User2
About
Hi, I'm user2.
I spend a lot of time thinking about systems, communities, technology, and the ways people interact with each other online. Sometimes that means open source software. Sometimes it means social platforms. Sometimes it means ideas that are difficult to categorize.
I enjoy building things, writing about things, and occasionally overthinking things.
My guiding principle is simple:
Strong opinions, weakly held.
I believe it's important to form conclusions, defend them honestly, and remain willing to change them when confronted with better evidence. Most of the writing on this site is an attempt to do exactly that.
You'll find essays, observations, projects, and the occasional rabbit hole. Some are technical. Some are personal. Most are somewhere in between.
I don't claim to have many answers. I do, however, enjoy asking questions that seem worth thinking about.
Thanks for stopping by.
Why "user2"?
Most usernames are attempts to describe a person.
"user2" is the opposite.
The name isn't meant to say much about who I am. It's meant to remind me that identity is often the least interesting part of a conversation.
What matters is how we think.
How we treat other people.
How we respond to evidence.
How we behave when we're wrong.
How we behave when we're right.
The internet encourages us to focus on personalities. I've always been more interested in ideas.
"user2" is a reminder that the argument should stand on its own, regardless of who makes it.
From the blog
How to rethink the "Live Now" notification and make Discord a portal for your stream.
An interactive portrait of my full TikTok gifting history: 8 million coins, 10,315 gifts, and the people, hours, and streaks that defined the run.
How to use Power-Ups effectively to maximize your gifting impact.
Expected value, variance, and when the consensus advice about gift strategy is wrong.