From my understanding, Uber ratings currently work like this for drivers:
- 5 star average: Fine
- 4, 3, or 2 star average: You’ll be fired soon.
- 1 star average: You’re toast

Given this situation (which seems similar across other services with a 1–5 star rating system as well), riders seem to rate like this:
- 5 stars: Fine. Or amazing! Or kinda-poor-but-I-don’t-want-the-driver-to-be-fired!
- 4 stars: Pretty awful!
- 3 or 2 stars: (Mostly unused?)
- 1 star: OMG! BARELY ESCAPED ALIVE!!!

Who knows which screwy situation begat the other one, but here we are, eh?

My hope is…

As someone who is beset by deep disappointment and fear given the state of the U.S. today, I appreciate the intent of calling for a nationwide strike. But I’m concerned that this action would be harmful and ineffective in making our country a better place.

First, there’s the threat to our health and welfare, with medical professionals, police, and other folks in critical positions staying home for a day.

Second, there’s the issue of lost wages for the many, many people who are paid hourly.

There’d be no running over time or interrupting, and candidates would be under more pressure to actually answer questions.

Specifically, this debate would feature…

• An audience-and-speaker audible chime at the 2 minute mark. Or even a countdown timer, similarly visible.
• Mic automatically turned off at the 2:10 mark.
• Mics only turned on for one candidate at a time and only when invited to speak by the moderator. Yes, that would mean no interruptions. None. Nada.
• Three “didn’t answer the question” strikes in a row would result in the other candidate getting a free minute to say anything they want.

Hypothetical…

Do you like getting voicemail? Probably not.

Sure, it’s more convenient for the sender, since they can likely speak faster than type.

But for you, the receiver? You have to spend extra time processing the info, and it’s not even feasible to listen to voicemail in many contexts (e.g, in a meeting, a loud carnival, etc.).

With voicemails, the sender prioritizes their convenience over yours. It’s almost certainly not an intentional or even conscious slight, but it’s frustrating just the same.

Just like with voicemail, tweetstorms and image-pasted “tweetgifs” prioritize the convenience of the sender over the receiver. …

I’ve started importing some old entries from my blog at AdamLasnik.net [example] and I’ve noticed a few things in the process:

When importing an article into Medium…

• The date of the original article is used for the new Medium post. This is shown on the top of the article, and it also determines where the article is listed in one’s Stats page and Medium profile.
• A notice and link to the original post are automatically appended to the Medium draft.
• Image annotations don’t seem to get transferred.
• Basic text formatting and links seem to get imported just fine.

What I don’t know yet (despite reading the Medium post on importing)

• How, if at all, are imported articles surfaced…

I was destined for you and only you.

Four days and three nights I journeyed… uncomfortably, sometimes indirectly and yet purposefully. Ever in darkness, but dreaming I would once again see the light. That I would see you, be touched by you.

I sat waiting for you, silently, ever hopeful.

And then… you came to meet me, to hold me and bring me into your home.

But I soon realized I was not alone. There were others — prettier, less common— that caught your eye. I saw you smile at the more petite one beside me before you even deigned to gaze upon me.

Suddenly, I was fully naked in your presence

I could only hope…

All men. Many seemed to already be acquainted, or in a few cases, fast friends. Clearly they’d been through similar classes before.

And halfway through the class, her fears were realized; everyone was more experienced than she was. More skilled. More at ease. More confident.

She stumbled again. What was she doing here? She didn’t belong, and of course everyone knew it.

What were they thinking? Were they amused at how out-of-her-element she was? Annoyed that she was taking up space that could have been filled with someone more competent, someone that belonged here?

Were they staring at her? No…

My friend and I were FirstWorldChatting about farmers’ markets and the like, when a stranger suddenly waded into the communal hot tub and loudly proclaimed, “NO! That’s just whacked!”

Whoa. I mean, okay, maybe he’s just very opinionated about his organic produce. Weird, but hey, whatever.

Turns out, no, he’s just yet another clueless twit who either doesn’t understand the concept of public space or, perhaps more likely, simply doesn’t give a fig. To clarify, he had joined us in the hot tub while in the middle of a heated discussion with someone on his cell phone. Who does that?!

…