Brian Lyttle (hachyderm.io/@brianly)

Cloud Therapist at Microsoft. Northern Ireland to Philadelphia via Manchester. Husband. Dad. C#/Python hacker. Photographer. Cyclist. Rugby. MUFC. He/him.

[Brian Lyttle (hachyderm.io/@brianly) @brianly]

My Twitter feed is overloaded with mostly uninformed discussion about #covid19 and masks. This quote comes to mind for me “Today we were unlucky, but remember we only have to be lucky once. You will have to be lucky always.” It’s best to not play the game and stay home.

[Brian Lyttle (hachyderm.io/@brianly) @brianly]

@Malachians I just read the quotes which are interesting to compare to videos like https://t.co/3EPORkVOSX where he spends some time chatting with him. I don’t think any of us are qualified to psychoanalyze him and it’s going to be a multitude of factors outside our view anyway.

[Brian Lyttle (hachyderm.io/@brianly) @brianly]

@JoshWComeau I got some storage containers /with/ dividers because I don’t have the wall space for what you describe. It is a big improvement over the previous mess.

[Brian Lyttle (hachyderm.io/@brianly) @brianly]

@kepano Azure DevOps wikis use .md through the web frontend or fit repo, so you can easily take a personal note and publish it. Unfortunately, .md support is sporadic in the enterprise space.

[Brian Lyttle (hachyderm.io/@brianly) @brianly]

@jessejohnsohn @csharpfritz There is a whole world of open source apps in the selfhosted enthusiast space. These are treated as production apps a lot of the time because of what some term the “spouse adoption factor”. Some evolve into SaaS versions.

[Brian Lyttle (hachyderm.io/@brianly) @brianly]

@fhinkel Definitely.

[Brian Lyttle (hachyderm.io/@brianly) @brianly]

@VelerSoftware Will give it a try when I’m back in front of my computer. Does it help with sets of operations? The force multipliers I’ve seen with keyboard maestros is the range of combos they do to complete tasks.

[Brian Lyttle (hachyderm.io/@brianly) @brianly]

@CFDevelop @saurabhnandu I suspect non-tech founders are more likely to push for fixed cost given their inexperience with programming projects. Further, someone who pushes back on this possibly seems less credible to them. A desire to remain non-tech without changing is maybe a problem too.

[Brian Lyttle (hachyderm.io/@brianly) @brianly]

@donnfelker The philosophy outlined by @kepano is one reason. I use it in different contexts so have different syncs for each which it seems content supporting. Notion has a lot of not least being an SF startup with the problems that brings. I could see it working for teams.

[kepano @kepano]

File over app

File over app is a philosophy: if you want to create digital artifacts that last, they must be files you can control, in formats that are easy to retrieve and read. Use tools that give you this freedom.

File over app is an appeal to tool makers: accept that all software is ephemeral, and give people ownership over their data.

In the fullness of time, the files you create are more important than the tools you use to create them. Apps are ephemeral, but your files have a chance to last.

The pyramids of Egypt contain hieroglyphs that were chiseled in stone thousands of years ago. The ideas hieroglyphs convey are more important than the type of chisel that was used to carve them.

The world is filled with ideas from generations past, transmitted through many mediums, from clay tablets to manuscripts, paintings, sculptures, and tapestries. These artifacts are objects that you can touch, hold, own, store, preserve, and look at. To read something written on paper all you need is eyeballs.

Today, we are creating innumerable digital artifacts, but most of these artifacts are out of our control. They are stored on servers, in databases, gated behind an internet connection, and login to a cloud service. Even the files on your hard drive use proprietary formats that make them incompatible with older systems.

Paraphrasing something I wrote recently:

> If you want your writing to still be readable on a computer from the 2060s or 2160s, it’s important that your notes can be read on a computer from the 1960s.

You should want the files you create to be durable, not only for posterity, but also for your future self. You never know when you might want to go back to something you created years or decades ago. Don’t lock your data into a format you can’t retrieve.

These days I write using an app I help make called Obsidian (@obsdmd), but it’s a delusion to think it will last forever. The app will eventually become obsolete. It’s the plain text files I create that are designed to last. Who knows if anyone will want to read them besides me, but future me is enough of an audience to make it worthwhile.

[Brian Lyttle (hachyderm.io/@brianly) @brianly]

@VicVijayakumar The same point was being brought up 20 years ago and there was academic-industry interaction. I’m sure there has only been more since which suggests that academia is resistant to doing this. Is the failure really that significant with that context?

[Brian Lyttle (hachyderm.io/@brianly) @brianly]

@John_A_Ridge Wasn’t there a helicopter incursion in Belgorod at that time too?

[Brian Lyttle (hachyderm.io/@brianly) @brianly]

@vboykis @Kyle_Ireton Leaky abstraction comes to mind with YAML-based tools, but unsure it’s what you mean here.

[Brian Lyttle (hachyderm.io/@brianly) @brianly]

@Valen10Francois I think you have an interesting question at the core, but might not get the best answers with how it is framed. Perhaps Overlord and The Longest Day are what you seek. Band of Brothers is about a specific company versus an event. Ambrose’s work backs up Saving Private Ryan too.

[Brian Lyttle (hachyderm.io/@brianly) @brianly]

@nkohari The slope is important for managing conditions like reflux or it wouldn’t be there. It’s hard to achieve the same position easily when you get them home which is frustrating.

[Brian Lyttle (hachyderm.io/@brianly) @brianly]

@csharpfritz @StJudePLAYLIVE Hope you feel better soon!

[Brian Lyttle (hachyderm.io/@brianly) @brianly]

@auchenberg The Back Mechanic is the best book on the topic to cover all the basics. ESIs are 50/50 but worked for me by accelerating PT. If you had any positive reaction to an oral corticosteroid it can indicate it’ll help as it is more targeted.

[Brian Lyttle (hachyderm.io/@brianly) @brianly]

@auchenberg How bad and where exactly? I assume you have an MRI but a good physio will be able to help with full diagnosis. Do not do a routine of yoga or anything with bending unless you understand the diagnosis. I was 80% better in about 3 months and road cycling in 4.

[Brian Lyttle (hachyderm.io/@brianly) @brianly]

@praeclarum @AdinAronson Did they change the way content is licensed? I thought it used to be Creative Commons which makes me want to see whether Larry Lessig has been commenting on recent AI innovations.

[Brian Lyttle (hachyderm.io/@brianly) @brianly]

@AdrienBrault @tobi How so? I look around and see a myriad of slow software. I’d argue that it can sometimes be hard to find a focus. That’s because the pressure to ship is high and everything is left short of where it should be. Not a problem if the individual though.

[Brian Lyttle (hachyderm.io/@brianly) @brianly]

@nqatpod But, alas the results didn’t come. Now he is in no man’s land.

[Brian Lyttle (hachyderm.io/@brianly) @brianly]

@nqatpod I listened to a bit while doing something else. What struck me was how he was using it to inelegantly elaborate on some points that were known, but not commented on. The whole time he prevaricated on his future. I suspect he was told he’d be well positioned, if he got results.