Read Ethan’s post about leaving 18F. It’s heartbreaking to see such a dedicated group torn apart out of nothing but spite, but you have no choice but to respect the hell out of folks like Ethan drawing a line and getting the fuck out when you see it being crossed. I can only hope I’d handle such a shit situation with the same amount of backbone.

I’d always planned on doing a tour at 18F or USDS, though the timing never quite worked out. It’s sad to realize that’s never happening.

I suppose the good news is that all the people who worked there are still people with all their skills and passion, and I’m persuaded that the next wave of civic tech will be built outside the government. Seems like a good time to connect with others who care. Chi Hack Night used to hold their meetings in my old office and I wish I’d gotten involved years ago.

Bless this attempted journey from San Francisco to Los Angeles using only public transit: part one and part two.^[1] I didn’t own a car at any point when I lived in Southern California, but I don’t think I was ever brave enough to try something like this.

From Taylor Lorenz’s User Mag: “What’s really happening on YouTube”, some grim stats:

• The median number of views for a YouTube video is 41.
• 74% of YouTube videos have 0 comments.
• Around 89% of YouTube videos have 0 likes.

So don’t feel bad; we’re all screaming into the void together!

Which really shouldn’t come as any surprise. These systems do not operate at humane scale and they never will. I like how Leah Reich put it in her newsletter, Meets Most:

No human experience has ever been designed for a billion people, and no human experience can be designed for a billion people. You cannot be a human in a system or on a platform that allows you to engage with thousands of people and millions of opinions, thoughts, ideas – especially when there are no standards or norms, no tools that help you moderate, mediate, disengage.

But that will never stop us from chasing growth and vanity metrics and higher multiples. Highly recommend Ed Zitron’s phenomenal Better Offline podcast as a lens on the widespread and persistent decline – it’s not just happening to you!

From this week’s episode “What We’re Fighting For”:

These ideas – a miniature little computer that sits in our pocket and gives us access to the world’s information, or an app for falling in love – they’re extremely cool! Yet the reckless incentives of the rot economy and growth have poisoned them.

The internet made me who I am, and it allowed me to thrive, both as a person and a professional, and it continues to do so every day, except now I have to fight seemingly every app and service to get them to do what I want.

I will never forgive these people for what they’ve done to the computer, as I love what the computer has done for me, and I hate what the computer now does to other people and myself because Apple, Google and Meta need to increase quarterly revenues.