Benjamin Borowski 🍁
@typeoneerror.com
🔮 Notion warlock at notionmastery.com
🧱 Product maker at weareokidoki.com
🤠 Latest at typeoneerror.com
👨🚒 Volunteer firefighter (Lt.)
👨💻 Hacker (rb/js/ios/php)
🎹 Producer (soundcloud.com/hacynth)
🎧 DJ (mixcloud.com/hacynth)
Avatar by Vic Nguyen
🧱 Product maker at weareokidoki.com
🤠 Latest at typeoneerror.com
👨🚒 Volunteer firefighter (Lt.)
👨💻 Hacker (rb/js/ios/php)
🎹 Producer (soundcloud.com/hacynth)
🎧 DJ (mixcloud.com/hacynth)
Avatar by Vic Nguyen
Pinned
Benjamin Borowski 🍁
@typeoneerror.com
· Oct 26
Hello, new friends! 👋
I'm Ben. I'm a software/product guy and one of the world's top Notion experts. I make software and currently run the NotionMastery.com program.
Connect with me if you're interested in my favorite topics: Systems, Complexity, Permaculture.
Here are my favorite books:
I'm Ben. I'm a software/product guy and one of the world's top Notion experts. I make software and currently run the NotionMastery.com program.
Connect with me if you're interested in my favorite topics: Systems, Complexity, Permaculture.
Here are my favorite books:
Some couples' get divorced and it's like "it's not about the dishes!" but @mariepoulin.com and I turn competing about who's messier in the kitchen into sport. She doesn't appreciate my art.
December 5, 2025 at 3:27 PM
Some couples' get divorced and it's like "it's not about the dishes!" but @mariepoulin.com and I turn competing about who's messier in the kitchen into sport. She doesn't appreciate my art.
all my "catching up with old friends" convos:
them: "oh man, I love coding with AI..."
me [wearing "butlerian jihad now" t-shirt]: *deep inhale/exhale* "oh?"
them: "oh man, I love coding with AI..."
me [wearing "butlerian jihad now" t-shirt]: *deep inhale/exhale* "oh?"
December 4, 2025 at 11:33 PM
all my "catching up with old friends" convos:
them: "oh man, I love coding with AI..."
me [wearing "butlerian jihad now" t-shirt]: *deep inhale/exhale* "oh?"
them: "oh man, I love coding with AI..."
me [wearing "butlerian jihad now" t-shirt]: *deep inhale/exhale* "oh?"
hmm, didn't work. but... what if I tried... harder... in 2026?
next year i plan on dialing up both the desire for autonomy AND discipline and underpinning this with ruthlessly high expectations. has anyone tried this yet? (also thinking about tracking my progress)
December 4, 2025 at 4:42 PM
hmm, didn't work. but... what if I tried... harder... in 2026?
Reposted by Benjamin Borowski 🍁
I’ve sometimes fallen into the trap of thinking that complementing a creative person for their work is less sophisticated or desired than discussion or debate about it but very often the best thing you can say to them is hell yeah and that doesn’t make you dumb it just makes you nice
December 4, 2025 at 3:05 AM
I’ve sometimes fallen into the trap of thinking that complementing a creative person for their work is less sophisticated or desired than discussion or debate about it but very often the best thing you can say to them is hell yeah and that doesn’t make you dumb it just makes you nice
People really struggle with complexity because we're taught that everything can be simplified. So when things aren't simple, we become paralyzed. When a system is complex, the best thing we can do is take small dousing action to identify opportunity; build sub-systems to test aspects of the system.
December 3, 2025 at 6:42 PM
People really struggle with complexity because we're taught that everything can be simplified. So when things aren't simple, we become paralyzed. When a system is complex, the best thing we can do is take small dousing action to identify opportunity; build sub-systems to test aspects of the system.
"Consent manufacturing" is a very helpful phrase to add to the discussion. It is maddening, and it's also quite disheartening to see a lot of writers and creators whose work I adored selling these products on the their blogs and YouTube channels now.
Caleb Hearon on AI: "They're in the process right now of manufacturing consent for this technology and when ... they offer you hundreds of thousands of dollars to do an ad deal for them, they are doing that because they need your help to manufacture consent for this."
December 3, 2025 at 5:23 PM
"Consent manufacturing" is a very helpful phrase to add to the discussion. It is maddening, and it's also quite disheartening to see a lot of writers and creators whose work I adored selling these products on the their blogs and YouTube channels now.
Am I losing it, or is "else's" not the correct possessive form if I write that's "someone else's responsibility". I don't seem to be able to add this work to the dictionary to make it go away. What the heck?
