Tom MacWright2024-03-28T15:03:26+00:00JavaScript, math, maps, etchttps://macwright.com/css/favicon.pnghttps://macwright.com/Tom MacWrighttom@macwright.comRecently2024-03-01T00:00:00+00:00https://macwright.com/2024/03/01/recently<p>Busy month! In January, I wrote
<a href="https://blog.val.town/blog/first-four-val-town-runtimes/">about the first four Val Town runtimes</a>, and built a lot of
features in Val Town.</p>
<p>I also hacked around enough to make
<a href="https://play.placemark.io/">Placemark Play</a> available
again, the “free-as-in-beer” Placemark UI. It still
has some warts, but it’s there. Want to improve it?
It’s <a href="https://github.com/placemark/placemark">open source, so you can!</a></p>
<h3 id="listening">Listening</h3>
<iframe style="border: 0; width: 100%; height: 42px;" src="https://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/album=3377545615/size=small/bgcol=ffffff/linkcol=333333/track=1970914321/transparent=true/" seamless=""><a href="https://cocorosiemusic.bandcamp.com/album/put-the-shine-on">Put The Shine On by CocoRosie</a></iframe>
<p>I’ve been listening to this new-to-me CocoRosie
album. I fear that this is <em>millenial music</em> through
and through - they got popular because of the music blogs,
and their sound is almost an in-joke. But, like the rest of
their albums, this one has a few genuine bangers.</p>
<iframe style="border: 0; width: 100%; height: 42px;" src="https://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/album=2963697263/size=small/bgcol=ffffff/linkcol=333333/track=2710878231/transparent=true/" seamless=""><a href="https://oneohtrixpointnever.bandcamp.com/album/again">Again by Oneohtrix Point Never</a></iframe>
<p>I’m late to the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oneohtrix_Point_Never">Oneohtrix Point Never</a> fascination. I came to them
like probably others have - their <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Good_Time_(soundtrack)">soundtrack score</a> for Good time.</p>
<h3 id="watching">Watching</h3>
<p>I’ve been watching <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ozark_(TV_series)">Ozark</a>, which is pretty good.
It’s so intensely color-graded that my cheap TV had trouble
rendering the dynamic range of those near-black tones. I
also watched <a href="https://letterboxd.com/film/a-serious-man/">A Serious Man</a>,
which is a hit.</p>
<h3 id="reading">Reading</h3>
<p>I read <a href="https://macwright.com/2024/02/25/the-fund">The Fund</a>, Rob Copeland’s book about Bridgewater Capital.
The book is 90% a story about personal squabbles and
Bridgewater’s sociopathic management culture, and 10%
about Bridgewater’s actual investment management performance
and style – which is intentional, because the firm seemed
to spend a lot more time on follies than its actual work.
Pretty good book, could’ve been shorter. I suspect it’ll
become a movie or a TV show, and I’d watch either.</p>
<hr />
<p>Boy, I <em>really didn’t like</em> <a href="https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v46/n03/rebecca-solnit/in-the-shadow-of-silicon-valley">In The Shadow of Silicon Valley</a>.
The tech industry
is responsible for so many ills of society - invasions of
privacy, extractive gig-jobs, spreading disinformation, the
list goes on.
But people are just aching to blame them
for San Francisco’s housing crisis, and that’s <em>the one
thing that they aren’t responsible for</em>. Blame
<a href="https://www.foundsf.org/index.php?title=Mayor_Dianne_Feinstein%27s_Failed_Housing_and_Homelessness_Policies">Diane Feinstein</a>
for downzoning the city.
Blame <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howard_Jarvis">Howard Jarvis</a>
for gutting the tax base and subsidizing rich homeowners.
Blame <a href="https://nimby.report/preston">Dean Preston</a> for
stifling housing supply, including fully-subsidized developments.
Or in LA,
<a href="https://www.latimes.com/opinion/editorials/la-ed-aids-healthcare-development-20170225-story.html">Michael Weinstein</a> for bankrolling
NIMBY laws.
There are villains on the left and right alike who have directly
set up the conditions that are creating homelessness and increasing
rents. There’s no sense in trying to string together some
vibes-based theory of how tech is to blame.</p>
<hr />
<p>I really enjoyed Brian Merchant’s <a href="https://www.bloodinthemachine.com/p/torching-the-google-car-why-the-growing">Torching the Google Car</a>,
and didn’t enjoy Eric Newcomer’s <a href="https://www.thefp.com/p/we-are-all-bad-drivers">opposing article in favor of self-driving cars</a>.
I do, though, like a lot of Eric Newcomer’s writing and have
been a subscriber to his Substack in the past. And I also don’t
universally like the content of Brian’s <em>Blood in the Machine</em>
newsletter. So, in other words - let’s have a friendly conversation!</p>
<p>I think the gist of my feeling is this:</p>
<p><strong>Self-driving cars have been over-promised and they’ve failed so far</strong>. I <a href="https://observablehq.com/@tmcw/over-the-self-driving-rainbow">documented this in a visualization before</a>: basically every
car company promised to have a self-driving car by now. Everyone
missed the mark, massively. They vastly underestimated the
challenge of building such a thing, and all the macho
“machine learning for self driving cars” engineers collected
fat paychecks but didn’t create the thing they were paid to create.</p>
<p>No, the “self-driving cars” in San Francisco don’t count:
they have remote drivers, who have to take over often,
and they are only approved to operate in a small, highly-mapped
area. They also aren’t production vehicles and haven’t
met <a href="https://www.synopsys.com/automotive/autonomous-driving-levels.html">Level 5 qualifications</a>. They are <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mechanical_Turk">the mechanical turk</a>: you can fool
yourself into thinking there’s no guy operating the chessboard
from within the suspiciously-large box below it, but
the guy is there.</p>
<p>And now, having failed to produce a self-driving car using
LIDAR, machine learning, cameras, high-resolution maps,
these companies want permission to use our roads
and pedestrians as training data. With all due respect,
they <em>aren’t very good at this</em>. Why do they deserve to
put people in danger?</p>
<p><strong>Our streets are thoroughly political and we are so
fucking tired of people dying because car companies and
drivers get their way, every time.</strong>
The things that safe-streets advocates have been talking
about for years haven’t changed: the speed and size of cars
needs to decrease. This is obvious. There is no discussion necessary. Cities that lower speed limits have fewer deaths. <a href="https://www.hobokennj.gov/news/city-of-hoboken-reaches-new-vision-zero-milestone-seven-consecutive-years-without-a-traffic-death">It has been working for Hoboken</a>, which has reduced the city speed limit to 20mph
and achieved zero pedestrian deaths in years.
<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2023/12/11/upshot/nighttime-deaths.html">Bigger cars kill more</a>.
We <a href="https://nyc.streetsblog.org/2024/02/27/cyclist-killed-after-being-doored-into-traffic-on-unsafe-brooklyn-street">know which streets are dangerous and how we’d fix them, but our leaders aren’t fixing them and people continue to die</a>.</p>
<p>I don’t know. It’s tiring, there is only so long that you
can shout and point at the things that are so obviously
wrong and so clearly fixable, and be met with silence
and <a href="https://nyc.streetsblog.org/2024/01/02/year-in-review-in-2023-nycs-ambitious-streets-master-plan-was-just-pretty-paper-and-maps">backsliding</a>. Cars are <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GMC_Hummer_EV">getting more dangerous for pedestrians</a>
and the <a href="https://apnews.com/article/technology-road-safety-national-transportation-board-automotive-accidents-dd5c4260f68e9f5dcb430a02cc939f6b">National Transportation Safety Board</a> is allowing it.
Regulators from the NTSB are concerned, they say, but not concerned enough to
do anything, because that responsibility falls in the hands
of the NHTSA, which also doesn’t do anything.
Thoughts and prayers to anyone <a href="https://www.consumerreports.org/car-safety/the-hidden-dangers-of-big-trucks/">not tall enough to be seen in front of your monster pickup truck</a>.</p>
<p>And, yeah, I don’t know - maybe the two aren’t in conflict.
But I must say, in conversations I’ve had, <em>they are</em>.
Both car-fans and electeds argue that soon we don’t need
safer streets or better public transit because self-driving
cars will perfect the art of driving. And a suspicious number
of people who talk about the urgency of pedestrian deaths
as a reason to support self-driving cars are silent about
the more basic reforms that could happen today. This includes
Newcomer, who I hope is more vocal about the basics in the future.</p>
<p>Anyway, the thing with self-driving car companies is that
they don’t need your tweets of approval, your supportive
articles, your pro bono trolling in the replyguy trollcaves.
