Writing more

I haven’t written much here that isn’t about hacking; certainly not recently. However, writing is a skill like many others and there isn’t any real skill development in hacking posts that are essentially a description of how I pwned a box (or occasionally, didn’t). So I think I should write more non hacking related content, even if only to help myself clarify how I feel about some things and get some stuff out.

Anyway, here are some semi-random thoughts.


I’m not on Facebook, because I genuinely think it does more harm than good in a whole-of-society sense, although that may be biased by the fact that I personally never felt like I derived much benefit from it. I may expand on this at a later date. But for now the relevance is just an introduction:

To the [person] who did [thing]…. [angry noises]….

Ever see something like this? Facebook groups are full of them. The person who cut me off in traffic. The person who hooned down the street and woke me up. Took flowers from my yard. Left litter in the park. Didn’t clean the barbeque. Dumped rubbish in the bush, etc etc.

Every one of these could easily have been written on a piece of paper; balled up and then thrown directly into the trash.

echo myComplaint > /dev/null

For all the good it did. The offender (literal or otherwise) is extremely unlikely to ever see the complaint, and even if they did they are hardly likely to feel remorse for the offense, real or imagined.

So then why share it with Facebook? I assume it’s because the complainer wants validation.

Yes, you were right to feel aggrieved.

They usually get that. But what difference does it make?


None. It makes no difference. It’s a waste of time, energy, thought, kilobytes, bandwidth and electrons.


Most people are fundamentally ok. Just going about their days, trying to get things done and not trying to inconvenience anyone. Not everyone.

About 5% of people, maybe a little more, are selfish. If there is an opportunity to cut in front of you, they’ll take it. Life is a zero sum game for them, and they get ahead by - literally - getting ahead of you. These people exist. It’s naive to pretend they don’t. They aren’t super common, but they’re out there and you will encounter them from time to time. Don’t take it personally.

About another 5% of people are just irredeemable assholes (I prefer the american spelling). Don’t let them into your life, and ignore them when you encounter them randomly.

Everyone else is a normal person, and normal people make mistakes. Like pulling out in front of you in traffic. Leaving the milk out of the fridge. Delivering your parcel to the wrong address. They didn’t do it on purpose, and they probably won’t do it again tomorrow. Take a deep breath, and shake it off.