Writing Inbox

Disproportionate police violence/disruption impacts ability for minorities to amass wealth which is now a requirement for access to housing, thus housing crisis is a policing issue.

Disability ethics, intersectionality, and AI bias: 3 dead disabled people. Abdicate responsibility for efficiency. Comparison to Jinns. The purpose of a system is what it does. King Solomon says to cut the baby in half, and AI is like a Jinn or Solomon, does exactly what you ask it to even if you don't understand, if it says to cut a baby in half we say okay because we don't want to handle the responsibility. Solomon and the Jinn story: Solomon demonstrates foolishness by his blind obedience to an authority he does not understand. Ask the better question. Who is real mother->who cares for the child, which is the real flower->which flower sustains nature, how powerful are you->what keeps us safe?

Can we use AI to identify the mechanism that is killing disabled people? Can we use it to dismantle that mechanism? What do we do about society consistently asking the wrong questions? What can we do as individuals to push against unethical pushes? Try to support it with ethics and science, point out that it's publishable. Can we change peer review processes to incentivize ethical considerations? IRB is not enough. Address possible ethical consequences of the research the same way we evaluate limitations. Can't evaluate ethical implications if you don't have direct experience with the affected group, example ACM futures academy 12 authors call for ethics in peer review (TODO: get the reference). We're just trying to not die. (power to live movement, fires in California) (pods during covid were invited by disabled people and the normies took it and made it weird) (failure to identify citizen science initiatives when they're not launched by academics).

How students learn Clue students in to what material they need to process into their working memory. Help them practice retrieving it from long term memory. 6 factors for significant learning potential: learning how to learn (effective, while paying people to learn isn't), caring (if they perceive you care about them, they'll show up), human dimension (sometimes people have things going on in their lives), integration (connect it to other stuff they already know), application (real world uses for the information), foundational knowledge (useful for chaining). Learning styles only work when domain-appropriate (kinesthetic learning for bicycle riding). When presenting a journal article or similar method->result, don't give both at once, let students examine the situation and write down their own expectations, then share the result so that there can be clear confirmation or contradiction. Effort-based reinforcement is more likely to result in future hard work than "wow you're so smart!" "Which penny is the right design" question, lots of variation as individuals, but most converged on the correct answer when working in a small group, thus small group work is valuable(?), also knowing it's size and copper is enough to distinguish it from other coins, but experts are familiar with the details. The decision about how many details are important rests with the recipient of the information, so cue them up with an accurate expectation of the level of detail needed to be successful. Be careful about saying "oh you can just look up the details, let's focus on the concepts" because without the details, there's nothing to anchor to, and it can be easy to assume foundational knowledge that the student doesn't have. Tests should have foundational knowledge questions as well as analysis/synthesis questions; the former indicate foundational knowledge but the latter indicate understanding of the material. You can work really hard at memorizing for the first type of question. Good indicator of whether it's a knowledge or understanding problem (or application problem?) "What do you think about the material?" is a good question for checking whether understanding is happening (in a conversation, and apparently on tests/homework), "what was I going for, here? What was I trying to teach you with these particular questions?" Study x4, study x3 + 1 quiz, study + quiz x3, short term SSSS wins, but 1 week later SQQQ wins in terms of material retention. "In one sentence, summarize what we learned today."

hierarch and power imbalance

I've been thinking about hierarchy and power structures lately. This is not an area I'm well versed in. A lot of the stuff I've read, including stuff from Conflict is not Abuse to Mutual Aid: Building Solidarity in This Crisis and the Next and Minimum Viable Organizations, talk about power imbalance inherent in hierarchical structures, how people need to feel valued and able to contribute in ways that work for them, concerns about leader burnout and so on. That has mostly centered the work of mutual aid groups, but the same concepts apply when talking about co-op worker-owned businesses. I see a lot that diversity of leadership responsibility and keeping power low in a hierarchy (or not having a hierarchy at all) is the best path forward towards equity-centered organizing. They talked about it in my Library Management course, referencing Laloux's work in Reinventing Organizations. And I've started moving my own first aid organization more in this direction, in part because I'm experiencing burnout in my leadership role there.

But conversely to this, I've never been part of an organization that operates in a truly non-hierarchical way. Not in the business world, across 14 companies including one where I was one of two people at the company. Not in my work in medicine, despite regularly practicing inter-agency cooperation and working with other groups on scene. Not in my volunteer work, where our organization has leadership roles (to handle accounting and insurance) and mentoring roles and QA roles, where things are more distributed than anywhere else I've been but we still adopt that hierarchy that's baked into EMS (and we have a lot of vets who crave chain of command). We follow NIMS, developed by FEMA for managing disasters, which is extremely rigidly hierarchical. And it does seem like there's value in having one person make a decision sometimes.

Reading https://twit.social/@MisuseCase/112039600052899311 highlights some of the concerns I hadn't articulated before. As an autistic, I am hard wired to not give people respect just because of their position in a hierarchy. That inherently doesn't make sense to me. When I'm applying to a new job, one of my interview tasks is to understand why I should respect the person who's interviewing me, who presumably would be in a higher position of authority than I would if I took the job. If I don't understand why that power imbalance should exist, I find it nearly impossible to respect it. And I have doubts about the veracity of any claim an organization makes that it's hierarchy-free or truly anarchic. Maybe it's because I've never experienced such a group that I can't imagine how it could be true. Maybe it's because when I join a group that I think is structured that way, I feel the need to contribute, and that gets rewarded with responsibility and authority I didn't ask for. Maybe it's internalized capitalism.

I know there are a lot of organizations that aim for consensus, like the Quaker business method, that try to provide equal voice in decisions while still having some amount of leadership. I'm not sure where they fit into this idea I'm trying to describe. I'm hoping that someone can read through the mess above and distill something useful to help me reframe it all in a context that is more cohesive.

Interpreting research results

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2938757/ talks about aOR (adjusted odds ratios). aOR = ad / bc, where:

• a = Number of exposed cases
• b = Number of exposed non-cases
• c = Number of unexposed cases
• d = Number of unexposed non-cases

aOR is used to predict outcomes, "Thus, the odds of persistent suicidal behavior is 1.63 higher given baseline depression diagnosis compared to no baseline depression."

TODO: what is a confidence interval, null hypothesis. Different types of metastudies? p values. Four basic statistical tests and when to use them. number needed to treat (NNT)

Atheopaganism

Wheel of the year, non-time-based celebrations. Wake for my marriage for instance. Yule and my notes on the wheel of the year.

Thoughts on preparedness as a byproduct of activism

If the world were ending tomorrow I would plant a tree today

I want to learn about de-escalation and meeting facilitation

Using nonviolent communication as a active listening technique

It's the climate collapses going to wreck all of our existing social and economic systems in the next 5 years, is grad school really the best thing for me to spend my time on?

We saw with the Black Panthers breakfast program that the government doesn't like competition for things that it ought to be responsive so perhaps one avenue of change would be to produce something in an decentralized fashion and have the government co-opted.

Margaret was at a protest and saw the police retreat, and even though she did not achieve the speech at goals of the action, that feeling of agency helped continue to motivate her to make activist choices.

Book called no spiritual surrender

If I were running a food bank, and kit became someone who regularly came there how would I handle that? I need to be able to take care of people I don't like, but she is actively dangerous to me.

If Margaret was a general, the military apparatus would still be fundamentally broken and incapable of doing good things.

It doesn't matter what people you put inside the machine. Machine is designed into a press. So why do I keep thinking that I can convince the government to solve problems for me?

The work we do is not intended to be a solution, certainly not a final one. We may never know if the resistive actions we take will have their intended consequence because of the long-term that power struggles can play out over. The goal is not to feel good, take a single action and post it on instagram. Recognizing the enormity of the problem and sitting in it can lead to better perspectives and better solutions. Trying to find a way to feel good and immediately solve problems is escapism that prevents us from seeing the problem as it truly is.

We go back party for your students will be different than the go-bag party for your block, or your coworkers. Educational opportunities for first aid and preparedness skills, and handsome have a direct impact. Opportunities to self organize at these events. Giving people a Hands-On job makes them more invested and satisfied in the outcome. People want to be involved rather than just sitting and watching watching

Disaster fatigue; what is it, and what do we do about it

When the problem is too big, people shut down and reject it. We can't think about it. Strong parallels to PTSD trauma.

Look up better ways to take notes on mobile for my reading / writing inbox

Sentient vs sapient

Throwing food at a painting is not the kind of activism that invites more people to participate.

What are horizontal tactics?

Look up generator shares

How can I implement harm reduction so that people could shelter in my house during a power outage assuming I still had a generator to run my heat?

Listen to the introduction of the book breaking together

Discussion of the near-term significant impacts of climate change in speculative fiction is problematic in the publishing model because publishers want stories to have a shelf life of more than 2 years.

The title is climate disaster is here in the state will never save us

Look at strangers in a tangled wilderness and the spectacle as other potential podcast subscriptions

Single person library notes

Strategic Planning for a Single-Person Medical Library

We assert libraries provide value, but when people think everything can be found on the Internet, how do we show evidence of value? This is especially important for small libraries. The library needs to be positioned as an essential service for the operation of the organization rather than an add on. Strategic planning can help achieve that. Instead of starting at current and identifying ways to progress from here, identify the integral end state desired and do strategic planning to get there. Start from goal and work backwards. The plan must center the values of the served organization, not necessarily the values of the library. Values are a better target than objectives which can change too frequently. With org values identified, draft library goals to move library in parallel with org, relate them to the values so it's clear why they're important. Document progress towards goals. Circulation statistics, special projects, classes offered, etc. show alignment with values, document relevancy of efforts, justification for continued investment. Those documents are submitted to admin, goals and metrics etc are reevaluated periodically, objectives on a three year timeline.

Honestly this is just generic strategic planning that would be true of any organization. I'd like to read something more specific to single-person librarianship, like Managing the One-Person Library by Larry Cooperman.

Garden notes

A typical educated person will think of something interesting to write about around once a week. https://gwern.net/about#confidence-tags (link this in digital garden page?)

