sept 2024 progress
This commit is contained in:
David Eisinger
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@@ -4,33 +4,107 @@ date: 2024-09-04T15:33:21-04:00
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draft: false
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tags:
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- dispatch
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references:
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- title: "It's okay to lower the bar"
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url: https://rachsmith.com/lower-the-bar/
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date: 2024-09-11T16:15:07Z
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file: rachsmith-com-8l0g9q.txt
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- title: "Cultural Stasis Produces Fewer Cheesy Relics like Rocky IV"
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url: https://culture.ghost.io/cultural-stasis-produces-fewer-cheesy-relics-like-rocky-iv/
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date: 2024-09-15T20:39:02Z
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file: culture-ghost-io-yb12ir.txt
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- title: "Okay, I really like WezTerm | Alex Plescan"
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url: https://alexplescan.com/posts/2024/08/10/wezterm/
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date: 2024-09-15T20:40:18Z
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file: alexplescan-com-ffcy9q.txt
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- title: "P(Dumb)"
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url: https://doriantaylor.com/p-dumb
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date: 2024-09-15T20:41:25Z
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file: doriantaylor-com-ua6hkk.txt
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- title: "Stock and flow / Snarkmarket"
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url: https://snarkmarket.com/2010/4890/
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date: 2024-09-15T20:45:50Z
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file: snarkmarket-com-axj6mr.txt
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---
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Some thoughts here...
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<!--more-->
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{{<dither IMG_3614.jpeg "782x600" />}}
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* Travel
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* Rehoboth
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* Beaufort
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* Running
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* Running in Rehoboth was great
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We got Nev's art table set up in the living room. It has been a delight to see her take to it, defaulting to creative pursuits during downtime. I added some [LED lighting][1] and [coat hooks][2]. That's the nice thing about making your own stuff: the freedom to modify and adapt.
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{{<dither IMG_6732.jpeg "782x900" />}}
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{{<dither IMG_6818.jpeg "782x900" />}}
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[1]: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08R66Z71S
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[2]: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09M3Q6QHN
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Musically, I found a good deal on a pretty nice [polyphonic analog synthesizer][3] which I think will be helpful in properly learning how subtractive synthesis works (though this thing has a _lot_ going on). So far just enjoying poking around w/ all the various settings. I'm also slowly working through a [book on drum programming][4].
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[3]: https://sequential.com/product/prophetrev2/
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[4]: https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/6399596-drum-programming
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I finished [_Moonbound_][5] -- I liked it, though it didn't knock me over. It was definitely unlike anything I've read before, which I appreciate. I also listened to the [_Brotherhood of the Rose_][6] trilogy during my runs and long drives. I liked these a lot -- tight, efficient spy thrillers.
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[5]: https://www.robinsloan.com/moonbound/
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[6]: https://www.goodreads.com/series/60498-mortalis
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### Links
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This month:
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* Adventure: Beaufort, Falls Lake, Pigeon Forge
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* Adventure: [Pigeon Forge, TN][7] for my birthday
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* Project:
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* Skill:
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* Skill: drum programming; I'd like to get a good set of samples (hi-hats in all positions, multiple toms, etc.) and actually program in all of the patterns the [drum programming book][4] I mentioned earlier
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[7]: https://www.pigeonforge.com/
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Reading:
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*Author Fiction: [_Son of the Black Sword_][1], Larry Correia
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* <https://kevquirk.com/blog/son-of-the-black-sword>
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* Non-fiction: [_Title_][2], Author
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* Fiction: [_Son of the Black Sword_][8], Larry Correia (recommended by [Kev Quirk][9])
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* Non-fiction: [_The World Beyond Your Head_][10], Matthew B. Crawford (still)
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[1]: https://bookshop.org/p/books/son-of-the-black-sword-volume-1-larry-correia/7419811?ean=9781476781570
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[2]: https://bookshop.org/
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[8]: https://bookshop.org/p/books/son-of-the-black-sword-volume-1-larry-correia/7419811?ean=9781476781570
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[9]: https://kevquirk.com/blog/son-of-the-black-sword
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[10]: https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-world-beyond-your-head-on-becoming-an-individual-in-an-age-of-distraction-matthew-b-crawford/8484056?ean=9780374535919
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Links:
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* [Title][3]
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* [Title][4]
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* [Title][5]
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* [It's okay to lower the bar][11]
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[3]: https://example.com/
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[4]: https://example.com/
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[5]: https://example.com/
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> I had to remind myself that it’s okay to lower the bar. That an average version of something is better than a perfect version of nothing. All I can do is have a go.
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* [Cultural Stasis Produces Fewer Cheesy Relics like Rocky IV][12]
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> The much-maligned 1985 boxing film provides a few hints about the causes of 21st century artistic stagnation: namely, popular artists now work in a risk-averse creative paradigm that avoids making instantly-outmoded artworks
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* [Okay, I really like WezTerm][13]
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> I tried it again with a bit more patience and I’m glad I did. My terminal is prettier than it’s ever been, more functional, and I can finally justify my mechanical keyboard purchase with all the keybindings I’ve configured.
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* [P(Dumb)][14]
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> I think this is a fantasy. It’s concocted by people rich enough to already enjoy human servants, assuming—probably correctly—that there are people out there of lesser means who want the same kind of access. My instinct is that a product like this would be extremely touchy, and that’s assuming you could even get it to work.
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* [Stock and flow][15]
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> But I actually think stock and flow is a useful metaphor for media in the 21st century. Here’s what I mean: Flow is the feed. It’s the posts and the tweets. It’s the stream of daily and sub-daily updates that reminds people you exist. Stock is the durable stuff. It’s the content you produce that’s as interesting in two months (or two years) as it is today. It’s what people discover via search. It’s what spreads slowly but surely, building fans over time.
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[11]: https://rachsmith.com/lower-the-bar/
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[12]: https://culture.ghost.io/cultural-stasis-produces-fewer-cheesy-relics-like-rocky-iv/
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[13]: https://alexplescan.com/posts/2024/08/10/wezterm/
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[14]: https://doriantaylor.com/p-dumb
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[15]: https://snarkmarket.com/2010/4890/
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966
static/archive/alexplescan-com-ffcy9q.txt
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966
static/archive/alexplescan-com-ffcy9q.txt
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@@ -0,0 +1,966 @@
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[1]Alex Plescan
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[2]Blog [3]Projects [4]Newsletter
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Okay, I really like WezTerm
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10 August 2024 | [5]Permalink
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A while back [6]my friend recommended that I try [7]WezTerm. I’d been an iTerm
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2 stalwart for the better part of a decade, but not to be too narrow-minded I
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conceded, started it up, and saw this:
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screenshot of WezTerm's default look
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Does the job, sure, but doesn’t feel quite right. Okay then, experiment over.
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Back to iTerm…
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Fast forward a couple of months and I got the itch to try a new terminal again.
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I wanted to use one whose config was entirely text based so I could pop it in
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to my dotfiles and share it across my work and personal machines. A few
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terminals already do this, but whispers of WezTerm’s powerful API and Lua
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config got me particularly interested.
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I tried it again with a bit more patience and I’m glad I did. My terminal is
|
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prettier than it’s ever been, more functional, and I can finally justify my
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mechanical keyboard purchase with all the keybindings I’ve configured.
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This post is an introduction to configuring WezTerm based on the setup that I
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eventually landed on. I’d consider it relatively low-frills. Most of what I
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talk about here can already be found in WezTerm’s [8]docs, but as they’ve got a
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large surface area, I’m hoping this post will be a useful jumping off point for
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WezTerm beginners.
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We won’t be looking at some of WezTerm’s key features, like custom hyperlinks
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highlighting rules, searchable scrollback, quick copy mode, and image support
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(you can find [9]more details here).
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The feature I find most exciting about WezTerm is the flexibility of its Lua
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config, so we’ll be focusing on that. This includes configuring appearance,
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keybindings, multiplexing, workspace navigation, status bar setup, and dynamic
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theming. By the end of it all, we’ll have a terminal that looks like this:
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screenshot of the WezTerm look we'll end up with at the end of this post
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Subtly prettier than the default, and with some great features to boot.
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I use macOS, so what follows is focused on ergonomics that make WezTerm great
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there. I haven’t tested my config on other systems, but I’m not doing anything
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too bespoke so things should be portable (WezTerm works pretty much
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everywhere).
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tl;dr? Here’s [10]a gist containing the config we’ll end up with.
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Pre-flight checks
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Start by installing WezTerm. Instructions for this are on [11]WezTerm’s site.
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If you’re on macOS and reading this you probably have Homebrew installed, so $
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brew install wezterm will do the trick.
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Now launch WezTerm, and you’re already winning.
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A note on Lua
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My favourite WezTerm feature is its use of Lua for defining config. Unlike
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terminals where your settings are adjusted via the UI (iTerm 2), your WezTerm
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config lives in your dotfiles and is portable across all your machines.
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And unlike other terminals where your configuration is written using a data
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serialization format like YAML or TOML (Alacritty, kitty), with Lua you can
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more easily achieve complex configs by leveraging dynamic scripts.
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Granted, Lua is a programming language so it is trickier to learn than YAML or
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TOML, but it’s still remarkably simple. If you’ve used another dynamic
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programming language (e.g. Ruby, Python, JavaScript) - you should be able to
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read the Lua code in this post easily. For achieving more complex configs, I’d
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recommend diving deeper into the language. Its [12]Getting Started guide is a
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good place to… get started.
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Config files, and the best feedback loop in town
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WezTerm supports loading in its config from all the usual places on your system
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([13]docs). For this guide we’re going to be creating our config in
|
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$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/wezterm/wezterm.lua. On most systems (including macOS) this
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resolves to ~/.config/wezterm/wezterm.lua. Using a directory to store our
|
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config instead of dumping it in ~/.wezterm.lua will let us keep our config
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logically grouped as we split some of it out into different files.
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Create the wezterm.lua file on that path, and add this boilerplate to it:
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-- Import the wezterm module
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local wezterm = require 'wezterm'
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-- Creates a config object which we will be adding our config to
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local config = wezterm.config_builder()
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-- (This is where our config will go)
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-- Returns our config to be evaluated. We must always do this at the bottom of this file
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return config
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Save the file and all going well… nothing will happen. Well, at least nothing
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appeared to happen, but what WezTerm did behind the scenes is quite magical. It
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watched your config file, and when it changed it auto-reloaded instantly. This
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feature makes for a wonderfully tight feedback loop where you don’t need to
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restart your terminal to see the effects of your new config.
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We can quickly test this auto-reload by adding some invalid syntax and seeing
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what happens. Replace the call to wezterm.config_builder() with
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wezterm.config_builderZ(), save, and you should immediately see a window pop-up
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with:
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runtime error: [string "/Users/alex/.config/wezterm/wezterm.lua"]:2: attempt
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to call a nil value (field 'config_builderZ')
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stack traceback:
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[string "/Users/alex/.config/wezterm/wezterm.lua"]:2: in main chunk
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How’s that for a feedback loop? Fix the error and save the file again.
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This time, have your config log something:
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wezterm.log_info("hello world! my name is " .. wezterm.hostname())
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Save. Now… where did that log go? Press CTRL + SHIFT + L to bring up the debug
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overlay ([14]docs) and lo and behold, your beautiful log was waiting for you
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all along. Not only that but what you’re looking at is a full Lua REPL. Enter 1
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+ 1 and you’ll see the result. Enter wezterm.home_dir and you’ll see the result
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of accessing the home_dir entry on the wezterm module ([15]docs).
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screenshot of the WezTerm's debug overlay
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The combination of hot reloading and the debug overlay makes experimenting with
|
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WezTerm configs extremely low friction and low consequence. The feedback loop
|
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is so tight now it’s more like a feedback lp.
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Configuring appearance
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Okay enough gushing - let’s cut to the chase and make this thing prettier. Add
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a few lines to the config to start customising the look of the terminal. We’ll
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start with a colour scheme ([16]docs):
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-- Pick a colour scheme. WezTerm ships with more than 1,000!
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-- Find them here: https://wezfurlong.org/wezterm/colorschemes/index.html
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config.color_scheme = 'Tokyo Night'
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Save, and you should immediately see it update. Thanks Wez!
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screenshot of applying a colour scheme to WezTerm
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(if the hot config reload doesn’t work for whatever reason, you can manually
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reload it by pressing CMD + R).
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Many colours, all at once
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With over 1,000 colour choices to choose from, it’s tough to decide on your
|
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favourite. Why not outsource that work to your computer? Let’s explore the
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power of WezTerm’s dynamic config by randomly assigning a colour scheme for
|
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each new window you open:
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-- Creates a lua table containing the name of every color scheme WezTerm
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-- ships with.
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local scheme_names = {}
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for name, scheme in pairs(wezterm.color.get_builtin_schemes()) do
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table.insert(scheme_names, name)
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end
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-- When the config for a window is reloaded (i.e. when you save this file
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-- or open a new window)...
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wezterm.on('window-config-reloaded', function(window, pane)
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-- Don't proceed if the config has already been overriden, otherwise
|
||||
-- we'll enter an infinite loop of neverending colour scheme changes.
|
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-- If that sounds like your kinda thing, then remove this line ;) - but
|
||||
-- don't say you haven't been warned.
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if window:get_config_overrides() then return end
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-- Pick a random colour scheme name.
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local scheme = scheme_names[math.random(#scheme_names)]
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-- Assign it as an override for this window.
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window:set_config_overrides { color_scheme = scheme }
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-- And log it for good measure
|
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wezterm.log_info("Your colour scheme is now: " .. scheme)
|
||||
end)
|
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||||
Open up a few windows (CMD + N on macOS) and each one will have a different
|
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colour scheme. A cornucopia of terminals, each more surprising than the last.
|
||||
We, my friends, are truly innovating now.
|
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|
||||
screenshot of many WezTerm terminal windows, each with a distinctive colour
|
||||
scheme
|
||||
|
||||
But really, that was kind of a dumb idea meant to prove a point. Now that
|
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you’ve gotten a taste for dynamic config, you probably wanna remove those lines
|
||||
and stick to a colour scheme you do like.
|
||||
|
||||
(You may find that after you remove that code and add your static color_scheme
|
||||
config back in, it doesn’t hot reload. That’s because our script set an
|
||||
override on the config specific to each window. To clear your overrides, you
|
||||
can go to your debug terminal and type window:set_config_overrides({}) - or you
|
||||
can just close and reopen your WezTerm window).
|
||||
|
||||
Respecting the system’s appearance
|
||||
|
||||
Light themes, dark themes… why not both? Let’s have the terminal’s colour
|
||||
scheme automatically change when the operating system’s appearance changes.
|
||||
While we’re at it, we’ll learn how to split up WezTerm config into different
|
||||
modules.
|
||||
|
||||
Create a new file alongside wezterm.lua and call it appearance.lua. Add this to
|
||||
it:
|
||||
|
||||
-- We almost always start by importing the wezterm module
|
||||
local wezterm = require 'wezterm'
|
||||
-- Define a lua table to hold _our_ module's functions
|
||||
local module = {}
|
||||
|
||||
-- Returns a bool based on whether the host operating system's
|
||||
-- appearance is light or dark.
|
||||
function module.is_dark()
|
||||
-- wezterm.gui is not always available, depending on what
|
||||
-- environment wezterm is operating in. Just return true
|
||||
-- if it's not defined.
|
||||
if wezterm.gui then
|
||||
-- Some systems report appearance like "Dark High Contrast"
|
||||
-- so let's just look for the string "Dark" and if we find
|
||||
-- it assume appearance is dark.
|
||||
return wezterm.gui.get_appearance():find("Dark")
|
||||
end
|
||||
return true
|
||||
end
|
||||
|
||||
return module
|
||||
|
||||
Back in wezterm.lua:
|
||||
|
||||
-- Import our new module (put this near the top of your wezterm.lua)
|
||||
local appearance = require 'appearance'
|
||||
|
||||
-- Use it!
|
||||
if appearance.is_dark() then
|
||||
config.color_scheme = 'Tokyo Night'
|
||||
else
|
||||
config.color_scheme = 'Tokyo Night Day'
|
||||
end
|
||||
|
||||
Toggle your system appearance between dark mode and light mode, and watch your
|
||||
theme change right before your eyes.
|
||||
|
||||
screenshot of WezTerm in light and dark mode
|
||||
|
||||
Fonts
|
||||
|
||||
Next up let’s look at fonts. WezTerm ships with the lovely JetBrains Mono, and
|
||||
Nerd Font Symbols ([17]docs) so there’s nothing to complain about there. I do
|
||||
prefer Berkeley Mono at 13 points though, so:
|
||||
|
||||
-- Choose your favourite font, make sure it's installed on your machine
|
||||
config.font = wezterm.font({ family = 'Berkeley Mono' })
|
||||
-- And a font size that won't have you squinting
|
||||
config.font_size = 13
|
||||
|
||||
There’s good support for ligatures and other fancy font settings if you’re into
|
||||
that ([18]docs), but I’m not so let’s move on.
|
||||
|
||||
Window styling
|
||||
|
||||
Let’s style our terminal’s window. This controls the chrome that appears around
|
||||
it, and can vary between operating systems. On macOS, I like the below:
|
||||
|
||||
-- Slightly transparent and blurred background
|
||||
config.window_background_opacity = 0.9
|
||||
config.macos_window_background_blur = 30
|
||||
-- Removes the title bar, leaving only the tab bar. Keeps
|
||||
-- the ability to resize by dragging the window's edges.
|
||||
-- On macOS, 'RESIZE|INTEGRATED_BUTTONS' also looks nice if
|
||||
-- you want to keep the window controls visible and integrate
|
||||
-- them into the tab bar.
|
||||
config.window_decorations = 'RESIZE'
|
||||
-- Sets the font for the window frame (tab bar)
|
||||
config.window_frame = {
|
||||
-- Berkeley Mono for me again, though an idea could be to try a
|
||||
-- serif font here instead of monospace for a nicer look?
|
||||
font = wezterm.font({ family = 'Berkeley Mono', weight = 'Bold' }),
|
||||
font_size = 11,
|
||||
}
|
||||
|
||||
screenshot of WezTerm after we've styled its window
|
||||
|
||||
Now, let’s do something a little kitsch. See that empty space to the right of
|
||||
our terminal’s tab bar? Let’s fill it with a powerline looking status bar.
|
||||
We’ll add an update-status callback:
|
||||
|
||||
wezterm.on('update-status', function(window)
|
||||
-- Grab the utf8 character for the "powerline" left facing
|
||||
-- solid arrow.
|
||||
local SOLID_LEFT_ARROW = utf8.char(0xe0b2)
|
||||
|
||||
-- Grab the current window's configuration, and from it the
|
||||
-- palette (this is the combination of your chosen colour scheme
|
||||
-- including any overrides).
|
||||
local color_scheme = window:effective_config().resolved_palette
|
||||
local bg = color_scheme.background
|
||||
local fg = color_scheme.foreground
|
||||
|
||||
window:set_right_status(wezterm.format({
|
||||
-- First, we draw the arrow...
|
||||
{ Background = { Color = 'none' } },
|
||||
{ Foreground = { Color = bg } },
|
||||
{ Text = SOLID_LEFT_ARROW },
|
||||
-- Then we draw our text
|
||||
{ Background = { Color = bg } },
|
||||
{ Foreground = { Color = fg } },
|
||||
{ Text = ' ' .. wezterm.hostname() .. ' ' },
|
||||
}))
|
||||
end)
|
||||
|
||||
screenshot of WezTerm with a right status bar showing the system's hostname
|
||||
|
||||
A few interesting things happening here:
|
||||
|
||||
1. We just used WezTerm’s events API with wezterm.on. Events are things that
|
||||
happen to the terminal (e.g. window resize) that we can define callbacks
|
||||
for. The update-status event is emitted periodically when the terminal is
|
||||
ready to have its status updated. WezTerm manages this cleverly to ensure
|
||||
that only one such update can run at any given time, and if your code takes
|
||||
too long to execute, a timeout will be hit and your handler will be
|
||||
abandoned… protecting your terminal from bogging down.
|
||||
2. We’re grabbing the effective_config() of the window to get the “effective”
|
||||
configuration, which is the config with any overrides applied. From this we
|
||||
can get the resolved_palette, which is the currently active colour scheme.
|
||||
To see what this data looks like you can enter the debug overlay (CTRL +
|
||||
SHIFT + L) and execute window:effective_config().resolved_palette.
|
||||
3. We’re using the wezterm.format function ([19]docs) to style our string with
|
||||
colours. Other ways you could format text include setting font weight,
|
||||
underlining text, and more.
|
||||
4. Finally, the wezterm.hostname() function ([20]docs) gives us the hostname
|
||||
of the machine we’re running on. WezTerm ships with a bunch of useful
|
||||
functions for getting the state of your system, and also… we’re doing stuff
|
||||
in Lua - so you have full access to your file system, are able to make
|
||||
network requests, etc.
|
||||
|
||||
Altogether this gives us a powerline…ish. It’s a bit sad with only one segment
|
||||
isn’t it? Don’t you worry, we’ll be adding more soon…
|
||||
|
||||
Keys
|
||||
|
||||
Here’s the part where we justify our mechanical keyboard purchases. Let’s set
|
||||
up some key assignments. During this section we’ll look at WezTerm’s deep key
|
||||
handling capabilities and ability to take action based on your input.
|
||||
|
||||
By default, WezTerm defines some standard key assignments ([21]docs). I leave
|
||||
them on because they’re very sensible, but if you wanna really wrest total
|
||||
control of your config, you can turn them off with
|
||||
config.disable_default_key_bindings = true.
|
||||
|
||||
Our first key assignment will be a humble start for us macOS users… you might
|
||||
be used to Option + Left Arrow and Option + Right Arrow jumping between words
|
||||
on your terminal. That’s the default in iTerm 2 and Terminal.app, but not in
|
||||
WezTerm. However, we can map it!
|
||||
|
||||
We do this by adding a keys table to our config:
|
||||
|
||||
-- Table mapping keypresses to actions
|
||||
config.keys = {
|
||||
-- Sends ESC + b and ESC + f sequence, which is used
|
||||
-- for telling your shell to jump back/forward.
|
||||
{
|
||||
-- When the left arrow is pressed
|
||||
key = 'LeftArrow',
|
||||
-- With the "Option" key modifier held down
|
||||
mods = 'OPT',
|
||||
-- Perform this action, in this case - sending ESC + B
|
||||
-- to the terminal
|
||||
action = wezterm.action.SendString '\x1bb',
|
||||
},
|
||||
{
|
||||
key = 'RightArrow',
|
||||
mods = 'OPT',
|
||||
action = wezterm.action.SendString '\x1bf',
|
||||
},
|
||||
}
|
||||
|
||||
By now you’ve probably figured out that you’re gonna be spending more time
|
||||
configuring WezTerm than doing actual work. There’s no shame in admitting this
|
||||
reality, so let’s encode it into our config. On macOS, the default shortcut for
|
||||
opening an application’s preferences is CMD + , - let’s make it so when we
|
||||
press this, our favourite editor opens up the WezTerm config. I’m using neovim,
|
||||
but feel free to substitute with your own:
|
||||
|
||||
config.keys = {
|
||||
-- ... add these new entries to your config.keys table
|
||||
{
|
||||
key = ',',
|
||||
mods = 'SUPER',
|
||||
action = wezterm.action.SpawnCommandInNewTab {
|
||||
cwd = wezterm.home_dir,
|
||||
args = { 'nvim', wezterm.config_file },
|
||||
},
|
||||
},
|
||||
}
|
||||
|
||||
Try that out, but you may see an error along the lines of:
|
||||
|
||||
Unable to spawn nvim because:
|
||||
No viable candidates found in PATH "/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin"
|
||||
|
||||
If that error showed up, it’s typically because the process that launched
|
||||
WezTerm didn’t include a PATH environment variable that led to your editor’s
|
||||
binary (e.g. on macOS, Finder is usually WezTerm’s parent). We can work around
|
||||
this by specifying the full path to your editor in the SpawnCommandInNewTab
|
||||
properties ([22]docs), or by updating the default environment variables WezTerm
|
||||
spawns commands with. I prefer the latter, since it means that any other places
|
||||
in our config where we might spawn new commands will also inherit the same env
|
||||
vars:
|
||||
|
||||
config.set_environment_variables = {
|
||||
PATH = '/opt/homebrew/bin:' .. os.getenv('PATH')
|
||||
}
|
||||
|
||||
Try that again, and it should work.
|
||||
|
||||
We really are just scratching the surface of all the commands available ([23]
|
||||
WezTerm supports a lot). In the next section, we’ll be growing our key bindings
|
||||
further.
|
||||
|
||||
Multiplexing terminals, levelling up key assignments
|
||||
|
||||
Let’s move on to WezTerm’s multiplexing capabilities. If you make use of a
|
||||
multiplexer (i.e. tmux) then you may consider using WezTerm’s builtin
|
||||
capabilities instead. They’ll generally give you a more integrated experience,
|
||||
with individual scrollback buffers per pane, better mouse control, easier
|
||||
selection functionality, and generally faster performance.
|
||||
|
||||
Hit CTRL + SHIFT + P to bring up WezTerm’s command palette. (Yes, WezTerm has a
|
||||
command palette. Yes, it’s as customisable as everything else we’ve seen so
|
||||
far. No, we won’t dwell on it here). Type split horizontally until the “Shell:
|
||||
Split Horizontally” option is selected and hit ENTER. Ta-da! Your shell split
|
||||
horizontally! Do the same for split vertically and… you get the idea.
|
||||
|
||||
screenshot of WezTerm's command palette
|
||||
|
||||
You may have noticed that the command palette displays the keyboard shortcut
|
||||
assigned to each action. The ones for splitting are quite a fingerful, e.g.
|
||||
SHIFT + CTRL + OPTION + ". I get why they’re this complicated - because they’re
|
||||
trying not to clash with any other shortcuts you may have on your system, but
|
||||
we can do a lot better - and WezTerm gives us the tools do so easily!
|
||||
|
||||
Splitting panes, leader key
|
||||
|
||||
A leader key ([24]docs) is a special key combination that you press first,
|
||||
followed by another key combination, to perform a specific action. It can help
|
||||
you create complex shortcuts without needing to push a lot of keys all at once.
|
||||
|
||||
Sounds like a perfect fit for splitting panes, right? We’ll bind our leader to
|
||||
CTRL + A, and in case you accidentally type the leader without following it up
|
||||
with another key, we’ll have it automatically deactivate after 1,000
|
||||
milliseconds.
|
||||
|
||||
-- If you're using emacs you probably wanna choose a different leader here,
|
||||
-- since we're gonna be making it a bit harder to CTRL + A for jumping to
|
||||
-- the start of a line
|
||||
config.leader = { key = 'a', mods = 'CTRL', timeout_milliseconds = 1000 }
|
||||
|
||||
Next let’s define some key assignments for splitting panes:
|
||||
|
||||
config.keys = {
|
||||
-- ... add these new entries to your config.keys table
|
||||
{
|
||||
-- I'm used to tmux bindings, so am using the quotes (") key to
|
||||
-- split horizontally, and the percent (%) key to split vertically.
|
||||
key = '"',
|
||||
-- Note that instead of a key modifier mapped to a key on your keyboard
|
||||
-- like CTRL or ALT, we can use the LEADER modifier instead.
|
||||
-- This means that this binding will be invoked when you press the leader
|
||||
-- (CTRL + A), quickly followed by quotes (").
|
||||
mods = 'LEADER',
|
||||
action = wezterm.action.SplitHorizontal { domain = 'CurrentPaneDomain' },
|
||||
},
|
||||
{
|
||||
key = '%',
|
||||
mods = 'LEADER',
|
||||
action = wezterm.action.SplitVertical { domain = 'CurrentPaneDomain' },
|
||||
},
|
||||
}
|
||||
|
||||
Give it a go now. Press CTRL + A, quickly followed by ", and you’ll get a
|
||||
horizontal split. Use the other assignment and you’ll get a vertical split.
|
||||
|
||||
screenshot of WezTerm's with split panes
|
||||
|
||||
Before we move on - you might be wondering what happens if you actually want to
|
||||
send the CTRL + A keypress without invoking the leader? CTRL + A is useful in
|
||||
and of its own as pressing it jumps to the start of a line on your shell (and
|
||||
on operating systems like Emacs).
|
||||
|
||||
Well there’s a solution for that. We can map CTRL + A quickly followed by CTRL
|
||||
+ A to send a CTRL + A to our terminal. That’s a confusing sentence! It’ll be
|
||||
simpler to just look at the config:
|
||||
|
||||
config.keys = {
|
||||
-- ... add these new entries to your config.keys table
|
||||
{
|
||||
key = 'a',
|
||||
-- When we're in leader mode _and_ CTRL + A is pressed...
|
||||
mods = 'LEADER|CTRL',
|
||||
-- Actually send CTRL + A key to the terminal
|
||||
action = wezterm.action.SendKey { key = 'a', mods = 'CTRL' },
|
||||
},
|
||||
},
|
||||
|
||||
Moving around panes
|
||||
|
||||
Okay with that done, let’s get back to multiplexing. Next up, navigating our
|
||||
splits. I like to use vim direction keybindings, but feel free to replace with
|
||||
arrow keys instead.
