The Night Watch... https://www.usenix.org/system/files/1311_05-08_mickens.pdf is one of my all time favorite pieces of internet writing

Can you believe there are people out there who haven't read this yet? I can, because one of them was me. This was incredible.

> A systems programmer will know what to do when society breaks down, because the systems programmer already lives in a world without law.

Me also, I found Mickens through his Harvard Tenure post, but somehow just found Night's Watch today.

"I have no tools because I've destroyed my tools with my tools" is a phrase I think to myself at least weekly.

Your theories on Muppet physiology are childish and naïve, and I viciously refute them in my upcoming article “Parasitic Infections of Muppet Gastrointestinal Hand Holes.”

[0] https://mickens.seas.harvard.edu/tenure-announcement-april-2...

Oh thank you very much for that link! I have now bookmarked https://mickens.seas.harvard.edu/wisdom/ to binge read.

Mickens is a rare combination of bright, engaging, and absolutely hysterical.

I hope I get to meet him someday.

Same. No idea how that could ever happen but it would make my year. Mickens is a treasure.