Heirloom Traditions pilot notes

Listening to podcast pilot episode of heirloom traditions Guest is talking a lot about his community engagement efforts. He has access to land that he's using to produce food for his family and community. Accidental connection with a librarian when he went in to do an exchange with the seed library, had opportunity to partner with them to send fresh produce with the bookmobile to school bus stops so kids can take home food and books. Community garden with elementary schoolers learning how to start seeds and then some of them get planted in their section of the community garden.

He's advantaged with land he can grow on and structures that a lot of people don't have, and that's been an important aspect of what he's been able to do community-wise. Harder to engage with people at other scales, how do I grow sweet potatoes on a balcony. Giving people opportunities to learn about these skills is what he wants to do things on his community farm.

Different upbringing comes with different skill sets, growing up in the depression learning to cook. Growing up on a farm learning to seed start.

Community canning practice, bring your own food and learn how to can it safely.

Community means different things; the people who you could reach if snowed in, the people you could reasonably see same-day, the people would come from further away if you needed help, the people who will always be online friends. You can rely on these different levels of community for different things; the online group is going to be great for book recommendations but probably can't bring you water if your supply goes out.

Celebrate the small wins.

Read Defying Doomsday crip fic anthology

Grounded in Community article notes (pro-social media)

https://lrhodes.net/writing/groundedness-networked-community

Flight from Twitter is often based on values. Identify your values so you can pick a better alternative. Author examples: data privacy, small tech/environmental impact, community and trust, information source transparency, open Web interoperability, accountability. When evaluating alternatives, don't just look for a Twitter clone. And don't blindly assume mastodon is going to give you these things either. Activity pub means you can talk to non mastodon but also means some mastodon servers are not reachable. Is this good? It sure confuses a lot of people who sign up.

You can't sign up for mastodon and that should just be a feature of what instance you join. Talk people into joining an instance instead?

Twitter (the company) could, in principle, license Twitter (the software) so that independent operators could run it on their own servers in parallel with Twitter (the domain).

Separate the provider from the software. That's essential for decentralized. But is that enough? Running the code on your own box is one thing, decentralized authority in operation is another, and same for authority over the codebase

Lack of feature parity. Features on Facebook have to be good for users enough to use them and stay but good for Facebook in terms of data mining and profit. Mastodon doesn't have some "convenience" features because they're hard to implement over AP, or don't fit the values, or have no profit generation to offset their cost. Trying to create feature parity misses the point. There is an enormous possibility space to explore when a feature doesn't have to generate profit. Also recreating corporate features just makes it easier for corporations to coopt. Core thesis? Grounding is important aspect of community membership. Reddit accounts exist at the platform and connection to community is a subscription flag. Subscription is different from belonging. Subscription depends on the platform to continue allowing access to communities, and managing the connections between them. And platforms often mess that up for profit reasons.

Eg siloing people in echo chambers to increase division By grounding your account in an instance, you are asserting membership there. When you share your handle with people or your post gets federated to another instance, it has your user name at your instance. Mastodon/fediverse no longer controls that membership, nor do they get to decide which other communities you federate with. This is not sufficient for real community building, but the author asserts it is a necessary condition for real community building. It also reframes account migration to be more analogies to real world communities. You can leave a community by migrating your account. Does bluesky really harvest all data for profit from all instances? Black box algorithm feeds?

The "just a node in the network" idea that masto instance exist to access the whole fediverse and any moderation or defederation will necessarily undermine that goal. But an instance membership allows for instance only timelines for internal discussions about community topics and subverts the just nodes idea nicely when effort is made to curate local community. In group and out group can be defined and both be valuable. Instance based community helps with local authority structures, sharing server costs, facilitating irl local efforts without outside influence. The decision to federate becomes one based on community values instead of access to the entire fediverse Limiting audience and increasing discoverability within the community is also beneficial. No more shouting into the void in hopes someone sees your tweet. No more missing interesting posts from interesting people because you didn't know to subscribe to them.

I can think of a number of servers where the local rules and policies articulate a reasonably clear ethos, but maybe the message that "we are not a neutral conduit to the network" is left a little too implicit. Servers should have a strong idea of what relation they hope to build to the rest of the fediverse, express it clearly to their members, and moderate accordingly. They should spell out to prospective members what criteria that use for applying moderator actions to other servers, and make it clear how those policies condition their access to other parts of the network

Being grounded in an instance community means people have more stake in moderation and administration, care more, more likely to be upset. Which means we have to be better listeners, better at deescalating, better bridge builders. Giant centralized nodes will be ripe for corporate acquisition. Single points of failure. By creating instances for small groups and communities, we diversify the network and make it harder to coopt.

Add additional thoughts about multifaceted identities, the conflict with instance-based community identity grounding, and possible tech alternatives. Communities need to define their borders, manage their members, define policies around member behavior and federation and so on. Individuals need to be recognized as belonging to multiple communities, which they can join or leave at will (within the limits defined by the community for joining). Users need to be able to define the scope of their audiences, whether that's instance-only or public or to specific individuals or to "circles" or to a set of communities that they belong to.

What about other forms of pro-social media, like polis?

Knowledge synthesis in literature reviews and otherwise

https://oasislab.pubpub.org/pub/54t0y9mk/release/3

Wants to create a knowledge accumulation and synthesis system that can consistently/reproducibly/scalably produce new knowledge/perspectives/etc. Author encountered problems attempting this process.

Problems to avoid: too much detail, losing sight of the big picture for wanting to mention every single paper specifically. Too little detail/high level, misses important distinctions and nuance. Inadequate context, missing links between synthesis notes. Information silos, too narrow an approach that misses relevant information because eg search terms were too specific. Information overload: too much info to reasonably process into a cohesive understanding.

Desired features: not only results but intermediate stages of synthesis to be shared; minimize time spent on extracting data from PDFs (by using screenshots, but then he summarizes them anyway?). Minimize busywork and free up mental resources to focus on synthesis. Need a system for pursuing truth that balances "compression/divergence/abstraction/theory and context/convergence/particulars/data." Info pieces should accrue over time, be refined over time, be modular to allow reuse. Finally, generation of the pieces or processing of incoming info into pieces should be distributable across multiple people.

Schema: four note types: questions (open research questions that need to be explored), synthesis (a conclusion, claim, idea given rise to from observation, single atomic idea, generalizes to a set of similar observations, link to multiple observations of origin), observations (of a single instance, event, specific context of time and space, "the data", results of experimental processes, includes time+assertor, concrete not abstract, cite multiple context snippets), context snippets (building blocks of observations, a literal number/quote/table/figure plus metadata like authorship and methodology, tied to observations, screenshot of source or copy-paste quote, citations to papers etc).

Diagram of how these pieces link together, flowchart style. https://resize-v3.pubpub.org/eyJidWNrZXQiOiJhc3NldHMucHVicHViLm9yZyIsImtleSI6Im1rcGZwdjB2LzExNjA4MzA2MjIwMzM2LnBuZyIsImVkaXRzIjp7InJlc2l6ZSI6eyJ3aWR0aCI6ODAwLCJmaXQiOiJpbnNpZGUiLCJ3aXRob3V0RW5sYXJnZW1lbnQiOnRydWV9fX0=

Implementing type distinction for entities is asserted to be crucial, typed relations between entities potentially valuable but deferrable to a later evolution of the system.

Example re children catching covid:

• synthesis: children half as like to catch covid given equivalent exposure
• observation: study describes infection rates by age group in this kind of social setting and that kind of methodology
• contexts: screenshots of statistics, methodology, participant info, etc, all linking to the original paper of the study (screenshots extracted from pdf!)

Now that we've seen examples of instances of each data type and how they relate, let's examine the process.

Start with some open questions and a stack of promising papers, end with synthesis notes that address those questions, supported by observations in turn supported by contexts. Sometimes also more questions or syntheses that aren't well-supported, pointing towards future research opportunities. The process is non-linear:

1. Write the questions on question notes. These questions direct the acquisition of papers and how they are read: looking for the answers.
2. Read a source, producing notes that hopefully coalesce into one or more observations with associated contexts. The contexts are linked to the source, the observation is linked to whichever questions it helps inform.
3. As observations accrete, begin creating synthesis notes about their common themes or oppositions. Link synthesis notes to questions they inform/answer. Take newly synthesized ideas and compare them to papers already consumed, possibly creating additional observations or finding new papers to add to the queue. Refine existing synthesis and observations as additional observations/contexts are generated, and any necessary new question notes.
4. Combine the synthesis notes into theories/arguments/answers for the questions. Any questions generated at this level likely lack observations/contexts to be fully answered within the scope of the existing process, and again opportunities for additional research. Synthesis notes can be combined, composited, abstracted into a single entity. Look for areas where synthesis is uncertain or poorly supported.

The entities created throughout this process can be reused in future research endeavors. The combined syntheses can be used to frame a literature review, research proposal, or a composition in its own right.

Necessary tools: PDF reader, Zotero, RoamResearch. Or similar.

By keeping all the links between specific sections of a paper through to the fully synthesized end result, we can avoid the "lossy" compression that comes from abstracting from specifics to generalities, or at least make it reversible. Don't just stick a bibliographic reference in there! By keeping a distinction between observation and synthesis, it becomes easier to identify poorly supported conclusions and to see ways in which opposing claims could be explained and resolved instead of glossed over or lost.

Keeping things modular helps reuse entities across projects. Cross-linking provides additional context as further research occurs, allowing for de-siloing to some extent. Keeping all of the details, connected through the links between entities, makes it easier to keep track of them instead of losing them to memory. Keeping everything linked helps identify areas of inconsistency and question results that turn out to be incorrect.

Hypothesis: having entities created in this way would help share not only conclusions but details with other researchers working on a project together, and distribute the load of creating all of the observations etc.

