Tech and tech-adjacent peeps of Microblog — anyone have any suggested reading on transitioning from an IC to an engineering management role? For context, I currently work as an engineer, not a manager.
I went to Mars Hill. I’ve only listened to a little of the podcast. It’s an experience I have deep ambivalence about. Might write more someday. Since it’s wrapping up, there’ll be much pontification about it. But I think these words from Dave Zahl are spot-on. Ht @jensap
Dinosaur Valley State Park w/ @jensap 🥾🎒🦖
Always a blast to work out with these guys in the gloom. 🇺🇸🏃♂️🏛
Three reasons I’m thankful for the library at The Center for Christian Study
Stalacpipe Organ, Luray Caverns
All I could think of was Buddy Christ from Dogma’s “Catholicism Now!" when I read this from Giles Fraser:
St Michael’s Church in Bournemouth had renamed itself St Mike’s “in a trendy rebrand to entice young people”. … The Vicar there, Sarah Yetman, has a tough gig and all power to her elbow for trying to turn things around. “We aren’t trying to alienate anyone by changing the name” she explains, “But I do feel that if we don’t take steps now to draw people in from those younger generations we will be lamenting what we have missed in the years to come.”
Jeffrey Bilbro’s piece about staying sane in a mad time crystalizes some thoughts I’ve had for a while.
I’ve come to think the reason Gamaliel, Jesus-disbeliever though he apparently was, gets quoted in the book of Acts is that his rationale was commendable. We believers in Jesus, too, have to wait for Judgment Day for God to sort out the wheat from the tares — for God to sift through the ways I and my tribe, “traditionalists” on sexuality, have been more Levite than Samaritan to gay people left for dead along the church’s highway to supposed triumph. We have to wait for God to expose the ways a supposedly enlightened “progressivism” has left believers bereft of any way of understanding Scripture as the Word of God for people today and therefore constantly exposed to whatever wind seems to be promising compassion in the here and now, often heedless of its hidden costs. We have to wait, ultimately, for God to bring us all, traditionalist and progressive alike, to see our shared poverty, our common need for God’s mercy in Christ. In the meantime, and in spite of spirited urges for mutual anathemas, we’re apparently called to “wait for one another” (1 Corinthians 11:33). We’re called to wait as long as it takes to maintain our visible unity, our line of direct descent from those who experienced Jesus’ transforming mercy firsthand.
Digital detox reflections/an update on this space
#An update
So, as I mentioned in this post, I tried a “digital detox” for about 30 days. Overall, I’d say it was a worthwhile experience, one with some surprising outcomes.
A bit of housekeeping regarding this space — I gained a newfound appreciation for simplicity during that time. In that spirit, I decided to import all of my “longform” blog posts here and moved the domain name for robertsapunarich.com to point to here, and retire my Github Pages site. So, if you’re subscribed to robertsapunarich.micro.blog, go ahead and update your subscription to the feed here (those of you who follow me in the Micro.blog app may have missed a post from the other day due to the domain name change).
Manton’s done a great job with Micro.blog, and its simplicity works for my purposes. I have an about page, and links to writing elsewhere. In a roundabout way, the clarification of values that came from the detox led to this decision — something I’ll discuss in a bit.
Why
I don’t use any social media at all. I don’t need to belabor the reasons why — others have already done that work better than I ever have.
Nonetheless, we are all victims of the global lobotomy to some degree, and I’m no exception. I think it’s reasonable to conclude that the machine has become so totalizing in its effects that its influence can be felt even if you don’t explicitly opt in to it. Less opaquely, I would argue that the feedback mechanisms of The Bird App, et. al., have in various ways shaped journalism, literature, language, and human behavior so that it’s optimized for consumption and engagement. The fact that I regularly hear the term “content” unreflectively deployed in everday conversation is but one example of what I’m talking about.
But I would also argue that distraction and self-justification are innate human desires that the Bay Area overlords are simply exploiting and cultivating, not creating. So, despite my preference for RSS and newsletters, they still act as means for me to pursue my inveterate need to sate those desires. For me, knowledge has always been something I used to define, or defend myself.
So it came about that sometime mid-August of this year, I found myself unable to focus, anxious, depressed, cranky, cynical, and bitter. I don’t remember the exact impetus, but I realized that I needed to change some things.
The detox
Cal Newport’s book helpfully outlines instructions for a digital detox, especially some strategies for those whose work requires they be chained to certain technologies. While he assumes readers are currently using social media, his advice is still applicable for those who don’t.
Basically, my rules were:
- Slack removed from the phone.
- All email accounts removed from the phone.
- Web browser disabled on my phone.
- No reading newsletters.
- No reading blogs.
- No checking micro.blog.
