Joe Cecil

Take seriously but not authoritatively

I'm reading some questionable books lately. Questionable in the sense that the contents should be questioned. If I didn't question them I wouldn't be getting much value out of them – just another ideology. (Strictly speaking I guess that's most, maybe all books.

Profile photos

I've been thinking about dating profile photos in the context of the "love or hate" theory of profile creation. The theory goes that profiles that optimize for love-or-hate reactions get you more and higher-quality potential dates than optimizing for general likeability. That's because a

Seeing people as interesting

It turns out I can view people as interesting, though I am not naturally inclined to let go in this way. Viewing people as interesting is less of an action in itself than a letting-go. It's possible for me to let go, though! I'm practicing. It&

Error handling

I've been thinking about error handling lately. I'm working with a Flask route that looks something like this: @app.route("/api/parse_thing", methods=["POST"]) def parse_thing(): ... url = "{settings.parse_server}/some/parsing/aid" params = {"foo": "

Screaming into the pillow

I tried screaming into the pillow today, and it really helped expand my range of vocal possibility. I got this from someone else. One of my podmates — a student I practice with — was thinking of ways to expand the upper range of energy that he's comfortable with. That&

Joe Cecil © 2026