Episode 21: Programming, Scooters, and Evangelicalism 🤮

Please unsubscribe if you don't want these emails. I used to write nearly exclusively about software development, but due to "life circumstances" have shifted my focus, for a time.

First, for the software people among you, I have a question - what is your top one or two problems that you're facing right now? I could think of things around getting a job, building a feature, dealing with a process at the job (meetings, deploys, qa environments), or dealing with a manager or direct report. I'm curious.

Second, for those of you who travel about your world, I've got some scooter videos for you. I'd like to normalize scooting, and something I appreciate about Bali is how common scooting is. So, here's my favorite road in Ubud. It's quite narrow, and delightful in every way:

​https://www.tiktok.com/@josh_exists/video/7228498136900160810​

If I could have anything I wanted, it would be to help with the sale of a few thousand scooters in Denver. There's almost 3 million people in Denver, and supposedly if 3.5% of a population makes a change, that's enough to move the rest. So, if 100,000 Denverites started riding scooters, that would in theory be enough to re-make the transportation infrastructure of the entire city.

I think the real figure could be much less. 3.5% of that figure would be 1000, and I'd settle for seeing 3,500 new scooter riders in the city. Feels audacious, but it really isn't. I think 90% of the population of Bali uses scooters exclusively, to them it would be unfathomable to have so few scooter riders as Denver.

If you live in Denver, and are part of a multi-person household where you might retain access to a car, via your partner, for when situations demand it, you could effortlessly become a one-car household if you augmented that car with a scooter. You'd save a ton of money and time.

Write me back if you live in Denver and want a scooter tour. I'll visit, we'll scoot around, and I'll help you determine if you'd be better off with a scooter. I will probably charge a nominal fee for the time and effort. ($100+)

Third, for those of you who have interacted with evangelicalism, ever.

I promised a big write-up on my own recent intellectual evolution on the topic, which is inclusive of being raised 'in the church', and then more recently having some experiences, that, coupled with a few books, caused me to make some big updates to my beliefs.

It's many words, and contains twists, turns, and links to books with titles like "The Origins of Proslavery Christianity" and "The Non-Violent Atonement".

​https://josh.works/on-leaving-evangelicalism ​

It's a bit long. I struggled with this post for a long time, to make it manageable enough to read, but to also fill it with enough information that the threads are coherent. I actually strongly dislike what I've written, but just sitting on it and not publishing it for another few months doesn't feel right.

I have, at times, been subjected to withering critiques from people who I once thought were 'on the same side' as me, whatever that means. I've been over-affected by their critiques, because they would subsequently refuse to engage with me. Saying 'you're wrong', and then engaging in shunning behavior is what emotionally immature people do, but originally I'd not assessed them as emotionally immature. A huge portion of my life of late has swirled around the topics of recognizing and dealing with people who knowingly abuse others.

The post is long, and, critically, hinges on a two other blog posts I wrote, so if you read the post straight through, it would take about an hour. If you read some of the other articles I wrote containing quotes from the books, you could spend two hours reading.

If you read the books I reference, which I'm so eagerly begging you to do, if you consider yourself to be religious in any way, you'll spend another 20 or 30 (or more) hours reading, though, so I consider the juice to be worth the squeeze.

Here's the link again:

👉 https://josh.works/on-leaving-evangelicalism​

- Josh

PS There's comments enabled on the Evangelicalism post. If you don't have a github account but want to leave a comment, make a github account. If you're a software person, you already have a github account.

I'm very, very happy to discuss this more via email, or even in-person. It is my attempt at encapsulating the most meaningful learnings I've ever done. I have been angry at times during the writing, but alas.

My laptop battery is now at 3%, so I'm smashing the "send email" button. Good luck to us all.

PPS The potential value to your life of 3-20 hours of reading is high. Please consider reading the books and articles, especially if you have anyone in your life associated with a formal religeous institution.