My notes:

This seems very specifically suited to research endeavors and not as much to general knowledge systems like digital gardens. My current garden doesn't have a good way of differentiating between cards or making specific kinds of links, and embedding screenshots isn't easy. I don't particularly want to change systems. Perhaps I could put the contexts directly inside the observations, and have observations and syntheses be polishes or something? Spaced repetition systems for vocab and beyond could apply to Question Notes when stuck for ideas to research next, syntheses to be reevaluated, observations to research contradictions for.

Does this constitute a context note, perhaps?

https://notes.andymatuschak.org/zWWh96dE6YZYmDCoo37977X

CBT for behavior modification, not just thought/feeling modification

https://youtu.be/NWzRfV8f6Hg use CBT to disrupt self-defeating processes.

CBT for behavior modification re exercise. Identify the immediate thought->emotional response ->rational response ->behavioral response. Put a gap between 1 and 2 by asking self a question to disrupt the progression. Frame the question to produce desired emotional response and then resume.

There may be multiple 4step sequences that need to be disrupted.

Goal of question is to move from first person subjective experience to third person objective viewpoint. What's the best that could happen, worst that could happen, likeliest to happen based on previous data.

Even if can't disrupt and have to rely on willpower, still identify those 4 things. At the end of the willpower behavior, compare 4step expectations with actual experience. Do this over time formally for better effect, note expectation vs reality of how successful you'll be and how much fun it'll be. Track the results and compare to disprove those immediate thoughts.

Having someone else, who doesn't think about you or the task the same way you do, offer third party perspective can be valuable. If they're good at doing the desired behavior, you can trust them that you'll get better and let them help you with where your competency level is right now.

Motivation in learning (teacher's perspective)

https://youtu.be/1JdgWcbveb0 3 types of motivation for anything including learning.

1 satisfaction of accomplishment (I did the thing that was hard and I feel awesome for having don eit). 2 enjoyment of the behavior intrinsically in itself (the process of doing the thing produces direct enjoyment). 3 as a stepping stone to achieve a subsequent goal (finishing organic chemistry to get to med school).

These compound. Check more boxes get more motivation.

Values in each category can change over time. Perception of effort needed to produce reward acts as a multiplier for each category (self efficacy, payoff).

Motivation is more emotional than rational, talking someone into being motivated doesn't work. Instead, connect them with attainment by having results shared in a community in a way that celebrate them (joys multiply when shared). Connect the learning goal to a subsequent desired outcome (get core done to move on to electives, teach persuasive writing to advocate for change write letter to city council)

For self efficacy, break progress milestones down to be small so that positive feedback can come early and often. Find ways to point out, highlight, celebrate each milestone.

Attention Bidding

https://claritynwi.com/attention-bids-and-how-they-save-relationships/

Bids for attention can be verbal or nonverbal. One person says something or initiates touch or similar to another person. This isn't just a word or action, but an invitation for connection, a request for their attention in some form. Bids like this are the way interactions between two people begin. Author suggests that responding positively to bids is essential for a healthy functioning relatinoship that will last. Long term romantic relationships apparently have an 85% positive response rate, while relationships that end tend to end around 30% positive response. Even healthy relationships don't respond positively 100% of the time, but having a high average rating makes it easier to believe that a negative or nil response isn't rejection but rather "not right now." Positive builds the balance, negative depleats it, neutral and no response are often interpreted as negative.

Questions:

1. What happens in relationships where the positive response rate is asymmetric?
2. How quickly does balance accumulate vs expend, ie how many positives does it take to offset a negative? Appears to be more than 1:1 ratio.
3. How does the rate vary over time in healthy and unhealthy relationships?
4. How long does it have to stay low before the relationship ends?
5. What happens if one partner bids for the other's attention super often? Is there an optimal bid rate?
6. How can one identify bid rate and bid positive response ratio?
7. How can one influence one's response ratio?
8. Is it possible to influence one's partner's response ratio?
9. Is it possible to decrease one's bid rate to match one's partner's available positive response rate?
10. Sol suggests that there's a limit on positive response rate, certainly in a timely fashion, implying that decreasing bid rate may be the healthy way to get back to 85% rather than having the partner increase positive response rate in order to balance ratio.
11. Is every positive or negative response weighted equally? If not, what factors affect the amount of positive or negative impact?
12. Is 85% the optimal positive response ratio?
13. Does randomizing the positive response distribution have a similar effect to addictive behavior like slot machines? Is it possible for a partner operating in bad faith to string someone along by intentionally randomizing the response? Interimitten reinforcement.

Do small things

(thoughts I wrote in solarcord about personal actions not being worthless)

There are ways to learn about community building, how to gather, how to create mutual aid, how to sustain movements. But there are two things I'd ask you to consider. First, you mention feeling alone where you are. If you take an action yourself, other people will see that, and they'll realize that they aren't alone. Some of them will join you. Second, you're feeling alone where you are, but there are good people everywhere, and someone somewhere near you is doing one small action on their own. Look for those people; they're the ones to build your community with, and you can figure out how to do that together.

Definitely look for other people doing good work. But don't let that stop you from taking your own small actions. When you're facing that feeling of "this is too big for me to fix", action is what resolves that feeling.

I definitely share your frustration, your desire for change, and your feeling of isolation. It took me a while to get connected to the local mutual aid group, and that has helped me with the feeling of isolation. I can't do all of the things the group is involved with, but I can help out with the fridges sometimes, and that helps with the feeling of helplessness. Both of these remind me that there are good people in the world, because I'm working with them, and because I am one. And you are too.

If anger is something that motivates you, definitely feel angry about how the right is intentionally trying to make you feel isolated. They know that if you feel alone you're less likely to act. Prove 'em wrong out of spite.

If I had had a single person in my life growing up, just one man kissing his boyfriend as I walked past, one trans woman rocking an undercut and tattoos, one person tell me it's possible for boys to grow up to be women, my entire life would have been different. Hell, I almost didn't have a life.

So when I see a picture like that (maga decorated house), yeah I'm mad at the asshole. I'm mad at all the assholes like him. But then I think about that 0.5% of kids who are trans, and I wonder if one of them lives in that house. And I try to think of a way I can show that kid that there's other ways to be. Maybe the kid doesn't understand why homeless people can't be given food: show them they can. Maybe the kid has never seen an adult in their family be nice to an immigrant: show them they can. Maybe they've never seen someone pick up litter, every adult in their life treats the outdoors like a giant trashcan: show them what a clean playground looks like. Show them what a bicycle path looks like. Show them what love looks like.

One interaction with one adult could have changed my life in an enormous way. I didn't have that experience growing up. But against all odds, here I am. And I'll be damned if I let them make me hide. I'm living my entire life to be that person for the next kid.

I've gone through a lot of changes in my political thinking during my life. And I've lived a lot of different places, including some pretty conservative ones. But everywhere I've gone, there's always been someone helping. Sometimes I'd laugh derisively at them (not proud of that), sometimes it would make me ponder, sometimes it would prompt me to help too. Like Mr Rogers said, "When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, 'Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.'" Don't let them make you believe you're powerless and alone.

Autistic and Neurotypical Partners Share Their Experiences

by Anthony Attwood, Joanna Stevenson. Asperger-centric, kind of ableist so far, introduction talks about all the negative impacts on the NT partner and now the ASD partner can feel frustrated about not being able to meet the NT partner's needs. Chapter 1 is about anxiety and how that can come from differences in social-communication. The two people recounting their experience focus a lot on the NT partner's needs and anxiety, the NT account is significantly longer. Attwood's commentary is very clinical, seems pretty interested in "fixing" the ASD partner.

Chapter 2 was about change, how hard it was for the ASD partner to adjust to a new car, a change of plans around lunch, the birth of a child. How hard it was for the NT partner to deal with the constant disappointment, "always being the one at fault," having to constantly adapt to the ASD partner's way of doing things. Attwood's commentary centers around how unflexible ASD people are, saying that you can't expect someone with ASD to change, it has to be the NT partner who changes. "If you could get the ASD partner to change, you'd get a nobel peace prize!" approximate quote from Attwood.

I'm not continuing with this garbage. There's very little of value in any of these anecdotes or in the commentary, and the ableism is crushing me.

Thoughts on online learning

Design your own self-study course

https://youtu.be/79Y-owwGDys

1. Evaluate the learning resource
2. Is it appropiate for the level of learning I'm doing
3. How does it balance infodump vs practice
4. Do multiple resources compliment each other
5. Is there a community of learning I can engage with and get good answers for my questions
6. How can I space out my learning over time
7. Break learning sessions into smaller pieces and spread them out
8. Always figure out when the next study session is going to be
9. Include pieces inside of spaced repetition systems?
10. How am I going to apply this in the real world
11. Opportunities to practice under "real life" conditions
12. Don't let in-app mastery fool you into thinking you have real world mastery as well

Encoding: getting information into your long term memory

https://youtu.be/JDb7EqCtlQc talks about using gen_ra_ive strategies to improve encoding (retention and recall). Effect was still there during second round for both gen_ra_ive and non-generative samples! Effect lasted more than a few minutes. Reasons: 1, having exposure to generative strategy allowed students to have it as a tool in their toolbox. 2, knowing how you're going to be tested helps brains select better encoding strategies to fit that recall demand.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UW4EMIucmHs long video on encoding. Pre-watch thoughts:

• What constitutes encoding? Sensory input->understand the input->make it make sense->connect it to other previously-known information->add cues for recall->ship it off to long-term storage. (only covered a little of these)
• Does it include periodic recall like spaced repetition or free recall? Do I re-encode every time I recall? (didn't cover at all)
• If I do free recall and identify something I missed, and I go back to learn it (again, better) how much of that is encoding vs revising? (didn't cover at all)
• Generative strategies as noted above, concept chaining, creation of mnemonics. What role does priming (like I'm doing right now) play in the encoding process? (priming barely covered)
• How is encoding evaluated? How do I know if I'm doing it well? (only evaluation is word list quizes, not useful, so I guess take the exams in class?)
• What different encoding strategies are there, how do they relate, do any compete/mutually exclusive? Are some more efficient than others? Is that efficiency context-dependent? (yes)
• How can I practice them? (not covered) Can I use more than one simultaneously? (multiple traces)

What is encoding? Transforming new information into long-term memories. We can encode facts (like history dates), concepts (exponential growth), procedures (recipe steps). Vast majority of research on this topic uses word lists, which may generalize to other encoding and recall contexts, but is entirely based on fact encoding (and only one specific type of fact). Encoding strategies can be automatic (what we use in everyday life when we're not making an explicit attempt to remember something) or strategic (using a strategy to try to remember something better than baseline). The goal of encoding is to be able to recall the information later when needed. Let's examine some of these strategies:

First up is deep vs shallow, or alternatively meaning vs form. Trying to remember words based on their form might be to focus on the number of vowels they have, or what a word rhymes with, a pretty shallow strategy. A deep strategy could use the meaning of the word, eg by placing the word into the context of a sentence. Strategies that rely on evaluating the meaning of the word tend to result in better recall.

