Zettelkasten notes become more useful the better links you make between them. That’s because you want to find connections to things you did not expect, not what you already know (otherwise you would have gone directly there to begin with).

To improve links, every note should have links to a more specific idea, a more general idea, and a related topic.

A good test of the quality of the links between notes is to see how often you search directly for a note vs follow a backlink.

Read Make Your Notes Work for You: the Secret Sauce of Zettelkasten.

See also:

• In reflections on writing 500 notes, writing notes as definitions of terms is also not useful and it’s better to write as if you were making claims.
• This works for personal notes, but it is not enough for multi-party content—hyperlinks as a foundation for distributed knowledge fails because it lacks transclusion.

I came across the idea of a hyperfine village from Lisa Hardy. It’s a novel way to organize your ideas into a metaphorical “village” so you can more easily recall them in context later. Rather than search or rote memory to recall an idea later, you can go for a stroll in your village.

Hyperfine village might include:

• The Cabin: journal, wardrobe, home-related things.
• The Lab: experiments, work-in-progress
• The Museum: finished works for archive
• The Office: task lists and project management
• The Library: books read or reading
• The Garden: notes and ideas
• The Planetarium: visions of the future
• The Gazebo: community and people

This can be extended or changed as needed similar to how you might use a “mind palace” to assist with memory.

See also:

• This could be easily implemented in Zettelkasten or any heterarchical note taking system or tool for networked thought since they don’t impose a single organizational method.
• Locations have a builtin epistemic status—things in “The Lab” have permission to be less finished than say in “The Museum”.
• Ideas for making notes more inviting
• Digital gardening
• The Garden and the Stream
• Our digital lives are siloed

Zero-knowledge succinct non-interactive argument of knowledge (zk-SNARK) can verify that another party is in possession of information without the other party needing to reveal that information or leak parts of it. This is useful because it provides a way of doing private transactions in public.

In a distributed, trust-less system like a cryptocurrency, zk-SNARKs can be used to make private transactions that are verifiable and stored on the blockchain (Zcash already does this, but for the most part blockchains are anonymous, not private). That means privacy conscious parties can benefit from using a blockchain while maintaining privacy at the transaction level and decreasing the chances of being de-anonymized at the transaction history level.

What is this used for?

Extrapolating a bit, there are interesting things you can do using zk-SNARKs with blockchains. You could verify an account balance by checking if it has enough available funds without leaking the balance or the account. You could verify the possession of a certificate or license without revealing any information about the certificate itself (like checking an ID without having to look at it). You could pay taxes without revealing your assets. You could automate verification of things like lottery tickets or possessing a certain NFT.

See also:

• Web3

Epistemic status: low

1. Translate the check function into a polynomial equation (how do you translate information into a polynomial equation?)
2. Verifier picks a random point encrypted using homomorphic encryption
3. The prover computes the polynomial encrypting the values in the polynomial
4. The verifier checks equality in encrypted form zero knowledge is achieved by adding some random numbers to both sides

One downside to SNARKs is that they need a trusted setup which some consider a flaw.

See also:

• Trust models

Blockchains are transparent ledgers in that anyone with a copy of the blockchain can see every transaction. This is necessary due to the way blocks are validated. However, even though transactions are anonymous they are still public and can be used to associate wallet addresses with someone’s identity.

See also:

• Web3

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Smart contracts are not recognized as legal contracts and don’t offer the same protections. They are more like stored procedures in that they are scripts that execute on a blockchain.

Vitalek Buterin, founder of Ethereum regrets naming them smart contracts.

See also:

• NFTs are a subset of ownership

Smart contracts that run on a distributed ledger effectively need to work forever to be useful. Working forever requires maintenance and security—the longer a computer program runs, the more exposure it has to change and the opportunity to be exploited.

However, programming as an industry has little experience with this kind of operating model. It’s not surprising to see large scale exploits or errors. I think we will be surprised when maintenance burdens and tech debt cause issues for higher level abstractions (DeFi) or stifle development of the underlying protocols.

