The List App, later rebranded li.st, was a short-lived social media app from, of all people, B.J. Novak of The Office fame. A friend of mine who’s way more looped in to this kind of thing than I am sent me an invitation during the pre-release beta period, when The List App was tiny and finding its footing.
The app was something like twitter for lists of things. There were lists, likes, re-lists, and trends. But the content of a post was always a list—bulleted, numbered, reverse-numbers, but always a list of things. I think Novak envisioned things like “My favorite restaurants in LA” and “Best albums of the year” or whatever, but TLA pretty quickly turned in to a weird sometimes beautiful place where a core of likeminded and somewhat bookish people shared things that made them happy, gave encouragement, and evolved a subculture. It was fun while it lasted (and it did not last long).
When the app shut down I archived all my posts because I’m a digital hoarder. You can find them all here.
I got my first kindle maybe 5 or 6 years ago and began buying mostly eBooks. Then I started replacing my paper books with eBooks and slowly got rid of them all. Here are the ones I kept. Read more…
Conspicuously absent from this list: pictures of me. Read more…
Abe Simpson
“I’m in love! No wait…its a stroke.”
Apu Nahasapeemapetilon
“Thank you, masked vigilante. Your over-zealous homicide has saved me 80 cents. Now if you’re not going to buy anything, please move along.”
Because I just watched Eye in the Sky which was basically a (very good) two hour trolley problem. Read more…
As requested. Read more…
Inspired by @nathanveshecco Read more…
@ladyprofessor @jaidub
I won’t tag you together anymore.
Assume they are competent.
I know you’ve been burned before. So have I. Some people are terrible at what they’re supposed to be doing. But everybody also deserves the benefit of the doubt. So assume their ideas are good, their experience is relevant, and their suggestions are well considered. Question your own assumptions as readily as you question theirs.
Respect existing decisions.
If you’re coming in to an existing project, study the work they’ve already done and assume it was either done that way for a good reason, or at least that it is an acceptable way to do it. Be prepared to fit in to the existing framework and emulate the style and approach already in place unless or until you can clearly articulate a reason not to. Don’t snowplow through with your own style just because it’s how you usually do it.
Inspired by @kate81. I’m so hate-able. Read more…
Inspired by @sophster Read more…
An excerpt from Gitanjali by Rabindranath Tagore which I love very much and which I think explains most perfectly how I feel about life. I especially love the third verse although all of it is perfect. Read more…
I was listening to an audio book of Candide yesterday and caught a funny line I didn’t remember. I looked it up in both print editions of the book I have and here is how the translations compare. Read more…
[this space intentionally left blank]
Was it worth it making men and women different?
How come when I bite my lip it gets sore and bigger so it is easy to bite again and hurts a lot when I do?
Saying I’m sorry too much.
Optimist
Optimism is a formal enlightenment era philosophy that supposes that the world we live in is the “best possible world” either because the laws of the universe are such that the world is the only way it could possibly be (a sort of tautological optimism) or because a benevolent force (i.e., God) controls the world and optimizes it for goodness. The latter can itself have two interpretations: All is always well from the right perspective, or more commonly that suffering is “for our own good”.
Epicurean
The modern meaning of Epicurean is almost completely disconnected from the Ancient Greek philosophy of Epicureanism. This philosophy rejects divinity of any kind and does promote “pleasure seeking” but explicitly teaches that the path to true pleasure is modest living, simple means, and the gaining of knowledge through study. The ultimate pleasure is to understand the world so well you no longer depend on fulfilling superficial desires like fine foods, drink, and materialism to be happy.
Inspired by @amieshmamie but I don’t read contemporary books enough so let’s see how far we can stretch this concept. Read more…
“If we enroll in the [interest free] monthly payment plan can we pay it off early?”
🙄
“Will boys and girls be sharing a room?”
🙄 (yes, this question again)
I’m bored waiting for this parent meeting about next year’s high school trip to start. Read more…
Patrick Stewart in 1973 at 33
Patrick Stewart in 1987 at 47
Inspired by @xtineengels Read more…
Yesterday.
Plus a bunch of seemingly arbitrary other things that were actually well before yesterday.
Source: etymonline.com Read more…
I’ve used kindles and the kindle app for years.
Whenever I buy a kindle book it always gives me the choice of which device to “deliver” it to.
Inspired by @nessa_please. This will be a long list because I am older than all you youths of today. But I am one of you! See: Bae. Fleek. Who let the dogs out. Read more…
Sorry for being so judgey. Read more…
Your own research
I have small hands.
No I do not. I have large-ish hands.
I live in the “developing world”.
No I live in the crumbling first world hell hole that is currently entertaining the idea of making Donald Trump president.
A story of absentmindedness. Read more…
I’ve been spending a couple lovely vacation days alone seeing the sights. Read more…
Inspired by @Evie et al Read more…
Isabel is a lot of great things like nerdy and funny and dedicated and creative. But they also happens to be lovely on the outside. Somehow we have to pick one or two of these… Read more…
I’m not normally this way…
It doesn’t bother me when people say ATM Machine or PIN Number…
Car sickness
This is the main reason. Just took a lyft. Now I feel a little sick and I hate feeling a little sick.
Smells
I am very sensitive to smells.
A yawn
This song
Inspired by @sarahgorman Read more…
Are you up yet?
Why are there dirty socks on the kitchen floor?
This list … is dumb. Read more…
MAZ: That was many years ago. Before the Ewok genocide.
SNOKE: [picks up Luke Skywalker’s light saber] My preciousssssss…
Milada Horáková was a politician and dissident executed by the communist Czech government on June 27th 1950. The night before her execution she wrote a remarkable letter to her 16 year old daughter, including this advice about listening, learning, and the importance and limitations of positivity. Read more…
The time I bought a bag of pretzels before my 4 hour flight and they turned out to have peanut butter in them.
That’s about it. That’s the biggest one anyway.
