Some android phones have the ability to long press on a notification, click on settings, and alter what kinds of notifications you receive. I’ve had a few instances like you describe, but where I’ve been able to turn off “special deals” or whatever. I think implementation of this is done by the app developer though, because I’m sure I’ve had some apps that had no useful settings. Example screenshot of Gmail settings:

Now I’m thinking about an ex-programmer supervillain who does this as her big foray into supervillainy

Oh damn, I just lost the game too, and now I’m thinking about the game as if it were a virus - like, I reckon we really managed to flatten the curve for a few years there, but it continues to circulate so we haven’t been able to eradicate it

That there is no silver bullet, no quick fix, no “Eureka” moments that happen without work. “Progress” is less an exciting event, more a rhythm made by the repeated struggling against entropy; when you’re doing it well, you’ll come to hardly notice its beat until one day you look around and everything’s different.

You’d think that recognising this progress might be motivating, but it’s often demoralising because it demonstrates how unglamorous the work of self-improvement is. You hardly get time to enjoy your achievements, because as you grow, you become aware of how much more there is to do; the burdens on one’s time and energy tend to expand as our personal capacities do, so even if one makes incredible progress it can feel like you haven’t moved at all — in both your “before” and “after” snapshots, it can feel like you’re still barely staying afloat in life, even if objectively, you have massively improved your coping skills.

And the worst part of it all is knowing that it’s okay to be feeling like this. You’re tired because it’s a lot of work, and you’re demoralised because the work doesn’t end. You’re not the only one who has the stake in your life and your wellbeing, and as you grow, this will be underscored by a greater sense of duty towards the systems and people that depend on you; When I was young and very depressed, I stayed alive for my family and I resented the fact that they cared about me because it bound me to life. (Un)fortunately(?), over the years, my attempts to stick around to avoid hurting the people I care about has led to a bunch more people being invested in my wellbeing and I ended up loving those people too. How privileged I am to have such wonderful people in my life, who give me hope for the world and embolden me to keep fighting. And yet, I resent these people too. I have to allow myself that, at least a little bit, otherwise I’d collapse under the pressure of a duty to a world so much larger than I am. The worst part of it all is that I wouldn’t have it any other way.

So here I am, still plodding along, despite everything, hoping to make my existence a tiny little monument to resistance, as I stubbornly push back against all-consuming entropic decay. I know that in the grand scheme of things, nothing I, as an individual, does will matter, nor will it last, but I don’t care. Well, I do care — the enormity of it threatens to swallow me whole — but I don’t care that I care, because what difference does it make? The hardest lesson I’ve learned is that everyone feels this way, to an extent, and I’m nothing special. In that truth is terror, but also the comfort of solidarity. I may be scared and exhausted, but I know I’m not alone in this. For better or for worse, my life isn’t just for me.

When I was at university, the student union had a small fund for creative projects that weren’t related to your degree. Many of the people who applied for cameras also included Adobe licenses on their funding application, because many of them were new to film or photography so they defaulted to what is “industry standard”, because that’s what the majority of online tutorials are available for.

Zero consideration given to the possibility that Konsi realized this herself and said it deliberately.

Konsi is so sweet that people underestimate her, but not so sweet that she doesn’t realise how people under-estimating you can be used to your advantage. Like, a few comics ago, when Konsi revealed that she was only wearing a robe while playing poker with Razira - revealing this detail meant Razira got played long before any hands were even dealt.

I think the “Moved from Jekyll to Hugo” dot has an implicit catchment area around it, which includes people who don’t technically fit that description, but they’re close. I’ve used neither Jekyll nor Hugo, but the fact I understood that archetype meant I felt pulled in by the gravity of that point.

I’ve already played it but yes, that’s a great recommendation for anyone who has enjoyed the games I mentioned. I especially enjoyed it because I’m also a fan of Dark Souls (& other FromSoft games), and it was neat to have souls-like combat in such a cute packaging.

Probably incomplete list that I may update after a nap.

