While looking for gold nuggets of knowledge on Facilitation, the YouTube algorithm recommended me this video. The author talks about how his choice of studies and his activism days taught him everything about conducting a great meeting. 

I had this unbelievable insight. The way you design a meeting shapes the behavior of participants. If you design it for democratic values, for collaboration and mutuality in exchange, that what you get. If you design it (or don't design it) in another way, you get discord and conflict and hierarchy. The key is in the meeting facilitator.

When I facilitate meetings, I'm designing a temporary environment in which work gets done. So, I'm really thinking like an architect. When I design an agenda to help an individual see the world in new ways, I'm really thinking like a psychologist. When I design a series of meetings over time to help an organization change its culture, I'm really thinking like an anthropologist.

Winston Churchill said: "We shape our buildings and they in turn shape us.". I'm fond of saying "We shape our meetings, and they in turn shape us."

Linux’s beauty lies in being coerced to learn a shitload of stuff to administrate your own system. I must admit I feel I’ve been dumbed down by all these years of blissful macOS usage. Last year I built myself a Linux desktop, and since then, I’ve been taking my digital sovereignty more seriously. 

I still use cloud services for sure, but I don’t trust them anymore with my data. My Music library was absolutely crushed by Apple Music. Also, data is leaking everywhere, and what is supposed to be trusted shouldn’t be (I’m looking at you, Apple, and your dubious encryption claims.) 

« Trois ou quatre fois seulement dans ma jeunesse, j’ai entrevu les îles de la Joie avant que les brouillards, dépressions, fronts froids, vents mauvais et courants contraires ne les emportent… Croyant qu’il s’agissait des terres de l’âge adulte, je pensais les revoir au cours de mon périple ; aussi ne pris-je la peine d’en enregistrer ni la latitude, ni la longitude, ni la voie d’approche. Jeune et fieffé crétin. Que ne donnerais-je aujourd’hui pour obtenir une carte définitive d’un immuable ineffable ? Posséder, si pareille chose existait, une cartographie des nuages. »

Lockdowns are a perfect excuse to spend a ridiculous amount of time pretending reality doesn’t existimproving my Home network security.

I switched to using the OpenWRT firmware on my router last year (yes, it was during a lockdown) and never went back to using something else. The OpenWRT team has managed to produce qualitative software that is both very powerful, yet usable. Unlike MicroTik that is hardly approachable by a beginner, OpenWRT found the right balance. Let me be clear, though: network engineering is something I dread as I have a shallow understanding of the networking stack.

Scrolling through the infinity of what has become Bandcamp Daily, I discovered a remarkable album of psychedelic rock from a band called Shadow Show. This trio from Detroit delivers a solid 10 tracks album. Kate Derringer (also bass player of the trio) did a great work on the mix (as well as on the bass!). It sounds like it comes straight from the 60s but with a cleaner touch. Vocals harmonics are especially great as well. I can’t wait to hear the vinyl.