Drawing on Thoreau’s “quiet desperation” and Graeber’s analysis of bullshit jobs, this critical examination of corporate America reveals it as a system of soft authoritarianism controlling workers’ time, location, thoughts, and value creation.
The podcast outlines a “Shawshank Redemption” inspired escape strategy:
Build a financial runway (2+ years of expenses) Develop valuable skills independently Create uncorrelated income streams (consulting, investments) Minimize corporate engagement Work remotely when possible This methodical approach to escaping wage slavery emphasizes long-term planning over dramatic exits.
Recently I became a voracious reader of David Graeber, and in a talk about BS jobs, he gave a great analogy, “you make a cup once, you wash it a thousand times”.
This is the essence of the problem with Rust vs Python in 2025 and beyond. Rust is a sturdy cup that is easy to wash. Python is an easy cup to build, but very difficult to wash.
Understanding Serverless Computing in the Modern Cloud Era What is Serverless? This is a crucial question in the modern era of cloud computing, as serverless represents a paradigm shift in software development.
In the pre-cloud computing era, we primarily thought about applications that run constantly. For instance, an Apache web service would be running continuously, even without incoming requests. This approach leads to significant inefficiencies.
The Inefficiency of Always-On Systems Consider a modern house: you wouldn’t want the lights running 24⁄7.
Function as a Service (FaaS): Core Building Block of Serverless Technology What is FaaS? Simplest unit of work for building applications, microservices, or event-driven protocols Basic workflow: Input → Logic → Output Characteristics of FaaS Simple and easily understandable Highly scalable Quick response time Popular FaaS Framework: AWS Lambda Can be attached to various services: S3 notifications (e.g., file uploads) SQS (Simple Queue Service) messages Enables building infinitely scalable services with small response times Best Languages for Serverless/FaaS Rust Go Advantages of Modern Compiled Languages for FaaS Speed Safety Optimal deployment characteristics Millisecond response and invocation times Low energy usage Key Considerations for FaaS Development Focus on maintenance over ease of building Optimize for low costs (financial and energy) Consider total cost of service over time Takeaway When developing Function as a Service applications, prioritize long-term efficiency, maintenance, and cost-effectiveness over initial development ease.
Initial thoughts on Mozilla’s public API paper are that they are a new voice that is necessary and welcome in the world of AI. They correctly point out the “ladder pull” of private companies hiding their research, and also the need for a focus on small language models (SLM).
What are key takeaways?
Smaller, efficient models are better for a variety of reasons SLM require less compute which reduces carbon footprint of AI development Open source (actually full open source) enables a broader access to AI technology globally Public funding could shift towards customizable and energy efficient AI Privacy, a human right, is enhanced with local deployments of SLM.
Explore how current economic and technological paradigms, particularly surveillance capitalism, are negatively impacting society.
Broken Economic Models for Humanity Key Concepts: Surveillance Capitalism
Definition by Shoshana Zuboff Extracts and monetizes human experience data Concentrates wealth, knowledge, and power Threatens human nature and democracy Externality First Capitalism
Proposed solution to create markets for social good Examples: Carbon pricing in services Media platform taxation based on factual content Tax credits for repairable technology Taxation of addictive technology profits Corporate and individual wealth tax Right to repair initiatives Game Theory and AI
An s-curve has a slow start, a rapid rise, then a plateau. With Python after years of success, you cannot have more success, and it had a good run. After 30 plus years, four key factors will cause a rift and slowly eat away at the peak of Python adoption.
Where Python could be useful in 2030 is using only the Python standard library without packaging, and also in a hosted Jupyter environment for adhoc exploration.
As we navigate the digital age, it’s crucial to learn from history and establish robust digital rights to protect human autonomy and dignity.
Human Rights: From French Revolution to Digital Age The Age of Revolutions: A Perfect Storm The French Revolution emerged from a convergence of systemic issues and random events:
Feudalism’s oppressive structure Widespread poverty and hunger Emerging ideas of democracy Influence of Thomas Paine’s “Common Sense” Inspiration from the American Revolution Rise of mass printing and pamphleteers The Rights of Man: Reshaping Society The French Revolution brought forth the concept of human rights, influencing democracy globally: