Blog by Sumana Harihareswara, Changeset founder

Posts for 2023

19 Dec 2023, 11:05 a.m.

Nailing Down An Answer, Or At Least A Question

Someone in a group chat mentioned a particular annoyance in dealing with doctors, nurses, and similar medical experts. Sometimes you take pains to ask them a specific, deliberately-worded question, and they don't really seem to …

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28 Nov 2023, 11:47 a.m.

Free Online Classes From FEMA

My country's Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) offers a bunch of free independent study online classes. I started poking around and there's some neat stuff in there.You can read all the material for free online, …

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16 Nov 2023, 11:15 a.m.

In Retrospect, Surprised We Didn't Notice The Adjacent "Mostly Harmless" Joke Available

Leonard and I frequently play edutainment webgames, and thus we're slowly getting better at various realms of human knowledge. Recently we've added a few new games to the rotation. Metaflora has clarified for us how …

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14 Nov 2023, 10:45 a.m.

Going From Proprietary To FLOSS Product Management

Someone asked me for pointers on doing product management (and, to a lesser extent, project management) in Free/Libre Open Source Projects for the first time, after many years of experience in proprietary software. I basically …

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08 Nov 2023, 1:15 a.m.

Eldercare, Family Caretaking, and End-of-life Logistics: Stuff I Learned

My mother died recently, after a long decline in her health, and I was one of the main people who helped take care of her. (Here’s her obituary.) While caring for her, preparing for her …

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07 Nov 2023, 23:45 p.m.

Set Contributor Expectations To Reduce Ghosting

Let's say you're a maintainer who's just received a new contribution. A new contributor has submitted a patch/pull request. And the fundamental idea of it is one you like, but the diff itself will require …

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06 Nov 2023, 12:15 p.m.

Category Structure and Oppression - Insight from Shweta Narayan

In August 2014, my friend Shweta Narayan (scholar of linguistics and cognitive science, and speculative fiction author and editor) published an essay on their LiveJournal, "Let's talk about category structure and oppression!" As they said …

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03 Oct 2023, 12:25 p.m.

A Few Tips on Seeking a Lawyer, Psychiatrist or Therapist

Recently I've helped a few folks as they sought professional help from lawyers, or mental health professionals such as psychiatrists or therapists. Here are a few tips; they're more relevant in the United States but …

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28 Sep 2023, 12:30 p.m.

A Celebration of My Friend, Dr. Mel Chua

My dear friend Mel Chua is, as of this year, Dr. Mel Chua, as they have now deposited the doctoral dissertation that they successfully defended several years ago. Yay Dr. Chua!!!There's been a bit of …

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12 Sep 2023, 13:12 p.m.

On Jon Bois's Work

Years ago, I pitched a story to a publication and they didn't take it, but I think the synopsis itself might interest some of y'all, so here it is with a few added links. (I …

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