Use a (gitignored) file for interactive scripting. Instead of entering a command directly into the terminal, write it to a file first, and then run the file.

The core idea here is that if you’re a post doc, don’t just do what you’re told.

You have to balance the risk of accidentally sexually harassing someone against the benefits of asking people out—to you and to the people that you’re asking out. Most of the time, the benefits are larger.

Equal parts hilarious and quite serious. Applicable even for me, an aroallo. Will save this for grad school.

Living together with people is really hard. You will never, ever find people who share all your preferences in every detail. The more people you live with, the more conflicting wants and needs you have to navigate. Dealing with housemates is the finest school of virtue most readers of this blog will ever encounter. It requires the ability to compromise, to forgive, to assume good faith, to let go of what doesn’t matter, to advocate for yourself about what does, and to cultivate a finely honed sense of the ridiculous.

I don’t mind the ways in which my job is dysfunctional, because it matches the ways in which I myself am dysfunctional: specifically, my addiction to being useful.

But wanting to be a good person might be your most dangerous motivation.

If our movement is successful, it will be because of tens of thousands of people who all tried different things.”

I am not part of animal advocacy, but these are good rules to live by, nonetheless.

The middle manager that doesn’t perform any useful work is a fun stereotype, but I also think it’s a good target to aim for. The difference lies in what to do once one has rendered oneself redundant. A common response is to invent new work, ask for status reports, and add bureaucracy. A better response is to go back to working on technical problems. This keeps the manager’s skills fresh and gets them more respect from their reports. The manager should turn into a high-powered spare worker, rather than a paper-shuffler.

Dealing with burnout is sooooooooooooooo easy all you need to do is operate at 40% indefinitely and be kind of mad at yourself the whole time.

I have recently figured out two things that networking does, and I want to write up an explanation for my fellow autistics. I don’t think this is everything that networking does—my model of networking still has a lot of question marks in it—but I hope it’s helpful for everyone else who is like “but WHY is employment gated behind my ability to make small talk?”

Sometimes you have a problem, and you observe that other people don’t have this problem. The natural conclusion is that they have some kind of special skill or technique that they used to solve the problem. […] But, in reality, often people aren’t better than you at solving problems. They just never had the problem in the first place.

Part 2 of The Interfaces With Which We Think

Have you ever noticed how just before sharing your work, you suddenly spot all its flaws? This isn’t just a coincidence or bad luck. It’s your social brain kicking into gear.

Forester is a tool for authoring, exploring, and sharing scientific and mathematical hypertexts. It is your lab notebook, your journal, your blackboard, and the home of your lecture notes.

An intensely fascinating tool which has been finding more and more use among the mathematics community.

see also: https://sr.ht/~jonsterling/forester/

So, what makes a mentor? Someone who supports you. Someone who transforms you. Someone who helps you become who you’re meant to be. Sometimes they’re older and wiser. Sometimes they’re peers. Sometimes they’re your own students, teaching you courage.

On inboxes as application-specific todo lists.

Here’s a snapshot of what running OTIS looks like these days.

You don’t need anyone’s permission to learn skills or build things any more.

Brought up in the context of teaching young people, but making sure people develop self-agency is an important part of building any self-sustaining team.