They have lobbyists and money, and longstanding relationships
with regulators. Money wins.</p>
<p>There’s no upside for safe streets advocates, nothing to sell.
We’ve been saying the same thing for years. The only upside
is that people would die less if better policies are implemented.
Is that enough?</p>
Tom MacWrighthttps://macwright.com/about/Recently2024-02-01T00:00:00+00:00https://macwright.com/2024/02/01/recently<p><img src="/images/2024-02-01-recently-dolphin-in-a-school-window.jpeg" alt="Dolphin in a school window" /></p>
<p>Well, I missed a <em>Recently</em> post on January 1st, so scratch
any other resolutions, I’ll just live my life.</p>
<h2 id="reading">Reading</h2>
<p><a href="https://tonsky.me/blog/checkbox/">In loving memory of the square checkbox</a>
is the kind of UX rant I’m there for. Interfaces that have
different behaviors should look different, and familiar styles
are so valuable.</p>
<p>I <a href="https://macwright.com/2024/01/24/on-web-components.html">wrote about Web Components</a> and
<a href="https://jakelazaroff.com/words/the-web-component-success-story/">Jake Lazaroff wrote in response: “The Web Component Success Story”</a>.
I agree with his response 100%: it’d be lovely if we didn’t have
to cart in a big framework just to create a tooltip,
and it’d be great if maintainers didn’t need to write a version
of a library for 5 different front-end frameworks. Maybe
that’s where Web Components will fit in.</p>
<p>This post about <a href="https://moderncss.dev/12-modern-css-one-line-upgrades/">modern CSS upgrades</a>
is a nice hit of optimism. My only addition is <a href="https://macwright.com/2023/12/19/has">:has</a>: the has selector has totally
changed the things that are possible with CSS. I’m using the heck out of it.</p>
<p>Plus:</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://ferd.ca/counting-forest-fires.html">Counting forest fires</a>, an article about
keeping servers online and fixing “incidents” in tech companies.</li>
<li><a href="https://www.garbageday.email/p/the-great-silent-majority-of-american">Garbage Day on the Stanley Cup</a> thing.
These cultural moments are a good time to inspect the bubble
we live in. Outside of my bubble <a href="https://frontofficesports.com/the-list-of-the-top-tv-broadcasts-in-2023-looks-familiar-nfl-nfl/">93% of the most-watched TV is football</a>.
I like it in my bubble.</li>
<li>I’m <em>not</em> <a href="https://macwright.com/2023/04/15/ai">a big AI critic</a>, but I don’t like AI art very much
and nobody has written about it better than <a href="https://ia.net/topics/ai-art-is-the-new-stock-image">iA’s AI art is the new stock image</a>.</li>
</ul>
<p>In books:</p>
<p><a href="https://macwright.com/2024/01/22/swing-time">Swing Time</a> was so good.
I’m reading <a href="https://islandpress.org/books/affordable-city">The Affordable City</a> right now and it’s pretty good too,
in, of course, a totally different way.</p>
<h3 id="watching">Watching</h3>
<p>I watched 8 movies in January, somehow, but the only one that stuck
with me was <a href="https://letterboxd.com/film/poor-things-2023/">Poor Things</a>.
It’s fantastic. Delivers on every level. A romp.</p>
<p>I have, by the way, been making videos about Placemark and stuff.
Here’s one, in a handy embed:</p>
<iframe width="100%" height="315" src="https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/LGq1mI3U6CI?si=P_JmwBlahh6O1Qim" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<p>Making video content <em>takes so long</em>, and I’m afraid
at every turn that it’s cringe. But it
also seems like a good format for talking about visual things
like Placemark and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uDz53MzwbkQ">the Figma plugins</a> I’ve been maintaining.</p>
<p>Video software is not great: <a href="https://www.telestream.net/screenflow/overview.htm">ScreenFlow</a> crashes, <a href="https://www.descript.com/">Descript</a>
crashes, Cleanshot is too minimal, Detail’s performance
is pretty bad, OBS works but the interface
looks open source. I’m using Descript right now, but planning
on using OBS and/or DaVinci Resolve for the next video that I
make.</p>
<h3 id="listening">Listening</h3>
<iframe style="border: 0; width: 100%; height: 120px;" src="https://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/album=2425829138/size=large/bgcol=ffffff/linkcol=333333/tracklist=false/artwork=small/track=578274567/transparent=true/" seamless=""><a href="https://thesmile.bandcamp.com/album/wall-of-eyes">Wall Of Eyes by The Smile</a></iframe>
<p>The new album by <em>The Smile</em> (40% of Radiohead plus <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Skinner_(drummer)">Tom Skinner</a>)
is awesome. I’ve been listening to this song all the time.</p>
<iframe width="100%" height="315" src="https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/WyXFfKYbtQU?si=pxiHsfqAaPWGUYAk&start=865" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<p>This song “Without” by Sampha is also spectacular, and the version
in this Tiny Desk performance looks fun.</p>
<h3 id="elsewhere">Elsewhere</h3>
<p>I wrote about <a href="https://macwright.com/2024/01/28/work-hard-and-take-everything-seriously">working hard</a> and people seemed to like it!</p>
<p>Also, if you missed the post before - <a href="https://macwright.com/2024/01/19/placemark-oss">Placemark, the map editing tool that I wrote, is now open source</a>.
It has over 900 stars on GitHub! And some contributions already -
<a href="https://github.com/placemark/placemark/pull/16">including a Docker configuration!</a> I really hope that it goes someplace. I’m tempted to
throw a little time into it, to help with <a href="https://github.com/placemark/placemark/issues/14">moving it to Maplibre</a>. I don’t know if I’ll
get the time to do a lot of development on it, but I’ll say that I’m
absolutely going to spend the time to review and merge PRs promptly!</p>
Tom MacWrighthttps://macwright.com/about/Work hard and take everything really seriously2024-01-28T00:00:00+00:00https://macwright.com/2024/01/28/work-hard-and-take-everything-seriously<p>Every few months on Twitter, there’s some dustup about work-life
balance and whether it’s a good or bad idea to work hard when you’re
young. Like most of these recurring debates, it has generated two
opposite archetypes:</p>
<p><strong>The anti-capitalist</strong> tells the young worker not to trust HR and not to
buy into the idea of work as family. Your employment contract is the
only thing that binds you to your job, and that can be terminated on
either side. Arrive at 9, leave at 5. Prioritize the family.</p>
<p><strong>The hustlebro</strong> tells you to wake up at 7am and get to work, and
give it your all. Hustle, and earn as much as you can, build those
connections. You can get work-life balance when you’re older, your
early 20s are the time for <em>making that cheddar</em> and staying
up till 1am.</p>
<hr />
<p>In the short form, it’s hard to take a stance and not get grouped
into either extreme. It’s also hard not to feel baited by someone
who’s engagement-farming their social media presence by using
time-tested bait questions.</p>
<p>This last time I responded something like:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>work really hard and take everything very seriously</p>
</blockquote>
<p>But I deleted it. A truism as an answer will lead people
to all kinds of unintended conclusions about me and whatever I’m
saying. I’ll need to use more words.</p>
<h3 id="wisdom-is-acquired-by-experience">Wisdom is acquired by experience</h3>
<p>I think the honest answer is that most people can’t gain perspective
and moderation and maturity by reading someone’s advice online.
The wise 35-year old dads on Twitter can follow their own advice
about work-life boundaries because they’ve suffered the consequences.
There’s no shortcut to perspective:
you have to <a href="https://blog.pinboard.in/2014/07/pinboard_turns_five/">acquire it by experiencing bad things and suffering consequences</a>.</p>
<h3 id="energy-begets-energy">Energy begets energy</h3>
<p>I attribute a lot of my career path to my working really hard
and caring a lot about things. I quickly internalized the
lesson that a 9-5 job wouldn’t teach me enough, and wouldn’t give me
all the intellectual stimulation or rigor that I wanted – so
I worked longer hours, worked on side projects, hunted down my
interests like a puppy chasing a squirrel.</p>
<p>The thing is, when you find a good thing to focus on, a thing to
pour energy into, it can be positive-sum. It can give you energy
in the rest of your life, give you a sense of purpose. The human
body is <a href="https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/trump-body-finite-energy/">not like a battery with a finite amount of energy</a>.