December 3, 2025 at 4:21 PM
Am I losing it, or is "else's" not the correct possessive form if I write that's "someone else's responsibility". I don't seem to be able to add this work to the dictionary to make it go away. What the heck?
"that looks like a bug"
December 2, 2025 at 1:17 AM
"that looks like a bug"
Some people have a terrifying desire for undifferentiated experience. At some level you're so addicted to non-effort that you cease to exist. Past the desire for answers, the desire for questions leaves us in a null state of pure receptivity. This is the hedonistic nihilism of the progress egregore.
December 2, 2025 at 12:41 AM
Some people have a terrifying desire for undifferentiated experience. At some level you're so addicted to non-effort that you cease to exist. Past the desire for answers, the desire for questions leaves us in a null state of pure receptivity. This is the hedonistic nihilism of the progress egregore.
on the firefighting side of things, "what's the worst thing you've seen?"
on the computers side it's "how might AI help us here?"
on the computers side it's "how might AI help us here?"
What’s the worst question someone can ask after you tell them your profession? For linguists, it’s definitely “how many languages do you speak?”, but I’m curious what else is happening to the rest of y’all out there?!
December 1, 2025 at 7:27 PM
on the firefighting side of things, "what's the worst thing you've seen?"
on the computers side it's "how might AI help us here?"
on the computers side it's "how might AI help us here?"
i need a thesaurus just for the word "canonical". I use that word way too much. Also I got introduced to the word "truculent" (it me) this weekend (in reference to a hockey player's style) and that has replaced "perseverate" (it also me) as my new fav word. You got a fav?
December 1, 2025 at 4:57 PM
i need a thesaurus just for the word "canonical". I use that word way too much. Also I got introduced to the word "truculent" (it me) this weekend (in reference to a hockey player's style) and that has replaced "perseverate" (it also me) as my new fav word. You got a fav?
Reposted by Benjamin Borowski 🍁
My general feeling is that if something is called a “Revolution”, but there is no mention of the people and/or cultures destroyed in the process, it’s either not a revolution or it’s violences are being intentionally obscured
December 1, 2025 at 2:53 PM
My general feeling is that if something is called a “Revolution”, but there is no mention of the people and/or cultures destroyed in the process, it’s either not a revolution or it’s violences are being intentionally obscured
Reposted by Benjamin Borowski 🍁
One of my heartfelt beliefs is that different teachers will be better at teaching different texts different ways w/in the same topic. To force a fixed curriculum is to intentionally elide that teachers are individual human beings w unique engagements w the ideas they communicate to students.
December 1, 2025 at 3:39 PM
One of my heartfelt beliefs is that different teachers will be better at teaching different texts different ways w/in the same topic. To force a fixed curriculum is to intentionally elide that teachers are individual human beings w unique engagements w the ideas they communicate to students.
tough couple weeks doing a pump/driver operator course. learned tons; feeling so much more confident with driving and pumps and engines are mostly demystified. very thankful to be done!
December 1, 2025 at 6:07 AM
tough couple weeks doing a pump/driver operator course. learned tons; feeling so much more confident with driving and pumps and engines are mostly demystified. very thankful to be done!
I feel like my mental health is improving, because I am on occasion having "normal" obsessive thoughts and, like, looking right at the activation drive, and just kind of emotionally feel: "nah, i'm good". it feels good. it's also confusing to have control. i don't trust me yet.
December 1, 2025 at 5:29 AM
I feel like my mental health is improving, because I am on occasion having "normal" obsessive thoughts and, like, looking right at the activation drive, and just kind of emotionally feel: "nah, i'm good". it feels good. it's also confusing to have control. i don't trust me yet.
How is Emma Thompson not The Doctor? It makes no sense. Related: Down Cemetery Road is good.
December 1, 2025 at 5:22 AM
How is Emma Thompson not The Doctor? It makes no sense. Related: Down Cemetery Road is good.
my favourite people are those that don't like people but really are just over-the-top enthusiastic about animals
December 1, 2025 at 4:00 AM
my favourite people are those that don't like people but really are just over-the-top enthusiastic about animals
Reposted by Benjamin Borowski 🍁
Red teaming tech harms is a myth. Guardrails are a myth. Algorithmic audits are a myth. Multi-stakeholder collaboration is a myth. These ideas serve to honeypot regulators and civil society into thinking they can work with tech companies to make them safe on their own terms, but it doesn’t work.
November 29, 2025 at 2:31 PM
Red teaming tech harms is a myth. Guardrails are a myth. Algorithmic audits are a myth. Multi-stakeholder collaboration is a myth. These ideas serve to honeypot regulators and civil society into thinking they can work with tech companies to make them safe on their own terms, but it doesn’t work.
