Few things annoy me more than the 5 minute convo followed by “let’s connect on LinkedIn”
I grew even more skeptical over the past year when a VC dude connected to me (during a conversation) and then later removed me. No harm done as we barely know each other. But it caused an even stronger distaste for that impulse.
What an outrageously cool and informative website. Love it.
I'm back to mostly wearing analog watches. Had an Apple Watch on my wrist for quite a long time, but something about analog appeals once more. No smartwatch beats an analog in the style department, and I see analog everywhere around me ('burbs of NYC)
Right there with you on unexpected tear-stream moments, fears, but also all those happy moments you can't anticipate.
In past year I've watched my older (8) start competing on a cheerleading team. Immense tear-streaming joy watching her light up in front of a crowd and build confidence. I was immediately overcome the first time and always feel a strong swell of emotion.
Dad of 2 girls. 8 and 4. Not saying that life couldn’t have been equally great without them, but they are amazing. Rewired me in best way possible: to appreciate non-work life as much as anything else (perhaps more).
The podcast I listened to the most: Dithering. Primary reason? 15 mins. Sometimes listened to Stratechery Interviews if/when the guest intrigued me outside of the Stratechery ecosystem.
My problem is part style, and part content. Stratechery reads like it's written to be narrated - rather than exist first as writing. There's verbosity, pauses, long sentences, etc. And then you listen to the narration it makes sense.
But that complexity makes reading harder. Not saying everything needs to be 5th-grade-level, but complexity isn't required. Paste a Stratechery article into Hemingway Editor to visualize my point.
The stats below:
Readibility - Post-Graduate (aim for 9)
26 of 44 sentences very hard to read
8 of 88 sentences hard to read
31 weakeners
6 words with simpler alternatives
What a chore to cover, and that's without commenting on the ideas/concepts in the content.
I'm sure some folks like this writing style but I don't. And try hard to write my newsletter and other prose with far less complexity.
I don't think of Show HN as quite the same. Nor Ask HN. I know that otherwise there is plenty of "advertising" within posts/comments/etc.
Where I think the argument that it's not social falls down is aligned with some of your comments. The feeds, upvotes, downvotes, etc. Let's not forget the spam.
Those mechanisms are pervasive across many social platforms, so why are they so different here? Don't think they are.
I assume parents. Not actual schools. Same situation here on East Coast. School uses ParentSquare but so much coordination is over iMesssage and WhatsApp.
I'm probably not alone in this: feel caught (somewhat) in a vicious cycle where I favorite many GenAI posts thinking I'll come back to comments and posts to learn and build more AI skills.
That happens, but the system is not balanced. Way more saving than practical use, similar to other platform like the socials where you save posts for ... what?
I'm also thinking that I could use AI to summarize all this AI stuff! How fitting.
Curious how many folks subscribe to external calendar feeds? My school system publishes a calendar feed. I don’t see any for her various other activities, all with their own apps and ways of organization (or not).
Right now I feed everything to one shared Google account and then have AI do work on invites, reminders, etc.
That said, my view is now (not novel, or unique) that I am not the customer in so many cases. Any app or platform with the slightest hint of an advertising end-game restructures my usage as the product.
The customer is instead the sender (or advertiser). So, I can't expect ideal app behavior and usage based on my intentions because I'm sold (as the product) rather than the other way around.
Maybe a cynical view, and there are exceptions, but don't think I'm far off.
Spot on perfect. I see this too often and not just in tech.