Notes

This segment of This American Life mentions congressional committee rooms are dramatically unbalanced; the majority party enjoys much nicer offices.

I am astonished by this architectural expression of the competitive dysfunction in democracy, but can’t find any relevant history.

Jony Ive is officially out of Apple, which was announced months ago.

I am glad for it.

I adore Ive’s aesthetic and appreciate the rigor he maintained for the firm. Yet he was prone to going too far for beauty over function even in hardware, and it was simply a mistake to give him authority over software design.

The iOS 7 reset towards cleanliness may have been necessary, but it took way too long to acknowledge the resulting weaknesses. It should never have even launched with indiscernible buttons and color-only interactive cues, yet we had to wait years, until after his departure was announced, for even these basic mistakes to be corrected.

We need to be spreading this news to all Americans: they don’t hate our freedom, they hate our solidarity. https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/russia-troll-2020-election-interference-twitter-916482/

Ever since I read this post by @frank_chimero I find myself avoiding like buttons and enjoying the act of small compliments.

Isaac Saul has a succinct overview of the impeachment process, and his take on what it means is perfectly in line with mine: https://tangle.substack.com/p/you-asked-for-it-an-impeachment-overview

TLDR - nothing matters ¯\(ツ)/¯

I have been an advocate for city government power for some time, so am very pleased to see HR 3571. Too bad it has no chance of becoming law, but I hope it inspires new approaches when the State Department is inevitably rebuilt.