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#[1]alternate
[2]Jack Baty
Director of Unspecified Services
[extra.png]
[3]Home [4]Posts [5]Journal [6]About [7]More
Ending my OpenBSD experiment (Almost)
I did [8]this fun thing from Derek Sivers because I wanted to play with
[9]OpenBSD and with [10]Vultr for hosting.
Well, I played with it. It was fun. I got to see how [11]Dovecot works
and I learned how to configure Relayd and the OpenBSD httpd server.
I think I'd end up liking it. BSD feels lighter and simpler and
therefore probably more secure than the Ubuntu servers I'm running.
However, I don't need another server to manage. I don't need to run my
own mail server or CalDAV server. My VPS at Digital Ocean has been
running (::knocks wood::) smoothly for years and I've got the
configuration down.
I'll be deleting the OpenBSD server once I've moved the few sites I'd
migrated there back to Digital Ocean.
Remember, [12]Reduce and Simplify.
I may try again later with stock OpenBSD and Caddy, without all of the
Sivers' stuff.
2 hours later: I was right. I spun up a fresh OpenBSD server at Vultr
and configured it myself. No services running but relayd->httpd and so
far the only site it's running is [13]jackbaty.com. I like the idea of
BSD so much that I couldn't give up quite yet.
* [14]OpenBSD
* [15]Tech
Published on 2024-01-04 12:05:00
[16]✍️ Reply by email
Keep on reading
The care and feeding of my system
03 Jan, 2024
Org-web-tools
08 Jan, 2024
Copyright © 2000-2024 Jack Baty
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6. https://baty.net/about
7. https://baty.net/page
8. https://baty.net/journal/2023/12/29/running-an-openbsd-server
9. https://www.openbsdfoundation.org/
10. https://www.vultr.com/
11. https://dovecot.org/
12. file:///journal/2023/12/31/reduce-and-simplify
13. https://jackbaty.com/
14. https://baty.net/posts/tag:OpenBSD
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16. mailto:jack@baty.net?subject=[baty.net] Re: Ending my OpenBSD experiment (Almost)
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[1]Test Double The Test Double logo
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[8]Blog [9]Posts
Only you can give meaning to your career
How to mark moments that matter by planting a flag
An icon of a clock Publish Date
January 2, 2024
An icon of a human figure Authors
[10]Justin Searls
I have, for whatever reason, live-blogged my career. Posting technical
tips I’ve learned. Complaining about bugs I’ve uncovered. Elaborating
on struggles my teams have faced. Mixed in with the substantive stuff
has been plenty of vain ephemera that many would rightly describe as
“over-sharing.” My brother sent me [11]this last week and I felt
personally attacked:
Everyone is fighting a battle you don’t know about. Except for me. I
am complaining loudly about my battle. Everybody knows about it.
So if you’ve borne witness to how much of my life I have spewed
indiscriminately onto the Internet: first, I’m sorry. And second,
please know that my vocation as a limelight enthusiast is emphatically
not what I’m encouraging when I say this: I really wish more people
took the time to reflect on the moments that mattered most in their
careers and did more to memorialize them.
Ask yourself: what experience in the Spring of 2019 had the greatest
impact on how you go about your work today? Or 2017… what was 2017 all
about? Think about the project you’re focused on right now. What will
you remember about it a decade from now? In what ways are you reaching
(or being stretched) beyond your comfort zone? If Walter Isaacson were
writing a bullshit hagiography about your life instead of some
[12]other schmuck, what would he have to say about you in your current
chapter?
How does it feel to be asked these questions?
Early in my career, being asked those questions would have felt like a
personal attack. But why? I had the tremendous privilege to have a job
that paid me to use my mind instead of my hands, that afforded me the
comfort of working behind a desk instead of out in a field, and that
saw value in my continued growth instead of viewing me as a resource to
be extracted and consumed. Those relative luxuries signaled that (by
some definitions) I had “made it,” but nevertheless there I was:
working overtime and shedding hair to deliver projects that meant
nothing to me. As the years passed, I knew I was accomplishing
something and growing somehow, but I found myself totally unable to
articulate what or how.
Not unrelatedly, I grew to hate answering “what do you do?” at parties.
People tend to spend about a third of their lifespan at work, and
that’s assuming they’re fortunate enough to retire at some point.
That’s a big chunk of life to be rendered meaningless! So I decided to
be someone whose work mattered—to myself, if no one else.
Deciding to take ownership over the meaning of my work has
unquestionably changed my life for the better. This post is the first
time I’ve shared my process publicly, and my hope is that others will
benefit from reading it. Given how dissatisfied most people seem to be
with their careers, maybe that’s you.
[13]Periodically plant a flag
Despite the fact that I live in Florida and I’m typing this sentence
poolside in shorts and a t-shirt in mid-December, I conceptualize time
with the passage of seasons. There are seasons when my life demands a
lot from me and my career is forced to take a back seat. There are
seasons when my work is particularly engaging and my life falls into a
pleasant-but-unremarkable routine. There are, of course, seasons when
both are challenging simultaneously, but hopefully not too many.
Whatever the case, I find myself pausing every three or four months and
pondering, “what from the last season of my life is worth remembering?”
It’s not like I have a reminder scheduled or anything. I don’t gather
my colleagues and family for a standing meeting to review my
achievements from the prior quarter. It’s more like an itch I’ve
trained my brain to scratch whenever I go more than a few months
without examining where my time has gone and what I have to show for
it.
I often refer to this regular act of reflection as “planting a flag” to
symbolize whatever I want to stand out when I look back on a period of
my life. In my case, these flags usually take the form of creative work
like a blog post, a conference talk, or an open source library, but
however you choose to imbue meaning into your experiences is entirely
up to you. The most important thing is that you sit with them long
enough to associate your memories of those experiences with why they
mattered. When useful artifacts shake out of my process that can help
others along in their own journeys, that’s a happy accident as far as
I’m concerned.
[14]How to plant a flag
So, how does one actually assign meaning to a heretofore meaningless
experience? This is the process I’ve settled into over the years to
identify and commemorate my life’s watershed moments:
1. Reflect: spend some unstructured time—maybe on a walk or with a
notebook—and let your mind wander through the previous season of
your life. A lesson you learned. Feedback that encouraged you. An
interaction that left an impact. A moment that inspired you. I’m
especially drawn to memories where emotions ran high—maybe I was
really worried before a hard conversation or relieved after a
colleague helped me solve a hard problem. If I draw a blank, I scan
my e-mail and calendar to jog my memory. If, nothing stands out
after all that, I don’t force it; I’ll give the exercise a rest and
come back to it a few days later
2. Collect: considering the experiences that came to mind when
reflecting, which ones were distinct and new to you? Anything new
you learned is, by definition, novel, and would obviously qualify.
It’s naturally harder to identify familiar-seeming experiences as
novel, but perhaps there was something unique and interesting
hiding in the otherwise banal UI control you shipped last month.
Why do this? Because by filtering out everything you’ve seen and
done before, whatever flag you plant will stand taller, and you
won’t risk mistaking this moment and its meaning for another. If
this step filters everything out because nothing seems sufficiently
novel, widen the aperture a bit—surely something interesting
happened in the last few months. And, try as you might, if you go
long enough with nothing to show for it, the meaning you’re
searching for may be that it’s time to make a change
3. Connect: for each of the experiences you’ve collected, try to
understand how they might connect to future situations. A new tool
or technique might empower you to do something you couldn’t
accomplish otherwise. A painful mistake might warn your future self
to avoid try a different approach next time. Since I can’t see the
future, I imagine what impact each such insight might have had if
applied to experiences from my past. “If I’d had learned this years
ago, how would it have changed other events in my life?” If I can
think of several moments in my life that would have played out
differently, that’s as good of evidence as any that it has the
potential to make an impact on you going forward
4. Protect: memory is fleeting, and the work you do to identify
moments that matter will quickly fade away if you don’t do
something to mark the occasion. Memories thrive in novelty and
wither in predictability, so the only wrong answer would be to
enshrine every life lesson in the exact same way. Because creative
endeavors necessarily result in the creation of something new,
they’re a great way to clarify meaning and cement memories. My
go-to creative outlets are essays, videos, and code, but yours
might be songs, recipes, or [15]Etch A Sketch portraiture
That’s it! Reflect, collect, connect, and protect.
(See what I did there? How all the steps rhyme. That’s the kind of
thing you’ll be able to pull off with a decade of practice doing this.)