• Outer Wilds The most sublime game I’ve ever played. I can’t begin to describe how this game made me feel. It’s also an excellently designed game. If you’ve never played it before, go in blind, because even the smallest spoilers risk diminishing your experience. It’s an open world, exploration adventure game, which involves space travel, a quaint setting and fun physics

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• Disco Elysium Another game that made me feel things. One of my favourites

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• Tetris Played it on a Gameboy back in’ day. It’s a great game

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• Rollercoaster Tycoon 2

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• Halo Reach I don’t even know if I believe this was the best Halo game, I was just indecisive and I’m biased because I like the DMR and the SWAT multiplayer game mode (no shields, so a headshot kills in 1)

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• Deep Rock Galactic Feel like it’s the peak of the four person squad based kind of game. I’ve literally got hundreds of hours in this game.

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• Stardew Valley I didn’t actually vibe with this too much personally, but I’ve got to respect it for how accessible it is to many different kinds of gamer. It executes what it set out to do perfectly.

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• Faster than Light
  • I don’t even like rogue likes generally. The soundtrack is great.

(Edit 1: formatting)

The thing is that that was how Google became so big in the first place. PageRank was a cool way of trying to filter out the garbage and it worked real well. Even my non techy friends have been getting frustrated with search not working like it used to (even before all this Gemini stuff was added)

Oh man, I loved Dusa’s interactions. It was nice that being close to Dusa wasn’t framed as being “just” friends, because that would implicitly put friendship as less important than romantic and/or sexual relationships. Like, friendship isn’t a consolation prize, nor is it “rolling to seduce” and failing, but so many games and other media depict it that way

2. She’s trying to practice keeping her cool under pressure, and that’s not effective if you have a lot of safety.

Konsi is precious and I love her.

I was learning python as a wee scientist in training, and my variables were beyond dreadful. I tried naming a list “list” and the interpreter told me I couldn’t, so I opted for “listy”. When I needed to name a new list but listy was taken, I’d often resort to “listyy”.

Scientists who work with computers without having much (if any) targeted training on how to code can write the most horrendous programs.

Yeah, I’m sick of everything being connected to what came before. It feels pretty eugenicsy when everyone who is powerful and of note seems to be descended from someone who was powerful. Something something midichlorians.

I think people like your father make bank because even though new programmers could learn COBOL, that wouldn’t be enough for them to be able to fulfill the same niche your father and other established COBOL programmers occupy; any programming language has a disparity between “the proper way to do things”, and the kind of kludges you see in the field, but few have the kind of baggage that COBOL does, in terms of how long it’s been around and having things built on top of it.

I reluctantly agree with you. Though I think the reluctance is just because there’s something in me that’s viscerally offended by the concept of time itself (probably the ADHD)

Oh yeah, it’s why I mentioned I’m a woman - it’s certainly relevant to my experience here. I don’t have to worry about being perceived as threatening - if I flirt with a woman in an upfront way like I described, I never feel like there’s a risk of frightening her. Whereas on the flip side, if a guy asks me out, I’m always a bit on edge because of the small minority who are not safe to politely turn down. “Privilege” is definitely the wrong word for this, but being perceived as non threatening does make some things simpler.

By far not the stupidest, but it’s one that’s coming to mind.

The school was in a poor area and had a mandatory school uniform. One of the rules was that for boys, “school shoes” must be worn, not “boots”. In many cases, the distinction is obvious, but in ambiguous cases, the distinction came down to how high up the shoe/boot went. I think they defined a length that was the boundary.

What’s silly though is that this length was such that if you were wearing regular school trousers, it would be impossible to discern whether it was a shoe or a boot. At uniform inspections, they would literally have people pull up their trousers legs enough that they could see the top of the shoe/boot, and measure it with a ruler. Inspections were usually overseen by a senior member of staff (not the same one each time).

My brother was sent home from school because his brand new school shoes were 0.5cm too high and were therefore boots. He wasn’t meant to return until he’d replaced them, but my mum called the school and went nuts because she couldn’t afford to replace them for such a stupid rule. They “made an exception” in this case.

My brain first said “gee-ass”, with a soft G, as in jif. I don’t think I’d say that out loud though, because as a kid who read a bunch, I have long lasting trauma from being mocked for saying stuff wrong so I’d wait until I heard someone else say it.

I’m an autistic woman, and I’ve found great success in leaning into my autistic tendencies. By that, I mean just being blunt and upfront. One of my favourites is that if I’ve got chemistry with someone I don’t expect to see again, before I bid them farewell, I’ll give them a note with my number on and say something like “I had a great time hanging out with you tonight, would you like to go on a date with me sometime?” And then I hand them my number and scuttle off like a crab because I can only put on a cool face for so long before I crack under the anxiety.