|
||||
|
||||
config.keys = {
|
||||
-- ... add these new entries to your config.keys table
|
||||
{
|
||||
-- I like to use vim direction keybindings, but feel free to replace
|
||||
-- with directional arrows instead.
|
||||
key = 'j', -- or DownArrow
|
||||
mods = 'LEADER',
|
||||
action = wezterm.action.ActivatePaneDirection('Down'),
|
||||
},
|
||||
{
|
||||
key = 'k', -- or UpArrow
|
||||
mods = 'LEADER',
|
||||
action = wezterm.action.ActivatePaneDirection('Up'),
|
||||
},
|
||||
{
|
||||
key = 'h', -- or LeftArrow
|
||||
mods = 'LEADER',
|
||||
action = wezterm.action.ActivatePaneDirection('Left'),
|
||||
},
|
||||
{
|
||||
key = 'l', -- or RightArrow
|
||||
mods = 'LEADER',
|
||||
action = wezterm.action.ActivatePaneDirection('Right'),
|
||||
},
|
||||
}
|
||||
|
||||
Look at all that duplication - We’re using a dynamic language for our config
|
||||
here, we don’t need to stand for that! Let’s go on a little side quest and see
|
||||
if we can extract it to a function.
|
||||
|
||||
local function move_pane(key, direction)
|
||||
return {
|
||||
key = key,
|
||||
mods = 'LEADER',
|
||||
action = wezterm.action.ActivatePaneDirection(direction),
|
||||
}
|
||||
end
|
||||
|
||||
config.keys = {
|
||||
-- ... remove the previous move bindings, and replace with
|
||||
move_pane('j', 'Down'),
|
||||
move_pane('k', 'Up'),
|
||||
move_pane('h', 'Left'),
|
||||
move_pane('l', 'Right'),
|
||||
}
|
||||
|
||||
Ooh so much smaller, but it could be smaller still. I dare you to keep code
|
||||
golfing this down to 6 lines. Go on - I believe in you!
|
||||
|
||||
Resizing panes, and introducing key tables
|
||||
|
||||
You might’ve figured out that you can resize panes by dragging the edge of one
|
||||
with your mouse, but we’re developers here, not olympic athletes. What’re we
|
||||
expected to move our hands away from the safety of our keyboard and over to the
|
||||
mouse?! No! I won’t stand for it and neither should you!
|
||||
|
||||
It’d be really nice to use the same keys that we use for moving between the
|
||||
panes for resizing (h, j, k, l)… but they’ve already been mapped… we could add
|
||||
another key modifier that needs to be held down when we want to resize vs. move
|
||||
between the panes:
|
||||
|
||||
config.keys = {
|
||||
-- ... add this new entry to your config.keys table
|
||||
{
|
||||
key = 'h',
|
||||
mods = 'LEADER|CTRL',
|
||||
-- "3" here is the amount of cells we wish to resize
|
||||
-- the terminal by
|
||||
action = wezterm.action.AdjustPaneSize { 'Left', 3 },
|
||||
},
|
||||
}
|
||||
|
||||
But that’s no good really. We have to first push our leader CTRL + A, then push
|
||||
CTRL + H, and keep repeating that each time we wanna resize the pane to the
|
||||
left. Fingers getting sore. Send help. Oh, here comes WezTerm with the
|
||||
antidote: [25]key tables.
|
||||
|
||||
When you activate a key table you’re entering a different mode with its own set
|
||||
of assignments for whatever you’re doing. This allows you to have multiple
|
||||
layers of assignments that are context specific.
|
||||
|
||||
It’s a similar kind of concept to the leader key, but unlike it, our key table
|
||||
will not automatically deactivate after an action is invoked, so it’ll be a
|
||||
good fit for resizing, where we want to keep pressing the same button over and
|
||||
over again until we’re happy with our pane’s new size.
|
||||
|
||||
With all that… this is easier done that said, so let’s check out the code:
|
||||
|
||||
local function resize_pane(key, direction)
|
||||
return {
|
||||
key = key,
|
||||
action = wezterm.action.AdjustPaneSize { direction, 3 }
|
||||
}
|
||||
end
|
||||
|
||||
config.keys = {
|
||||
-- ... remove the yucky keybinding from above and replace it with this
|
||||
{
|
||||
-- When we push LEADER + R...
|
||||
key = 'r',
|
||||
mods = 'LEADER',
|
||||
-- Activate the `resize_panes` keytable
|
||||
action = wezterm.action.ActivateKeyTable {
|
||||
name = 'resize_panes',
|
||||
-- Ensures the keytable stays active after it handles its
|
||||
-- first keypress.
|
||||
one_shot = false,
|
||||
-- Deactivate the keytable after a timeout.
|
||||
timeout_milliseconds = 1000,
|
||||
}
|
||||
},
|
||||
}
|
||||
|
||||
config.key_tables = {
|
||||
resize_panes = {
|
||||
resize_pane('j', 'Down'),
|
||||
resize_pane('k', 'Up'),
|
||||
resize_pane('h', 'Left'),
|
||||
resize_pane('l', 'Right'),
|
||||
},
|
||||
}
|
||||
|
||||
Now you can push CTRL + A to activate leader, then R to activate the resizing
|
||||
layer… and movement keys to resize to your heart’s content. When 1,000
|
||||
milliseconds have elapsed, you’ll automatically exit the resizing layer and be
|
||||
back to the default keytable.
|
||||
|
||||
WezTerm intensifies…
|
||||
|
||||
(While we’re on multiplexing, if you’re using neovim, I’d recommend checking
|
||||
out [26]smart-splits.nvim - that’ll let you jump between your vim panes and
|
||||
your WezTerm ones).
|
||||
|
||||
Project workspaces
|
||||
|
||||
Okay let’s graduate from WezTerm university with one final assignment… project
|
||||
workspaces.
|
||||
|
||||
I’m often working across a few different projects at a time, and need to be
|
||||
able to quickly switch between them. I want each project to maintain its own
|
||||
multiplexer instance with its own windows, panes, and tabs. In tmux you might
|
||||
achieve this with different sessions. In WezTerm we’ll do it with [27]
|
||||
workspaces.
|
||||
|
||||
Creating and switching between workspaces
|
||||
|
||||
Create a new file in your config directory and call it projects.lua. We’ll use
|
||||
this to provide some project switching functions to our main config file.
|
||||
|
||||
local wezterm = require 'wezterm'
|
||||
local module = {}
|
||||
|
||||
local function project_dirs()
|
||||
return {
|
||||
'~/Projects/mailgrip',
|
||||
'~/Projects/alexplescan.com',
|
||||
'~/Projects/wezterm_love_letters',
|
||||
-- ... keep going, list all your projects
|
||||
-- (or don't if you value your time. we'll improve on this soon)
|
||||
}
|
||||
end
|
||||
|
||||
function module.choose_project()
|
||||
local choices = {}
|
||||
for _, value in ipairs(project_dirs()) do
|
||||
table.insert(choices, { label = value })
|
||||
end
|
||||
|
||||
-- The InputSelector action presents a modal UI for choosing between a set of options
|
||||
-- within WezTerm.
|
||||
return wezterm.action.InputSelector {
|
||||
title = 'Projects',
|
||||
-- The options we wish to choose from
|
||||
choices = choices,
|
||||
-- Yes, we wanna fuzzy search (so typing "alex" will filter down to
|
||||
-- "~/Projects/alexplescan.com")
|
||||
fuzzy = true,
|
||||
-- The action we want to perform. Note that this doesn't have to be a
|
||||
-- static definition as we've done before, but can be a callback that
|
||||
-- evaluates any arbitrary code.
|
||||
action = wezterm.action_callback(function(child_window, child_pane, id, label)
|
||||
-- As a placeholder, we'll log the name of what you picked
|
||||
wezterm.log_info("you chose " .. label)
|
||||
end),
|
||||
}
|
||||
end
|
||||
|
||||
return module
|
||||
|
||||
… and in your wezterm.lua:
|
||||
|
||||
local projects = require 'projects'
|
||||
|
||||
config.keys = {
|
||||
-- ... add these new entries to your config.keys table
|
||||
{
|
||||
key = 'p',
|
||||
mods = 'LEADER',
|
||||
-- Present in to our project picker
|
||||
action = projects.choose_project(),
|
||||
},
|
||||
{
|
||||
key = 'f',
|
||||
mods = 'LEADER',
|
||||
-- Present a list of existing workspaces
|
||||
action = wezterm.action.ShowLauncherArgs { flags = 'FUZZY|WORKSPACES' },
|
||||
},
|
||||
}
|
||||
|
||||
Lots going on here, take your time to read it and the comments. And give it a
|
||||
go! Push LEADER + P, and you’ll see the project input selector come up. Pick a
|
||||
project by highlighting one and pushing ENTER, or push CTRL + C to close the
|
||||
picker. Once you’ve picked a project you’ll see its directory logged to your
|
||||
debug overlay (CTRL + SHIFT + L).
|
||||
|
||||
screenshot of WezTerm's with the workspace switcher we've configured
|
||||
|
||||
Still a couple of issues though… it’s really annoying to type out all your
|
||||
projects by hand in that file, and, uh, what was the other issue? Oh yeah! When
|
||||
you pick a project nothing happens. Okay, let’s fix these. Back in
|
||||
projects.lua, we’ll start by having the list of projects automatically
|
||||
populate.
|
||||
|
||||
-- The directory that contains all your projects.
|
||||
local project_dir = wezterm.home_dir .. "/Projects"
|
||||
|
||||
local function project_dirs()
|
||||
-- Start with your home directory as a project, 'cause you might want
|
||||
-- to jump straight to it sometimes.
|
||||
local projects = { wezterm.home_dir }
|
||||
|
||||
-- WezTerm comes with a glob function! Let's use it to get a lua table
|
||||
-- containing all subdirectories of your project folder.
|
||||
for _, dir in ipairs(wezterm.glob(project_dir .. '/*')) do
|
||||
-- ... and add them to the projects table.
|
||||
table.insert(projects, dir)
|
||||
end
|
||||
|
||||
return projects
|
||||
end
|
||||
|
||||
(This all assumes that you like to keep your projects grouped together in a
|
||||
folder, if not… well you’ve got Lua at your fingertips to implement whatever
|
||||
you want!)
|
||||
|
||||
Now launch the project picker, and what do you see? All those projects staring
|
||||
back at thee.
|
||||
|
||||
One thing left to do, let’s add the functionality that opens your project in a
|
||||
new WezTerm workspace. Still in projects.lua let’s change up choose_project:
|
||||
|
||||
function module.choose_project()
|
||||
local choices = {}
|
||||
for _, value in ipairs(project_dirs()) do
|
||||
table.insert(choices, { label = value })
|
||||
end
|
||||
|
||||
return wezterm.action.InputSelector {
|
||||
title = "Projects",
|
||||
choices = choices,
|
||||
fuzzy = true,
|
||||
action = wezterm.action_callback(function(child_window, child_pane, id, label)
|
||||
-- "label" may be empty if nothing was selected. Don't bother doing anything
|
||||
-- when that happens.
|
||||
if not label then return end
|
||||
|
||||
-- The SwitchToWorkspace action will switch us to a workspace if it already exists,
|
||||
-- otherwise it will create it for us.
|
||||
child_window:perform_action(wezterm.action.SwitchToWorkspace {
|
||||
-- We'll give our new workspace a nice name, like the last path segment
|
||||
-- of the directory we're opening up.
|
||||
name = label:match("([^/]+)$"),
|
||||
-- Here's the meat. We'll spawn a new terminal with the current working
|
||||
-- directory set to the directory that was picked.
|
||||
spawn = { cwd = label },
|
||||
}, child_pane)
|
||||
end),
|
||||
}
|
||||
end
|
||||
|
||||
Try that out, select a new project, and you’ll see a workspace get created for
|
||||
it. Switch back to your default workspace (we bound so LEADER, CTRL + F to show
|
||||
you a list of active workspaces) and you’ll see everything is right where you
|
||||
left it.
|
||||
|
||||
Bonus: improving the powerline, and more colour stuff
|
||||
|
||||
Let’s add a couple of polishing touches to this workflow and then I promise
|
||||
we’ll be done…
|
||||
|
||||
Remember that sad powerline we set up earlier? Let’s make it happier by adding
|
||||
another segment to it which contains the name of the current workspace. In true
|
||||
powerline fashion, each subsequent segment on the powerline will display in a
|
||||
different colour. We’ll explore some of WezTerm’s colour maths support and do
|
||||
this all dynamically based on our theme. Back in wezterm.lua:
|
||||
|
||||
-- Replace the old wezterm.on('update-status', ... function with this:
|
||||
|
||||
local function segments_for_right_status(window)
|
||||
return {
|
||||
window:active_workspace(),
|
||||
wezterm.strftime('%a %b %-d %H:%M'),
|
||||
wezterm.hostname(),
|
||||
}
|
||||
end
|
||||
|
||||
wezterm.on('update-status', function(window, _)
|
||||
local SOLID_LEFT_ARROW = utf8.char(0xe0b2)
|
||||
local segments = segments_for_right_status(window)
|
||||
|
||||
local color_scheme = window:effective_config().resolved_palette
|
||||
-- Note the use of wezterm.color.parse here, this returns
|
||||
-- a Color object, which comes with functionality for lightening
|
||||
-- or darkening the colour (amongst other things).
|
||||
local bg = wezterm.color.parse(color_scheme.background)
|
||||
local fg = color_scheme.foreground
|
||||
|
||||
-- Each powerline segment is going to be coloured progressively
|
||||
-- darker/lighter depending on whether we're on a dark/light colour
|
||||
-- scheme. Let's establish the "from" and "to" bounds of our gradient.
|
||||
local gradient_to, gradient_from = bg
|
||||
if appearance.is_dark() then
|
||||
gradient_from = gradient_to:lighten(0.2)
|
||||
else
|
||||
gradient_from = gradient_to:darken(0.2)
|
||||
end
|
||||
|
||||
-- Yes, WezTerm supports creating gradients, because why not?! Although
|
||||
-- they'd usually be used for setting high fidelity gradients on your terminal's
|
||||
-- background, we'll use them here to give us a sample of the powerline segment
|
||||
-- colours we need.
|
||||
local gradient = wezterm.color.gradient(
|
||||
{
|
||||
orientation = 'Horizontal',
|
||||
colors = { gradient_from, gradient_to },
|
||||
},
|
||||
#segments -- only gives us as many colours as we have segments.
|
||||
)
|
||||
|
||||
-- We'll build up the elements to send to wezterm.format in this table.
