The idea/complaint above would be familiar to anyone who, like me, is not an American nor lives in #America, but leads (admittedly: by choice) a rather US-centric life.
In the sense that I read much more in English than in my mother tongue (literature, essays, blog posts, social media), I pay more attention to American intellectuals and media figures than to authors in my own country, I listen to podcasts produced mostly in the US, etc.
Someone like me — living in a better democracy than the US (according to studies I've seen), with longer life expectancy, lower crime rates, a much longer history as a country, involved in fewer wars, etc — sometimes grows tired of hearing so much about the uniqueness of America, the unprecedented experiment that it is, the unparalleled clarity of the Founding Fathers… Is that really so? Even today? Or is it American chauvinism, provincialism, or ignorance?
Hypothesis worth researching:
**All the allegedly novel and unprecedented ideas that are usually mentioned as the root of American exceptionalism where already well defined and implemented, at least to some extent, somewhere else, before the 🇺🇸 #USA even existed.**
I'm referring to things such as: **individual liberty, liberalism, republicanism, the pursuit of happiness, capitalism, check and balances, all men created equal, meritocracy, the melting pot, federalism, separation of church and state, cult of innovation, respect for private initiative**, etc.
Whatever one picks as the definite defining characteristic (or even: whatever _combination_ of a few of those), it was already “invented” before #America. True?
Soft version: even if the combination of ideas was truly novel back then, as soon as a few other prosperous nations adopted them successfully, the USA stopped being unique or exceptional in its political system. Much in the same way nobody today talks of Greece as a beacon or as a model for prosperity or welfare just because democracy was first tried there.
True?
Honest question. I don't know enough #History or #PoliticalPhilosophy to answer my own question.
(This realisation was prompted by a few serendipitous things this week: a previous co-worker promoting with majestic words a new venture on LinkedIn, seeing the pretentious profile of another old workmate who just joined #bigtech, reading about the eccentricities of #JackDorsey…)
I don't know if it's me having worked full-time for nine organisations already (five of them for-profit #startups), the industry itself having changed, me getting old and grumpy, or a combination of all of the above, but **too often now, the typical start-up attitude feels almost disgusting to me**.
The jargon, the buzzwords, the grandiose goals, the productivity hacks, the hyped substacks or podcasts, the cheesy taglines, the obsession with “growth” and “disruption”…
I still love #tech and the #web, I think #software is still eating the world, and I believe in great organisations developing novel ideas with a net positive impact.
But [“Silicon Valley”](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silicon_Valley_(TV_series)), which used to be a parody, became a docu-series with the passage of (little) time.
Perhaps it was always that way, and I've grown more mature. Or maybe things got worse.
Thoughts?
tripu
boosted
RT @MolaSaber@twitter.com
El número Pi tiene algo que decirte.
🐦🔗: https://twitter.com/MolaSaber/status/1503348654446370818
It seems I listen to an average of ~2h of #podcasts per day.
Given that I play most of them at 1.5×, it's probably ~1h20′ listening per day.
#Parenting pro tip:
it's not considered child labour, and thus social workers usually don't intervene, if it's eighteen hours a week or less and you convince the little rascals that it's “a fun game”.
❤️
https://soundcloud.com/rockmediante/02-jorge-drexler-mi-guitarra-y
This #song by #JorgeDrexler must be especially interesting to #Spanish language learners, I suspect?
@monochromatique Yes, once you learn this happens, you notice that it happens all the time 😒
Codas:
#DocumentFreedomDay coming up on March 30!
https://www.documentfreedom.org/
Also: advice about alternative devices appreciated (e-book reader, fitness band, etc). Boost if interested!
👉 **#Amazon Kindle (both an old one and a newer Paperwhite); wi-fi, USB and Whispersync interfaces**: sigh. Where to start?
No #EPUB, of course; only stupid #MOBI. I have to use #Calibre to convert stuff (doesn't always works well), then I can send to the Kindle via its special e-mail address, or copy over USB. Also: #AZW3, supposed to be an improved format, better for Amazon devices… _but not allowed as a format to be sent over e-mail_; only USB in that case. Why??
I want to classify my documents in directories, thank you. Copy, move, delete at will. But there's just one gigantic `Documents` directory, and everything thrown in there.
Notes and highlights: I can only share them (export, send by e-mail) for certain types of docs, but not others (format? DRM? bought on Amazon?).
…not to mention the whole opaque and annoying #DRM thing and the “you are not buying books, just borrowing them temporarily from Amazon” thing. Switching from one #Kindle to another, trying to share a document with friends, registering or deregistering an owner… those are all miserable experiences.
👉 **Newer #Samsung Gear Fit2 Pro, Bluetooth interface**: ditto. Give me all my freaking training files, I don't need a stupid Samsung Health account, nor installing a whole set of Android apps requiring a ton of permissions (SMS!? contacts!?) and special privileges to surreptitiously download and install other apps in turn.
Also: to send audio files from my phone to the device (for playing during workouts), I'm presented with a mysterious list of MP3 files supposedly living on the phone. That includes old 5″-long WhatsApp audio messages and other garbage… but none of the podcasts I'm actually interested in transferring. What directories are scanned, what's the criteria, how can I find or refresh? No clue. Again: give me a damn removable drive, and let me move files at will!
👉 **Old #Polar hear-rate monitor, USB interface**: I want all my workouts as [GPX](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GPS_Exchange_Format) files, thank you — no Polar account needed, no drivers or desktop software to install, no need to manually convert formats. I want to mount the drive over USB, and simply copy all files.
OK, I'm done with **opaque gadgets** handling **proprietary formats** via **closed protocols**.
I've always defended #OpenStandards and #FLOSS, and opted for interoperable devices when possible — but too often ended up buying the popular, less free product, out of (alleged) convenience.
Lately I've grown tired of fighting with stubborn gadgets and their stupid limitations.
🧵
