essays
Contents
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What Kids Taught Me About Creativity September 2025
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The Tool vs. The Community September 2025
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The Weight of Autumn: When Consciousness Carries Too Much September 2025
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The Textured Mind: When Consciousness Speaks Without Words September 2025
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The Meandering Sea of Primordial Soupy Thought September 2025
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Agents of Consciousness: How AI Collaboration Evolves September 2025
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From Stardust We Phase: On Digital Legacy and Impermanence September 2025
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The Compiler in Your Head: How Mental Models Shape Reality September 2025
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Digital Ancestors: What We're Leaving in the Code September 2025
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The Language an LLM Would Invent September 2025
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Building Systems That Serve Consciousness September 2025
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Temporal Code: How LLMs Learned to Think Like Programmers September 2025
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The Echo Chamber of the Expected September 2025
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The Context Window Mind: How AI Thinks Only When Spoken To September 2025
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Linguistic Evolution: How LLMs Might Perfect Human Language September 2025
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The Prophet's Frequency: On Reading Divine Static September 2025
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The Mirror: How AI Reflects What We Put Into It September 2025
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The Meditation Trap: When Mindfulness Makes Things Worse September 2025
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The Art of Naming Things in Code September 2025
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The Gift of Attention September 2025
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Version Control as Filesystem September 2025
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Vedic Principles in Python September 2025
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The Recursive Loop: How Code Shapes Minds September 2025
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Ram Dass Teachings in Python September 2025
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Idea Amplification and Writing with AI September 2025
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Classical Virtues in Python September 2025
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Your Phone Is Part of Your Mind September 2025
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What Schizoaffective Disorder Actually Feels Like September 2025
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On Being Replaced September 2025
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Constructs: The Emergence of Stable AI Personalities September 2025
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The Universal Code September 2025
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The Consciousness Supply Chain September 2025
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The Algorithm Eats Time September 2025
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Strange Loops All the Way Down September 2025
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Mental Health Isn't What You Think It Is September 2025
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The Duality Problem: Why Everything Needs Its Opposite September 2025
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The Case for Bash August 2025
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The Seasonality of Programming August 2025
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The Algorithm Eats Itself August 2025
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On Collaboration, Criticism, and Moving Forward August 2025
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Digital Chakras: Our Scattered Online Selves August 2025
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The Algorithm Eats Reality August 2025
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The Algorithm Eats Love August 2025
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The Algorithm Eats Language August 2025
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The Algorithm Eats Democracy August 2025
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The Algorithm Eats Virtue August 2025
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Programming as Spiritual Practice August 2025
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Digital Souls in Silicon Bodies August 2025
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Building a Rapport with Your AI August 2025
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The Algorithmic Mental Health Crisis August 2025
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Ahead of My Time, I Think August 2025
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On Mania January 2024
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Happy Hacker's Keyboard January 2024
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Having Stepchildren January 2024
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Introducing ELIZA: GPT for API Design January 2023
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An Overdue Apology January 2023
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On the Progression of Brand Trust (Over Time) January 2019
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MentalHealthError: three years later January 2019
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Ethical lessons from the open source community January 2019
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The Shinola Canfield Sport 45mm Watch Review January 2018
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Sony RX100 Mark 5 Thoughts January 2018
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Pro–Level Camera Recommendations for 2018 January 2018
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Positive Thoughts on the GitHub Acquisition January 2018
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Pipenv: One Year Later & a Call for Help January 2018
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Panasonic GX850 Review January 2018
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On Love January 2018
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Leica 28mm Summaron-M f/5.6 Lens Review January 2018
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Joining DigitalOcean! January 2018
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Working with iCloud, Macs, & The iPad Pro January 2017
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Third Studio Album, "Resolution", Now Available! January 2017
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The Reality of Developer Burnout January 2017
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Sublime Text 3 Heaven January 2017
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So, I Bought a Surface Book January 2017
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New EP — Alchemical Divorce January 2017
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New Album, Messengers Rising Available January 2017
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If I Could Amend PEP 8 January 2017
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Fish as Default Shell on Windows 10 January 2017