|
||||
local elements = {}
|
||||
|
||||
for i, seg in ipairs(segments) do
|
||||
local is_first = i == 1
|
||||
|
||||
if is_first then
|
||||
table.insert(elements, { Background = { Color = 'none' } })
|
||||
end
|
||||
table.insert(elements, { Foreground = { Color = gradient[i] } })
|
||||
table.insert(elements, { Text = SOLID_LEFT_ARROW })
|
||||
|
||||
table.insert(elements, { Foreground = { Color = fg } })
|
||||
table.insert(elements, { Background = { Color = gradient[i] } })
|
||||
table.insert(elements, { Text = ' ' .. seg .. ' ' })
|
||||
end
|
||||
|
||||
window:set_right_status(wezterm.format(elements))
|
||||
end)
|
||||
|
||||
screenshot of WezTerm with an enhanced status line, showing multiple segments
|
||||
in different colours
|
||||
|
||||
WezTerm delivers yet again. This updated callback supports arbitrary numbers of
|
||||
segments for its powerline. We’ve specified 3 but you could add way more. All
|
||||
this without needing to manually configure what colour we want on each segment,
|
||||
but rather have WezTerm do it for us by creating a gradient based on the
|
||||
currently active theme. Some highlights:
|
||||
|
||||
• We use wezterm.color.parse to convert a string containing a hex colour code
|
||||
into a Color object ([28]docs) - this lets us perform more advanced
|
||||
operations on the color.
|
||||
• The colour scheme’s background colour is still what we want to use as the
|
||||
value that our gradient draws to, but to figure out where the gradient
|
||||
should start, we use either color:darken ([29]docs) or color:lighten to
|
||||
create a new colour.
|
||||
• The gradient itself is made with wezterm.color.gradient ([30]docs), which
|
||||
returns a table containing a evenly spaced colours between our gradient_to
|
||||
and gradient_from.
|
||||
• We then iterate over our powerline segments to create the items required
|
||||
for wezterm.format.
|
||||
|
||||
Where to from here?
|
||||
|
||||
There’s a [31]lot more that WezTerm does and that [32]you can do with WezTerm.
|
||||
By now you’ll have a good understanding of WezTerm config fundamentals, but I
|
||||
encourage you to keep exploring!
|
||||
|
||||
If you’ve followed this guide step by step, I’d recommend pruning the config
|
||||
down to things that you’ll actually use, rewriting it in your own style, then
|
||||
start sprinkling in your own stuff. Take ownership of this thing! Make your own
|
||||
beautiful WezTerm snowflake!
|
||||
|
||||
When you want some inspiration for what you could do next, browse through the
|
||||
[33]WezTerm API docs to see what’s possible.
|
||||
|
||||
And if you find that you too really like WezTerm, please consider [34]
|
||||
supporting Wez for his great open-source work.
|
||||
|
||||
Receive an email when I post
|
||||
|
||||
[35][ ] [36][Subscribe]
|
||||
(You'll get no more than one email per post. I manage this list with [37]
|
||||
Buttondown).
|
||||
Want to get in touch? [38]Send me an email, [39]a tweet, or [40]check out my
|
||||
GitHub.
|
||||
How about an email when I next post something? [41]Subscribe to my newsletter.
|
||||
|
||||
This website is [42]open source, and built using [43]Jekyll. Photos are © Alex
|
||||
Plescan (2024).
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
References:
|
||||
|
||||
[1] https://alexplescan.com/
|
||||
[2] https://alexplescan.com/posts/
|
||||
[3] https://alexplescan.com/projects/
|
||||
[4] https://buttondown.email/alexplescan
|
||||
[5] https://alexplescan.com/posts/2024/08/10/wezterm/
|
||||
[6] https://blog.lambo.land/
|
||||
[7] https://wezfurlong.org/wezterm/
|
||||
[8] https://wezfurlong.org/wezterm/config/lua/general.html
|
||||
[9] https://wezfurlong.org/wezterm/features.html
|
||||
[10] https://gist.github.com/alexpls/83d7af23426c8928402d6d79e72f9401
|
||||
[11] https://wezfurlong.org/wezterm/installation.html
|
||||
[12] https://www.lua.org/start.html
|
||||
[13] https://wezfurlong.org/wezterm/config/files.html#configuration-files
|
||||
[14] https://wezfurlong.org/wezterm/troubleshooting.html#debug-overlay
|
||||
[15] https://wezfurlong.org/wezterm/config/lua/wezterm/home_dir.html
|
||||
[16] https://wezfurlong.org/wezterm/config/appearance.html
|
||||
[17] https://wezfurlong.org/wezterm/config/fonts.html
|
||||
[18] https://wezfurlong.org/wezterm/config/font-shaping.html
|
||||
[19] https://wezfurlong.org/wezterm/config/lua/wezterm/format.html
|
||||
[20] https://wezfurlong.org/wezterm/config/lua/wezterm/hostname.html
|
||||
[21] https://wezfurlong.org/wezterm/config/default-keys.html
|
||||
[22] https://wezfurlong.org/wezterm/config/lua/SpawnCommand.html
|
||||
[23] https://wezfurlong.org/wezterm/config/lua/keyassignment/index.html
|
||||
[24] https://wezfurlong.org/wezterm/config/keys.html#leader-key
|
||||
[25] https://wezfurlong.org/wezterm/config/key-tables.html
|
||||
[26] https://github.com/mrjones2014/smart-splits.nvim
|
||||
[27] https://wezfurlong.org/wezterm/recipes/workspaces.html
|
||||
[28] https://wezfurlong.org/wezterm/config/lua/color/index.html
|
||||
[29] https://wezfurlong.org/wezterm/config/lua/color/darken.html
|
||||
[30] https://wezfurlong.org/wezterm/config/lua/wezterm.color/gradient.html
|
||||
[31] https://wezfurlong.org/wezterm/features.html
|
||||
[32] https://wezfurlong.org/wezterm/config/lua/general.html
|
||||
[33] https://wezfurlong.org/wezterm/config/lua/general.html
|
||||
[34] https://wezfurlong.org/sponsor/
|
||||
[37] https://buttondown.email/
|
||||
[38] https://alexplescan.com/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#b0d1dcd5c8f0d1dcd5c8c0dcd5c3d3d1de9ed3dfdd
|
||||
[39] https://twitter.com/alexplescan
|
||||
[40] https://github.com/alexpls
|
||||
[41] https://buttondown.email/alexplescan
|
||||
[42] https://github.com/alexpls/alexplescan.com
|
||||
[43] https://jekyllrb.com/
|
||||
200
static/archive/culture-ghost-io-yb12ir.txt
Normal file
200
static/archive/culture-ghost-io-yb12ir.txt
Normal file
@@ -0,0 +1,200 @@
|
||||
[1] Culture: An Owner's Manual
|
||||
[2]
|
||||
Login
|
||||
Jul 29, 2024 7 min read
|
||||
|
||||
Cultural Stasis Produces Fewer Cheesy Relics like Rocky IV
|
||||
|
||||
Cultural Stasis Produces Fewer Cheesy Relics like Rocky IV [4]Let's get ready
|
||||
to crumble
|
||||
|
||||
The much-maligned 1985 boxing film provides a few hints about the causes of
|
||||
21st century artistic stagnation: namely, popular artists now work in a
|
||||
risk-averse creative paradigm that avoids making instantly-outmoded artworks
|
||||
|
||||
Sylvester Stallone’s 1985 film Rocky IV is so infamously schlocky that it’s
|
||||
become a cliché to even discuss its flaws. The Cold War Russia-versus-America
|
||||
plot is cartoonish, and Stallone’s direction is thoroughly over-the-top, from
|
||||
the opening sequence with exploding American and Russian flag boxing gloves to
|
||||
the superfluous montage sequences of pre-existing footage meant to stretch the
|
||||
film to feature length. Compared to other cinematic masterpieces, Rocky IV is
|
||||
not a well-made film, and no one has ever thought it to be. In his
|
||||
contemporaneous review, Roger Ebert called it “a film so predictable that
|
||||
viewing it is like watching one of those old sitcoms where the characters never
|
||||
change and the same situations turn up again and again.”
|
||||
|
||||
But unlike most bad films made in 1985, Rocky IV remains fascinating nearly
|
||||
forty years later. It has great value to us in 2024 as a relic — an artwork
|
||||
that embodies the unique stylistic choices of a particular point in time. Rocky
|
||||
IV is a time-traveling passport to 1985: the Manichaean Reaganite politics, the
|
||||
sassy robot maid, the soundtrack of power ballads and cold digital synths, the
|
||||
artless action-film editing and over-use of freeze-frame fade-outs, the casual
|
||||
lack of verisimilitude in using Wyoming as a stand-in for the Russian
|
||||
countryside.
|
||||
|
||||
There can be good relics, of course. Nothing represents the artistic decisions
|
||||
of 1967 better than Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, and until recently,
|
||||
it was long canonized as the best album of all time. By comparison, almost all
|
||||
of Rocky IV’s bold aesthetic choices quickly soured. Just five years later,
|
||||
movies no longer looked or sounded like Rocky IV, and the end of the Cold War
|
||||
calmed the American spiritual anxiety powering its ridiculous plot. “Eye of the
|
||||
Tiger” became a joke. So did Carl Weathers. And in the last few decades, we’ve
|
||||
seen so many [5]parodies of Eighties montage sequences that it is nearly
|
||||
impossible to watch the originals as earnest filmmaking. The musical montage in
|
||||
the middle of Rocky IV, where Stallone remembers clips from the previous Rocky
|
||||
films, is absolutely ludicrous.
|
||||
|
||||
Watching Rocky IV in 2024, however, was clarifying to me in the ongoing debate
|
||||
around "21st century cultural stasis." The basic argument is that culture is
|
||||
less healthy because there are fewer significant aesthetic changes. This
|
||||
implies a healthy ecosystem produces a large quantity of relics, as new styles
|
||||
outmode old ones. Songs that are "so Eighties" imply that the Nineties rejected
|
||||
all of those artistic choices. In the logic of the stasis narrative, if The
|
||||
Bourne Identity doesn’t scream 2002 with the same volume as Rocky IV screams
|
||||
1985, culture must be slowing down.
|
||||
|
||||
Of course, the 21st century produced many now-outmoded looks: “early 2000s
|
||||
gel-spike-hair guy,” “2012-era pork pie hat speakeasy bartender,” “background
|
||||
extra in Legally Blonde.” At the same time, 2003's “Hey Ya” and "Drop It Like
|
||||
It's Hot" feel timeless rather than ludicrous. The 21st century seems to
|
||||
produce fewer novel aesthetics that humiliate the previous attempt at novel
|
||||
aesthetics.
|
||||
|
||||
Debates about the causes of 21st century cultural stasis always begin by
|
||||
blaming the economy and technology: monopolistic control of the media industry,
|
||||
the hollowing out of the middle class, rising health care costs, algorithmic
|
||||
feeds, the proliferation of media-making tools, etc. These are certainly
|
||||
legitimate factors and set the horizon for our social activity. Yet Rocky IV
|
||||
makes it clear that stasis also must involve how artists think about
|
||||
production. In 1985, Stallone made most choices as director that broke with
|
||||
pre-Eighties filmmaking techniques, and unfortunately for him, very few of
|
||||
these radical decisions became conventional in the future. He swung, and he
|
||||
missed. Compare that with original Rocky director John G. Avildsen who chose to
|
||||
do his film as a grainy, naturalistic underdog story. Both are products of
|
||||
their times, but the original is canonical, while part four is famous as the
|
||||
world's most dated film.
|
||||
|
||||
But Stallone was doing what a lot of 20th century artists felt was their core
|
||||
responsibility: pursuing bold aesthetics. He operated from a vague avant-garde
|
||||
mindset of wanting to make something that felt au courant. A major part of
|
||||
cultural stasis, then, may stem from most artists refusing to embrace
|
||||
contemporary aesthetic choices. In fact, I would argue that the Nineties
|
||||
ushered in a paradigm of rationalized, naturalistic aesthetics anchored in the
|
||||
meta-knowledge that artworks have a longer shelf life when they feel “real” and
|
||||
avoid mannerist/over-indulgent faddish aesthetics.
|
||||
|
||||
Technology and economy do play an indirect role in this change, but there seem
|
||||
to be three values guiding the anti-relic school of art:
|
||||
|
||||
1. A Rejection of Radical Stylization
|
||||
|
||||
In many cultures, art is expected to involve mannerism. Even today older
|
||||
Japanese audiences expect and enjoy “overacting." For maybe the last century,
|
||||
however, Western acting has instead emphasized acting that attempts to recreate
|
||||
real-life human expression.
|
||||
|
||||
This second approach itself is an aesthetic — not the lack of aesthetics. As
|
||||
Susan Sontag wrote in her 1965 essay “On Style,” “There is no neutral,
|
||||
absolutely transparent style.” Hemingway’s bare prose, for example, is its own
|
||||
style. Sontag complained in her day that “Today styles do not develop slowly
|
||||
and succeed each other gradually, over long periods of time which allow the
|
||||
audience for art to assimilate fully the principles of repetition on which the
|
||||
work of art is built; but instead succeed one another so rapidly as to seem to
|
||||
give their audiences no breathing space to prepare.” And perhaps as a backlash
|
||||
to this failure of new aesthetics to stick in the postmodern era, there was a
|
||||
move to naturalism — an attempt to find a common universal artistic language.
|
||||
This meant fewer obvious breaks with the past — and with the future.
|
||||
Alternative music in the 1990s stripped down production back to basic live
|
||||
instrumentation, making it sound like 1970s rock and teenage garage bands. Same
|
||||
goes for fiction: Most contemporary fiction avoids the overly stylized prose of
|
||||
a Woolf, a Gaddis, or a Pynchon, thereby making it seem era-less.
|
||||
|
||||
In clothing, the overall de-formalization of society led to a similar outcome.
|
||||
Men in suits gave the suit industry a literal canvas to direct sequential
|
||||
changes in silhouette, lapel sizes, and jacket lengths. This created clear
|
||||
chronological differences in looks. In a world where the baseline is T-shirts
|
||||
and shorts and the brands/graphics are primary over silhouettes, there is less
|
||||
opportunity for subtle stylizations that mark the eras. A Supreme T-shirt in
|
||||
1998 doesn't look that different than a Supreme T-shirt in 2024.
|
||||
|
||||
2. Rationalization of Techniques
|
||||
|
||||
The cultural industry has always had a core business problem of not being able
|
||||
to anticipate demand for its products. The more these companies can reduce
|
||||
risk, the more they can profit. One way to mitigate risk is to collect audience
|
||||
data and try to create goods that better respond to human psychology. This has
|
||||
produced formulas and templates that increase the odds of success. Streaming TV
|
||||
episodes, for example, mostly end with small cliffhangers so that audiences
|
||||
will click to watch the next one episode immediately.
