Pylimitics

Simplicity rearranged

unmonetizable content since 1997

  • Cruel, Stupid, or Both?

    The Affordable Care Act has now been around for 15 years. It’s a very complicated combination that accommodates greed, human rights, and pragmatism. The greed it accommodates comes from the demands of the wealthy and powerful health insurance industry, which now believes it’s entitled to profit from misery because…well, because. I’m using “human rights” as Continue reading

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  • I’ve visited Kansas…

    …but I didn’t get the impression it was the sort of place where the Secretary of State would have to issue a public reminder to a newspaper that it wasn’t Election Day in the state, or that Kansans can’t vote in elections in other states. Continue reading

  • The edge of vision 8

    Part 8Roger has a steady routine. He uses the LTD to get around town, and if you visited his house you wouldn’t see his Prius. He’s not sure where he parked it. It’s not in the garage or the driveway. He doesn’t miss it, though, and hasn’t thought about it in weeks. He shops for Continue reading

  • Speaking of facts…

    There is a style of mental activity (I hesitate to call it “thought”) that seems obviously to be in the ascendance lately. It features espousing a position, opinion, or belief that’s easily demonstrated to be false — that is, in opposition to what anyone can perceive — and yet “doubling down” on that nonsense even Continue reading

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  • Best quote from a republic ever

    Mike Johnson, the speaker of the house and a leader in the republic party, just drooled this out:“Don’t get lost in the facts.” The great aspiration of the US has always been that people would be rational, honest actors. That’s clearly gone, at least among the republics. Continue reading

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  • A bill of goods

    “We’ve been sold a bill of goods in this country that we’re divided. We’re divided by gender, we’re divided by race, we’re divided by who we love, we’re divided by where we worship or whether we worship at all. And now they’re trying to tell us that we’re divided by Democrats, Republicans, and Independents. Let Continue reading

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  • Symiliptic report tober 28

    The many discussions and thoughts that went into creating the sixth republic often involved citizenship. Many of us had concluded that it was citizenship that most contributed to the fall of the fourth republic. The idea of citizenship, and how it was assumed to be a thing that was conferred either by birth or by Continue reading

  • Navigation versus implementation

    Years ago I designed mobile phone software. At the time, phones were just beginning to be able to connect to the internet, so we had a web browser. Since the platform was a phone, it made sense to us to provide a way to automatically dial a phone number you found on a web page. Continue reading

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  • Two approaches

    There are (at least) two general approaches to creating something technically new. At least I think there are. One is externally oriented. The creator notices or is given a situation or problem that somebody else experiences, and the creator tries to come up with a technical solution. The other is internally oriented. The creator finds Continue reading

  • The edge of vision 7

    part 7 Roger mechanically transferred his groceries from his cart onto the moving belt at the grocery checkout line. He zoned out while shopping, just picking the usual packages from the usual places on the shelves. He barely noticed when the elderly clerk called for a price check. But then she asked him where he Continue reading

About Me

I’m Pete Harbeson, a writer located near Boston, Massachusetts. In addition to writing my own content, I’ve learned to translate for my loquacious and opinionated pup Chocolate Bossypaws. I shouldn’t be surprised, but she mostly speaks in doggerel. You can find her contributions tagged with Chocolatiana.

Check out my other blog, Techlimitics, where I’m grappling with the nature of simplicity.

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