On Gopher
=========

*Last update: 2020-04-20*

In the past 6 months or so I came across this thing called [Gopher][1]. Gopher
actually predates the HTTP protocol, which is what you think of when you think
about the Internet.

I have a *strong* dislike for the distraction engine that the modern web has
become. We have so much technology available to us, but rather than making our
lives better it's made things worse. Much worse.

We're slave to these little glass and metal panels that we carry around in our
pockets, reacting anytime we hear that "ping" sound. We scroll and scroll and
scroll forever, liking posts and feeding The Algorithm.

But as humans we're unique. We are the only species that can think about
thinking. We can change our behavior by thinking about it and making the
decision to change.

I find an incredible amount of satisfaction in the *focus* that I have when I'm
living in a terminal land. Even if I have IRC chat windows open that somewhat
compete for my attention it's *vastly* less addictive than the psychology that
Facebook and friends employ.

---

I am finding that creating my gopher hole has required me to organize my own
thoughts. Which has been advantageous during the current events. If you're
coming to this later, I'm writing this during the COVID-19 pandemic, hopefully
at the peak of the problems. It's definitely near the first flattening, we'll
probably see a lot of people with false hope saying, "Oh, it wasn't that bad!"
and then go out and get all kinds of infected, screwing things up for the rest
of us.

But with this pandemic there has been a lot of changes, and I'm finding that
the process of organizing my mind and my gopher hole has been extremely
theraputic.

-W

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gopher_(protocol)