David Harris

@chaoticbest.bsky.social

Why settle for chaotic good? 🌲 PNW 🎮 Gamer Dad 🏳️‍🌈 Ally 🌻 Optimist Threads: https://www.threads.net/@forbiddenvoid

Started reading "Story" by Robert McKee, which is ostensibly about screenwriting, but might also just be a devastating, blunt assessment of fundamental human nature. This line has burrowed into my soul, and I may never be able to let it go.

"Most human beings believe that life brings closed experiences of absolute, irreversible change; that their greatest sources of conflict are external to themselves; that they are the single and active protagonists of their own existence; that their existence operates through continuous time within a consistent, causally interconnected reality; and that inside this reality events happen for explainable and meaningful reasons."

From Story: Style, Structure, Substance, and the Principles of Screenwriting by Robert McKee

I have a new theory about why Bluesky doesn't work the way I want it to, and I think it comes down to personal networks and the fact that Bluesky doesn't really care about them. Threads was seeded from IG. Lots of people follow their friends on Instagram. Small accounts following small accounts.

Well, I was wrong. Came back to the feed this morning, and it's just all big accounts again. The few small accounts I've seen in 20 minutes of scrolling are all people I already followed yesterday. I had hope. And Bluesky took it away.

Okay, I'm just going to try something new here to see if maybe this will work. I've unfollowed everyone I was following with 2k+ followers (unless they were already following me). I will follow everyone I see in my Discover feed that has <2k followers. Everyone. We'll see if that has any impact.

Things that seem easy on Bluesky: - Porting an audience from other platforms - Following people who already have large audiences Things that seem impossible on Bluesky: - Seeing content from people without huge audiences - Connecting with those same people Is it just me?

Scientists taught rats to drive. And the rats love it so much they choose to drive even walking to a reward would be faster. They even rev their little car engines in excitement before their driving trip starts. Science is awesome.

We ordered the wrong pack of bingo cards for 2024, so now it's time to start thinking ahead to next year. What's on your 2025 bingo card? Wild predictions and hot takes encouraged.

For obvious reasons, this cute little guy is called a Peacock Mantis Shrimp. TIL that these shrimp pack a powerful punch... literally. They strike with their club-like appendages at a speed of 23 meters/sec. That's 50 times faster than the blink of human eye, and fast enough to rip water apart.

A vibrantly colored peacock mantis shrimp

Are there any #feeds out there that are basically exactly like the Discover feed, but that prioritize recency? I love the content in the Discover feed, but I definitely feel like I spend a lot of time reading yesterday's posts.

Something else I've been thinking about and maybe it's "just the way it is," but whether it's here or Threads or the Bad Place, but I wonder when social media entered into this phase where it's just famous people talking to each other while the rest of us watch. And if it'll ever grow out of it.

I've been thinking a lot about optimism lately. Not in a "glass half full" kind of way. More a "if we put some effort into it, the glass could be all the way full" kind of way. The kind of optimism where we acknowledge the world sucks sometimes. But also where we believe that it doesn't have to.