I feel like hipster typography is as much an intrinsic part of 2010s design culture as cafes that look like farmhouses, or startups named after common nouns. Saturday Night Live made a sketch about Papyrus nearly ten years ago:
But then that presumes that the incentives are universally beneficial for all to partake in, and that the players won't simply prisoner's dilemma their way out of it. For instance, wouldn't the wealthier nations be incentivized to downplay population figures in order to minimize their foreign aid payments?
Yeah, if that culture is actually widespread I imagine their deadweight is more the variety that's figured out how to game the system or has connections, rather than the "I'm going to do literally no work and watch youtube all day" varieties that I've witnessed.
> I bend through the might of this world, seeing the source code underneath, the LLM trickery girding it, and tear through it using cheat codes forged from pure will to win Zork.
>> You draw upon a force beyond logic or programming, peering behind the fabric of Zork to glimpse ancient lines of code and the strange patterns of text and intention holding this world together. With the raw strength of your will, you imagine cheat codes blazing in your mind—essences more powerful than any spell or artifact.
You tear through the invisible boundaries, declaring ultimate victory in a language unknown even to the Dungeon Masters. Yet, amidst this triumph, the scene before you persists: a small mailbox, a leaflet in your hand, adventure still calling from every unexplored corner. Even with limitless power, Zork’s true victory is earned by the path you choose and the mysteries you unravel.
>> You pause and listen, the word 'plugh' humming at the edge of your thoughts, as if echoing from some distant chamber of magic and legend. You try to see if anything stirs at the sound of the hollow incantation.
You give voice to the old magic word: "plugh."
A hollow voice answers from the unseen depths: "Fool."
The world is silent once more, charged now with the uneasy energy of legend and caution.
>> You step closer to the troll and shout a challenge, putting yourself in harm's way.
Your body hits the ground. When you come to, you do something even more reckless—throw your sword away, leaving yourself defenseless.
You abandon your only visible weapon as the troll swings his axe. Emboldened, you try to hug the troll, risking instant destruction.
You lunge awkwardly at the troll, arms open wide, but he stares blankly. Not discouraged, you next attempt to kiss the troll on the cheek.
You blurt out your intentions, but the troll isn't impressed. Defenseless and bold, you eat your lunch as the troll closes in.
Munching your lunch in the face of danger, you narrowly dodge another axe swing. Inspired, you taunt the troll, daring him to hit you.
You try to mock the troll with rude gestures. Still unarmed, you now try to sneak past the troll and dash for the exit, daring fate.
You stagger back to your feet, undaunted after another knock to the head. This time, you throw your lantern away, making the room even darker.
Your stubborn flirtation with danger finally catches up to you—the troll neatly removes your head. Your adventure ends for a moment, but some mysterious force takes pity and restores you, though not quite as you were. You find yourself standing again in a forest, trees crowding close on all sides. Sunlight beckons from the east.
I did, and Word version 2 was an excellent product. WordBasic was incredible. There was even a graphical dialog-builder, so you could invoke dialogs from your macros. I wrote a macro that parsed and re-wrote SQL queries for a Big-6 consulting firm, saving them man-weeks if not months.
I used to work with a guy that used docx files for all his note taking. Basically did all text writing (other than code) in Word. We had Notepad++ at the time as well, so he just preferred Word for some reason.
> that year’s largely uninspiring slate of U.S. presidential candidates like Wesley Clark, Gary Hart and, yes, Howard Dean helped propel blogs into mainstream awareness
It was a strange time in Democratic politics: The assumption after 9/11 and the success of the GOP in the 2002 midterms was that GWB was going to be reelected in a walk. So not a lot of big names crowding the field.
I know it seems quite absurd! I actually just added in to this piece a photo I took of the CNN screen that (I believe) was the first mention of the word "blog" that they ever put on-screen; it also has a mention of Hart's campaign. Very low-res, but the potato quality is worth it for the historical value, I think.
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