[16]This all happens in hindsight
If you’ve ever had a job that encouraged you to make quarterly or
annual goals for yourself, you may have noticed that a lot of those
goals go unfinished. By the time performance reviews roll around,
people often feel forced to justify why they didn’t achieve this or
that goal. Regardless of the reason—maybe learning some skill was no
longer relevant or the business’s strategic priorities shifted—the
failure to meet a goal is often rooted in a failure to predict the
future. I’m sure managers hope people will feel inspired and
accountable to pursue their goals creatively, but in my experience they
more often instill procrastination and anxiety. If there’s any
creativity exhibited in annual goal rituals, it’s usually when people
feel forced to weave a narrative that kinda-sorta connects a stated
objective to whatever mostly-unrelated work they actually did.
To wit, I’ve never accomplished anything I felt proud of by setting a
goal. In fact, the surest way to ensure I don’t do something is to set
a goal. When asked to set goals for myself, I’ve found that expressing
the goal (as opposed to achieving it) becomes my overriding objective.
The moment a manager approved my list of goals, I felt that I had
completed the work asked of me and I would instantly lose all
motivation to pursue the goals themselves.
This explains why planting flags can succeed where goal-setting fails.
If what I’m searching for is meaning in my work, setting a goal creates
an expectation of where, when, and how my future self should find that
meaning. High pressure. Focusing on doing my job well and reflecting on
whatever I did in retrospect, however, has allowed me to sift through
my experiences, identify patterns, and give meaning to them. Low
pressure.
Instead of studying something you think you might need in the future,
wait for the need to arise and then immerse yourself in learning it.
Instead of feeling stressed and distracted by the fear that you’ll run
out of time before hitting an annual goal, do your work diligently and
look forward to the next opportunity to reflect on the things you’ll
achieve. Instead of reducing your existence at work into a series of
boxes to check in a prescribed career plan, focus on being truly
present and intentional at work and open to wherever that might lead
you.
[17]Who, me? Yes, you!
There’s just one last thing to talk about: you, and why you don’t
already do this.
It’s not like this retrospective process of imbuing meaning into one’s
work is particularly clever or insightful. I don’t think I’m a genius
for arriving at the following three-step formula to having a deeply
meaningful career and leaving a memorable legacy:
1. Work really damn hard
2. Occasionally gather highlights
3. Commemorate them somehow
But if it’s so obvious, why don’t more people do this?
I wonder if it’s because everything above might seem like the exclusive
domain of the Thoughtleader™ class. “I don’t have (or necessarily want)
an audience to read my blog posts or watch me speak, so this ain’t for
me!” you might be thinking.
This line of thinking is reasonable, but it’s based on an assumption
that doesn’t always hold.
It’s true: if you believe the purpose of creating something borne out
of your career experience is for other people to see and appreciate it,
then maybe it makes no sense for you to bother. Not everyone craves
attention. Building a following inevitably attracts a certain number of
trolls. And if you build it, odds are people won’t come. I can’t
guarantee anyone will run your code, read your blog, or watch your
talk.
But here’s the thing: I create these things for me and me alone. When a
bunch of people read something I wrote or show up to one of my talks,
do I find it encouraging and validating? Sure. But it’s not what drives
me. I started creating things to punctuate my life’s sentences long
before anybody took an interest in me and I wouldn’t stop even if
everyone loses interest in me.
What’s more, a lot of (ugh) content creators are the same way. In the
course of my travels, I’ve gotten to meet many of my heroes, and while
a few have disappointed me spectacularly (don’t meet your heroes!),
I’ve found that a surprising number of them got into the
thought-leading racket for the same selfish reason I did. They create
stuff to scratch their own intrinsic creative itches and to give
meaning to their careers. If other people’s attention factors in at
all, it’s usually to justify the time they spend making stuff.
[18]Justin Searls
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Double Agent
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Agent 002
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Orlando, FL
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Related posts:
[24]16 things you believe about software
Over 6 years ago, I made up an unscientific personality quiz as a
joke…and people can't help themselves—they're still filling it out!
Here's what they think
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October 10, 2023
An icon of a human figure Authors
[25]Justin Searls
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[26]Community
[27]Shared values can make the difference for your engineering team
Ever feel challenged in how to level up your engineering team's
effectiveness? Apply values in day-to-day work. That's how you build
great software and great teams. Here's how Test Double does that.
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February 20, 2023
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[28]Cathy Colliver
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References
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3. https://testdouble.com/agency
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5. https://testdouble.com/careers
6. file:///
7. https://testdouble.com/contact
8. file:///
9. file:///posts/
10. file:///authors/justin-searls/
11. https://x.com/TheAndrewNadeau/status/1647622603698257921
12. https://www.amazon.com/Elon-Musk-Walter-Isaacson/dp/1982181281
13. file:///var/folders/q9/qlz2w5251kzdfgn0np7z2s4c0000gn/T/L60667-6621TMP.html#periodically-plant-a-flag
14. file:///var/folders/q9/qlz2w5251kzdfgn0np7z2s4c0000gn/T/L60667-6621TMP.html#how-to-plant-a-flag
15. https://www.etsy.com/shop/PrincessEtch
16. file:///var/folders/q9/qlz2w5251kzdfgn0np7z2s4c0000gn/T/L60667-6621TMP.html#this-all-happens-in-hindsight
17. file:///var/folders/q9/qlz2w5251kzdfgn0np7z2s4c0000gn/T/L60667-6621TMP.html#who-me-yes-you
18. file:///authors/justin-searls/
19. https://twitter.com/searls
20. https://mastodon.social/@searls
21. https://github.com/searls
22. https://linkedin.com/in/searls
23. https://justin.searls.co/
24. file:///posts/2023-10-10-16-things-you-believe-about-software/
25. file:///authors/justin-searls/
26. file:///categories/community
27. file:///posts/2023-02-20-shared-values-make-the-difference/
28. file:///authors/cathy-colliver/
29. file:///categories/leadership
30. file:///categories/teams
31. file:///categories/our-company
32. https://link.testdouble.com/blog-cta-sales
33. https://testdouble.com/
34. https://testdouble.com/agency
35. https://testdouble.com/services
36. https://testdouble.com/careers
37. file:///
38. https://testdouble.com/contact
39. https://mastodon.social/@testdouble
40. https://github.com/testdouble
41. https://www.linkedin.com/company/testdouble
42. https://twitter.com/testdouble
43. tel:+16143494279
44. mailto:hello@testdouble.com
45. file://testdouble.com/privacy-policy
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[2]Brain Baking (BUTTON) navigation toggle
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Favorites of December 2023
[9]1 January 2024
Happy New Year! Hopefully 2024 will bring the needed peace and solace
to everyone. 2023 was a very difficult year for us, with lots of what
you might call “low lows” and a few “high highs”. We usually make fun
of that saying, but this seems like the first time it’s appropriate to
use it.
As far as blogging goes, 2023 was a great year. See the Brain Baking
[10]blog post archive for 2023: with 90 posts last year, that’s on
average 7.5 a month or 1.875 a week. The best part about 2023 in
blogging was the feedback I got, and the new friends and e-mail pen
pals I made. As frequently mentioned before, [11]blogging keeps on
giving. If there’s one thing I never ever intend to give up, it’s
blogging.
The following posts turned out to be the most popular of 2023:
1. [12]FPGAs And The Renaissance of Retro Hardware
2. [13]Overlooked Reasons To Still Buy Physical Media
3. [14]Goodbye, ProtonMail
4. [15]Phomemo Thermal Printing On MacOS
5. [16]DOOM Turned Thirty
As for Jefklak’s Codex, the most popular article was the one on
[17]Freaky Trip, a bizarre (and very buggy) single-screen
adventure/puzzle game. That one got a few hits simply because I
couldn’t find any reviews online myself! As far as visitor counts go,
the Codex gets almost none, but I still have a lot of fun filling it.
It’s my own thing, and I’ve pondered on that subject recently in [18]On
Writing For Yourself In Public.
Previous month: [19]October 2023.
Books I’ve read
Not much this month. Read my [20]2023 in books overview post to find
out about the 22 books I managed to finish last year.
The Malloreon chronicles by [21]David Eddings continues to be my go-to
bed-time material. Books 1 and 2 are done and although the tension
doesn’t exactly build up, I don’t mind to keep on reading as it’s a
light read and entertaining enough.
