Dear Twitter & Facebook

I think it’s over. Let me address you individually:

Facebook – Your interface in the last year has gone from bad to worse. While I understand that you arguably set the stage for the Apple’s AppStore, you kind of sucked along the way. Not to mention the annoying ads, the crap content that I don’t care to see, and the other content that I wish I hadn’t.

Facebook seems to be a great way for people who aren’t too internets-savvy to post messages to each other and whatnot. And for that, it’s a great application. Most of the people I’m really interested in rely on other applications to keep themselves broadcasted, or I just know them in person. Either way, you’re pretty useless to me now.

Twitter – I joined Twitter a little over a year ago, and have put out almost 10,000 messages. Let’s round up and say that’s 500 days. That’s 20 tweets a day. That’s a lot of tweets. Further, I’ve probably followed an average of 70 people during that time, who, let’s say, tweet on average 25% as much as I do. That’s 70 * 5, or 350 tweets read a day.

That’s a lot of time. A lot of thoughts put into Twitter, when most of the time, the stuff being discussed isn’t only irrelevant, it’s dumb. If I follow you on Twitter, I think you’re bright, so don’t take this the wrong way, but I deal with creationists and global warming deniers and staunch conservatives. The futility of the arguments is cleverly worded, “you can’t post over 140 characters!” Really, they mean you can’t make any cogent arguments over Twitter, because that would require more than 1.5 sentences.

I thought Twitter was cool when it was still having growing problems and most people weren’t on it, but now it’s pretty popular, and pretty useless. The signal to noise ratio has gone negative. There’s no solution to it, and, really, it wastes way too much of my time nowadays.

I’m going to keep the account, primarily because I own the associated domain, but also because people can reach me that way should they need to. Sara likes to DM me over Twitter just because it’s a free text message. However, I’m not posting there anymore I don’t think.

I’m going to see how this whole family/blogging/reading/gaming/coding thing works out, sans the Twitter and Facebook interference. I’ll let you know how that goes.

Peace!

PS: I’m still active on the internets, it turns out. I keep a blog here & Half a Hundred, I post on Not Rocket Surgery, I help run Locked Envelope, I keep my plugins on GitHub, and I read all of your blogs with Google Reader (and share a ton).

Reason-based parenting

Parents have different motivations for how they raise their kids. Some value respect, and want their kids to respect them. Some value friendship, and want their kids to be their friends. Some value discipline, and want their kids to be disciplined. Most parents are a little bit of X and a little more of Y with a touch of Z for the different values.

I’m the same way, undoubtedly. I want my kids to be loyal, caring, and rational. To this end, I’ll show them loyalty like my parents did, and try to push them to help other people the way I’d like to, and prod them to ask critical questions about ideas that come before them.

I don’t care about respect. I want my kids to accept what I say because it makes sense and is reasoned, and not because they think I’ve got divine knowledge or authority. I want them to try to prove me wrong, because it’ll help develop their critical thinking skills.

Too many parents I know consider questioning to be an act of rebellion, to be “talking back.” That’s bullshit. It’s the kid showing a need to think, and if you just smack it down and tell them to shut up, they won’t learn anything.

There are lots of good kids out there who did everything their parents wanted, and lots of them turned into good adults. The rebellious kids are the ones who make a difference.

No more technical posts!

I’ve started a new blog, Not Rocket Surgery.

I’m trying to push @meezy, @donkeyhighway, and @eshea to start posting there, and maybe a few others if they’d get online and stop moving and whatnot. Hint hint.

Anyways, I think this is a good way to separate my personal posts (religion, politics, parenting, kids, wife, blah) from my technical posts, because the audiences are generally distinct.

So, if you like Ruby or Rails or Java or Linux or whatever, head over there.

Love your Tools

I was browsing Facebook today, and a buddy linked a spec comparison sheet, here. It compares Apple products to similar hardware from other manufacturers, and shows how much money you can save with other companies (an HP-hardware comparable laptop is $1700 less than a Macbook Pro).

This is the same as comparing two cars on their horsepower. It’s neglecting what’s important: tools that you use a lot, you should love. There’s not enough time to spend screwing around with shitty tools.

If you drive a lot during the day, honestly, why *wouldn’t* you try to get a car you love? You’re spending lots of time with it. Why would you put yourself in a shitty situation for several hours a day, just to save a few bucks?

I easily spend 100 hours a week with a computer. Why shouldn’t I buy one I love, that doesn’t make me screw around with things like drivers, that just works? It’s got everything I want: a unix backed and pretty UI that I can plug a camera into and import photos without having to think.

I keep a laptop for about 2 years, so at 100 hours a week for 104 weeks, that’s 10,400 hours. 433 days that I’ll be with something over 2 years. I’d be an idiot not to buy something that I’ll enjoy for that time.

Don’t be stupid; buy tools you love.

New Year’s Resolutions are bork

I think if there’s something you want to do, and you wait until the new year to do it, it isn’t very important. There’s a reason that most resolutions aren’t kept – they don’t matter enough to maintain a sense of urgency around them.

If there’s something that bothers you, change it now.

I think days provide much better opportunities for resolutions. If you don’t like how you handled things yesterday, today you can start working to fix it. Obviously, you can’t fix it yesterday.

In short, if you want to lose weight, just start doing it (I realize this is published late, but applies nonetheless). If you want to read more, go buy a book, don’t wait to read by light of fireworks. If you want to eat healthier, don’t stop by McDonald’s on the way home.

Don’t put off things for New Years. Generally, the resolutions are too big to chew, and too distant to realize progress. Think small.