There are lots of things you can do, like exercise, learning, and practice,
that can be rewarding and increase your ability. This is obvious,
right?</p>
<p>If you have <em>that thing</em> that drives you, and that thing isn’t work
and can never be work, then sure – get the lightest-duty job
you can. Pour time into that thing. Maybe what you do at work is
your main output, or part of your output, or just what you do
for money.</p>
<h3 id="most-jobs-dont-give-you-time-to-learn">Most jobs don’t give you time to learn</h3>
<p>Many jobs, especially in technology, don’t have real,
intentional, educational components. There is no time set-aside
for learning, no time to practice, and no dedicated instructor.</p>
<p>It’s unlikely that what you learned in college fully prepared
you for the job. It’s possible that you’ll have a wonderful
mentor with lots of time to spare, but probably not.</p>
<p>I’ve worked with people who are smart enough to learn everything
on the job, from 9-5. I’m not one of them. For me, to really
understand something, I need to build it two or three times,
write about it, use it incorrectly, and learn the consequences.
Working hard meant playing around, having fun, but essentially
playing with a lot of things that were not directly part of
what I was paid to do at that time. This, honestly, worked out
extremely well and some of those things led to jobs and
opportunities that I never would have had otherwise. Writing
this blog is one of those things.</p>
<h3 id="working-hard-on-boring-repetitive-stuff-is-bad">Working hard on boring repetitive stuff is bad</h3>
<p>Probably the biggest caveat to this whole post is that working
hard in my experience was never working double-shifts or “hustling”
for money or having multiple jobs. There are a million kinds of work
that you simply don’t learn anything from, after a point. Thankfully,
technology work is usually accretive, as are other sorts of
knowledge-work.</p>
<h3 id="maybe-you-dont-want-to-do-this-but-i-did">Maybe you don’t want to do this, but I did</h3>
<p>Maybe you don’t want to follow that path. That’s fine: not everyone
is compelled by learning or intellectual rabbit-holes or exists
in an industry where it’s pretty easy to self-educate. Or wants
to “max out” their career. And it’s dangerous to generalize from
a single experience. And it’s also dangerous to judge “a career”
based on external appearances, which don’t tell you whether the
person turned out to be happy, or rich. I haven’t maxed out either
of those things, but I have few career regrets: I’ve always
cared most about building useful things and learning and I think
I’ve nearly maxed out those categories.</p>
<p>This is the answer to that question, of what advice could I have
for someone in their early 20s. Well, that’s what I did – I worked
pretty hard and was pretty unrestrained in pursuing interests.
It worked out fine. Now that I’m older, my priorities have shifted
slightly and I spend a little more time on other things, and am
slowly becoming more balanced. But balance isn’t how I got here.
Balance isn’t how a lot of the people I admire got to where they
are now.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I’m all for moderation, but sometimes it seems<br />
Moderation itself can be a kind of extreme - Andrew Bird</p>
</blockquote>
<h3 id="when-your-priorities-shift-youll-know">When your priorities shift, you’ll know</h3>
<p>In the end, most people gain responsibilities. You’ll have a
baby or a family member to take care of, or a thriving social life
that demands more of your time. Your priorities will snap into place
and you’ll realize that you care about new things. This is great.
This will probably happen. But before you have those new
responsibilities, you don’t have those new responsibilities.
You have time to try and build a ‘rocket ship’ startup or chase
down silly projects or learn a new instrument or run a thousand
miles a year. Do that stuff. You don’t have to prematurely act like
you’re older.</p>
<hr />
<p>So, heed the warnings of those 30-somethings about burnout and
workplace boundaries. And don’t work 24/7 on busywork for a startup
if you’re not learning anything.</p>
<p>You can burn out by going too fast, or your flame can dim because
you don’t let yourself spend silly amounts of time on silly projects
to satisfy your intellectual curiosity. Beware of both outcomes:
cultivate your enthusiasm for the things you want to hang onto.</p>
<p>It isn’t a revolutionary idea that people who are excellent in
their fields often get there by trying really hard. If you can
figure out the difference between busy-work that only benefits
your employer, and the kind of work that makes you as a person
feel like you’re making progress and becoming more skilled,
then you’re ready to learn.</p>
Tom MacWrighthttps://macwright.com/about/Placemark is now open source2024-01-19T00:00:00+00:00https://macwright.com/2024/01/19/placemark-oss<p><a href="https://github.com/placemark/placemark">Placemark is now open source</a>! In short:</p>
<ul>
<li>MIT license</li>
<li>TypeScript codebase</li>
<li>Contributions welcome</li>
</ul>
<p>Placemark is the <a href="https://www.placemark.io/">map editor software-as-a-service</a> that
I built for several years. It’s a website where you can import, create, edit,
export, publish, and visualize geospatial data. I’m open sourcing it, so it will
now be possible to run your own instance of the web application. You can see
some of the things that Placemark can do <a href="https://www.youtube.com/@_tmcw/videos">in explainer YouTube videos</a>,
read the <a href="https://www.placemark.io/">old marketing website that is now archived</a>,
and consult <a href="https://www.placemark.io/?path=/blog">the blog</a> that includes
many details about features and technology choices.</p>
<p>If you want to learn about the open source codebase, I wrote quite a few blog posts about the architecture <a href="https://github.com/placemark/docs">that are now archived in the docs repo</a>. The README has been expanded, to some extent, with setup details.</p>
<p>I’d really love if folks tried out and made use of it. You can really do anything - use it as the foundation for your own application, pull parts into standalone modules, you name it.</p>
<p><a href="https://github.com/placemark/placemark">→ Placemark repository</a></p>
<hr />
<p>Details:</p>
<ul>
<li>The public repository has a flat git history, to maximize security and keep my silly
private commit messages out of the public web. I made 1,439 commits, 406,048++ 218,320–
throughout the year. <a href="https://github.com/akre54">Adam Krebs</a> contributed to
the feature table element as well (3 commits, 570++ 279–)</li>
<li>It’s complicated. I know it’s a fairly complicated codebase, and also that it is need
of an update to Next.js. It’s also built on <a href="https://blitzjs.com/">Blitz</a>, which,
while I love it, is getting lapped by tools like <a href="https://npmtrends.com/@trpc/server-vs-blitz">tRPC</a>,
and could be replaced with them.</li>
<li>I’ll be moving more issues from the private repository to the public one
over time.</li>
<li>The <a href="https://www.placemark.io/">Placemark website</a> is staying online as-is
for a little while, until I can archive some pages that are hard to archive. Any advice
for how to archive a Webflow site would be much appreciated: their options
are really limited.</li>
<li>Have any other questions, or comments? Ask me. <a href="https://github.com/placemark/placemark/discussions">The discussions board</a>
is probably a good place to do that, if you have something private you need to
ask, my email is on this site.</li>
<li>I’m doing great! <a href="https://www.val.town/">Val Town</a> is going really well, and
I’m excited for Placemark’s new era. Don’t worry about me.</li>
</ul>
Tom MacWrighthttps://macwright.com/about/Year in Review2023-12-28T00:00:00+00:00https://macwright.com/2023/12/28/year-in-review<p>The last time I wrote a “year in review” post was <a href="https://macwright.com/2017/12/22/year-in-review">2017</a>, and before that in <a href="https://macwright.com/2012/07/04/a-year">2012</a>. Reading my old writing is nostalgic and horrific.</p>
<iframe width="100%" height="316" frameborder="0" src="https://observablehq.com/embed/@tmcw/books-per-year@126?cells=chart"></iframe>
<p>By the numbers, 2023 was pretty normal: I read around 20 books, ran around 400 miles. It’s funny how the statistics even out to the same numbers when, during the year, I think I’m in a reading drought or, like several months this year, hadn’t run in weeks.</p>
<h3 id="what-was-the-best">What was the best?</h3>
<p><img src="/images/2023-12-28-year-in-review-van.jpeg" alt="van" /></p>
<p>I think that the best book in general that I read was <a href="https://macwright.com/2023/04/29/achieving-our-country">Achieving Our Country</a> by Richard Rorty. I think I’ve been politically shifting for a while now – not to the left or the right, but around questions of reform versus radicalism, unification versus schism. Rorty isn’t the last word on the matter, but reading him was inspiring because it opened my eyes to the other possibilities of how the left could organize and communicate. The best fiction book was <a href="https://macwright.com/2023/03/12/kindred">Kindred</a>. Octavia E. Butler writes books that are more vivid than any film.</p>
<p>I think my favorite film of the year was also, probably, the last one that I saw - <a href="https://letterboxd.com/film/the-favourite/">The Favorite</a>. Every Olivia Coleman performance gets me - even her brief role in <em>The Bear</em>, and I’m fully on board with the weird artistic vision of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yorgos_Lanthimos">Yorgos Lanthimos</a>.</p>
<h3 id="what-was-2023">What was 2023?</h3>
<p><img src="/images/2023-12-28-year-in-review-mushrooms.jpeg" alt="mushrooms" /></p>
<p>For tech, the main element was the unified shift from crypto to AI. I <a href="https://macwright.com/2023/04/15/ai">wrote about AI</a>, and read a bit about AI. I don’t think it’s going to take over the world, or make everyone’s lives better, and I don’t think it’s a dud like crypto was.</p>
<p>If there’s anything, I think that crypto was a unifying moment for an ugly subculture in technology. The lazy indifference to substance and truth, the zero-sum scammer mindset. The insufferable cockiness that they’ll eventually be proven right. The broad-daylight connections to far-right conservative politics and ideology.</p>
<p>I hated crypto, and still do. Tech is about making something real and making the world better: crypto created nothing and made the world worse.</p>
<p>I like AI better, relatively. But I’m afraid that the subculture of crypto has permeated AI to some extent. The guaranteed eventuality of AI taking over, becoming better with every training, is the new edition of the guaranteed eventuality of hyper-bitcoinization. Anyone who doubts this is a luddite who is “<abbr title="Not going to make it">ngmi</abbr>,” in the lingo of crypto.</p>
<p>Hearkening back to Rorty, I think that I recognize <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millenarianism">millenarianism</a> in many of these movements – the organization of a belief system around a coming fundamental reorganization of society.
