Roxana

“So long as you write what you wish to write, that is all that matters; and whether it matters for ages or only for hours, nobody can say.” Virginia Woolf, A Room of One's Own

Parkinson’s Law, Hawaiian Time, and the Space Between

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People get cast in molds (of status and roles) for which they are variously equipped. The problem lies between man’s creativeness and diversity and the rather specific needs of his institutions, for most cultures and the institutions they engender represent highly specialized solutions to rather specific problems. For example, in England during the early days of the industrial revolution, villagers and field hands were brought into the factory to work. These first generations of mill hands were not conditioned to the whistle. Like all preindustrial …

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Lynley Dodd: Stories Hidden in Plain Sight

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The fewer the words, the harder the job. Dame Lynley Dodd Finding non-anthropomorphic children’s books about animals with exquisite rhyme and repetition is remarkably difficult. When our daughter turned two, that crucial age for language acquisition, we discovered Hairy Maclary from Donaldson’s Dairy, and we immediately fell under the magic of New Zealand author-illustrator Lynley Dodd. We devoured every book we could find, meeting the unforgettable cast of characters: Hairy Maclary himself, Schnitzel von Krumm with his very low tum, Bitzer Maloney all skinny and bony, …

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A Timeline of Communication Patterns – What Comes Next (part 3)

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Articles in the series: A Timeline of Communication Patterns – Introduction (part 1) A Timeline of Communication Patterns – Recurring Themes (part 2) A Timeline of Communication Patterns – What Comes Next (part 3) Our previous analysis reveals that societies selectively innovate based on their most deeply held values and most pressing constraints. AI development follows a similar pattern of selection. Just as Mesopotamian writing systems emerged for transactional clarity (tracking grain, livestock, and debts), AI prioritizes structured data over visual flair, parsing massive …

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A Timeline of Communication Patterns – Recurring Themes (part 2)

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Articles in the series: A Timeline of Communication Patterns – Introduction (part 1) A Timeline of Communication Patterns – Recurring Themes (part 2) A Timeline of Communication Patterns – What Comes Next (part 3) As described in the previous article, communication technologies compressed time and space, creating shared experiences across vast geographic and historical dimensions. Innovation through Constraints Throughout history, we observe a pattern where new communication methods emerge precisely to overcome the constraints of their predecessors. Consider how clay tokens addressed the fundamental …

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A Timeline of Communication Patterns – Introduction (part 1)

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Articles in the series: A Timeline of Communication Patterns – Introduction (part 1) A Timeline of Communication Patterns – Recurring Themes (part 2) A Timeline of Communication Patterns – What Comes Next (part 3) Smiling, touching, watching, copying, talking, listening, singing, dancing, painting, writing, and making; these are the ways we have always connected with one another. From cave paintings to the latest AI models, our methods of communication have been shaped by the culture in which we are born, power hierarchies, and the …

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Celebrating Mărțișor, A Romanian Heritage

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On March 1st, we Romanians celebrate Mărțișor to mark the beginning of spring. Mărțișor is a small red and white string, often embellished with trinkets like hearts, clovers, birds, horseshoes, flowers, chimney sweeps, symbolizing renewal, protection, good fortune, love, or the continuity of life. The red and white colors represent cosmic balance: red for vitality and life and white for purity and snow, embodying the transition from winter to spring. [Romanian] Dochia e cea întâia zi de primăvară. În ziua de Dochia, se face mărţişor: un …

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Writing Insights (2024)

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Writing as a Thinking Practice Writing is a powerful exercise in refining thought, unearthing new insights, and building clarity. As William Zinsser famously said in his On Writing Well classic: Clear thinking becomes clear writing; one can’t exist without the other. One sharpens the other as writing forces us to slow down and organize our thoughts in ways that speaking or thinking alone often cannot achieve. At its best, clear writing transcends the personal and becomes universal by tapping into shared human experiences and …

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Worth Sharing #7: Feel Good Stories about Everyday Extraordinary

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Sometimes, it is the quirky, the overlooked, or the downright difficult that brings us a smile or a thought. Sometimes, we need moments like these, an array of stories, not neatly correlated but a jump from one thought to another, to wander and wonder. Born in 1875 in Arles, France, Jeanne Calment witnessed the turning of two centuries and the transformations they brought with them. At the age of 90, Jeanne entered into a contract with 47-year-old lawyer André-François Raffray, who agreed to pay …

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