Hello! Where to begin? I'm a former #historian who got a PhD in 2019, studying the history of the anti-apartheid movement in the United States. In 2020, I completely switched gears and became a software engineer, but still moonlight as a freelance #writer. I write too much about #food. My taste in #music is all over the map, I'm always looking for new projects and work, and I spend too much time playing #videogames.
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2026-10-31T01:44:16Z Event JSON
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Last Notes npub1a5cqpvdmlr2kzpex7ev8sl9t67qvvpkg45vfprd28lxfadmly45sz05g4q Zeb Larson Some memes you need to save in your phone because it will just keep coming up again and again. npub1a5cqpvdmlr2kzpex7ev8sl9t67qvvpkg45vfprd28lxfadmly45sz05g4q Zeb Larson I published this for Wired today and I'm really happy with it. You might think that I have a categorical dislike of COBOL, but actually I don't. I think instead that it's really important to think carefully about the computing systems you build, because changing them can be *really* painful. I wrote this thinking in no small part about vibe-coding and how we'll be stuck with systems that nobody really understands, and if they get large enough they will be incredibly difficult to unravel. npub1a5cqpvdmlr2kzpex7ev8sl9t67qvvpkg45vfprd28lxfadmly45sz05g4q Zeb Larson I hate that the movie that best predicted what life would like in the 2020s was Children of Men. No massively exciting technological advantages, just stagnation and a very real sense that things will keep getting worse. npub1a5cqpvdmlr2kzpex7ev8sl9t67qvvpkg45vfprd28lxfadmly45sz05g4q Zeb Larson In case you’re unfamiliar with our decades of interference in #Iran, I wrote up a primer on it and the #history for Dame Magazine. When Hegseth says that Iran’s been at war with us for decades, he’s got it totally backwards. At the end of the day, that’s us. npub1a5cqpvdmlr2kzpex7ev8sl9t67qvvpkg45vfprd28lxfadmly45sz05g4q Zeb Larson Just got it from somebody, but thank you! npub1a5cqpvdmlr2kzpex7ev8sl9t67qvvpkg45vfprd28lxfadmly45sz05g4q Zeb Larson Anybody able to help me get access to this? Kinda badly need it. npub1a5cqpvdmlr2kzpex7ev8sl9t67qvvpkg45vfprd28lxfadmly45sz05g4q Zeb Larson Since Republicans just invent issues, Democrats should give it a try. Go after Sean Duffy, talk ceaselessly about how fucking shitty air travel is. Yes, the airline industry sucked and was absurdly uncompetitive and committed fucking over customers under Biden and before; no matter. Just force them to own how godawful air travel is. npub1a5cqpvdmlr2kzpex7ev8sl9t67qvvpkg45vfprd28lxfadmly45sz05g4q Zeb Larson I quit a project last week. What I was initially told was that I would be editing lesson plans; what I learned was that ChatGPT would write the content and I would structure the lesson plan (“do this activity here,” “share with a peer”, etc) and fact check it. npub1a5cqpvdmlr2kzpex7ev8sl9t67qvvpkg45vfprd28lxfadmly45sz05g4q Zeb Larson My latest piece for Dame Magazine on the Trump shadow presidency, what happens as autocrats grow old and infirm, and what it means for the rest of us. It's not good: a Trump power vacuum does not inherently mean Democrats swoop back in, especially when the people around him openly disdain democracy and the rule of law. npub1a5cqpvdmlr2kzpex7ev8sl9t67qvvpkg45vfprd28lxfadmly45sz05g4q Zeb Larson People have been doing this thing with me lately where they ask me if I'm neurodivergent, I say that I'm not, and then they insist that I must be. It's *really* annoying, and I would just chalk it up to overly judgmental "normal" folk but it's actually coming from the ranks of the neurodivergent. npub1a5cqpvdmlr2kzpex7ev8sl9t67qvvpkg45vfprd28lxfadmly45sz05g4q Zeb Larson From the former editor of the Politics desk and the (as of today) other former editor of the Politics desk. I worked with both of them. npub1a5cqpvdmlr2kzpex7ev8sl9t67qvvpkg45vfprd28lxfadmly45sz05g4q Zeb Larson This sounds really innocuous, but Teen Vogue just axed their whole politics desk — everybody working on it has been laid off. This is devastating: it was a publication with a lot of reach and it was consistent in how it spoke out against this administration. npub1a5cqpvdmlr2kzpex7ev8sl9t67qvvpkg45vfprd28lxfadmly45sz05g4q Zeb Larson I sincerely wish that the people who defend PhD education were better at it. npub1a5cqpvdmlr2kzpex7ev8sl9t67qvvpkg45vfprd28lxfadmly45sz05g4q