# Town Hall #20: Pinball [^note]: [Subscribe to Taylor's Town Hall via email](https://newsletter.taylor.town). I'll be visiting the San Francisco Bay Area next week, from Tuesday (Feb 20) to Friday (Feb 23)! Email me at [hello@taylor.town](mailto:hello@taylor.town?subject=sf) if you'd like to grab coffee, resist authority, or play some pinball. Meanwhile, I've fallen into a research rabbit-hole surrounding Samuel Colt and the birth of the revolver. I know nothing about guns, so feel free to [email me](mailto:hello@taylor.town?subject=guns,%20guns,%20and%20germs) with insights and reading recommendations. ## Writings - [Clean your codebase with basic information theory](https://taylor.town/compress-code) - [Podcast RSS XML (in Ugly SQL)](https://taylor.town/xml-sql) - [A Simple SRS Algo (in Ugly SQL)](https://taylor.town/flashcasts-srs-algo) - [An Antidote to Subscription Fatigue](https://taylor.town/lifetime-licenses) - ☆ [Frugly vs. Freemium](https://taylor.town/frugly) - [eventbrite.ics](https://taylor.town/eventbrite-ics) - [Nontrepeneur: Steve Wozniak](https://taylor.town/non-woz) - [Nontrepeneur: Clifford Stoll](https://taylor.town/non-stoll) - [Nontrepeneur: Derek Sivers](https://taylor.town/non-sivers) - ☆ [On Nontrepeneurship](https://taylor.town/nontrepeneur) - [That Vonnegut/Heller Story](https://taylor.town/enough) - [Everything Worse Than Previously Thought](https://taylor.town/mtpt) - ☆ [a jar of dirt, or how we failed to exhume my great-great-uncle](https://taylor.town/jar-of-dirt) ## Projects - **[flashcasts](https://flashcasts.com):** New thing! It's flashcards in a private podcast feed. - **[licensure](https://github.com/surprisetalk/licensure)**: I wrote a script that records all changes to licenses on GitHub. I can't remember why I wrote it. - **[wishwell.io](https://wishwell.io):** The donation/subscription model wasn't working, so I'm pivoting to a model where supporters can pay $250 to purchase crappy drawings. - **[wigwam.directory](https://wigwam.directory):** Added [MYOG](https://learnmyog.com/). - **[scrapscript](https://scrapscript.org):** I've been obsessively working on "scrapland", which is like a GitHub-Heroku-Gmail-GoDaddy-Auth0-BitTorrent-GumRoad-AppStore, painstakingly crafted into the world's biggest ball of yarn. It's probably the coolest thing I've ever made, and it's already surprisingly close to complete. - **[blogs.hn](https://blogs.hn):** I really want to make an omnibus RSS feed for all the feeds in the directory. Oh well. ## Recommendations [^note]: You can also scour my entire history of [book reviews](/books), [album ratings](/music), and [active podcasts](/podcasts). You may also want to [read about my rating system](/2-stars). ### Books {books} | | | | | ---: | ----------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------ | | ★★★★ | [review](/books#mr-feynman) | _Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!_ :: _Richard Feynman_ | | ★★★★ | [review](/books#hunt-gather-parent) | _Hunt, Gather, Parent_ :: Michaeleen Doucleff | | ★★★★ | [review](/books#hour-of-the-star) | _The Hour of the Star_ :: Clarice Lispector | | ★★★★ | [review](/books#death-foretold) | _Chronicle of a Death Foretold_ :: Gabriel García Márquez | | ★★★★ | [review](/books#cradle-to-cradle) | _Cradle to Cradle_ :: William McDonough and Michael Braungart | | ★★★ | [review](/books#the-information) | _The Information_ :: James Gleick | | ★★★ | [review](/books#salvation) | _Salvation_ :: Peter F. Hamilton | | ★★★ | [review](/books#life-of-ivan) | _One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich_ :: Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn | | ★★★ | [review](/books#faster) | _Faster_ :: _James Gleick_ | | ★★★ | [review](/books#becoming-yourself) | _Although Of Course You End Up Becoming Yourself_ :: David Lipsky | | ★★★ | [review](/books#be-alone) | _How to be Alone_ :: _Jonathen Franzen_ | | ★★ | [review](/books#rainbows-end) | _Rainbow's End_ :: Vernor Vinge | | ★★ | [review](/books#nature-home) | _Bringing Nature Home_ :: Douglas W. Tallamy | | ★★ | [review](/books#joy-of-x) | _The Joy of X_ :: Steven Strogatz | | ★★ | [review](/books#bad-weather) | _No Such Thing as Bad Weather_ :: Linda Åkeson McGurk | | | [review](/books#so-long) | _So Long, See You Tomorrow_ :: William Maxwell | ### Music {music} | | | | ----: | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | ★★★★★ | Comus :: _First Utterance_ | | ★★★★★ | Akademiska Damkören Lyran :: _Låt mig vara den jag är_ | | ★★★★ | black midi :: _Hellfire_ | | ★★★★ | Unleash the Archers :: _Abyss_ | | ★★★★ | The Mountain Goats :: _Beat the Champ_ | | ★★★★ | The Bothy Band :: _Old Hag You Have Killed Me_ | | ★★★★ | Terry Riley :: _Riley: A Rainbow in Curved Air, Poppy Nogood and the Phantom Band_ | | ★★★★ | Shohei Amimori :: _PataMusic_ | | ★★★★ | Scale The Summit :: _The Migration_ | | ★★★★ | Right Away, Great Captain! :: _The Eventually Home_ | | ★★★★ | Phronesis :: _Life to Everything_ | | ★★★★ | Oneohtrix Point Never :: _Garden Of Delete_ | | ★★★★ | Lxmp :: _Trois Suites + Une Miniature - EP_ | | ★★★★ | Friendly Fires :: _Friendly Fires_ | | ★★★★ | Floral :: _Floral EP_ | | ★★★★ | Dezron Douglas & Brandee Younger :: _Force Majeure_ | | ★★★ | The Beach Boys :: _The Beach Boys Today!_ | | ★★★ | TEMPLIME & Hoshimiya Toto :: _HYOJYO Remixes - EP_ | | ★★★ | Snarky Puppy :: _the only constant_ | | ★★★ | Mount Kimbie :: _Crooks & Lovers_ | | ★★★ | Moe Shop :: _Pure Pure - EP_ | | ★★★ | Meg Hutchinson :: _The Crossing_ | | ★★★ | Maxo :: _Dawn//Noon//Dusk//Mdnt_ | | ★★★ | Genesis Owusu :: _Smiling with No Teeth_ | | ★★★ | Fearofdark :: _Dr Kobushi's Labyrinthine Laboratory (Original Soundtrack)_ | | ★★★ | FLOOR BABA :: _My World Is For Everyone_ | | ★★★ | Extra Life :: _Dream Seeds_ | | ★★★ | Ensemble InterContemporain, New York Philharmonic & Pierre Boulez :: _Carter: A Symphony of Three Orchestras_ | | ★★★ | Burden of a Day :: _Oneonethousand_ | | ★★★ | Blonde Redhead :: _Fake Can Be Just as Good_ | | ★★★ | Animal Collective :: _Feels_ | | ★★ | Street Sects :: _End Position_ | | ★★ | Sia :: _Some People Have REAL Problems_ | | ★★ | Rooftops :: _A Forest of Polarity_ | | ★★ | Portico Quartet :: _Monument_ | | ★★ | Phoenix :: _United_ | | ★★ | Perfume :: _JPN_ | | ★★ | Oso Oso :: _sore thumb_ | | ★★ | Melt-Banana :: _Fetch_ | | ★★ | Kinoko Teikoku :: _Aino Yukue_ | | ★★ | I See Stars :: _The End Of The World Party_ | | ★★ | He Is Legend :: _I Am Hollywood_ | | ★★ | Govlink :: _Kaleidoscope_ | | ★★ | Govlink :: _10 Chambers_ | | ★★ | Giraffage :: _Too Real_ | | ★★ | Frank Zappa :: _Hot Rats_ | | ★★ | Followed By Ghosts :: _The Entire City Was Silent_ | | ★★ | Evil Needle :: _Qualia_ | | ★★ | Edaline :: _I Wrote the Last Chapter for You_ | | ★★ | Desired :: _Lovestory_ | | ★★ | Beach Fossils :: _Bunny_ | | ★★ | ABBA :: _Arrival_ | | ★ | 박혜진 Park Hye Jin :: _Before I Die_ | | ★ | Third Eye Blind :: _Out Of The Vein_ | | ★ | The Strokes :: _Is This It_ | | ★ | Rihanna :: _Music of the Sun_ | | ★ | Matana Roberts :: _Coin Coin Chapter Four: Memphis_ |