Whether it’s crypto people on the eventual fall of fiat currency and hyperinflation, or AI on the eventual overcoming of the mind, or Christians on the Second Coming, or Marxists on the eventual revolution. The more I experience, the less I believe in any kind of eventuality or assured destination.</p>
<p>Of course, it is useful to have a narrative, and an assured march toward progress or salvation is a good one. But we should remember that history isn’t some epic story. An innovation that seems obvious in hindsight can sit undiscovered for decades. Technology can go backwards, like how we <a href="https://idlewords.com/2010/03/scott_and_scurvy.htm">forgot about Vitamin C and scurvy</a>, or <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_concrete">ancient concrete</a> or <a href="https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v45/n23/jonah-goodman/a-national-evil">iodide</a>. Nothing is guaranteed, everything is intentional.</p>
<p>Anyway, I don’t know – AI is fine. It’s an improvement. I’m so tired of having to talk about it with friends and family and at work. I’ve lived through Web 2.0, the metaverse, crypto, chatbots, audio assistants, the sharing economy, VR, the mobile web, the internet of things, wearable technology. AI is another thing to put on the covers of magazines. My job hasn’t changed that much: designing and implementing technology is still hard and worthwhile. The reasons I got into it – that I love learning, understanding, solving problems – aren’t affected by the trends.</p>
<p>Besides that, what was 2023?</p>
<p>2023 was the first time I felt afraid to write anything about geopolitics.
That fear has been validated a few times. So here’s where I would’ve
written something but won’t.</p>
<h3 id="new-york">New York</h3>
<p>It’s dangerous to say given the global scenario, but for me, this was a pretty good year. Brooklyn has been a vastly better place for me to live than <a href="https://macwright.com/2021/05/02/recently">San Francisco was</a>. My community is here, I love my neighborhood, and there is always more to discover. I’ve lived in DC and San Francisco before this. By the time I left DC, I had seen basically every corner of the city. The only remaining neighborhoods to discover were the bland city cottage streets of Spring Valley or Barnaby Woods. San Francisco too felt like a known quantity after a few years. I didn’t review <a href="https://macwright.com/hills/">all of the hills</a>, but I saw most of the major ones.</p>
<p>New York is expansive in a way that’s hard to comprehend. Its population is 10x San Francisco, 12x DC. It’s 5x larger than DC, 6x larger than SF. The diversity and density is unlike anything in America. It’s a place I could live my whole life and still not know every neighborhood. There are pockets of it that look like suburbs, but most of the city is undeniably a city. It’s an incredible place to live.</p>
<p><img src="/images/2023-12-28-year-in-review-bike.jpeg" alt="bike" /></p>
<p>This year I really liked <a href="https://pioneerworks.org/">Pioneer Works</a>, where I saw some great music. I started running the trails in the woods in Prospect Park. I used the heck out of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citi_Bike">Citi Bike</a>, and got used to riding across the bridges into Manhattan. Found a bakery I like - <a href="https://www.labicyclettebakery.com/menu">La Bicyclette</a>, and the ideal bar for the mid-30s crowd, <a href="https://www.beerwitchbrooklyn.com/">Beer Witch</a>. I joined <a href="https://whitney.org/">The Whitney</a> and <a href="https://www.moma.org/">MoMA</a> and went a few times.</p>
<h3 id="work">Work</h3>
<p>At the end of 2022, I decided that I needed a job. <a href="https://www.placemark.io/">Placemark</a> had made an impact but plateaued at a certain revenue number, and I wanted to place another bet instead of doubling down. I joined <a href="https://www.val.town/">Val Town</a>, maintained Placemark, but announced its <a href="https://macwright.com/2023/11/13/placemark">end in November</a>.</p>
<p>Val Town has been great, and I’m excited for our 2024 plans. What one can hope for in startups is <em>to solve a lot of interesting problems, and let none of them be interpersonal beefs</em>. We’ve certainly had our share of meaty technical problems to solve at the core of the product, and trying to solve those at the same time as iterating fast on user-facing UI, branding, and social features. And it’s all been from a place that’s honestly a pretty darn good workplace. Anyone who has worked at very small companies (we’re 3) knows how hard it can be to have both.</p>
<p>I’m still in the midst of Placemark shutdown plans. Turning off services, filing for dissolution of the LLC, moving billing information around so I can close the bank account. I’ve been taking <a href="https://macwright.com/2023/12/20/saas-exit">some related notes</a> on the micro blog.</p>
<p>Is this the right time and place for a Placemark “post-mortem”? Probably not. I’ll just summarize: finding a profitable niche in which to launch a solo bootstrapped company, and then running that company, is hard work and really challenging mentally. I have no regrets making the decision to start it, or to shut it down, and I think when I try again, I’ll be at least 10% better.</p>
<p>In the process of all of this, I’ve seen every variation of company. The big companies whose CEOs wished they stayed small, and who are just waiting for a moment to exit. The bootstrapped companies on their third year of unprofitability. The bootstrapped company making six-figure profit that the founder is mostly just bored by and never talks about.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>As my aunt Grace, who lived in the Ozarks, put it, “I get what I want, but I know what to want.” - <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/12/opinion/sunday/women-older-happiness.html">The Joy of Being a Woman in Her 70s</a></p>
</blockquote>
<p>If there’s one quote that I try to live by, it’s this one. Learning what actually is happiness for you, is success for you, is one of the most useful things you can do. The definition of success is not obvious or universal.</p>
<h3 id="2024">2024</h3>
<p>See you there. I’ll probably have a normal post on January 1.</p>
Tom MacWrighthttps://macwright.com/about/Homeownership2023-12-21T00:00:00+00:00https://macwright.com/2023/12/21/homeownership<p>Most people I know fit into one of two camps: they either want to buy a house
and they can’t, or they’ve bought a house. The desire to own ones own home is
almost universal in the people I know in the US. It’s even stronger for folks
who live outside of major cities. And people for whom the “security” part of
homeownership rings stronger - who grew up in instability or in countries where
physical goods are preferred to financial instruments for savings.</p>
<p>I don’t want to buy a house. Maybe I’ll need to, but I can’t help but think that
the milestone is vastly overrated in public imagination and there are problems
with it on a personal and societal level.</p>
<h3 id="economics">Economics</h3>
<p>Houses are non-diversified, illiquid holdings that make up too large a
percentage of people’s total invested assets.</p>
<p>Your neighborhood, your city, even your state could hit a snag that causes home
values to decrease. I’ve lived in neighborhoods that seemed like they were on
the upswing, only to see them stagnate (in terms of value) for years. You
wouldn’t put 80% of your investments into a company with one office in one town,
but people make the same concentration decision with housing.</p>
<p>The risk of housing is obscured by its illiquidity. You only know what your
house is worth when you sell it, and you only do that rarely. So even though
that price might be shifting rapidly, it makes less of a mental impact than
seeing a chart of some stock or bond fluctuating in value.</p>
<p>Homeowners over-invest in their own homes. Your buyer’s agent is paid a
percentage of the home price, so they are incentivized to recommend bigger and
more expensive houses. The illiquidity of housing means that you can’t easily
upsize to a house with another bedroom, so you’re pushed to buy a bigger house
than you need right now and to “grow into it.” People with more expensive homes
then
<a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0094119002005144?via%3Dihub">go on to invest less in other assets</a>.</p>
<p>Homes are illiquid: you can’t easily and cheaply buy and sell them. The
transaction costs are enormous:
<a href="https://www.bankrate.com/real-estate/closing-costs-in-new-york/">realtor fees at 5-6% of the home value</a>
are just the starting point. The real estate industry’s
<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/31/realestate/nar-antitrust-lawsuit.html">blatant collusion</a>
is finally the subject of a lawsuit, but there’s no knowing when, or if, the
industry’s fees will decrease.</p>
<p>In comparison, there are plenty of liquid things you can buy. Even with the
dust-up around
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Payment_for_order_flow">payment for order flow</a>,
stocks are
<a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2020-01-03/how-nyse-went-from-quasi-cartel-to-zero-fee-stock-trading">cheaper to buy and sell than they’ve ever been</a>.
