Perl’s Decline was Cultural by Colin M. Strickland

What culture? Perl always had a significant amount of what you might call “BOFH” culture, which came from its old UNIX sysadmin roots. All of those passive aggressive idioms and in jokes like “RTFM”, “lusers”, “wizards”, “asking for help the wrong way” etc. None of this is literally serious, but it does encode and inform social norms that are essentially tribal and introverted. There implicitly is a privileged population, with a cost of entry to join. Dues must be paid. Cultural conservatism as a first principle.

The problem with this thinking is that it’s self-reinforcing. Working hard to master system complexities was genuinely rewarding — you really were doing difficult things and doing them well. This is actually the same mechanism behind what eventually became known as ‘meritocracy’, but the core point is simpler — if difficulty itself becomes a badge of honour, you’ve created a trap: anything that makes the system more approachable starts to feel like it’s cheapening what you achieved. You become invested in preserving the barriers you overcame.

You don’t have to be a “content creator” to have a website by Ana Rodrigues

The goal of a personal website is to be reachable. I have a simple landing page with information on how to contact me.

You don’t have to be a content creator to have a website. […]

Give yourself permission to exist and be seen regardless of whether you have a blog, side projects or “content” - whatever it means.

AI is Destroying the University and Learning Itself by Ronald Purser

The California State University system has now written the next chapter of that story. Facing deficits and enrollment declines, administrators embraced the rhetoric of AI-innovation as if it were salvation. When CSU Chancellor Mildred Garcia announced the $17-million partnership with OpenAI, the press release promised a “highly collaborative public-private initiative” that would “elevate our students’ educational experience” and “drive California’s AI-powered economy.” This corporate-speak reads like a press release ChatGPT could have written.

Meanwhile, at San Francisco State, entire graduate programs devoted to critical inquiry—Women and Gender Studies and Anthropology—were being suspended due to lack of funding. But not to worry: everyone got a free ChatGPT Edu license!