Author: Self

“Nintendo DS at 20 – the console that paved the way for smartphone gaming” – Keza MacDonald (Pushing Buttons, Guardian)

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“In retrospect, the Nintendo DS prepared the world for the iPhone, and for the explosion in touchscreen smartphone gaming that would eventually kill off the whole idea of a handheld games console. We don’t need them any more, now that we have one device that fits in our pockets and can do everything from giving us directions and taking photos to playing games. The DS was a half step between the Game Boy and the smartphone – a device that played games but could also do other things”

https://www.theguardian.com/games/2024/nov/12/pushing-buttons-nintendo-ds-at-20-smartphone-gaming

“Why I Will Always Be Angry About Software Engineering” – Ludic

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“For the first time in many years, I was participating in a system where I was acutely aware that there were adults in the room. Adults who do not have recourse to blaming Deloitte when things go wrong, for whom the phrase “post-mortem” means something decidedly more serious than yet another flaccid meeting on why the tenth project in a row has failed”

https://ludic.mataroa.blog/blog/why-i-will-always-be-angry-about-software-engineering/

“The TikTok electorate” – Max Read

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“It’s absolutely true that the tone and content of the videos people consume on TikTok or Instagram affect their understanding of the world around them–but so too do their non-phone experiences, their relationships, their jobs, their mental states, their social worlds, their spending habits, etc. Why do doomers and reactionaries so thoroughly dominate the feeds of young men? Is it something about the specific form of the TikTok feed? Is it billionaire astroturfing? Is it that videos like this are what that audience wants, for reasons largely external to TikTok?”

https://maxread.substack.com/p/the-tiktok-electorate

“How the “Queen of Canada” and Conspiracy Theorists Splintered a Small Town” – Rachel Browne (The Walrus)

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“Anger and frustration in town have been boiling ever since: one person threatened to burn the school down with everyone inside it. A kind of madness has washed over the town, with people who otherwise led quiet lives being brought to the edge. One person told me they’d endure physical violence, even take a bullet if necessary, in order for the RCMP to lay charges against Didulo or her followers”

https://thewalrus.ca/queen-of-canada/

“How Three Big Conspiracy Theories Took Root in Canada” – Daniel R. Meister, Daniel Panneton (The Walrus)

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“In recent years, ideas once considered beyond the pale have made inroads into legitimate institutions and among Canadians. We’ve seen credentialled medical professionals play footsie with anti-vaccine activists wielding sciencey vocabularies, accomplished lawyers push dubious and convenient interpretations of the law, elected officials entertain baseless claims about governmental conspiracy, Convoyites swear themselves in as so-called peace officers with imagined arresting powers, and livestreamers LARP as tenacious, evidence-based journalists”

https://thewalrus.ca/conspiracy-theories-canada/

“On political naiveté” – J.J. McCullough

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“What makes a belief enticing, in turn, seems to be some mixture of comprehensiveness (does it provide a lot of answers), intuitiveness (does it feel correct based on what you already know), flattery (does it make you feel superior for knowing), and relevance (does it allow you to do something in the real world). Beliefs and belief systems that check these boxes are very attractive when we’re young, because they can provide a shortcut to many of the things we crave in early adulthood — certainty, confidence, authority, independence”

https://jjmccullough.substack.com/p/on-political-naivete

“Who’s Really Writing Celebrity Novels?” – Sophie Vershbow (Vulture)

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“I have a couple of books out under my name, and this was a very different experience. We got marketing support, which is an unfamiliar feeling for me. Her media team put together appearances on Good Morning America and the Today show, that kind of stuff. So that was cool in one sense and I guess dispiriting in another because it’s, like, how do beginner writers ever get that sort of coverage?”

https://www.vulture.com/article/celebrity-novels-ghostwriting.html

“On the Occasion of This Election, Let Me Talk to You About Bill Clinton” – Freddie deBoer

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“I’m sorry to constantly repeat this point, but politics is a game of tug-of-war, and the center is nothing but where the middle of the rope ends up. The extremes pull the middle. So if you’re someone with milquetoast liberal squish politics, you should hate Democratic triangulation and timidity as much as I do. Because Republicans relentlessly pulling the rope to the right, while Democrats refuse to pull the rope to the left, has gotten us to a place where conservative policy wins even as conservative candidates lose”

https://freddiedeboer.substack.com/p/on-the-occasion-of-this-election

“Don’t give them what they want” – Julian Simpson

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“Theoretically, the mysterious “Algorithm” (which is nigh-on worshipped, despite the fact that it’s just a glorified ratings system that attempts to predict the future by looking at the past) can tell us what will be a hit and what won’t.

Hence the industry now spends hundred of millions of dollars on action movies that were apparently written in crayon, starring people called Chris, directed by project managers”

https://developmenthell.substack.com/p/dont-give-them-what-they-want