2026-03-23 04:59:30
When I was in my late teens, I considered myself an avid "reader". I put this in quotation marks, because I was reading, but with all the depth of a pool so shallow a puppy could drown in it.
I was someone who shared the sentiment "if I'm gonna read, I'm gonna read something practical". So, of course I started reading self-help books. The reasoning made sense, if you want to improve yourself, read something that's entire premise is about self-improvement, right?
I "read" a book per week, and by read it was more akin to skim reading than actually reading. Going through and trying to pick up the point quickly. I used to brag about reading a book a week, often to the amazement of my classmates. What an asshole.
This carried into my young adulthood. I had all the classics, The Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fuck, How to Win Friends and Influence People, The One Thing, on and on and on. I quickly started to realize that once you've read one, you've basically read several. TSAoNGaF (fuck trying to write that all out again) is just college bro's version of The Let Them Theory by Mel Robbins1, and both are just dumbed-down regurgitations of stoic and Buddhist philosophy. Atomic Habits is just a newer version of The Power of Habit.
All of these books, you basically get the gist within the 1st chapter. Which makes sense, because most of these books are extrapolations from blog posts or email newsletters.
Look I get the appeal, sometimes you need someone to say things in just the right voice for it to sink into your head. Sometimes you just wanna feel like you're improving. However, what you're essentially paying for is $20 worth of filler and a blog article that got stretched to reach a word count.
Let's be honest with ourselves here, these rarely stick with us. When was the last time a self-help book TRULY changed the way you look at the world? Odds are, probably never? Out of every self-help book I've read the only one I probably remember the most of was How to Win Friends, and mostly just that one Lincoln story.
Self-Help books to me are more akin to masturbation than anything. Yeah sure, you might feel better after doing it, but what are you gaining really?
I have since rid myself of all my self-help books. I donated them to a library. However, I found that I quickly stopped reading altogether. I'm not saying everyone needs to read for leisure, but damn we can do better than self-help slopping ourselves to death.
I started with going to the source of many of these self-help titles. Philosophy. Since a lot of them seem to rip off the Stoics, I started with Marcus Aurelius, then Epictitus, then Seneca. Honestly, can't blame people for wanting the spark notes on these as they can be a bit dry. Should be no surprise I later got into Camus.
I started to get more into fiction. I started with simpler writings from IPs I enjoy like Halo: The Fall of Reach & First Strike. I probably killed about 100 pages in a single day and I loved it. Then I read some of Cormac McCarthy, starting with The Road. Then moved to something a bit tougher like William Gibson's Neuromancer. Graphic novels like Scott Pilgrim and Bone. So on.
There are 2 books that made me realize the importance of reading something of actual substance. The Lord of the Rings, and The Catcher in the Rye. I started to get more into literary analysis to try and pick apart central themes and ideas being conveyed through the works. LotR is a masterclass in descriptive scene writing that can spark a certain level of whimsy to your every day life. Anaylizing Catcher in the Rye actually helped me see some parallels I saw in myself and Holden Caulfield.
I think the reason why reading fiction, philosophy, history/biography books is so impactful is the way we have to interact with them. When reading fiction, you're trying to figure out motivations of the characters, symbolism, themes, developing your sense of empathy, etc. With philosophy you are taking ideas and pondering them in your own head and questioning yourself and the world around you. History/Biography books are probably some of the most important books you can read as you'll see the patterns in real life.
I think reading is a lot more fulfilling when we are not consuming a mindless barrage of hustle slop.
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lazy sunday. It's been pretty nice out, so I spent some time with my wife and daughter outside enjoying the fresh air. Did a bit of reading, finishing up a chapter from Blood Meridian. Not sure what I'll do for the rest of the day.
I have a particular bone to pick with ol' Melvin (I know that's not her name) Robbins. I listened to the audiobook because my wife had bought it. The shit was so off-putting I never picked it up again. I didn't think it was possible for someone to be a bigger hack than Sheryl Sandberg, but here we are. She referred to herself as "your friend" so much I'm surprised my eyes didn't detach from my retinas from rolling them so hard. It just screams manipulation.↩
2026-03-23 02:09:00
A while back, I tried switching from Bear to Micro.blog. Even though I ended up going back to Bear for my everyday blogging, I kept birming.com as a Micro.blog hosted blog for shorter posts. I think it's a great combo.
I use it for sharing photos, logging books and movies, posting status updates, and other short-form content. It works really well for that, and with the $1 / month Micro.one plan, it's quite amazing how much you get.
It's also a solid platform if you want to fetch your content and display it somewhere else. With that in mind, I decided to create a separate Micro.blog Bear add-ons category. So far, these are the ones available:
I've also been playing around with making a postroll using the neat Micro.blog bookmarks feature, but that's still at the experiment stage right now.
If you're also using both Bear and Micro.blog, I hope you find something useful. And if you haven't tried Micro.blog yet, you might want to give it a try. It's a refreshing alternative to the usual social media platforms.
Happy blogging and microblogging.
