Tools for Online Speech logo
by Jacob O'Bryant

Hello Seattle I am a manta ray

Welcome to my weekly newsletter about practical steps towards a better Internet, focused on my own work in that space. I'm Jacob O'Bryant.

It's been a slow week for me in terms of my software projects because I was selected for federal jury service on Wednesday 🙂. We just finished day 4; looks like it'll continue until at least Thursday. Can't say much else until after the trial is over. I've had a chance to walk around downtown Seattle a bit—if any of you are nearby and want to get lunch sometime in the next couple days, let me know.

(I'm just glad my hotel expenses are getting reimbursed!)

I've had a bit of FOMO over the years from not being located in a big tech/startup hub, the bay area in particular. I actually once had plane tickets to visit San Francisco for a week and try to do some networking, but they were scheduled for—wait for it—April 2020. You know what happened next.

I've hardly done anything for the past several days I've been in Seattle, other than walk a few blocks to Jimmy John's for lunch every day. (One of my super powers is that I'm a repetitive eater and have no need to try out new restaurants once I find one I like). But I've been absorbing the "city vibes" a bit, and... I don't think I'm much of a city person anyway.

This is perhaps a typical feeling among people with kids, but I wouldn't mind setting up base in suburbia somewhere. You're close to grocery stores and doctor's offices, you have fast internet, the roads get plowed, the electricity rarely goes out in the winter as far as I'm aware... (all in comparison to living out in the woods as I do now). But you can still live somewhere relatively cheap without a ton of traffic. There may not be any networking opportunities, but hey, there's always the internet + remote work.

I read a few good articles this week. A few of them are technical (I've placed those links at the end):

The Open Source Business Model is Under Siege [www.influxdata.com]

Optimizing impact: why I will not start an Envoy platform company [medium.com]

Why America Needs Moderates [www.discoursemagazine.com]

Reluctance To Process Contributions, and Tips from InnerSource [www.harihareswara.net]

The Gemini protocol seen by this HTTP client person [daniel.haxx.se]

Humble Chronicles: State Management [tonsky.me]

And from the TFOS subreddit: Structuring yakread more like a newsletter [reddit.com/r/tfos]

Published 5 Jun 2023

I write an occasional newsletter
about my work and ideas.

RSS feed · Archive

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.