|
||||
|
||||
This kind of rationalization crowds out the possibility of idiosyncratic
|
||||
choices that can be made by a single auteur (and then sour). Moreover most
|
||||
big-budget films and albums are no longer made by a single person. Big studio
|
||||
productions — especially those made with computer graphics — require massive
|
||||
bureaucratic planning and technocratic decision making. Larger staff numbers
|
||||
are likely to pull the work towards an “average” approach based on time-held
|
||||
conventions.
|
||||
|
||||
3. A Deeper Respect for Pre-Existing Audience Tastes
|
||||
|
||||
Avant-garde art bombarded the audience with aesthetic choices that made them
|
||||
uncomfortable. More naturalistic art avoids this by conforming to the
|
||||
audience's conventional understanding of artistic forms. Everyone knows that a
|
||||
woman singing with an acoustic guitar is "music"; aleatoric composition on a
|
||||
prepared piano requires the audience to work harder.
|
||||
|
||||
Whether meant for market maximization or as a sign of respect for the audience,
|
||||
21st century artists seem more interested in speaking their fans’ pre-existing
|
||||
aesthetic languages rather than pushing them into new styles. This results in
|
||||
the use of more classic artistic techniques. Simon Reynolds’ idea of [6]
|
||||
“retromania” now makes sense as an audience-pleasing strategy. And the more
|
||||
that things pull directly from canonized past artworks, the less they’re likely
|
||||
to end up as embarassing relics. Janelle Monae’s [7]“Tightrope” today sounds
|
||||
like a take on Sixties soul rather than “so 2010.”
|
||||
|
||||
That being said, the overuse of a particular retro sound can become associated
|
||||
with a specific contemporary era. Robin Thicke’s “Blurred Lines” so resembled a
|
||||
[8]Marvin Gaye song that royalties now go to his estate. But as that song
|
||||
became de-canonized, it's now starting to sound “very 2013.” Same for “Uptown
|
||||
Funk” being “very 2014.” Yet I’d still argue that “Blurred Lines” is much
|
||||
weaker as a relic than Rocky IV, which is solely "1985."
|
||||
|
||||
[caomart]
|
||||
|
||||
The question is simply: are artists themselves choosing to reduce aesthetic
|
||||
risk-taking in their art? In an era where past and present songs all exist on
|
||||
the same Spotify playlist, few musical artists would want to create songs that
|
||||
may be ridiculed as passé a few years later. And all artists have the
|
||||
historical knowledge that helps them avoid mistakes of the past like Rocky IV.
|
||||
But this result — a lack of embarrassing relics — is what makes us feel that
|
||||
culture is less healthy. New genres like trap and drill feel vibrant because
|
||||
they outmoded "boom bap," yet it's this vibrancy that puts them at risk of
|
||||
feeling dated in the future. When artists stick with the classics, it's good
|
||||
for stabilizing their careers. But if they don't push for outrageously now
|
||||
sounds, we're left with the feeling of stagnation.
|
||||
|
||||
[9]
|
||||
|
||||
Published by:
|
||||
|
||||
[10] W. David Marx
|
||||
[11] Share [12] Tweet
|
||||
Culture: An Owner's Manual © 2024
|
||||
[13]Published with Ghost
|
||||
[14]
|
||||
|
||||
References:
|
||||
|
||||
[1] https://culture.ghost.io/
|
||||
[2] https://twitter.com/wdavidmarx
|
||||
[4] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KrXxGf1lDd0
|
||||
[5] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0Q2F6QYiD4&t=65s&ref=culture.ghost.io
|
||||
[6] https://pitchfork.com/features/paper-trail/8010-paper-trail-simon-reynolds/?ref=culture.ghost.io
|
||||
[7] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pwnefUaKCbc&ref=culture.ghost.io
|
||||
[8] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iStrNY_8n_U&ref=culture.ghost.io
|
||||
[9] https://culture.ghost.io/culture-is-an-ecosystem-a-manifesto-towards-a-new-cultural-criticism-3/
|
||||
[10] https://culture.ghost.io/author/wdavidmarx/
|
||||
[11] https://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=https://culture.ghost.io/cultural-stasis-produces-fewer-cheesy-relics-like-rocky-iv/
|
||||
[12] https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https://culture.ghost.io/cultural-stasis-produces-fewer-cheesy-relics-like-rocky-iv/&text=Cultural%20Stasis%20Produces%20Fewer%20Cheesy%20Relics%20like%20Rocky%20IV
|
||||
[13] https://ghost.org/
|
||||
[14] https://twitter.com/wdavidmarx
|
||||
13
static/archive/doriantaylor-com-ua6hkk.txt
Normal file
13
static/archive/doriantaylor-com-ua6hkk.txt
Normal file
@@ -0,0 +1,13 @@
|
||||
Not Acceptable
|
||||
|
||||
An appropriate representation of the requested resource could not be found on
|
||||
this server.
|
||||
|
||||
Available variants:
|
||||
|
||||
• [1]e64e45a6-7f23-4679-99bd-a88e987aca7e.xml , type application/xml
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
References:
|
||||
|
||||
[1] https://doriantaylor.com/e64e45a6-7f23-4679-99bd-a88e987aca7e.xml
|
||||
101
static/archive/rachsmith-com-8l0g9q.txt
Normal file
101
static/archive/rachsmith-com-8l0g9q.txt
Normal file
@@ -0,0 +1,101 @@
|
||||
[1]Rach Smith [2]
|
||||
Rach Smith'sdigitalgarden
|
||||
|
||||
• [3]Notes
|
||||
• [4]Tags
|
||||
• [5]About
|
||||
• [6]Subscribe image/svg+xml
|
||||
|
||||
• rainbows[7][ ]
|
||||
• cursor trails[8][ ]
|
||||
• dark mode[9][ ]
|
||||
|
||||
It's okay to lower the bar
|
||||
|
||||
Added: August 13, 2024
|
||||
|
||||
• [10]#journaling
|
||||
|
||||
I had a journal entry in my [11]Hobonichi Techo Cousin for every day this year
|
||||
until July, where I have a string of blank pages.
|
||||
|
||||
I was doing so well, and I was really in to the swing of journaling every day…
|
||||
until I wasn’t.
|
||||
|
||||
The cause? Doing a little too well at journaling, actually. I got inspired by
|
||||
the fancy spreads of other Hobonichi enthusiasts on Instagram, and started
|
||||
making my own pretty layouts. My pages were looking beautiful until things got
|
||||
busy and my mental health/energy [12]took a dive.
|
||||
|
||||
I’d raised the bar for my daily entries, and didn’t have the energy to meet it.
|
||||
But instead of just lowering the bar and going back to boring/ugly entries,
|
||||
perfectionist thinking kicked in. If I couldn’t make it good, why do it at all?
|
||||
|
||||
So I missed a couple of days, at which point the all-or-nothing thinking
|
||||
started up. I’ve broken my journaling streak, why even continue? I’ve basically
|
||||
ruined my Hobonichi now, for the rest of 2024!
|
||||
|
||||
Thankfully, I was eventually able to shake myself out of those thoughts and
|
||||
come back to just getting something, anything on the page at the end of the
|
||||
day. But there was a while there were I really thought I may as well put the
|
||||
journal in the bin.
|
||||
|
||||
I had to remind myself that it’s okay to lower the bar. That an average version
|
||||
of something is better than a perfect version of nothing. All I can do is have
|
||||
a go.
|
||||
|
||||
Thanks for reading! If you'd like to share your thoughts you can [13]leave a
|
||||
comment, [14]send me an email, hit me up [15]on Mastodon, or [16]add an issue
|
||||
on GitHub.
|
||||
|
||||
Comments
|
||||
|
||||
Leave a Comment
|
||||
|
||||
💯 Thanks for submitting your comment! It will appear here after it has been
|
||||
approved.
|
||||
|
||||
Comment (You can use [19]Markdown syntax if you wish) [ ]
|
||||
|
||||
Name[21][ ]
|
||||
|
||||
Website[22][ ]
|
||||
|
||||
URL[23][ ]
|
||||
|
||||
Submit
|
||||
|
||||
Acknowledgement of Country
|
||||
|
||||
I acknowledge the [25]Gubbi Gubbi people, the Traditional Owners of the land
|
||||
and waterways where I live. I would like to pay my respects to Elders past,
|
||||
present and emerging.
|
||||
|
||||
• [26] codepen.io/rachsmith
|
||||
• [27]github.com/rachsmithcodes
|
||||
• [28] mastodon.social/@rachsmith
|
||||
• [29]contact@rachsmith.com
|
||||
|
||||
© 2024 Rachel Smith
|
||||
|
||||
References:
|
||||
|
||||
[1] https://rachsmith.com/
|
||||
[2] https://rachsmith.com/
|
||||
[3] https://rachsmith.com/
|
||||
[4] https://rachsmith.com/tags/
|
||||
[5] https://rachsmith.com/about/
|
||||
[6] https://rachsmith.com/feed.xml
|
||||
[10] https://rachsmith.com/tags/#journaling
|
||||
[11] https://rachsmith.com/hobonichi-techo-cousin/
|
||||
[12] https://rachsmith.com/mnnm-7/
|
||||
[13] https://rachsmith.com/lower-the-bar/#comments
|
||||
[14] mailto:contact@rachsmith.com?subject=re%3A%20It's%20okay%20to%20lower%20the%20bar
|
||||
[15] https://mastodon.social/@rachsmith
|
||||
[16] https://github.com/rachsmithcodes/rachsmith.com/issues
|
||||
[19] https://www.markdownguide.org/basic-syntax/
|
||||
[25] https://gubbigubbidyungungoo.com/gubbi-gubbi-country/
|
||||
[26] https://codepen.io/rachsmith
|
||||
[27] https://github.com/rachsmithcodes
|
||||
[28] https://mastodon.social/@rachsmith
|
||||
[29] mailto:contact@rachsmith.com
|
||||
918
static/archive/snarkmarket-com-axj6mr.txt
Normal file
918
static/archive/snarkmarket-com-axj6mr.txt
Normal file
@@ -0,0 +1,918 @@
|
||||
The murmur of the snarkmatrix…
|
||||
|
||||
Jennifer § [1]Two songs from The Muppet Movie / 2021-02-12 15:53:34
|
||||
A few notes on daily blogging § [2]Stock and flow / 2017-11-20 19:52:47
|
||||
El Stock y Flujo de nuestro negocio. – redmasiva § [3]Stock and flow /
|
||||
2017-03-27 17:35:13
|
||||
Meet the Attendees – edcampoc § [4]The generative web event / 2017-02-27
|
||||
10:18:17
|
||||
Does Your Digital Business Support a Lifestyle You Love? § [5]Stock and flow /
|
||||
2017-02-09 18:15:22
|
||||
Daniel § [6]Stock and flow / 2017-02-06 23:47:51
|
||||
Kanye West, media cyborg – MacDara Conroy § [7]Kanye West, media cyborg /
|
||||
2017-01-18 10:53:08
|
||||
Inventing a game – MacDara Conroy § [8]Inventing a game / 2017-01-18 10:52:33
|
||||
Losing my religion | Mathew Lowry § [9]Stock and flow / 2016-07-11 08:26:59
|
||||
Facebook is wrong, text is deathless – Sitegreek !nfotech § [10]Towards A
|
||||
Theory of Secondary Literacy / 2016-06-20 16:42:52
|
||||
[11]Snarkmarket
|
||||
/ [12]whatmarket?
|
||||
|
||||
[13]Stock and flow
|
||||
/ [14]Robin
|
||||
|
||||
I was an economics major in college, and I’ve been grateful ever since for a
|
||||
few key concepts those courses drilled into me: things like opportunity cost,
|
||||
sunk cost, and marginal cost. I think about this stuff all the time in my
|
||||
everyday life. I think about the sunk cost of waiting for a slow elevator; I
|
||||
think about the marginal cost of making myself another sandwich.
|
||||
|
||||
I think most of all about the concept of stock and flow.
|
||||
|
||||
Do you know about this? It couldn’t be simpler. There are two kinds of
|
||||
quantities in the world. Stock is a static value: money in the bank or trees in
|
||||
the forest. Flow is a rate of change: fifteen dollars an hour or three thousand
|
||||
toothpicks a day. Easy. Too easy.
|
||||
|
||||
But I actually think stock and flow is a useful metaphor for media in the 21st
|
||||
century. Here’s what I mean:
|
||||
|
||||
• Flow is the feed. It’s the posts and the tweets. It’s the stream of daily
|
||||
and sub-daily updates that reminds people you exist.
|
||||
• Stock is the durable stuff. It’s the content you produce that’s as
|
||||
interesting in two months (or two years) as it is today. It’s what people
|
||||
discover via search. It’s what spreads slowly but surely, building fans
|
||||
over time.
|
||||
|
||||
Flow is ascendant these days, for obvious reasons—but I think we neglect stock
|
||||
at our peril. I mean that both in terms of the health of an audience and, like,
|
||||
the health of a soul. Flow is a treadmill, and you can’t spend all of your time
|
||||
running on the treadmill. Well, you can. But then one day you’ll get off and
|
||||
look around and go: oh man. I’ve got nothing here.
|
||||
|
||||
I’m not saying you should ignore flow! This is no time to hole up and work in
|
||||
isolation, emerging after years with your work in hand. Everybody will go: huh?
|
||||
Who are you? And even if they don’t—even if your exquisite opus is the talk of
|
||||
the tumblrs for two whole days—if you don’t have flow to plug your new fans
|
||||
into, you’re suffering a huge (get ready for it!) opportunity cost. You’ll have
|
||||
to find those fans all over again next time you emerge from your cave.
|
||||
|
||||
Here’s a case study. My pal Alexis Madrigal has got the stock/flow balance
|
||||
down. On one end of the spectrum, he’s [15]a Twitter natural and [16]a
|
||||
fast-paced writer. Madrigal’s got mad flow; you plug in, and you get a steady
|
||||
stream of interesting stuff. But on the other end of the spectrum—and man, this
|
||||
is just so important—he’s written a deep, nuanced [17]history of green tech in
|
||||
America. This is a book intended to stand the test of time.
|
||||
|
||||
You can tell that I want you to stop and think about stock here. I feel like we
|
||||
all got really good at flow, really fast. But flow is ephemeral, while stock
|
||||
sticks around. Stock is capital. Stock is protein.
|
||||
|
||||
And the real magic trick is to put them both together. To keep the ball
|
||||
bouncing with your flow—to maintain that open channel of communication—while
|
||||
you work on some kick-ass stock in the background. Sacrifice neither. The
|
||||
hybrid strategy.
|
||||
|
||||
So, I was thinking about stock and flow just now while I was standing in my
|
||||
kitchen doing the dishes, and I thought, wait, there are all these
|
||||
super-successful artists and media people today who don’t think about flow at
|
||||
all. Like, Wes Anderson? Come on. He’s all stock. And he seems to be
|
||||
doing okay.
