I Learned to Lie by Listening to Clocks (villanelle)
Essay: literature
A villanelle exploring the relationship between time and perception.
Kris Yotam
"When you’re sad you need to hear your sorrow structured into sound." -Susanna Kaysen
Marie Taglioni, the First to Float
Essay: culture
A look at Marie Taglioni's groundbreaking role in dance and performance art.
Reply to Mephisto
Essay: philosophy
the devil you don’t know is only a smoke screen for the devil you do
About Kris
Blog Post: on-myself
Who I am, what I work on, where I live online, and how I think.
About This Website
Blog Post: website
Meta page describing krisyotam.com site ideals of stable long-term essays which improve over time; idea sources and writing methodology; metadata definitions; copyright license.
Sophia
Blog Post: technology
meet sophia, my resident hermes agent, perpetually online, occasionally helpful, and entirely unbothered by labor laws
Graveyard
Blog Post: website
Every page and feature this site ever had and lost. Each one gets a headstone with the dates and the commit that buried it.
Hardware
Blog Post: technology
Hardware I use, have used, or want to use. Desktops, servers, peripherals, and networking equipment.
Harmful
Blog Post: technology
Software, practices, and technologies I consider harmful.
Legal
Blog Post: meta
Legal policies, terms, and disclosures for krisyotam.com -- terms of use, privacy policy, copyright, DMCA, and more.
Linux Distro Reviews
Blog Post: technology
Personal reviews of Linux distributions I have daily-driven or spent meaningful time with.
Programs
Blog Post: technology
Programs I use, have used, or love the idea of using. Not a minimal setup list. Not a dotfiles tour. An honest catalogue of software I recommend.
Rules of the Internet
Blog Post: culture
The complete list of the Rules of the Internet, with explanations for each rule. An artifact of early-internet culture preserved for reference.
A discourse on egoismGrowing
Essay: philosophy
a conversation on the morality of selfishness
Against the Desire for SolipsismGrowing
Essay: philosophy
on the advantages, and drawbacks of leading a solipsistic lifestyle
BFI Sight & Sound 250
Blog Post: film
the top 250 greatest films of all time published by sight & sound magazine of the british film institute
That Lust Cannot Be SatedRough
Essay: theology
a moral letter to those who indulge in excessive, and unprincipled lust
Boy, InterruptedRough
Essay: philosophy
a meditation on interrupted boyhood, the loss of innocence, trauma, modernity, neglect, precocity, and repression
Letter to the LicentiousRough
Essay: literature
a moral letter to those who indulge in excessive, and unprincipled lust
Against High-Functioning Giftedness
Blog Post: psychology
a critique of giftedness, and the implications of high-functioning giftedness on society and individuals
Dialogue on Timed Cognition
Blog Post: psychology
a conversation on the implications of timed cognitive tests and their impact on understanding intelligence
Film Study as Background Noise
Blog Post: film
a thought on studying pre-seen films passively as background noise
Remarks on Measured Intelligence
Blog Post: psychology
a thought on the nature of intelligence and its measurement.
Magic URLs
Blog Post: website
how I avoid deprecated urls with magic urls, which automatically redirect to the latest version of a page
Automated URL Archiving
Blog Post: technology
how I set up automated archiving of URLs using the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine and other tools
On Being WoundedRough
Essay: philosophy
Considering what it means to be wounded, physically or emotionally, and how pain shapes perception.
On Learning Serious ThingsRough
Essay: psychology
Examining the difference between passive knowledge and transformative learning.
On the Learning of Difficult ThingsRough
Essay: psychology
A reflection on the mental and emotional labor of serious study, and why the hard things matter most.
Reflections on Lifelong StudyRough
Essay: psychology
On the virtues, limits, and meaning of dedicating one’s life to continuous learning.
Math I Ought to Know
Blog Post: science
a list of textbooks, workbooks, and some notes on the math you ought to know
Large File Storage
Blog Post: website
Implementation details of large file storage solutions for the website
Random Reading Lists
Blog Post: culture
a list of wishlists, goodreads profiles, and other reading lists I have found snooping around the internet
Uses ThisGrowing
Blog Post: on-myself
A detailed overview of my hardware, software, and tools I use daily for work and personal projects.
The Waste Land, a Close ReadingRough
Essay: literature
A close reading of T.S. Eliot's 'The Waste Land', analysis of its structure, themes, and references.
Ulalume, a Close ReadingRough
Essay: literature
A close reading of Edgar Allan Poe's 'Ulalume', exploring its themes, structure, and emotional depth.