🥳🫶
Maybe on a day like this it is a good idea to look to the Stoics. Gain trust in yourself and the good people around you. Do what’s right. Don’t despair.
Here’s the whole text of this excerpt from the Daily Stoic by Ryan Holliday.
DON’T BE DISTRACTED BY DARKNESS
There’s no question that depressing things happen in this world. They always have and always will. People lie, cheat, steal. Envy, avarice, selfishness-it’s all out there. And it’s hard to miss. I’s easy to despair about this. What do we do? Must it be this way? What’s the point of being good when everyone else is so bad? This is the wrong way to think about it. It’s not up to us to change this unchangeable part of the human species, but instead to think about how to adapt to it, how to integrate it into our understanding of the world and not let it make us miserable. That’s a big part of why the Stoics talk about ignoring what other people do-their lying, cheating and stealing— and focusing on what we do. On making sure that we hold ourselves to a higher standard and put our energy towards evaluating ourselves according to those standards rather than projecting it onto others. Marcus’s best advice on this is worth remembering today: instead of talking about other peoples selfishness and stupidity, our job is “to run straight for the finish line, unswerving.”
To not be distracted by the darkness of others, to head towards the light. To be good without hesitation, even when other people are not. That’s our job. Today and for our whole lives.
My FaceID didn’t work tonight. No idea why. 🎃
New to me backup solution restic
I found the link to a new backup software that looked interesting.
I used to use Arq which costs money. When I was runnning my business and was self-employed it was a sensible cost to pay. Now that I am no longer self-employed I’d like to cut costs. Once Arq will ask to renew my license I’ll switch.
Posting this here for you as much as for me so I can find it again later. 😉
Restic is a modern backup program that can back up your files:
I continued to read “Tress and the Emerald Sea” and it’s been given me thoughts like:
The thing about going by subway is that you might be underground. But you are also not above ground.
Which is important as I am very much freezing above ground right now.
Guter Artikel von @tante@tldr.nettime.org
Beim Spiegel wird geleitartikelt, für ein Verbot der AfD sei es “zu früh”, “Zunächst müssen alle anderen Mittel der wehrhaften Demokratie ausgereizt sein.”
Dann kommt ein konfuser Mix aus “ja, die haben aber so viele Mandate, und deren arme Wähler fühlen sich dann sicher betrogen” und “die Demokraten müssen sich einfach anstrengen”.
[…]
Wie kann man mit einer so geschichtsvergessenen, feigen Position in einen Leitartikel stolpern?
Später verlinkt er einen lesenswerten Artikel von Wiglaf Droste.
Alle Welt sucht das Gespräch mit Rechtsradikalen. Warum? Haben sie einem etwas zu sagen? Ist nicht hinlänglich bekannt, was sie denken, fordern und propagieren? Wo liegt der beschworene aufklärerische Wert, wenn Henryk Bröder in der tageszeitung Franz Schönhuber interviewt? Muß man an jeder Mülltonne schnuppern? Niemand wählt Nazis oder wird einer, weil er sich über deren Ziele täuscht - das Gegenteil ist der Fall: Nazis sind Nazis, weil sie welche sein wollen. Eine der unangenehmsten deutschen Eigenschaften, das triefende Mitleid mit sich selbst und den eigenen Landsleuten, aber macht aus solchen Irrläufern der Evolution arme Verführte, ihrem Wesen nach gut, nur eben ein bißchen labil etc., »Menschen« jedenfalls, so Heinz Eggert, »um die wir kämpfen müssen«.
Ich denke nicht, dass wir mit Nazis reden sollten. Nicht über Politik und nicht über andere Themen. Ich verschwende meine Zeit nicht an selbstgewählte Arschlöcher.
Und die AfD sollte verboten werden.
Ich musste mal was zu diesem EUDI-Mist, der da gerade passiert, etwas schreiben. Das stinkt alles zum Himmel.
Gute Zusammenfassung mit Beleuchtung von Machenschaften, die einfach so passieren…
Falls ihr euch Argumente zurechtlegen möchtet, um mit Menschen zu Themen wie dem Rechtsruck zu diskutieren und dabei in der Lage sein wollt dem Populismus stand zu halten, findet ihr hier einen guten Ansatz: www.aktiv-gegen-diskriminierung.info/argumente…
As I’ve written before, I’ve switched browsers to Vivaldi and am very happy about that choice:
I used to be a big fan of Mozilla’s Firefox browser. Now I read about For Advertising Firefox Now Collects User Data By Default. Learning about stuff like this makes it hard to continue to trust them. What are the alternatives? Going back to Safari? Not sure about what to do.
Today I find a link in my RSS feeds where Mozilla’s strategy is now revealed publicly. They seem to want to create a new advertising infrastructure.
Across both pillars (product and infrastructure), we maintain the same goal – to build digital advertising solutions that respect individuals’ rights. Solutions that achieve a balance between commercial value and public interest. Why is that something for Mozilla to address? Because Mozilla’s mission is to build a better internet. And, for the foreseeable future at least, advertising is a key commercial engine of the internet, and the most efficient way to ensure the majority of content remains free and accessible to as many people as possible.
I am trying to figure out which websites I visit regularly that have to rely on advertising. I will make a small collection and create replies to this post with all the sites that come to mind. It’ll be interesting to see how much the part of the net that I use has to rely on ads.
The brightest flame burns quickest
Maybe the answer is simpler than I think. Maybe I should just keep things simple. If I like my coffee the way it tastes, that should be enough. If I enjoy playing the guitar songs I love, there’s no need to dig into the theory behind them. And when I write on my blog daily or a few times a week, that’s enough too. There’s no need to turn a hobby into something bigger. It’s fine as it is — an enjoyable way to spend time. Trying to grow it into something more only leads to destruction.
I feel you, Yordi. I’ve been there. And I am not sure I am not still there. I always wanted to do things “right”. It’s actually a mantra of mine: “If something is worth doing, it’s worth doing it right.”
But that quickly leads to burnout and boredom. Unless you find a way to do things in moderation. Recently I picked up singing. And I do that maybe once or twice per week. And I enjoy it tremendously. Now I started playing piano again, and mostly re-learning it. And building on the little that I already knew. And I specifically set me the goal of not playing more than once or twice a week. Not daily or anything like that. Because then I know that I would hate it soon.
So yes, my last blog post was a few days ago. I don’t need to write daily. Let others do that. 🫶