Games I’ve played
After finishing Super Mario Bros. Wonder, I continued with the 2D Mario
strike with the Mario Land Game Boy series that evolved into Wario Land
and Wario Land II. The best is yet to come, though, as Wario Land 3 is
on my [22]25 Best Games of All Time list! I know them all by heart but
still breeze through these platformers once every few years.
My wife discovered a cheap Switch eShop code for Mario + Rabbids:
Kingdom Battle and since I love tactical turn-based games, I eagerly
dove in. It’s okay so far: the core gameplay is very solid, but
everything slathered on top is not my cup of tea. I’m nearing the end
and will have a review up shortly. Meanwhile, Kristien insists on
playing [23]Railbound, a cosy railway puzzle game with sometimes
devilishly difficult levels! Most of the time, I just don’t “see it”,
but we’re having fun together nonetheless.
Selected (blog) posts
* Gibru writes several interesting articles on AI and LLM generation,
including [24]Contextualizing the Artistic Process.
* Jonas Downey is convinced that having [25]side projects is
essential for creatives, and I agree. This could grow into a
powerful manifesto.
* Cory Zue provides an overview on his side projects and why
[26]building publicly in private works for him.
* Keith McNulty explains why [27]the MBTI tests are corporate
astrology (Medum link).
* Michael Klamerus explains his process on [28]finding small indie
games.
* This sobering article at Eurogamer reminds us that in the video
game industry, 2023 was also the year of low lows and high highs:
[29]You Can’t Talk About Games Without Talking About The Layoffs.
* Glyph explains how to set up the best possible [30]Phython
development environment for MacOS. Don’t use brew install like I
did.
* Speaking of Python, [31]why is Python so slow? Jake VanderPlas
deciphers the Python internals to figure out why.
* Vlad-Stefan Harbuz’s blog is great: it’s a combination between
computing and philosophical work. Here’s his [32]overview on
resources on the philosophy of work I still have to dig into.
* Here’s an interesting piece on [33]Mickey Mouse and the Public
Domain. As of today, one of the earliest versions of Mickey hits
public domain in USA.
* [34]You Don’t Need Statistics On Your Blog says William Woodruff.
Perhaps I should take on the challenge and ditch GoatCounter in
favor of a few grep scripts in access logs, if that?
Other random links
* [35]Déjà Dup Backups is a Gnome-powered UI-friendly backup tool for
Unix.
* Did you know you can [36]Scheme in Scheme on WASM in the browser?
wait what now? The Spritely Institute also has cool info on Lisp
hackatons if that’s your jam.
* If you want to follow physical video game releases, look no further
than [37]https://www.physicalreleases.com/
* The [38]Into The Aether Podcast released a six-hour long episode on
the 2023 Game of the Year. It’s great, but I have been slogging
through it on and off all week and I’m still just over 03:21:00
hours/minutes in! Who decided that three-plus hours of jabbering
about video games is a good thing? Because it totally is!
I hope to keep up the blogging rhythm in 2024. That’s everything I wish
for in 2024 besides the obvious ones.
[39]metapost
You Might Also Like...
* [40]2023 In Books 28 Dec 2023
* [41]DOOM Turned Thirty 11 Dec 2023
* [42]FPGAs And The Renaissance Of Retro Hardware 27 Nov 2023
* [43]On Writing For Yourself In Public 06 Nov 2023
* [44]Favorites of October 2023 02 Nov 2023
* [45]Top 25 Best Games Of All Time (GOAT) 08 Oct 2023
* [46]Overlooked Reasons To Still Buy Physical Media 25 Sep 2023
Bio and Support
[47]A photo of Me!
I'm [48]Wouter Groeneveld, a Brain Baker, and I love the smell of
freshly baked thoughts (and bread) in the morning. I sometimes convince
others to bake their brain (and bread) too.
If you found this article amusing and/or helpful, you can support me
via [49]PayPal or [50]Ko-Fi. I also like to hear your feedback via
[51]Mastodon or email. Thanks!
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Reach me using: [firstname] at [this domain].
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13. file:///post/2023/09/overlooked-reasons-to-still-buy-physical-media/
14. file:///post/2023/01/goodbye-protonmail/
15. file:///post/2023/02/phomemo-thermal-printing-on-macos/
16. file:///post/2023/12/doom-turned-thirty/
17. https://jefklakscodex.com/games/switch/freaky-trip/
18. file:///post/2023/11/on-writing-for-yourself-in-public/
19. file:///post/2023/11/october-2023
20. file:///post/2023/12/2023-in-books
21. https://www.eddingschronicles.com/index.html
22. file:///post/2023/10/top-25-best-games-of-all-time
23. https://store.steampowered.com/app/1967510/Railbound/
24. https://elusivewordsmith.com/posts/Playground/contextualizing/
25. https://jonas.do/writing/2023-10-05-side-projects/
26. https://www.coryzue.com/writing/building-in-private/
27. https://medium.com/swlh/the-mbti-is-corporate-astrology-c132d93e684f
28. https://virtualmoose.org/2023/12/13/finding-indie-games/
29. https://www.eurogamer.net/you-cant-talk-about-2023-in-games-without-talking-about-layoffs
30. https://blog.glyph.im/2023/08/get-your-mac-python-from-python-dot-org.html
31. http://jakevdp.github.io/blog/2014/05/09/why-python-is-slow/
32. https://vladh.net/wage-labour-resources/
33. https://web.law.duke.edu/cspd/mickey/
34. https://blog.yossarian.net/2023/12/24/You-dont-need-analytics-on-your-blog
35. https://apps.gnome.org/en-GB/DejaDup/
36. https://spritely.institute/news/scheme-in-scheme-on-wasm-in-the-browser.html
37. https://www.physicalreleases.com/
38. https://intothecast.online/
39. https://brainbaking.com/tags/metapost
40. file:///post/2023/12/2023-in-books/
41. file:///post/2023/12/doom-turned-thirty/
42. file:///post/2023/11/fpgas-and-the-renaissance-of-retro-hardware/
43. file:///post/2023/11/on-writing-for-yourself-in-public/
44. file:///post/2023/11/october-2023/
45. file:///post/2023/10/top-25-best-games-of-all-time/
46. file:///post/2023/09/overlooked-reasons-to-still-buy-physical-media/
47. https://brainbaking.com/
48. file:///about
49. https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=R2WTKY7G9V2KQ
50. https://ko-fi.com/woutergroeneveld
51. https://dosgame.club/@jefklak
52. file:///var/folders/q9/qlz2w5251kzdfgn0np7z2s4c0000gn/T/L61518-8406TMP.html#header
53. file:///
54. file:///archives
55. file:///copyright-and-tracking-policy
Hidden links:
57. file://localhost/
58. file://localhost/var/folders/q9/qlz2w5251kzdfgn0np7z2s4c0000gn/T/L61518-8406TMP.html#related
59. file://localhost/var/folders/q9/qlz2w5251kzdfgn0np7z2s4c0000gn/T/L61518-8406TMP.html#bio

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#[1]alternate
[2]Derek Sivers
Tech Independence
Contents:
0. [3]What?
1. [4]Register a domain
2. [5]Change DNS nameservers
3. [6]Create storage
4. [7]Create an SSH key
5. [8]Create your server
6. [9]SSH into root
7. [10]Customize these instructions
8. [11]Use your storage
9. [12]Contacts and Calendar
10. [13]Email sending
11. [14]Email settings
12. [15]Simple website
13. [16]File sharing in /pub/
14. [17]More indie tips
15. [18]More storage?
16. [19]Mutt = email in terminal
17. [20]Upkeep
18. [21]Certificate expired?
19. [22]Trouble? Start over
20. [23]Questions? Additions?
__________________________________________________________________
What?
Tech independence is not depending on any particular company or
software.
The only tools you need are the common open source basics built into
any Linux or BSD operating system — free public-domain tools that are
not owned by anyone, and can run on any computer.
Learn a few of these basic tools, and you can run your own private
server on any computer forever, for the rest of your life. Host your
own website and email. Keep your own contacts and calendars synced with
your phone. Back up and sync your photos, movies, and music to your own
private storage. No more subscriptions needed.
You can ignore all the companies offering “solutions”, even if they are
free, because they take away self-reliance. The point is to know how to
do it yourself, not to have somebody do it for you. It’s worth a little
up-front work, like learning how to drive.
