. This book has already discussed how to handle them: comment on the rudeness the first time, and from then on, either ignore them or treat them the same as anyone else. If they continue being rude, they will usually make themselves so unpopular as to have no influence on others in the project, so they are a self-containing problem.

versus difficult:

To counteract such behavior, it helps to understand the mentality of those who engage in it. People generally do not do it consciously. No one wakes up in the morning and says to himself: “Today I’m going to cynically manipulate procedural forms in order to be an irritating obstructionist.”

Instead, such behavior is often prompted by a kind of insecurity, a feeling (not necessarily based in reality) of being shut out of group interactions and decisions. The person feels he is not being taken seriously, or, in the more severe cases, that there is almost a conspiracy against him — that the other project members have decided to form an exclusive club, of which he is not a member. This then justifies, in his mind, interpreting rules with maximum literalness and engaging in a formal manipulation of the project’s procedures, in order to make everyone else take him seriously. In extreme cases, the person can even believe that he is fighting a lonely battle to save the project from itself.

I also love the You Are What You Write section, because I have long recognized writing as valuable, but I haven’t been able to distill it quite like so:

Consider this: most of what others know about you on the Internet comes from what you write. You may be brilliant, perceptive, and charismatic in person — but if your emails are rambling and unstructured, people will assume that’s the real you. Or perhaps you are rambling and unstructured in person, but no one need ever know that if your posts are lucid and informative.

And again on standard spelling and grammar:

This is not because there’s anything inherently good about following arbitrary rules, but rather that these rules are not arbitrary: they evolved into their present forms because they make text more readable, and you should adhere to them for that reason. Readability is desirable not only because it means more people will understand what you write, but because it makes you look like the sort of person who takes the time to communicate clearly: that is, someone worth paying attention to.

Good grammar also minimizes ambiguity. This is especially important in technical writing, where plausible alternatives will often be juxtaposed, and the distinction between cause and effect may not be immediately clear from context alone. A grammatical structure that represents things in precisely the way the writer intended helps everyone avoid confusion.

The Two Kinds of Moderate by Paul Graham—This is a very brief, politically relevant read. I love his concept of the “accidental moderate.”

Watch

Bam Margera Opens Up About Sobriety, Health, Life & Love When Spotted In High Spirts In Hollywood | The Hollywood Fix—When asked if he could only keep one thing, he replied, “Skating.”

Introducing the S-70UAS™ U-Hawk™ | Lockheed Martin—AI is coming for my job!

Worst Volume Design EVER | @bloomfilms—A hilarious short on a Reddit design challenge for the worst design of a computer volume bar.

Listen

• Song: “bandaids” by Katy Perry (Spotify | Apple Music | YouTube)
  • The music video is odd, but the song is a bop
• Song: “Mature” by Hilary Duff (Spotify | Apple Music | YouTube)
  • She announced a new album slated to drop in February!
• Album: Portal by Balu Brigada (Spotify | Apple Music | YouTube)
  • “So Cold,” “Backseat,” and “Sideways” are my faves
• Podcast: 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment At War | Alan Mack | Ep. 199 | The Team House (Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube)
  • An aviation legend and serious Chinook pilot. He talks about getting shot down and what it means to continue flying the aircraft to the ground.

Learn

The 2-2-2-2 Rule—I reread an article, and this catchy rule makes investing in relationships way more approachable in our time-constrained lifestyles:

• Sexual intimacy: Twice a week
• Date night: Every 2 weeks
• Overnighter: Every 2 months
• Vacation together: Every 2 years

Ponder

Quote: “Political extremism involves two prime ingredients: an excessively simple diagnosis of the world’s ills, and a conviction that there are identifiable villains back of it all.” ~John W. Gardner

As I am slowly refining this newsletter, I’d love feedback on the format and content. Reach out on X or LinkedIn 👋