- No reading news. My wife would summarize the headlines for me in ten seconds.
- No web reading, really.
- Deleting all articles from pocket that weren’t work-learning related.
- Check work and personal email once a day.
Additionally, I used Freedom to create blocklists and all day sessions to create some friction. Since I’m a Firefox user, Impulse Blocker also augmented the friction nicely.
Excessive? Maybe, but so were my digital habits.
Findings
- The first week was difficult. The FOMO was real. But the second week of the detox, we went on vacation with some friends to Hatteras. I can honestly say that I did not miss the online world. Games, beach, reading, and just lounging around were sufficiently preoccupying.
- Most news, when discussed, felt increasingly irrelevant.
- The assumption that I need to be “plugged in” or “participating in ‘the discourse’” seemed increasingly silly.
- I sometimes found myself thinking of clever things to share, or thinking that something would make a good blog. I realized I had become habituated to living a performative life. Having been a regular user of the internet for the past 16-ish years, this was unsurprising.
- Once I left my phone at home when we went to church. At times I would instinctively reach for it, but I actually didn’t feel that disconnected. It felt very normal to be without it.
Outcomes
Let me be clear — I didn’t become hyperfocused, found a new company, or master the piano as time went on. If anything, I found myself becoming contented with limits. But, I would say the outcomes have been surprising and still beneficial.
- I decided that a smartphone is worth having. Mostly for maps and music, but also messaging friends and sending pictures. BUT…
- I can do without the browser. If someone sends me something to look at, I can look it up later. I don’t need to react then and there.
- Work Slack can stay — my company respects the lives of their employees, so it’s not much of an intrusion. But recreational Slacks provided too much distraction.
- I unsubscribed from blogs and newsletters with abandon. I don’t have a count of how many I dropped, but I’m confident that I deleted more than I kept. Particularly, I ditched most stuff that’s mostly concerned with politics/current events/The Discourse.
- I began to look at my stack of unread books in a different light. This one was interesting. I realized how I often would pick up a book because it seemed like something I should read or be knowledgeable about, rather than something that truly interested me. Charlottesville has a lot of little neighborhood libraries that’ll ensure these books get to good homes.
- I started playing guitar a lot more, and now I’m getting to play music in church, which I haven’t done for almost ten years.
- I realized how much of my identity I had tacitly wrapped up in writing, even if I didn’t write all that much. I’m an English major who pivoted into software. When I was in undergrad, I received accolades and awards, was invited to present at a conference, and was strongly encouraged to pursue a career in academia. It came naturally for me. And I long harbored a desire to work with words again. But I’m not what I produce, and for too long I’ve believed that I am. Consolidating my web presence here was a way of decisively removing any notion of a “professional” web presence. I know what I need to do to grow in the work I have right now, and it doesn’t involve a blog.
I’m unsure of what all the above means, and I don’t think that I’m immune to picking up old habits again. But, I’m thankful for the experience and the things I’ve learned from it. I highly recommend everyone do this. You might be surprised what you learn.
Turnstile - “Mystery” —a friend recently turned me on to these guys. it’s like the best of 90s hardcore came to give us all a hug in 2021.
Because I know there are some people who watch this space — I’ll be going dark here for the next 30 days or so.
EDIT: I’m doing a “digital detox”. Apologies if the above was cryptic.
I’ve loved Scott Snyder’s writing for a decade now. His work on Batman is some of the best I’ve ever read, but over the years, it was disheartening to see him give more and more of his talent to DC’s machine. So I am very, very excited to see him go independent again.
Two firsts for me last night: first post-vax concert, and first ever BTBAM show. 🎵🤘
AT ⛰⛰
Jack is brushing up on his distributed systems knowledge. 📚
WITI?: The It Runs Doom Edition
The Dispatch’s profile on Chloe Valdary
Installing a home network
Farmers always Worked From Home
Rhyd Wildermuth on leaving social media
Why America Doesn’t Really Make Solar Panels Anymore
Waltern Kirn on The Bullshit
Good to hear these guys again. 🎵
evasions and approaches
Supermarkets and Diversity
No Social Media Club
The Case for Small Towns
Intermission: The Green Martyrdom
Ideology and Its Immune Response
The Controversial Right-Wing Position That Homosexuality is Valid.
How the f is there no lighthouse emoji?
📖🏊♂️🍺👍
Posting to AO Hard Nocs with F3 Jacksonville and dinner at Cap’s On the Water with @jensap have been just a couple of highlights from this week’s St. Augustine vacation.
The Church is abandoning its flock
A Piece of New Jersey We’ll Never Build Again
Retributive Justice and the Free Will Illusion
American Troops Have Evacuated Afghanistan, but They’ve Left Their Pokémon Behind
The War on Reality