Below are simple step-by-step instructions that work. Instead of
drowning you in options, it uses an operating system called [24]OpenBSD
and a hosting company called [25]Vultr because I’ve used them for years
and I know they are good and trustworthy. But you could do this same
setup with any free Linux or BSD operating system, with any hosting
company that gives you “root” access to your own private server. You
could even do it on an old laptop in your closet.
So if a company turns evil or goes out of business, no problem! You can
set up a new server anywhere else in an hour, point your domain name to
the new IP address, and it’s done. That’s tech independence — never
dependent on any particular provider or software. It’s very empowering.
The instructions below will show you how.
Register a domain
1. Go to [26]Porkbun.com.
2. Search for a domain name you like until you find one that’s
available.
3. Create a new account, and pay.
4. Congratulations. You’ll use this domain name in many of the steps
below.
Change DNS nameservers to vultr
1. Wherever you registered your domain name, log in there to change
your domain’s DNS nameservers.
2. It’s usually set by default to the company where you registered. So
for example a domain registered at GoDaddy will have default
nameservers of something.godaddy.com.
3. Replace those defaults with these two:
+ ns1.vultr.com
+ ns2.vultr.com
Create storage
1. Go to [27]Vultr.com.
2. Create an account and give it your credit card.
3. [28]Click here for the “[29]Add Block Storage” page.
4. Click “Block Storage (HDD)”, which says “Globally Available”
5. Below that, a list of cities. Click the one closest to you.
6. Below that, a slider lets you choose how much storage you need. If
not sure, just leave it as $1 for 40 GB.
7. Below that, in a subtle box that says “label” type the word
encrypted.
8. Below that, click the “Add Block Storage” button.
Create an SSH key
1. Open a terminal.
+ Windows? Start → Windows PowerShell → Windows PowerShell
+ Mac? Applications → Utilities → Terminal
2. Type ssh-keygen -t ed25519 and hit [enter] or [return].
3. When it says, “Enter file in which to save the key
(/Users/yourname/.ssh/id_ed25519):”, hit [enter] or [return].
4. When it says, “Enter passphrase (empty for no passphrase):”, hit
[enter] or [return].
5. When it says, “Enter same passphrase again:”, hit [enter] or
[return].
6. See the line that starts, “Your public key has been saved in” and
ends in “id_ed25519.pub”? That’s the file you need for the next
step.
7. In a text editor, open “id_ed25519.pub”.
+ Windows? Type notepad .ssh/id_ed25519.pub
+ Mac? Type open -e .ssh/id_ed25519.pub
8. It should be a single line like this:
ssh-ed25519 AAAAC3Nz5AAAAIPIXO5icj4LUpqa2baqYQRmCZ1+NV4sBDr you@com
puter
9. You’ll use this in the next step: “[30]Create your server”.
Create your server
1. In your [31]Vultr.com account:
2. [32]Click here for the “[33]Deploy New Instance” page.
3. Click “Cloud Compute” (NOT “Optimized Cloud Compute”)
4. Below that, click “Intel Regular Performance”
5. Below that, IMPORTANT: click the same city you chose for your
encrypted storage in the previous step.
6. Below that, click “OpenBSD” (the yellow blowfish) then inside its
box, click “7.4 x64”
7. Below that, under Server Size, click “25 GB SSD $5/month”
8. A blue pop-up appears underneath, up-selling “For only $1.00 more
you can...”. Click “No thanks”.
9. Scroll down to “SSH Keys”, click “Add New”, then under “Name” type
mykey.
10. From [34]the previous section, step 3, copy (⌘-C or Ctrl-C) the
contents of “id_ed25519.pub” and paste it into this box called “SSH
Key”. It should be a single line like this:
ssh-ed25519 AAAAC3NzaC1XO5iclCcrHbGRPoj4LUpqa2baqYQRmCZ1+NV4sBDr
you@computer
11. After pasting it into the box, click [Add SSH Key].
12. Under SSH Keys, click the box with the picture of the key called
“mykey” to give it a tick mark in the top-right corner.
13. Scroll up to “Enable Auto Backups”, click the “on” toggle button to
turn it OFF.
14. A scary pop-up says “Are you sure....”. Tick the box next to “I
understand the risks”, then click the red button “Disable Auto
Backups”.
15. Under “Additional Features”, untick the box next to “Enable IPv6”,
to disable it.
16. Under “Server Hostname & Label”, type your domain name in both
“server hostname” and “server label”.
17. At the bottom, click the big blue button [“Deploy Now”].
18. Stretch your legs for a minute while waiting for your server status
to change from “Installing” to “Running”.
19. Copy and save its IP Address on your computer.
SSH into root, and get my script
1. Copy (⌘-C or Ctrl-C) the IP Address from the last step of
[35]Create Your Server.
2. Open your terminal from the [36]Create an SSH key section.
3. Whenever I say to type something into the terminal, hit your
[return] or [enter] key afterwards.
4. Type into the terminal: ssh root@YOUR-IP-ADDRESS. So for example:
ssh root@123.45.67.89
5. It should say something like:
The authenticity of host '123.45.67.78 (123.45.67.89)' can’t be established.
ED25519 key fingerprint is SHA256:OyiqVsjRX8U2f0UTUY4D0erdl6855YNRXyQk2D.
This key is not known by any other names
Are you sure you want to continue connecting (yes/no/[fingerprint])?
6. Type yes
7. It should say something like:
Warning: Permanently added '123.45.67.89' (ED25519) to the list of known hosts.
OpenBSD 7.4 (GENERIC.MP) #1396: Sun Oct 8 09:20:40 MDT 2023
Welcome to OpenBSD: The proactively secure Unix-like operating system.
8. Congratulations! You’re inside a remote computer!
9. Type ftp https://sive.rs/ti.sh
10. Type sh ti.sh
11. Watch it install, answer its questions, and do what it says.
12. Be ready to open a new terminal window, so you can leave this one
logged-in.
13. See below for help with its prompts.
Customize these instructions
Enter your domain name and the username that you create, below, and
this will customize all following instructions for you.
Your domain name? ____________________ Your username?
____________________ customize
Now when you see this button: (BUTTON) 📋 click it to copy that line so
you can paste it into your terminal, without error.
Use your encrypted storage
The [37]ti.sh script will eventually prompt you, “Now upload anything
while I wait...”. Here’s how.
Mac
Type rsync -avz Documents yourusername@yourdomain.name:/mnt/ and you
will see it uploading your Documents folder to your private encrypted
storage. Use this same format to upload any other folders, replacing
“Documents” in the command. If you are happy synchronizing on the
command line like this, you can skip over the next FreeFileSync
section.
[38]FreeFileSync
Everyone using Windows should use [39]FreeFileSync. Here’s how:
1. [40]Download FreeFileSync and please give an optional donation
there if you can afford to. Donating also unlocks more features.
Thanks to Jon Lis for the recommendation.
2. Install and open FreeFileSync.
3. Top-center: click the grey [Browse] button and find the folder with
the stuff you want to upload.
4. Top-far-right: click the white cloud icon then SFTP at the top.
5. Server name or IP address: yourdomain.name
6. Left side: click (*) Key File
7. Username: yourusername
8. Browse to find your private key, called id_ed25519 from the
“[41]Create an SSH key” section. (Not the file that ends in “.pub”,
but the one next to it.) NOTE: Because the /Users/yourusername/.ssh
directory is “hidden” by Windows and Mac by default, I find it
easier to just type the path directly, like this:
+ The username, for this next line, should be your username on
your home computer, not your remote server.
+ Windows? Type (BUTTON) 📋C:\Users\yourusername\.ssh\id_ed25519
+ Mac? Type (BUTTON) 📋/Users/yourusername/.ssh/id_ed25519
9. Directory on server: /mnt
10. Click OK to go back to the main screen.
11. Top-right: click the green gear wheel.
12. Left button: click “MIRROR →”
13. Click OK to go back to the main screen.
14. Top-center: click “COMPARE”, and make sure your files are there.
15. Top-right: click “SYNCHRONIZE Mirror →” then [Start]
Verify and unmount
1. When it’s done uploading, log in to your server again, from your
terminal.
2. Type find /mnt
3. You should see a long list of the files you uploaded.
4. Type m-x to detach your encrypted storage.
5. Type find /mnt again, and now you should see nothing there!
Congratulations! You now see how this will work in the future:
1. Log in and type “m” to attach your encrypted storage.
2. Upload your files with rsync or FreeFileSync.
3. Log in and type “m-x” to detach the storage, for security.
Contacts and Calendar
Your phone currently keeps its contacts and calendars with Google or
Apple. Now you can get them off the cloud and keep them privately on
your own server.
