Today it’s just a links and wastebook clean out.

Two Recent Garbage Chairs on Amsterdam

I’ve found a few Garbage Chairs of Amsterdam recently. Truth be told, I stopped looking. When I moved here, the locals were bemused about all my photos “I never really thought about that,” they’d say, “but; yeah, there are a lot of garbage chairs!” I’ve got to get that sense of wonder back.

(I seem to have deleted wherever I kept the archive of all these. I should set one up again. In the meantime, here are some video commentaries on some Garbage Chairs of Amsterdam.)

From Google Gemini on the above (who knows if it’s true?):

The image you sent me is titled “CAFÉ HAVELAAR” and it was created by Dutch artist Anton Pieck (1895-1987). It is a pen and ink drawing of a man standing outside of a cafe. The man in the image is likely a customer or employee of the cafe.

Pieck is known for his illustrations of fantasy worlds and fairy tales. His work was also inspired by the Art Deco movement and Expressionism. This particular drawing is a realistic depiction of a scene from everyday life.

The CAFÉ HAVELAAR drawing is not one of Pieck’s most famous works, but it is a good example of his skill as a draftsman. The drawing is detailed and atmospheric, and it captures the feeling of a quiet moment on a city street.

I like the phrasing of “not one of his most famous works.”

That feels comforting, like:

“What did you do today?” the man in the well fitting suit standing at the end of my desk asks.

“Oh, you know,” I say raising my eyebrows, smiling lazily, standing as I wipe my hands on my pants, “just finished up not one of my famous works.”

“Ah, very good,” the well-fitted suit man says, “shall we go get a beer?”

wfh, artist edition

From “About my studio”…

(1) No commute saves time and means booting up into work is faster and frequent:

there is also an advantage to not having a separate studio outside your home. When I did rent a studio in the past it meant that all my artwork in progress was elsewhere, and that required overcoming inertia to make myself go to my studio. When the artwork is right next to me then it’s simple to do a few minutes extra work on it – correcting a mistake or enhancing a part of the image – without needing to trek to the studio.

(2) You think about work more frequently, a good version of living rent free in your mind…work lives rent free in your house? But, it’s your work, living in your head, not The Man’s work.

And having my work-in-progress continuously visible out of the corner of my eye while I’m decompressing from my day job – streaming a film, reading a book, browsing the web – means that I unconsciously reflect on it during my downtime, allowing flashes of lateral insight to spark in my head while I’m actually concentrating on something else.

These more apply to solitary synchronized, creative endeavors. When it comes to synchronized collaborative management (“meetings”), maybe not so much?

Relevant to your interests

• Au petit Cordon Bleu - Fun, 1930’s cookbook.

• The Ultimate Guide to building Developer Tool Websites - PLG for developers. Get them home pages set-up for the funnel!

• Automation and the Jevons paradox - Always good to bring in Jevon’s Paradox.

• UHF in UHD: Weird Al’s cult classic movie will get its first 4K release - “Nothing says ‘I love you’ like a spatula.'” // this movie, and the VHS of Pee Wee Herman’s stage show are probably the basis of my humor. Many summers watching stand-up and Doctor Katz on the Comedy Channel came later, but were probably equally defining. And, of course, the Phil Hartman era of SNL, and the occasional Letterman when I stayed up that late.

Wastebook

• “Just realized French Onion Soup without enough broth is a soggy onion sandwich.” Galaxy brain level shit from Matt Ray.

• “It’s really a celebration of personal freedom and surplus wealth.” Here.

• And: “huffing the fumes of Timothy Leery’s corpse, or whatever.” Ibid.

• “Yeah, in France they don’t have refillable drinks but you can buy cigarettes instead of fries.” Here.

• “The result often reveals the unconscious clichés of the users.” Here.

• “Coffee badging” Here.

• “What I didn’t know about Battersea is that the lower-level floors are a mall, with Apple’s offices taking up the higher floors.” Here. // This is something I really like about London: all these hidden away nooks and crannies, sometimes whole malls! You can see how Neil Gaiman could have come up the “London Below.”

• “slop” - spam/AI generated copy and images.

• Sometimes you’re at a trade show after party, and someone with a camera and fancy mics is like, “hey, want to record a little interview?” You want to say yes, because what the fuck else are you doing at that after party? Here is an example of two masters at work, delivering the perfect pitch for that moment (clear explanation of the problem solved, clear explanation of the product/solution, check out the 2 unnamed customer references, the one named reference, name-check the VC investment, giving a tiny briefing on the state of the company [which only an analyst would care about, but which is important to drive thought leadership, buzz, and story], a notice very little filler words and stammering, mention of TAM, etc., etc.), relaxed, keeping the answers short, pedigree of the CEO (themselves). Also, the interviewer, Dave, is good too: look at all those takes and survey numbers he can weave in there. All in 9 minutes and 26 seconds. (I’ve known Aaron for a long time, so I may be a bit biased.

• The past is only in the present if you think about it. #DadTalk!

• Another day, another Euro.

• Can you imagine there being an answer that would be helpful? If not, don’t bother to ask the question. The question you’re thinking of is probably more of a statement.

• “disadvantation” Context.

Have you had a chance to check out my series of videos full of my advice for working in a large company? WHAT?! If you have access to O’Reilly’s stuff, you can watch these. If you work at a large company, there’s a good chance you have access. Anyhow, check them out. There’s four five star reviews our of five reviews, including these accolades:

That’s right. Watch em!

Conferences, Events, etc.

Talks I’m giving, places I’ll be, and other plans.

Atlanta Executive Dinner on Enterprise Software Dev, etc., May 22nd. DevOpsDays Amsterdam, June 20th, speaking. NDC Oslo, speaking, June 12th. SpringOne/VMware Explore US, August 26–29, 2024. SREday London 2024, September 19th to 20th.

Discounts. Cloud Foundry Day (May 15th): 20% off with the code CFNA24VMW20. SREDay London (Sep 19th to 20th) when you 20% off with the code SRE20DAY. And, if you register for SpringOne/VMware Explore before June 11th, you’ll get $400 off.

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There’s more school holiday the rest of this week, if you can believe it. I have to tell you: these Europeans might be on to something.