Quote Pile
The following are miscellous quotes from various sources (articles, blogs, books, whatever) that I've read that I feel are worth isolating.
Quotes with dedicated Pages
Why Your Four Freedoms of Software Don't Mean Shit to Me
The FSF's Four Freedoms of free software are often treated as if they will liberate humanity, and that they are a dogma all must subscribe to. However, Eli Zaretskii, head of Emacs, has this to say to you:
The Free Software movement doesn't pursue the goal of "liberty for all humanity". If you think it does, you are gravely mistaken. Our goals are different, and are well described elsewhere.
Never talk to me, a black queer, as if these "four freedoms" are supposed to mean shit to me ever again.
The Balatro Timeline: March 2022
Early March marked an important event in the history of Balatro, and I wanted to describe why things happened the way they did. I stopped working on the project entirely.
I have been making games for about 10 years now and I have been doing visual art projects for much longer, and a very important habit I have developed for creative hobby projects is to stop working on something when I no longer feel the drive. This is for 2 main reasons; first, it allows me to move on to the next idea without totally burning out on the last thing. Second, and more importantly in this case, it allows me to take time off guilt free and possibly come back to the project later on without wrapping it in negative emotions.
Perl's decline was cultural
An unfortunate feedback loop in this kind of "perilous" environment is that it easily turns prideful. It's difficult to thrive here, if you survive and do well you are skilled; you've performed feats; you should mark your rites of passage. This can become a dangerous culture trap. If you're not careful about it, you may start to think of the hazards and difficulties, the "foot guns", as necessary features - they teach you those essential survival skills that mark you out. More unkindly, they keep the stupid folk out, and help preserve the high status of those who survived long enough to be assimilated. Uh-oh, now you've invented class politics.
The problem with this thinking is that it's self-reinforcing. Working hard to master system complexities was genuinely rewarding - you really were doing difficult things and doing them well. This is actually the same mechanism behind what eventually became known as 'meritocracy', but the core point is simpler - if difficulty itself becomes a badge of honour, you've created a trap: anything that makes the system more approachable starts to feel like it's cheapening what you achieved. You become invested in preserving the barriers you overcame.
This whole articles is a interesting look into the Perl community and it's culture. It's honestly a pattern across human history. Overcoming strife leads people to having pride in their struggle. That pride then starts to strangle the community. Any attempts to build bridges, lower barriers, and build communal knowledge gets impeded.
If there is any subculture you value, this mentality will strangle it. This article further mentions how this culture enables abusive "genius" minds to be tolerated. Struggle must never be forgotten, but its memory must be used to uplift rather than close off, gatekeep, and become conserivative politcs.
While convience can be a trap, be equally as untrusting to people that demand others to struggle. That cruelty is addicitive and poisonous.