Why would anyone want to build a website using Sphinx and reStructuredText? Well, there are some good reasons!

There is no replacement for face-to-face contact to understand people and the field, and it is that important that it trumps all the good points. Even Matt Mullenweg, co-founder of WordPress and CEO of Automattic with a 100% 1,200 people workforce working as a distributed entity, expects his teams to meet face-to-face for a total of 4 weeks a year.

I don’t want to strike! It hurts my students, it hurts the University I love, and it hurts me financially, but sometimes we are left with no choice.

The Problem with Hate There’s a particular flavour of tech criticism that’s become fashionable: “I hate Facebook.” “Delete Facebook.” “Facebook is destroying democracy/our minds/civilization.” And look, the critiques aren’t wrong. Facebook’s business model is fundamentally problematic. Their algorithmic amplification of outrage is documented. The privacy violations are real. The psychological manipulation is deliberate. But here’s the thing: I still love Facebook. Not in the sense that I approve of their business practices or think they’re a net positive for society.

The Long-Form Rebellion In an age of TikTok, Twitter, and infinite-scroll feeds, I’ve rediscovered something wonderfully anachronistic: podcasts. Not the new 8-minute “snackable” podcasts designed for attention-span-challenged audiences, but the original kind – hour-long, unedited conversations that meander, pause, and sometimes go nowhere in particular. And it’s been revelatory. What Makes Podcasts Different They’re Long A typical podcast episode is 45-90 minutes. That’s an eternity in digital-attention terms. You can’t consume a podcast in the gaps between other activities.