Profound Thoughts From Other People

Rather than mostly profound original thoughts written here, this is a collection of profound thoughts from other people, with light commentary. Someone please mock me appropriately if I do this too often, as an alternative to real thought.

The Social Graph is Neither

Pinboard Blog
This writing is a well thought critique on the various efforts to technically implement "Social Graphs", via RDF or other means. I think that, in so much as this problem has "a solution", it is realizing that attempting to specify or collect anything but a dim proxy of a social graph is a mistake. If you must, instead attempt to design pipes through which some actual social juice can flow. You may help define the culvert, but you will not define the stream.

Up and Down the Ladder of Abstraction

Bret Victor
This page is not so much a post or even an essay, but a Masterwork of interactive teaching. The thesis is delivered in perfect keeping with itself, and I find myself envious of the insight and experience required to produce something this thoughtful and useful.

The American Suburbs are a Giant Ponzi Scheme

Underpaid Genius
The title of this piece is fairly descriptive, but you may be impressed as to how far-reaching the implications are. This helps frame the rather infamous mortgage-based securities implosion of 2008, as well as show how corrections or contractions are likely in other markets. In the small, it may provide some perspective to think about personal lifestyle design and values.

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