Trent Gill

A feature from 2001 at the New Yorker profiles a con man who used his talent for distance running and self-invention to pursue a new life. It’s a fascinating read, not least because it captures how seduced we are by tales of the “self-made man” in our culture of individualism:

If lying and being lied to are universal experiences, it is still tempting to see the preoccupation with these stories as a peculiarly American trait. Self-invention is the founding subject of American literature. We celebrate the self-made man, and honor the dream of transcending one’s origins; we are suckers for people who invent themselves from scratch.

How do economies grow? Through the competition of ideas and the application of knowledge and technology:

In 18th-century Europe, the interplay between pure science and the work of engineers and mechanics became progressively stronger. This interaction of propositional knowledge (knowledge of ‘what’) and prescriptive knowledge (knowledge of ‘how’) constituted a positive feedback or autocatalytic model. In such systems, once the process gets underway, it can become self-propelled. In that sense, knowledge-based growth is one of the most persistent of all historical phenomena – though the conditions of its persistence are complex and require above all a competitive and open market for ideas.

Aeon consistently delivers interesting content about the intersection of technology and philosophy. Most of their articles address how technology affects what might be called “humanism.” I recommend this article if you’re interested in how this hope of a “technological utopia” is undermined by the same basic problems that have plagued humanity since as long as we’ve been around.

By now, the answer should be obvious: [the problem of trust] ends with other humans. Blockchains don’t offer us a trustless system, but rather a reassignment of trust. Instead of trusting our laws and institutions, we are being asked to trust stakeholders and miners, and programmers, and those who know enough coding to be able to verify the code. We aren’t actually trusting the blockchain technology; we are trusting the people that support the blockchain. The blockchain community is certainly new and different, and it talks a good game of algorithms and hashing power, which at least sounds better than tired slogans such as Prudential is rock solid and You are in good hands with Allstate. But miners aren’t necessarily any more reliable than the corporations they replace.

This is a memorable moment: MacStories has recommended an iOS app that I already use! Normally I’m compelled to open my wallet for a powerful new app, but seeing the old standby LookUp featured on MacStories is a welcome change:

LookUp is far and away my favorite dictionary app I’ve used. While some of its functionality clashes with Apple’s Look Up feature, what it offers in simplicity and effectiveness differentiates itself from the stock option.

iOS really needs a mode where you can keep apps active, but hidden. IFTTT is one of the few apps that I need to keep open constantly, but I dislike it being in my system tray.

A two hour run on Valentine’s Day is an act of self-care, even when you crash and burn on the workout portion.

Jack Daniels’ 2Q marathon plan calls for difficult workouts from the start. Today was 10k easy followed by 2 x 4k at tempo pace. Normally that’s a decent effort, but it’s doable. After a long warmup at a moderate effort, though, the pace puts a lot of stress on your body. Happy to be done with it!

If anyone is curious, I setup this Jekyll blog without touching the command line by using this repository: Jekyll Now.

And in order to quickly publish microblogs from my iPhone and iPad, I’m using this Workflow: Microblog Post to GitHub.

For longer entries, I expect that I’ll still work from 1Writer and Working Copy, a powerful Git client for iOS.

I wrote about setting up that workflow for a site built with Grav, but the system is basically the same.

Yesterday marked the start of an 18-week build to the Manitoba Marathon on Sunday, June 18th. The start of a new training block brings promise, but it also makes me nervous. The future is always uncertain. I’m excited to see what it holds for me.

Using some user automation via Workflow, I can quickly post a status update to a Jekyll blog hosted on GitHub Pages. It’s not quite as clean as IFTT’s “Publish to WordPress” applet, but I am seriously considering moving all my content into this system.

I just want to reiterate how many learning opportunities are available to anyone curious about the web. I’m not a developer or even close to it, yet with some patience, I’ve set up this Jekyll blog hosted on GitHub Pages thanks to the patient and helpful explanations of real developers. Now, with a bit of automation via Workflow, I can send a quick post to my site and have it live immediately without any unnecessary demands on me as a user. A little patience goes a long way.