Published 2026-05-02
tag(s): #books #emacs #meta #link-post
It's been a while since I did one of
those "three
links with commentary" posts. So, why not? And why not more than three.
During the last couple weeks I felt like touching on a bunch of topics from fellow blogger
posts, but not quite the drive to write that much, in general.
Many times I leave posts unread in my RSS reader, thinking that I have something to say on a
topic, and then a few days later I feel that "the moment has passed" or that what I
have to say ain't worth typing, and then drop the post from the queue.
There's a theme there of thinking that whatever I have to say is not worth it, that I will
probably revisit soon :)
And yes, I know that thinking is contradictory with having a (somewhat) regular blog. Can't
make sense of that one. I do have a very simple theory though...more on that later.
Matt wrote explaining why he doesn't use a dedicated music player.
I love the idea behind a dedicated music player, but it just isn’t something that really fits in with the way I listen to music. My phone comes with me everywhere I go, and while that’s probably not the most healthy thing in the world, I’ve made my peace with it. I do try to spend time off the phone, but that just means not unlocking it. I can still use it to play music through my AirPods. I don’t see that as cheating.
Then closes with Do you see the benefits of a dedicated audio player? If so let me know on
the fediverse.
. I don't do fediverse, so here we are. :)
I think whether one thinks it is a good idea or not have a dedicated music player, goes with
your definition of
simple. Like I argued in that post, sometimes the most "obvious" words can mean
something different depending your optics.
In this case: nothing is simpler than having a dedicated music player, no distractions! Except
that you will carry your phone anyway - is it really simpler? You can argue either way
depending on which angle of that you value more.
As for me, I think while the device itself is neat, but I would argue against
having one. For the last couple years I am of the idea of buying less things, having less
devices in general, and making things work with what I have.
My phone plays music, I have Bluetooth headphones, that's it.
We have have been watching with Juan the "Final Destination" movies (Maria is a horror
fan). And on top of the old timey computers with CRT monitors, like the ones I used in my teen
years (shout out to Wouter's
workspaces post), there's a lot small 2000s cellphones in them.
Around the time I read Matt's post, we had finished one of the movies and putting 1+1
together, my brain brought back memories of
my Nokia 5310 phone. I loved that thing
:D
Some time ago, we were talking at work about programming languages, and I mentioned that I
dislike that both Python and C# keep adding more and more syntactic features, mostly aimed to
save on typing.
Someone starting with the language from scratch has a learn a lot more, and all for the
benefit of what? Instead of making the language more complex, get a better editor!
I
joked.
Because Emacs user. Get it? 🤡
ANYWAY, this post by Idstephens reminded me of that conversation at work. The work he describes in the post, a couple of pretty basic search and replace operations, can be done with Emacs in about the time and typing it takes to explain to Claude what you need to achieve.
I am now an AI user[1]. Despite a lot of reservations about it, I feel I
have no choice, and over time found a bunch of good use cases.
But sometimes I wonder if this isn't like that programming languages conversation.
"You save on so much typing!", but, is typing really what slows you down? Isn't it the
thinking about the requirements? And once you have things thought out a bit, writing them
usually takes very little time...
One case where I find AI useful is rubber ducking designs in chat, and exploring existing code
before making changes. Maybe things were different if I were doing a lot of "from
scratch" development 🤷
I read a bunch
of posts discussing whether
you feel OK letting people know
that you have a blog.
This is one of those cases were I wanted to write on the topic after reading a post, then
decided not to...when I saw a reply, figured I would...then decided not to again...when the
third post showed up, I took it as an omen. 🤣
In the second link above, Alex says:
Sometimes I wish my blog was even more private, disconnected from my IRL identity. There's a lot I would like to rant about around corporate America, but I dare not publicly when it's linked to my professional identity.
I had the same thought not only about work stuff (where I am quite vocal
anyway...[2]) but also about personal relationships, friendships,
dark thoughts?, whatever.
It is nice to have an outlet. I follow a couple of anonymous bloggers and sometimes I feel
like addressing something they bring up in their posts, but I really can't with my name in the
URL...
On the other hand, I like the idea that I stand by whatever I say here. I don't think too much
before blogging...that's not true. Let's see, sometimes I chew on topic for many days, even
weeks, before writing about it. Other times I just drop a post out of nowhere in 10
minutes.
But I don't stop to consider all the ramifications of how someone might interpret what I am
saying. The idea that what I put out there has my name attached is there, but
in a background kind of way. If halfway through writing something I feel iffy about putting it
out there, I just stop. I am bound of fuck up and/or have regrets at some point in the future.
I have felt in the past that a post was not "worth it" or not well articulated enough,
but no true regret. We'll see.
Kev, in his post, said I'm similar to David and Alex - I'm not forthcoming with the fact
that I have a blog, but I don't hide it either.
I used to kinda hide it, in particular in the first few months to a year. My first
consideration (now looks silly) was that I didn't have enough content. ⁉️
The second was that no one cared about what I had to say, but I was determined to keep writing
for the sake of it.
I only publicized the blog a couple times, in the Emacs subreddit, when posting a tutorial and
addressing some question from fellow users. About 3 or 4 times.
Something interesting happened a couple months later, when in a two week period I got a few
emails from complete strangers, and then had my P&B interview. I realized people were
reading. So I had a bit of a panic about publishing a "bad" post. In fact, I
didn't self-promote the interview
until quite a
bit later.
After a couple weeks went by, I realized that if I didn't keep blogging for the sake of it,
without thinking of the audience, my blog would die. Or worst, become something completely
different (because when I started I did not think of a potential audience).
Turns out that two week period was a fluke :) I don't get email that often in
general, and that is OK. I enjoy writing, always did, well into my early teens I wrote a lot.
I don't know why I stopped, but I do know I don't want to stop now.
And to FINALLY address the question, for the last 3 or 4 months I just
mention a post IRL, or if it is relevant to a conversation I bring it up or share a link.
(This one was long enough that it should have been its own post)
I really don't have anything to add to this one, I found it an insightful analysis of the differences between the American and Japanese comic book industries, and if I keep delaying I won't ever share it. It is a good read: American Comic Books VS Manga
In no way am I trying to advocate that American comic creators adopt the marathon style of production to make comics faster. You don't need to have 25 pages a week. That is crazy. We don't need to make everything a reality show death race just to be profitable.
What I want to look at is the way comics are distributed. That is the elephant in the road everyone is driving around
Good stuff. That's a cool blog that I don't see mentioned often enough, BTW.
Speaking of sharing, I got correspondence from pnppl where she
professed her love of mayonnaise. Which puts her in the right side of history.
But also, I found her Thoughts on AI post an
interesing read. Lots of measured takes, and made me re-think some of my opinions. Hope it
gets you neurons firing too.
(This recent piece on text editors is worth a read too. Yes, it is a well-trodden topic, but it is evergreen humor, and I found the post hilarious)
(Maybe I find it extra funny because I replied to her email in Emacs, I am writing this post in Emacs, I interact with Claude in Emacs, connect to IRC in Emacs...etc etc etc etc etc.)
That was the standard "three replies" format I used before, and the last two were just
"link shares".
Also, this was super long. Ooooops. I am scared of spellchecking it. In Emacs.