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Ian Bogost

@ibogost.com

32K followers 3.1K following 660 posts

Barbara and David Thomas Distinguished Professor at WashU; Contributing writer at The Atlantic; author of 10 books (soon: Small Stuff: How to Lead a More Gratifying Life) https://linktr.ee/ibogost https://www.theatlantic.com/author/ian-bogost/

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Ian Bogost @ibogost.com · 52m

Persimmons of Mercy

Ian Bogost @ibogost.com · 56m

Bittersweet

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Ian Bogost @ibogost.com · 1h

Move over seasonal gourds, it’s Persimmon time.

Persimmon spice latte
Persimmon bisque
Persimmon burrata slop bowl
Persimmon ginger pie

Persimmon Salsa

Summer might over, but salsa season never is! This persimmon salsa is a delicious seasonal replacement for traditional salsa.

www.stetted.com

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Ian Bogost @ibogost.com · 3h

“Who’s in charge here?”

Ian Bogost @ibogost.com · 3h

Two quick notes on The Gobots:

1) The complete lyrics to The Gobots theme song are

The Gobots, the Gobots
The Gobots
The Gobots!

2) “Bogost” is an anagram of “Gobots”

THE GOBOTS INTRO

YouTube video by LADYTHUNNDER

youtu.be

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Ian Bogost @ibogost.com · 5h

Yeah, although, Word has become real bad at handling long documents (such as books) with lots of change tracking. Chuggville.

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Ian Bogost @ibogost.com · 5h

It's good for redlining, yeah. Which isn't collaboration!

Ian Bogost @ibogost.com · 5h

I'm glad that worked for you. I wasn't asking for advice. You don't have to reply to everything you see online (I say, replying, like a dope.)

Ian Bogost @ibogost.com · 5h

I definitely suspect that LibreOffice use among academics is higher. Academics also don't really have to collaborate outside groups they directly control. And, also, academics are truculent and don't care what other people do :)

Ian Bogost @ibogost.com · 5h

I bet it would work among a small and specific group of like-minded people in control of their toolchain (not a word writers use, but one that ppl who use LibreOffice might, which is part of the reason it might work.)

Ian Bogost @ibogost.com · 5h

Acrobat does allow markup, but this is not the kind of lithe, constant, back-and-forth collaboration writers and editors take on.

Ian Bogost @ibogost.com · 5h

Exactly.

Ian Bogost @ibogost.com · 5h

I'm sorry I wasn't able to make myself clear. "Technician" is not a job or even a type of job; it's a name for focusing on the technique of a process, in this case one driven by a desired tool. The problem is not in the tool, but in the (ugh) assemblage of tool and organizational process.

Ian Bogost @ibogost.com · 5h

I don't mean to come off as a dick, but this is not how professional writing works. You need an ecosystem of users who are enculturated into a process supported by software. The problem isn't just the tool. "Breaking free of tyranny" may sound noble, but what I really want is to get work done.

Ian Bogost @ibogost.com · 6h

No doubt. I kind of expect these multi-trillion-dollar companies to solve it.

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Ian Bogost @ibogost.com · 6h

This article wasn't the place to litigate the matter, but I was always quite uncomfortable with Graeber's implication that some/many jobs are intrinsically useless or worthless. A lot of things have to get done, and maybe nobody wants to do them, but the problem isn't the fact of their need.

Ian Bogost @ibogost.com · 6h

A week later, I must admit that I think I find Word to be worse than Google Docs for collaborative revision specifically. Perhaps I've just acclimated to Gdocs after years of using it for most writing work, but Word's change-tracking process feels so onerous and click-needy. Both are still horrific.

Ian Bogost @ibogost.com · 7d

Almost a half century after the invention of the word processor, we are living at the tool's nadir.

Gdocs has improved while Word has become worse, but both are horrific tools that actively frustrated the practice writing.

The few alternatives are Wes Anderson or `make` parodies, like Scrivener.