From: Evgenii Akentev Date: Wed, 18 Sep 2024 07:51:50 +0000 (+0400) Subject: add new post X-Git-Url: https://git.xn--bdkaa.com/?a=commitdiff_plain;h=92677947a1e2476f211e6be0bac12d2cb6c448cc;p=xn--bdkaa.com.git add new post --- diff --git a/content/posts/living-according-to-values.html b/content/posts/living-according-to-values.html new file mode 100644 index 0000000..8c1fcb4 --- /dev/null +++ b/content/posts/living-according-to-values.html @@ -0,0 +1,77 @@ +--- +title: Living according to values +date: 2024-09-18 +draft: false +--- +We, humans, are hypocrites and it's okay. To be a human is hard. There are many +cases in every situation, it's a mistake to see everything naively in black +and white. But it's important to notice personal hypocrisy and reassess the +personal values on a regular basis and live according to them. I want to write +down steps I've made in this direction. + +I value privacy. And over years it became a some kind of obsession and hobby. +A never-ending journey to go deeper and thinking what and how I can do better. +I think the first important step was a migration from Gmail to an alternative +email service — Fastmail. It took changing emails everywhere and a long +transition period forwarding emails to new address. + +The next one, even more important, is https://grapheneos.org. Thanks I bought +Pixel. Not only it sandboxes Google Play Store, improves security, provides +granularity in sense of settings scopes and reduces tracking as much as +possible, it also helped me to completely abandon Google account. The only +thing besides GMail I was using Google Photos which I replaced with +https://ente.io. Also 1TB hdd, yeah. + +After a few years of using Fastmail I decided to cancel the subscription. The +main motivation was their attempt to cooperate with the Russian government to +avoid being blocked in Russia. I decided it's not the compromise I want to see +from an online service I use especially since they tried to do it preemptively. +Also they are from Australia which is far from the privacy values (my general +impression, maybe I'm wrong). + +I've moved to iCloud because they provided $1 subscription allowing to use +a custom domain. It was a temporary solution to find a better replacement +which in the end is https://protonmail.com. + +A bit later I've installed https://asahilinux.org on my Macbook M1 Pro, coming +back to linux after almost 10 years of osx experience. Works fine for me. This +helped to delete iCloud account as well. + +I also have tried to delete as many accounts as possible on all websites I ever +used. Turned out it might be not so easy sometimes. I also changed usernames +where it's possible to reduce the links. Some kind of debt by using the same +username for about 15 years. + +For example I deleted LinkedIn, because it's almost completely useless. I've +found a job using it only once for all these years of email spam. Not worth it. +Also dropped Twitter because it became useless when all interesting people went +to Mastodon but I decided not to follow them. Got tired of social media. I read +books instead. + +Same with github. I dislike the current data harvest situation with LLM hype. +Also I don't contribute much nowadays and if I want to I would rather +contribute to projects hosted on a private gitlab instance (such as GHC) to +decentralize the open source projects. Sending patches over email also works. +I host all my personal code on my own digital ocean instance via gitweb. +Using my own VPS allows to host my website, personal gitweb, and AdGuard DNS +instance, allowing me easily to inspect, filter and block all tracking domains. + +Instead of Spotify I've started buying music on Bandcamp which means that my +money reach artists directly without awful Spotify distribution schemes. Hello +old offline audio players. I use https://powerampapp.com for Android. It also +helped me to start collecting vinyl records. + +The trickiest part so far is to migrate from Telegram to Signal. The network +effect is strong in this domain and not many people willing to install one more +messaging app. But if people care about my values and respect my choices they +will do it. I will delete Telegram account as well in some near future and I +acknowledge that it's kind of social suicide as a lot of people and communities +use it. But I don't care. Telegram became a social media app and all I want is +a good messaging app that provides privacy. + +Overall this whole journey is an attempt to live according to my core values. +To care about privacy, avoid corporations, using open source, choose small +businesses and support nonprofit organizations (donate to Signal!). It hurts +and it's okay. It also aligns well with my desire to spend more time offline. +The current state of web feels unhealty and active enshittification is +depressing.