Age of the City

Read Age of the City: Why Our Future Will be Won Or Lost Together ( )

In this book, Professor Goldin and Tom Lee-Devlin show why making our societies fairer, more cohesive and sustainable must start with our cities. Globalization and technological change have concentrated wealth into a small number of booming metropolises, leaving many smaller cities and towns behind and feeding populist resentment. Yet even within seemingly thriving cities like London or San Francisco, the gap between the haves and have-nots continues to widen and our retreat into online worlds tears away at our social fabric. Meanwhile, pandemics and climate change pose existential threats to our increasingly urban world.

Felt rushed and superficial in some parts, some others were better. A frustrating read because many very interesting things are said but stay on the superficial level; a good read nonetheless, not too US-centric. Mes notes de lecture en français sont ici.

Liked Designing Mastodon’s reply safety features by Sam Gold (lickability.com)

Lickability has been Mastodon’s design partner since 2021, when we helped design their first-party iOS app (and more recently, their Android app). In 1.0 for each of those apps, there have been the expected safety features — mute, block, and report. But those are very direct and technical tools. Don’t get us wrong, those features are critical to having some level of safety on any online platform. But their reach is limited to what you see, which, by definition, puts the onus on the person who needs it. If someone is bothering you, you’re required to block or mute them.

Refuse to choose!

Read Refuse to Choose!: Use All of Your Interests, Passions, and Hobbies to Create the Life and Career of Your Dreams by Barbara Sher ( )

Don’t know what to do with your life? Drawn to so many things that you can’t choose just one? New York Times best-selling author Barbara Sher has the answer–do EVERYTHING!

This didn’t age very well in parts, but I enjoy the sheer optimism and positivity of it. I am definitely a Scanner-Type but I think I’m doing pretty well making the most it, which means I wasn’t the target audience for this self help book aimed at very confused and desperate people. There were still…

The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes

poster for The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes
Watched Agrandir The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes from themoviedb.org

64 years before he becomes the tyrannical president of Panem, Coriolanus Snow sees a chance for a change in fortunes when he mentors Lucy Gray Baird, the female tribute from District 12.

Things you should know about me: I was (am?) a Hunger Games superfan (to the point that I launched an ill-fated webseries project which got me bankrupt, but that’s a story for another time) I loved The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes when it came out. It was really good and seeing the bootstrap years…

IndieWeb pour WordPress – l’esprit POSSE

Liked IndieWeb pour WordPress – l’esprit POSSE by Didier J. MARY (didiermary.fr)

Dans le billet précédent, je vous ai expliqué comment connecter WordPress au Fediverse, grâce au protocole ActivityPub, ajouté au blog via une extension (plugin). Mais il existe une autre manière d’interconnecter WordPress avec Mastodon par exemple, voire le Web globalement : l’inscrire au…

Et une ressource indieweb en français de plus, une !

La Commune au présent, de Ludivine Bantigny

Read La Commune au présent by Ludivine Bantigny ( )

C’est de leur expérience si actuelle que part ce livre, sous une forme originale : il est composé de lettres adressées à ces femmes et ces hommes comme s’ils et elles étaient encore en vie et comme si on pouvait leur parler. Ces lettres rendent la Commune vivante et présente, par un entrelacement des temps. L’ouvrage s’appuie sur un vaste travail d’archives et de nombreux documents, le plus souvent inédits : correspondances, débats, projets, procès… Il offre aussi au regard plus de cent photographies qui s’égrènent tout au long de ses pages, images d’époque et images d’aujourd’hui, comme un télescopage entre passé et présent.

La Commune de Paris est une époque fascinante, qui mérite qu’on s’y attarde et que tout le monde la connaisse. Ce n’est pas le cas, et j’ai trouvé plus d’une fois qu’il était très difficile de s’intéresser à un sujet pourtant passionnant : les ressources sont si austères, si académiques ! La non-fiction épistolaire de…

Platonic: How the Science of Attachment Can Help You Make and Keep Friends

Read Platonic: How the Science of Attachment Can Help You Make and Keep Friends by Marisa G. Franco ( )

How do we make and keep friends in an era of distraction, burnout, and chaos, especially in a society that often prizes romantic love at the expense of other relationships? In Platonic, Dr. Marisa G. Franco unpacks the latest, often counterintuitive findings about the bonds between us—for example, why your friends aren’t texting you back (it’s not because they hate you!), and the myth of “friendships happening organically” (making friends, like cultivating any relationship, requires effort!). As Dr. Franco explains, to make and keep friends you must understand your attachment style—secure, anxious, or avoidant: it is the key to unlocking what’s working (and what’s failing) in your friendships.

I’ve been changing my entire world every decade at most for my entire life, and it gets lonely out there. Moving to a not-actually-new city and having to start from not-really-scratch has been very hard for the past six months, and my whole approach of friendship doesn’t help – I struggle a lot with keeping…