Zeb Larson One of the things we need to be really clear on: the GOP and Trump are mining our history in order to build an updated Jim Crow. Our past history is going to be very instructive on this point. I wrote about that here for Dame. npub1a5cqpvdmlr2kzpex7ev8sl9t67qvvpkg45vfprd28lxfadmly45sz05g4q Zeb Larson My latest for Dame Magazine! In it, I offer some history of anti-authoritarian resistance and what we can draw on. npub1a5cqpvdmlr2kzpex7ev8sl9t67qvvpkg45vfprd28lxfadmly45sz05g4q Zeb Larson Yes, he repented, and yes, he embraced pacifism, but he was not a passive bystander and took a lot longer than he should have to apologize for his own virulent anti-Semitism. npub1a5cqpvdmlr2kzpex7ev8sl9t67qvvpkg45vfprd28lxfadmly45sz05g4q Zeb Larson That Martin Niemoller quote loses a lot of its power when you remember that Niemoller also kept volunteering to fight for the Nazis even after he'd been imprisoned in Dachau, and then forbade church members from participating in denazification after the war. npub1a5cqpvdmlr2kzpex7ev8sl9t67qvvpkg45vfprd28lxfadmly45sz05g4q Zeb Larson My latest piece of writing for @npub1vq8…m4d2 on the LA fires, our historical responses to natural disasters, and what we need to do differently. npub1a5cqpvdmlr2kzpex7ev8sl9t67qvvpkg45vfprd28lxfadmly45sz05g4q Zeb Larson Happy exploding whale day! On this day 54 years ago, the Oregon Highway Department decided that the best way to get rid of a rotting whale carcass was by dynamiting it. npub1a5cqpvdmlr2kzpex7ev8sl9t67qvvpkg45vfprd28lxfadmly45sz05g4q Zeb Larson I’m very much in a “bring back machine politics” place right now and digging this piece. https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/democratic-party-civic-life-local-membership/ npub1a5cqpvdmlr2kzpex7ev8sl9t67qvvpkg45vfprd28lxfadmly45sz05g4q Zeb Larson I very plausibly live in the next Florida. Great piece. npub1a5cqpvdmlr2kzpex7ev8sl9t67qvvpkg45vfprd28lxfadmly45sz05g4q Zeb Larson Well, yesterday was a hell of a success amplifying that survey. If you need to reach STEM PhDs, this place is unparalleled. npub1a5cqpvdmlr2kzpex7ev8sl9t67qvvpkg45vfprd28lxfadmly45sz05g4q Zeb Larson Do you have a #PhD but work outside of #academia? Has it been several years since you finished? A friend and I are working on a book chapter about career transitions (what makes them easy, what makes them difficult) and we're capturing info. If you're interested, consider filling this out and boost! npub1a5cqpvdmlr2kzpex7ev8sl9t67qvvpkg45vfprd28lxfadmly45sz05g4q Zeb Larson The best way to filter unserious people out of your feed is to see who thinks Mars colonization is exciting or something that will definitely happen, or even should happen. npub1a5cqpvdmlr2kzpex7ev8sl9t67qvvpkg45vfprd28lxfadmly45sz05g4q Zeb Larson Whenever rock and roll songs are about rock and roll, they generally suck shit. npub1a5cqpvdmlr2kzpex7ev8sl9t67qvvpkg45vfprd28lxfadmly45sz05g4q Zeb Larson That’s horrifying, I’m so sorry. npub1a5cqpvdmlr2kzpex7ev8sl9t67qvvpkg45vfprd28lxfadmly45sz05g4q Zeb Larson Indeed, they uncritically repeat the same shit! All the other parents referred to in this piece do the same thing: “I don’t understand, it came out of nowhere,” etc npub1a5cqpvdmlr2kzpex7ev8sl9t67qvvpkg45vfprd28lxfadmly45sz05g4q Zeb Larson Reading through these is morbidly fascinating because you can have a parent say to a kid that they’re going to Hell or that they dislike their partner or hate them for their sexuality, and then somebody else will comment on their relationship and say “I don’t know why they grew apart.” npub1a5cqpvdmlr2kzpex7ev8sl9t67qvvpkg45vfprd28lxfadmly45sz05g4q Zeb Larson In any remotely rational society, Sam Altman would be the kind of guy who shows up in town and lasts about ten minutes before being tarred and feathered and then dumped at the edge of town. npub1a5cqpvdmlr2kzpex7ev8sl9t67qvvpkg45vfprd28lxfadmly45sz05g4q Zeb Larson Whether or not you suffered through that Atlantic piece this week about reading and high-school students, this is an excellent read from a teacher that was interviewed for it. npub1a5cqpvdmlr2kzpex7ev8sl9t67qvvpkg45vfprd28lxfadmly45sz05g4q Zeb Larson Is this the first campaign he’s run? npub1a5cqpvdmlr2kzpex7ev8sl9t67qvvpkg45vfprd28lxfadmly45sz05g4q Zeb Larson That’s a hell of a hook. npub1a5cqpvdmlr2kzpex7ev8sl9t67qvvpkg45vfprd28lxfadmly45sz05g4q Zeb Larson The Boomer panic of the mid-2000s where they warned us never to put