My [42]ti.sh setup script installs a [43]CardDAV server for contacts,
and [44]CalDAV server for calendars.
Here’s how to connect your phone.
Android phone
You need an app called “[45]DAVx⁵”, so [46]install it first. Then…
1. Open the DAVx⁵ app
2. Click the orange (+) in the bottom-right
3. Click (·) “Login with URL and user name”
4. Base URL: https://dav.yourdomain.name/
5. User name: yourusername
6. Password: the “easy to type on your phone” password you made
7. Click “LOGIN” in the bottom-right corner.
8. It should work and bring you to the “Create account” page, where
“Account name” will be yourusername. Leave everything as-is and
click “CREATE ACCOUNT” in the bottom-right corner.
9. It brings you to the “CARDDAV” header. Tick the toggle to turn on
next to your domain name.
10. Click the ♻ arrows in the bottom-right corner to synchronize your
contacts.
11. Click the “CALDAV” header up top. Tick the toggle to turn on next
to your domain name.
12. Click the ♻ arrows in the bottom-right corner to synchronize your
calendar.
13. Go to your Calendar app, and in the top-right corner, click the
round icon there. (Might be your face or a letter.) Then change it
to the one with yourusername. After changing it, click the X in the
top-left corner.
14. To add a new Event, Click [+] in the bottom-right corner, and
choose “Event” from the popup menu.
15. There might be a warning, “Switch to a Google Account to take
advantage blah blah…”. Click “dismiss”.
16. Title this event something like “Test Delete”, and notice it should
be saving to the calendar with your domain name and username. Click
(Save) in the top-right corner.
17. Check the terminal window where it should say “Calendar entry
added!”
18. Go to your Contacts app, and in the bottom-right corner, click “Fix
& manage”.
19. Click “Settings”
20. Near the bottom, click “Default account for new contacts”, and
change it to the DAVx⁵ Address book with your domain name.
21. Click “< Settings” in the top-left corner.
22. In the top-right corner, click the round icon there. (Might be your
face or a letter.) Then change it to the DAVx⁵ Address book with
your domain name. Then click X in the top-left corner.
23. Click “Contacts” in the bottom-left corner. It should say “No
contacts in this account”.
24. Click + in the bottom-right corner to Create contact. Top of the
next page should say “Save to” then your domain name.
25. Add a New Contact with a name like “Test Delete”. Then click “Save”
in the top-right corner.
26. Check the terminal window where it should say “Contact added! Both
work. Congratulations.”
Apple iPhone
1. Settings → Contacts → Accounts → Add Account → Other → (under
“CONTACTS”:) Add CardDAV Account
2. Server: dav.yourdomain.name
3. User Name: yourusername
4. Password: the “easy to type on your phone” password you made
5. Click “next” in the top right corner, and it should bring you to
your “Accounts” page, where you see it listed, saying “Contacts”
underneath.
6. Click Add Account → Other → (under “CALENDARS”:) Add CalDAV Account
7. Server: dav.yourdomain.name
8. User Name: yourusername
9. Password: the “easy to type on your phone” password you made
10. Click “next” in the top right corner, and it should bring you to a
“CalDAV” page, showing Calendars and Reminders. Un-tick Reminders.
11. Click “save” in the top right corner, and it should bring you to
your “Accounts” page, where you see it listed, saying “Calendars”
underneath.
12. Click “< Contacts” in the top-left corner, to go back to settings
for your Contacts app.
13. At the bottom change Default Account to the one with
yourdomain.name.
14. Click “< Contacts” then “< Settings”, both in the top-left corner,
then scroll down to Calendar settings and click it.
15. In Calendar settings, 2nd from the bottom should say “Default
Calendar”. Tap to change it to the one with yourdomain.name.
16. Go to your Calendar app and click the + in the top-right corner.
17. Add a New Event with a Title like “Test Delete”. Then click “Add”
in the top-right corner.
18. Check the terminal window where it should say “Calendar entry
added!”
19. Go to your Contacts app and click the + in the top-right corner.
20. Add a New Contact with a name like “Test Delete”. Then click “Done”
in the top-right corner.
21. Check the terminal window where it should say “Contact added! Both
work. Congratulations.”
Email sending
1. Go to [47]Mailjet.com and sign up for their free account.
2. Go to [48]this page for API keys and [Generate secret key]
3. Give the [49]ti.sh script your API key and Secret key, and it will
do the rest.
Email settings
To do email from your phone, computer, or anywhere else, you now have
an [50]IMAP server, called [51]Dovecot. So on any device, you can add a
new IMAP Mail account, with these settings:
* Account type: IMAP
* Email address: yourusername@yourdomain.name
* Username: yourusername
* Password: the password you made for your username on your server
* Incoming mail server: yourdomain.name
* Outgoing mail server: yourdomain.name
* Connection security: SSL
* Authentication type: Basic authentication
Simple website
1. On your home computer, in your main home directory, make a
directory/folder called “htdocs”
2. [52]Download this file called “template.html” and save it in your
“htdocs” directory.
3. [53]Download this file called “style.css” and also save it in your
“htdocs” directory.
4. Make a copy of the “template.html” file, and name the copy
“index.html”. This will be your home page.
5. Edit the index.html file in a text editor (NotePad or TextEdit) and
change my default text to whatever you want.
6. When you need to add a new page, just copy the template again, call
it “about.html” or whatever, and make a link to it from the home
page. The header of each page will link back to index.html : your
home page.
7. If you want to change the look of your site, just edit the
style.css file. [54]Search the web for “CSS tutorial” if needed.
8. To upload it to your public server, do one of the next two steps:
9. Apple Mac? Open a new terminal window on your computer, type
rsync -avz htdocs yourusername@yourdomain.name:/var/www/
10. Windows? [55]FreeFileSync again, but now change the “Directory on
server” to /var/www/ (you can find it by clicking [browse] or
typing it directly) then upload this htdocs directory there.
11. Go to https://yourdomain.name in your web browser, refresh the
page, and you should see your updated website.
12. Any trouble, just know that the goal is to get that index.html file
into this location on your server: /var/www/htdocs/index.html
because that’s where the web server is expecting it to be. That’s
where we put the original test file, so your new index.html file
should replace that one.
13. If you want [56]short URLs, without the .html, you can (for
everything except index.html) because I set the default type to be
HTML. Just remove the “.html” from your HTML filenames, update your
links, and voilà!
It’s important to know how to make a simple website by hand, and not
let people sell you on complex solutions that are the equivalent of
saying you need a jumbo jet when you really need a bicycle. For real
tech independence, start by typing your HTML files yourself. Only
later, after you have many many pages, consider a more complicated
solution.
File sharing in /pub/
Your website is configured to list all files in the /pub/ directory of
your website. So basically anything in /var/www/htdocs/pub/ is public.
Upload any files you want to share.
It replaces Dropbox and similar services for sending big files. Just
upload the file to /var/www/htdocs/pub/ then find it in your web
browser, copy its URL, and send someone the URL.
If the files you want to share are already on your computer, then just
make a pub/ directory inside htdocs/ (so, htdocs/pub/), put your files
in there, then use FreeFileSync or rsync to upload them as you did in
the previous section called “[57]Simple website”. Consider them part of
your website.
Or if you have a URL from somewhere else online that you want to
download to your server, just do it as we did in the numbered steps
above. Then use FreeFileSync or rsync to download from your server to
your computer first, before your next upload sync.
More indie tips
1. Use [58]Firefox.
2. Install [59]uBlock Origin in Firefox and Chrome.
3. In Firefox settings, under “Privacy and Security”, choose “[X]
Delete cookies and site data when Firefox is closed”, then close
Firefox often to erase all your cookies and logins. Browse the web
anonymously, not logged-in.
4. Replace Google Authenticator with [60]Aegis on Android or [61]Raivo
on iPhone.
5. If you use Windows, replace it with [62]Ubuntu Linux. (Use both at
first, then slowly transition.)
6. Keep your new email address as a [63]private email account that you
only give to those few people who you really want to hear from.
Then your old gmail/yahoo/outlook/etc address can be just
low-priority junk, and your new private email account won’t need
spam protection.
7. Or if you don’t want to run your own email server, use
[64]Mailbox.org or [65]Fastmail but only by using your own domain
name. Be yourusername@yourdomain.name from now on. Don’t depend on
anyone else’s domain for your email or you’ll be stuck with them.
