Readit Newshttps://ft.io — mostly blogging about product management.
Nice URL that is a win
tevon commented on The Subtle Injury – Being pretty good tevonsb.com/thoughts/subt... · Posted by u/tevon
Being "pretty good" holds us back by atrophying our ability to handle hard things.
tevon commented on Quality of drinking water varies significantly by airline foodmedcenter.org/2026-ce... · Posted by u/azinman2
Worth a listen to this podcast: https://pjvogt.substack.com/p/wait-should-i-not-be-drinking-...
tevon commented on Show HN: 22 GB of Hacker News in SQLite hackerbook.dosaygo.com... · Posted by u/keepamovin
The link seems to be down, was it taken down?
tevon commented on Times New American: A Tale of Two Fonts hsu.cy/2025/12/times-new-... · Posted by u/firexcy
> The general public doesn’t perceive serif typefaces as professional and authoritative, a priori, before prioritizing their use in formal settings. Instead, people first observe that government, academia, and corporate workplaces disproportionately use serif faces — or are trained to use them — and only then infer that serifs must mean professionalism and authority.
A difficult to stomach claim followed up with evidence that I think supports the opposite than the author intended: the font being in used in The Times of London, which is indeed authoritative and professional despite it being written on cheap paper.
On another note, I would throw up if I had to read legal documents all day in a sans-serif font.
Completely agree. This statement is immediately disproven by the authors following points. Eg pointing out that the supreme court, and other authoritative bodies exclusively use serif fonts...
Of course there is no "a priori", the general public doesn't know what a letter is "a priori" until they are taught. At the same time they are taught which fonts are formal and authoritative and which are not.
Everyone knows Comic Sans is not appropriate for a legal brief. No matter if that is "a priori" or not.
tevon commented on Times New American: A Tale of Two Fonts hsu.cy/2025/12/times-new-... · Posted by u/firexcy
The argument here doesn't hold up for me.
The author states "The formality and authority of serif typefaces are largely socially constructed, and Times New Roman’s origin story and design constraints don’t express these qualities."
Yes, formality and authority are both, quite literally, social constructs. There is NO "natural" or "universal" formality or even authority without human social input.
I would also argue that, though most users cannot distinguish between a serif and sans serif font, they DO understand the serif fonts connote formality. eg in high school they were told to submit their papers in a serif font, or where they read a court opinion they also read serif (even if not the same font).
Sure, the State Department could have selected a different serif font. But a reversion to what was previously used seems completely normal.
Secondarily, I do think Calibri looks far too casual for the State Department. Its what I would use if I were quickly printing out my notes...
tevon commented on CIA Star Gate Project: An Overview (1993) [pdf] cia.gov/readingroom/docs/... · Posted by u/dvrp
A Google search using the terms "did the CIA claim there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq in 2003?" yields the following information:
The CIA and the Bush administration claimed Iraq possessed Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMDs) in 2003, building the case for invasion on assertions that Saddam Hussein had active WMD programs and failed to comply with UN resolutions, though these claims proved to be incorrect after the invasion found no stockpiles, leading to later acknowledgments of intelligence failures...
CIA's Role: The CIA provided assessments, including classified estimates, stating high confidence in Iraq's possession of biological and chemical weapons, which formed the basis for public statements by officials...
Intelligence Failures: Investigations later confirmed that the intelligence community was "simply wrong" in its assessments, highlighting failures in analysis and sourcing, despite intelligence professionals believing their information at the time...
In summary, the CIA and U.S. government did assert the presence of WMDs, but these claims were later disproven, revealing significant flaws in the intelligence used to justify the war.
Recommend "The Mission" by Tim Weiner for this one. Not as simple as this.
Often the intel community is dead right, but get thrown under the bus by the admin. The intel community can't really come out and say "actually what our pres is saying is false, we told him this would happen".
Doesn't come close to the safety I feel in the Tesla. Not even close. I know anecdotal