Semi-Annual Roundup 2017

June 29, 2017 By

We’re halfway through 2017. Time for a roundup going into the July 4th weekend. Here are the posts published in the first half of the year, organized by author. We had 39 posts by 21 authors if I’m counting correctly (every post under guest is a distinct one-off author; contributors get a byline starting with their second post).

As you’ve probably guessed, we’ve made this a year of scaling, and are making a valiant attempt to hit a 2 posts/week tempo while also significantly expanding our network of writers. At 39 posts in 26 weeks, we are at roughly 1.5 posts/week.

  1. Zorba, Spock, or Voldemort? (4/11/2017) by Matthew Sweet
  2. Cannon Balls, Plate Tectonics, and Invisible Elephants (1/12/2017) by Hal Morris
  3. A Brief History of Existential Terror (2/28/2017) by Taylor Pearson
  4. There are bots. Look around. (5/23/2017) by Renee DiResta
  5. Entrepreneurship is Metaphysical Labor (4/18/2017) by Joseph Kelly
  6. The Strategy of No Strategy (2/23/2017) by Adam Elkus
  7. Sanity on the Weird Timeline (3/14/2017) by Sonya Mann
  8. The Antiheroine Unveiled (1/19/2017) by Sonya Mann
  9. Arguing About How the World Should Burn (5/16/2017) by Sonya Mann
  10. Rolling Your Own Culture and (Not) Finding Community (1/10/2017) by Guest Contributor
  11. “Another Green World” (3/9/2017) by Guest Contributor
  12. Unbuilding the Wall (2/16/2017) by Guest Contributor
  13. Caring and Reality (2/14/2017) by Guest Contributor
  14. One Sacred Trick for Moral Regeneration (2/9/2017) by Guest Contributor
  15. Shift Register Code Breaking Out of the Echo Chamber (2/7/2017) by Guest Contributor
  16. Games, Videogames, and the Dionysian Society (1/26/2017) by Guest Contributor
  17. Lies, Caffeinated Lies, and Operating Systems (1/24/2017) by Guest Contributor
  18. How to Dress for the Game of Life (1/17/2017) by Guest Contributor
  19. A Priest, a Guru, and a Nerd-King Walk Into a Conference Room… (5/9/2017) by Carlos Bueno
  20. Y Tribenator (5/30/2017) by Carlos Bueno
  21. Cloud Viruses in the Invisible Republic (4/4/2017) by Carlos Bueno
  22. How I Hired Your Mother (6/15/2017) by Carlos Bueno
  23. Prescientific Organizational Theory (2/21/2017) by David Manheim
  24. The Throughput of Learning (1/31/2017) by Tiago Forte
  25. Tendrils of Mess in our Brains (1/5/2017) by Sarah Perry
  26. Idiots Scaring Themselves in the Dark (4/13/2017) by Sarah Perry
  27. The Limits of Epistemic Hygiene (3/2/2017) by Sarah Perry
  28. Fluid Rigor (5/4/2017) by Sarah Perry
  29. After Temporality (2/2/2017) by Sarah Perry
  30. Why Books Are Fake (6/1/2017) by Sarah Perry
  31. Ten Years of Refactoring (6/13/2017) by Venkatesh Rao
  32. Been There, Done That (6/27/2017) by Venkatesh Rao
  33. Thingness and Thereness (6/6/2017) by Venkatesh Rao
  34. The Winter King of the Internet (3/21/2017) by Venkatesh Rao
  35. Blockchains Never Forget (5/25/2017) by Venkatesh Rao
  36. One Weird Longform Trick…on the Blockchain! (4/25/2017) by Venkatesh Rao
  37. Nobody Expects The Mongolian Earthship (3/30/2017) by Venkatesh Rao
  38. Bourbon Crossing (3/23/2017) by Venkatesh Rao
  39. Sulking Through a Subprime Presidency (3/7/2017) by Venkatesh Rao
  40. Semi-Annual Roundup 2017 (6/29/2017) by Editor

Complete 2016 Roundup

December 30, 2016 By
This entry is part 10 of 17 in the series Annual Roundups

Here’s the complete roundup for 2016. I’ve changed the format this year and have grouped the roundup by author and medium, to help you discover some of our new contributors and experimental content more easily. We had 8 new contributors, 3 returning contributors, and 2 regulars (Sarah and me) all together contributing 57 posts, of which 42 were longform, and 15 were  other media: audio (1), video (4), cartoons (6) and slide decks (4). It was a satisfying growth year, topping half a million visitors for the first time, and growing by between 25-33% depending on which metric you like.

screenshot-2016-12-30-09-35-56

Other highlights this year: a new high-watermark viral hit post that beat the Gervais Principle in single-day traffic, Artem vs. Predator, the first ever ribbonfarm longform blogging course (you’ll see the output in the next 2 months), and the first year when I was not the biggest longform contributor on the site (Sarah Perry had 12 posts, I had 11, not counting my experimental non-longform posts). I did, however, set a new ribbonfarm record for length: King Ruinous and the City of Darkness weighed in at over 14,000 words, nearly twice the previous record of around 8000.

