You are an important point of reference in my personal cosmos -- not because you and I are close (do you remember working with me at Curl? Probably not! And this is ok) but because my beloved technological information revolution has metastasized and I think you understand both the cancer and the body that feeds it better than I do. And it turns out that people like Thiel and their ilk are more relevant than I ever thought.
Yes I do remember you from Curl, but I don't actually remember what you worked on, odd though that may seem. Some parts of those two years I remember so vividly, and others things might just as well have happened in a dream, or to somebody else in another space-time dimension. Although I was only there for two years, I found friendships there that still exist. Gary Gray and I went on to collaborate on books & on our website Wetmachine for 15 years — I was honored to be Best Man at his wedding. A year after Curl kicked me out the door, Tucker Withington, a prince among us, whom I didn't actually know very well at Curl, recommended me for a techwriting position at a Laszlo Systems, a San Francisco-based startup, and it was one of the best jobs I ever had (for five years, until it imploded). A few months ago Susan LaPierre happened to be on Martha's Vineyard & treated me & my wife to an afternoon tea at Linda Jean's. Conor O'Mahoney is a stalwart supporter of this substack, and Peter Desjardins — who was the first person I had to personally deliver the news that they had been laid off — is another subscriber, Fred bless him. And there are other Curlers too who subscribe, apologies for not remembering or naming you all, but it's been a long, long day so far with many caregiving duties both on- and off-island — and I'm kind of spent, actually.
So thank you again, Damian, and please do elaborate & refresh my memory, either in this thread or privately to me by email, if you prefer: my 1st initial + last name + US @ gmail. (Where '+' works in the javascript way, don't shoot me.)
Such awesome people that I have not worked with in eons. Curl was a place as special as it was screwy. I still miss the language often.
Anyway, let's see -- I was a member of the graphics engineering team. I joined back in early 2000 and was there just shy of two years. I was a (very young) programmer recruit from the gaming industry, under Morgan McGuire (and later, Paul Metzger) -- two great engineers and managers I am lucky to have worked with. (Like many people at Curl, they set the bar for what I came to expect from colleagues. In a good way, for Morgan and Paul!)
Anyway, at the time, I saw nothing wrong with the whole "let's build a platform that can be all things to all people, including game developers," and it was exciting to be a part of that effort. I was too green to understand which of the struggles were due to a muddled mission, and which were due to utter incompetence in the upper echelons. When the decision was made to charge per install, the hubris and disconnection became clearer to me. (It's funny -- Curl was both underfunded for its raw scope of ambition, *and* too expensive to run, when compared to the amount of money it would be able to squeeze out of people for providing a platform. As it ever has been in software, I guess, it's hard to carve out a profitable niche in dev tools when brilliant nerds insist on doing their best work for free and in the open. And I wouldn't want it any other way.)
When I was a Boy Scout in North Caldwell, NJ, the highlight of the year was the 'Nine Day' trip to a campground in Walpack, on the NJ side of the Delaware River. Understand that when I grew up, North Caldwell, which is long-since completely suburbanized, had some rural about it. My parents owned 12 acres, much of which was pasture, where we grazed our milk cow, Cow Beauty, & several sheep. But Walpack was wilderness to us.
According to Wikipedia, " As of the 2020 United States census, the township's population was 7, a decrease of 9 (−56.3%) from the 2010 census count of 16, which in turn reflected a decline of 34 (−82.9%) from the 41 counted in the 2000 census. Walpack Township was the smallest municipality by population and one of only four municipalities in New Jersey with a population under 100 as of the 2020 Census."
I've often dreamed of, in the words of our Boy Scout campfire song, "Going back to Walpack, happy land, I'm going back to Walpack if I can." Maybe this is the time. By my reading of the map, Walpack is about 12 or 13 miles south of Milford, PA.
So what I suggest is this: after you & I figure out some kind of way to syncrhonize, using your West Point training in back azimuths & so forth, and my Boy Scout semaphore mastery, you toss that paddle into the sacred waters of the holy Delaware, and I will wade in the water to catch it as it floats by.
Thanks for writing this one. I read the two essays from before the election and I agree that they were awfully dark. While I agree with your basic sentiment about the election, I hope for a more hopeful message. Too much hoping I guess.
Anyway, I did read Timothy Snyder's post about the Berlin Wall coming down. I am old enough to remember Lech Wałęsa, his Solidarity, and the Gdańsk shipyard, but I thought the Iron Curtain did literally fall at least in part, at least in Berlin. But apparently I was wrong, but like Snyder I am happy that Poland is such a good friend to Ukraine. Like the Baltic countries, they have a real understanding of what invasion by Russia means. So, thanks again.
Welcome back.
Gracias, amigo.
Well said John. For what it's worth, what you write (in essays and in books) matters to me. The timeline, not so much.
Maybe I should elaborate.