A recent analysis showed that the hidden price of “free” trading is 0.07% at TD
Ameritrade, 0.23% at Fidelity, 0.31% at Robinhood, and so on. Low numbers. And
instant: you can buy or sell most of these things any time between 9:30am and
4pm on most days.</p>
<p>Stocks aren’t perfect, and neither are other financial instruments, but no other
thing you buy is nearly as inefficient and haphazard to buy and sell as a house.</p>
<p>Homes also have countless
<a href="https://www.investopedia.com/the-hidden-costs-of-owning-a-home-4776306">phantom costs</a>
that aren’t included in most people’s calculations: everything from taxes, to
replacing a roof, to the time it takes to do house upkeep. As they saying goes,
rent is the most you’ll pay, whereas a mortgage is the baseline.</p>
<p>When I bring up these issues to my tired friends who just want me to stop
talking and relax, they often say that, well - they don’t think of housing as
investment. They wish it wasn’t treated as investment. Unfortunately, housing is
more of a financialized good than anything else, and there’s no way to interact
with it differently. It’s hard and rare to buy a house with the mechanics of a
broker. Most people are going to use a mortgage - which is a highly leveraged
asset tied in with government and private industry backing. As I like to say,
<a href="https://byrnehobart.medium.com/the-30-year-mortgage-is-an-intrinsically-toxic-product-200c901746a">the 30 year mortgage is an intrinsically toxic product</a>.</p>
<h3 id="homeownership-is-not-a-social-good">Homeownership is not a social good</h3>
<p>A lot of logic around homeownership centers around the idea that homeowners are
invested in their communities. Homeownership is, in the words of a million
realtors,
<a href="https://www.gcar.net/news/entry/why-homeownership-matters-an-investment-in-your-community">an investment in your community</a>.
We assume that homeowners are going to be better “eyes on the street” for when
things to wrong, and for them to take the initiative to improve their blocks.</p>
<p>It’s hard to quantify these good feelings and positive vibes. It is possible to
quantify other things.</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">In the UK, even among homeowners, Millennials are less conservative than previous generations, and show no sign of following the old trend. <a href="https://t.co/yKXsGbYEYZ">pic.twitter.com/yKXsGbYEYZ</a></p>— John Burn-Murdoch (@jburnmurdoch) <a href="https://twitter.com/jburnmurdoch/status/1608759025084297216?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 30, 2022</a></blockquote>
<script async="" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<p>Buying a house makes even
<a href="https://williammarble.co/docs/MarbleNallJOP.pdf">liberal homeowners as opposed to local development as conservative ones</a>.</p>
<p><img src="/images/2023-12-21-homeownership-political-turnout-for-issues-between-renters-and-homeowners.png" alt="Political turnout for issues between renters and homeowners" /></p>
<p>The gap can be pretty big: one study showed that 75% of renters supported new
housing being built in their area, while
<a href="https://cayimby.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/public-release-memo.CA-YIMBY.F.2019.05.16.pdf">only 51% of homeowners did</a>.</p>
<p>The availability of homes and mortgages has a
<a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2021/05/08/991535564/black-americans-and-the-racist-architecture-of-homeownership">long history of overt racism</a>
at every level. But it’s remarkable that <em>even in an article about how this
system has failed so many Americans</em>, we still have to say that homeownership is
“an undeniable part of the American dream.” I’m a big fan of that Stafford Beer
quote:
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_purpose_of_a_system_is_what_it_does">the purpose of a system is what it does</a>.
The purpose of the real estate industry, until recently, or until now, or now,
has been to further segregation. Let’s not judge it based on what it has failed
to do.</p>
<p>The refrain that homeownership is investment in community, or participation in
the American dream, is so ingrained in culture, that so too is its inverse: that
renters aren’t. It is suspiciously convenient that
<a href="https://www.nar.realtor/magazine/real-estate-news/study-homeowner-wealth-is-40-times-higher-than-renters">richer people so happen to also be morally superior</a>.
And it’s especially troubling that in major cities where homeownership rates are
low
– <a href="https://furmancenter.org/thestoop/entry/snapshot-of-homeownership-in-new-york-city">33% in New York City</a>,
<a href="https://www.ppic.org/blog/homeownership-trends-in-california/">38% in San Francisco</a>
– public office is invariably held by homeowners.</p>
<h3 id="the-current-homeownership-norms-are-shaped-by-racist-post-wwii-government-subsidies-and-explicit-anti-leftism">The current homeownership norms are shaped by racist post-WWII government subsidies and explicit anti-leftism</h3>
<p>America’s current homeownership rates are part of a post-WWII push. In 1900,
46.5% owned homes - now it’s around 66%. This is due in part to suburban sprawl,
but also due to the
<a href="https://www.defense.gov/News/Feature-Stories/Story/article/1727086/75-years-of-the-gi-bill-how-transformative-its-been/">GI Bill</a>,
which subsidized the mortgages for 20% of all new homes after the war, for
soldiers, particularly for
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G.I._Bill#Racial_discrimination">white soldiers</a>.</p>
<p>The push to own homes seems even stronger amongst my more leftist friends,
understandably because of the rapaciousness of landlords and the allure of
“exiting” from part of capitalism. But the boosterism around homeownership that
created our current environment was
<a href="https://redsails.org/concessions/#home-ownership-the-best-antidote-to-radicalism">explicitly and loudly capitalist and anti-radical</a>:</p>
<p>From a Washington Post column in 1919 (from the linked article):</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Widespread and successful home owning activities in the United States this
spring would do more to alleviate social unrest and build a bulwark against
the encroachments of bolshevism than any other single development.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>From an organization of realtors:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Socialism and communism do not take root in the ranks of those who have their
feet firmly embedded in the soil of America through homeownership.</p>
</blockquote>
<h3 id="who-else-is-saying-this">Who else is saying this?</h3>
<lite-youtube videoid="hTy2Vh0GuIQ"></lite-youtube>
<p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTy2Vh0GuIQ">Ramit Sethi</a> is a standout for
talking about how to have financial security without focusing on homeownership.
Georgism, and <a href="https://seethecat.org/">The Henry George Program</a>, and its
<a href="https://twitter.com/bufordsharkley">very entertaining host</a>, are also not
afraid to call out some of the contradictions of homeownership bias.</p>
<h3 id="what-do-you-do-instead">What do you do instead?</h3>
<p>I rent. For me, it’s
<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/10/realestate/renting-cheaper-than-buying.html">much cheaper to rent than to buy in New York</a>,
and in
<a href="https://www.attomdata.com/news/market-trends/home-sales-prices/attom-2023-rental-affordability-report/">many other places</a>.
