Product & Startup Builder
Her: Movie Recommendation
Second viewing. A wonderful, weird, creepy, tragic, poignant story about heartbreak, innocence, love, rates of change/growing apart, polyamory and artificial intelligence.
Stunning cinematography and direction. Beautiful acting and voice acting.
Passengers: Movie Recommendation
Perfect. It's like someone wrote a story just for me in this moment. Wow.
It puts the characters to the test and forces you to ask "what would I have done"
It's a meditation on loneliness and finding peace with where you are and what you have.
The Greatest Threat to American Democracy & Global Stability
This article shows what is the greatest threat to American Democracy and global stability. Not Putin, or ISIS. Stupid, ignorant and apathetic people.
After decades of education system neglect and propaganda from Fox News, with the new phenomena of fake news websites and broken social media algorithms, and the proactive hateful derision of the next president of the United States, the nervous system of democracy (the fourth estate) - common facts and discourse facilitated by the media - is over.
I actually believe (and have been saying for almost a decade) that it all started with the media's failure to state the truth about the Iraq war. I know I, and my generation, lost faith in the institution during that period.
Next Trump has chipped away at confidence in the intelligence community.
Next, congress?
What's left is his Twitter account and his whims. Otherwise known as Dictatorship.
I actually had someone - a Canadian - ask me the other day "isn't Obama a muslim though?"
FML
Snapchat Talk
Star Trek: Carrie Fisher
Growing up I was more of a Star Trek fan than a Star Wars fan, so I felt more impacted by Leonard Nino's passing than Carrie Fisher. Also by Robin Williams.
But I watch John's movie show every week day and he and his crew have greatly expanded my appreciation of Star Wars. This reaction video is how I felt about Nimo and Williams. He's always so articulate and insightful. He's also so passionate.
We live with some of these performers. Their work changes us. It's right to celebrate their lives and mourn their loss.
Also, if you love movies/tv and don't watch collider movie talk, you should. Most of these shows are slow and meandering. And they typically play a game of "let's not show we care too much". Collider movie talk is different. It's like catching up on movie news with friends who are fun, friendly and not afraid to show their passion.
Exist to Survive
"To exist, is to survive unfair choices" - the OA
An Amazing Man
An amazing man. An amazing record. He will go down as one of the most important and effective presidents (and world leaders) in history.
Rogue One Spoilers
**ROGUE ONE SPOILERS**
A lot of things really bugged me...
- Why was the title card so shit?
- Why did the main bad guy land so f'ing far away from Erso's home and then walk through the dirt giving them plenty of time to escape?
- Why were the star destroyers so white? Aren't they supposed to be grey-ish?
- Why did Erso's wife fuck up their whole getaway plan? As if there was anyway she could beat those death troopers. Stupid.
- Why leave K2SO back on the ship when visiting Jedda? He's clearly a powerful asset.
- Why did Saw Gerrera just sit there waiting to die - I thought he was a bad ass warrior who survived countless engagements?
- Why did they need to go get Galen Erso. They had all the info they needed so they didn't need to talk to him. He had clearly already made the weapon so they didn't need to assassinate him?
- Why is Chirrut Imwe so force sensitive that he can daredevil his way through life but yet he still needs to sit there chanting that mantra like a mad man
- Why did they need to make so much noise on Scaraff instead of just staying stealth
- Why did the rebellion finally decide to get into the fight out of nowhere?
- Why did they need to physically get the drive with the plans on them?
- Why did they need to climb to the top of the tower to the transmit It?
- Why did Jin need to tell the bad guy the entire rebel plan and the fault in the Death Star?
- Why did all the characters have to die within 10 minutes of each other? Seemed forced and rushed. They all got careless or gave up or went out on a big limb without much context about why their sacrifice would even be that valuable
- Why did the star destroyers crashing into the shield gate drop the shield? The gate opens the shield, it doesn't generate it?
