BC FOR LATER READ
Saved by @Alex1Powell

Alright, 1 hour worth of thoughts on:

Spatial metaphors for human systems

for @threadapalooza

 1/ Okay, let's start with BRIDGES!

(first that came to mind)

This is a common human system metaphor, people talking about bridging between cultures or perspectives, or communities/individuals.
2/ In fact it's the metaphor @vgr used in the prompt he gave me for @threadapalooza last year, in a thread I never finished:

https://t.co/3hjZmfEz5c
3/ The bridge metaphor is kind of an obvious one: forging some kind of translation connection between two different perspectives.

It's a kinda limited connection though. In fact, the word "translation", in the context of mathematics, means "to move across" which matches bridge
4/ So a bridge, as a metaphor, is a way to move one perspective across to another. But let's contrast that with the metaphor of "depth perception", where the two perspectives are integrated into a larger whole.

Way harder than bridging, & more potent.

https://t.co/bM2qWCrona
5/ Bridging between two perspectives seems to me like a bit of a kind of "peace" opposite of war. You've got civility, and not total difference. And it's a necessary first step. But it's only barely creating something new.

https://t.co/ibaYBxz47w
6/ The depth perception metaphor continues to blow my mind and feels really important to understanding the value of difference.
7/ I recall a convo with @rjgoodin a few years ago where we were talking about people valuing "diversity", and the sense in which it has intrinsic value, not just market value (another metaphor btw)

ie it's valuable not just because people want it

https://t.co/kZ25LvaGvY
8/ However, the same valuable potential energy that's available in diversity can be destructive if there's more of it than can be effectively integrated.

If you plugged a thousand cameras into your brain, you'd go crazy before you could integrate all those perspectives.
9/ A natural metaphor for this is that difference in perspective is like nuclear fission energy:

you need a minimum critical mass to get anything interesting to happen at all, but then if you have more than that... you get an explosive bomb that's hard to control
10/ More diversity, in this sense, isn't simply better. So there needs to be some equivalent of the nuclear control rods that govern the critical mass and maintain the capacity for safe dialogue, to avoid explosions.

This can take many forms. But what even is governance?
11/ Hmmm... "govern". Do ppl know about flyball governors? Super cool device that automatically regulates the speed of engines by turning increased speed into grav potential energy + centrifugal force that in turn slows the spinning. Great metaphor for self-governing systems.
12/ By contrast, a lot human groups have positive feedback loops around regulating group conflict and tension. As the thing speeds up, you get pulled to the outside where it's harder to hold on!
13/ And of course when people go flying they then end up traumatized and guarded in future interactions.

The other thing that's cool about the flyball governor is that the potential energy that's stored automatically gets used to restore speed if the engine power drops 😮
14/ Anyway, the point of talking about the flyball governor, aside from "it's super cool!" is to point at how governance can be something that's built into the system rather than tacked on top, and it NEEDS to be something that can regulate in both directions, otherwise WHOOPS
15/ One metaphor I've heard people use for regulating group dynamics is of a cell membrane

(what's my prompt again? "Spatial metaphors for human systems" ...idk what counts as spatial - everything's pretty spatial to me. I guess I'll avoid computer stuff tho—doing great so far)
15.....? welp this is its own thread now:

(about 10 tweets - it'll link back here at the bottom so you can navigate)

https://t.co/kxZuyBENg6
16/ ...six minutes left, what else is important?

I better say something about hierarchy. Hierarchy, as the assymetric organization of things into different functional levels, is a vital part of this beautiful fractal universe.

It can breed power abuses, but so can any context.
17/ Trees are hierarchical in organizing how the roots connect to the branches and out to the leaves. There are also of course rhizomes or weird wandery cacti that don't have a clear hierarchy, but even these have cellular hierarchy.

This is called a functional hierarchy.
18/ The "can't see the forest for the trees" metaphor is another example of hierarchy, in this case more in terms of abstraction. Trees are one level of abstraction, one level of analysis, forest is another. Up higher is maybe a whole biome or climate.
19/ Anyway, hierarchy is basically necessary for organizing large structures, but it doesn't have to be command hierarchy, and it doesn't even have to be *centralized* hierarchy!

Your brain has parallel hierarchies where each level has many connections both up and down.
20/ Of course the default result if you try to apply that to a human system is a shitshow—matrix organizations are kind of an example of such an attempt, as is this message that happened at Spotify.

https://t.co/oi3zr0U65s
21/ I think we can do it though, and that's part of my vision outlined in this thread 👇

But it'll require a totally different capacity for each node to do self-authored prioritization, as well as way better communication than most companies have.

https://t.co/Z7djNRxgOx
....fin?

It's been a little over an hour but I wanted to finish my initial thoughts. I think I can keep going, but I don't want to make that into homework for myself.

This has been a ton of fun and I want to find ways to do it more.