I invest the difference in boring diversified investments,
<a href="https://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Getting_started">Bogleheads style</a>.</p>
<p>But what about <em>in general</em>? Well, we could start by correcting some of the
parts of society that we’ve tilted toward homeownership. It would make
homeownership less of a “sweet deal” for some, but would also reduce the
volatility and risk in buying a home if it’s less of a sophisticated investment.</p>
<p>That means chipping away at the
<a href="https://www.brookings.edu/articles/chipping-away-at-the-mortgage-deduction/">mortgage income deduction</a>,
which has always been a regressive subsidy to the rich. (<em>Update March 25, 2024:
finally <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2024-03-25/after-exposing-realtors-eliminate-the-mortgage-interest-deduction?srnd=opinion">people are starting to realize this and advocate for its end</a></em>) It seems politically
impossible, but crazier things have happened, and countries
<a href="https://qz.com/167887/germany-has-one-of-the-worlds-lowest-homeownership-rates">like Germany</a>
don’t have any such laws.</p>
<p><a href="https://archive.is/O5S7B">Public ownership</a>, if it was architected the right
way, could reinvent some of the benefits of ownership in ways that benefit more
people also also eliminate some of the worst risks. What if paying for you own
housing invested you in a diversified set of houses instead of just one? And
there is so much to learn from
<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/23/magazine/vienna-social-housing.html">housing in Vienna</a>.
Key quote from that article:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Vienna invites us to envision a world in which homeownership isn’t the only
way to secure a certain future — and what our lives might look like as a
result.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Also, embracing
<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/12/business/georgism-land-tax-housing.html">land value taxes</a>
could help reduce the speculative aspect of the real estate industry.</p>
<p>To replace the “wealth-building” aspect of homeownership, we already have some
solutions, like the growth of retirement plans and automatic investing. We
could, and should, have a renewed social safety net, too. These diversified
alternatives would be much less risky than gambling it all on a specific piece
of land.</p>
<h3 id="why-are-leftists-so-into-homeownership">Why are leftists so into homeownership?</h3>
<p>But what we need is a politics that cares more about renters, and a culture that
is less painfully normative about homeownership. Especially for those on the
left, I want people to rethink the uncritical acceptance of homeownership as a
goal.</p>
<p>Why are leftists so uncritical of the financialization of homes? They’re
allergic to investing in banks and equities, but happy to co-invest with a big
bank in order to leverage a home purchase, which will in turn create a mortgage
product that can be resold on the other side?</p>
<p>Why doesn’t class analysis lead them to
<a href="https://www.federalreserve.gov/publications/files/scf20.pdf">prioritize the needs of poor renters over rich homeowners</a>,
to chip away at the laws, like Prop 13 and the Mortgage Income Deduction, that
explicitly subsidize homeowners? In fact, why are renters in cities - people
always renting “luxury condos” - viewed as a rich outsiders, when the statistics
don’t back that up?</p>
<p>Why isn’t it worrying that homeownership has been proudly talked up as a
strategy to entrench conservatism and fight communism. And isn’t it worrying
that it seems to do just that - to increase voter turnout and shift voting
behavior in a conservative direction?</p>
<h3 id="renting-should-be-better">Renting should be better</h3>
<p>I think that a lot of well-meaning people view the struggle of renters as a
struggle <em>to become homeowners</em>. So they focus on turning renters into
mortgage-holders. They want to subsidize demand and subsidize the “first home
purchase.”</p>
<p>Renting itself should be better. Renters should have more stability,
more rights, and more options. Renting forever should be a reasonable option
for most people, as it is in some countries.</p>
<h3 id="caveats">Caveats:</h3>
<ul>
<li>I know that homeownership is a good vibe and you can paint the walls and
stuff.</li>
<li>I know that there are plenty of anecdotes about great success. There are also
anecdotes about picking lucky stocks, but that nobody considers that a sage
retirement strategy.</li>
<li>Homes are “hard goods” in a sense that feels better than stocks, and is less
icky and feels less financialized. I understand those vibes. They are, though,
just as intertwined with big banks and real estate developers and government
backing and the violence of the protection of private property as any stock.</li>
<li>Yes, mortgages are
<a href="https://www.financialsamurai.com/mortgage-as-a-forced-savings-account-to-build-wealth/">an effective form of forced savings</a>.
But so is Social Security, and we should bring the same behavioral-economics
innovation to other, better kinds of investments.</li>
<li>The
<a href="https://darrellowens.substack.com/p/vacant-nuance-in-the-vacant-housing">vacancy argument</a>
is debunked.</li>
<li>No,
<a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/01/housing-crisis-hedge-funds-private-equity-scapegoat/672839/">hedge funds and private equity did not ruin the housing market</a>.</li>
</ul>
<script type="module" src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/@justinribeiro/lite-youtube@1.5.0/lite-youtube.js"></script>
Tom MacWrighthttps://macwright.com/about/Recently2023-12-01T00:00:00+00:00https://macwright.com/2023/12/01/recently<p><img src="/images/2023-12-01-recently-tim-hecker-performing-at-pioneer-works.jpeg" alt="Tim Hecker performing at Pioneer Works" /></p>
<p>I saw Tim Hecker at <a href="https://pioneerworks.org/">Pioneer Works</a>, and was astounded by the opener, <a href="https://iammizu.bandcamp.com/album/distant-intervals">Mizu</a>.
Bought the album as soon as I got home. It is, crudely explained, like if
Zoë Keating dialed up the synths and pedals and rhythm, and it was also a
remarkable live show.</p>
<iframe style="border: 0; width: 100%; height: 120px;" src="https://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/album=2943329005/size=large/bgcol=ffffff/linkcol=333333/tracklist=false/artwork=small/transparent=true/" seamless=""><a href="https://iammizu.bandcamp.com/album/distant-intervals">Distant Intervals by MIZU</a></iframe>
<h2 id="reading">Reading</h2>
<blockquote>
<p>I love shopping! I do. I love commerce — the dance of it, the etiquette. I love it as buyer and seller both. I love considering alternatives, and I love being considered. I love settling on favorites. I love stumbling across surprises.</p>
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
<p>Am I simply bourgeois? Yes, and I’ll wave that flag proudly. This is a big part of my politics: which is not a politics of “free markets” or “free trade”, but rather of systems that can support commerce and craft at every level, especially the smallest and most careful.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>From <a href="https://www.robinsloan.com/newsletters/2023-gift-guide/">Robin Sloan’s gift guide</a>, this short passage
struck me. Because I’ve really always felt the opposite: averse to talking
about money, negotiating buying and selling. The tendency was ingrained early
and has been hard to shake. It’s refreshing to read this, then - of someone
who not only doesn’t dread the thing that you do, but enjoys it. Maybe it’ll
be me, someday.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I have the kind of brain that erases everything that passes, almost immediately, like that dustpan-and-brush dog in Disney’s <em>Alice in Wonderland</em> sweeping up the path as he progresses along it. I never know what I was doing on what date, or how old I was when this or that happened–and I like it that way. I feel when I am very old and my brain “goes” it won’t feel so very different from the life I live now, in this miasma of non-memory, which, though it infuriates my nearest and earest, must suit me somehow, as I can’t seem, even by acts of will, to change it.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>From <a href="https://macwright.com/2023/10/08/feel-free">Zadie Smith’s <em>Feel Free</em></a>. I love this passage too, for the opposite reason as Sloan’s – this is me.
And I’ve long seen writers as otherworldy for their ability to remember so much.
Their memoirs have realistic-sounding quotes from conversations they had years ago.