|
||||
|
||||
But I think the secret is that somebody else does his flow for him. I mean,
|
||||
what are PR and advertising but flow, bought and paid for? Rewind history and
|
||||
put Wes Anderson on his own—proprietor of an extremely symmetrical YouTube
|
||||
channel—and I don’t think you get the same result, not if it’s one video every
|
||||
three years.
|
||||
|
||||
So, if you’re in the position to have somebody else handle your flow while you
|
||||
tend to your stock: great. But that’s true for almost no one, and will I think
|
||||
be true for even fewer over time, so you need to have your own plan for
|
||||
this stuff.
|
||||
|
||||
Anyway, this is not a huge insight, I know. Mostly I just wanted to share the
|
||||
terminology, because it’s been echoing in my head since my first microeconomics
|
||||
course. Today, whenever I put my hands on the keyboard, I’m asking myself: Is
|
||||
this stock? Is this flow? How’s my mix? Do I have enough of both?
|
||||
|
||||
[18]January 18, 2010 / [19]Greatest hits
|
||||
|
||||
[20]73 comments
|
||||
|
||||
[21]Joshua Dance [22]says…
|
||||
|
||||
Great ideas. I feel like most of the “Social Media Guru” people are all flow
|
||||
and no stock. They don’t every produce anything that stands the test of time.
|
||||
And for that matter a lot of bloggers are just flow as well. 33 Ways to Make
|
||||
Money posts get outdated pretty quick. I feel that I also have neglected stock
|
||||
with my own stuff and have trying to get back to more stock producing. Thanks
|
||||
for the great ideas.
|
||||
|
||||
/ [23]Reply
|
||||
[24]Saheli [25]says…
|
||||
|
||||
This is a good mental model, with a nice Anglo-Saxon poetic ring to it, for
|
||||
balancing one’s daily management. Nice.
|
||||
|
||||
/ [26]Reply
|
||||
[27]Robin Sloan [28]says…
|
||||
|
||||
I’m glad you picked up on the linguistics of it. It’s just nice to say: stock
|
||||
and flow.
|
||||
|
||||
[29]PoN [30]says…
|
||||
|
||||
I prefer hustle and flow.
|
||||
|
||||
[31]http://www.pp2g.tv/vZ3pwZnM_.aspx
|
||||
|
||||
/ [32]Reply
|
||||
[33]typofi [34]says…
|
||||
|
||||
Thanks for the lingo!
|
||||
|
||||
I’ve been thinking lately how the flow (I just didn’t have a good word for it
|
||||
before) can be seen as noise (from communication theories) in situations where
|
||||
you are trying to get to the stock.
|
||||
|
||||
I mean moments where you know that the information you seek is out there, but
|
||||
you can’t find what you want because all you get is, as said by Joshua, “33
|
||||
ways of doing x” and tag clouds bursting with #ashtonkutchner, #lol, and #
|
||||
retweetthis. Even if you’re not looking for something in particular, the
|
||||
problem often arises when you are trying to find deeper articles in general.
|
||||
|
||||
I’m not against the social media, far from it. I’m just acknowledging that we
|
||||
need better search algorithms and other tools to balance or even battle the
|
||||
pure attention-seeking flow conventions. (e.g. celebrity gossip, or people
|
||||
blogging top lists and how-to articles just because they know those will
|
||||
attract traffic)
|
||||
|
||||
/ [35]Reply
|
||||
[36]Carlos [37]says…
|
||||
|
||||
Awesome. I think people should think more about the legacy they will leave to
|
||||
the future generations. Could be a small business or some nice paintings,
|
||||
everyone wants to be remembered, and that’s the stock you are talking about
|
||||
here. The flow is the thing that comes in the meantime you are building your
|
||||
stock.
|
||||
|
||||
/ [38]Reply
|
||||
[39]milann [40]says…
|
||||
|
||||
ahahah
|
||||
you took the words out of my mouth.
|
||||
thank you for giving the phantoms in my head some form,
|
||||
me and my business associates have been going about this for months now and it
|
||||
still felt like we were trying to give words to some silent moments in a Godard
|
||||
film or something.
|
||||
|
||||
/ [41]Reply
|
||||
[42]J. Smith [43]says…
|
||||
|
||||
great stuff. couldn’t agree more. file this under “read or die.”
|
||||
|
||||
/ [44]Reply
|
||||
[45]Frank Chimero [46]says…
|
||||
|
||||
This is fantastic, Robin. Really.
|
||||
I get a lot of questions from creatives just beginning (or about to begin) in
|
||||
their respective fields about how to get started promoting themselves.
|
||||
|
||||
I had been using a similar idea, but a poor analogy: you breadcrumb your
|
||||
audience along like Hansel and Gretel did, leading your fans along a trail of
|
||||
small bits of information and tiny delicious morsels of output. It’s important
|
||||
that these tasty morsels have a clear point of view and a consistent flavor.
|
||||
Then, every once in a while, deliver a house of candy. But don’t eat your
|
||||
audience. That’d be bad.
|
||||
|
||||
In retrospect, stock and flow is a way better way to say this.
|
||||
|
||||
/ [47]Reply
|
||||
[48]Robin Sloan [49]says…
|
||||
|
||||
Ha hahahahahaha. I love this. It’s the sinister version of stock. Now I want to
|
||||
come up w/ more analogies. Like,
|
||||
|
||||
flow : stock :: stormtroopers : DEATH STAR
|
||||
|
||||
[50]Basti Hirsch ッ [51]says…
|
||||
|
||||
“Social Media Guru” people are all flow and no stock. It really is fun to say,
|
||||
but I also still love the “all hat and no cattle” idiom.
|
||||
|
||||
Perhaps we need search engines that give us the explicit choice of asking
|
||||
“What’s in stock”? I mean we already do that a bit when deciding to search
|
||||
amazon, delicious, twitter, or Google scholar. Only show me results that have
|
||||
stood the test of time. Words that last.
|
||||
|
||||
/ [52]Reply
|
||||
[53]Robin Sloan [54]says…
|
||||
|
||||
That’s interesting! Some sense of measuring what’s held up… if nothing else, a
|
||||
graph in Google Analytics that shows which content has had a durable audience.
|
||||
Durability is a key word.
|
||||
|
||||
[55]IQpierce [56]says…
|
||||
|
||||
I think that Google already works this way… which might be why it’s so
|
||||
successful.
|
||||
|
||||
In college a professor told me that fundamentally, Google’s algorithm works
|
||||
around the concept of “hubs” and “content.” This is actually a very old idea:
|
||||
because socially, people themselves have always been about “hubs” and
|
||||
“content.” If you’re the socially-awkward brilliant programmer, you’re the
|
||||
content: you can make stuff. If you’re the incredibly outgoing HR lady who
|
||||
seems to know every other person in her industry, you’re a hub.
|
||||
|
||||
Google’s job is to help people get to content; but they do it by using hubs.
|
||||
Kottke.org, twitter posts, blogs – these are hubs/flow that people use to point
|
||||
their friends towards the content/stock – pages of useful information. Google
|
||||
rates a hub higher when it links to high-quality content; and they link content
|
||||
higher when it’s linked-to by a highly-rated hub (in a nice chicken-and-egg
|
||||
paradox).
|
||||
|
||||
JTS [57]says…
|
||||
|
||||
To be honest, there’s a lot of runners who train on treadmills all the time (or
|
||||
a lot of the time), and it can be a fairly effective way of building up miles.
|
||||
So that metaphor is a little confusing.
|
||||
|
||||
Other than that, I think this is a fairly effective way of explaining the
|
||||
relationship that many creatives should have/need to have to the web. I work in
|
||||
publishing, and many of the editors/writers that I interact with on a regular
|
||||
basis are great stock people — it’s what they’ve been doing for decades. They
|
||||
are just not very good at flow. On the other hand, I look at what a lot of
|
||||
other media companies/bloggers/creatives/etc are doing and it looks like a
|
||||
whole lot of flow which feels like a whole lot of spinning of the proverbial
|
||||
wheels. The ideal mix is something like Frank’s relationship as described
|
||||
above.
|
||||
|
||||
/ [58]Reply
|
||||
[59]Robin Sloan [60]says…
|
||||
|
||||
Good point re: treadmills. If I wanted to torture the analogy I could say:
|
||||
“Aha, precisely! Sometimes flow helps you cross-train on your way to making
|
||||
great stock!”—but mostly, I think I just used too many (different/conflicting)
|
||||
analogies 🙂
|
||||
|
||||
[61]Alexis Madrigal [62]says…
|
||||
|
||||
Thanks for the shout out! We need to convene another meeting of the mutual
|
||||
admiration society soon…
|
||||
|
||||
Now that you mention it, here’s how I think about stock and flow. Flow is how I
|
||||
see the world. Stock is what happens when I apply my worldview to something
|
||||
that matters for long enough that I fundamentally transform how I see the
|
||||
world. Recording that process is what creates the thing of lasting value. (I
|
||||
hope.)
|
||||
|
||||
And now, here’s a thought that is related but sort of tangentially. I’ve become
|
||||
obsessed with Tumblr as a medium for historical investigation recently. It’s
|
||||
just so good at defamiliarization in that Bakhtin sense… One minute you’re
|
||||
looking at pony made out of vegan donuts, the next you’re staring at a
|
||||
little-known stunt from 1955. People who would not read David McCullough in a
|
||||
million years suddenly find history fascinating. The strangeness and pastness
|
||||
of the past come to dominate the backcasted ideas that we have about what those
|
||||
times were like.
|
||||
|
||||
But… Tumblr records only the flow of our histories without ever taking stock of
|
||||
why and how we ended up where we are. There is no record of decisions made or
|
||||
the world’s forces brought to bear. Tumblr’s version of history has no
|
||||
explanatory power. It does not synthesize what the images from the past with
|
||||
where we are in the present or with the other things we know of the past. So,
|
||||
to me, the meaning that the flow of photos has is fundamentally limited, even
|
||||
if it’s beautiful and fascinating.
|
||||
|
||||
/ [63]Reply
|
||||
[64]Saheli [65]says…
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
Flow is how I see the world. Stock is what hap pens when I apply my world
|
||||
view to some thing that mat ters for long enough that I fun da mentally
|
||||
trans form how I see the world. Record ing that process is what cre ates
|
||||
the thing of last ing value.
|
||||
|
||||
D’accord!, she cried, in the most emphatic voice. You describe what I want out
|
||||
of good writing. This is what makes it so magically, and it hits all the points
|
||||
of why I value such stock to begin with.
|
||||
|
||||
Though what the hell, Snarkmarket? What is up with the kerning in “trans form”
|
||||
“fun da mentally” “Record ing” “cre ates” and “last ing” when I just copy and
|
||||
paste? Are you secretly trying to trick me into thinking like some sort of
|
||||
crazed poet? That is a weird way to generate stock.
|
||||
|
||||
[66]Robin Sloan [67]says…
|
||||
|
||||
(They are wee microspaces that allow the words to break gracefully across the
|
||||
page. They only become evident when ungainly humans rip these words from their
|
||||
perfect habitat.)
|
||||
|
||||
[68]Basti Hirsch ッ [69]says…
|
||||
|
||||
“Tumblr’s version of history has no explanatory power.”
|
||||
|
||||
This is a great sentence, and of course also applies to twitter or your daily
|
||||
news segment.
|
||||
|
||||
Ryan McAdam [70]says…
|
||||
|
||||
I understand and agree with stock & flow as it pertains to social media, et al.
|
||||
However, I think you may want to take another look at the premise you use to
|
||||
describe stock. In practice, money is made from thin air in ever increasing
|
||||
amounts. Trees are a natural resource and as such are finite – whether based
|
||||
upon available land, growth cycles, or environmental influences. I’m suspect
|
||||
your friend who is writing about green technology would agree.
|
||||
|
||||
/ [71]Reply
|
||||
[72]TRMW [73]says…
|
||||
|
||||
Thanks for this. Well said.
|
||||
|
||||
/ [74]Reply
|
||||
[75]Nathan Bowers [76]says…
|
||||
|
||||
Speaking of flow, where’s your Twitter feed Robin? Looked around, can’t find
|
||||
it.
|
||||
|
||||
That’s another strength of things like Tumblr and Twitter, it just takes one
|
||||
click to form a lightweight “I want to know more about you” relationship.
|
||||
“Flow” is stickier than “Stock”.
|
||||
|
||||
/ [77]Reply
|
||||
[78]Robin Sloan [79]says…
|
||||
|
||||
I’m [80]@robinsloan! And somewhat discouraged it was hard to find. Hmm.
|
||||
|
||||
You’re totally right about the interplay; when everything’s working together,
|
||||
stock leads to flow leads to stock.
|
||||
|
||||
[81]Tim Maly [82]says…
|
||||
|
||||
I think you’re right on about how we tend to feel like we got good at flow
|
||||
really fast. I’ve also been coming around to thinking that this might often be
|
||||
an illusion. It’s really, really easy to reblog, retweet, reshare without
|
||||
thinking and to clog the flow with stuff that other people have seen or that
|
||||
aren’t on topic (for whatever value of “on topic” you feel like your feed
|
||||
should have).
|
||||
|
||||
This is one of the things that recommends the ‘official’ retweet feature. If
|
||||
dozens of your friends retweet the same thing, you don’t have to see it dozens
|
||||
of times. Think about the nature of the problem that this is solving.
|
||||
|
||||
My watchphrase for the latter quarter of 2009 and all of 2010 is “Less often,
|
||||
higher quality”. I hope that as many of my Quiet Babylon posts as I can manage
|
||||
will be of stock caliber and I’d like to put out at least one project that’s
|
||||
even better. But I think that this needs to apply to the flow work as well. The
|
||||
best feeds are the ones where I am delighted every time there is an update. I
|
||||
aspire to be one of those.
|
||||
|
||||
One of the best things that I ever did for my feelings about my work was to
|
||||
more carefully distinguish between my stock and my flow and to distinguish
|
||||
between even types of flow (I didn’t know that was what they were called at the
|
||||
time). Do I link up my Tumblr with my Twitter with my gReader share with
|
||||
Facebook with my blog? I find that the more I answer “no” to this question, the
|
||||
happier I feel with the output of my work in any given arena, and the more that
|
||||
people who might be interested in what I’m up to can pick and choose how much
|
||||
of the firehose they have to consume.
|
||||
|
||||
This has been an episode of “Tim responds to a comment and ends up
|
||||
pontificating at length about his plans for the year” starring Tim as Tim.
|
||||
|
||||
/ [83]Reply
|
||||
[84]Robin Sloan [85]says…
|
||||
|
||||
My current stock/flow hero (besides A. Madrigal) is [86]Jonathan Harris. Just
|
||||
one photo every day. And each one is great.
|
||||
|
||||
And importantly, as he wanders around & shares this flow of photos, he’s
|
||||
working on generative art projects that end up being totally genre-defining and
|
||||
museum-worthy. Serious stock.
