The world is awful. The world is much better. The world can be much better.

Max Roser’s point of view resonated with me:

If we want more people to dedicate their energy and money to making the world a better place, then we should make it much more widely known that it is possible to make the world a better place.

For this we have to remember that all three statements are true at the same time: the world is awful, the world is much better, and the world can be much better.

Useful Uses of cat

I agree with the author: Using cat to start a pipelines is about composability of commands, and makes it easier to build pipelines in steps. Technically, you could be adding an extra process that you don’t need, but in day to day unix pipe operations, the performance is never an issue.

Data Looks Better Naked

Great illustration of how bad data visualization can be better, by removing design elements. My favorite is the pie chart.