See also:

• An Engineer’s Hype-Free Observations on Web3 literary notes
• Smart contracts are not legal contracts
• Smart contracts and their accompanying blockchain need to exist long enough for the Lindy Effect to kick in
• Web3

NFTs lack the legal and regulatory protection of other forms of property. In the event of a dispute, there is no oversight. This fundamental principle of crypto projects (decentralization, no middle man, zero trust) limits what can be represented as a non-fungible token.

See also:

• An Engineer’s Hype-Free Observations on Web3 literary notes
• Smart contracts are not legal contracts and since NFTs are implemented as smart contracts this might have some bearing on the rights of ownership (but I’m not a lawyer!)
• Web3

Distributed autonomous organzations (DAOs) have more in common with limited liability corporations (LLCs) than C Corporations. There is near infinite variability possible in an LLC’s operating agreement similar to how DAOs can be grant DAOs, investment DAOs, protocol DAOs, and many more. C Corps on the other hand have converged on, more or less, a standard—Delaware C Corp and a well-known governance structure based on ownership of stock.

See also:

• Smart contracts are not legal contracts
• Continuous organizations don’t make sense for high growth startups
• Web3

The World Health Organization (WHO) classified B.1.1.529 (omicron), first detected in South Africa, as a COVID-19 variant of concern.

One model from the Financial Times suggests the omicron variant is 500% more transmissible than the delta variant.

See also:

• The COVID-19 Delta variant is 60% more transmissible than the Alpha variant

Read An Engineer’s Hype-Free Observations on Web3 (and its Possibilities) from PSL.

See also:

• Web3

List of places that will pay you to move and work remotely:

• Augusta, Maine ($15,660)
• Baltimore, Maryland ($5,000)
• Beaumont, Texas ($2,000)
• Bemidji, Minnesota ($4,000)
• Bloomfield, Iowa ($10,000)
• Bloomington, Indiana ($6,600)
• Britt, Iowa ($10,000)
• Charleston, West Virginia ($5,000)
• Curtis, Nebraska ($3,000)
• Daviess County, Indiana ($5,000)
• French Lick, Indiana ($5,477)
• Greene County, Indiana ($5,000)
• Greensburg, Indiana ($7,000)
• Harmony, Minnesota ($12,000)
• Jasper, Indiana ($5,000)
• Johnstown, Pennsylvania ($5,000)
• La Villa, Texas ($3,000)
• Lewisburg, West Virginia ($20,000)
• Mankato, Kansas ($3,000)
• Montpelier, Vermont ($15,000)
• Morgantown, West Virginia ($20,000)
• Muncie, Indiana ($5,000)
• Natchez, Mississippi ($8,500)
• Newton, Iowa ($12,500)
• Northwest, Arkansas ($10,750)
• Ontario, Oregon ($10,000)
• Osceola, Iowa ($3,000)
• Quincy, Illinois ($5,000)
• Rutherford County, Tennessee ($10,000)
• Southwest, Michigan ($16,000)
• Stillwater, Oklahoma ($7,500)
• The Shoals, Alabama ($10,000)
• Tulsa, Oklahoma ($10,000, 1200 moved over last 3 years)
• West Lafayette, Indiana ($8,245)
• Topeka, Kansas ($11,000)

See also:

• American workers are willing to take a pay cut to work remote

Using a fingerprint as authentication is trivial to break using a picture of fingerprint, some acetate, and wood glue. As a comment in the HN thread pointed out, the problem with biometrics is when they are used as passwords to authenticate who you are.

The Millenium Tower in downtown SF is sinking. Before it’s completing, the concrete skyscraper had already sunk 16 inches—building code allows for 6 inches of sinkage.

It’s construction is supported using 950 friction piles to evenly distribute the weight. This is a common technique, but the skyscraper far heavier than previously built.

Below the friction piles is an ice-age-old layer of mud known as Old Bay Clay. Possibly due to other construction in the area, Old Bay Clay is settling faster than anticipated which is causing the Millenium Tower to sink and lean to one side.

