Jose's sort of loosely (un)structured thoughts that are longer and more relevant than a single tweet

  Go on Twitter, 4chan, Reddit, LessWrong, and many other forums/communities and you'll find lengthy explanations (BOOKS LONG) for things that the average NPC can describe in a phrase, or never even things about describing verbally because it is so viscerally intuitive to him that it never even becomes a topic. Truth be told - as much as I like and admire these interpretations of reality - most of them are completely useless to the average person. But the ones that aren't useless, are pure gold. Why? Because these people spend longer than anyone else pondering specific topics and find patterns that no less obsessed person could ever find. They also ask different questions. When you don't take something for granted/normal you can defy it, you can interpret it as false, or you can dive deeper into its meaning simply because you want to understand what it is about a certain idea or behaviour that makes it so intuitive for others but not for you. Anyway, I just read a paper on ...

Yesterday I paid beer to a bunch of people in exchange for them trying out my new app, WYD The app is incredibly basic in terms of functionality and design, yet, some people have no idea what to do when they open it. Seeing this, the designer in me started to panic and doubt the effectiveness of my work. This doubt remains. There are DEFINITELY things that need to be improved and will make an impact in the quick understanding of the app, but as I stood there and observed different people try out the app, something much more interesting started to happen: People started explaining how the app works to each other. People were sharing the app on their instagrams and getting DMs from friends asking how to use it. There were several group conversations about how to use the app happening in the bar and online through private messages. As one person understood what the value was, he/she would be eager to tell others if they thought it was cool enough. This got me thinking about wether this is...

  I am extremely tired of sensationalist politics that brainwash people into thinking they are making a difference. Climate change is the most clear case: Climate change is an important issue - a technological one, I believe, because I am techno-optimistic* - and one full of laws that are nothing but sensationalist takes and laws that fool people into thinking they are making a difference. Banning plastic straws, plastic shopping bags, and now all chargers that are not USB C, all while we burn more coal than usual and shut down nuclear power plants. This is what I like to call " story-driven politics ": Devising laws and political discourse based on measures that seem to move the needle rather than ones that actually move the needle. This technique is especially popular because when we are talking about complex systems like the ones politicians have to deal with, telling a good story is often far easier than actually solving the problem. Sitting in the EU parliament in Brusse...

  I've been trying to find a way to recreate the social cohesion of the Portuguese countryside in other places I’m trying to recreate a general vibe, a way of interacting with other people that is very characteristic of the place I grew up in. Defining the vibe to strive for: (I will consciously refer to ways of interacting that are not exclusive to this social group and ignore its shortcomings for the sake of simplicity) Where I am from, people show up for each other and keep their social promises. You need help moving stuff? They show up. You need help building stuff? They show up. You invite them for dinner? They show up. You wanna chill for hours on end? They show up. You wanna play football? They show up. They say they are showing up? They show up. People enjoy each other's company and will prolong the times when they are together to their absolute limit. This is a very important point of this vibe: the prolonging of the times together as a signal of full attention on that...

  I've been feeling a lot more love than usual. Not sure what is causing this, but deep down I am caring for those around me and becoming genuinely happier to be in their presence than I normally do. This is not love of the romantic kind, but rather some other form of love that I perhaps had never truly felt before. This kind of love is grounding, light weight, all-encompassing, cheerful, patient, funny, and silly. I've felt it with friends, family, professional connections, and myself. Don't have much to add here other than the fact that I've felt it and recognised its existence, which means I will not be able to spot it in the wild and hopefully suffer some Baader-Meinhof Phenomenon. (of course I had to google how to spell that) Will continue to explore this. Relevant tweet: https://twitter.com/jose_goncalves_/status/1577085472647839744

  Up until this point - perhaps until a pivotal moment happened ( https://docs.google.com/document/d/1nqv9lmWuklFzTVFWtDlh6KC24bPQUqMF-fnORR2GPIA/edit?usp=sharing ) - I would need to like the things people do in order to like them as beings. I am now decoupling the two and it feels amazing. Tangibly, this is what needing to like what people do looks like: X does something I don't like -> I don't like X X does something I find stupid -> X is stupid Inversely: Y does things I like -> I like Y Y does things I find great -> Y is great Decoupling the things people do from who they are might seem trivial, but it has been a real challenge for me, seemingly because so much of my identity has been tied to the things I do for so long. In a way I was only doing the "fair" thing and using the same criteria I used on myself with others. Lately, with the process of letting go of identities, I've apparently also freed those around me from their identities as "so...

  Este texto surge porque há umas horas recebi um email para participar num concurso de escrita da minha terra. Pensei em antes de ir dormir escrever algo sobre o tema: "Uma carta ao futuro". Mas algo que não só me dê um prazer enorme escrever como algo que seja demasiado estilisticamente desviado do resto das outras participações que vão receber para ser sequer considerado no concurso. Ando a ler "A Queda" de Albert Camus e por isso decidi escrever nesse estilo. Pareceu-me suficientemente interessante e provocador. Não me importa ganhar o concurso nem tão pouco dizer-lhes que escrevi o texto num par de horas e o publiquei num blog meses antes de o entregar (as entregas são só em fevereiro). Interessa-me sim escrever algo que me desafie e que lhes abra um bocadinho os horizontes. - Quero uma tosta mista e um sumo de laranja, por favor. Mas não barre muita manteiga que o médico já não me pode ver com problemas de colesterol. Na verdade eu como este mundo e o outro se...