More storage?
If you need hundreds of gigabytes, or even terabytes of storage, I
recommend Hetzner’s “[66]Storage Box”. It’s the best storage value I’ve
found. Also consider [67]Backblaze Personal Backup.
I personally use Vultr’s storage (as described above) for sensitive
information I definitely want completely encrypted. Then I use
Hetzner’s Storage Box for all my photos, videos, music, and other big
files that don’t absolutely need to be encrypted.
Mutt = email in the terminal
Unless you want to read email directly on your server, skip this step.
1. ssh in to your server, then type mutt
2. You should see the subject headers, with the first email
highlighted. Type j and k a few times to go down and up the list of
emails.
3. To read an email, hit [enter] or [return] when it is highlighted.
4. To go back to the list, type i (for “index”)
5. To reply, hit r then:
+ It shows “To:” so you can edit or add recipients. Hit [enter]
or [return] to leave it.
+ It shows “Subject:” so you can edit the subject. Hit [enter]
or [return] to leave it.
+ It asks “Include message in reply? ([yes]/no/?):”. Hit [enter]
or [return] for the usual norm of echoing someone’s email back
at them below your reply. Or n for not.
+ Now you are inside the [68]vi text editor which is not
self-explanatory, so I’ll walk you through a simple reply:
+ Hit i (no [return] or [enter]) to go into “insert mode” and
type your message. You’ll notice it’s on the same line as some
other text, so you might want to start by hitting [return] or
[enter] a few times, then up-arrow to go back to the first
line again.
+ When done typing your message, hit your [esc] key in the very
top-left corner of your keyboard. Nothing will change on the
screen, yet.
+ Type :wq (the “:” at the beginning is important) then [enter]
or [return].
+ Then you’ll see the “Compose Menu” which I think of as the
“last chance before sending” screen. Hit y to send it.
6. To send a new email, hit m then repeat those steps like you did for
a reply, except now the “To:” and “Subject:” are blank and waiting
for you to create. (For “To:”, type the email address of the person
you’re emailing.)
7. To quit, hit q
[69]Mutt is a great program for reading and sending email on the
command line. It’s been my email client for 20 years. [70]Read its
manual here if you want to go deeper. It does everything.
The [71]vi text editor is a useful tool to edit text on a server. It
takes a few minutes to learn, but it’s worth learning because it’s
installed by default on every Linux/BSD server.
Upkeep
You honestly don’t have to do anything to maintain your server. It will
just work as-is for decades! But if you like to keep it up-to-date, it
only takes a minute, so run these next steps any time.
1. Log in to your server, if you are not already.
2. Type (BUTTON) 📋doas su
3. Type (BUTTON) 📋syspatch
4. Type (BUTTON) 📋fw_update
5. Type (BUTTON) 📋pkg_add -u
6. Type (BUTTON) 📋sysupgrade
7. Type exit; exit to log out.
If that last “sysupgrade” step did not give an “Error retrieving … 404
Not Found” error, that means your OpenBSD operating system is upgrading
itself. They release an upgrade every 6 months. In that case, [72]go to
this OpenBSD page and follow the link at the top that says “Upgrading
to (7.4, etc)” to see if there’s anything else you should know.
If the “sysupgrade” step updated your operating system and your server
rebooted, then there is just one more step:
1. Log in to your server, if you are not already.
2. Type (BUTTON) 📋doas su
3. Type (BUTTON) 📋sysmerge
4. Follow any instructions. Don’t worry about messing up because you
can always start over, as described below.
5. Re-do the syspatch ; fw_update ; pkg_add -u steps, above.
6. Type exit; exit to log out.
Secure certificate expired?
1. Log in to your server, if you are not already.
2. Type (BUTTON) 📋doas su
3. Type (BUTTON) 📋domain=yourdomain.name
4. Type (BUTTON) 📋acme-client -v $domain
5. Type (BUTTON) 📋rcctl restart relayd
6. That should fix it. Confirm it in your web browser. [73]Let me know
if not.
7. IMPORTANT: Copy-paste this next line to make it renew automatically
from now on:
8. (BUTTON) 📋(crontab -l 2>/dev/null; echo
"11\t3\t*\t*\t5\tacme-client $domain \&\& rcctl reload relayd") |
crontab -
9. Hit [enter]. Type exit; exit to log out.
10. [74]Let me know if it happens again. (It shouldn’t.)
Trouble? Start over
I’ve tested the steps above very carefully and repeatedly. They work.
So if you hit a major problem, something not happening like it says it
should, please do this:
1. Type “cd ; m-x ; exit” in any terminals you still have open, until
they are all closed.
2. Go to [75]your Vultr account.
3. See your server instance? See to the far right, a subtle ···? Click
that.
4. From its pop-up menu, click the last option: “Server Destroy”.
5. Tick the box next to “[X] Yes, destroy this server.”
6. Click the big red [Destroy Server] button.
7. This will not destroy your encrypted storage. That’s another reason
we kept it separate from the start. So if you already uploaded a
bunch of your files and want to save them, they should still be
there.
8. On your own computer, in the terminal, type: rm .ssh/known_hosts
9. Go back to the section called “[76]Create your server” and try
again.
Questions? Additions?
To learn more about your new server, just log in and type: [77]help
It will teach you the basics. Then for each command or file you want to
know more about, type [78]man followed by the command or filename. So
for example, log in and type…
* man [79]adduser
* man [80]ssh
* man [81]doas
* man [82]rcctl
* man [83]pkg_add
* man [84]ftp
* man [85]httpd.conf
Hit your [space] bar to scroll the page, then q to quit.
It’s one of the most wonderful things about OpenBSD: everything you
need to know is in those man pages! No need for YouTube, Google,
ChatGPT, or any other advertising-driven sources of information.
I will constantly improve this page, so [86]get on my private email
list for updates.
Until then, ask any questions. If something went wrong, please give me
a very specific description of exactly what went wrong at what step,
what it was supposed to do, and what exactly it actually did. [87]Click
here to email me.
Requests for what to add? Again, just [88]email me.
