Links and Notes - April 1st 2021

Managing headings

With the daily posting going pretty strong right now, I've had several moments where I've tried to remember if any of the notes I'm making are the same as what I've already done. Or even connected for that matter. This prompted me to do some quick math where if I keep writing 3 to 5 headings a day I'm going to cover anywhere between 1000 and 1800 of them.

That's a lot. Of course, I'm not sure if I'll even stick with this habit yet so maybe I'm approaching this prematurely. But at the same time, it's a real challenge. How to ensure I don't re-write something I wrote a while back. I sense that to start with, a simple grep command on the folder where I keep my published writings may very well make sense.

I wonder how Ben Thompson manages this with his blog

Dota: Dragon's blood and effects on the game

Despite the gallant efforts of the team to create an anime that might generate interest in Dota, it seems entirely likely that it hasn't worked out. I could be wrong, but looking at the charts on steam charts, the stats for the past month look the same. The stats for all time continues to show a slow but gradual decline.

I don't think an anime is going to be the crowd bringer that Valve hoped it would be. I could be wrong, I hope I am. Valve has put a huge amount of effort into making the game more accessible; new tutorials, a revamped coaching system and new game modes all make an extremely tough game feel more welcoming.

But the new people just aren't there. Makes me sad. Dota is an exceptionally deep and engaging game. I think Valve needs to put its efforts elsewhere so that the beauty of the game itself can be appreciated more fully.

April fools is here

Annnnnd for once, it seems to be crickets from the tech companies. Or maybe I'm just from the wrong timezone. What used to be a dorky celebration by tech companies every year just became a cultural mess eventually as everyone wanted to participate in it with most attempts falling flat. And when that happens, it just becomes annoying.

Voltswagen anyone?

Subtle messaging in American media

Over the past few weeks there have been conversations on American media's role in making China seem like a bogeyman. This isn't to say China is without fault; I'm not wasting any breath praising them for not being invaders of countries around the world^[1]. With the rise of anti asian sentiment, particularly eastern Asian, people have also been sharing the media's role in cresqating this fear. The headlines always saying to be afraid. Gone are the yellow skins and the slanted eyes. But in comes the scary looking red dragon's claw and the ominous shadows marching forth to steal your way of life.

I don't have much to say on the correctness of those images. I'm not educated enough. BUT! I will say that looking into it makes for a fascinating look at how messaging is done, how certain ideologies are codified. This poked out while reading an article on supply chains and the Suez Canal trouble.

The European Union and India have clamped down on vaccine exports, disrupting the world’s efforts to get jabs into arms.

I don't have comments on the full article, but this line was so interesting. "clamped down", "disrupting the world's efforts". That is such a careless take on the whole thing. It just ignores the fact that America is one of the countries that blocked licensing of the vaccine tech and that America isn't sharing what they have with the rest of the world either. Which is exactly what India especially, was doing.

So there. American media and their subtle messaging. Blink and you might miss it. But it never misses a chance to say "the scary others".

Job application to Buffer

Came across this while organizing email today. Man. The memories of this. I still have a pending essay that needs to be written called "The coder in the bus" that shares the journey to Buffer. It was a messy time, and I put my heart and soul into making this job happen. I'm so glad it worked out. 5 years in and I don't want to go anywhere else.

Thought I'd share the covering letter (this was auto generated from a form I filled). A lot has changed around the hiring, but this mail is still relevant in some ways. And it's definitely an item for the curious ones.

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Previous Links and notes (March 31st)

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Posted on April 01 2021 by Adnan Issadeen