Of course they’re interpolating, but the even my friends can remember the names
of their teachers, of minor characters in our social scene in high school,
and to me it’s all a blur. It was a relief, an affirmation, to read Zadie writing this.</p>
<p>Elsewhere:</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://ofdollarsanddata.com/how-safe-is-an-8-withdrawal-rate/">Nick Magguilli</a> wrote about sequence of returns risk. This might be finance content that puts your brain to sleep, but I think it’s a great example of applied statistics: if you have an average 10% long-term return but high volatility, the amount that you can safely pull from your investments is well below 10%, because in “down” years, that 10% is actually a much higher percentage.</li>
<li><a href="https://www.kaseyklimes.com/notes/2023/11/13/a-policy-alchemy-for-the-housing-crisis">Kasey Klimes on Land Value Taxes and Inclusionary Zoning</a> is a great read. It was fun meeting Kasey this month and ranting at each other about Georgism.</li>
</ul>
<h3 id="good-ideas-versus-vibes">Good ideas versus vibes</h3>
<p>Something I’ve been encountering time and time again is the difficulty of
getting both “good vibes” and “good ideas” in the same movement.</p>
<p>For example, <em>fighting greedy housing developers</em> has great vibes, a clear-cut
enemy, lots of likeable compatriots, potential for good visuals. Sometimes it’s
correct – developers are no saints, and they’re sometimes the bad guys –
but a lot of the time it’s wrong. Fighting new development no matter what is
the essence of NIMBYism.</p>
<p><em>YIMBYism</em> often has bad vibes: we have to deal with loud, often-wrong twitter
personas like Matt Yglesias speaking for the movement. There’s a lot of
“well-actually” corrections and gesturing toward charts and numbers. But,
most of the time it’s right. Every time you look at recent history, building
housing has led to more housing, and not building housing has led to more
homelessness.</p>
<p>Inclusionary zoning is the perfect encapsulation of the vibes-correctness
spectrum, and that’s why it makes everyone mad. Basically, it’s a requirement
placed on developers by local governments that requires them to create some
affordable units in new ‘market rate’ housing. The basic principle is that
some level between 10-30% of units being affordable at some percentage
of local adjusted median income. You set the percentage too low and there isn’t
enough affordable housing as “the market will bear”, you set it too high and
developers won’t build because they can’t make enough profit to justify it.
I think there’s something about this – that it’s based on some percentage
that’s always less than 100%, some AMI that always seems too high, such that
I’ve never anyone write about inclusionary zoning in a positive way. In places
where developers can pay into a fund instead of building units, that’s seen
as buying their way out.</p>
<hr />
<p>I see this dynamic play out in a lot of contexts. For example, as you can read
everywhere, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/28/business/economy/democrats-biden-economy.html?searchResultPosition=1">everyone hates the Biden economy</a>, but it’s pretty hard to tell why.
There’s an enormous amount of disinformation on TikTok and elsewhere with
wacky economic theories that play into this feeling. Which is why I was kind of fascinated when <a href="https://twitter.com/JoeBiden/status/1730247565537390998">Biden tweeted this</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Let me be clear to any corporation that hasn’t brought their prices back down even as inflation has come down: It’s time to stop the price gouging.
Give American consumers a break.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>If there’s anything with great vibes and bad ideas, it’s this. Obviously, it’d be nice for prices to decrease, but the critique is obvious: when inflation slows, prices stop increasing. For prices to decrease overall, you need deflation, which has all kinds of bad effects: I haven’t seen any competent observer ever advocate for deflation.</p>
<p>He met a lot of opposition for this obviously-not-quite-right take, but is this
the right vibe, a necessary evil to get people on his side? Maybe?</p>
<h3 id="elsewhere">Elsewhere</h3>
<p>So, I wrote up about <a href="https://macwright.com/2023/11/13/placemark">shutting down Placemark soon</a>, and have gotten a lot of
nice emails about it. Thank you, and sorry for taking many days to respond
to those emails. I’m working on open sourcing it and all of the other
administrava. None of it is fun, but I’m excited about the next phase of things.</p>
<p>I’ve already started on <a href="https://github.com/placemark/docs">the docs</a>, which are now open source, and the <a href="https://archive.org/details/placemark">videos</a>, whcih are on the Internet Archive. I should put the videos on YouTube!
I think I’ve been foolish to ignore the power of YouTube all these years.</p>
<p>My channel has almost nothing on it besides this <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EgZT3djU9bc">clip from a year ago of me attempting to use Filecoin</a> and failing.
I watched it now and checked the <a href="https://filecoin.io/">Filecoin site</a> again,
and the “Store your data” button now links to <a href="https://destor.com/">DeStor</a>,
which has a “Get Started” button that links to a <a href="https://destor.com/contact/connect-with-an-expert">contact us form</a>. So much funding,
still not possible to buy Filecoin and upload <code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">cat.jpg</code>.</p>
<p>On another note, I’ve been open-sourcing things under Val Town. The angle is
to open source things that we write that are non-obvious, annoying to figure
out, and common issues. So, <a href="https://github.com/val-town/codemirror-ts">integrating CodeMirror and TypeScript</a>, and <a href="https://github.com/val-town/notion-to-astro">converting exported Notion docs to more conventional Markdown</a>.</p>
Tom MacWrighthttps://macwright.com/about/Placemark is going open source and shutting down2023-11-13T00:00:00+00:00https://macwright.com/2023/11/13/placemark<p><a href="https://www.placemark.io/post/placemark-is-winding-down"><em>also on placemark.io/blog</em></a></p>
<p>The company and product side of <a href="https://www.placemark.io/">Placemark</a> didn’t work out.
Some fantastic, friendly people used it, but I couldn’t find a way to make it work
as a sustainable bootstrapped startup. Building it was incredibly fun.
Failing to find success and sustainability was pretty hard but it’s okay.</p>
<h3 id="heres-the-plan">Here’s the plan:</h3>
<ul>
<li>Today I’m turning off signups to Placemark.io.</li>
<li>Placemark is free for all existing customers until January 19, 2024,
at which point the servers will be shut down.</li>
<li>Later in January, I’ll release the full source code to the site. This might
take a little while. It’s a big application.</li>
</ul>
<p>Building Placemark was an incredible experience. I learned a ton and got to
know a lot of new people in the process. I’m really proud of what it turned
out to be, even if the business fell short of my goals.</p>
<p>I built, coded, designed, documented, marketed, and ran Placemark. It had paying
customers who used it for real-world purposes. It shipped, and it was a real business.
With luck, it’ll become something as an open source project – either maintained,
or used as inspiration and fuel for future projects. I’m happy to create more
value than I capture.</p>
<p>There’s more to write about what I learned, but for now I just want to say
thanks to everyone who gave it a shot, and all of the people who were
supportive along the way - special thanks to
<a href="https://www.agropatterns.com/">Gabriel Coch</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/aboodman">Aaron Boodman</a>,
<a href="https://www.propublica.org/people/jeff-frankl">Jeff Frankl</a>,
<a href="https://brianlovin.com/">Brian Lovin</a>, <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/mrkrebs/">Adam Krebs</a>,
Prerna Nadathur, and many others. Also thanks to <a href="https://stevekrouse.com/">Steve Krouse</a> and <a href="https://www.val.town/">Val Town</a>, where I’ve been working on making coding more carefree and simple.</p>
Tom MacWrighthttps://macwright.com/about/Roll2023-11-10T00:00:00+00:00https://macwright.com/2023/11/10/roll<p>I developed an old roll of film and the photos are pretty decent!</p>
<p>My <a href="https://www.kenrockwell.com/olympus/xa.htm">Olympus XA-2</a> is
my default walking-around camera. I love it, but its age is showing
and I’m envious of the crisp photos that people get out of later-era
SLR film cameras. Thinking about getting a lightweight viewfinder
for my monstrous Nikon F, or buying something like a Nikon FM2.
There’s a paradox to this gear, though, and I don’t want to delude
myself into thinking that I’d use a slightly different camera more
when really the issue is that I’m not shooting many photos regardless.</p>
<p><img src="/images/2023-11-10-roll-waves.jpg" alt="Waves" /></p>
<p>These were shot with <a href="https://santa1000.com/santacolor-100">SantaColor</a>,
which produces the strong green & red channels. It’s interesting?
I chose not to “correct it” all the way back to natural lighting.