References
1. file:///en.atom
2. file:///
3. file:///var/folders/q9/qlz2w5251kzdfgn0np7z2s4c0000gn/T/L60154-995TMP.html#why
4. file:///var/folders/q9/qlz2w5251kzdfgn0np7z2s4c0000gn/T/L60154-995TMP.html#register
5. file:///var/folders/q9/qlz2w5251kzdfgn0np7z2s4c0000gn/T/L60154-995TMP.html#dns0
6. file:///var/folders/q9/qlz2w5251kzdfgn0np7z2s4c0000gn/T/L60154-995TMP.html#storage1
7. file:///var/folders/q9/qlz2w5251kzdfgn0np7z2s4c0000gn/T/L60154-995TMP.html#ssh
8. file:///var/folders/q9/qlz2w5251kzdfgn0np7z2s4c0000gn/T/L60154-995TMP.html#server1
9. file:///var/folders/q9/qlz2w5251kzdfgn0np7z2s4c0000gn/T/L60154-995TMP.html#server2
10. file:///var/folders/q9/qlz2w5251kzdfgn0np7z2s4c0000gn/T/L60154-995TMP.html#custom
11. file:///var/folders/q9/qlz2w5251kzdfgn0np7z2s4c0000gn/T/L60154-995TMP.html#storage4
12. file:///var/folders/q9/qlz2w5251kzdfgn0np7z2s4c0000gn/T/L60154-995TMP.html#radicale
13. file:///var/folders/q9/qlz2w5251kzdfgn0np7z2s4c0000gn/T/L60154-995TMP.html#mailjet
14. file:///var/folders/q9/qlz2w5251kzdfgn0np7z2s4c0000gn/T/L60154-995TMP.html#mail3
15. file:///var/folders/q9/qlz2w5251kzdfgn0np7z2s4c0000gn/T/L60154-995TMP.html#web1
16. file:///var/folders/q9/qlz2w5251kzdfgn0np7z2s4c0000gn/T/L60154-995TMP.html#web2
17. file:///var/folders/q9/qlz2w5251kzdfgn0np7z2s4c0000gn/T/L60154-995TMP.html#indie
18. file:///var/folders/q9/qlz2w5251kzdfgn0np7z2s4c0000gn/T/L60154-995TMP.html#storage5
19. file:///var/folders/q9/qlz2w5251kzdfgn0np7z2s4c0000gn/T/L60154-995TMP.html#mutt
20. file:///var/folders/q9/qlz2w5251kzdfgn0np7z2s4c0000gn/T/L60154-995TMP.html#upkeep
21. file:///var/folders/q9/qlz2w5251kzdfgn0np7z2s4c0000gn/T/L60154-995TMP.html#cert
22. file:///var/folders/q9/qlz2w5251kzdfgn0np7z2s4c0000gn/T/L60154-995TMP.html#redo
23. file:///var/folders/q9/qlz2w5251kzdfgn0np7z2s4c0000gn/T/L60154-995TMP.html#questions
24. file:///openbsd
25. https://www.vultr.com/?ref=9541378-8H
26. https://porkbun.com/
27. https://www.vultr.com/?ref=6930328
28. https://my.vultr.com/blockstorage/add/
29. https://my.vultr.com/blockstorage/add/
30. file:///var/folders/q9/qlz2w5251kzdfgn0np7z2s4c0000gn/T/L60154-995TMP.html#server1
31. https://www.vultr.com/?ref=6930328
32. https://my.vultr.com/deploy/
33. https://my.vultr.com/deploy/
34. file:///var/folders/q9/qlz2w5251kzdfgn0np7z2s4c0000gn/T/L60154-995TMP.html#ssh
35. file:///var/folders/q9/qlz2w5251kzdfgn0np7z2s4c0000gn/T/L60154-995TMP.html#server1
36. file:///var/folders/q9/qlz2w5251kzdfgn0np7z2s4c0000gn/T/L60154-995TMP.html#ssh
37. file:///ti.sh
38. https://freefilesync.org/
39. https://freefilesync.org/
40. https://freefilesync.org/download.php
41. file:///var/folders/q9/qlz2w5251kzdfgn0np7z2s4c0000gn/T/L60154-995TMP.html#ssh
42. file:///ti.sh
43. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CardDAV
44. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CalDAV
45. https://www.davx5.com/
46. https://www.davx5.com/download
47. https://app.mailjet.com/signup?lang=en_US
48. https://app.mailjet.com/account/apikeys
49. file:///ti.sh
50. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Message_Access_Protocol
51. https://www.dovecot.org/
52. file:///file/template.html
53. file:///file/style.css
54. https://duckduckgo.com/?q=css+tutorial
55. https://freefilesync.org/
56. file:///su
57. file:///var/folders/q9/qlz2w5251kzdfgn0np7z2s4c0000gn/T/L60154-995TMP.html#web1
58. https://www.mozilla.org/firefox/
59. https://ublockorigin.com/
60. https://getaegis.app/
61. https://raivo-otp.com/
62. https://ubuntu.com/desktop
63. file:///pe
64. https://mailbox.org/
65. https://www.fastmail.com/
66. https://www.hetzner.com/storage/storage-box
67. https://www.backblaze.com/cloud-backup/personal
68. https://duckduckgo.com/?q=vi+editor
69. http://mutt.org/
70. http://mutt.org/doc/manual/
71. https://duckduckgo.com/?q=vi+editor
72. https://www.openbsd.org/faq/
73. file:///contact
74. file:///contact
75. https://my.vultr.com/
76. file:///var/folders/q9/qlz2w5251kzdfgn0np7z2s4c0000gn/T/L60154-995TMP.html#server1
77. https://man.openbsd.org/help
78. https://man.openbsd.org/man.1
79. https://man.openbsd.org/adduser.8
80. https://man.openbsd.org/ssh.1
81. https://man.openbsd.org/doas.1
82. https://man.openbsd.org/rcctl.8
83. https://man.openbsd.org/pkg_add.1
84. https://man.openbsd.org/ftp.1
85. https://man.openbsd.org/httpd.conf.5
86. file:///contact
87. file:///contact
88. file:///contact

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A logo showing a blue circle
Vlad-Stefan Harbuz
Menu
* [1]About
* [2]Music
* [3]Photos
* [4]Books
* [5]RSS
Philosophy
* [6]Resources: Philosophy of Work
* [7]Alternatives to Wage Labour
* [8]The Epistemic Implications of AI Assistants
* [9]Our Schools Should Teach Communication
* [10]Voting Regardless of Citizenship
* [11]Effective Apologies
Programming
* [12]The Caring Programmer's Manifesto
* [13]The Hare Programming Language
* [14]Hare Regex Implementation
* [15]Peony Game Engine
* [16]Skeletal Animation
* [17]clumsy computer
* [18]Submodule GB01
* [19]vegvisir
* [20]pstr
* [21]Dithering
Languages
* [22]Japanese Recommendations
* [23]German Noun Genders
Fun
* [24]Most Minimal UK Address
* [25]About
* [26]Music
* [27]Photos
* [28]Books
* [29]RSS
Philosophy
* [30]Resources: Philosophy of Work
* [31]Alternatives to Wage Labour
* [32]The Epistemic Implications of AI Assistants
* [33]Our Schools Should Teach Communication
* [34]Voting Regardless of Citizenship
* [35]Effective Apologies
Programming
* [36]The Caring Programmer's Manifesto
* [37]The Hare Programming Language
* [38]Hare Regex Implementation
* [39]Peony Game Engine
* [40]Skeletal Animation
* [41]clumsy computer
* [42]Submodule GB01
* [43]vegvisir
* [44]pstr
* [45]Dithering
Languages
* [46]Japanese Recommendations
* [47]German Noun Genders
Fun
* [48]Most Minimal UK Address
Resources on the Philosophy of Work
04 August 2022
Wage labour is when you get paid a salary by a company to do work,
thereby renting out your time. It’s not a good system because it forces
employees to be exploited by manager-owners. This exploitation can be
financial, for example if you get paid less than you produce, but it
can also be something more than that. One often ends up in a situation
where one finds one’s work meaningless, because one cannot connect to,
own and direct one’s work in a hierarchical managerial workplace.
Additionally, because wage labour is by far the most widespread method
of organising work, one might feel powerless to attempt to connect to
their work without having someone else own and direct it.
Worse, even when one works 8 hours per day, the remaining hours are
often dedicated to recovering from work and restoring one’s energy so
that one may be productive on the next workday. All of these things
come together to form something called “alienation” — our work is
important to us, and we should have a positive connection to it, but we
end up having a deficient and corrupted connection to it, which is an
injustice.
Some might say that this is unavoidable, but this is not true. In fact,
the very idea of this system being unavoidable is a result of a bad way
of looking at things called “reification”, which means taking something
that us humans have made up, such as our economic system, and saying
that it is actually real and inevitably has power over us. This is not
the case because it is us who structured society in this way, and we
could have done it any other way.
Indeed, we know that it is possible to be creative without being
oppressed. Most people can contrast alienated wage labour (what some
simply sweepingly call “work”) with playful creation, where someone is
compelled by passion and interest to put a lot of effort into creating
something. In fact, we know that, ironically, we are usually more
productive in this passionate state, than when we are managed and
disciplined into doing something we do not care about.
One might object that this view is naïve because it is not possible to
simply do what we’re passionate about — there are many jobs that must
be done and that are simply not fun. But the fact of the matter is that
a very large amount of today’s jobs are entirely pointless and
unneccesary. Instead, they only exist to provide a reason to perpetuate
the status quo of wage labour.
Imagine someone doing a job we knew to be completely useless, and
receiving a salary for it every month. How would we respond to the
proposal of paying this person their salary, but allowing them to
simply stop doing their work? Many would react negatively and say that
this person would be getting paid for nothing. But is it not concerning
that we would want someone to waste their life away doing something
which is never useful to anyone, just so that we can feel that they
have thereby somehow earned their right to exist?
Gradual change is possible, and a big part of this change is cultural.
This means first realising all the harmful things that gross inequality
of income and power does, then changing our values to say that everyone
deserves to direct their own life and earn a fair living. This does not
necessarily mean that everyone actually will be able to do these
things, but the first step is recognising the current state of affairs
as unjustifiable.
Here are some beginner-friendly books and articles on this topic that I
have loved, and are both eloquent and fun to read. I have also included
some quotes that I feel explain these concepts well.