|
||||
|
||||
[87]Alexis Madrigal [88]says…
|
||||
|
||||
And it was you, in fact, who convinced me to unlink my Twitter and Tumblr,
|
||||
which was a fantastic idea. It freed me up to think about my Tumblr as its own
|
||||
thing, not an adjunct to my Twitter flow.
|
||||
|
||||
[89]Adam Rice [90]says…
|
||||
|
||||
This sounds like the stuff that Ben Hammersley has been writing about lately.
|
||||
|
||||
/ [91]Reply
|
||||
Sarah [92]says…
|
||||
|
||||
I was thinking about the same thing yesterday, though not in economic terms,
|
||||
since I was the opposite of an economics major in college. I was feeling a bit
|
||||
worried about the constancy with which we’re all now butting up against the
|
||||
real-time state of our immediate (if virtual) surroundings, and wondering what
|
||||
impact this has on our ability to be truly reflective and to produce writing
|
||||
that represents moments spent *out* of contact with that perpetual flow. We not
|
||||
only need the time to have the realizations that come with distance and
|
||||
reflection, we also need time to examine and articulate them in terms that go
|
||||
beyond the staccato of twitter and tumblr. I don’t generally fall in the camp
|
||||
of people who express an urgent, woeful need to “unplug,” since I don’t like
|
||||
thinking that the majority of my time (during which I’m “plugged in”) is
|
||||
somehow doing me a terrible long-term disservice. However I do think we do
|
||||
ourselves a disservice when we forget to alter our levels of immersion in the
|
||||
real-time networked conversations. It doesn’t have to happen in a cabin in the
|
||||
woods but it’d be awfully sad if it stopped happening altogether.
|
||||
|
||||
/ [93]Reply
|
||||
[94]TheChad [95]says…
|
||||
|
||||
Great post. Your words are invaluable. Finding the right balance between stock
|
||||
and flow is key to being a success and relevant.
|
||||
|
||||
/ [96]Reply
|
||||
[97]JtFaber [98]says…
|
||||
|
||||
Great, pressure is off. I can delegate my tweets to the intern and work on
|
||||
building my… umm… thing, that I do…
|
||||
|
||||
/ [99]Reply
|
||||
[100]Jason Robinson [101]says…
|
||||
|
||||
Really nice post. Extremely relevant when it comes to individuals and small
|
||||
orgs. Although time-consuming (is it in fact cost-beneficial?), balancing stock
|
||||
and flow is clearly a necessary evil in today’s business world.
|
||||
|
||||
What’s also interesting is looking at organizations who facilitate and/or
|
||||
manage stock and flow. The first successful dotcoms created businesses out of
|
||||
“stock” – think Amazon. Twitter and Facebook made huge businesses out of
|
||||
“flow”. Now that I think about it, didn’t Google do this twice – once with
|
||||
indexing a growing number of webpages, the second with YouTube?
|
||||
|
||||
As we look forward, I wonder how many new businesses will make stock out of
|
||||
flow – magazines from blog posts, Google/Bing indexing Twitter feeds. I know
|
||||
this was just a metaphor but I wonder what’s next? The answer could make
|
||||
someone rich.
|
||||
|
||||
/ [102]Reply
|
||||
[103]Dan Conover [104]says…
|
||||
|
||||
I have nothing eloquent to add. I am your geek fanboy. That’s all.
|
||||
|
||||
/ [105]Reply
|
||||
[106]Betty Ann [107]says…
|
||||
|
||||
I would add that in the world of flow and stock a hook (tweetable, quotable,
|
||||
crisp headline, or ? ) embedded in each stock entry gets it into flow.
|
||||
|
||||
/ [108]Reply
|
||||
[109]Robin Sloan [110]says…
|
||||
|
||||
Yes, totally! Designing for flow. Building bridges between stock and flow.
|
||||
|
||||
[111]Tim Maly [112]says…
|
||||
|
||||
I’ve often thought that I’d like Matthew Battles of HILOBROW to write the
|
||||
tweets promoting all my posts. When he does see one worth passing on, his
|
||||
summaries are generally better than mine.
|
||||
|
||||
[113]Saheli [114]says…
|
||||
|
||||
BettyAnn, are you an editor? Because that succinctly summarizes the secret of
|
||||
producing a great magazine that’s also a popular magazine.
|
||||
|
||||
[115]JMO [116]says…
|
||||
|
||||
Thanks for this Robin. It really gets me thinking about what I make and intake.
|
||||
|
||||
I often find myself in the space smack in the middle: I create Flock. I write
|
||||
things. I don’t have the time or discipline to focus and make things that are
|
||||
very durable. Nor do I have the time or discipline to just publish and make a
|
||||
constant Flow. I feel stuck with something that is not good on any front. I
|
||||
write about 1,000 words once a week and nothing seems to stick after hitting
|
||||
publish.
|
||||
|
||||
On top of my day job, I do quite a bit of consuming other people’s Flow and
|
||||
Stock. I value learning and I truly enjoy by daily sit-down with Google Reader.
|
||||
How do you create the balance necessary to have light but constant Flow and
|
||||
solid Stock while still keeping up with everything?
|
||||
|
||||
/ [117]Reply
|
||||
[118]Elizabeth Madrigal [119]says…
|
||||
|
||||
Great piece and I agree, Alexis has got it all.
|
||||
His mom.
|
||||
|
||||
/ [120]Reply
|
||||
[121]Kate [122]says…
|
||||
|
||||
Absolutely brilliant Robin. Thank you, genius person.
|
||||
|
||||
/ [123]Reply
|
||||
[124]Jay [125]says…
|
||||
|
||||
When launching my web design shop’s blog, we divided it along these exact
|
||||
lines. Literally, divided it in half; short, ephemeral posts—i.e. flow—on [126]
|
||||
one side, considered, polished, long-form posts—i.e. stock—on the [127]other
|
||||
side.
|
||||
|
||||
/ [128]Reply
|
||||
[129]Matthew Battles [130]says…
|
||||
|
||||
Coming late to this, feasting on the flow of commentary and its glimmers of
|
||||
great stock beyond. (And thanks for the h/t, Tim—I love tweeting your posts.
|
||||
But my Twitter stream may be even harder to find than Robin’s ;-])
|
||||
|
||||
But I wonder about the analogy a little bit. Because the stock we’re talking
|
||||
about here isn’t exactly like the economist’s stock, is it? I mean, in
|
||||
economics, flow can deplete stock (or add to it, if you’re really lucky). But
|
||||
it seems like our stock kind of feeds on flow—out- as well as in-. Without flow
|
||||
it dies, or fails to thrive, goes dark. If you’ve got your flow on, your stock
|
||||
only grows. And flow’s not a matter of simple exchange, but current, of
|
||||
circuitry. Currency! Flow’s about moving it on down the line.
|
||||
|
||||
You probably know where I’m going with this: “Increase comes to a gift when it
|
||||
moves from second to third party,” writes Lewis Hyde, “not in the simpler
|
||||
passage from first to second. The increase begins when the gift has passed
|
||||
through someone…. Capital earns profit… but gifts that remain gifts do not earn
|
||||
profit, they give increase.”
|
||||
|
||||
It’s like particle and wave, maybe. Increase follows the gift—wavelike, it
|
||||
rides the flow, lighting up everyone’s stock as it goes.
|
||||
|
||||
/ [131]Reply
|
||||
[132]jrome [133]says…
|
||||
|
||||
Stow is flow that’s been stocked.
|
||||
|
||||
/ [134]Reply
|
||||
Kirstin Butler [135]says…
|
||||
|
||||
Hi Robin,
|
||||
|
||||
In just one blog post you defined the heuristic (yup, I wrote that) I’ve been
|
||||
trying to figure out for the last few months. This is proving to be such a
|
||||
difficult balance for me to strike creatively–mostly because the respective
|
||||
returns on stock and flow–dog years vs. immediate–are so different. I find the
|
||||
connection, and dialogue, and real-time feedback around flow to be really
|
||||
addictive.
|
||||
|
||||
I wonder whether there’s a lifelog application that could capture which state
|
||||
you’re in at various points, so that you could review a receipt at the end of
|
||||
the day and then make adjustments.
|
||||
|
||||
Thanks so much for this-
|
||||
Kirstin
|
||||
|
||||
p.s. I thought the blog [136]http://weloveyouso.com/ was a great flow
|
||||
compliment to the stock that is Where the Wild Things Are.
|
||||
|
||||
/ [137]Reply
|
||||
[138]Debbie [139]says…
|
||||
|
||||
Very powerful concepts. You blended economics, about which I know little, with
|
||||
writing, which I’ve been practicing for 36+ years. By doing so, not only did
|
||||
you make economic concepts understandable to me, but palpable. Thank you.
|
||||
|
||||
/ [140]Reply
|
||||
[141]tara - scoutie girl [142]says…
|
||||
|
||||
Spot on. I just adapted the editorial style of my blog to improve my “stock.”
|
||||
Instead of just constantly using a flow of cool stuff to attract page views,
|
||||
I’m concentrating more on stories and people. I think these types of posts
|
||||
automatically have a longer tail.
|
||||
|
||||
I’m also packaging each weeks posts as “issues” so that even the smaller pieces
|
||||
fit into a type of stock.
|
||||
|
||||
Thank you so much for giving me language to explore this idea further!
|
||||
|
||||
/ [143]Reply
|
||||
[144]jane stevens [145]says…
|
||||
|
||||
This is a great way to look at categorizing info, Robin. I think that the best
|
||||
stock is presented in context, in a format where the visual structure adds to
|
||||
the context in the stock. e.g. [146]http://vis.stanford.edu/protovis/ex/
|
||||
jobs.html and many of the other examples on protovis.
|
||||
There’s one more aspect to this that we’ve been working on at LJWorld.com — how
|
||||
to develop a structure for flow & stock so that a local community can use both
|
||||
in an integrated manner to take action to solve local problems.
|
||||
We’re launching a local health site called HealthCommons next month in which
|
||||
we’re integrating social media with journalism in a way that I hope will give
|
||||
the local community the tools to improve community health.
|
||||
|
||||
/ [147]Reply
|
||||
[148]Jen Bekman [149]says…
|
||||
|
||||
Perfect.
|
||||
I think I love you. For your mind, of course.
|
||||
|
||||
/ [150]Reply
|
||||
[151]ToastyKen [152]says…
|
||||
|
||||
I was just thinking that even more fundamental than your stock:flow ratio is
|
||||
your creation:consumption ratio. I spend so much time consuming information and
|
||||
art these days, but not enough time giving back.
|
||||
|
||||
/ [153]Reply
|
||||
[154]Aaron Marshall [155]says…
|
||||
|
||||
If you had a donate button on this post, I would give 20 bucks right now.
|
||||
|
||||
I only heard a verbal summary of it from my friend David ([156]http://
|
||||
designintellection.com) and I was already using “stock and flow” in client
|
||||
meetings.
|
||||
|
||||
BIG thank you.
|
||||
|
||||
/ [157]Reply
|
||||
[158]Alek Tarkowski [159]says…
|
||||
|
||||
hi Robin, I really like the concept of a stock/flow balance. I have two
|
||||
comments on that: 1) it applies not only to production, but also to consumption
|
||||
of content: you need both an intake of flow, and some serious stock; 2) flow
|
||||
can sometimes become stock. have you ever found a new blog and read it from
|
||||
“now” until its beginning, treating it like a one big book? with a good blog,
|
||||
the experience is one of dealing with some serious stock content. Having said
|
||||
that, there’s a limit, I think, to how granular flow can be and still be able
|
||||
to transform into stock – a years worth of twitter stream won’t become stock no
|
||||
matter what (unless you’re a haiku poet). Thanks for this inspiration!
|
||||
|
||||
/ [160]Reply
|
||||
[161]Liz Dorland [162]says…
|
||||
|
||||
Hate to be a nitpicker, but…
|
||||
While I agree that the relationship between the two things is as you describe,
|
||||
one of the words (actually the concept behind the word) doesn’t work.
|
||||
|
||||
The output on twitter and facebook to me much more like a “stream”. The
|
||||
definition that began the piece: “Flow is a rate of change” doesn’t fit. A
|
||||
twitter stream as a whole has no denominator, if you will.
|
||||
|
||||
Using the stream analogy, twitter output is like the water in the stream. There
|
||||
is a quantity of water that passes by, and the total quantity depends on the
|
||||
rate of flow. But the “rate” is not the stream! The scientist in me made me
|
||||
write this post I think. And the late hour. 😉
|
||||
|
||||
Try an electrical analogy. Is the twitter and facebook “stream” measured in
|
||||
amperes, or in coulombs? Ask your favorite physicist. I’m not sure, but I think
|
||||
I vote for coulombs.
|
||||
|
||||
/ [163]Reply
|
||||
[164]Christie Nicholson [165]says…
|
||||
|
||||
Hi Robin, Thought you might be interested in this Globe&Mail article,
|
||||
“Information Rich and Attention Poor” published last fall, that also describes
|
||||
the metaphor of stock and flow.
|
||||
|
||||
[166]http://bit.ly/3oJXjn
|
||||
|
||||
Here’s the relevant p’graph:
|
||||
Knowledge is evolving from a “stock” to a “flow.” Stock and flow – for example,
|
||||
wealth and income – are concepts familiar to accountants and economists. A
|
||||
stock of knowledge may be thought of as a quasi-permanent repository – such as
|
||||
a book or an entire library – whereas the flow is the process of developing the
|
||||
knowledge. The old Encyclopedia Britannica was quintessentially a stock;
|
||||
Wikipedia is the paradigmatic example of flow. Obviously, a stock of knowledge
|
||||
is rarely permanent; it depreciates like any other form of capital. But
|
||||
electronic information technology is profoundly changing the rate of
|
||||
depreciation. By analogy with the 24-hour news cycle (which was an early
|
||||
consequence of the growing abundance of video bandwidth as cable television
|
||||
replaced scarce over-the-air frequencies), there is now the equivalent of a
|
||||
24-hour knowledge cycle – “late-breaking knowledge,” as it were. Knowledge is
|
||||
becoming more like a river than a lake, more and more dominated by the flow
|
||||
than by the stock. What is driving this?
|
||||
|
||||
Then Nicholson goes on to describe the possible (and awesome) drivers behind
|
||||
WHY knowledge has evolved from stock to flow. You say it’s for obvious reasons,
|
||||
but I think the reasons are still quite fascinating and worthwhile.
|
||||
|
||||
(It is an excerpt from a much longer speech he gave at the Fiesole Retreat in
|
||||
Glasgow, Scotland, July ‘09.)
|
||||
|
||||
Interesting stuff!
