You should stop committing surrogation whenever and wherever you notice it, but there’s more than one way to do this. Continue reading
A world of symbols (Part 2): Responses to surrogation
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A world of symbols (Part 1): Surrogation
(If you haven’t read the Introduction and are wondering what I mean by “symbols,” I recommend you read that first.) Part 1: Surrogation Because we deal in symbols every day, and the substances behind those symbols are often agreed upon … Continue reading
A world of symbols: Introduction
A human’s life is full of symbols. A red heart symbolizes love. A red octagon symbolizes the command to stop. A sideways triangle symbolizes the “play” function of a media device. But it’s not just combinations of colors and shapes … Continue reading
The problem of ads (Part 3): Ads and art
In Parts 1 and 2 of this series, I talked about how ads come with costs, are generally a burden on a happy lifestyle, and should be blocked where possible. I’m confident in the opinions I described there, but this … Continue reading
The problem of ads (Part 2): Targeted ads are worse
In my last post, I aimed to show that even if advertisements don’t cause us to spend excessively or unwisely, they are still costly in ways that we don’t often talk about. In this post, I’ll explain why targeted ads … Continue reading
The problem of ads (Part 1): Ads are costly
I think about ads a lot. That may be because I work in consumer technology, the medium through which most advertisements are delivered nowadays. Or it may be because I have strong feelings about consumerism, which is really the spirit … Continue reading
Gossip as advertised weakness
The other day, at a conference for work, I overheard a conversation of a kind that I’d heard many times before. It involved three people: the main speaker (whom we’ll call Gossiper), an acquaintance (Listener) and a third person, not … Continue reading
The case against common self-descriptions
Or, Why you’re not actually bad at remembering people’s names. For a long time I’ve been in the habit of avoiding using certain statements to describe myself, even if they’d have expressed something that I really felt at the time. … Continue reading
Learning Italian in 2 weeks
Living by myself, I have the opportunity to allocate just about every minute of my non-work time for whatever purpose I want, with very little interruption or distraction that I don’t seek out myself. This allows me to juggle a … Continue reading
Addressing Consumerism Completely (Part 2)
In Part 1, I explained why I believe we can understand consumerism—habitual and ever-increasing consumption—more completely by looking at it in the general sense of value consumption rather than the specific sense of monetary spending. In this post, I’ll describe … Continue reading
Addressing Consumerism Completely (Part 1)
Introduction In my generation, there’s been a lot of talk about consumerism—the cultural trend of acquiring goods and services habitually and in ever-increasing amounts. In college I learned a little bit about why it this trend came about and how … Continue reading
The Question of Why (Part 2)
In the last post, I concluded that the question “Why ___?” is the request for a reason for something to be the case, and that the answers to this question either state a cause or state the desired effect of the … Continue reading
The Question of Why (Part 1)
In the past I’ve written down a few thoughts on the terms “why” and “why not” as they’re used in regular conversation. When I really examined these terms, I arrived at what I thought were some good insights which I’ve decided to present them in a 2-part series here. In … Continue reading
Synapse: my 3D print shop on Shapeways.com
I’ve been wanting to do this for a long time. The 3D print company Shapeways allows users to create “online shops” on its website, where other users can order 3D prints of their designs. The shop owners mark up their … Continue reading
My Job at Microsoft
I got a job at Microsoft! I was hired as a technical writer for Microsoft’s Content Publishing group. Our job is mainly to manage the Windows API reference pages and create conceptual content (how-to guides) for 3rd-party developers who wish to make applications for … Continue reading