Generation as discussed above is an example of cognitive effort. Word lists that have some blanks in the words require the participant to do the work of figuring out what the word is, connecting the word more deeply. While the above examples give us the memory target and ask us to create scaffolding around it, the idea here is that we have to undertake effort to generate the memory target itself. If the target is dog, you can give me "dog" and I can produce "dogs chase cars." But if you give me "man's best friend" and I generate "dog", that works better. 4x3=? works better than having me remember 12. Antonyms as prompts too, or sentences with scrambled word order that requires effort to generate a sensical sentence.

Directly stated facts vs inferences we make while reading. Asking ourselves questions about the material and noting the answers, or reading for subtext. This is, again, the generation of meaning. But it's self-directed instead of imposed by the presentation of the material, which makes it more practical for our use. "Active reading."

Concrete is easier to remember than abstract. Tree > freedom. Imagining helps us to remember things, and can be automatic but can be done intentionally. Mental imagery, visualizing making the basketball shot or how air moves in and out of the lungs, helps it stick beyond just reading a description. Not just visualizing either, any form of sensory imagining.

Mnemonics, memory palaces. Imagining things in space within a specific familiar context like your home or classroom. The Time Palace? Timeline becomes the space to attach memories to; preheat oven at birth, put the pizza in the pan at kindergarten, set the timer for 20 minutes at highschool, let it cool during college, slice it up at college graduation. Spacial and chronological framework make it easier to attach memories to for recall.

Outside of our head, we could physically take action in the real world. Drawing, for example. Writing or drawing? Drawing wins. Imagining or drawing? Drawing wins again. Memory traces: sound trace when you hear the word, imagery trace when you imagine the word's meaning in your head, physical trace when you move your hand to draw it on the page. Acting out is a very big physical trace. Variety of traces is better than one.

Distinctive is more memorable. Rare words, highlighted words. Read half the words out loud and you're more likely to remember those words, but read them all out loud and that effect goes away.

High value words get extra strategic encoding than low value words if the participant isn't given an encoding strategy to use. If given eg memory palace, that effect goes away; they're all remembered about equally (all good or all bad?). His conclusion: most of the time people don't bother putting in the effort of using a strategic encoding unless there's a good reason to. Which makes sense, they take more effort/energy. If they try to block strategic use, the higher point values still are easier to remember a little? So reward may still have some inherent impact.

What about learning a new math problem solving technique? Can't draw it or put it in a memory palace or put it into a sentence; too conceptual. Take all the little pieces and use them to form a cohesive whole, and connect it to pieces and techniques you already have? Use the rest of your problem solving knowledge as the framework to hang the new things from? Nope, ask questions about how we're getting between steps, or asking why we're trying to solve this in the first place, what's the implication of this particular part. Calling this "integration." Creating a sentence from multiple words from a word list. All of the varied memory traces get glued together into an integrated whole; memory traces of completely separate things don't work. Okay, finally got to prior knowledge as a framework. Play the game then doing the reading vs vice versa: play first does better. Game works goodly for priming and scaffolding because it has lower information density and it's fun.

Recall! The recall context can impact which encoding strategy will be most effective. Meaning beats form (deep vs shallow) in general, but if your recall context is via rhyme (considered shallow/form) then encoding them that way leads to better recall in that context. Encoding doesn't exist in a vacuum, it's only half of the equation. "Transfer appropriate processing." Varied memory traces increases the number of recall contexts that could cue the memory. Encoding for meaning is a larger set of recall contexts than shallow/form ones.

Platonic relationships

Platonic: How Understanding Your Attachment Style Can Help You Make and Keep Friends by Marisa G. Franco

Putting all your faith in romantic relationships and valuing them above all other kinds of relationships will lead to disappointment. Superficial advice like getting into a hobby to make friends misses underlying fundamental social insecurities and other things that make it difficult to forge those relationships regardless of context.

In group therapy, the participants act out within the group the same roles that they tend to take on in relationships outside of the group. Having the group allows them to explore different ways of relating to each other that might work better, but requires trust and rapport with other group members in order to feel safe to do so.

Group therapy session as a type of Gathering?

What kind of experiences have we had in the past that have changed the way that we show up as friends? What kind of people we seek out for friendship? How to attachment styles relate?

I feel like I have a lot of difficulty with shallow connections to people. If I find somebody that I want to build a friendship with, I tend to invest heavily to quickly develop a significant amount of intimacy with them. If they're not somebody that I can be close with, I don't typically bother. That can sometimes lead to me getting close to people too quickly, especially when it turns out I should not have trusted them. Am I doing that because I believe they will leave if we don't have some kind of close connection? If so, is that because I believe they're less likely to leave if we're close, or to intentionally make it harder for them to leave as a way of satisfying my anxiety around abandonment?

The one time I've had a romantic partnership, it consumed me to the point where I was no longer a person. How much of that was a result of me prioritizing the romantic partnership over other kinds of relationships? Could I have been consumed the same way if the relationship hadn't had a romantic component? Are there some values within a romantic relationship not present in others that this author overlooks?

--

Secure attachment "super friends" tend to believe the best about people and trust others to provide them with love. Anxious people assume others will abandon them, and will be clingy, appeasing, self sacrificing and plunge into intimacy too quickly (why?). Avoidant people also assume others will abandon them, but pull back, put up walls, pretend they don't need anyone, likely to withdraw early from relationships. Not much mention of disorganized. Attachment styles can change with each new relationship we undertake. The culmination of all of our experiences lead us to expect different things from our next relationship, and the way we experience events within those relationships is subjective based on the lens of those past experiences.

What is my attachment style? What are some of the salient details of the different attachment styles that I didn't know before? Are attachment styles self-perpetuating? Is shifting to a more secure attachment style just a matter of stopping self-sabotaging behaviors?

11 secure 10.5 anxious 3 avoidant, 2025-01-26

Heart rate variability variability (variance in variability?) linked to stress? That doesn't match what I know of HRV with PTSD.

Securely attached people assume the best of others, which increases the trustworthiness of others and also means they're not burdened with the expectation of betrayal all the time, only when it happens. More likely to initiate new friendships, address problems calmly, safely share intimate things about themselves; all risky behaviors they undertake more often because they're confident that others are safe. When faced with difficulties in a relationship, they're more likely to weather the storm, not withdrawing or being overly accommodating. They express their needs without accusation or defensiveness. Responding to others with empathy rather than advice (but how do you know that's what they want?) Secure people also improve their friends by being a place of refuge and growth, a safe place to vent and learn. The example used here of a group of people talking about someone else behind their back hurt to read. A lot of overlap between this description and the one from Polysecure.

Avoidant people mistrust others and keep them at a distance, often described as "mysterious." I've been described that way. More likely to find meaning in work, and may look to work partners for friendship (or throw themselves into therapy, or school?) Friends are compartmentalized (work friend, school friend, church friend) so that losing one won't be as destabilizing as if they were integrated into more areas of one's life. Object permanence: a friend unseen is a friend forgotten. But ADHD does this too, and I bet there are more reasons besides. I don't think this is inherently bad. If things get hard, avoidant people may just drop the friendship entirely rather than working through the issue, often by ghosting rather than confrontation. Another painfully familiar description. Withdrawing from people when they recognize they are untrustworthy, but isn't that an appropriate thing to do? Emotional repression leading to lack of interoception, outer coldness and inner chaos. Avoidance is contagious: by withdrawing from others seeking emotional support, the seeker will learn it's not safe to seek support, and will themselves become avoidant.

Anxious people lose themselves in relationships, trying to be so close to the other that they merge. You can't leave me if we're the same person. Self-denial and over-conformity, becoming whatever is required to meet the needs of the other regardless of our own needs. Makes anxious people open to exploitation and abuse. Co-dependence, giving more than they receive, "trauma bonding." Oversharing even if the other person isn't reciprocating. The anxiety, obsessing over every interaction trying to figure out why people suddenly don't like you, is exhausting. Discussion of "covert narcissism" feels not great. It's not unreasonable to want your own needs to be met, and being anxious doesn't necessarily mean one is focused exclusively on one's own needs. If that were true, why would anxious attachment people be so focused on over-conformity and moulding themselves to fit the expectations of the other person? They don't register red flags as much, are more likely to see rejection when it isn't there, less likely to forgive, have trouble considering other people's circumstances.

Anxious attachment results in rejection which reinforces anxious attachment. Same for avoidant. Self-perpetuating. Author notes personal experience that reading descriptions of anxious attachment results in noting that a tight friend group with close connections is typical and not having many loose friendships results from fear of abandonment. Places a high premium on friendships with people who make them feel safe. We want to feel safe, but we reject others because of the risk of rejection, which leads them to reject us in turn. We may find ourselves secure, anxious or avoidant at different times and in different circumstances, but ideally we'll trend towards secure more and more of the time. There are 6 ways to get there: initiative, vulnerability, authenticity, anger, generosity, and affection.

c3 Initiate

Friendship doesn't happen by itself, it requires intention to start it. Why is making friends hard? What common things prevent us from being able to initiate friendships? How do we make it easier for people to initiate friendships with us? What assumptions might we have that influence how friendships start? What skills can we develop to make us easier to approach and more confident to initiate? Is confidence even the issue? After I initiate, what then? How do I turn it into something recurring? What do I actually say?