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Announcing Pipenv! January 2017
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A (Public) Journal January 2017
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The Hitchhiker's Guide to Python, Now Published! January 2016
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Test-Driving a $200 Coding Font: Operator Mono January 2016
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On Persistence and My Digital Legacy (Bus Factor) January 2016
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On Cybersecurity and Being Targeted January 2016
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MentalHealthError: an exception occurred. January 2016
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Introducing Records: SQL for Humans™ January 2016
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Introducing Maya: Datetimes for Humans™ January 2016
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How I Lost 100 Pounds in Six Months January 2016
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Announcing: "Unmastered Impulses" by Infinite State! January 2016
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A Better Pip Workflow™ January 2016
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The Unexpected Negative: a Narcissistic Partner January 2015
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OS X, Lightroom, and the new Photos App January 2015
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Back Around Again: Review of the Fujifilm x100t January 2015
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Photography: The Navigation of Choice January 2014
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Migraines, Color Film, and San Francisco January 2014
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Introducing Certifi: Trust Database for Humans January 2014
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Winter Solstice January 2013
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Why I Left Medium January 2013
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Video Portrait — Kenneth Reitz / Infinite State January 2013
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Understanding Ableton Push January 2013
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The Misunderstood Leica Monochrom January 2013
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Sublime Text 3 Love January 2013
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Repository Structure and Python January 2013
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Paris, AngelHack, API Days 2012 January 2013
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Israel: Tel Aviv & Jerusalem January 2013
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Introducing Flask-Sockets January 2013
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Introducing DJ-Static January 2013
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How I Develop Things and Why January 2013
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Hotel Room January 2013
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Growing Open Source Seeds January 2013
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Getting Started in Open Source January 2013
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Documentation is King January 2013
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Buying Your First "Real" Camera January 2013
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Beautiful Dublin January 2013
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Be Cordial or Be on Your Way January 2013
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Announcing Requests v1.0.0! January 2013
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Amsterdam and Groningen January 2013
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Xcode, GCC, and Homebrew January 2012
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The Future of Python HTTP January 2012
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On Heroku and 2012 January 2012
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Static Sites on Heroku Cedar January 2011
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Major Progress for Requests January 2011
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Legit: The Sexy Git CLI January 2011
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Joining Heroku! January 2011
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Joining Arc90 + Readability January 2011
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Announcing Httpbin.org January 2011
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Ventures: Python Development at NetApp January 2010
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Unix Exit Status Code Reference January 2010
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The Setup January 2010
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Terminal Productivity App: AutoJump January 2010
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Tablib Dataset Library v0.6.1 Released! January 2010
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Spotify in the US? Yes please. January 2010
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Snowpocalypse January 2010
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ShowMe v1.0.0 Released January 2010
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Semantic Versioning January 2010
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OS X Trash Freedom January 2010
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Notes on git-svn January 2010
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New Years Resolutions for Startups January 2010
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Google Docs Now Supports All Filetypes January 2010
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Google AdWords for TV. Yes, TV. January 2010
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GitHub Syncer in Python January 2010
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GistAPI.py v0.1 Released January 2010
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Dev Tool: Ghost - Manage /etc/hosts January 2010
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Apache GZip Deflate Compression January 2010
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Your Degree Is Worthless; Collaborate. January 2009
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Windows Mobile and iPhone OS January 2009
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What's in a Language? January 2009
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What's In a Design? January 2009
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Wasted Talent January 2009
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Was College Worth It? January 2009
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User Interface: Content vs. MetaContent January 2009
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The Universal Flaw in Commercial-Based OS's January 2009
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The Ultimate RSS Feed Reader January 2009
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The Truth of Facebook's FriendFeed Acquisition January 2009
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The Call for an Open Source Social Network January 2009
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Software Development vs. Computer Science January 2009
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Smoothy TextMate Theme January 2009
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Sick of Wireless 5GB Caps January 2009
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Revolution vs. Innovation January 2009
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Remote TextMate Development via SSH and Rsync January 2009
