Sam Killermann's Blog: Dear World

When you’re trying to learn a new thing — a skill, talent, instrument, sport, language, anything — there are a million things that can derail you.

It’s hard not to become fatigued, discouraged, frustrated, lose sight of your goal, or become distracted by a brighter light in your life.

Even assuming you get everything else right, and none of those detours push you off path, it’s still common to plateau early and stop making progress.

This rule is to prevent that from happening: say hello to...

How many things have you been mad about in the past week? How many meltdown-level shares have you seen in your social feeds?

Every day there’s something new that my entire social bubble is furious about (at least if feels that way). The Rage du Jour.

It’s the backlash for some stupid thing a politician did. Or the horrible take a celebrity had in response to a current event. Or a current event that isn’t getting the right coverage from the news. Or, sometimes, it’s rage about rage: the fact...

Elizabeth Warren has thrown her hat in on a bold idea that’s been in the air for a long time: cancel student loan debt.

Not interest rate decreases, or refinancing, or other half-measures, but an all out cancelation of up to $50K in student loan debt for anyone whose income is $100K or less. Combined with universal free public higher education going forward.

I was first introduced to this idea back in the early 2010s the Rolling Jubilee, a project by Strike Debt, which has now evolved into T...

With more and more people talking about “the left cannibalizing itself” and “liberals eating their own,” or how “democrats need to unite to defeat Trump,” we need to keep reminding ourselves and others about the problem of progressivism — instead of just beating the dead horse that is the problems within progressivism.

I’ll start with the second one, because that’s what everyone won’t stop yelling about, and I’m afraid if I don’t do a little yelling you won’t hear me out on the part of this t...

I updated samuelkillermann.com/now with the two main projects I’m working on right meow.

Read all about the the SJMD Course & Community and Facilitator Cards here. I explain what’s my goals are, how I’m (co-)creating them, and roughly when you can expect to see them in the world.

The post Updated my /Now: Working on Social Justice, Minus Dogma + Facilitator Cards, by Sam Killermann, appeared first on sK's Blog

Usually, when I’m at home in Austin, I work in coffee shops. Today, I’m working from our gobsmackingly beautiful public library. And I can’t help but repeatedly ask myself “What would happen if someone pitched the idea of a public library today?”

It’s a broken record in my brain. An audio loop. It plays every time I turn a corner in this space.

“What would it sound like to argue for the idea of a public library in 2019?”

I generally try to spend $10 – $15 whenever I set up camp to work for...

Consider a few alternatives. Let’s say I told you:

A. I want to remove every unhealthy habit, food, and mindset from my life, and I’m going to start tomorrow.

B. I’m going to eat less sugar, starting tomorrow.

When tomorrow comes, which one are you likely to hold me accountable to? Which might you help me excuse when I fall short? Which are you actually expecting me to do? Or even realistically try?

Let’s do a few more with those questions in mind.

I say:

A. It’s my goal to transform my countr...

A lot of us are addicted to our phones. If you’ve started to see why this might not be the best thing ever, and want to ween yourself off of that tantalizingly non-nourishing blue glow, you’re in good company. This is something I’ve been thinking about, and experimenting with, for a few years now. Following are three things you knock out in about 15 minutes, that will benefit you for weeks.

Before I get into those, I want to be clear: I’m talking about the colloquial, not clinical, usage of t...

My last few weeks have been marked by creativity. I love that feeling. I want to make it happen more.

Bill Gates is frequently quoted for saying, “Most people overestimate what they can do in one year and underestimate what they can do in ten years.”

I feel this contrast more intensely on a smaller scale: we overestimate what we can do in a day, and underestimate what we can do in a year.

It’s so easy for me to think of myself as a creative person — a writer, a doodler, a designer, a coder —...

Because I’m self-taught in most things I do — from programming to design to animation — a lot of my friends ask me for tips on how to learn a particular thing.

“I want to learn how to make websites,” a friend will ask. “Where do you think I should start?”

Over the years, I’ve given a lot of different responses. Pointing people to free online resources for learning, like Codecademy or Khan Academy. Or telling them to join a local workshop or meet-up. Or both.

It’s not how I learned, but it’s e...