06 Apr 2025 #misc
Every beep, buzz, and notification is designed to keep us hooked.
The other day while preparing my Friday Links email, I found Seven39. A social media platform that only opens from 7:39PM to 10:39PM EST.
It made me think of what features I’d like to see on a non-addictive social media app:
#1. It only opens on a fixed schedule. Inspired by Seven39 itself. Or, instead of a fixed schedule for everyone, users set their own open hours, capped at two hours per day.
#2. It only allows you to have 150 connections, at most.
#3. After open hours, it goes into “dumb” mode or simply kicks you out, and you can’t log in again.
#4. It only allows a maximum number of interactions, such as likes, comments, or reposts, per day.
#5. Users are limited to one post per day. You’re better off thinking carefully about what you want to share. You only have one shot.
#6. It’s invitation-only.
#7. It doesn’t email you, except for authentication and security reasons. No email notifications at all. No “someone viewed your profile.”
#8. No endless feed for you to scroll. You can only interact directly with your connections.
#9. It has no notifications while you’re online. You should only receive a daily digest of your connections’ activity on your post.
#10. It has no metrics. Just likes.
A platform like this needs a name. What about these?
- BeepZero: No beeps. No notifications. Just connection.
- TinCan: Your friends, you, and a tin can phone.
- NoSocial: The nosocial media platform.
Which one is your favorite? Mine is TinCan.
Would you sign up for a platform like this? Of course, after you receive an invitation.
05 Apr 2025 #writing
From cleaning at McDonald’s to 1.7 million followers on Twitter/X.
Sheehan Quirke (@CulturalTutor) was trying to find ways to make money writing. His best plan was offering tutoring in literature, architecture, and culture. He started his Twitter/X account to drive traffic to his tutoring gig.
Plot twist? People on Twitter didn’t want his tutoring sessions, but his threads.
That’s how Sheehan started. He shared his story here:
And here are my lessons from that interview:
#1. Don’t read anything written in the last 50 years. If you read what everybody else reads, you’ll say same the same things as everybody else. And you’ll think like everybody else. Find good sources of inspiration.
#2. Focus on writing good stuff. Forget about algorithm hacks and engagement pods. Just write.
#3. Write good hooks. Our content is competing with memes and 6-pack abs. Our content will pass unnoticed unless we write opening lines that make people stop scrolling. Steal your hooks from influencers.
#4. The best way to stay consistent is to always believe you can improve. Your writing today is practice for better writing tomorrow.
#5. Find peers who encourage you. This is what James Altucher calls finding your EQUALS. People on the same journey who can challenge and encourage you.
#6. Treat writing as your full-time job. A young boy who wants to make it to the Major Leagues knows he has to train and practice every day. Writing shouldn’t be anything different.
#7. Focus on one thing. It’s easy to get distracted by too many platforms, pretending to be everywhere. Twitter/X, Medium, Substack, LinkedIn, etc. Focus on one thing in one place. When Sheehan was starting on Twitter/X, he wanted to start a newsletter. That would have distracted from what was working: Twitter threads.
#8. Find ideas on your daily conversations. And refine them by talking about them. This sounds like the 3-strike rule to write posts I found the other day.
04 Apr 2025 #coding
Guaranteed results in 10 simple steps:
#1. Ignore ideas and suggestions. If anyone comes with an idea or suggestion, ignore it. And if anyone raises a concern, say it’s fine and it used to be worse.
#2. Take credit for someone else’s idea. If anyone comes with an idea and you don’t want to ignore it, say “oh, that was what I told you we should do.”
#3. Don’t share any vision or project goals. Just keep your team closing JIRA tickets. Tickets and more tickets.
#4. When someone asks for a salary review, say “come back in a few months.” And then, tell them to come back again. And on and on.
#5. Once a task or project is finished, publicly praise someone else’s work.
#6. Give your team boring and repetitive work. The more boring and repetitive, the better. Make them dig holes. Then make them fill those holes.
#7. Make them work on projects no one will use. Did your team work on a project for six months? Archive it, deprioritize it, or make sure nobody uses it.
#8. Your team worked hard, but why share what the users think? That’s not their business, right? Don’t share any feedback. Just keep them finishing tickets. See #3.
#9. Use the word “resource” to refer to them and treat them accordingly. Your team members are machines you can replace anytime.
