To suffer in silence
Being known is being loved
The core idea of the essay could be summarized in an equally as powerful statement brought forth by another Tumblr user: Being known is being loved.
Teach math like you’d teach writing
If this is really how math is done, then why isn't it taught that way at every level?
Learning and vulnerability
It is better to start as a fool and learn from your mistakes than to fake being a genius and ignore your errors.
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standing in a new kitchen barefoot face full of wind. and each one brought a delight so unexpected and profound, it made me shiver with the delicate aliveness of it all.
New Feelings: Screen Protectiveness
Using my phone and computer might feel like nothing more than the static of passing time, but all the micro-decisions I make as I search and swipe and scroll are secretly valuable commodities. Every time I touch a device, I leave a trail of digital DNA that can be used to reverse-engineer some version of me that is used to sell me things. There is a context for each of these. But there is no one explanatory key to unlock the cryptic, boring mess of the whole. For everything that lives on my computer and phone, the only common denominator, really, is me. Something I’ve noticed in my Instagram feed lately: the influencers seem exhausted. It’s not like leveraging authenticity is a new thing, but what strikes me about this version of the trend is how much explanation the smallest acts of self-conscious unraveling involve. The caption-to-photo ratio is off the charts. It takes a whole essay to comfortably give up some of the rough work it takes to be a person. The kinds of digital particulates and residues that turn up in our devices aren’t the things we might normally stake our identities on, but the fact of their being recorded imbues them with new meaning. I read the minor riot of imperfections in my Instagram feed as a heartfelt backlash against the toll it takes to both produce and consume mediated lives. More cynically, I might call it a race to vulnerability in the new competitive landscape of monetized self-exposure. Either way, I get where the impulse comes from — I indulged it only a few paragraphs ago. It’s not like I’m really showing you all the curiously boring stuff that’s in my phone; I’m only telling you about it. And I’m making sure you know that I know how boring it is, before you reach your own judgments. Despite my better knowledge, my devices still feel like private spaces.
I must have missed that
“However, I think this is more a case of accommodation rather than intended design. Group chat is simply a series of free pipes distributed via an app for you to send images and text through. ‘You’ as a group get to decide what is ok, normal, and expected to be shared. Rarely is it ever an explicit ‘decision’.”
2019: Being There
Yesterday, I shared a lot of data about my 2018. I’ve always been pretty forthcoming online. I share a ton of good things, and some of the…
Bo’s PM Return
“I've been thinking a lot about the term "calculated vulnerability". I've seen a lot of my peers write after the resolution of a something hard (overcoming an illness, shutting down a startup, IVF etc) after a happy ending, neatly packaging their vulnerability in a bow. But what if that happy ending doesn't come? Do you just stay in a purgatory? Do you just stay in silence? I've been wondering about what my "resolution" will be so I can start publishing again. This self-imposed hiatus is basically me waiting for a satisfactory resolution in order to start writing again.”