From Crying in H Mart:
Some of the earliest memories I can recall are of my mother instructing me to always “save ten percent of yourself.” What she meant was that, no matter how much you thought you loved someone, or thought they loved you, you never gave all of yourself. Save 10 percent, always, so there was something to fall back on. “Even from Daddy, I save,” she would add.
…
I envied and feared my mother’s ability to keep matters private, as every secret I tried to hold close ate away at me. She possessed a rare talent for keeping secrets, even from us. She did not need anyone. She could surprise you with how little she needed you. All those years she instructed me to save 10 percent of myself like she did, I never knew it meant she had also been keeping a part of herself from me too.
So I know xkcd makes fun of tar flags
but I have even more difficulty with rsync.
I think my default flags should be something like rsync -zhvaxPAX.
Answering emails at my desktop feels like clearing a field.
Like, I imagine I'm outside surrounded by grass that's taller than me, and I'm holding this farmer scythe (Vim + Mutt). And I just keep swinging it around wildly, until the emails are all cleared away and I can see in front of me again.
Look, kids, "I'm just being honest" is not an excuse for being mean. Believe me, I can tell the difference between someone who is being honest because they're trying to help, versus someone looking for an excuse to be mean.
One of the most surprising things you'll discover, if you start writing essays, is that people who disagree with you rarely disagree with what you've actually written. Instead they make up something you said and disagree with that.
Yeah, that sounds like what I remember on the few occasions I see people talking about math contests on Reddit.