Links I’d share in private #12

As my vacation comes to an end, I’m taking a moment to write this weekly post under Montreal’s hot sun, enjoying the warmth and the gentle breeze rustling through the trees. This year, I embraced a staycation, focusing on relaxation and tranquility. I had no plans, no trips out of town—just simple pleasures like reading, strolling through the city, watching TV series with my teenager, and watching the clouds drift by. We spend the year rushing around, consumed by routine, which exhausts us with endless tasks. This vacation was a gentle break from that draining routine.

On another note, I had the time to blog a little bit more during my vacations: a little Update on my Life has been written, and photos of my cats have been shared. Enjoy!

Keywords: Trauma, Mental Health, Internet Nostalgia, Dating, Reese Witherspoon, Digital Nomads, TikTok, AI, Minimalism, DeviantArt, Shadow & Bone, Orzo & Chickpeas, Cybersecurity tools, CSS tricks and Women in Tech

TO READ

• People still misunderstand Trauma, says ‘Body keeps the score’ author Bessel van der Kolk – I follow this author since I read the book “Body keeps the score”, a reference in Trauma, PTSD, chronic diseases and mental health, and to see him evolve his thinking with an interesting take (that I really relate to) on trauma is refreshing. He believes that current treatments for trauma are not effective enough (which I agree with). Some of the treatments he recommends are unconventional, such as MDMA/Ketamine therapy, yoga, and drama therapy. The article also discusses the challenges of getting insurance companies to pay for these treatments (which I really relate to! Fucking insurance companies are a nightmare on that subject!).
• The Tragic Downfall of the Internet’s Art Gallery: the story of DeviantArt’s demise to the fucking AI bots and fake accounts. I used to follow tons of indie artists there, but since the rise of AI “art”, it’s been a cesspool of trashy art and rip-offs 🙁
• What the Internet was like in 2004: Take a trip to the past, the Web past, with this article over how the Web was 20 years ago! Fuck, I had many flashbacks reading this! Ahhhhhhhhhhhh how I miss the old Web!
• ‘High value’ dating and the female pick-up artists exchanging their economic freedom for husbands: As a mother of a young teenage daughter, I am scared for her when she’ll start dating folks. It’s such a shitshow, with the Pick-Up Artists (PUA), toxic masculinity, tradwifes and now ‘dark’ feminine Pick-Up Artists trying to date rich mans… How has misogynistic pseudoscience become a key tenet of advising women how to date? Sexual Economics Theory, a concept first developed by psychologists Roy Baumeister and Kathleen Vohs and which approaches dating as a market where men buy and women sell sex, is a key tenet of incel and manosphere teachings, and talk of ‘sexual market value’ (SMV) and pseudo-hierarchies of men and women is commonplace among ‘dark feminine’ influencers.
• Inside Reese Witherspoon’s Literary Empire: I am usually not a fan of celebrities’ stuff, but Reese Witherspoon’s Book Club has managed to present interesting books to the world since its creation in 2017. This article gives a nice summary of it all: its inception, the books that gained literary success through her book clubs, the series that came out of it, its economic importance in the cultural world, etc.
• Countries wooing corporate digital nomads hope to make them stay: For those interested in the Digital Nomad lifestyle, this article (mostly Eurocentric) gives a good overview of how it works, its good and bad sides, etc. I’ll admit: this is the type of life I often dream of having these days!
• Weight-loss promoters are reeling after TikTok crackdown: Good on TikTok for blocking any content creator promoting weight-loss medication à la Ozempic. The publicity and talk around this type of medication – and all the talks about being thin again -has exasperated me a lot, and I am glad to see one social media take a stance against this, especially since their target audience is young people. I was so pissed to see all the ads of Ozempic during the Olympics Opening Ceremony on my TV network, and I got angrier to see all the online obsession over losing weight as an ultimate health goal. TikTok would not directly address why it is making the changes now, beyond saying that it regularly updates its policies. Italready restricts a variety of posts under its “disordered eating and body image” guidelines, including promotion of certain fasting techniques.
• Transcend your meat prison: I’ve written a lot of words about how we anthropomorphize AI, and why it’s a big problem. But the opposite is just as true and problematic: we’re increasingly molding ourselves to AI in pursuit of a disembodied perfection, even transcendence.
• Why I threw away my Fitbit: I used to have a Samsung Galaxy Watch. The first few months, I like it: it was my silent alarm clock in the mornings, as well as my log for all my sports’ metrics. But, like the author of this article, I stopped using it the day its screen stopped working properly, becoming my excuse to stop tracking my health stats. Tools we’ve been told would help our health or well-being have, at their core, I think a desire to turn us into optimized robots, further and further from our natural roots and our humanity, but able (or feeling like we should be able) to produce more and more and work more and more, and absolutely over-dependent on and reliant on technology.
• Why Engineers Should Study Philosophy: I’ve always been an alien in my web development teams, having studied History, with a little bit of Philosophy, Sociology and Urban studies on the side. I always thought studying in Humanities and Social Science gave me an edge as a developer in my coding skills: I was always able to see the global scope of a project, being able to give context and seeing WHY I coded what I code, why I participated in some projects over others, etc. Having a crisp mental model around a problem, being able to break it down into steps that are tractable, perfect first-principle thinking, sometimes being prepared (and able to) debate a stubborn AI — these are the skills that will make a great engineer in the future, and likely the same consideration applies to many job categories. The author argues that engineers should study philosophy to improve their ability to create clear mental models and understand problems deeply, skills crucial in the age of AI. In this case, while AI excels at coding, it can generate correct but functionally inaccurate code if not guided properly. Philosophical training enhances reasoning, logic, and first-principle thinking, which are essential for crafting effective AI prompts and ensuring accurate outputs. This shift towards integrating philosophy aims to enhance critical thinking and maintain human oversight in AI-driven processes. The article focuses on philosophy, but is also applicable to any subject in the Humanities.
• Navigating Minimalism: A Guide for Those Struggling with Mental Health: This article discusses how minimalism can benefit mental health. It highlights that decluttering and simplifying one’s environment can reduce stress and anxiety, providing practical steps for adopting minimalism, such as starting small, focusing on essential items, and being patient with the process. It emphasizes that minimalism is not about perfection, but about creating a space that supports mental well-being.