The ribbonfarm map also evolved this year, and acquired a video tour, in Trace of the Weirding. If you’re new to ribbonfarm, this video and map might be helpful as a general overview of what we’re about.

New readers (here is the new readers start page) this year might also want to check out the 2015 roundup, 2014 roundup and 2013 roundup. If you want to do some binge reading further back into the archives, there is a page for the Rust Age (2007-12) with both curated selections and complete roundups for 2007-12.

Anyhow, click on with the roundup.

[Read more…]

Weird Crowds, Weird Planet

July 25, 2016 By

Here’s the pre-read for the third and fourth sessions of Refactor Camp.

For our session tomorrow, Tuesday the 26th on The Weird State of the Crowd, we are running a bit behind, so have a partial pre-read for you in the form of  this short summary document on Elias Canetti’s Crowds and Power. The session will be led by Renee DiResta and Megan Lubaszka. I’ll add the summary deck, which will also cover Eric Hoffer’s, The True Believer, to this post, once I have it. Apologies for the delay.

Update: the slides are in!

[slideshare id=64416008&doc=theweirdnessofthecrowd-160726235524]

And for our final session on Thursday the 28th, which will attempt pull it all together via the capstone theme, Weird State of the Planet, here is the slide deck. This session will be led by Jordan Peacock and Sam Penrose.

Screenshot 2016-07-25 21.29.21

The Weird State of Capitalism

July 20, 2016 By

This is the slide-deck for the second session of Refactor Camp 2016, on Thursday the 21th. If you’re attending, please make sure to carve out at least 45 minutes beforehand to review this. This session will be led by Mick Costigan. The deck is on Google Docs and you’re invited to add comments to it.

 

Screenshot 2016-07-20 09.41.45

The Weird State of the State

July 16, 2016 By

This is the slide-deck for the first session of Refactor Camp 2016, on Tuesday the 19th. If you’re attending, please make sure to carve out at least 45 minutes beforehand to review this.

[slideshare id=64088940&doc=weirdstateofstate-160716201155]

Refactor Camp 2016: Weird Political Economy

July 5, 2016 By

Since 2012, we’ve been holding Refactor Camp as an annual offline event in the Bay Area. This year, we’re trying a new format. Refactor Camp 2016 will be an online-only event, in the form of four 2-hour evening sessions, spread over the last 2 weeks of July. You can register here. We will be using the Zoom videoconference system, which has a limit of 50 participants.

The theme this year is Weird Political Economy (tagline is inspired by this great post). Over four sessions, each structured as a short introductory talk (~30 minutes) followed by a discussion (~90 minutes) we will cover four major themes. All 4 sessions will be 8:00 to 10:00 PM US Pacific Time, on the listed dates.

Screenshot 2016-07-05 15.52.57

Session #1: Tue July 19: The Weird State of the State (Venkatesh Rao)
Session #2: Thu July 21: The Weird State of Capitalism (Mick Costigan)
Session #3: Tue July 26: The Weird State of the Crowd (Megan Lubaszka and Renee DiResta)
Session #4: Thursday July 28: The Weird State of the Earth (Jordan Peacock and Sam Penrose)

The idea is to have well-prepped discussions about the general sense that “things are getting weird” in global affairs with a meaningfully broad/rich context. Are we really not in Kansas anymore, or do we just lack the context to grok the patterns in things going on right now? Is it time to apply the principle, “when the going gets weird, the weird turn pro”? Hopefully we’ll generate some interesting, situated thinking.

The four session topics: state, capitalism, crowds, and earth, will hopefully serve as four good overlapping global canvasses for discussion.

A slide deck overview of the theme will be posted a few days before each session, as required pre-read. The idea is for ALL participants to actually review these pre-read decks (should take maybe 30min each) so we can have a discussion where everybody is better prepared than usual in these sorts of symposia.

If you are interested in doing reading beyond these upcoming decks, here are some anchor references the session leaders will be using.  Though session leaders will be drawing on multiple sources, and we expect many participants will be coming from other perspectives, these should give you an idea of the level of discussion we’re hoping to hit.