2026-03-22 23:51:00
We're not all sorry for the same thing and the same reasons, but deep down we're all sorry. Most of us haven't stopped. I have, for a moment, but before I start again I'd like to cleanse myself of sin by apologising, sincerely, to all of you. I really am so sorry. Though they don't admit it, I know the rest of the Professional Managerial Class is sorry too. We should be.
At first, we didn't know any better. It was aspirational not to work with your hands, to integrate your consciousness with the apparatus until your body atrophied to a floating head dictating communiques to a fleet of aspiring floating heads (still humiliatingly dragging around an entire superfluous body beneath their own unrealised human capital). The body is a sacrifice we're willing to make, many of us don't notice. Some of us keep it as an aesthetic choice, a tastemaking exercise for your taste in exercise. Some of us retain it as a fuel source, head atop bottleneck.
The Firm underwent a similar transformation, straining until it too snapped in the middle. Those of us who felt the foundations shift clung to the underside to ascend away from the dirt we sprung from. The dirt you stand in. We remembered the times we were beaten when we didn't deserve it, and vowed never to do the same. To only beat our own underlings when they did deserve it, (though to be honest we didn't get it right all the time we're only human). We cursed some of you with elevation, and now you're us, and you are also sorry for the damage you've done.
You're welcome, I'm sorry.
Most of us ruled by fear and power, some of us, the evil ones, ruled with love. We built families. The worst of us built families as we pleaded with you not to consider it a family, to not trust us, to not put your faith in us. You trusted us most of all. Sorry. I tried to tell you that one day we would be on opposing sides and you were so shocked to see me standing across from you when the horns sounded. Your surprise made for an unsporting battle. I truly do not know how to warn you such that you will truly prepare. I'm sorry.
It is at this point that we all do know better. These are not problems that can be resolved without leaving, and we're never going back. We won. We worked hard for it, we earned this. You're bitter crabs in a bitter bucket. Fuck you for trying to drag me back down.
Fuck you, I'm sorry.
We all feel it and if there's one secret I'll share it's that this is our weakness. Make me feel good please, please, please. Make yourself our annual saintly miracle to stave off the ghosts of past, present and future for another year. I promise I will move Heaven and Earth for you to avoid having to build Heaven on Earth.
Please take this, I'm sorry.
Of course we're fucking idiots. Stretched ourselves thin over the machinery until we've lost our original shape. We keep a model of it at home, occasionally taking it out for a brief excursion. Laps around the yard, conjugal visits - perhaps an occasional special dispensation to leave on good behaviour. Back to human for a couple weeks a year. Back to drape the orphan crusher after the brief respite.
I fell in love with the orphan crusher. It's so elegant, it's transcendently beautiful, some of the best design work of my career. I do not have children but if I do I hope to love them with this fervor. If you take a step back (purpose and function aside) it is a work of genuine art and talent by the people who maintain it. Physical impossibilities became reality through the collective imagination of brilliant people. Limitations sundered by our boundless spirits. The fires of creation lit by the sparks of genius. Astonishing what we could achieve together as one.
Of course it too was ruined. To our collective horror design-by-committee poured like sand into the gears of our creation. No less profitable but far less effective, leaving half mangled detritus across the factory floor where before it worked to perfection. We panicked and assigned everyone synthetic vessels designed by the committee. It didn't matter, the floating heads rejoiced that we could finally leave our mortal forms entirely. We imbued these misshapen phylacteries with the last of our spirit - perhaps if we train this model we can reclaim the model we left of ourselves.
These creatures learned from the best of us - the correct grade of sand to pour into the gears as lubricant. How to bullshit our way through a meeting we didn't prepare for. How to make money out of solving problems by spending money creating novel problems to solve. We were briefly surprised and concerned that creatures trained to turn sentences into novels were so proficient at lossful inflation but growth is growth.
I do worry that one day it'll cease to function at all and The Firm will cease to exist and the machine will run one last time before grinding to a final halt.
Will anyone remember what we achieved.
If you do, I'm sorry.
2026-03-22 20:00:00
Earlier today, I read a post on another blog (hating on AI writing), and then the NYT article linked in that post. Both were interesting reads, and my reaction was something you'd call hagedō in slightly antiquated Japanese online slang: "Vehemently agreeing." They made me think about my own opinions and stance towards LLMs again.
I have an art hobby, and I write for fun on the internet, so naturally, I have a lot of thoughts about so-called "AI." Mostly negative thoughts. However, I tend to avoid writing about it because I feel it's one of those things that becomes more powerful the more time you devote to it (thinking, writing, getting angry). It sucks that auto-generated drivel is filling the world now, and that you run the risk of being mistaken for a robot if you use certain punctuation marks. Also, the thought that LLMs are shaping how I write and think, even if I go out of my way to not use them, just because they're now part of the environment and there's no easy filter to shut them out, is scary (a "creeping sense of dread" kind of scary, sometimes subtle, sometimes more pronounced).
But what can you do, really? The best "solution" I've found for myself so far is to be stoic about it. Acknowledge that the technology exists, deal with it when necessary (they basically force us to use Gemini at work...), and focus on what I can personally do to minimize the negatives.