TO SEE

• I’ve been binging the Netflix serie Shadow & Bone with my teenager, and we love it! Synopsis: Dark forces conspire against orphan mapmaker Alina Starkov when she unleashes an extraordinary power that could change the fate of her war-torn country of Ravka, becoming a target of intrigue and violence. Heavily inspired by Tsarist Russian history, this YA fantasy tale has a way to keep your attention for a hell bending tale of destiny and epic magic scenes into the Grishaverse, based on a series of YA books. Even if Netflix has cancelled the show after two seasons, it is well worth the time invested in watching this series. The first season adapts the book Shadow and Bone (2012), and adds an original storyline featuring the Crows, a criminal gang with morals that I simply adore!

RECIPES

• A nice Soupy Summer Orzo
• A tasty Easy Cauliflower and Chickpea Masala
• Olive Oil–Braised Chickpeas From Joy the Baker

TO HEAR

• If you need music to focus while working or programming, Music For Programming will be your next spot for new musical playlists.

TO FOLLOW

• Roman NFKRZ: I’ve been following this Russian expat for a while, and I always loved his funny down-to-earth takes on his native country’s politics and cultural influences. Roman is now more well known for his cynical videos regarding Russian culture, as well as his vlogs around Russia and neighboring countries. Now living in Portugal, he vlogs on his daily life as an expat dealing with the repercussions of his country’s politics in his life.

DESIGN

• The font of the week: Geotica
  
• How to document design system components: This is an article about how to document design system components. It discusses the importance of clear and consistent documentation for users.
  Key points include establishing a clear navigation hierarchy, using consistent terminology for prop names, types, and descriptions, and providing visual examples and variation states. Emphasis is placed on accessibility, version control, and encouraging user feedback and collaboration. Components are the building blocks of a design system: they should be documented alongside design tokens, which are the fundamental rules that components adhere to. Colour, padding, and font size are all examples of design tokens. Some best practices for documenting components include using consistent navigation, terminology, and prop tables. Visual examples and code snippets are also important for users.
• How to generate colour palettes for design systems: interesting article giving lots of tips and advices on how to create your own colour palettes for your projects. Key points include: Understanding Color Harmony; Tools and Techniques; Iterative Process; Real-World Application; and Consistency and Flexibility.

CYBERSECURITY

• Cyber Detective Cheatsheets: a Github repertory of interesting cheat sheets containing tons of tools and utilities for your OSINT research on the Web
• LazyEgg: Tool for extracting different data from web pages: cookies, leaked credentials, domains, ips, images, links, and more.
• urldna.io: A free tool online for gathering info about any URL/domain: SSL certificates, IP addresses, cookies, technologies, headers, console messages, metatags, http requests, and more. Very useful to gather knowledge on any page presented in a readable format.

TECH & WEB

• AI Free Search: If you want to search on Google without all the AI shit that is now on it, use this site instead
• Web Without Women: A collection of innovations by women in the fields of computer science and technology.
• 8 CSS & JavaScript Snippets for Creating Animated Progress Bars: SpeckyBoy always have these interesting snippets of code for websites, and this type, it is examples of beautiful Progress Bars. It was always a pain in the ass coding these progress bars, and the rise of beautifully CSS crafted bars made it simpler to integrate in web apps.