Home For Fiction – Blog

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Individuality and Capitalism: Lessons From Remaking my Website

November 13, 2023

Home For Fiction, Programming, Society

capitalism, home for fiction, programming, society

For a long time I’ve been meaning to revamp Home for Fiction. When I put it together back in 2017, I was in the middle of defending my doctoral dissertation, and I had no time or energy for coding, so I simply picked a ready template. Recently, I finally decided to modify it, and the process was thoroughly revealing. From all things, it also taught me a thing or two about individuality, capitalism, and how society is becoming increasingly more dysfunctional.

Yeah, I know; all this from putting together some web pages?

But, in the end, that’s why we need to be experiencing the world around us before we write: in order to discover the connections that lie there unnoticed.

So, in this post, I’ll briefly explain my motivation in changing some things and, above all, what it taught me about individuality and capitalism. And we’ll begin precisely from this point.

individuality and capitalism – cartoon of Punning Walrus in front of computer
This image holds meta- value, because the inclusion of my Punning Walrus cartoon was one of the motivating factors behind modifying the Home for Fiction website
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Digital Literacy and Old Age: an Irrelevant Correlation

September 25, 2023

Programming, Society

computer, ignorance, programming, society

There is a persistent but fallacious belief regarding digital literacy: “Old people can’t use computers”. Not only is this hilariously wrong, it also has some dangerous consequences that we’ll see in this post.

The truth is, you simply can’t… simplify things and treat any group of people as if they were a homogeneous lump. There are people who are old and can’t even turn on a computer, and there are people like Grace Hopper, who was recalled from retirement (twice!) to work on the US Navy’s IT infrastructure.

Obviously enough, there are many gradations in between, too. There are old people who perhaps can’t program but who can still use a computer. There are also old people who know how to turn on the computer, somewhat use it, but would be unable to troubleshoot it the moment something goes awry.

But all that isn’t very important.

Instead, what is important is to understand the dangers of correlating digital literacy to age – either old or young.

If you googled “old person using computer”, you’d get plenty of stock images of old people struggling in front of a screen, sitting next to a younger person, or holding a credit card and looking confused. Instead of perpetuating such stereotypes, here’s an image of Commodore Grace M. Hopper, nickname “Grandma COBOL“.
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The Emperor’s New Clothes and The Problem of Experience

September 4, 2023

Programming, Society

experience, ignorance, nonconformity, programming, society

You likely know the story of the Emperor’s new clothes: An arrogant emperor is fooled by some fast-talkers into marching through the streets naked, because he was convinced he was wearing magic clothes – magic because stupid people couldn’t see them, which assured nobody dared to talk about the obvious. It took a kid shouting “Why, the Emperor is naked!” for others to gradually dare to agree. We ignore beginners and rely on experience. But the problem of experience – and this is clearly one of the lessons in “The Emperor’s New Clothes” – is that sometimes beginners can help you.

The story of the Emperor’s new clothes is one of my favorite classical fables. It’s deceptively simple (in that it contains several levels of interpretation) and ever-relevant. Indeed, it seems to have become even more relevant in our times, where the internet has facilitated a phenomenon of bandwagon fallacy on steroids.

All these are thoughts I’ve been having a lot lately, as a result of a… traumatic programming experience I’ve had. The topic of this post is first and foremost about society, so I’ll keep programming jargon to a minimum. Regardless of your background – programmer or not – being aware of the repercussions involved in the Emperor’s new clothes and what it is about is crucial.

In short, the way we use appeal to authority, glorify similarity, and ignore beginners is deeply problematic.

“The Emperor’s New Clothes” is an extremely popular metaphor because it’s extremely powerful. Graffiti from Tallinn. Photo by Ivo Kruusamägi, CC BY-SA 4.0
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