Category Archives: 42

LinkedIn Endorsement Etiquette

Posted on by
2

LinkedIn endorsement requests feel a bit like Facebook game requests. If you’ve sent them out, you know you can just click on all your friends and send to your entire network. So as a recipient, you now know that the seemingly personal request is likely a broadcast, that you don’t have to reply to. The exaggerated version of cc’ing everyone, hoping someone will take care of your problem. Except it’s not like that. Not at all. LinkedIn endorsements are incredibly important to people. They’re what investors and recruiters reference in doing their due diligence, and on a more basic level, it’s a bold declaration to the world, that you appreciate the contribution of another person. So how are you supposed to handle these requests?

Continue reading →

Bicyclists, Pick a Ruleset

Posted on by
22

Bicyclists, pick a ruleset. Or get off my lawn. Seriously. This has bothered me for the decade and a half that I’ve lived in San Francisco, and until now I’ve been resigned to joke that it’s the one thing that makes me slightly conservative in San Francisco. What’s going on? It’s simply that bicyclists just don’t follow traffic rules. They don’t stop at stop signs. They act as if they have the immunity of pedestrians, but the access of cars. They dart in and around traffic when they’re riding in regular traffic lanes. They slow cars down when the regular flow of traffic is at the posted speed limit and a bicyclist suddenly appears trudging along at 10mph. Bicycles sometimes wiggle on start, causing cars to dart to avoid them, causing an oncoming traffic hazard.  And bicyclists act with extreme indignation if you honk at them. Factor in the monthly Critical Mass event, in which bicyclists deliberately swarm Market Street and spread out, violating traffic rules, in order to disrupt commuter traffic, and we have a real-life conservative slippery slope scenario. But things have become decidedly un-funny since March 29, when a bicyclist hit and killed a pedestrian.

Continue reading →

Prometheus and Exogenesis

Posted on by
8

It's exogenesis, obviously

The second Prometheus trailer came out on Sunday March 18, and it fills in a bit more of the story than the rapid cuts of the first, more atmospheric trailer. In my original article about that first trailer, I was mostly concerned that with his new film, director Ridley Scott would simply rehash Alien, the film it aims to tell the back story of. However, in this new trailer, we see a glimpse of something new, something that isn’t a simple monster movie plot. At the heart of this movie is the astrobiological theory of exogenesis.

Continue reading →

Dematerializing Without a Phaser

Posted on by
6

This article has lingered in draft form for weeks. For a blog that’s only a couple of months old, that’s a long time. I suppose I’ve been avoiding it. If I’m going to be honest with you, it’s because doing this subject justice requires me to share a little more of my personal life than I’m used to disclosing to the game industry at large. So, for those of you who prefer your SoMoFos writing to be free from cloying or awkward personal details, and prefer it to expertly pierce to the heart of key game industry and design trends, there are plenty of other suitable articles here to choose from. But before you click away, I’m realizing I haven’t even said what this article is about. I suppose I’m still stalling, but what I’m driving myself up to, is to describe my own long-term relationship with materialism.

Continue reading →