Self-Referential

A thoughtful listicle of the wide variety of things I read or watched this week, from March to August, from time-travel to sports.

Problem Discord I have sound issues on Discord, an occasional background humming or similar noise - that I can’t hear, and that doesn’t manifest when I’m using Discord’s “mic check”. But others have notified me about it, and then I notice my picture in meetings showing a green border, as though I’m talking, when I’m clearly not saying anything. So that means I’m making an online meeting just a little bit harder for everyone else. ...

I was working through The Handbook of Cyber Wargames, that I co-wrote with John Curry, and came across this section on why dice should be used in professional games: From the book. “The use of dice here represents the influence of many unknown variables on the success or failure of a particular attack. In the real world, sometimes it is just chance that allows an attack to succeed or get stopped. For example, did the phishing attack target a particularly susceptible member of staff who was having a ‘bad day’, did the attackers choose the one server the System Administrators were troubleshooting, and they immediately noticed the unusual activity? This will help illustrate to the players that cyber security is risk-based, and that they must account for the different possible outcomes from an attack. Dice are a simple way of modelling the role of chance in cyber security.” ...

Playing. These are the weeknotes1 on the games I’ve played2 purely for fun3 in the last few months. There’s very few listed below, which is very disappointing to look back on… I can’t help thinking I’ve missed a couple. But I do have a “new” Xbox360, and I’ve been tidying up some space, so maybe that will change. It kind of needs to change, considering how much time I spend thinking about games and game design. ...

On Wardley Mapping Cyber Security If you’re not sure what Wardley Mapping is, this two minute video is a good and very short summary. It’s basically a way of thinking about technological solutions and how they are likely to evolve in future, to enable you to make decisions about those technologies. In particular it’s designed to be used by groups so they can have better conversations in this area. A few weeks ago I participated in online Wardley Mapping sessions of the Cyber Security industry, hosted by Simon Wardley of DXC Leading Edge. This was interesting and thought provoking for all kinds of reasons, which I’ve listed below. ...

Prologue An intentionally browseable set of weeknotes from my previous week1 of work, with different subjects introduced by bold text. The subject matter might not seem appropriate because I think I’ve finally acknowledged that the dividing line between work and not-work is fairly arbitrary, and based on which account I’m using to talk to someone more than anything else. Because of the amount of business development I have to do, any traditional division like “am I being paid for this?” isn’t a useful way to define what category an activity fits in. ...

The AI Dilemma, some thoughts Because it was mentioned in a discussion group I’m on, I made time to watch “The AI Dilemma”. It can be found here on Youtube. From the YouTube description: Tristan Harris and Aza Raskin discuss how existing A.I. capabilities already pose catastrophic risks to a functional society, how A.I. companies are caught in a race to deploy as quickly as possible without adequate safety measures, and what it would mean to upgrade our institutions to a post-A.I. world. This presentation is from a private gathering in San Francisco on March 9th, 2023 with leading technologists and decision-makers with the ability to influence the future of large-language model A.I.s. This presentation was given before the launch of GPT-4. ...

Prologue This is an intentionally browseable set of weeknotes regarding things I “beheld” over the previous “week”1. I hope you find something in here that sparks your interest in a piece of media, or encourages you to avoid something when your time could be better spent elsewhere. I write weeknotes mainly to practice a style of writing that isn’t work deliverables or quick emails - but if this helps you please let me know on whatever medium I mentioned this on. ...

Recently on the Generalist World Slack channel, another member asked me advice about entering a new industry. I thought through some fairly standard “old man” advice - moving professions isn’t one of my areas of expertise, but I’ve seen enough and read enough to get an idea of what can improve your chances of success. So, with the other member’s permission, I’ve posted a modified version of my advice below, so I can cite it in future, and in case you find it useful: ...

Inspired by this toot1 from John Willshire I thought I’d also jump on this idea he references, that has its roots back in 2005. I like the questions, I think I’ve finally got back into reading so I have answers worth sharing, and also I support John’s push for people to start blogging rather than posting on more interactive platforms. The questions from the original post are: How many books do you own? What is the last book you bought? What is the last book you read? What are 5 books that mean a lot to you? My answers are below: ...