Ok, I’ve told this story a few times, but maybe never here. Here we go. 🧵👇

I was about 6. I was in the car with my mother. We were driving a few hours from home to go to Orlando. My parents were letting me audition for a tv show. It would end up being my first job. I was very excited. But, in the meantime we drove and listened to Rush’s show.
There was some sort of trivia question they posed to the audience. I don’t remember what the riddle was, but I remember I knew the answer right away. It was phrased in this way that was somehow just simpler to see from a kid’s perspective. The answer was CAROUSEL. I was elated.
My mother was THRILLED. She insisted that we call Into the show using her “for emergencies only” giant cell phone. It was this phone:
I called in. The phone rang for a while, but someone answered. It was an impatient-sounding dude. The screener. I said I had the trivia answer. He wasn’t charmed, I could hear him rolling his eyes. He asked me what it was. I told him. “Please hold.”
After a few minutes, I was taken off hold. Rush picked up and told me I was on the air. He asked me what the answer was. I told him. He asked me how I knew the answer. I told him the truth... that I just... did? He started to goad me.
This is the first time I can ever remember this happening, btw. It was very confusing. “Come on, your mind told you the answer.” “No! She didn’t even know it!” I told him. He stays on this bit for a minute, then he switches gears.
“What are you doing out of school?” He asks. I’m excited to say why! “I’m auditioning for a tv show!”

This was a mistake. I shouldn’t have told him this.
He asks to speak to my mother.
At this point, my eyes kind of start to glaze over. I realize this guy is going to give my mom a hard time for letting me do this, and I probably should’ve kept my mouth shut about the trivia answer.

He’s now berating her for being a psycho parent.
After she speaks with him for a few incredibly uncomfortable few minutes, we get off the phone.
But the show has changed course.
They’re talking about me and my mom. And then in general about how insane it is to let your kids have hobbies like acting or whatever. I
It was incredibly surreal. We kept listening in silence. The whole show was now about this topic.
I don’t think we ever even spoke about it.
Anyway, maybe he was right. My mom was kind of a psycho parent, and maybe I shouldn’t have been an actor?
So, RIP Rush. Thanks for the good story. You’ll always be the first grown man I remember gaslighting me for being smart. 🥰

More from Tech

Recently, the @CNIL issued a decision regarding the GDPR compliance of an unknown French adtech company named "Vectaury". It may seem like small fry, but the decision has potential wide-ranging impacts for Google, the IAB framework, and today's adtech. It's thread time! 👇

It's all in French, but if you're up for it you can read:
• Their blog post (lacks the most interesting details):
https://t.co/PHkDcOT1hy
• Their high-level legal decision: https://t.co/hwpiEvjodt
• The full notification: https://t.co/QQB7rfynha

I've read it so you needn't!

Vectaury was collecting geolocation data in order to create profiles (eg. people who often go to this or that type of shop) so as to power ad targeting. They operate through embedded SDKs and ad bidding, making them invisible to users.

The @CNIL notes that profiling based off of geolocation presents particular risks since it reveals people's movements and habits. As risky, the processing requires consent — this will be the heart of their assessment.

Interesting point: they justify the decision in part because of how many people COULD be targeted in this way (rather than how many have — though they note that too). Because it's on a phone, and many have phones, it is considered large-scale processing no matter what.
I think about this a lot, both in IT and civil infrastructure. It looks so trivial to “fix” from the outside. In fact, it is incredibly draining to do the entirely crushing work of real policy changes internally. It’s harder than drafting a blank page of how the world should be.


I’m at a sort of career crisis point. In my job before, three people could contain the entire complexity of a nation-wide company’s IT infrastructure in their head.

Once you move above that mark, it becomes exponentially, far and away beyond anything I dreamed, more difficult.

And I look at candidates and know-everything’s who think it’s all so easy. Or, people who think we could burn it down with no losses and start over.

God I wish I lived in that world of triviality. In moments, I find myself regretting leaving that place of self-directed autonomy.

For ten years I knew I could build something and see results that same day. Now I’m adjusting to building something in my mind in one day, and it taking a year to do the due-diligence and edge cases and documentation and familiarization and roll-out.

That’s the hard work. It’s not technical. It’s not becoming a rockstar to peers.
These people look at me and just see another self-important idiot in Security who thinks they understand the system others live. Who thinks “bad” designs were made for no reason.
Who wasn’t there.

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