anything online because employers would use it against us in job applications is hilarious. Every job gets 147 applicants, we’re lucky if we can get somebody to even read a resume. I’d kill for that level of scrutiny. npub1a5cqpvdmlr2kzpex7ev8sl9t67qvvpkg45vfprd28lxfadmly45sz05g4q Zeb Larson Well, Facebook won't restrain the tide of misinformation anywhere else, but it will take down a nearly year-old article from me about the KKK in the 1920s. Bravo, Meta. npub1a5cqpvdmlr2kzpex7ev8sl9t67qvvpkg45vfprd28lxfadmly45sz05g4q Zeb Larson A good friend wrote this piece and it's had me thinking ever since about the unwillingness of white liberals to turn their back on white reactionaries. What sustained Rhodesia for a decade and a half were people who disagreed with the UDI government but thought they could politely sway them. npub1a5cqpvdmlr2kzpex7ev8sl9t67qvvpkg45vfprd28lxfadmly45sz05g4q Zeb Larson Really worthwhile read on all of the ways that Sparta was a mediocrity even in warfare, and utterly unworthy of admiration for pretty much anything else. The unpleasant armchair general nerds who revere Sparta today are dipshits. npub1a5cqpvdmlr2kzpex7ev8sl9t67qvvpkg45vfprd28lxfadmly45sz05g4q Zeb Larson Discipline and Punish npub1a5cqpvdmlr2kzpex7ev8sl9t67qvvpkg45vfprd28lxfadmly45sz05g4q Zeb Larson ??? npub1a5cqpvdmlr2kzpex7ev8sl9t67qvvpkg45vfprd28lxfadmly45sz05g4q Zeb Larson I can’t imagine the level of mediocre entitlement that leads to “painters have too much prestige.” Like it’s not enough that creatives are broke, the problem is that they’re likable and respected. npub1a5cqpvdmlr2kzpex7ev8sl9t67qvvpkg45vfprd28lxfadmly45sz05g4q Zeb Larson Going through the records of the AFL-CIO’s South Africa correspondence, I once found a memo with a handwritten note. In all caps, it read “GET ME ALL THE INFO YOU CAN ON CHUBBY CHICKEN!!!” and I’ve been haunted by my failure to learn more about what prompted this. npub1a5cqpvdmlr2kzpex7ev8sl9t67qvvpkg45vfprd28lxfadmly45sz05g4q Zeb Larson Unfortunately, this does limit who will show up here. Creatives have an ambivalent relationship with this platform (game devs are an exception), and yeah, I think all of the people who shout at them over “self-promoting” or “acting like influencers” didn’t help. Journalists didn’t really like it here. npub1a5cqpvdmlr2kzpex7ev8sl9t67qvvpkg45vfprd28lxfadmly45sz05g4q Zeb Larson One of the nicer things about Mastodon in 2024 is that people seem to have given up on it being the Twitter alternative. I don’t mean that they’ve given up (though goddamn, that 2022 drop-off), but I haven’t seen the outpouring of “why aren’t more Brazilians joining!” that I would have gotten a year ago. npub1a5cqpvdmlr2kzpex7ev8sl9t67qvvpkg45vfprd28lxfadmly45sz05g4q Zeb Larson Again and again, people act like this technology is inevitable somehow, but it spits out absolute bullshit, is ludicrously expensive to operate, contributes to misinformation, and to fully utilize we would have to remake our whole power grid. npub1a5cqpvdmlr2kzpex7ev8sl9t67qvvpkg45vfprd28lxfadmly45sz05g4q Zeb Larson There's a whole essay I want to write on how the Kinks' discography basically anticipated the next 50+ years of British politics and the weird grievance/nostalgia that has animated it. npub1a5cqpvdmlr2kzpex7ev8sl9t67qvvpkg45vfprd28lxfadmly45sz05g4q Zeb Larson I also like the Kinks' output in whereas I don't like Oasis: the novelty is how much they detest each other. npub1a5cqpvdmlr2kzpex7ev8sl9t67qvvpkg45vfprd28lxfadmly45sz05g4q Zeb Larson We can only hope the Davies keep feuding npub1a5cqpvdmlr2kzpex7ev8sl9t67qvvpkg45vfprd28lxfadmly45sz05g4q Zeb Larson But the Gallaghers were so much better at feuding than making music. npub1a5cqpvdmlr2kzpex7ev8sl9t67qvvpkg45vfprd28lxfadmly45sz05g4q Zeb Larson In moving accounts last night, it's striking how many of my followers/follows were totally inactive. I cut my follow list in half last night, but not because I was looking to get rid of anybody: I just didn't see much point in following accounts that posted three times eighteen months ago and haven't since. npub1a5cqpvdmlr2kzpex7ev8sl9t67qvvpkg45vfprd28lxfadmly45sz05g4q Zeb Larson Plagiarized from another account, sadly (I follow her on Bsky) npub1a5cqpvdmlr2kzpex7ev8sl9t67qvvpkg45vfprd28lxfadmly45sz05g4q Zeb Larson Ok, time to dust off the old #introduction, seeing how I've got a new instance to be on. New instance, sort of a fresh start, maybe meet some new folks.
