resisting the pull of wikiprocrastination
it's that time of night where my willpower is low.
i went on a great bike ride earlier, and spent a solid chunk of time working on housing search stuff before that, so now i'm getting some work done. setting my own "hours" is a blessing and a curse.
(one of my projects also really incentivizes me to work late, since the client is most responsive after business hours, one dev is based in New Zealand, and another dev tends to work 9 to 5. 9pm to 5am, that is.)
I accidentally messed something up on my browser, and navigated to my favorite test web page, Wikipedia, to confirm I fixed it.
It's a trap!
Typing "wik" into my search bar gave a Siri suggested result for the Wikipedia page on Wikipedia, so I went there.
Did you know that only 26% of Wikipedia's traffic comes from the US? I mean, that's way more than the relative population of the US compared to the world. But when you factor in the fact that Wikipedia started in the US and the concentration of people in the US with Internet connections, I was expecting it to be more.
It was also weird to read about how Wikipedia "has been criticized for exhibiting systemic bias, particularly gender bias against women and geographical bias against the Global South" on Wikipedia's page about itself. How many websites at this scale will write negative things about themselves like this?? I love that commitment to objective commentary.
Yikes, okay. I gotta get back to work.
Wait. Wikipedia has a disambiguation page?? Okay. Just a quick look.
Did you know that there's a Swedish rapper, Jireel, who released a single called "Wikipedia"? Oh wow, Jireel has won multiple "Grammis" awards, which apparently is the Grammys of Sweden? Wait. They were cancelled in 1972 and then brought back in 1987? Why were they cancelled?
Nope. Nope. Nope.
Okay. Going back to work now. Patting myself on the back for not going very far down the rabbit hole this time.
I'll end this post with a Life Hack: replace your scrolling instagram reels with clicking on wikipedia links and being fascinated by all the interesting shit out there