A great article on continued orientalism, conveniently read after Elsa and I had a long conversation/disagreement on cultural appropriation.

Me at 10:45pm: I’m pretty tired. Me at 10:46pm: I’m snoring. Me at 03:45am: Well that sleeping thing was cute.

If you’re freaked about Facebook, consider posting on your own site and syndicating that post everywhere. You own your writing and ideas but can use networks to reach friends and colleagues where they are. And remember, no personal information handed to free services are private.

Never fails. Spend time on the West Coast, can’t sleep past 6am. Get back to the East Coast, can’t fall asleep before 2am.

Thinking a lot about how advertising targeting men is different than advertising targeting women.

Annual restatement that Google Reader, pre-Buzz and Google Plus integration, was the best social network ever made.

This is a good answer from Wizards of the Coast designer Mark Rosewater on representation in games.

We don’t see complexity in female stories because we have so little experience imagining it might be there.

This is devastating essay on how we critically consume female art.

I am struggling to think of a single, non-romantic, non-familial, healthy relationship between a man and a woman on screen or in a book that captures the depth and complexity I experience in my life.

I tried to make a point today at an AEFP panel on weighted-student funding that came out all wrong.

We were discussing the differences between school-based autonomy and fiscal equity via WSF. Too often, it was being argued, these two concepts come together. This serves to hold back on achieving equity (potentially) if districts are unwilling/ready to provide greater school-based autonomy (or don’t believe in that model for better resource decision-making).

It’s a good point, especially because autonomy is already largely limited in traditional public school districts due to broader policy decisions around union contracts, state labor law, and restricted fund sources. Regardless of financial allocation model, collectively these restrictions lead to little discretion over how resources are used in schools.

The point I mangled was this: while school-based autonomy is not a necessary feature of WSF, I do think that WSF only has benefits over other allocation models when there is increased discretionary control over resources.

Fiscal equity can be achieved nearly as well with a weighted-staffing model as with weighted-student funding. The WSF translation of resources into dollars associated with students comes with an implicit declaration that various forms of education resources can be used as substitutes. Translating all resources to dollars assumes that quality/quantity trade offs can be made to find more efficient and effective solutions. This includes substituting between personnel and non-personnel resources. Otherwise, what’s the point of translating resources into a common unit (dollars)? If there is no quality/quantity trade off within and across resource classes, then more prescriptive pathways to fiscal equity can be just as effective as WSF. So why bother with the more sweeping policy change to WSF versus producing better staffing models?

What it comes down to it, not tackling teacher compensation methods, teacher assignment, barriers to strategic sourcing of goods and services, etc severely limits the advantages of WSF over other allocation methods.

So yes, WSF doesn’t imply school-based autonomy. But I do believe WSF implies greater autonomy over resource decisions by someone in school or district administration.

🎶Today’s jam A Sixth Trumpet by From Monument to Masses 🎶

Has there ever been a more horrific sentence than “The user experience will be identical to physician-assisted suicide,” he says. “Product-market fit is people believing that it works.” source

🎶 Today’s tune, definitely Auto Rock by Mogwai. 🎶

I am a sucker for new mechanical keyboards…

It’s shockingly complex & costly to hire employees in multiple states. We’re a small company that’s remote friendly, but we’re taxing our resources hard when someone new comes on board. I almost never hear anyone talking about making this process easier for small businesses.

I wonder which is my most controversial pop culture opinion:

1. I couldn’t care less about The Office.
2. 30 Rock and Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt are not good.
3. The Fountain is amazing.

Paul Ford makes the best bull case for the blockchain I’ve ever read.

A couple weeks back I was a little disappointed at my one rep max deadlift. I felt tired from my first warm up and went 110-120-130kg and just made all attempts. Today I was able to do 6 reps at 110 on my third set… so now I’m feeling better. 💪🏻

I think I need one of these.

Good lord tech, you have to do a lot better than this. “I’m just an engineer,” is a horrific response to how “identifying gang members” could go wrong. I thought engineering generally included ethics as a part of certification process. Yet another way software is not engineering.

2018-03-05

I may have over ordered BBQ and ended up with some serious meat sweats.

2018-03-06

The Al Pastor at Veracruz is the best I’ve ever had.

2018-03-07

As my time in a city increases, the likelihood that I will spend an hour at an independent bookstore approaches 1.

“I’m sure this $8 airplane wifi will be fine for Slack and Google Docs,” he wrongly assumes every. single. time.

Our heat is out. It’s 34 degrees outside. I still want to put on the fan in the bedroom. Elsa might kill me.

Part of me wants to walk to BookPeople right now. Then the other part of me remembers I can go to Powell’s next week. 🤔📚

Hi Austin, spiritual home of micro.blog. Time for tacos and brisket.

Did a little sleuthing and confirmed that it was yesterday, March 4th, four years ago that I asked a question at a conference panel that changed my life.