You are an important point of reference in my personal cosmos -- not because you and I are close (do you remember working with me at Curl? Probably not! And this is ok) but because my beloved technological information revolution has metastasized and I think you understand both the cancer and the body that feeds it better than I do. And it turns out that people like Thiel and their ilk are more relevant than I ever thought.
Damian,
Thank you for your two very kind comments.
Yes I do remember you from Curl, but I don't actually remember what you worked on, odd though that may seem. Some parts of those two years I remember so vividly, and others things might just as well have happened in a dream, or to somebody else in another space-time dimension. Although I was only there for two years, I found friendships there that still exist. Gary Gray and I went on to collaborate on books & on our website Wetmachine for 15 years — I was honored to be Best Man at his wedding. A year after Curl kicked me out the door, Tucker Withington, a prince among us, whom I didn't actually know very well at Curl, recommended me for a techwriting position at a Laszlo Systems, a San Francisco-based startup, and it was one of the best jobs I ever had (for five years, until it imploded). A few months ago Susan LaPierre happened to be on Martha's Vineyard & treated me & my wife to an afternoon tea at Linda Jean's. Conor O'Mahoney is a stalwart supporter of this substack, and Peter Desjardins — who was the first person I had to personally deliver the news that they had been laid off — is another subscriber, Fred bless him. And there are other Curlers too who subscribe, apologies for not remembering or naming you all, but it's been a long, long day so far with many caregiving duties both on- and off-island — and I'm kind of spent, actually.
So thank you again, Damian, and please do elaborate & refresh my memory, either in this thread or privately to me by email, if you prefer: my 1st initial + last name + US @ gmail. (Where '+' works in the javascript way, don't shoot me.)
Such awesome people that I have not worked with in eons. Curl was a place as special as it was screwy. I still miss the language often.
Anyway, let's see -- I was a member of the graphics engineering team. I joined back in early 2000 and was there just shy of two years. I was a (very young) programmer recruit from the gaming industry, under Morgan McGuire (and later, Paul Metzger) -- two great engineers and managers I am lucky to have worked with. (Like many people at Curl, they set the bar for what I came to expect from colleagues. In a good way, for Morgan and Paul!)
Anyway, at the time, I saw nothing wrong with the whole "let's build a platform that can be all things to all people, including game developers," and it was exciting to be a part of that effort. I was too green to understand which of the struggles were due to a muddled mission, and which were due to utter incompetence in the upper echelons. When the decision was made to charge per install, the hubris and disconnection became clearer to me. (It's funny -- Curl was both underfunded for its raw scope of ambition, *and* too expensive to run, when compared to the amount of money it would be able to squeeze out of people for providing a platform. As it ever has been in software, I guess, it's hard to carve out a profitable niche in dev tools when brilliant nerds insist on doing their best work for free and in the open. And I wouldn't want it any other way.)
Good plan. If you need any help, I've got an old ash canoe paddle I can contribute.
When I was a Boy Scout in North Caldwell, NJ, the highlight of the year was the 'Nine Day' trip to a campground in Walpack, on the NJ side of the Delaware River. Understand that when I grew up, North Caldwell, which is long-since completely suburbanized, had some rural about it. My parents owned 12 acres, much of which was pasture, where we grazed our milk cow, Cow Beauty, & several sheep. But Walpack was wilderness to us.
According to Wikipedia, " As of the 2020 United States census, the township's population was 7, a decrease of 9 (−56.3%) from the 2010 census count of 16, which in turn reflected a decline of 34 (−82.9%) from the 41 counted in the 2000 census. Walpack Township was the smallest municipality by population and one of only four municipalities in New Jersey with a population under 100 as of the 2020 Census."
I've often dreamed of, in the words of our Boy Scout campfire song, "Going back to Walpack, happy land, I'm going back to Walpack if I can." Maybe this is the time. By my reading of the map, Walpack is about 12 or 13 miles south of Milford, PA.
So what I suggest is this: after you & I figure out some kind of way to syncrhonize, using your West Point training in back azimuths & so forth, and my Boy Scout semaphore mastery, you toss that paddle into the sacred waters of the holy Delaware, and I will wade in the water to catch it as it floats by.
Thanks for writing this one. I read the two essays from before the election and I agree that they were awfully dark. While I agree with your basic sentiment about the election, I hope for a more hopeful message. Too much hoping I guess.
Anyway, I did read Timothy Snyder's post about the Berlin Wall coming down. I am old enough to remember Lech Wałęsa, his Solidarity, and the Gdańsk shipyard, but I thought the Iron Curtain did literally fall at least in part, at least in Berlin. But apparently I was wrong, but like Snyder I am happy that Poland is such a good friend to Ukraine. Like the Baltic countries, they have a real understanding of what invasion by Russia means. So, thanks again.
Bravo. So mote it be.