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The big news today is the US Federal Reserve’s big FOMC meeting. The expectation is that the Fed will announce a big rate hike, one of the biggest in decades. The previous rate hike amounted to 0.5%, and the expectation for today is 0.75%. While it’s entertaining watching Jim Cramer and his ilk share their opinions on various matters which–I think–they likely have no clue about, it’s even more interesting learning about how institutions like the Fed really have no clue what they’re doing.

By 2050, scientists predict there will be more plastic than fish in our oceans by weight. Last month, I found myself wandering around Muji, phone in hand, about to buy yet another kitchen gadget I didn’t need. That moment of consumer autopilot made me question: how much of my consumption actually improves my life versus simply contributing to our ecological crisis?

Something I’ve noticed in recent times is the persistent belief that someone in a position of authority knows exactly what’s happening, how to fix our complex problems, and will ultimately rescue us. A clear example was the 2020 Biden election, where many people genuinely believed that the world would return to normal and our collective challenges would be solved if their preferred candidate won.

One truth we all eventually have to face as we become fully formed adults (“grown-ups”) is that being right doesn’t matter. The only thing that really matters is appearances, being in the right place at the right time, and your connections. This is an idea that has been floating around in my head for a while, and I’ve been trying to figure out how to describe it. To do so, I can only think in terms of storytelling so that’s what I’ll do.

Yesterday an interesting thing happened, where disenfranchised folks walked right up into the US capitol after Donald Trump told them to do so. They weren’t welcome there, and a few people ended up dead in the scuffles, and a lot of people were mad for a variety of reasons. Where the people who run the USA world meet

The Invisible Influence # One important (and mostly non-mainstream) concept is the idea of manufactured consent. The idea was originally described in a book authored by Noam Chomsky and Edward Herman in the 1980s. For a quick summary, check out this video on YouTube which provides a great overview (use yt-dlp to completely avoid the ads).

I was recently trolling someone on Reddit, and in a brief (and regrettable) fit of passion I made a remark only I could love about “transcending the bullshit”. I have often repeated that I intend to one day publish a book titled “Everything is Bullshit”, in honour of the late David Graeber’s Bullshit Jobs, but extending to pretty much all facets of society.

Over the last 5 years of my career I’ve shifted my priorities in life. When I was younger, I was willing to deal with a lot of bullshit at work so long as they kept paying me a salary. Nowadays, I care more about my own happiness, and I’m not willing to work with people who are jerks.

I was reading Hacker News comments and someone was complaining about how they weren’t able to find a job in computers anymore due to ageism in tech. Reading this, something occurred to me which I thought was worth writing about, which is the idea of malleability. First of all, I agree that ageism in tech is a thing and it’s a problem for experienced people trying to find a new job. In a capitalist society you want to hire the cheapest employees who can “get the job done”, and experience is often grossly under weighted. My hypothesis for why it occurs has to do with the fact that some people perceive more experienced technologists as more expensive and less malleable.

I saw a discussion on Reddit about entrepreneurship recently that got me thinking. What’s the point of being an entrepreneur when the odds of success are incredibly low? This is especially true if you’re low on resources or clout. Beyond the Silicon Valley Narrative # The dominant narrative about entrepreneurship has become increasingly narrow: raise venture capital, grow at all costs, aim for a massive exit, and hopefully become a billionaire. It’s the script that’s celebrated in tech publications, glorified by accelerators, and drilled into the minds of computer science graduates.