Read about What Really Happened at the Millenium Tower?

Values of a community or organization are embedded in every UI decision. There is a difference in values when a company’s homepage touts their biggest sales or a stream of every transaction. Whether or not they meant it, it’s still an artifact of values.

From this tweet by @digitalcoleman.

See also:

• Maybe judging quality by whatever is visible is more of a value judgment.
• Steve jobs famously said “design is how it works”. Ideally there is intention behind the values that are on display.

Emacs is not a great text editor in and of itself—it’s a building material for the best text editor you can make for yourself.

I find this to be absolutely true as I stare at my 1700 line init.el that customizes Emacs to my needs. There is a way to do pretty much anything you could want with enough fiddling.

Read Why Emacs: Redux by Bozhidar Batsov.

Baboons are really good at finding water. Baboons also really love salt. A bushman trying to survive in the wild can use a baboon’s innate ability to find water when it’s too scarce to find.

They set a salt trap by digging a small hole and put salt in it. The baboon sticks their hand in to grasp the salt, but can’t remove their hand without letting go of the salt thus becoming trapped. The bushman captures the baboon and then gives it all the salt it will eat (a lot). The baboon gets thirsty. The bushman lets the baboon out and follows it. The baboon, thirsty, immediately goes and finds the nearest water source.

From Dave Chappelle’s interview on CBS This Morning where he used this as an analogy for being trapped by fame and fortune.

Some people argue that there is no such thing as “good taste” in art. However, you can prove that it exists by trying to prove that it does not.

If you take the position that good taste does not exist then you must accept that there are no differences in the quality of judgment of art between people and therefore any art is good art. If any art can be “good art” then everything is equivalent and there must not be a difference between artists. Therefore there is no such thing as a “good artist” either.

From Is There Such a Thing as Good Taste? by Paul Graham.

See also:

• Taste, as it exists for designing products, is a refined sense of judgement and finding balance that produces a pleasing and integrated whole.
• good taste is an intuition about power

Good taste is a closeness between what you perceive as power vs what is power, independent of who is observing it. This understanding of the difference between real and represented is an intuition of power.

Read the comment by motohagiography.

See also:

• Taste is the refined sense of judgement and finding balance that produces a pleasing and integrated whole
• Good taste must exist because good artists exist

A sales narrative is a cohesive story that explains why customers need your product.

What makes up a problem-solution-specifics narrative?

• Identify the problem, who has it, and what it costs
• What’s changed in the world to make this solveable in a new way and what that means for the problem
• How the new solution works to solve the problem
• Proof that validates your solution

From Founding Sales.

See also:

• A sales pitch is the opposite of a VC pitch, it’s less about you and more about them
• Sell solutions not software and describe the solution in terms the buyer uses to evaluate it
• Developing a sales narrative is an iterative process, it might also help identify product problems
• Shape of Stories

There was a meme in on Twitter that you should unfollow VCs and follow artists. With the advent of NFTs however, art Twitter is now filled with crypto hawkers that can be quite grating. (Photographers seem to be immune to this so far—is there not NFT photographs?).

Updated advice for making Twitter more enjoyable in 2021? Unfollow artists and follow archaeologists. They’re content is fascinating with great pictures of ancient artifacts and architecture.

See also:

• Living a rich digital life means not having ads blasted at you constantly

When things are going poorly it feels like you are pushing your users. Sales are harder, finding new users is harder, etc. When things are going well it feels like users are pulling you. Users are driving you to get what they need, everything feels easier.

See also:

• Pull helps you build an initial product a small group of users love
• Pull is closer to product market fit
• High retention products are the most viral, it’s difficult to imagine a completely sales oriented (push) product that would also be high retention

GitHub powered (Commentor needs to oauth GitHub to comment)

• Utterances uses GitHub issues
• Gitalk uses GitHub issues
• Giscus uses GitHub discussions