Oil limits and the economy →

Published January 4, 2015  ·  All posts on Jan 4

While the press treats these issues as separate stories, they are in fact very closely connected, related to the fact that we are reaching limits in many different directions simultaneously. The economy is the coordinating system that ties together all available resources, as well as the users of these resources. It does this almost magically, by figuring out what prices are needed to keep the system in balance—how much materials of which types are needed, given what consumers can afford to pay.

~ Gail Tverberg, from Oil Limits and the Economy: One Story, Not Two

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5 things about kids →

Published January 3, 2015  ·  All posts on Jan 3  ·  

My coaching style was akin to playing a game of “whack-a-mole” at an arcade, quickly reacting to every behavior deviation I was unswervingly causing due to my lack of experience.

~ Brett Klika from, «http://brettklika.com/5-things-about-kids/»

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Escalating bad faith →

Published January 2, 2015  ·  All posts on Jan 2

This is part of a pattern in which all sides are acting in bad faith, and have been for decades. (And it’s not the only example, as I’ll discuss next week. Signing statements are another.) It creates a vicious cycle in which each escalation challenges the other side to either accept a defeat that seems illegitimate or to escalate further. There seems to be no obvious place for this to stop.

~ Doug Muder from, Escalating Bad Faith, Part I

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Can you name a design pattern? →

Published January 1, 2015  ·  All posts on Jan 1

A Design Pattern? You mean from the ’90s?

~ Robert C. Martin from, A Little About Patterns.

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Through →

Published December 31, 2014  ·  All posts on Dec 31  ·  

The only way out is through.

~ Robert Frost

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Religious liberty and marriage equality →

Published December 30, 2014  ·  All posts on Dec 30  ·  

In my view, one basic principle is: No one should be forced to participate in a religious ritual. That’s why I don’t want teachers leading prayers in public school classrooms, especially when the children are too young to make a meaningful choice about opting out. For the same reason, it would be wrong to sue a priest who refused to perform a Catholic marriage ritual for a marriage his church did not sanction.

~ Doug Muder from, Religious Liberty and Marriage Equality

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Making yourself work →

Published December 29, 2014  ·  All posts on Dec 29  ·  

But many others put off their dream careers, or stay in jobs they like, because they’re afraid to figure this out. Being in a job, or staying in college, means that you have someone else imposing work and deadlines on you, and you’ll get fired (or dropped from school) if you don’t do the work. So you put off doing the work until you can’t anymore because of the fear of being fired.

~ Leo Babauta from, Making Yourself Work

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Arrogant, slow and dogmatic →

Published December 28, 2014  ·  All posts on Dec 28

What does it mean to be a software craftsman? You can read the Manifesto for Software Craftsmanship and draw conclusions; but if you posed that question to different people across the software industry, you’d hear any number of different responses. And to some degree, they’re all true. Descriptions are ultimately bound to perspective, and there appear to be divergent perspectives on the software craftsmanship movement. What follows are three descriptions that are commonly wielded against the software craftsmanship community, accompanied by an explanation of the craftsman’s perspective on the same issue.

~ Paul Pagel from, What the heck?!

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Trick question: when did slavery end? →

Published December 27, 2014  ·  All posts on Dec 27

The reason slavery was able to last so long is that the 13th Amendment has a loophole. (Did you notice it? It went right past me.) The loophole is “except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted”. So if you can rig the local laws and get the cooperation of the local law enforcement and court system, you can convict people of “crimes” pretty much whenever you want.

~ Doug Muder from, Slavery Lasted Until Pearl Harbor

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Energy return on energy invested →

Published December 26, 2014  ·  All posts on Dec 26

Eventually, the civilization hit a period of stagflation, typically lasting 50 or 60 years, as the population hit the carrying capacity of the land, and as additional workers did not add proportionately more output. When this happened, the wages of common workers tended to stagnate or decrease, resulting in increased wage disparity. The price of food tended to spike. To counter these problems, the amount of government services rose, as did the amount of debt.

~ Gail Tverberg from, Diminishing Returns, Energy Return on Energy Invested, and Collapse

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