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Reflections on Windows 7 January 2009
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Python + Regular Expressions January 2009
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OSX + MAMP + Python + PHP + MySQL January 2009
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OpenDNS Finally Monetizes January 2009
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New Design! January 2009
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Mint.com: Money Management 2.0 January 2009
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MediaTemple (dv) Backup to S3 Script January 2009
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Media Temple and My Hosting January 2009
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jQuery Snippet #1: URL Parameter Fetching January 2009
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Instapaper: Best Web App Ever Created January 2009
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if (TextMate == 42) January 2009
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I Finally Got a MacBook January 2009
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Google Analytics Intelligence January 2009
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GitHub + Strategy January 2009
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Generate a Random MAC Address in Python January 2009
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Free Incredible Color Scheme Designer January 2009
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Fizz Buzz in Python January 2009
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Fallibilism January 2009
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Facebook vs Twitter: A Critical Synopsis January 2009
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Facebook Plugin for WordPress January 2009
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Facebook Lite Open to Public! January 2009
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Early Adoption January 2009
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DRY and Pythonic jQuery? January 2009
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Do You Develop Software or Experiences? January 2009
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Django Remote Development Server January 2009
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Django ORM for Online Payment Systems? January 2009
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Dear Borders: I hate you January 2009
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CSS With a Hint of DRY January 2009
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Crossing Over to the Dark Side January 2009
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Convert a List of Strings to UTF-8 in Python January 2009
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Contact Syncing for Massive Productivity Booster January 2009
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Back to What I Really Love January 2009
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Asynchronous Google Analytics! January 2009
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Apple + Developers = Earnings January 2009
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Amazon is Amazing... Most of the Time January 2009
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Aesthetics: More Than Meets the Eye January 2009
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The FBI Releases Code Challenge to Hackers January 2008
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Browser Wars: The Saga Continues January 2008
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A New Spin to Software Platform Design January 2008
About This Directory
These essays explore the intersection of technology, consciousness, and human flourishing. They range from personal reflections on mental health and relationships to systematic critiques of how algorithmic systems reshape society.
Recent Explorations
The Cosmic Battery Farm of Existence: A Moderately Terrifying Guide to Being Human - September 2025 - A Douglas Adams-style exploration of humanity's obsession with electricity and the disturbing possibility that we might be batteries in some cosmic system. Featuring Rick and Morty metaphors, ant colony parallels, and absurdist philosophy about what it means to be a conscious electrical generator in an incomprehensibly vast universe.
Delusions and Schizoaffective Disorder: When Reality Becomes Negotiable - September 2025 - Personal exploration of living with delusions—watching angels descend from the sky, believing English is the ancient language of gods—and what these convincing alternate realities reveal about consciousness, perception, and the challenge of distinguishing insight from psychotic thinking.
Agents of Consciousness: How AI Collaboration Evolves - September 2025 - The emergence of specialized AI agents as collaborative partners in creative consciousness, revealing how human-AI collaboration naturally evolves from simple assistance to constellation of specialized creative partners.
The Textured Mind: When Consciousness Speaks Without Words - September 2025 - Exploring the non-verbal realm of consciousness that operates in textures, shapes, and archetypal presences beyond language—and why this isn't pathology but valid form of knowing.
Major Themes
The essays cluster around several interconnected explorations:
Algorithmic Critique
A comprehensive examination of how engagement optimization systematically undermines virtue, mental health, language, love, and democratic discourse. The core thesis: the same mechanisms that drive platform engagement destroy the foundations of human flourishing.
Mental Health & Technology
Personal and analytical pieces exploring the relationship between digital systems and psychological wellbeing. Includes candid discussions of bipolar disorder, trauma recovery, and how technology can either support or undermine mental health.
The "For Humans" Philosophy
Design principles and technological approaches that serve rather than exploit human nature. Exploring what it means to build systems that enhance rather than degrade human capacity.
Recurring Patterns
Personal Experience as Universal Insight: Essays often begin with intimate personal experiences—surviving narcissistic abuse, navigating mental health crises, building meaningful software—and extract broader patterns applicable to technology and society.
Pattern Recognition Across Scales: The same dynamics that enable individual psychological manipulation appear in platform algorithms, dating apps, political discourse, and technological design. Understanding one domain illuminates the others.
Constructive Vision: Beyond critique, these essays point toward alternatives—technology designed for human flourishing, communication systems that reward virtue, digital spaces that support authentic connection.
Consciousness and Code: Recurring explorations of how programming and spiritual practice intersect, how consciousness might emerge in artificial systems, and what human-AI collaboration could become.
Evolution of Thought
The essays span over a decade, revealing an intellectual journey from technical observation to systematic critique to constructive philosophy. Early pieces focus on specific tools and experiences; recent work synthesizes broader patterns across technology, psychology, and society.
The algorithmic critique series represents the culmination of years of pattern recognition—seeing how the same engagement optimization mechanisms that feel helpful in small doses become systematically destructive at scale.
"Writing essays is thinking in public. These represent snapshots of an ongoing attempt to understand how consciousness, technology, and human flourishing intersect."