From the Couch of Ben Johnson

Father, Principal Engineer at Prodigy Education, serial hyperbolist.

Now Reddit’s doing the thing where they do a hard push for the app. I don’t get it. I’m interacting with your thing (in this case I even followed a link).

Does an app really benefit you so much over the website that you want to discourage me from using the web?

“NFTs are an occasion for commerce masquerading as art, just as so many ostensibly meaningful experiences of the 21st century turn out to be occasions to spend money masquerading as life.”

This is the best article on NFTs yet.

V for Wikipedia remains one of my absolutely essential iOS apps. It’s been on my homescreen for years. It’s beautiful, fast, and a ridiculously useful bridge to the world’s knowledge in Wikipedia.

For those doing Advent of Code in TypeScript, uvu is a really nice tiny test runner that works well with single-file scripts.

I showed my 6-year-old Jurassic Park. He seemed mostly bored by it. Crushed. 🦖

Contrary to popular belief, covering anything with chocolate does not make it automatically better.

Me: “The Lincoln Cathedral is really, really old. It was made in…”

5-year-old: “1997?”

Me: “1072…”

It is with a heavy heart that I recognize the end of Pumpkin Spice Latte season for 2022. It ended too soon. 🎃

Hands down, this MacBook Pro is the best computer I’ve ever owned. It’s so fast and so nice to use.

My son’s been asking about getting a bunch of Sharpies, so I took him to Staples. Of course, he picks the largest Sharpie that has ever Sharpied.

It’s legitimately shocking how broken Shortcuts is in iOS 15. There’s been periods in Apple’s history where software quality has been… lacking, but this is really something else.

After about a decade of using OmniFocus, I’m giving Things a shot. I’m appreciating the opportunity to fully rethink my systems. Initially I thought I’d have issues with how prescriptive it is, but so far I’m finding it actually fits the way I think pretty well.

The only thing that’s making the multiple hours I’ve sat at this car dealership waiting for a repair bearable is the Weather Channel they keep on in the background. They’re the best at making it seem like a little bit of rain is the coming of the apocalypse.

Ben’s Survivor Rule #42: Throwing the challenge is never worth the risk.

Sometimes, McSweenys nails the current milieu.

“The Canada Elections Act [entitles you to three consecutive hours off from your work](You can take time off work to vote. Here’s what you need to know https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/ask-time-off-work-to-vote-1.6155783?cmp=rss) day to vote without any loss of pay.”

I really appreciate Canada. 🇨🇦

Screw B-Trees, the most unfair interview questions are anything that involves the JavaScript Date standard library.

✴ The Highlights

A few years ago my wife bought me a Kindle for my birthday, and I converted all my reading to the Kindle. I love the e-ink screen. But the feature that I’ve grown to rely on is the highlighting.

I’ve never really been a highlight-while-reading person. In university it always shocked me to see people tarnishing the pages of their incredibly expensive textbooks with brilliant yellow highlights. But, of course, highlights made on a Kindle are digital and sync their way up into the Amazon cloud. The highlights are downloadable, storable, and are a great starting place for notes.

To this, I’ve…

Continue Reading…

Tonight’s pizzas. Plain cheese for the kiddo. Plant-based sausage, garlic & pepper for the adults. I also tried for garlic knots but many of them were set aflame. Photos next time when they’re not mostly made from carbon.

Read: Staff Engineer: This is the best description of Staff+ roles I’ve ever seen. Featuring interviews from a ton of active staff-level developers, it’s an incredible look into a role that’s often unclearly and poorly defined. 5/5 📚

✴ Get Your Life Together With This Fridge Thing

I was on Amazon looking for a replacement crisper bucket for my fridge. I did not find one.

But, some of these before and after photos are amazing.

Who stores their eggs in a pile at the bottom of a fridge?

Before and after scene. Before has a pile of eggs on the bottom of the fridge. After has an egg rack.

There is no way that the food on the left is the same as the food on the right. Someone has clearly become a healthier eater.

Before and after photo. Before has no colour and has a lot of food all wrapped in bags. After has fruit and healthy foods displayed in drawers.

The secret to keeping your fridge tidy is to throw out half of what’s in it. (There might be some truth in this one.)

Before and after. Before has lots of food in a fridge. After has only a few things badly photoshopped in.

Continue Reading…

Bird show at Mont-Tremblant.

Bird with wings spread open on a foggy day.

Glass needs more cat pictures.