Can Passkeys Replace Passwords ⚓︎
Passkeys always fascinated me — I never understood them, but have often used them. This opinion piece by Bruce Davie helped me the pitfalls of the tech and convinced me we are yet to reach the “passwordfree” world yet.
The process is bootstrapped by getting the user to authenticate using a traditional approach (such as user name and password) which remains open to traditional attacks.
There is no getting away from the fact that public keys always need some sort of bootstrap process. (Remember PGP key-signing parties?) But if a website adopts passkeys without disallowing subsequent login attempts by password, then the system remains roughly as vulnerable to phishing attacks as it was before.
How the “Conservation of Weirdness” Will Impact Cryptography ⚓︎
[W]hile we can say “we haven’t found an efficient quantum solution” to a problem, it is harder to say that no such solution exists. If nothing else, this underscores the need to be agile in our choices of cryptographic algorithms going forward.
A good write up by Bruce Davie on state and future of Quantum Computing.
Vix shares the experience about writing which I relate with.
Writing, I’ve learned, is a craft that demands patience, persistence, and humility. What appears simple and flowing on the page often represents hours of careful thought, numerous revisions, and countless moments of frustration.
It’s simple for some, hard for others. Even for someone like me for whom writing doesn’t come naturally, there are times when it flows. So if nothing else, writing is unusual.
I find this particular observation in One Thing newsletter’s December 10th edition pretty insightful.
Average consumers are less obsessed with newsiness than the media industry tends to think. Evergreen content is good, whatever is interesting is good, even if it’s “old.” Non-newsy newsletters are replacing the racks of undated magazines at the grocery store checkout and they’re probably making more money than you are.
Some of my old posts on topics that are not bound by time continue to be revisited the most often. “Newsy” posts are ephemeral.
Unexpected Benefits of Being Vulnerable on the Internet ⚓︎
Patrick Maguire shares an interesting outcome of being more open, vulnerable, on the internet through his writing. I never thought by opening myself up can lead to others doing the same to me. An interesting perspective to ponder over.
Sharing who I truly am — my struggles, strengths, hard-won knowledge and weaknesses — has made me, in the eyes of others, more approachable, more human, and perhaps even more safe.
Annie Mueller is back with her pointed observation on creativity.
Fear stifles your mind. Anxiety stunts your ability to make connections. Connections are the core of creativity. You can’t connect what you can’t see.
I would add anticipation to the list too. Anticipation chains you, mars your ability to be free. A thing that is paramount to creativity. The anticipation of the outcome limits you, an apt segue into Annie’s next observation.
You think the most important part of creating is having the idea. That’s not true. The important part is the conflict that will inevitably happen: the conflict between your ideas and your limitations. The most important part is how you handle that conflict.
I’m in the Final Third of My Life ⚓︎
Derek Sivers has this gem of a wisdom about sharing the thoughts online.
Thoroughly sharing my thoughts online is life after death.
Respecting that sentiment, I myself am not too far away from how Sivers feels about the time I have got left on this planet. Even I am in the final third of my life and I need to sort a lot of things out. One of them is my undying habit of procrastination. I am living a paradox - lesser the time I have got left, lazier I am becoming.
Ben Werdmuller has a brilliant analogy describing why adding people to a team doesn’t always solve the problem. I wish this worked with more corporate people than I know it would.
Hiring more people when a team is struggling is often like trying to untangle a knot by adding more hands: without clear roles, it only gets messier.
“How many more people do you need?” is a question that I get way more frequently than what I am proud of.
Shane Parrish has this gem of an insight in this week’s edition of his newsletter.
We attach prestige to what mystifies us. Complexity intoxicates both the creator and audience, drugging us with the illusion of wisdom.
I observe this both at work and outside. If I don’t understand it, it must be brilliant. If I create something that no one understand, it will be brilliant. Such is the prevailing, albeit misguided, logic. The value of simplicity consistently outweighs the preference for the complexity.
As a creator, create something that’s easy to understand. As an audience, question what is not easy to understand.
A smile costs absolutely nothing. So why not spread it on the face. I just wear it on and live on. Without really caring if it does benefit me or not.
Wise words from not so wise man, from 17 years ago. Such jumbled words, yet so free. I envy this “dumb” guy.