- Bad, bad CGI on Tarkin and Leia
- None of the cool scenes in the trailer were in the damn movie - the reshoots clearly resulted in massive changes
Ultimately the movie had lots of great visuals but also more holes and contrivances than Swiss cheese
Fact Check: Trump Tweets
Article shows the most impressive news product I've seen in a long time. Wow. Huge kudos to my friends on the WaPo product team
Must Watch: Humans
On Morality: "It's not simple. I've seen people who try to make things simple, with clear rules. Trust me, it never ends well"
On evaluating sentience of a 'Synthetic': "You want me to be like a human? Casually cruel to those next to you but crying over pictures of people you've never met?"
Humans. Great show. Watch it.
Know the Difference
"There's a difference between importance, and self-importance" - Conor
Unofficial Australian Anthem
I was just reminded about this by Mike
This video shows the national anthem I grew up with that resonated with me. It's not the official Australian anthem, but to me, it was the one that gave me goosebumps and reflected back at me my world view. It's beautiful.
Deep Space 9
Just finished re-watching Deep Space 9 for perhaps the 3rd time. More relevant now than it was when it was first created. The heroes are 'Terrorists' and 'Extremists'. The enemies are those who claim to be seeking to impose the "safety" and "order" of the Dominion.
Great debates about the spirituality of the Bajorans vs. the scientific rationality of Starfleet. The ideals of the Federation vs. the realities of the Klingon and Dominion wars. The greed of Ferengi like Quark vs. the selfless duty of the Starfleet officers like Sisko and Dax. The politics of the Kai vs. the true spirituality of ex-terrorist (and one of the stars of the show) Kira Nerys.
Wonderful themes about identity and 'home' as Jadzia becomes Ezri and Worf joins the house of Martok, Odo moves from being the only known one of his species to a member of a hostile
Episode 10: My Grandfather's Life Story
My grandfather tells his life story to me in a series of conversations
This episode gets pretty dark in the middle, but ends on a really sweet note. We cover...
- My parents entrepreneurship
- How my grandparents helped raise me while my parents worked
- My anxiety attacks before going to school
- My brother's inferiority as a sibling (jk)
- Our close family ties and interdependence
- My mother's MS
- My parent's divorce and how my grandparents felt about it
- An unexpected call from Michael, my mother's new husband
- How my grandfather feels about the divorce and his daughter (my mother) now
An Amazing Family
Thankful for (Part 2): An amazing family who always, every second, made me feel loved, safe and capable of achieving anything I set my mind to. And taught me, both by example and through explicit advice, to treat others kindly, that my highest duty was to the truth, that everyone was the hero of their own story and to follow my dreams - even if they were way outside the box.
I've taken a lot of risks in my life. I don't think any of it was because I was brave - but rather it was because I knew I always had the safety of my family behind me.
Love you and miss you guys so much.
Unhappy for the Same Reasons
I try, and fail, to live by these principles that this article shows (“Almost everyone who is unhappy with life is unhappy for the same reasons“). Very nicely summed up.
Comment A Memory
If you're reading this, even if we barely talk, comment with a memory you have of us. After you're done, post this on your wall. You'd be surprised with what people remember about you!
(I don't usually propagate these things, but this one could be fun)
Part 1: Thankful For . . .
Update: Thankful for being able to strike an incredible balance between high leverage work and the ultimate luxury of all: time. Time with friends, family and contemplation.
Thankful for (Part 1): Being able to spend my time musing on the future of transportation, logistics and turning the real-world into a platform for developers around the globe - and being in a position to make it real as part of an amazing team
Part 2: Thankful For . . .
Thankful for (Part 2): An amazing family who always, every second, made me feel loved, safe and capable of achieving anything I set my mind to. And taught me, both by example and through explicit advice, to treat others kindly, that my highest duty was to the truth, that everyone was the hero of their own story and to follow my dreams - even if they were way outside the box.
I've taken a lot of risks in my life. I don't think any of it was because I was brave - but rather it was because I knew I always had the safety of my family behind me.
Love you and miss you guys so much.