We like people. No, scratch that; we love people. They’re the most important thing in the world, at least in our eyes. We think they can do anything they put their mind to. We idolize Gandhi and Steve Jobs, vilify Hitler and Steve Ballmer, and perpetuate the cult of personality that insists that every single one of us has the potential for limitless good – or evil! – if we only muster our courage, push as far as we can, and grab that golden ring.

I’m not so sure. I see that potential, but I’m not convinced that the primary catalyst is inside us, whether you call it passion or drive or willpower or anything else. Instead, the evidence seems to be mounting that environment plays a much larger role, even more than the most nurture-biased, “His childhood made him do it!” social progressive might think. The traditional nature vs. nurture debate may focus on developmental psychology and biology, but I’m thinking about how we live our lives as adults. We trumpet role models and self improvement and achievement, but I wonder if instead, we should think a bit more about environments and systems and incentives.

Read more…

If you know me, you probably already know that I’m not a fan of rain. Yes, we need it, and plants do too, but that’s why God invented irrigation, I figure. I used to joke that some enterprising mayor should build a huge transparent dome over their entire city so the residents would never be rained on again. I’d move there in a heartbeat.

It may not be a rain screen, but the sub-arctic mining town of Fermont, Canada has the next best thing: a windscreen. The temperature there routinely drops to below -20°F in the winter, and that’s before you include wind chill. The myth is true: you can literally toss a pot of boiling water into the air, and it will freeze before it hits the ground.

The town was centrally planned and built by the Québec Cartier Mining Company (now ArcelorMittal) in the early 1970s to service the Mont Wright iron mine. Faced with brutal cold and punishing storms, the town’s designers conceived of a massive, 1.3km long building that would shield the residents from the prevailing winds out of the northwest. During the worst part of winter, 7 months per year on average, the entire town can hole up in the Mur-Écran (windscreen) building and never have to leave. So cool!

I first heard about Fermont and the Mur-Écran from one of the podcasts I listen to, CBC‘s radio show Ideas. Check out their full story for more pictures and the hour-long show.

It’s tax season! At least, for those of us in the US. If you’re reading this, you probably have to pay taxes. You don’t have a choice; it’s required by law. Beyond taxes though, how you manage your money is up to you. You can invest in the stock market, for example, but you could also buy bonds, or real estate or pork belly futures or Bitcoin. Stocks are strictly optional.

Required and optional may seem to cover all the bases, but there’s actually a third class of activities. Take credit cards. They’re not required by any law, natural or man-made. You can survive without them – I’ve done it – but it’s a pretty limited life. Modern society takes them for granted more and more every day. Ever tried to buy a plane ticket with cash? It’s not easy. Travelling in general is difficult, as is building a credit rating. Participating in the Internet is basically impossible. Even I couldn’t truly escape credit cards; I just used disposable ones that didn’t need any of my personal information. Credit cards aren’t explicitly required these days, but they might as well be.

Don’t worry, this isn’t yet another privacy rant or fake credit card scheme. Instead, I’d like to talk about this illusion of choice, these de facto requirements that are optional in theory but not in practice. This problem is known as the No Network Effect, a term Moxie Marlinspike popularized in his talk at Defcon 18.

Read more…

Discrimination has been in the news recently. The Fisher v. UT Supreme Court case over affirmative action, DongleGate over sexual harassment in the tech community, and the evergreen fear of Chinese workers stealing our jobs.

Don’t worry, this post isn’t about race, or gender politics, or globalization. They’re just examples of something I’ve been thinking about for a while: othering, the term for our innate tendency to think of the world as us vs. them.

Read more…

From GitHub’s create new repo page:

Great repository names are short and memorable. Need inspiration? How about yolo-hipster.

Um…no.