Introductory Essays and Books
[49]“In Praise of Idleness” Bertrand Russell [50]“Bullshit Jobs” David
Graeber [51]“The Tyranny of Merit” Michael J. Sandel [52]“The Abolition
of Work” Bob Black
The absolute best place to start is “In Praise of Idleness”, a short
and very accessible essay by Russell that explains some of the most
basic problems with our conception of work. “Bullshit Jobs” is a
classic in which Graeber describes how many of the jobs we are
currently doing are simply not useful to anyone. In “The Tyranny of
Merit”, which I have found life-changing, Sandel describes how our
conceptions of “merit” do not align with reality, and that our
blindness to this affects our lives significantly. Lastly, “The
Abolition of Work” is a classic and emotionally powerful essay by Bob
Black in which he very clearly describes many of the problems with
“work”, but this essay can also be too polemical and antagonising.
More In-Depth Books
[53]“Another Now” Yanis Varoufakis [54]“Talking to my Daughter About
the Economy” Yanis Varoufakis
People often ask me what a system that abolishes wage labour and
capitalism would look like. In “Another Now”, former Greek finance
minister Yanis Varoufakis tells a fictional story that describes what
such a parallel world would look like, and he goes into significant
economic detail. Similarly, “Talking to my Daughter About the Economy”
is an easy to read and light-hearted description of today’s economy.
Philosophical Background
[55]“Alienation” Rahel Jaeggi [56]“Free Time” Theodor W. Adorno
Perhaps you have read the more accessible material above, but would
like to get more into the philosophical details. In “Alienation”, Rahel
Jaeggi describes the history of the concept of alienation, and
describes a modern and analytic way to look at it, which I find very
useful. Her description really makes one wonder about the aspects of
alienation that transcend the financial, such as its impact on our
epistemic agency. Adorno’s “Free Time” is an amazingly insightful look
at how work has profound effects on us not only during our time at the
workplace, but also during our so-called “free time”, which the
employer nonetheless deeply affects and controls.
You can also read my somewhat amateurish essay, [57]“Alternatives to
Wage Labour”.
Explanatory quotes
Here are some quotes that I feel explain the ideas I have referenced
above quite well. I do not necessarily directly endorse all of these
perspectives, but rather find it useful to illustrate how philosophers
describe these issues.
We should do away with the absolutely specious notion that everybody
has to earn a living. It is a fact today that one in ten thousand of
us can make a technological breakthrough capable of supporting all
the rest. The youth of today are absolutely right in recognizing
this nonsense of earning a living. We keep inventing jobs because of
this false idea that everybody has to be employed at some kind of
drudgery because, according to Malthusian Darwinian theory he must
justify his right to exist. So we have inspectors of inspectors and
people making instruments for inspectors to inspect inspectors. The
true business of people should be to go back to school and think
about whatever it was they were thinking about before somebody came
along and told them they had to earn a living.
— Buckminster Fuller
The ‘positive’ sense of the word ‘liberty’ derives from the wish on
the part of the individual to be his own master. I wish my life and
decisions to depend on myself, not on external forces of whatever
kind. I wish to be the instrument of my own, not of other men’s,
acts of will. I wish to be a subject, not an object; to be moved by
reasons, by conscious purposes, which are my own, not by causes
which affect me, as it were, from outside. I wish to be somebody,
not nobody; a doer—deciding, not being decided for, self-directed
and not acted upon by external nature or by other men as if I were a
thing, or an animal, or a slave incapable of playing a human role,
that is, of conceiving goals and policies of my own and realizing
them. (…) I wish, above all, to be conscious of myself as a
thinking, willing, active being, bearing responsibility for my
choices and able to explain them by references to my own ideas and
purposes. I feel free to the degree that I believe this to be true,
and enslaved to the degree that I am made to realize that it is not.
— Isaiah Berlin
The fact that the vast majority of the population accepts, and is
made to accept, this society does not render it less irrational and
less reprehensible.
— Herbert Marcuse, “One-Dimensional Man”, p. xliv
The things of everyday life [must be] lifted out of the realm of the
self-evident. (…) That which is “natural” must assume the features
of the extraordinary. Only in this manner can the laws of cause and
effect reveal themselves.
— Bertolt Brecht, “Schriften zum Theater” (Berlin and Frankfurt,
Suhrkamp, 1957), p. 7, 9.
The Story of the Mathematician
This is a very short story used as an example by Rahel Jaeggi in
“Alienation” which I find a stunningly good illustration of the
problems I refer to.
A young academic takes up his first position. At the same time he
and his girlfriend decide to marry. That makes sense “because of the
taxes.” A short time later his wife becomes pregnant. Since large
apartments in the city are expensive and hard to find, they decide
to move to a suburb. After all, life outside the city will be
“better for the child.” The man, a gifted mathematician, who until
then has led a slightly chaotic life, oscillating between too much
night life and an obsessive immersion in work, is now confronted
with a completely new situation. All of a sudden, and without him
having really noticed it, his life is now, as it were, “on track.”
One thing seems to follow ineluctably from another. And in a
creeping, almost unnoticeable process his life acquires all the
attributes of a completely normal suburban existence. Would he, who
earlier ate fast food most of the time and relied on convenience
stores for picking up milk and toilet paper as the need arose, ever
have thought that he would one day drive every Saturday morning to
the shopping mall to buy supplies for the week and fill the freezer?
Could he ever have imagined that he would hurry home from work on
Friday because the lawn needed to be mowed before the barbecue? At
first he and his wife hardly notice that their conversations are
increasingly limited to their child and the organization of
household chores. Sometimes, however, he is overcome by a feeling of
unreality. Something is wrong here. While many envy him for the
beautiful suburban house he lives in, he is not really at home in
this situation. The life he leads, which, as it seems to him, has so
suddenly tightened around him—one could almost say “rearranged”
him—seems, in a strange way, not to be his own life. Everything is
as if it could not be any other way; everything happens with a
certain inevitability. And in spite of this—or perhaps precisely
because of it—it remains in a crucial respect alien to him. To what
extent is this life “not really” his own? To what extent is he, in
this life that he leads, alienated from himself?
Each individual aspect of his life (…) has not really been decided
on. Thus, his situation is in fact “out of control” in a certain
sense, and (…) it is a situation for which no one can genuinely be
held responsible. This does not merely mean that he has not acted,
or has not availed himself of his possibilities for acting, but that
he has not even understood his situation as one in which action is
called for or possible; it does not merely mean that he has not
decided something for himself, or has not led his life himself, but
that he has been incapable of understanding or regarding it as
something he can or must lead.
— Rahel Jaeggi, “Alienation”
[58]XXIIVV webring © 2010 Vlad-Stefan Harbuz. Article text and media is
[59]CC-BY-SA 4.0 unless otherwise specified. All other rights reserved.
References
Visible links:
1. file:///about
2. file:///music
3. file:///photos
4. file:///books
5. file:///index.xml
6. file:///wage-labour-resources
7. file:///alternatives-to-wage-labour
8. file:///the-epistemic-implications-of-ai-assistants
9. file:///our-schools-should-teach-communication
10. file:///voting-regardless-of-citizenship
11. file:///apologies
12. file:///manifesto
13. file:///hare
14. file:///implementing-regular-expressions-in-hare
15. file:///peony
16. file:///game-engine-skeletal-animation
17. file:///clumsycomputer
18. file:///submodule
19. file:///vegvisir
20. file:///pstr
21. file:///dithering
22. file:///japanese-recommendations
23. file:///german-nouns
24. file:///most-minimal-uk-address
25. file:///about
26. file:///music
27. file:///photos
28. file:///books
29. file:///index.xml
30. file:///wage-labour-resources
31. file:///alternatives-to-wage-labour
32. file:///the-epistemic-implications-of-ai-assistants
33. file:///our-schools-should-teach-communication
34. file:///voting-regardless-of-citizenship
35. file:///apologies
36. file:///manifesto
37. file:///hare
38. file:///implementing-regular-expressions-in-hare
39. file:///peony
40. file:///game-engine-skeletal-animation
41. file:///clumsycomputer
42. file:///submodule
43. file:///vegvisir
44. file:///pstr
45. file:///dithering
46. file:///japanese-recommendations
47. file:///german-nouns
48. file:///most-minimal-uk-address
49. https://harpers.org/archive/1932/10/in-praise-of-idleness/
50. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/36531574-bullshit-jobs
51. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/50364458-the-tyranny-of-merit
52. https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/bob-black-the-abolition-of-work
53. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/49098225-another-now
54. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/36490332-talking-to-my-daughter-about-the-economy
55. https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/19144936
56. http://xenopraxis.net/readings/adorno_freetime.pdf
57. file:///alternatives-to-wage-labour
58. https://webring.xxiivv.com/#vladh
59. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
Hidden links:
61. file://localhost/