Aaron Miller - How to Help (Page 3)

May 28, 2024 Blog

No Web Without Women

Much of the Web we use today exists because of contributions by women who invented, coded, and designed it. This website is an interactive catalog listing various web technologies and honoring the women who helped make them happen.

For example, the first ever web browser on the Mac was created by Nicola Pellow.

As an undergraduate math student, Nicola Pellow joined the nineteen members of the WWW Project at Switzerland's CERN in 1990. Building off her colleague's work, Pellow contributed to the creation of a web browser compatible across many operating systems. Upon its launch in May 1991, she continued to help increase compatibility, making web browsing more broadly available to users around the world. After finishing her studies, Pellow returned to work with CERN and helped create the first web browser for the classic MacOS on Apple computers, called MacWWW.

No Web Without Women

May 24, 2024 Blog

Librarians Fight for Our Privacy

I have a soft spot in my heart for libraries and librarians. I didn’t realize that privacy rights are one of the battlegrounds where they fight for us.

Sounds extreme, right? Well, companies that got their start as academic publishers have spent the last several decades transforming themselves into hugely profitable data analytics firms. Elsevier, for example, owns ScienceDirect, the premier database of peer-reviewed journals. It is a subsidiary of RELX, a global data broker that also owns LexisNexis and collects massive databases of personal information it then sells to government agencies and businesses to use in algorithms for things like policing, insurance, and banking.

Librarians Are Waging a Quiet War Against International “Data Cartels” | The Markup

May 23, 2024 Blog

Quit More Often

I’m a big fan of Steven Levitt from Freakonomics fame, and one of his hallmarks of advice is that we don’t quit enough. Put another way, we think too dearly of the status quo.

I’ve been thinking about this more in the context of helping, especially when trying to help people with entrenched problems. It’s as easy to get in a helping rut as any other rut. This doesn’t mean you have to quit on the person, but maybe the right idea for now is to try something new.

But even accounting for these limitations, the results of the study still suggest a way to break out of those painful cycles of hesitation and indecision that people often get caught in when contemplating major life decisions. If the choice is between action and inaction, and you’re genuinely unsure about what to do, choose action.

Steven Levitt's advice for making big life decisions | Quartz

May 22, 2024 Blog

Counterfactual Muggings and Repugnant Conclusions

I get that it’s weird to recommend a book review but not the book itself. Yet here we are.

I enjoy reading public philosophy, especially the stuff that relates to altruism and doing good in the world. In 2022, Will MacAskill and his book What We Owe the Future made the rounds on just about every podcast there is. I read most of it before I set it aside.

Instead of telling you what I think about it, though, I recommend reading this fantastic review by Scott Alexander. I learned a great deal and was also entertained, which is my favorite kind of reading.

“I realize this is ‘anti-intellectual’ and ‘defeating the entire point of philosophy’. If you want to complain, you can find me in World A, along with my 4,999,999,999 blissfully happy friends.”

Book Review: What We Owe The Future - by Scott Alexander

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