THansenite

That's what it started out as, for sure. However, is it really "staying in touch" these days or is it simply reacting to and maybe adding a response to whatever status or content was placed in your feed.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not some anti-Facebook snob looking down on everyone else. But I have greatly reduced my use of the platform and only really use it for some groups I'm part of. While I do interact with family and friends, saying I use Facebook to "stay in touch" these days is a bit of a reach in most cases.

Currently reading: This Inevitable Ruin (DCC Book 7) by Matt Dinniman - Back to DCC after interrupting it for Red Rising, which is another fantastic series judging by the first book.

Deep Work by Cal Newport - Going through this book to help my focus, especially in the super-connected world we find ourselves in.

Every Tool's a Hammer by Adam Savage - Huge fan of Adam Savage and it is fun reading stories about him establishing himself and his views on making.

I'm also planning a reread of "Fall; or, Dodge in Hell" by Neal Stephenson as his references to greater and greater resources being used for supplying computer power seems dangerously relevant to our current data center arms race our world is watching.

I recently overcame this as I've been reading more of the unread books populating my shelves. I always wanted to keep my books in pristine condition and never wanted to mark them up. Now, I realize they are part of MY collection and marking them up with highlights, underlines, notes, etc., only make them more valued since they contain their intrinsic knowledge from the author as well as my own views. Even if I want to give them to friends to read, they'll see areas that jumped out to me and maybe appreciate some of the additional context or focus I noted as well.

Are there any communities like this still around and thriving?

I miss the old bulletin board days of the mid 2000s to mid 2010s, before Facebook and other social media took over. I'm part of a vintage car building community (LocostUSA) that still uses forums, but is a very small, niche community. What others are still active?

I'd love to see the system he used for creating his if you can remember.

As much as people make fun of "new math", it is really neat to see my 3rd grader working through a math problem step by step in a way that makes sense to them instead of the rote memorization I had to do as a kid. While they don't like showing their work, it helps them to work through each step to make sure their assumptions are correct, like you said.

This makes sense when you think about the divided state of the USA today. People were isolated during COVID and had no feedback on opinions formed then. When they started creating bubbles after lockdown, they wanted validation for the opinions they formed without that feedback. Now, people constantly argue online because that feedback they needed while cementing those ideas wasn't there and we aren't willing to take that communication feedback to tweak our opinions based on common sense because we all believe we are right. This article makes a lot of sense.

Agreed. As a developer, I'd love to see how this was done or if you have it out on Github.

This is so true. My wife loves knitting and frequently gets comments about her items of people asking if they could have her knit something for them. When she tells them that if she tripled the prices of a similar store-bought one, she'd still be making sweatshop wages, they go back to the mass produced version they already have pretty quick.

I've been fascinated by mechanical watches for years. It can become a deep rabbit hole (like most hobbies). I frequently have watch restoration videos playing in the background as I'm doing things and love the process of taking apart, cleaning, and reassembling these watch movements. Wristwatch Revival is probably my favorite. I has encouraged me to tear apart a few watches of my own to give them a good service. As complex as they look, most follow a very similar process to rebuild.

I'm imagining a Dungeon Crawler Carl style view-meter that shows more people tuning in as he gets to some juicier parts of his journal. B-b-b-b-b-b-b-osss BATTLE!!!!

I can understand what you are going for here, but I feel it is a slippery slope along the lines of police saying, "why can't I search your house if you have nothing to hide?" Orwellian oversight leads to stifling creativity because you know people are watching. I like that I can 'speak freely' in my journal since they are my personal thoughts.

It is actually a decent sized community. As someone who works in technology, I enjoy the aspect of actually creating something physical when so much is ones and zeros on silicone. While not daily, I try to journal regularly as a practice to slow down, focus my thoughts, and use it as therapy to get frustrations/emotions/musings out so I can move on.

I honestly don't know how I feel about this. I keep a journal where I can get thoughts out of my head so I can move on. Like the article, its nothing I'd really be ashamed of, but I see it as a kind of personal therapy where I can dump my thoughts. I write with the assumption they are my private thoughts and even I don't have any plans on going back and rereading. I know I'm not a CEO, but even I wouldn't want my private thoughts brought into a courtroom that I never thought would see the light of day.

Do you have more details on this project anywhere? I've been working on habit-building and tracking in my journal for the past year and a half or so, but I'm looking to amp it up a bit more. Your project appeals to my software developer and hobby collector mindset and would love to learn more about it.