More from For later read

\U0001f1fa\U0001f1f8 Jules \U0001f1fa\U0001f1f8
🇺🇸 Jules 🇺🇸...
@mayweliveasONE
2021 Predictions‼️

Made by James Howard Kunstler

👇🏻👀

Kunstler is said to be one of the best thinkers and authors of our modern era. He’s well known as an expert in energy economics, among other topics.

He is NOT a fan of Trump which makes his predictions even more interesting.

1) The election is re-adjudicated, fraud subtracted from the tally, and President Trump is declared the winner.

2) The mail-in vote for the Georgia Senate seat runoff is disqualified as systematic fraud is revealed. Stacy Abrams is indicted for organizing the fraud.

3) A number of political celebrities, DC swamp rats, K-Street hustlers, media figures, and tech company executives are arrested and charged with serious crimes around election fraud.

4) The CIA is purged and reduced to a strictly analytical role for advising the executive.
FOR LATER READ
Cory Doctorow #BLM
Cory Doctorow #BLM
@doctorow
After the 9/11 attacks, airlines and public buildings adopted a flurry of "security" measures, like taking away pen-knives from fliers or requiring visitors to office buildings to be photographed or present a driver's license.

1/


Bruce Schneier's seminal 2003 "Beyond Fear" called these measures: #securitytheater.

Schneier pointed out that these measures would be easy to circumvent, and were thus providing only the comforting appearance of security - not security

Security theater is worse than nothing. Security theater gives people the false impression that their risks have been mitigated, when actually things are just as dangerous.

After al, if you know that danger exists, you can take some steps to mitigate or avoid it.

3/

But if you have the false impression that you've been made safer, you might unwittingly engage in risky behavior.

4/

Like, if you know your car's brakes are flaky, you might nurse the car along to the mechanic at low speed on side-streets.

But if you don't know about the brakes, you're apt to discover their flaws at 75mph on the freeway.

5/
FOR LATER READ
Advertisement
Enigma
Enigma
@ainittomai
I'll not leave Riddlersworld. But I'll redefine the notion of riddler. A riddler is a person who doesn't know about specific dates and even about dates in general such as the year things will happen. He only knows, in general, some of the events that will take place,... 1/*

a kind of general history, a plot. In this sense continuing in Riddlersworld goes through an approach of minimums, taking riddlers as what gives an outline of some of the events that could happen at an always unknown date. 2/*

Sure, riddlers intend to convey the idea that they do know the dates, or at least the year, but they don’t know them. 3/*


Take 2020 as an example. At this point of the year you can make so many ad hoc statements as you like, but guys, 2020 clearly meant year 2020. 2020 was the year of the visible "outcomes". 4/*


On November 4, 2019 Mr Pool suggested that outcome of action Plan B is what you have been waiting = price increase. It should have happened in November and December 2020, as Plan B ended on November 7, so the outcome should be those months. 5/*
FOR LATER READ
GAVNet
GAVNet
@GAValueNetwork
Daily Bookmarks to GAVNet 02/11/2021
FOR LATER READ
Jared Rubin
Jared Rubin
@jaredcrubin
Excited we finally have a draft of this paper, which attempts to provide a 'unifying theory' of the long economic divergence between the Middle East & Western Europe

As we see it, there are 3 recent theories that hit on important aspects of the divergence...

1/


One set of theories focus on the legitimating power of Islam (Rubin, @prof_ahmetkuru, Platteau). This gave religious clerics greater power, which pulled political resources away form those encouraging economic development

But these theories leave some questions unanswered...
2/

Religious legitimacy is only effective if people
care what religious authorities dictate. Given the economic consequences, why do people remain religious, and thereby render religious legitimacy effective? Is religiosity a cause or a consequence of institutional arrangements?

3/

Another set of theories focus on the religious proscriptions of Islam, particular those associated with Islamic law (@timurkuran). These laws were appropriate for the setting they formed but had unforeseeable consequences and failed to change as economic circumstances changed

4/

There are unaddressed questions here, too

Muslim rulers must have understood that Islamic law carried proscriptions that hampered economic development. Why, then, did they continue to use Islamic institutions (like courts) that promoted inefficiencies?

5/
FOR LATER READ

You May Also Like

Anu Satheesh \U0001f1ee\U0001f1f3
Anu Satheesh 🇮🇳...
@AnuSatheesh5
Thiruvizha Mahadeva Kshetram
#Alappuzha 
#Keralatemples 🚩

Thiruvizha Mahadeva Kshetram is located in Cherthala and it is believed that Prathishta of temple was done by Vilwamangalam Swamy. Paramashiva is Swayambhu here and is worshipped as Kalakandha which means who swallowed


Halahala visham to save the world during Samudra mathanam. 

