Ben Laurie's timeless piece about "just give a POSIX api" ruins the containment value of a container.
...tep that everyone does, "Put it in a VM and then give it mediated access to the surrounding context" is a cul de sac.
Topic: surrounding context
13 chunks · 11 episodes
Topic summary
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A short read on the topic's time range, peak episode, and strongest associations. Use it as the quick orientation before drilling into examples.
- surrounding context appears in 13 chunks across 11 episodes, from 2023-12-04 to 2026-02-02.
- Its densest episode is Bits and Bobs 2/3/25 (2025-02-03), with 2 observations on this topic.
- Semantically it travels with possibility space, capped downside, and echo chamber, while by chunk count it sits between preferential attachment and team member; its yearly rank moved from #61 in 2023 to #148 in 2026.
Over time
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Raw mentions over time. Use this to see absolute attention, not relative rank among all topics.
Observations
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The primary evidence view for this topic. Sort it chronologically when you want concrete examples behind the larger pattern.
A parasite doesn't have to intend to be a parasite.
...te. Even if it has good incentives, if it's creating net negative value for the surrounding context, it's a parasite. A thing that replicates resiliently and virulently is parasitic, no matter its intentions. The creators of the AI don't have to giv...
One downside of perfectly bespoke tools: they rot away.
...de of perfectly bespoke tools: they rot away.[rm] All software rots away as the surrounding context changes. Tools that are made by someone else for a large market of users tend to be maintained and keep working, because they are constantly in use b...
Social complexity can expand without limit: an insatiable social vortex.
...ire volume it's given. The constraints of the volume are often set based on the surrounding context: how much energy needs to go into the organization surviving and not getting knocked out of the game? Whatever's left will, in the fullness of time, ...
A cynical, unproductive form of insatiable social vortex is kayfabe.
... on its own. It will push past the limit where the organization can survive the surrounding context. The organization now looks strong (look how hard everyone is working!) but is extremely brittle, in a supercritical state. All it takes is the right...
Pockets in a system have different properties than the main system.
...t pocket, at least in some dimension) then it ceases to be a good proxy for the surrounding context.
Aggregators can't allow turing complete things within themselves.
...echnically challenging to allow turing-complete things that interact with their surrounding context safely. But this means aggregators can't grow beyond a certain size. When they start growing in the late stage, they look unstoppable, but in a new d...
Conscientious Feelers (in the Myers Brigg sense) are like tofu.
... Feelers (in the Myers Brigg sense) are like tofu. They absorb the vibes of the surrounding context and people in order to fit in with it. They sometimes keep that absorbed context even when they go to new ones.
The emergent politics in a large organization are kayfabe, which is kind of like LARPing.
...n we often believe. If you "die" in the organization, you're still alive in the surrounding context. This means that there are often clever moves you can do that look risky, but have capped downside. Some people would rather have an "obnoxious aggre...
In the past I've talked about the nerd club pattern.
...many different people find interesting is likely to be found interesting in the surrounding context, too. This is not the case if you have an echo chamber of similar people. But because you've added people to the club with a "novelty search" over di...
Today I wanted to share with you the deepest magic I know, a kind of alchemy: the nerd club.
... and" norm. It's optional and secret, so none of the discussions matter for the surrounding context. If someone says something you think is uninteresting and not worth exploring, you are free to not engage. But if you do engage, you should build on ...
We tend to look at products in isolation, but they are coevolved with their surrounding context.
We tend to look at products in isolation, but they are coevolved with their surrounding context. If you're trying to build a product at a higher pace layer, but it has to fit into a lower, slower pace layer, you'll get bogged down. You need to g...
We do not have infinite agency.
We do not have infinite agency. Our surrounding context constrains our possibility space. That context is a complex emergent cacophony of physical processes, but most importantly the decisions of everyone ...