Or I couldn’t find a way to do that without ruining the look.</p>
<p><img src="/images/2023-11-10-roll-sky.jpg" alt="Sky" /></p>
<p>Getting film developed is harder than ever, but most major cities
have an option.</p>
<ul>
<li>In New York, I use <a href="https://gelatinlabs.com/">Gelatin</a> and
<a href="https://www.pinkfolderfilmhouse.com/">Pink Folder Film House</a></li>
<li>In DC, I used <a href="https://dodgechrome.com/">Dodge Chrome</a></li>
<li>In San Francisco, I used <a href="https://www.photoworkssf.com/">Photoworks</a></li>
</ul>
<p><img src="/images/2023-11-10-roll-chicago-tour.jpg" alt="Chicago tour" /></p>
<p>I’m still using <a href="https://www.captureone.com/en/products/capture-one-pro">Capture One</a> to manage my photos, which is expensive and vastly overkill but
really nice, focused, “pro” software.</p>
<p><img src="/images/2023-11-10-roll-prospect-park.jpg" alt="Prospect park" /></p>
<p><img src="/images/2023-11-10-roll-chicago.jpg" alt="Chicago" /></p>
<p><img src="/images/2023-11-10-roll-navy-yard.jpg" alt="Navy Yard" /></p>
Tom MacWrighthttps://macwright.com/about/Recently2023-11-01T00:00:00+00:00https://macwright.com/2023/11/01/recently<p><img src="/images/2023-11-01-recently-polyphia.jpeg" alt="Polyphia" /></p>
<p>October was another pleasantly busy month in Brooklyn.
Really took advantage of the breadth of New York culture: I saw <a href="https://www.metopera.org/season/2023-24-season/dead-man-walking/">an opera</a> at the Metropolitan Opera House, and then went to see prog-metal band <a href="https://polyphia.com/">Polyphia</a> play guitar solos as fast as possible. At the latter, there were multiple mosh pits and the most packed audience I’ve ever encountered. It was my first ‘metal’ oriented concert, and the friendliness and openness of everyone who attended was remarkable.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.experrinment.com/new-work"><img src="/images/2023-11-01-recently-perrin-ireland.png" alt="Perrin Ireland" />
</a></p>
<p>Via <a href="https://www.artsgowanus.org/">Arts Gowanus</a>, I saw lots of local art and was especially struck by <a href="https://www.experrinment.com/">Perrin Ireland</a>’s art about animals, gender, and climate change.</p>
<h3 id="books">Books</h3>
<p>I read <a href="https://macwright.com/reading/">five great books in a row</a> but broke the streak by reading Charles Eisenstein. Still, it was nice to enjoy book after book, especially <a href="https://macwright.com/2023/10/08/feel-free">Feel Free</a>, which completely validated the buzz around Zadie Smith.</p>
<h3 id="switching-back-to-instapaper-and-feedbin-from-readwise-reader">Switching back to Instapaper and Feedbin from Readwise Reader</h3>
<p>In meta-reading news, I had switched from a combination of <a href="https://feedbin.com/">Feedbin</a> and <a href="https://www.instapaper.com/">Instapaper</a> to <a href="https://readwise.io/read">Readwise Reader</a>, but I just switched back. I’m still 100% rooting for Readwise - it’s extremely cool that they’re <a href="https://blog.readwise.io/the-next-chapter-of-reader-public-beta/">bootstrapped</a> and they’re rolling out features and improvements so quickly. And there were certain features I’ll miss, like their PDF and YouTube reading interfaces.</p>
<p>But Readwise Reader’s interface gives me a feeling of an expansive, search-based collection. I found it really hard to get organized, because everything came down to search interfaces. As much as I like tagging and searching, I don’t think that those can be the only interfaces because they both lack discoverability. Part of why I absolutely adore tools like <a href="https://www.devontechnologies.com/apps/devonthink">DEVONThink</a> is that they represent organizational structure so well.</p>
<p>So, back to Feedbin and Instapaper for me. There was also a killer Instapaper feature I had been missing - “Send to Kindle”, which I use every night to read internet articles on a less <a href="https://macwright.com/2018/08/28/glow">glowy device</a>.</p>
<h3 id="good-articles">Good articles</h3>
<p>Via <a href="https://www.uofwinds.com/">University of Winds</a>, Debbie Chachra’s <a href="https://archive.ph/xENXv">Why I am Not a Maker</a> resonated. I find myself really enjoying articles that challenge my beliefs and assumptions and this one did that well. The identity of the <em>maker</em>, which has been validated from all sides, even the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Why_the_lucky_stiff">why</a> quote that I’ve counted as one of my favorites:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>when you don’t create things, you become defined by your tastes rather than ability. your tastes only narrow & exclude people. so create.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>But the identity of maker, for me, has at different times been an intrinsic motivation and an extrinsic one. Being prolific, as I think I have been and am still to some extent, is hard to stop or pause without feeling a loss of meaning. And when I spend time on activities that don’t create something in the conventional sense, it can be hard to fit them within the value system of ‘making.’ So, it was a good article.</p>
<p>I read <a href="https://macwright.com/2023/08/29/how-to-hide-an-empire">How to Hide an Empire</a> by Daniel Immerwahr last month and enjoyed his piece <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/10/23/beyond-the-myth-of-rural-america">Beyond the Myth of Rural America</a> in the New Yorker this month. This one confirmed my beliefs, in the hollowness of America’s rural fantasies.</p>
<p>On the hand, for something that surprised me and challenged one of my basic assumptions, did you know that in America, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/energy/2023/07/30/global-warming-air-con-s-carbon-footprint-is-smaller-than-heating/ad4de4ca-2f18-11ee-85dd-5c3c97d6acda_story.html">heating homes has more of an environmental impact than cooling them?</a> I had long assumed the opposite. So, one less reason to fear the environmental cost of people living in mid and low-density southern cities.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/12/13/climate/climate-footprint-map-neighborhood.html"><img src="/images/2023-11-01-recently-new-york-times-map-of-climate-impact.png" alt="New York Times map of climate impact" />
</a></p>
<p>But the main reason stands, that <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/12/13/climate/climate-footprint-map-neighborhood.html">living in a dense city almost guarantees that you have a lower environmental impact than someone living in the suburbs, even if they have a solar roof and a Tesla and they reuse their grocery bags</a>. If you want to preserve the wilderness, don’t live near it.</p>
<h3 id="kagi">Kagi</h3>
<p>assorted update: i kept switching to and from <a href="https://duckduckgo.com/">DuckDuckGo</a> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neeva">Neeva</a> and Google Search, but since trying out <a href="https://kagi.com/">Kagi</a> it’s been consistently great. I rarely have to type <code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">!g</code> and get the Google results for something that I can’t find. Plus, the auto-summarize feature works really well and helps to evaluate whether long-winded articles are worth reading. Usually they aren’t, and it saves time.</p>
<p>Of course, <em>what would really save time is if people didn’t write long-winded articles for SEO spam purposes and people would stop using AI to generate garbage content</em>.</p>
<p>I’m also trying out <a href="https://www.rewind.ai/">Rewind</a>, which is kind of terrifying but also pretty basically useful: for example, I couldn’t remember where I discovered the article about “not being a maker”, and it helped me find the source by searching my recorded history. But, again, terrifying. If lawyers say that the “e” in email stands for “evidence”, imagine if an employee was using Rewind while doing securities fraud. All the letters stand for evidence.</p>
<h3 id="listening">Listening</h3>
<p>I’ve been listening to a lot of <a href="https://www.thesmiletheband.com/">The Smile</a> recently - Thom Yorke’s new band, which contains 40% of Radiohead. He’s a great songwriter and it’s an added bonus that because of Radiohead’s long and complicated history with the record industry, it’s one of the few popular albums you can <a href="https://store-us.thesmiletheband.com/products/a-light-for-attracting-attention-tsm">just buy from the normal store</a>. I really do not understand why so many musicians only sell their MP3s through Amazon.</p>
<h3 id="watching">Watching</h3>
<p><a href="https://letterboxd.com/">Letterboxd</a> has a feature that lets you see what percentage of a given director or actor’s films you’ve watched. It’s great and terrible for me as a completionist.</p>
<p>So, anyway, I’ve been watching all of the <a href="https://letterboxd.com/director/david-fincher/">David Fincher movies</a> (at 53%), and the latest were The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo and Se7en. No duds yet.</p>
<p><img src="/images/2023-11-01-recently-shoresy.jpeg" alt="Shoresy" /></p>
<p>But more importantly: <a href="https://www.hulu.com/series/35e7a994-c7e8-4b5d-97d3-e2c8a4d1d75b">Shoresy</a>. It’s the follow-up to <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Letterkenny_(TV_series)">Letterkenny</a>, a spectacular Canadian comedy show that had four good seasons before becoming unwatchable. Shoresy amps up the representation of First Nations people, has a great soundtrack with lots of millenial hits (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mstrkrft">Mstrkrt</a>), and doesn’t require you to know anything about hockey. Best show in a long while.</p>
Tom MacWrighthttps://macwright.com/about/