Francesco Schwarz

A woman describes here experience with Long Covid. Emotional piece.

Es sind nicht die wenigen besonderen Tage, die am Ende zählen. Es sind die vielen ganz gewöhnlichen Tage und das, was man aus ihnen werden lässt. Deswegen lohnt es sich, hin und wieder innezuhalten und zu fragen: Ist dies das Leben, das ich führen will? Ist dies der Weg, den ich gehen will? Verbringe ich Zeit mit Menschen, die ich um mich haben will? Bin ich der Mensch, der ich sein will?

Leah Rothstein in an interview by Aaron Sankon, “The Government Segregated America. Here’s How Everyday People Desegregate It”:

One strategy that some communities and a few states have already adopted, and which several others are considering, is changing zoning law. That is a locally controlled policy. Often, these exclusive communities are zoned only to allow for single-family homes to be built in them. It’s called exclusionary zoning. It took the place of race-based zoning when that was outlawed. By ensuring these communities only allow single-family homes, often on large lots, it limits the amount of housing that can be built in that community. It ensures that the only housing there will be expensive—unaffordable to low-income families and moderate-income families that don’t have intergenerational wealth to pay for a down payment.

Lily Sánchez on why we should be working less:

I can say with certainty that working 30 hours straight didn’t teach me all that much about how to take care of patients or about the meaning of “hard work,” but it did teach me how horrible it feels to be awake for 30 hours without sleep or rest, which I don’t recommend to anyone.

Alex Skopic about the man that is Ron DeSantis.

Examining the life and career of Ron DeSantis, whose record of supervising torture and stifling free speech mean he should be kept far, far away from executive power.

Vanessa Graßnickel, chief physician of a rehab clinic, in an interview with SZ Magazin:

Bier oder Wein sind nicht gesund, und je hochprozentiger der Alkohol, desto gefährlicher ist er. Spirituosen wirken sehr aggressiv auf die Schleimhaut und können in der Speiseröhre Schäden verursachen. Aber guten Alkohol gibt es nicht. Manche Patienten sagen mir: »Ich trinke doch nur Bier und Wein, nichts Hochprozentiges!« Aber deshalb sind sie ja nicht weniger abhängig. Oder es heißt: »Ich trinke jeden Tag nur Weinschorle«, in der Hoffnung, dass verdünnter Alkohol weniger schlimm sei.

Rapper RIN in an interview with the SZ:

Dort unten ist für mich Urlaub. Hier ist meine Heimat. Ich vermisse es richtig, wenn ich in Bosnien bin. Vor allem das Schwabenland. Ich liebe die Ruhe, die dieser Teil von Deutschland ausstrahlt. Das Schwabenland ist wie das Auenland aus Herr der Ringe. Milch und Honig fließt durch die Bäche, Mercedes, Porsche und Einfamilienhäusle.

Creating an accessible dialog on the web is trickier than it should be.

Word!

This is why the octopus is such an interesting case – it can be seen as a form of “conscious exotica”, or an example of consciousness very unlike our own, as Halina writes in an essay on the subject. Octopuses are different enough from us that a lot of our assumptions about them have to be questioned – and even our assumptions about ourselves.

Fascinating creatues. Let’s hope plans for the world’s first commerical octopus farm in Spain won’t go ahead. 🤞

Mark Kaufman about a “successful, deceptive PR campaign”. Eye-opening.

British Petroleum, the second largest non-state owned oil company in the world, with 18,700 gas and service stations worldwide, hired the public relations professionals Ogilvy & Mather to promote the slant that climate change is not the fault of an oil giant, but that of individuals.

Ivan Demchenko on how to think about Design Systems.

During my time at Personio, I participated in the process of re-thinking the existing Design System. I noticed that dissecting the system into layers helped us answer some tricky questions. So, bear with me.

Sara Soueidan on how she manages her daily time.

I divide my day into “activity blocks” that are then distributed to occupy different time slots across the day.

Alex Russell puts into words what the popular phrase “Safari is the new IE6” really means. Insightful.

This is not an exhaustive list, and each entry can block entire classes of applications from credibly being possible on the web. The real world impact is challenging to estimate. Weighing up the deadweight losses in start-ups not attempted and higher prices for small businesses who must pay to develop native apps seems a promising angle for economists to investigate.

Jay Hoffman teamed up with CSS-Tricks to deliver an ongoing series about the history of the web.

The first chapter is titled “Birth” and speaks about how the WWW came to be. It’s a captivating read. I especially like the quote

Vague, but exciting…

This is a comment by Mike Sendall, who was Berners-Lee’s boss at the time. He wrote it as a note on the first formal proposal for the WWW titled “Information Management, a Proposal” by Berners-Lee from 1989.

Today, as you know, the web is

[…] used by billions of people and runs through everything we do. It is among the most remarkable technological achievements of the 20th century.

Looking forward to this series.

Jason Fried:

Our customers use Basecamp or HEY every day, we’re here for them 24/7 to help with anything. But when it comes to billing, one of the most sensitive concerns, if you’re forced to pay through Apple’s system, well, we can’t help you anymore. As a business owner who gives a shit, that’s shit.

I wasn’t aware of the huge toll in-app purchases have on the customer experience. Makes Apple’s handling of the situation all the more vile. Mrs. Vestager, please step in.

This is a treasure.

A semi-weekly dose of the best stories from the web’s history delivered straight to your inbox!

I came across this website via an article circulating my Twitter timeline this week called What Happened to the Webmaster by Jay Hoffmann which is a beauty in itself. Really nicely done, and the screenshots in the article will make your heart melt. I mean: who can resist the freshness and sexiness of the homepage for a Chicago Museum from the year 1995?!

Kidding aside, I really appreciate the work that went into this and the explanation of how the role of the webmaster really never disappeared.

But the webmaster role, the one we created thirty years ago? That’s still there. Because that role built the web and the web is a part of us. We can’t shake it loose. It’s begging us to do something different. I see it all the time. I see it every time we outwardly express one of the fundamental qualities of the web creator.

I could read this kind of web philosophy all day long.

PC Maffey describes it like it is:

Hiring is broken. People leave their jobs every 2 years or less. The corporate work culture survives on people's fears. If you don't play by the rules of the people in power, how will you make money, how will you feed your family, how will you contribute to society? It's a vicious cycle perpetuated by our willingness to outsource our values.

I can’t remember if LinkedIn (or XING in German-speaking countries for that matter) ever helped me in finding or steering me towards a job.

Twitter on the other side helped me find my first one right after university (article on when I left said first job).