Image: El Lissitzky, Beat the Whites with the Red Wedge, 1920

Alright, so I am riding a self-care high. I just left my 4th incredibly productive therapy session, I'm listening to Judge John Hodgman, and I am ready to… process my notes in a semi-public way with hopes to become a better writer/thinker/artist/person. Check out Part 1 if you haven't already.

Note about these notes: most if not all of these ideas are from other people. Sadly, I don't have all of the sources. I will try to give appropriate credit where possible. 

"Clean, Lubricate, Adjust" — This is a mechanic mantra. If you're repairing something, it's always a best practice to finish with a good clean, some fresh lubrication where required, and minor adjustments. During my admittedly very brief career as a "professional" bicycle mechanic, I always took a bit of pride by always completing and noting "Clean, Lubricate, Adjust" on every work order. This also obviously applies to you know, fucking. 

"das zielbewußte Schaffen" (goal-oriented creation) artist El Lissitzky's edict. I think I mostly like it because it is German, has an eszett, and promotes the idea that art or any other creative act can create meaningful change.

Keep a small bag packed — This is from the Merlin Mann universe. Having a change of clothes and some basic toiletries always on hand has been a game-changer. Just grab and go. It makes you feel like a secret agent with your slick dedicated go-bag. I find myself much less anxious about business or spur of the moment personal travel when I know I have this little system in place. 

Andon (manufacturing) — I apologise for sending you on a Wikipedia journey into Japanese manufacturing techniques. The most significant bit here is giving everyone in the process the power to stop the line for efficiency, safety, t

"block-­based toys illustrate the spiritual connectedness of all things" — this is another potential rabbit hole and part of the ideology behind "Froebel's gifts" educational toys. I keep an inexpensive set of plain wooden blocks in my pile of crap in my home office. They are fun to play with and they have been helpful as little props for still life photography and odd craft projects. Plain-ol'-wood building blocks are the most fantastic present for little kids and are timeless and nearly endlessly recyclable.

city as a palimpsest — a palimpsest is a "manuscript or piece of writing material on which later writing has been superimposed on effaced earlier writing." Paper was not cheap back in the day, so it was reused many times. Using modern technology, historians have been able to decipher some of the scraped away and layered writing on these sheets, leading to new discoveries. Palimpsest is the perfect metaphor for anything hiding below the surface. Humanities majors love a palimpsest (I think I was introduced to the word in two different undergraduate classes in the same week). As far as the city part goes, I just think it's interesting to see old parts of cities emerging through the new construction. Why is there a random curve in the metro line? (they built it around a mass grave of plague victims!) Who built this old wall? (the Romans, it was always the Romans!).

When you take care of the land, the land takes care of you. — obviously, I can't think of many things more rewarding than sowing seeds and later seeing bees buzzing around the flowers you've grown.

"People who are really serious about software should make their own hardware." - Alan Kay — I see this quote floating around many different nerdy websites, and I believe it more each time I read it. The more software slowly swallows the planet; the more disconnected the people creating the software seem to have become. I think tinkering with computer hardware is just as necessary as being skilled with computer software. Luckily things like the Raspberry Pi and Kano Computer exist to give low-cost access to real-deal computer stuff for people young and old. This is the kind of stuff I would have killed for as a kid!


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I'm Tyler Dickey, and this is my newsletter Interoperable. In this space, I celebrate my never-ending love for reliable, available, and maintainable systems like RSS and telephony and write about topics that interest me: art, making things, and technology. Consider subscribing or following me elsewhere on the internet:
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I promise I will think of more ways to format this thing than just lists of random ideas. — The Management