It is a famous temple where people seek the blessings, for curing the Kaivisham. The poison given by someone to destroy a person is made to vomit here. This is removed by making them vomit the poison by a special


medicine.
The medicine for vomiting is made from a plant near temple by Palodathu family. The milk offered to Bhagwan is mixed with the extracts of the plant.

Story says that once this place was a dense forest, and a woman was looking for the presence of a tortoise in the pond


and the tip of her stick hit the bottom and it started bleeding in the pond. 
Frightened, the lady informed every one and after searching in pond people found Swayambhu Lingam inside the pond. Thus Prathishta was done here.

Om Namah Shivaye
Shambo Mahadeva
🙏🕉🙏
ALL
Sanjeev Upadhyay\U0001f1ee\U0001f1f3
Sanjeev Upadhyay🇮🇳...
@SanjeevUpadhy13
What Happened To Bhakt Prahlad after Hiranyakashipu Vadh
#Thread
Prahlada became the mighty king of the Asuras after Shri Narsimha killed Hiranyakashipu. Prahlada was even more powerful than his father, Hiranyakashipu ever was. He enjoyed the love and respect of his subjects.


By virtue of his good behaviour, Prahlada conquered the three worlds easily and Indra ran away from the Heavens. Indra then deceived Prahlada into giving him the power of his behaviour and Prahlada lost control of the three worlds.


Asuras grew angry at the Devas for taking advantage of their King's virtuous behaviour and invaded the heavens. The Devas, afraid of the Asuras, enlisted the help of human Kings such as Yayati, Raji and Kakutstha and defeated them.

Prahlada attacked the gods and defeated Indra in battle, forcing the King of the Gods to run for his life. Indra sought help of Lord Vishnu. Infused with his power, Indra defeated Prahlada. The latter understood that Vishnu was helping Indra in battle and he withdrew his forces.


Prahlada first gave his kingdom to Andhaka, but the latter was defeated by Shiva. So Prahlada gave it to his son Virochana and undertook a Tirtha Yatra.
ALL
Advertisement
Mau Abata \U0001314a
Mau Abata 𓅊
@MauAbata
Read through a forum thread on Chastity Mansion to see who is talking about the Edge-o-Matic and figure out what more to address regarding frequent questions, as well as scout out user feedback. Here's some thoughts you can carry back to the forums!

My website doesn't have any product reviews, but people scatter them everywhere else in forums, tweets, xtube vids, etc.

If you ARE a previous customer, and you like the thing, can you drop a review on my site to help others?

The price is steep, but that's the amount of coins I calculated to make these. I have several spreadsheets calculating every expense involved with this project.

The current cost sustains production and development of new tech, and is helping create jobs. We are 2 people now!!

It IS 3D printed, because injection molding is orders of magnitude more expensive for the initial tooling, and I am still making small revisions to the enclosures.

Injection molded plastics are a six thousand dollar commitment for fifteen cent parts. Great for mass mfg.

Also, if you didn't know, 3D printing technology allows for some shapes which would be difficult, expensive, or impossible on injection molding or milled parts!!

Undercuts, which I use in this design, require special lifters to mold that cost a tremendous fortune.
FOR LATER READ
Eric
Eric
@ericbahn
1/ Recently, I learned about the concept of ‘struggle porn’. This refers to the fetish of sacrificing nearly everything (health, relationships, time) for your startup. I fear that this label is creating more harm than good.

2/ @nateliason wrote a fabulous article about this topic, which first introduced me to this concept. Everyone should read it:

3/ @alexisohanian also recently spoke about struggle porn, though referring to it as ‘hustle porn.’ (as the co-founder of @hustlefundvc, obviously I take issue with this pejorative definition of ‘hustle’, but that’s another topic)

4/ Struggling in itself isn’t necessarily bad. Let’s be real here--if you’re going to start a startup, you will struggle. Founders should expect to work harder generally than employees. You will be challenged in many ways and also be super rewarded in others. This is normal.

5/ However, if you are over-indexing on hard work without clear purpose and degrading your mental health/relationships in the process--then this is very bad and we obviously should not celebrate this behavior.
STARTUPS
Erik Torenberg
Erik Torenberg
@eriktorenberg
1/ Some initial thoughts on personal moats:

Like company moats, your personal moat should be a competitive advantage that is not only durable—it should also compound over time.

Characteristics of a personal moat below:


2/ Like a company moat, you want to build career capital while you sleep.

As Andrew Chen noted:


3/ You don’t want to build a competitive advantage that is fleeting or that will get commoditized

Things that might get commoditized over time (some longer than


4/ Before the arrival of recorded music, what used to be scarce was the actual music itself — required an in-person artist.

After recorded music, the music itself became abundant and what became scarce was curation, distribution, and self space.

5/ Similarly, in careers, what used to be (more) scarce were things like ideas, money, and exclusive relationships.

In the internet economy, what has become scarce are things like specific knowledge, rare & valuable skills, and great reputations.
LIFE