It is objectively harder to create friendships, due to things like residential mobility/moving for work meaning you move away from people (less likely to invest in the people around you). TV making it easier to sit down on the couch vs knock on your neighbor's door. Social media can either be used to build connections or replace them. We live in an antisocial society, where everything our culture values results in isolation and disconnection. Intention is necessary to overcome this gap, though it may seem like friendships should happen organically (maybe because for all of human history, they have, until industrialization?).

Following up with people is the prolonged version of initiative. Set reminders in your phone to follow up with both old and new friends. Reaching out not only maintains but strengthens connection. Not only is the onus on us to initiate, but it's a demonstration of agency, taking control of the situation rather than letting it happen to us. Sometimes people may not be interested in reciprocating, or they may have an agenda that isn't friendly, or there may be other disappointments and rejections; a pattern of these can lead to insecurity, which makes putting yourself out there even harder. Having a romantic relationship can eclipse the understanding of the need for friendship. Even if you have a romantic relationship, having strong friendships in addition helps improve resiliency. I wonder what the research says about having multiple romantic relationships at the same time, ie do poly people need strong platonic connections to achieve those same results? Self-perception, ie secure vs insecure self-perception, affects how likely we are to take the initiative. If I already have a strong friend group, the risk in taking the initiative for a new person is less. If insecure, one is more likely to self-sabotage. Our self-perception "fills in the gaps" when we don't know how someone feels about us. People on average like us more than we think they do, so assuming someone does like you actually corrects for inherent bias.

"We should keep in touch. How can I contact you?"

Overt avoidance: not showing up to the event at all. Covert avoidance: showing up but not being engaged. Both of these are designed to manage anxiety in the short term, but perpetuate it in the long term. Showing up and engaging disproves the fear, which helps decrease anxiety in the future.

So how do we do it? Don't focus too much on romances, assume people will like you/respond positively, show up and engage. You're not too busy, you don't not need friends. If you feel a spark with someone, trust it; if you think there's a spark now, it's more likely you'll end up forming a friendship if you follow up with them. Keep showing up; in school we're forced to see and work with the same people over and over, same at work, and that creates an environment where connection can grow. If you're not in that situation with the people you want to connect with, you need to find a way to produce that same repeated contact. Reduced cost (financial, energy, time) to connect with people increases odds of lasting friendship. We like people more when we see them repeatedly, the "mere exposure effect". Pick places to build friendships where you'll see the same people over and over. Once you've got that going for you, sprinkle in unplanned conversations and see what sprouts. State an observation or insight, and then ask the listener a question related to it. Creating those tiny connections with people you see repeatedly can turn a neighborhood into a community. Science confirms that it's uncomfortable but also confirms the odds are in your favor if you keep putting yourself out there.

By showing up and engaging, prioritizing platonic connections, and assuming people want to connect, you become the friend you want others to be to you. Others have the same anxiety, and you help bridge that gap for them, making you a good friend candidate.

c4: vulnerability

Being vulnerable is hard because it's a reflection of shame. It requires courage even as it's scary. Attaching emotional performance when disclosing vulnerability helps others understand how hard it is for us, how important it is to us.

Don't try to be invulnerable, to avoid or suppress things that make you feel vulnerable. Rebound effect makes it worse, ruminating causes long term health and relationships problems.

People like vulnerability more than we think they will. Sharing things can increase closeness. But don't overdo it.

Over sharing is a defense mechanism, hoping to draw others in through an over expression of vulnerability, but it can overwhelm others and become the only thing they know about you.

Practice self compassion so that if someone responds poorly you don't feel so bad about it. Be mindful of feelings, connect them to the experiences of humanity. Be aware that vulnerability is more likely to be well received than you think, but it's not guaranteed. Sometimes people will reject you, especially if it's too much too soon or all the time.

Adopt vulnerability as a core value and live it in daily life.

Be discerning in who you're vulnerable with. Men have it hard because patriarchy is bullshit. Being dominant makes you less able to connect and less happy.

Don't wait for others to be vulnerable first. Don't continue to be vulnerable with someone who doesn't respond well. Being vulnerable isn't comfortable, it's a value to live.

c5: authenticity

Let people get to know the real you, not a pretend version of you that you think they'll like more. Like people for who they really are, not just who you want them to be or imagine they might become. People from disadvantaged and minority populations face the dilemma of choosing between authenticity and rejection, versus inauthenticity and acceptance. Need to find a balance, find spaces and communities where authenticity doesn't result in rejection. I e, join the queer club on campus. When someone more privileged says/does something problematic, we disadvantaged folks need to weigh the pros and cons of maintaining the relationship.

"Learn to Think on Paper"

https://youtu.be/4Zix6F_zS0Q

but when typing nothing prevents you from doing the cognitive effort. It doesn't force you to but it doesn't prevent it either. As an aphantasic, I don't have visual memory. I don't remember the shape of a note, or think in triangles, etc. If I really want a timeline or some other non text representation, I note the information and I can come back later to style it differently. I can change colors easily on computer too but probably wouldn't bother. 1430 "visual ways" but I'm not a visual person. Two stage processing sounds a lot like a writing inbox, which is again doable digitally for both stages. I hate the lack of consideration for disabilities and neurotype differences.

Co-op as a model for libraries

Co-ops are worker-owned companies and they have advantages re power structures and governance etc. What would a co-op library look like?

Eustress in learning

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jLZYfn5OrbI flow, happiness, frustration, tiredness and their impacts on learning.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sr_Fsn6VifM frustration vs bordom,

Vygotsky Zone of Proximal Development talks about learning with help. Learning Zone Model talks about some difficulty being good but too much being bad. How do we define the eustress area of "good difficulty"? How do I determine if I'm in it or not? Are there learning strategies for identifying that as a student? As a professor? Research Topic.

A video Hg shared

https://youtube.com/shorts/mnnjAfvfBtU

1. Add other people's stuff to your calendar.
2. Create a sunday reset ritual.
3. Run errands with friends.
4. Be okay with looking silly, try something new.
5. Use your library card.
6. A place for everything and everything in its place (lower mental drain of looking for things)
7. Set aside time for "soaking up inspiration" like taking a sketch pad to a museum.
8. Set reminders to call people you love regularly.
9. Take care of your clothes.
10. Pick a favorite color? Or set of colors to build a wardrobe around so that everything goes with everything to reduce decision fatigue.
11. Use second-hand stuff.
12. Use autopay on bills.
13. Teach things to others.
14. Schedule "admin days" for tasks that have been piling up, and put a reward at the end of it.
15. 3 recipes you know by heart, and start improvising.
16. Cut down your wardrobe to reduce decision fatigue.
17. Use voice-to-text?
18. Collect and scan your important documents.
19. Say "I love you" more.

TBR we are not the savages

Self-publishing benefits

For minorities (pair with Ethical Citation). To disrupt publisher oligarchies. Because of environmental impact. For easier archiving (DRM?)

Information Literacy

How do you evaluate a source? Is it the same way you do for Collection development process?

Copy this outline of knowledge management processes into my notes

https://bloomfire.com/blog/knowledge-management-process/

Jobs with Government of Canada

Student, graduate, regular recruitment all on the one website (90-95% of them). https://canada.ca/gcjobs Free account, stays with you even once you graduate. Federal Student Work Experience Program most important for students. The "Student Jobs" includes FSWEP. Research Affiliate Program for majors/programs that have a research requirement. Co-ops do not go through this website; they go through the co-op office of the school. No experience required for FSWEP, all paid, rate based on education level. Full time student, minimum age, must be returning to full-time studies next term OR (final year of studies AND been previously FSWEP/co-op/research affiliate program). Must consider canadian vets, then canadian citizens/PR, then international students. Application is not for a job, but for whenever a job opens (puts me in the pool). Keep your application up to date. Specialized inventories (still part of FSWEP) has special requirements, specific jobs with application deadlines. Accommodation can include scheduling. Disability learning events once hired? Mentors? Once you're in GC (government of canada) you can do any job in any province. Helpful for post-graduation hiring. RAP is under the public job search? Public job search can do email notifications for search criteria. Non-student jobs are 6-8 months typically, 2 years max to hear back. Need a security clearance?

I hate english adjective order rules

https://preview.redd.it/7w4cyoxooc021.jpg?width=511&auto=webp&s=96bd913247b366bc9b748d4132ca4a031e8136cc

What are the basic skills involved in effective reading?

To compare and contrast with How to Read a Book.

Practicum info sessions 2025-10-14

Not sure if classes will be available during the Summer.

GSIS program outline, 15 courses = 5 core + practicum + 10 electives. Tech choose 2. EDIAD choose 1. Librarianship certificate sounds good. Can go outside of department but okay, outside of Dal but eh. I like all of the INFO classes. GSIS is managed by FRS. DARS is only for undergrads, ignore it.

Practicum: 0 credit 0 GPA $0, pass fail, only way to fail is not to show up. About 100 hours, doesn't have to be exact. Supervised by an IM professional. Don't register for the practicum course by itself on the summer.

Where do you want your placement? What type of setting, specific site? What do you want out of the experience? Put those details in your practicum application (what's this?) Book appointment via outlook/teams Nov1-30 with Janet. Submit application form and current resume to jlmusic@dal.ca. https://www.dal.ca/faculty/management/current-students/master-of-information/work-integrated-learning/student-guide.html practicum application form and instructions. Come prepared, be open minded, don't wait to the last minute. Galleries, libraries, museums, archives, private sector, gov departments/agencies (federal/provincial). Examples of prior placements: Halifax grammar school, dal archives, law reform institute, natural history museum of ns, pier 21, university of regina, supreme court of canada library. If you are doing healthcare you need vax and masking.

If you want archives or records, take 5515 org info 6370 records management 6800 archives1. Hard to get placements in health libraries, if you want one apply early.

Report due 2 weeks at end of placement, can be oral. Failure to submit by deadline can result in failing grade since this is the only evaluating point?

There are options to do online placements.

