Complete 2018 Roundup

Well, that was a slow slog of a year. I personally felt like Spider-Man in the 3rd Toby Maguire movie, where he inexplicably briefly loses his powers. Surprisingly though, I did end up writing more posts than in 2017 (18 versus 13, even though 5 were… uhh… not quite longform). It was like pulling teeth, but I appear to be gathering momentum again.

Let’s do the roundup first, and then some commentary.

Editor-At-Large Posts

1. Justifiable AI by Carlos Bueno
2. Tarpits and Antiflocks by Carlos Bueno
3. Glitches, uh, find a way by Carlos Bueno
4. The Digital Maginot Line by Renee DiResta

Sarah Perry posts

1. Luxuriating in Privacy by Sarah Perry
2. Light of the American Whale by Sarah Perry
3. The Well-Being Machine by Sarah Perry
4. Treasure Hunting by Sarah Perry
5. Cringe and the Design of Sacred Experiences by Sarah Perry
6. Notes on Doing Things by Sarah Perry
7. Hedonic Audit by Sarah Perry
8. Social Media Consciousness by Sarah Perry
9. Boilerplate by Sarah Perry
10. Justice Fantasies by Sarah Perry
11. “Something Runs Through The Whole Thread” by Sarah Perry
12. Deep Laziness by Sarah Perry

Venkatesh Rao posts

1. Think Entangled, Act Spooky by Venkatesh Rao
2. Unflattening Hobbes by Venkatesh Rao
3. The Speakeasy Imagineering Network by Venkatesh Rao
4. Dodo Thoughts by Venkatesh Rao
5. May You Live in Epic Times by Venkatesh Rao
6. The Age of Early Divinity by Venkatesh Rao
7. Why We Slouch by Venkatesh Rao
8. How Do You Value a Human Being? by Venkatesh Rao
9. Flying Blind into the Anthropocene by Venkatesh Rao
10. Survival of the Mediocre Mediocre by Venkatesh Rao
11. Boat Stories by Venkatesh Rao
12. The Key to Act Two by Venkatesh Rao
13. A Quick (Battle) Field Guide to the New Culture Wars by Venkatesh Rao
14. Make Your Own Rules by Venkatesh Rao
15. Reality Maintenance by Venkatesh Rao
16. Chekov’s Gun and the Principle of Sufficient Reason by Venkatesh Rao
17. Quiver Doodles by Venkatesh Rao
18. Armpit Futures by Venkatesh Rao

Guest Posts

1. Near-Deathness by Matthew Sweet
2. The Unapologetic Case For Bullshit by Stefano Zorzi
3. (Don’t) Be the Gray man by Patrick Steadman
4. Symmetry and Identity by Kenneth Shinozuka

Community Stuff

1. Into the Fediverse by Venkatesh Rao
2. Refactor Camp 2018: Cryptoeconomics and Blockchain Weirding Post-Mortem by Taylor Pearson
3. Refactor Camp 2018: Cryptoeconomics and Blockchain Weirding by Taylor Pearson
4. Refactor Camp: Cryptoeconomics and Blockchain Weirding Summary and Wrap Up by Joseph Kelly
5. The Art of Longform by Venkatesh Rao
6. 2018 Annual Letter by Venkatesh Rao

Refactorings Roundups

1. Refactorings Roundup 09/16/18 — 10/06/18 by Editor
2. Refactorings Roundup 11/13/18 – 12/08/18 by Editor
3. Feed Fox Links: 8/12/18 — 8/18/18 by Editor
4. Refactorings Roundup 08/26/2018 09/1/2018 by Editor
5. Refactorings Roundup 10/07/18 — 11/12/18 by Editor
6. Refactorings Roundup 09/02/2018 — 09/15/18 by Editor
7. Refactorings Roundup 08/19/2018 – 8/25/2018 by Editor

Here are the 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014 and 2013 roundups.New readers, here is the new readers start page. If you want to do some binge reading further back into the archives, there is a page for the Rust Age (2007-12) with both curated selections and complete roundups for 2007-12, as well as Kindle ebook collections.

After the monster 62-post year that was 2017 (thanks to the big bump created by guest contributions from people who took the longform writing course, which is now available in recorded form) this was a bit of a home-game year. Not counting administrative/community posts, we only had 38 proper posts: 18 by me, 12 by Sarah Perry, 4 by guests, 3 by Carlos Bueno, and 1 by Renee DiResta.

On the community front though, we probably had the best Refactor Camp ever  this year in Austin. There was also a healthy flow of meetups in the Bay Area, New York, Austin, London, LA, and Seattle.

The 2019 Refactor Camp will in be Los Angeles, probably on the weekend of June 7/8. Mark your calendars. Details in a month or so.

We also spun un a Mastodon server, and refactorcamp.org (open registration) has now been humming along quietly for 6 months. That has been the source of the irregular Refactorings Roundups posts (scroll up for back issues) with links to things people are reading and writing.

Interesting changes have gotten underway in the subterranean foundations of ribbonfarm, where our pet Cthulhu lives, so expect to see those bubble up to the surface next year.

Happy Holidays!