Feuerfest

Colleague: "Did you know? Shitposting is an anagram of Top Insights."

Memory Alpha Wiki https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Kobayashi_Maru

This is one of those texts that left me with an open mouth.

I know Star Trek. I know about the fictional Kobayashi Maru simulation used in Starfleet to put cadets in an 100% guaranteed "No-win" scenario. But never ever have I thought about the whole simulation, it's tasks, it's challenges and outcomes from this perspective. Never ever have I realised how contradicting the simulation can be to the core values of the Federation.

Hence I really urge you to read "The thing about the Kobayashi Maru" written by Greg Pogorzelski. Really puts up a new perspective on everything.

And if medium.com should ever vanish and take this glorious text with it, here is a link to an archived version: https://archive.is/Cg3pd

Photo by Andrea Piacquadio: https://www.pexels.com/photo/young-annoyed-female-freelancer-using-laptop-at-home-3808008/

Amber McDaniel from SustainableJungle.com made a comprehensive video about Etsy and the downward spiral the platform seems to be locked-in. The developments, changes in processes etc. she describes clearly shout "Enshittyfication" to me.

If you are interested in the details hop over to Youtube and watch here video:

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lSyEQAWLQbk

Photo by Teddy Yang: https://www.pexels.com/photo/people-inside-stadium-2263410/

I used Isso (Official Website, GitHub) to integrate comments into this block. This was a feature which I missed dearly as I value the input from others, but wouldn't go all the way in using a Wordpress installation or similar blogging software.

Isso integrates nicely, just two small changes to my blogs templates and done. All comments are stored in a SQLite DB on this host. This means no data sharing with services like Discourse, Google or the like. Additionally this has the benefit that no registration is required. As I hate it when I have to create yet another account to just write one or two sentences of feedback. More often than not I refrained from commenting because of this.

Comments have to pass a moderation for spam reasons though.

Photo by cottonbro studio: https://www.pexels.com/photo/man-kissing-a-gypsum-head-3693078/

Durch Zufall heute auf den Youtube-Channel von David Tielke aufmerksam geworden.
Und nach 2 Videos auf seinem Kanal schlug mir Youtube seine Keynote von der DWX23 vor. Titel: "Der Faktor Mensch in der Softwareentwicklung"

Ist eine Stunde, die aber wirklich unterhaltsam und lehrreich ist.
Und seine Aussagen mehr auf seine Kollegen zu achten bzgl. Work-Life-Balance, Burnout, Depression und im Leben (privat wie beruflich) nicht nur die IT zu haben. Die kann ich voll und ganz unterschreiben.

Ich war 2x für mehrere Monate aufgrund von Depressionen in der Tagesklinik, zwar wegen bis dato nicht diagnostiziertem Aufmerksamkeits-Defizit-Syndrom (da ist Depression das häufigste Symptom bei Erwachsenen) und nicht wegen Überarbeitung etc.
Dennoch habe ich aufgrund dessen Dinge in meinem Leben geändert. Mir Hobbies und Freunde abseits der IT gesucht.

Und gerade weil ich damit so gute Erfahrungen gemacht habe, bin ich damit so offen & auch offensiv. Depression, Burnout, etc. sind keine lebenslangen Stigmata. Mit der richtigen Hilfe und etwas Umstellung lässt sich das meistens sehr gut in den Griff bekommen. (Klar, jeder Fall ist anders & individuell.) Aber ich sehe eine psychische Erkrankung nicht als K.O.-Kriterium für eine Karriere oder gar als Charakterschwäche. Menschen die so denken wünsche ich, wirklich(!), von ganzem Herzen das sie niemals selbst in so eine Situation geraten. Denn die Kraft die man aufbringen muss, während man selbst am Boden liegt, es sich anfühlt als ob die Welt auf einen einprügelt und man dann noch Zirkuskunststückchen vollführen darf... Nur um mal irgendwann nach etlichen Wochen oder Monaten einen Termin bei einem/-r Psychologen/-therapeuten zu bekommen..
Diese Kraft traue ich auch manchem gesunden Menschen nicht zu.

Also: Passt auf euch auf. Kein Job ist wichtiger als euer Leben. Egal wie geil euer Arbeitgeber ist.

Das Video ist unten eingebettet. Oder hier direkt als Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eh-UaaxBYDk

Photo by Pixabay: https://www.pexels.com/photo/clear-glass-with-red-sand-grainer-39396/

All too often, I come across blog posts, 'What's new?' sections and other content that doesn't show when the content was first published or last modified. I find this annoying. This information provides crucial context. It allows me to make certain assumptions and correctly place the content in a timeline.

It's like reading a changelog for software where the added, changed or removed features aren't attributed to the version where they changed. It's not helpful at all.

A political piece, written at the height of a scandal may omit crucial information. Which was first discovered months later. During the lengthy and boring police investigation. About which nobody writes in detail, of course. If I had a date next to the text, I could place the piece in the correct position on the timeline and explain to myself why certain arguments were not used or were simply wrong, but which may have represented the current knowledge at the time the piece was written.

Today I got curious about what happened to the german PC handbook publishing company Data Becker. And I found this blogpost (in german) by Thomas Vehmeier: Data Becker – eine Ära geht zu Ende (vehmeier.com). Apparently he worked at Data Becker in the middle of the 1990's. And in his text he writes about his experience and how & why Data Becker failed when the Internet, and therefore the market, began to change.

But.. There is no date. Nowhere. He also doesn't mention the year when Data Becker got out of business. Classical archaeological problem. We can only definitely say "It happened after the 1990's". But apart from that? Well he links to the WirtschaftsWoche. A german business magazine. They do a have date on their article. 9th October 2013. And they wrote that Data Becker will go out of business in 2014.

Does this clarify when his text was written? No, but it answers it somewhat sufficiently.

Albeit it illustrates my problem. Yes, it is not an unsolvable one, but still annoying - for me. And, I guess, I'm again in the minority here.

EDIT: I just re-read this article in August 2025 and now the blogpost from Thomas Vehmeier shows a date. 10th October 2013. Yai!