#10. Lay off people and tell the ones who stay “nothing is happening.” And if they ask about it, tell them they should be grateful for still having a job.
Follow these steps and you’ll have team members who will leave you at their first chance.
03 Apr 2025 #career
I’ve finally understood why it’s better to change jobs than to ask for a raise.
These days, I was reading James Altucher’s archive of posts and I found out about the Jesus’ effect. I had already heard about the Doppler effect, the Google effect, and the Butterfly effect. But, not about Jesus’ effect.
The Jesus’ effect or just being the “carpenter’s son”
According to the Gospels, Jesus was traveling and preaching all over his home country.
In our modern day, he would be on podcast tours, giving TED talks, and running masterminds. He was creating a brand and growing a following. Literally.
His movement was getting larger and larger, with followers and haters.
Until he arrived in his hometown.
He couldn’t continue doing any of his work. There, he was only the “carpenter’s son.” His hometown was the place with the most haters.
At that point, I had already heard about that piece of advice: “Don’t ask for a raise, change jobs.” I’ve made the mistake of not following it. Shame on me!
But then I made the connection between Jesus and changing jobs
Often, the best place to grow is not where you’re at now, but somewhere else where people will value you more.
Where you are now, you’re probably the database guy or the API guy or the UI guy. That’s your perceived value. You’re just the “carpenter’s son.”
That’s why most conversations about salary raises die with a “come in 3 or 6 months” or “come after your next performance review.” You’ve reached a glass ceiling in terms of growth and how management and check-signers perceive you at work.
There are no more growth opportunities. No more salary increases. Just the same old grind until you get bored or laid off.
Often, just like Jesus, we find ourselves defined by labels, the “carpenter’s son” or whatever label you have at work, and to grow, we have to move to another place. Be like Jesus and find opportunities somewhere else where you’re valued more.
02 Apr 2025 #misc
All marketing goes to hearts and lungs.
Buy sunflower oil because it’s good for your heart.
Don’t smoke. And if you buy a pack of cigarettes and it comes with a picture of damaged lungs.
But what about kidneys? I haven’t seen any ads for them.
# # #
“She needs blood transfusions. Sign the consent here,” I was told.
My loved one was in the ICU. After lots of blood tests, a full-body scan, and urine exams, the diagnosis: chronic kidney disease.
Two days earlier, we took her to the ER.
Her abdomen was swollen. She couldn’t hold a simple conversation. She threw up constantly. Sometimes, she couldn’t even recognize us. Her body was poisoning itself.
Her kidneys had collapsed.
It was 2020, in the middle of the bat-soup crisis. We were scared of what she had and scared that she might get that deadly thing from the hospital air. Either one could kill her. Two invisible enemies.
She got the highest priority in triage at the ER. And she didn’t spend long time there before getting into the ICU. A couple of unknown heroes stood up for her with their blood.
An internist, a urologist, and a nephrologist saw her. She wasn’t fine at all.
# # #
Kidneys have two main functions:
- Remove excess liquid from your blood.
- Filter waste and toxins from your blood.
High blood pressure, diabetes, and kidney infections are signs that you should look for to start taking care of your kidneys more closely.
Drink enough water, exercise, stop smoking, and avoid salt. Take care of your kidneys.
Don’t trust me. Trust the US National Institute of Health. Or talk to your doctor.
# # #
“My life depends on a machine now,” she told me.
My loved one was shocked after her first session of dialysis.
When your kidneys are damaged, a machine replaces them. You’re “connected” to a machine that works like your kidneys. It takes out some blood, filters it out, and puts it back in. That happens for 3 or 4 hours, three times a week. That process is called “dialysis.”
It’s like going to a gym or exercising three times a week to stay healthy for a regular person. The only difference for her? She can’t skip a day or two. There’s more at risk for her than a slim body.
She first had a small tube in her neck, then in her chest. That’s how she got connected to that machine. And later, a vascular access on her arm (a vein and an artery are connected to get more blood out). This time, she got connected with two large needles. Ouuuch! That’s painful.
Sitting for 4 hours is uncomfortable.
But that’s not the worst part after a session of dialysis. High or low blood pressure, headaches, dizziness, and tiredness. That’s the worst part.
After every session, she eats and then goes right to bed. No more mental or physical energy for anything else. The day is over.
Does her life depend on a machine? Technically, yes. But we prefer to see it as the machine giving her life. It’s not her enemy, it’s her fighting partner.