Attendance, complete it, satisfactory performance. Professional conduct: proper attire, respectful, use honorifics in emails, impressions matter, it's a job not a hobby be proactive not homework.

Fill out the paperwork before meeting with her.

Digital garden categories

Identity things like AuDHD and gender. Thoughts about relationships. Gathering and community. Personal learning techniques. Science of learning. OER and course design. Organization of information and knowledge. Information literacy. Ethics of information. Political theory. Solarpunk praxis. Technology.

Finding similar notes:

1. Break all documents into sections, the basic units we'll be comparing.
2. Break each section into words (don't include links)
3. Add each appearance of a word in the section to that word's counter for the section.
4. Note how many distinct terms there are in the section?
5. For each section, for each term, increase the "sections" count for the term (at the garden level) by 1 and its count by the counter.
6. Now we have for each section the terms and their frequency, and for the garden we have the terms, total frequency, and number of sections they appear in.

With that preprocessing done, compare a new section A to every existing section B:

1. Process A as above.
2. For each B, find the intersection of the terms of A and B
3. Foreach common term, divide it by its count for the section and/or number of terms in that section, then divide by total number of times that term is in the garden and/or the number of sections it's in? Then abs(A-B)
4. Sum those up and divide by number of terms in common? Maybe not, more terms in common might be a positive indicator
5. Push a tuple of (4's output, B)
6. Sort by 4's output
7. Take the n smallest values

Metadata ideas in Oren, E., Völkel, M., Breslin, J. G., & Decker, S. (2006). Semantic wikis for personal knowledge management. In S. Bressan, J. Küng, & R. Wagner (Eds.), Database and Expert Systems Applications (Vol. 4080, pp. 509–518). Springer Berlin Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/11827405_50

Note classification/tagging

Would be good to identify classes or types for each of my notes. Can I create categories? Tags? Is there a mapping to schema.org? Is it worth it for me to add additional metadata to my site in order to facilitate connections to others? Is anyone else doing that in their digital gardens? Differentiate between internal and external links. Add contact info. Can I add predicates to external links? Person and Work links to citations?

Our data shows that 47% of the gardens do not utilize categories or tags, 38% use categories without tags, 12% use tags without categories, and 3% use both. ...Regarding navigation, the three main elements are backlinks (34%), search (26%), and tags (8%)

Archiwaranguprok, C., & Toahchoodee, M. (2024). On digital gardening: A feral hypertext in practice. Proceedings of the 35th ACM Conference on Hypertext and Social Media, 197–202. https://doi.org/10.1145/3648188.3675138

Why am I more engaged now than I was in the first hour of the class? We've started covering new material, there's discussion on Teams, lecturer is presenting well, not getting interrupted every 5 minutes from the peanut gallery. Lack of balance around course expectations for required readings and length of assignments. Someone made a very long-winded um-uh comment that was very difficult to follow and I lost the track of the conversation and it's hard to get back into it.

Yerkes-Dodson Law

https://www.simplypsychology.org/what-is-the-yerkes-dodson-law.html

Sapir-Whorf Conjecture of Linguistic Relativity

Japanese people have difficulty articulating the difference between green and blue because they're both ao.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linguistic_relativity

Thoughts on Moral Philosophy

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL30C13C91CFFEFEA6

Kant does moral imperatives, "it is never okay to lie" or "it is never okay to take a life." Bentham does utilitarianism, where the rightness or wrongness is not in the act but in its consequences, arguing that we should sum up the benefits and the harms that would result from an action to determine whether it is ethical or not. Nozick does libertarianism, based on the idea that we own our own body and our labor, and that our labor and property cannot be coerced from us but can be ethically traded on a free market. Locke asserts we have some inalienable rights to life and property "in nature" which would allow us to kill a thief, but since that tends to result in disproportionate response, people can instead leave the state of nature and enter a society, and the government established by that society can do just about anything it wants to so long as the rules are applied equally to everyone (can't levy a tax on bill gates, could levy a tax at a fixed percentage on all income).

The lecture series is currently discussing the role of consent in ethics but it doesn't seem to be tied to a specific person or ethical framework (yet).

Kant is easy to get twisted up, like is it okay to lie to an assassin who asks where your best friend is? Utilitarianism gets tripped up by summing up all the consequences because that tends to require things like converting to a common currency all goods and harms (commonly money) which doesn't work well for some things (like the value of a human life). Libertarianism doesn't work because people living in a society are never free of coercion and never start from a level playing field, and there's no way to produce a society that fully respects the absolute free will of an individual. Locke prioritizes the will of the majority in a society above all other concerns, and the idea that something could be uniformly applied to everyone in a society doesn't work out either (eg a law that withdraws $1000 from every person's bank account would be applied equally to everyone but disproportionately affect the poor).

Half way through the section on Kant. He rejects the utilitarian idea that we're supposed to add up all the pleasure and pain because those things would rule us, make us slaves. Instead he argues we cannot be governed by any kind of external impulse, but only by pure reason. It's not enough to do something which has good ends, because the means may still be bad. Instead it's all about the mind and heart, the motivation of the action. It has to be the right action for the right reason. Kant says that the right reason, the moral law, is derived not from the reasoning of any individual, but is derived from the innate ability of all people to reason. So there is not one moral law for each person, but one moral law shared by all people.

We only got through two formulations and I'm not impressed. The first was the test of whether a maxim is universalisable. But that test is a consequence test. If I need $100 to eat, and I asked you for the money and promised to pay you back knowing that I couldn't actually do that, that's wrong. Why? Because lying universalised would undermine all trust. But that's a consequence argument.

The second formulation was humanity as an end. It's not okay to lie to you because it's manipulative, it's exploiting you, using you as a means to an end rather than respecting you as an end in yourself. But I utilize the cashier at the grocery store to achieve my means of getting food. The difference is in the reverence I show to the cashier's dignity as a human being. But what does that mean? Is it not the impact I have on you vs the cashier that's different? Is it not the consequences of my action?

Kant says I'm not allowed to murder or suicide because both of those involve failing to respect the dignity of a person for my own ends. But if I'm not allowed to lie to you to get money for food, and I'm not allowed to cheat the shopkeeper and steal the food, I'll die of malnutrition.

So according to Kant it's better to die of starvation holding the moral high ground than tell a lie and live. He categorically (haha) rejects the idea of moral relativism.

Your distinction between octopus and chicken brings up another reason I don't like Kant's reliance on universal human reason. The Nazis murdered a bunch of Autistic on the grounds of their supposed cognitive capacity. Racism was and is perpetuated on the idea that Black and Brown people are inferior in intellect. Hell, babies can't reason, they just cry. That argument from Kant would imply they cannot act morally, but that's his distinction between "men and lesser beasts". Consequentialism and utilitarianism can't escape that either. The Tuskegee airmen experiment, even though it had health benefits as outcomes for so many people, was wrong.

Lecturer: a woman enters into a contract with a plumber to fix her leaky toilet. She has no idea about toilets or the cost of plumbing work. The contract is for $50k. Who here believes that's a fair contact? Auditorium: silence Lecturer: no one here? Not one? Why not? Student: because she's operating from a position of less knowledge. She's being taken advantage of. Me, screaming: you defended libertarianism a few weeks ago because of free will and free markets!! No one held a gun to her head!

So we've moved on to Rawl's difference principle. We start with examining a feudal system, and we reject it because it isn't moral to distribute wealth and opportunity on the basis of which class or caste you were born into. We move up from there to libertarianism and the free market. But Rawls rejects that because it's effectively the same thing. We all get born into different socioeconomic circumstances. Our starting position in society isn't' an ethical basis. And that's true because which society we're born into is arbitrary, a roll of the dice. David Letterman may make a lot of money in this society, but that's only because he was born into a society that values cheap humor on late night television. By basing it on socioeconomic factors, we're essentially back to the caste system, birth lottery. So then, we should be able to move everybody to the same starting line and that should be good enough, right? We'll have head start programs and the like, provide some financial and opportunity boost to those who lose the birth lottery, and then after that it'll be just based on the effort people put forward for what kind of reward they get. A meritocracy where those who work hard is rewarded.

But that doesn't take into account the natural factors, Rawls argues. Even if everyone starts from the same starting line, the people who are naturally gifted with good leg muscles are going to win that race. If you have a big strong contractor building a house, and a small weakling contractor building a house, it may take the latter 5x longer to build her house, 5x more effort. But a meritocracy wouldn't want to reward the person who was 5x slower even though they put in 5x more effort. What a meritocracy really wants is to reward contribution, ie the production of the house, not how much effort went into that production. And once you realize that, meritocracy is just another example of birth lottery. So Rawls argues. So to move beyond feudalism, to move beyond libertariansim, to move beyond meritocracy, you must consider the "difference principle." And that is to say, you can reward people who are high performers, but you can only do so in so far as the benefit is maximized for those at the bottom. You can pay David Letterman millions of dollars a year for being a lousy comedian, but only if he has to pay taxes that provide benefits to those who don't have the natural or socioeconomic advantages.

That's not to say that the taxation of the top and substinance to the bottom have to result in perfect equality. After all, if you tax David Letterman so much that he decides to throw in the towel then it ~~would be a good start~~ the people at the bottom would no longer be able to enjoy his comedy, and that would harm them. So you can't have a 100% tax rate and perfect redistribution of wealth. But you can't have it at 0% either. You have to find the balance point that maximizes the benefit to those at the bottom of society's pecking order. The libertarian objects, doesn't this violate the principle of self-ownership? In so far as the right to life and happiness and conscience and assembly etc are considered, Rawls says no. In so far as the idea that you have a 100% share in what you produce with your efforts? Rawls says yeah, it does, in this one specific way it does violate that concept of self-ownership, but it's not in a way that matters like the right to life does, and it's necessary to produce a just society.

