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55acdda48ab5on Open Sourcers Race to Build Better Versions of Slack

> We need to have a searchable back-and-forth discussion, interleaved with other things that are vying for our attention?

This is email.

> We need to discuss something visual as a five-person team? A phone conference is the wrong medium.

Shared desktop conference, such as gotomeeting.

55acdda48ab5on Open Sourcers Race to Build Better Versions of Slack

Between phone conferencing, email, and shared desktop video conferencing, I don't get what more is needed in professional contexts.

I don't even get IRC or IM. "Chat" is noise and distraction. Write proper emails or arrange phone calls.

What exactly are people using slack for? I don't get it.

55acdda48ab5on Life is Short

> Life is short, as everyone knows

I've never got this sentiment. Life is the longest thing anyone has ever done. Life is long, very long. I think back ten years ago and it seems like an age ago. It was. I'm early 30s and I feel like I've lived a long life; seen a lot and done a lot and had my kicks. That I've maybe got another full 60 years if I play my cards right is amazing to me. It seems like eons.

The only funny thing about time I've noticed is that as you age (and if you read) the past gets closer and closer. When I was a kid finding out people were born in the 1940s was amazing. SO long ago! Now Napoleon's reign seems very relevant and modern to me.

55acdda48ab5on Alan Rickman, Harry Potter and Die Hard Actor, Dies Aged 69

His reading of "The Return of the Native" on audiobook is amazing. I just happened to finish it recently.

55acdda48ab5on Throttle – Control who can send you email

I discovered that when you delete your email address for a week almost all the spam and newsletters disappear. I don't know exactly how it works, but it does. So every couple years I just completely disable my email address for ten days, or whatever, while on vacation.

55acdda48ab5on What I learned not drinking for two years

Grouping alcohol, caffeine, and sugar together makes no sense. Alcohol is estrogenic and inflammatory and dramatically depletes B vitamins and vitamin A. Sugar is simply a clean source of calories; perfectly harmless and often beneficial. Caffeine is quite simply good for you. All the epidemiological studies bear out the idea that it's protective against stress and disease. It improves performance. There's zero reason to limit caffeine consumption.