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Josh Knox

Just Joshin' #190 (Road Trip)

Published 3 months ago • 3 min read

Family Photo:
Road Trip

I'm happy to report Calvin and Lawrence are still excellent road trip companions (see #103 - Screens).

This Thanksgiving, we again visited my sister's family in the Bay Area. This is our third year making that trip. Now it's a tradition (see #31 - Tradition).

It's fun stacking up these newsletters. I get to look back chronicles of our other visits (see #83 - Thankful and #138 - Airplane).

--

We've outgrown our own car for longer travels, so for this year's road trip we rented a minivan.

The rental van key fob had buttons for opening/closing the trunk and sliding doors. When I saw that, I introduced Calvin and Lawrence to the rental by explaining that the trunk was voice-activated. They spent the trip yelling "Open Sesame!" at the back of the van when the trunk needed opening and "Close Sesame!" when it needed closing. I'd discreetly press the key fob button, and the trunk would magically open or close. If they yelled at the trunk when I didn't want it to open or close, I'd just tell them I had turned the voice-activation off.

Maybe someday I'll tell them how that all worked. Maybe they'll find out on their own.

Anyways...we may soon be in the market for a newer, bigger car. If you have any deep thoughts on minivans or SUVs, please reply and let us know.

Dad Joke:
Pit Stop

Source: No Context Humans​

Highlights:
The Other Road Ahead

​The Other Road Ahead by Paul Graham (2001)​

Don't be intimidated. You can do as much that Microsoft can't as they can do that you can't. And no one can stop you. You don't have to ask anyone's permission to develop Web-based applications. You don't have to do licensing deals, or get shelf space in retail stores, or grovel to have your application bundled with the OS. You can deliver software right to the browser, and no one can get between you and potential users without preventing them from browsing the Web.
​
You may not believe it, but I promise you, Microsoft is scared of you. The complacent middle managers may not be, but Bill is, because he was you once, back in 1975, the last time a new way of delivering software appeared.

​Making the Internet Alive Again by Gaby Goldberg​

For a majority of car rides — maybe you’re commuting to work, driving to the airport, or running errands — a self-driving car might be your first choice. But for a select number of car rides — maybe you’re on vacation, or with friends on a road trip — you absolutely want to be in the driver’s seat. Even better, you want the top down, your favorite music blaring. Any element of “abstracting away” the driving experience would be counterintuitive. The journey itself, not the destination, is the product.

​Seventy Miles in Hell by Caitlin Dickerson​

Once Bergkan’s family made it to southern Mexico, they rode in a series of vans called combis, which are the cheapest way to travel on the country’s dangerous rural highways. They say they lost count of the times that narcos, police officers, and Mexican immigration officials boarded the vans and demanded bribes. They made Central Americans and Caribbeans pay more than the Venezuelans—everyone knew they were the poorest. The last group of armed men kept their request modest: “100 pesos per person,” they said, about $6. “It’s not that much.” Sixteen days after the family left Bajo Chiquito, they arrived in Mexico City.

​In The Long Run, We're All Dad by Scott Alexander​

Parents are supposed to teach their children the skills they need to navigate the world. This already feels somewhat obsolete - where are the Google programmers who were taught Python by their fathers, or the Instagram influencers who learned content creation on their mother’s knee? Soon it will be completely hopeless. Where we’re going there are no roads. You’ll have to figure it out by yourself.
​
I’ve always wondered why I wrote so much. Now I realize I was leaving you bread crumbs.

​On the Usefulness of Photography by Simon Sarris​

In pictures from a road trip to the Yosemite valley, pictures of the Yosemite vistas were not the most interesting interesting. What was interesting was seeing my uncle and mother as children, and how they got on in their RV. This has always stuck with me, and for years I tried to not take any photos unless a person was in frame.

iamJoshKnox Highlights:

The Road Not Taken | Robert Frost

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The Road Not Taken | Robert...
Dead Artist Collective
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Until next week,
​iamJoshKnox​​

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Josh Knox

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