david sidlinger

Resolutions

I needed some place to keep my resolutions out in the open to (1) actually remember them and (2) keep me accountable. Here goes for 2011, in no particular order:

• Save more money.
• Take Maggie out more. I always have a good time when I do.
• Finish a website for once and get it out the door. I have plenty of good ideas.
• Go somewhere I’ve never been.
• Get a rabbit tattoo for the Year of the Rabbit.
• Finish with less mass than I started.
• Clean out all the damn electronics and computer parts I’ve accumulated.
• More beautiful clutter and less ugly clutter. I’m looking at you rats nest behind every TV in the house.
• Call Fred Palmer back. (Sorry, Fred.)
• Learn how to stop wondering what’s wrong.

There’s more, I’m sure, but it’s a start.

Two Birds…

Bird the First

Hey? Are you my friend? Do you know, like, and trust me? Please click here to tell the world.

I have a big problem with most social networking sites/applications/platforms. They allow people to act in ways that are unacceptable. We shouldn’t all be allowed, encouraged even, to act like that guy. There are enough that guys in the world without Facebook, LinkedIn, et al. feeding the beast. Obnoxiousness scales, and it scales big.

One of the revelations of this century is that we are all still humans, even on the Internet. Let’s start acting like it. “Social networks” are built to accumulate users as quickly as possible, not support your actual social network.

Bird the Second

I have another problem. I have been called on to participate in the interview process and make hiring decisions. Unless a candidate comes through a referral, I don’t have a reliable way to determine whether the person sitting in front of me is going to cut it. Is he a hack, leaving a trail of shitty spaghetti code in his wake? Is he a god that I will continually try to take with me wherever I end up?

LinkedIn and such are not an answer. Needy co-workers can badger you along with their 1,000 Gmail contacts for references. The (correct) perception is that you’re not really vouching for them. Trust doesn’t scale when you don’t have any skin in the game.

The Stone

I believe that the best software comes from someone scratching their own itch. I intend to make a place that calls bullshit on the mindless accumulation of connections. A place where “friending” someone means you have their back. A place where I can’t ask you to tell the world you’re my friend, you have to make that call all by yourself.

And I don’t care if I fail, as long as I gave it a shot.