Oh and there was that one kid (there's always one kid, for each of these ideas) who was super gung ho about his particular point of view or argument or talking point, and he's like "yeah but I worked really hard to be here! And michael jordan had a really hard road to get to where he is now and I don't think we should penalize him for that!" And lecturer says "yes, you worked hard, and he worked hard, overcoming great trials and adversities. You put in that effort, you did the hard work, you were driven to succeed. How many people in this room are the first born child in your family?" 90% of the room raises their hand. "There's a strong correlation between being the first born in a family and being driving to succeed. You won the birth lottery in terms of your birth order." I think that's the jist of this one. I gotta say I like this one the best out of what's been covered so far, but I'm not completely sold on it. There are a lot of big unanswered questions, like who is the "bottom" and how is benefit to the bottom going to be calculated and how are those benefits going to be allocated to them away from the top?

Rawls draws a distinction between just deserts and expectation of benefit. And that distinction is based on the idea that the society that you're in will value some skills or traits above others, but it's luck of the draw which society you get born into. So today he brought up the topic of affirmative action in university admissions.

The case was a legal one, a white woman had worked very hard and gotten good exam marks and so on, and applied to law school in texas. She was turned down, and she sued. The university was doing affirmative action, and the disclosed documents during the trial confirmed that if she'd been black with those test scores she would have been admitted. One student said this was wrong. This woman didn't choose the color of her skin, she was in the skin color lottery like everyone else, so it's unfair to penalize her for being white. She worked hard and had higher marks. One student said this was right, because the lower test scores of the black applicants were a reflection of less socioeconomic and educational opportunity available to those students. Affirmative action, she argued, puts everyone equal at the starting line by compensating for that. this was criticized because how do you determine how much to compensate? How many points do you add to the LSAT for black applicants? What about Black applicants who come from wealthy families and have lots of head start advantages? We would have to calculate the opportunity of every single applicant individually to get a fair starting point correction. One student said this was right, because the negative circumstances generally experienced by Black people in the US is a result of slavery, the effects of which we still see today. This was criticized because how could this white woman, born x number of years after the emancipation proclamation, be expected to bear the cost of compensation for acts that happened before she was born?

A third student said it was right, because a Black student brings their whole experience into the university with them. The bring the perspective of someone who has experienced racism, the socioeconomic impacts of slavery, and so on. Adding that perspective into the pool of students who are, together, embarking on an educational journey, provides white students (and all students) with the benefit of interacting with someone of that background and perspective. So the end result is a better educational result for everyone who is admitted. And furthermore, society as a whole is advantaged when more diverse experiences and peoples are graduated from such programs, because then society as a whole is more diverse in its viewpoints. And so the question then arose, do those benefits to the university's student body, and to society as a whole, justify the denial of admission of this white woman in texas? Is that not just using her as a means to further socitey's ends? What of her right to be admitted to the university? Doesn't she deserve that educational opportunity? And that loops back around to the distinction between moral deserts (deserves), and entitled expectations.

The university's purpose is to produce the best possible education for those it admits, and so improves society. The univeristy, to achieve that purpose, has elected to include race among other factors considered during the admission selection process. Everyone who applies to the university is judged on the same set of weighted criteria. It would be unfair if the university granted special consideration to specific individuals, weighting them differently, but so long as everyone gets the same weights, they have the same expectations of being selected. That's being entitled to addmittance to that university. In contrast, the woman was born into a society where the university had this criteria in place to achieve its purpose. She doesn't deserve to be admitted just because she did well on a particular test or had a particular set of skills, because she rolled the dice on which society she was born into. Those skills might not advantage her if she had been born into feudalism, or a hunter-gather society. The university does not owe her an admission policy that privileges the set of skills and talents she happens to have.

So, that's Rawls applied to affirmative action. And, the lecturer noted, that diversity argument is exactly the one Harvard (the host of the lectures) cited when it filed an amicus brief with SCOTUS on an affirmative action case.

Further examination of Aristotle's telos argument, that things should be distributed to those who are most worthy. The best flutes go to the best flute players. The most political power goes to those who demonstrate good moral character. Morality is defined by the suitableness to purpose. Whoever is best suited to a job is the one who should do it. Aristotle uses this argument in support of slavery, suggesting that there are some people who are best suited to being slaves. Rejects the idea of autonomy and personal freedom, ie if you're best suited to be a janitor then that's what you have to do regardless of your wishes. Arguments about fitness to purpose can also focus on the purpose itself. Example of golf player who is really good at hitting the ball but has a health issue that prevents walking long distances, requests a golf cart as an accommodation under ADA. Some argue that the game of golf is one of athletics, and if you can't walk the field then you're not playing the game anymore. Others argue it's a game of skill, sinking the ball in the hole in as few strokes as possible. Since prestige/honor is on the line, fitness to purpose requires an agreement on what the purpose is, but reasonable people can disagree on it. That's why most modern philosophers reject the idea of telos, instead opting to allow each person to decide their own best lives and make their own decisions so long as they respect the rights of others to do the same.

How did we get from telos to communitarianism?

Communitarian MacIntyre? argues that we have a third type of moral obligation, to the communities we're a part of. Narrative construction of the self. Do I owe a debt to my parents because they are my parents, or because of reciprocity since they've invested in me? What about my city, country, religious community?

The communitarians are getting the snot beat out of them this go around. One student said that if he saw his roommate cheating on an assignment he wouldn't turn him in, because his loyalty to his roommate supercedes his responsibility to tell the truth. One student says that the broadest responsibility should win if there are multiple communities in conflict, ie you should stand with humanity over your country if they're in conflict. Another said that family, being the closest community, should win. Another example of robert E lee who took up arms against the union not because he believed in sucession but because he felt his loyalty to virginia outweighed his loyalty to the union. A lot of people who raised their hand that they'd also not turn in their roommate did not raise their hand that they'd fight a war to preserve slavery. communitarians by and large try to settle the issue of conflicts between communities by trying to rely on which community is more just. But that's circular. If you define the justness of a society by how true that society is to its own principles, then a slavery-endorsing state would be considered just within itself, and so would nazi germany. And if you instead have to look outside of the society for a definition of whether it is just or not, then you've abdicated communitarian belief that the community is something that provides moral weight in the first place.

End of the course discusses same-sex marriage. One student argued against it because of his religious convictions as a catholic. One argued in favor of it, saying that it was between two consenting adults and didn't harm anyone else. And one person argued that government has no business recognizing marriage in the first place. I personally find that last one appealing, and came to it myself when the scotus ruling came out. But the lecturer did some handwaving and said that it wasn't possible to simply not have the state involved, because Aristotle argues that the state's recognition of marriage is a result of marriage being an honored social institution. And he then went on to discuss the court's ruling that said the same thing.

But like... so what? The court was asked to decide whether same sex marriage should be legalized on par with different sex marriage, not whether it should be abolished. And the courts make bad rulings all the time. The whole point of the course is to examine the underlying philosophical arguments, not to say "well the court said this so that's the answer."

His concluding speech was basically about how wrestling with what is moral is connected to our individual beliefs, and that rather than trying to take eg religious beliefs out of the discussion and look for some kind of neutral position to base a legal society on, we should instead engage with each other's beliefs as part of that effort. And he said this while acknowledging that such engagement with others' beliefs may not lead to agreement. But we have to have an agreement to base a law on! And if you allow religious belief to be involved in that then you get state-mandated christianity and white supremacy and a bunch of other bad things!

The wholesale abandonment of the idea of neutrality in favor of "just listen to each other" is not compelling. I'm not listening to nazis, for one thing. Their beliefs do not warrant inclusion in the debate of a just society.

Person identifiers

VIAF and ORCID and WikiData

Learning methodologies

https://learning-theories.org/doku.php?id=instructional_design:discovery_learning of Jerome Bruner vs https://learning-theories.org/doku.php?id=learning_theories:assimilation_theory of David Ausubel

Working in Halifax workshop 2026-01-13

People value Canadian experience, especially NS if you're in NS. Strong sense of community, networking is important. Seasons matter, tourism in the summer, retail fall/winter. Lots of summer options for gov jobs. Campus jobs are competitive. Need: resume (compact)/cv (exhaustive), cover letter, references. Resumes should reflect who it is you're talking to, resume can demonstrate skills in it (eg good at document layout design). 1 page best, 2 max. Be concise, don't include spelling errors. Canva templates, meh. TeX! Customize resume to the job posting.

https://www.dal.ca/campus_life/career-and-leadership/contact-us.html offers resume review, photos, interview prep, job search strategies, other guides.

Cover letter: highlight why you're a good fit, write them for job you really want even if it's optional. Keep it 1 page. Expand on relevant experience. Use names and titles when possible. Also highlight who you are, why you're interested, passions and future goals. Address it to the right person!!

References: have some handy, professional is best, academic is okay.

Where to get Canadian experience: volunteer, international centre has some. Volunteering is a big Canadian value. TA, tutor, advisor, mentor, together@dal grad mentors. DSU and societies. Co-curricular record (CCR) at dal, monday night meal, student leadership academy.

https://www.dal.ca/campus_life/international-centre/volunteer.html

Employment and Social Development Canada (2024): Adaptability, collaboration, communication, creativity and innovation, digital, numeracy, problem solving, reading, writing. How can you demonstrate proficiency in these areas via resume entries? If there are gaps, get experience for it.

Networking: attend events and conferences, career fairs, EduNova programs with Study and Stay and BEST Conference, professional social media (linkedin), Halifax Partnership, Eventbrite, industry Halifax websites, relationships with professors.

https://halifaxpartnership.com/

Where to find jobs: myCareer Dal (and major contractors), DSU, co-op programs, job search sites like Career Beacon, Indeed, LinkedIn, Employment section of company websites, Wanted signs at businesses, Career fairs and networking events, word of mouth.

https://mycareer.dal.ca/home.htm

https://www.dsu.ca/jobs

Talk to Career Services if you need help. Advising/counselling.

Manage your work-life balance, be careful with your finances and time, don't overwork, utilize supports.

Rights: labour standards, contract and job description, breaks time off holidays leave etc, min wage 16.50->16.75 april, safety, T4 slip for taxes.