Reposted by Benjamin Borowski 🍁
This is normal. At one point, the economy was propped up by selling Africans left and right.
It's very American to have an economy based on absolute bullshit (and to have the benefactors of said propping up to be like "it's fine, it's just a bot/robot/slave")
It's very American to have an economy based on absolute bullshit (and to have the benefactors of said propping up to be like "it's fine, it's just a bot/robot/slave")
Almost half the US economy is now based on Nvidia selling GPUs to itself using other companies as proxies
November 29, 2025 at 12:27 AM
This is normal. At one point, the economy was propped up by selling Africans left and right.
It's very American to have an economy based on absolute bullshit (and to have the benefactors of said propping up to be like "it's fine, it's just a bot/robot/slave")
It's very American to have an economy based on absolute bullshit (and to have the benefactors of said propping up to be like "it's fine, it's just a bot/robot/slave")
Pluribus is a lovely essay on paradox. It highlights the crushing loneliness of disconnection, and the oppressive hell of a pure union—the idea that consciousness seems to arise from the paradox between selfness and wholeness—mutual arising and whatnot. Also, who doesn't love a tsundere main?
November 28, 2025 at 4:05 PM
Pluribus is a lovely essay on paradox. It highlights the crushing loneliness of disconnection, and the oppressive hell of a pure union—the idea that consciousness seems to arise from the paradox between selfness and wholeness—mutual arising and whatnot. Also, who doesn't love a tsundere main?
Reposted by Benjamin Borowski 🍁
An old pal of mine introduced me to Buy Nothing Day in the late 90s/00s and I've been mostly doing this ever since. One alternate thing you can do on Black Friday is donate instead of buy. Buy your local fire hall, community centre, hospital, volunteer, non-profit orgs, etc. Buy buy buy!
November 20, 2024 at 6:41 PM
An old pal of mine introduced me to Buy Nothing Day in the late 90s/00s and I've been mostly doing this ever since. One alternate thing you can do on Black Friday is donate instead of buy. Buy your local fire hall, community centre, hospital, volunteer, non-profit orgs, etc. Buy buy buy!
Reposted by Benjamin Borowski 🍁
Mushroom spore landing in my lungs: I eat?
My immune system: no not right now he’s still alive
Mushroom spore: ok i wait
My immune system: no not right now he’s still alive
Mushroom spore: ok i wait
December 28, 2024 at 2:00 PM
Mushroom spore landing in my lungs: I eat?
My immune system: no not right now he’s still alive
Mushroom spore: ok i wait
My immune system: no not right now he’s still alive
Mushroom spore: ok i wait
astrological meaning-making through gambling 🎰
shoot productivity straight into my veins 💉
bsky.app/profile/type...
shoot productivity straight into my veins 💉
bsky.app/profile/type...
November 26, 2025 at 10:10 PM
astrological meaning-making through gambling 🎰
shoot productivity straight into my veins 💉
bsky.app/profile/type...
shoot productivity straight into my veins 💉
bsky.app/profile/type...
"Complexity is easy. Simplicity takes effort."
Too much is designed by those terrified of complexity (even just plain complication) in systems. XP is friction-filled and inelastic because the incurious desire "simple". Limit trust w/someone who states "complexity is easy"; makes no worldly sense.
Too much is designed by those terrified of complexity (even just plain complication) in systems. XP is friction-filled and inelastic because the incurious desire "simple". Limit trust w/someone who states "complexity is easy"; makes no worldly sense.
November 26, 2025 at 3:19 PM
"Complexity is easy. Simplicity takes effort."
Too much is designed by those terrified of complexity (even just plain complication) in systems. XP is friction-filled and inelastic because the incurious desire "simple". Limit trust w/someone who states "complexity is easy"; makes no worldly sense.
Too much is designed by those terrified of complexity (even just plain complication) in systems. XP is friction-filled and inelastic because the incurious desire "simple". Limit trust w/someone who states "complexity is easy"; makes no worldly sense.
I dread the "is there anything AI can do to help here?" question, but now I dig it as a transference opportunity. My go-to is "I'm willing to try and not be responsible for the outcome." I'll try, but I will not be held responsible for AI "acting as" me. You own the experiment and your faith.
November 24, 2025 at 4:28 PM
I dread the "is there anything AI can do to help here?" question, but now I dig it as a transference opportunity. My go-to is "I'm willing to try and not be responsible for the outcome." I'll try, but I will not be held responsible for AI "acting as" me. You own the experiment and your faith.