|
||||
lemme know your thoughts,
|
||||
– christie
|
||||
|
||||
/ [167]Reply
|
||||
Jay [168]says…
|
||||
|
||||
nice post!! i would like to add that it takes time and patience to develop the
|
||||
‘stock’ whereas to develop the ‘flow’ you can start anytime. So one should
|
||||
start working on ‘stock’ asap.
|
||||
I am no economist,so am not sure you’ll agree, but this is what my conclusion
|
||||
is.
|
||||
|
||||
/ [169]Reply
|
||||
[170]Susan Friedmann [171]says…
|
||||
|
||||
Just learned about flow and stock from Dennis Callahan at PodCamp 5. After
|
||||
doing a search I found this post which I absolutely love. It makes so much
|
||||
sense and certainly helps put much of the social media revolution into
|
||||
perspective for me. Thanks!
|
||||
|
||||
/ [172]Reply
|
||||
[173]Arsene Hodali [174]says…
|
||||
|
||||
Hey, just wanted to comment about how much this post inspired me to reflect on
|
||||
my own inner conflicts with media and life.
|
||||
|
||||
I actually wrote about it on my blog in details (1700+ words) and I added my
|
||||
own views to it. Check it out below, see whether or not I’m onto something or
|
||||
just full of crap. And btw, yes this does sound like a shameless self-promotion
|
||||
but…
|
||||
|
||||
–> Stock & Flow: The Hard Part’s The Switch [175]http://ow.ly/34d8q
|
||||
|
||||
/ [176]Reply
|
||||
Jessica [177]says…
|
||||
|
||||
I love this so much. You should know that this idea is still making the
|
||||
conference circuit. I heard about it at the recent Confab content strategy
|
||||
conference. A really helpful analogy – thanks for writing it up so
|
||||
thoughtfully!
|
||||
|
||||
/ [178]Reply
|
||||
Daniel [179]says…
|
||||
|
||||
Briliant, thanks. I like the cornerstone content concept that Copyblogger put
|
||||
together. So it’s the stock, and then the flow is essential. Value content over
|
||||
time.
|
||||
|
||||
/ [180]Reply
|
||||
|
||||
References:
|
||||
|
||||
[1] https://snarkmarket.com/2021/8283#comment-593203
|
||||
[2] https://snarkmarket.com/2010/4890#comment-577756
|
||||
[3] https://snarkmarket.com/2010/4890#comment-571194
|
||||
[4] https://snarkmarket.com/2010/5979#comment-570664
|
||||
[5] https://snarkmarket.com/2010/4890#comment-569688
|
||||
[6] https://snarkmarket.com/2010/4890#comment-569555
|
||||
[7] https://snarkmarket.com/2010/6262#comment-568744
|
||||
[8] https://snarkmarket.com/2011/6811#comment-568743
|
||||
[9] https://snarkmarket.com/2010/4890#comment-552719
|
||||
[10] https://snarkmarket.com/2009/3115#comment-551896
|
||||
[11] https://snarkmarket.com/
|
||||
[12] https://snarkmarket.com/2010/4890/#what
|
||||
[13] https://snarkmarket.com/2010/4890
|
||||
[14] https://snarkmarket.com/author/robin
|
||||
[15] http://twitter.com/alexismadrigal
|
||||
[16] https://www.theatlantic.com/author/alexis-madrigal/
|
||||
[17] http://www.greentechhistory.com/
|
||||
[18] https://snarkmarket.com/2010/4890
|
||||
[19] https://snarkmarket.com/category/greatest-hits
|
||||
[20] https://snarkmarket.com/2010/4890/#comments
|
||||
[21] http://www.joshuadance.com/
|
||||
[22] https://snarkmarket.com/2010/4890#comment-7243
|
||||
[23] https://snarkmarket.com/2010/4890?replytocom=7243#respond
|
||||
[24] http://www.sahelidatta.com/
|
||||
[25] https://snarkmarket.com/2010/4890#comment-7244
|
||||
[26] https://snarkmarket.com/2010/4890?replytocom=7244#respond
|
||||
[27] http://robinsloan.com/
|
||||
[28] https://snarkmarket.com/2010/4890#comment-7245
|
||||
[29] http://pointsofnote.com/
|
||||
[30] https://snarkmarket.com/2010/4890#comment-7246
|
||||
[31] http://www.pp2g.tv/vZ3pwZnM_.aspx
|
||||
[32] https://snarkmarket.com/2010/4890?replytocom=7246#respond
|
||||
[33] http://www.parafovea.com/
|
||||
[34] https://snarkmarket.com/2010/4890#comment-7247
|
||||
[35] https://snarkmarket.com/2010/4890?replytocom=7247#respond
|
||||
[36] http://desparchando.com/
|
||||
[37] https://snarkmarket.com/2010/4890#comment-7248
|
||||
[38] https://snarkmarket.com/2010/4890?replytocom=7248#respond
|
||||
[39] http://stompingintheyard.blogspot.com,milann.blogspot.com/
|
||||
[40] https://snarkmarket.com/2010/4890#comment-7249
|
||||
[41] https://snarkmarket.com/2010/4890?replytocom=7249#respond
|
||||
[42] http://twitter.com/jdotsmith
|
||||
[43] https://snarkmarket.com/2010/4890#comment-7250
|
||||
[44] https://snarkmarket.com/2010/4890?replytocom=7250#respond
|
||||
[45] http://www.frankchimero.com/
|
||||
[46] https://snarkmarket.com/2010/4890#comment-7251
|
||||
[47] https://snarkmarket.com/2010/4890?replytocom=7251#respond
|
||||
[48] http://robinsloan.com/
|
||||
[49] https://snarkmarket.com/2010/4890#comment-7252
|
||||
[50] http://twitter.com/cervus
|
||||
[51] https://snarkmarket.com/2010/4890#comment-7253
|
||||
[52] https://snarkmarket.com/2010/4890?replytocom=7253#respond
|
||||
[53] http://robinsloan.com/
|
||||
[54] https://snarkmarket.com/2010/4890#comment-7262
|
||||
[55] http://deepplaid.com/
|
||||
[56] https://snarkmarket.com/2010/4890#comment-7270
|
||||
[57] https://snarkmarket.com/2010/4890#comment-7254
|
||||
[58] https://snarkmarket.com/2010/4890?replytocom=7254#respond
|
||||
[59] http://robinsloan.com/
|
||||
[60] https://snarkmarket.com/2010/4890#comment-7263
|
||||
[61] http://www.greentechhistory.com/
|
||||
[62] https://snarkmarket.com/2010/4890#comment-7255
|
||||
[63] https://snarkmarket.com/2010/4890?replytocom=7255#respond
|
||||
[64] http://www.sahelidatta.com/
|
||||
[65] https://snarkmarket.com/2010/4890#comment-7276
|
||||
[66] http://robinsloan.com/
|
||||
[67] https://snarkmarket.com/2010/4890#comment-7277
|
||||
[68] http://twitter.com/cervus
|
||||
[69] https://snarkmarket.com/2010/4890#comment-7283
|
||||
[70] https://snarkmarket.com/2010/4890#comment-7256
|
||||
[71] https://snarkmarket.com/2010/4890?replytocom=7256#respond
|
||||
[72] http://trmw.org/
|
||||
[73] https://snarkmarket.com/2010/4890#comment-7257
|
||||
[74] https://snarkmarket.com/2010/4890?replytocom=7257#respond
|
||||
[75] http://uxhero.com/
|
||||
[76] https://snarkmarket.com/2010/4890#comment-7258
|
||||
[77] https://snarkmarket.com/2010/4890?replytocom=7258#respond
|
||||
[78] http://robinsloan.com/
|
||||
[79] https://snarkmarket.com/2010/4890#comment-7261
|
||||
[80] http://twitter.com/robinsloan
|
||||
[81] http://quietbabylon.com/
|
||||
[82] https://snarkmarket.com/2010/4890#comment-7260
|
||||
[83] https://snarkmarket.com/2010/4890?replytocom=7260#respond
|
||||
[84] http://robinsloan.com/
|
||||
[85] https://snarkmarket.com/2010/4890#comment-7264
|
||||
[86] http://www.number27.org/today.php
|
||||
[87] http://www.greentechhistory.com/
|
||||
[88] https://snarkmarket.com/2010/4890#comment-7265
|
||||
[89] http://8stars.org/
|
||||
[90] https://snarkmarket.com/2010/4890#comment-7266
|
||||
[91] https://snarkmarket.com/2010/4890?replytocom=7266#respond
|
||||
[92] https://snarkmarket.com/2010/4890#comment-7267
|
||||
[93] https://snarkmarket.com/2010/4890?replytocom=7267#respond
|
||||
[94] http://thechadblog.com/
|
||||
[95] https://snarkmarket.com/2010/4890#comment-7268
|
||||
[96] https://snarkmarket.com/2010/4890?replytocom=7268#respond
|
||||
[97] http://twitter.com/JtFaber
|
||||
[98] https://snarkmarket.com/2010/4890#comment-7269
|
||||
[99] https://snarkmarket.com/2010/4890?replytocom=7269#respond
|
||||
[100] http://www.planetyou.net/
|
||||
[101] https://snarkmarket.com/2010/4890#comment-7271
|
||||
[102] https://snarkmarket.com/2010/4890?replytocom=7271#respond
|
||||
[103] http://danconover.com/
|
||||
[104] https://snarkmarket.com/2010/4890#comment-7272
|
||||
[105] https://snarkmarket.com/2010/4890?replytocom=7272#respond
|
||||
[106] http://bettyann.tumblr.com/
|
||||
[107] https://snarkmarket.com/2010/4890#comment-7273
|
||||
[108] https://snarkmarket.com/2010/4890?replytocom=7273#respond
|
||||
[109] http://robinsloan.com/
|
||||
[110] https://snarkmarket.com/2010/4890#comment-7275
|
||||
[111] http://quietbabylon.com/
|
||||
[112] https://snarkmarket.com/2010/4890#comment-7278
|
||||
[113] http://www.sahelidatta.com/
|
||||
[114] https://snarkmarket.com/2010/4890#comment-7280
|
||||
[115] http://jmoswalt.com/
|
||||
[116] https://snarkmarket.com/2010/4890#comment-7274
|
||||
[117] https://snarkmarket.com/2010/4890?replytocom=7274#respond
|
||||
[118] http://greenlandlady.com/
|
||||
[119] https://snarkmarket.com/2010/4890#comment-7279
|
||||
[120] https://snarkmarket.com/2010/4890?replytocom=7279#respond
|
||||
[121] http://mccaffery.ca/kate2.0/
|
||||
[122] https://snarkmarket.com/2010/4890#comment-7281
|
||||
[123] https://snarkmarket.com/2010/4890?replytocom=7281#respond
|
||||
[124] http://www.fullstopinteractive.com/
|
||||
[125] https://snarkmarket.com/2010/4890#comment-7282
|
||||
[126] http://www.fullstopinteractive.com/blog/#/full-exposure
|
||||
[127] http://www.fullstopinteractive.com/blog/#/full-disclosure
|
||||
[128] https://snarkmarket.com/2010/4890?replytocom=7282#respond
|
||||
[129] http://hilobrow.com/
|
||||
[130] https://snarkmarket.com/2010/4890#comment-7284
|
||||
[131] https://snarkmarket.com/2010/4890?replytocom=7284#respond
|
||||
[132] http://lessonsinordinary.blogspot.com/
|
||||
[133] https://snarkmarket.com/2010/4890#comment-7285
|
||||
[134] https://snarkmarket.com/2010/4890?replytocom=7285#respond
|
||||
[135] https://snarkmarket.com/2010/4890#comment-7286
|
||||
[136] http://weloveyouso.com/
|
||||
[137] https://snarkmarket.com/2010/4890?replytocom=7286#respond
|
||||
[138] http://breathingcolorintoteal.com/
|
||||
[139] https://snarkmarket.com/2010/4890#comment-7287
|
||||
[140] https://snarkmarket.com/2010/4890?replytocom=7287#respond
|
||||
[141] http://www.scoutiegirl.com/
|
||||
[142] https://snarkmarket.com/2010/4890#comment-7288
|
||||
[143] https://snarkmarket.com/2010/4890?replytocom=7288#respond
|
||||
[144] http://www.rejurno.com/
|
||||
[145] https://snarkmarket.com/2010/4890#comment-7289
|
||||
[146] http://vis.stanford.edu/protovis/ex/jobs.html
|
||||
[147] https://snarkmarket.com/2010/4890?replytocom=7289#respond
|
||||
[148] http://www.personism.com/
|
||||
[149] https://snarkmarket.com/2010/4890#comment-7290
|
||||
[150] https://snarkmarket.com/2010/4890?replytocom=7290#respond
|
||||
[151] http://subjunctive.net/
|
||||
[152] https://snarkmarket.com/2010/4890#comment-7291
|
||||
[153] https://snarkmarket.com/2010/4890?replytocom=7291#respond
|
||||
[154] http://aaronmarshall.co.za/
|
||||
[155] https://snarkmarket.com/2010/4890#comment-7292
|
||||
[156] http://designintellection.com/
|
||||
[157] https://snarkmarket.com/2010/4890?replytocom=7292#respond
|
||||
[158] http://creativecommons.pl/
|
||||
[159] https://snarkmarket.com/2010/4890#comment-7293
|
||||
[160] https://snarkmarket.com/2010/4890?replytocom=7293#respond
|
||||
[161] http://visualization.ning.com/
|
||||
[162] https://snarkmarket.com/2010/4890#comment-7295
|
||||
[163] https://snarkmarket.com/2010/4890?replytocom=7295#respond
|
||||
[164] http://www.christienicholson.com/
|
||||
[165] https://snarkmarket.com/2010/4890#comment-7297
|
||||
[166] http://bit.ly/3oJXjn
|
||||
[167] https://snarkmarket.com/2010/4890?replytocom=7297#respond
|
||||
[168] https://snarkmarket.com/2010/4890#comment-7299
|
||||
[169] https://snarkmarket.com/2010/4890?replytocom=7299#respond
|
||||
[170] http://www.richesinniches.com/
|
||||
[171] https://snarkmarket.com/2010/4890#comment-7300
|
||||
[172] https://snarkmarket.com/2010/4890?replytocom=7300#respond
|
||||
[173] http://www.danceproof.com/
|
||||
[174] https://snarkmarket.com/2010/4890#comment-7301
|
||||
[175] http://ow.ly/34d8q
|
||||
[176] https://snarkmarket.com/2010/4890?replytocom=7301#respond
|
||||
[177] https://snarkmarket.com/2010/4890#comment-7308
|
||||
[178] https://snarkmarket.com/2010/4890?replytocom=7308#respond
|
||||
[179] https://snarkmarket.com/2010/4890#comment-569555
|
||||
[180] https://snarkmarket.com/2010/4890?replytocom=569555#respond
|
||||
Reference in New Issue
Block a user