Reading course peer support panel 2026-02-02

Ellen: art librarianship. Kat: Queer archives. Holly: Reading for middle school students. Randy: Romance novels as info sources. Clara: Two semesters, research librarians what do you wish you'd learned.

Summarize: Fun, a lot. Didn't have to follow someone else's plan. Fine. The not good parts weren't to do with the reading course, overestimated my capacity. Nice to have access to things outside of what's offered. Long. Intense. Easier to find motivation because it's something you're passionate about. Pick a good advisor. Doing a thesis without doing a thesis.

How did you pick a topic: Looked at a bunch of syllabi from universities with similar programs. Something already passionate about. Changed over time, follow your interest throughout the course. Follow-on to an interest from practicum. Could turn into a course that gets added to the curriculum.

What were timelines like: More flexible than the website's timeline might indicate. Pick advisor based on topic selection. Sometimes advisors aren't topic-related but can still be okay. Having deadlines is useful for motivation but also give yourself time. Maybe don't do it in your last semester. They can span multiple semesters, can do it with other people!

How did you create the syllabus etc: Based on an existing syllabus. Consider including a project that will look good on a resume. Interview people. Collect multiple syllabi, pick topics per week and readings, narrow it down. Find things that work with your study style to help stay on track. (8 500word reflections of what you were reading). Mini research paper, big research paper, zine. Proposal isn't written in stone. Adjust based on interactions with others during the process (eg teaching, incorporate feedback from students). Get into the classroom, crafting, or create a website or other resource. If you're doing research, you'll need ethics approval etc.

How choose supervisor, what's communication like: Chose Stacy because of her experience as librarian and researcher. Met every 2 weeks to talk about readings, standing meeting. Alyson good fit topic-wise. If someone disappears other supervisors can step in to help, and if you disappear people are flexible and understanding. Randy was using Alyson but is now using Sandra for supervision, good communication. Doing it with others helps with coverage if someone has a conflict, helps it "feel real."

Product: Workshop. Consider publishable outputs. Own knowledge and hands-on skills practice. Presentation. Conference talk or proceeding. Poster. Zine.

What would you change next time: do less. Cut in half what you think is about right. Focus on something specific and go deep instead of wide. It's easier to add more things than take things away. Don't leave things to the last minute (she planned hers in 3 days). Good communication early and often.

Is there anything you wish you'd known: wish I had more info about writing a thesis, would have done that instead (that has more structure). Next lunch'n'learn is a thesis panel. 5-person deep reading group in the past like a book club but for credit; it's time to dedicate to a subject rather than a bunch of deliverables.

How does direction change: Very naturally as a result of regular communication. Have a backlog of other things in case a reading turns out not to be interesting.

Summer or fall: summer was nice because no competition with other courses.

How to find partners: 2-5? Depends on topic and advisor. Came out of student discussion.

Funding: what funding. No.

Community led health librarianship

Thoughts on Frugal Hedonism

Define your own normal

I think I have an advantage here being Autistic. My normal is already so far from the normal of neurotypical people that I don't find it particularly difficult to deviate from social expectations in a lot of areas.

The jist of this chapter seems to be that measuring yourself against others isn't a good strategy. Capitalism spends billions of dollars marketing us stuff and leveraging the human desire to conform with the expectations of one's neighbors. By setting that aside and allowing ourselves to be weird, we can evade that pressure, allegedly.

I don't think it's possible to do this entirely. I will suffer negative consequences if I don't dress "professionally" at work, for example. And if other people are masking, it's probably a good idea for me to mask too (of course, I'm already masking, but still).

I gave away my TV when I left Chicago, and honestly I don't miss it. Watching videos on my laptop works just fine so long as I'm alone when I do so, and that's basically always. I don't care to go on trips. But I recognize that my plan right now is attending school full time, which is a pretty normie thing to do, and that after that I'll probably end up getting a full-time job. Hopefully it will be one I don't hate, but that's an assumption about my life direction that I should consider carefully.

Relish experiences

I love the feeling of hot water falling on me in the shower. I love biting into my homemade pizza hot out of the oven. I love the feeling of a cat curled up in my lap and purring. I want to find more of these.

Keep good care of what you own

Bicycle maintenance is really something I need to do at the moment. Car maintenance less so and I'd be happy to be rid of the truck if I wasn't moving again. Maybe ditch it this summer. It's an asset that is more like a liability, but not having it feels like such a big risk right now. My body needs better care too, and I should clean out the computers.

Have things you value to spend your money and time on as motivation

This probably looks like community involvement and activism, but deserves some serious thought.

Hate waste

Look at anything you're about to buy and assess if it has high potential to become waste, look at anything you are about to throw away and see if it could be potentially useful. Look at things that other people are discarding to see if you can make use of them, food or electronics or building materials or furniture etc. Do your shopping in the waist stream.

Recalibrate

Hedonistic adaptation works both ways. Contrast is more important than going without. Try no artificial light, no technology, no bread and tomatoes. Scale down the baseline expectation and then the occasional excess feels all the more amazing.

Ignore recipes

and cook by instinct, what's on hand, random.

Resist advertising

Okay I will. Don't even look at it!

Role models spark imagination

Look for people you admire, including in history and fiction, who do more with less or otherwise embody the values you want to live, get more of that to counteract the advertising.

Buy it for life

Pay what it's worth, don't buy cheap that kills the planet behind the curtain, buy the story of good things. But what if you can't afford the non-cheap stuff?

Punctuate

Enjoy occasional extravagance, ritualize and celebrate, as a punctuation of an otherwise lean existence. The point is to make it the exception, to generate contrast (see recalibration).

Willpower

Willpower is a muscle, it can be trained, but it can also be overtaxed. The inspiration from reading this book is fleeting, don't lose momentum, write down a couple of easy ideas to start with and build on, or do some frugal hedonist thing immediately, or make one big change before the inspiration evaporates.

Habits

Replace undesired behaviors with desired behaviors, instead of watching TV at dinner read a book instead. The trick is to have the replacement behavior already there and easily accessible. Already have made the decision to change and prepared for it so that when it occurs the change is easier to accomplish and requires less willpower. Activation Energy, Task Initiation.

Restaurants

Don't order drinks at restaurants and eat out less. Check. But could probably apply this to drinks at home.

Third spaces

Find free third spaces, like parks and libraries. Where else?

Budgeting

Don't think about money? You'll be saving so much money that what you do have will take care of itself, don't penny pinch it takes away from the hedonist part of frugal hedonist. This seems short-sighted.

Travel cheap

Walk. Cycle. Ditch the car. If you do most of your short trips by walking or biking, maybe have a cheap transit pass, then you can ditch the car and it's cheaper to do a car share or occasional rental.

Don't be afraid of dirt

You don't have to wash your clothes after a single wear if all you're doing is sitting in your car to commute and then sitting at your office desk. Hanging clothes in the sunshine and breeze can freshen them up without washing them. Use less soap/detergent than recommended.

I'm going to call out the suggestion that gut bacteria are responsible for ASD. That's debunked. And some of us with poor immune systems do need to keep things a little cleaner, especially in shared spaces and our own bodies.

Behavioural changes and reuse are cheaper

Changing your travel mode to be foot/bicycle instead of car is better than buying a new electric vehicle. A used gasoline car is probably better for the environment than a new electric car becuse it already exists. Instead of installing new solar panels to offset lighting costs, install a used skylight. Determining which of these is actually a good tradeoff can be really difficult, but in general a thing that already exists is better than an eco-friendly new thing. Going back to hate waste, anything you rescue from the trash or buy used avoids the entire carbon impact of its creation and getting it to you, and most of the cost to boot.

Do spend some money

Make it on the things that really matter. If you've used the ebike for 5 years and it needs a significant repair and you've been longing for more cargo space, then get a used cargo bike. In terms of the hedonistic side of things, we typically derive more pleasure from experiences than material goods. Experiences tend to be exempt from hedonistic adaptation, are open to positive reinterpretation, avoid the comparison pitfall of physical items, can help create identity (I'm a runner instead of I own running shoes), can build social connection. These should be punctuations to create contrast (see punctuation).

Limit choices

Decision fatigue is real. Having more choices often leads us to abandon our analysis and just pick something even if it's not the best, or to pick nothing at all. Even if you do all the analysis and get a slightly better result, the analysis took effort, and you're left with the downsides of the choice feeling like the fault of your analysis rather than the fault of the choices. Eliminate entire areas of decision if you can, eg "I don't buy water" eliminates the possibility of choosing bottled water at restaurants, "I'm not buying clothes for the next 3 months" eliminates that area of consideration. If you can utilize your values to eliminate potential areas of complex decision making, that frees you up to spend those mental resources on other more enjoyable tasks.

Like what you like

People have different tastes and that's okay. You don't have to keep up with the Jonses. Like what you like and don't apologize for it. Instant coffee instead of expensive french roast whatever is okay if you prefer it.

Self propel

This feels like Travel cheap again. Use your feet or a bicycle. "Walking is how the body measures itself against the earth."

Live in lesss space

A building is an enormous thing to keep in good working order, expensive and time consuming. Danger of spending on unnecessary renovations. Space that is rarely utilized still has to be maintained, and an empty closet promotes behaviour that fills it up. I'll likely be moving to a smaller apartment than this one, and that's good. I like owning a home but I also like having a maintenance department I can call. I don't have to worry about whether to renovate or what color to paint the walls (limit choices) because I can't do either of those things.

Needs evaluation frameworks

• https://www.healthycommunities.org/resources/community-health-assessment-toolkit
• https://www.naccho.org/programs/public-health-infrastructure/performance-improvement/community-health-assessment/mapp
• https://www.astho.org/globalassets/resources/developing-a-state-health-improvement-plan-guidance-and-resources.pdf
• https://archive.cdc.gov/www_cdc_gov/nccdphp/dnpao/state-local-programs/change-tool/index.html
• https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9847055/

Types of literature reviews

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19490148/

Library (short story by Ben Brown)

https://benbrown.com/library/

A nice little story about libraries and distributed encrypted p2p backups and resistance to corporate fascism. Reminds me of the Stealing the Network books a little bit.

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