If I see an image or piece of writing that's clearly auto-generated, I stop engaging with it (as much as the current situation allows for). If I can't tell right away, and somehow notice that was generated later on, I stop engaging with it then. On the "production" side, I simply have to decide to not worry too much about what people will think about my writing. There's always the possibility that something about it will set off people's "AI alarm bells", and that they'll stop reading because of it. But that's not really something I want to spend time worrying about. As long as I know that I'm writing this using my own fingers and brain, and that I'm enjoying the process, it's fine.
This is a pretty simplistic view that ignores a lot of edge cases. I do think that the technology has its useful sides, just not in the "creative" space. But instead of spending energy on mapping out all this stuff in writing, I'd rather not write about AI. So I want to make this my first and last post on this blog that puts this topic front and center.
2026-03-22 17:40:00
I’ve been noticing more disregard for a more respectful way to ask for help recently, both in private, at work, and between strangers online.
It seems like a growing group of people is comfortable with just barking words at other people to receive answers. No please, no thank you, no further explanations and no attempt to first solve it on their own. I don’t know if this is some sort of effect search engines and LLMs have, but either way: Here’s how you can do better.
You message your friend, a coworker or a stranger
“My printer won’t print.”
Now you have to wait until they see it and have time to respond. That could be hours or days. Then when they get back to you, they have to establish some context first.
“Okay. Have you tried turning it off and back on again? Are your drivers up to date?”
Now they have to wait for you to answer again. What usually happens now is further slowing down the actual resolution.
“Yes I already tried all that.”
This can go back and forth for ages, just dragging on about what you did or didn’t do, and wastes both your time and the other person’s time. It’s disrespectful to make the other person do all the work of getting the right info out of you, and put together a detailed guide, just to be shot down with “Already did that.”
So before you reach out to another person, use the tools available to you, depending on the problem.
If you have exhausted all options and tried all the suggestions, then reach out. You might not even need to do that, and solving it on your own this way was faster than just involving someone else from the getgo!
A respectful message would be:
“Hey, I’m having issues with my printer, can you help me? It’s a [model number] and I have consulted [resources] and tried [everything you actually tried], but still no luck. Do you have any other ideas? Thank you.”
This is polite, not commanding or imposing, and it gives the other person all relevant information that makes helping you easier and faster. Instead of dragging every piece of information out of you and each having to wait for a response, they can immediately research the model, and focus on the things you haven’t tried yet, and find other resources.
This is respectful of the other person’s time and efforts, and this way, they are more inclined to help you in the future.
It’s not only about tech support or a defective device; apply it to other situations as well.
It shouldn’t need to be said, but of course, it’s okay to ask “What’s dirtbiking?” when someone brought up they like to do dirtbiking in conversation, even if you could research it yourself. That’s normal bonding and socializing, and you wanna hear it from them and find out more about how they do it or why they like it.
It’s also okay to ask someone what their opinion or stance is on something, or whether they have recommendations for something. Of course you could also find opinions and recommendations online, but this is obviously about valuing this exact person’s opinion and insight, which you will not find online. I’m sure the other person is delighted to be asked and get to tell you something about that topic.
I hope this is a worthwhile reminder; send it to people who do this, hang up a version of this at your workplace, whatever.
It’s okay to need help, it’s okay to not know something, but you need to go about this the right way and remember some etiquette. Otherwise, people will think you are just too lazy, difficult to work with, and weaponize your incompetence just so someone else does it for you.
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2026-03-22 09:59:11
I've completed three full weeks of blogging. I'm not going to be doing it daily anymore, but it's the first time in YEARS i was able to stick to something daily for that long. 21 days. [clap emoji]
I've found enjoyment in reading other's blogs more than anything. Coming from Spacehey, it's nice to not read about high school bullshit that can be solved by a trusted adult. It's also a great break from Reddit's AI engagement bait.
There are always interesting posts in the discovery tab. Some very misinformed and shallow and others very well-written and funny; I read them all. I'm always looking at the Recent Posts and other people's blogrolls. I prefer candid posts where people just throw their thoughts onto the keyboard. Their inner monologue while doing something. Or those who use their blogs like a public diary. There is no such thing as "TMI" in my book. Yes, please tell me about your foot fungus or your weird pregnancy cravings in great detail!
I actually found a few cool blogs through those who email me. People who write or think similarly to me. I get nervous to reach out first because I'm a giant pussy, but receiving one is like getting my paycheck. That level of happiness. I don't have to put on a façade. They read all my weird bullshit and still want to interact.
I love non-english blogs as well, with the help of google translate. Bearblog is written and marketed in English, which makes that the dominant language. But once in a while, Spanish, Japanese and Mandarin blogs show up, along with some other languages. As a result, I have a very diverse feed in my RSS feed reader.
blah blah blah thats enough about that.
My favorite bear post this month so far is this one:
"It's terrible, and I love it."
This person brought to life what is a mediocre photo and made me see it as something more. A picture I would have just quickly scrolled past. I'm not sure if it's the writing, content, or the fact that it's the first blogger I've seen from my state, but it made me laugh.