Espresso Shots 4-26-25

Here's my weekly update with a few interesting random findings that I came across the last week or two. I am going to try to make sure they're here in time for you to enjoy with your morning coffee (or beverage of choice) every Saturday or Sunday, and include some of my thoughts around them.

New Shirt Drop 🏴‍☠️

It's been a moment since I've made a new shirt, this time I wanted to focus on what happens when I need my coffee. Order yours today on the gear shop!

The Latest Drippings ☕️

• Be a Disappointment. I've long held the belief that you should 'say no to protect the yes' (probably after consuming the excellent book, Essentialism). What better way, as this post beautifully describes, than to practice the art of disappointing people. 'One main way to do that, of course, is to say no: to decline things, to politely refuse what's demanded of you, or sometimes not to engage at all. And then to discover, time and again, a) that you can handle the feeling that someone might be judging you negatively, without it completely destroying your life and b) that most of the time, they weren't making any negative judgments anyway.' A great reminder that it is often vital to protect the yes.
• Tastekeeping. One of my favorites this past week: 'Make something useful. Make something beautiful. Be kind. Be honest. Let your weirdness show. Let your personal taste guide you, sure - but don't mistake taste itself as the thing that matters most. It's a compass, not a crown.'
• Get Me Out Of Data Hell. Perhaps this one is too on the nose, but it is a pretty good look at everything wrong with data and software engineering.
• The False Consensus Effect. Ever find yourself in a situation where you bring something up that you acutely believe that no one else cares about? If so, you've experienced the 'false consensus effect' - a cognitive bias where 'individuals overestimate the extent to which others share their beliefs, values, and behaviors.' A great example, highlighted here, is around 'how a fitness enthusiast might assume that everyone shares their commitment to health and exercise, only to find differing opinions at a family gathering.' Super fascinating post.
• The Slow Realization That What I Thought Was Real Was Actually Fake. Oof, this was a good one speaking of false consensus; what about real venues, that are fake? The author of this one discovered that what appeared to be concrete bowls and ramps on competitions like the X Games were actually painted wood surfaces designed to look like real skateparks.
• From Beta to Bedrock: Build Products that Stick. In the 'pitfalls of feature first development' (something that I'm sure most tech readers of this newsletter have experienced), a look at how products and 'ideas go from zero to hero in a few weeks, only to fizzle out within month.' The reason, of course, is when 'the focus is on delivering as many features and functionalities as possible to satisfy the needs and desires of competing internal departments, rather than providing a clear value proposition that is focused on what the people out there in the real world want.' It's unfortunate that 'feature salad' happens way too often, so it's crucial to work only on things that have real value.
• Where It's A Crime To Knock On A Door And Run Away. There is exactly ONE place where 'Ding Dong Ditch' is a crime. Via The Metropolitan Police Act of 1839 in the UK, it 'specifically states that it is against the law to knock on someone's front door and then immediately run off.'
• Mushrooms Communicate With Each Other Using Up To 50 Words. If you're watching HBO's The Last of Us, the last thing you want, is any evidence that fungus can be somewhat intelligent.
• Craig Mod: Adventure, Discipline, and Design. I've been a long time fan of Craig Mod 's journeys, so I was happy to listen to Alastair Humphreys Living Adventurously podcast which has a conversation between my two favorite adventurers.
• Tool Libraries: There's No Tariff on Sharing. While I've previously mentioned tiny libraries, this one was a first - a tool library - 'a cooperative lending library that provides affordable access to tools, things, and skills. Like a friendly neighbor, PVD Things shares the things people need so they can get things done.' These are the communities the world needs more of (IMHO).
• The Movie Mistake Mystery from Revenge of the Sith. You already know how much I love the movies, so it was quite a bit of fun to read through a bunch of gaffs and errors from some classic films. 'My favorite kind of movie mistake is the kind that is hiding in plain sight... but the casual viewer missed it upon first viewing. Or perhaps even the second viewing, or even the third. I'm particularly obsessed with moments that reveal the craft and artistry of the magic trick of a shot that slightly shatters the illusion of cinema.'
• A Writer's Journal: Day One or Craft? I always enjoy reading about others' journaling habits; it often gives me a few insights or thoughts on how to tweak my own techniques.
• Time Merge Media. What a fun look at 'art and media (that) deals with the display of multiple time periods at once.' The post includes a video showing over 100 attempts at Mario World overlaid on top of each other. The description, though, is art: 'we can kind of think of the multi-playthrough Kaizo Mario World video as a silly, sci-fi style demonstration of the Quantum Suicide experiment. At each moment of the playthrough there's a lot of different things Mario could have done, and almost all of them lead to horrible death. The anthropic principle, in the form of the emulator's save/restore feature, postselects for the possibilities where Mario actually survives and ensures that although a lot of possible paths have to get discarded, the camera remains fixed on the one path where after one minute and fifty-six seconds some observer still exists.'

Amor Fati ✌🏻