** 2025-11-03 03:04:16 +0000 UTC ** about 876 words ** 4 min

Today, my guest is Brian Wisti. Maybe you know him under the nickname “Random geek”, or his website https://randomgeekery.org.

Brian has been on the Fediverse since 2017, and online since 2000, at least 😅. He has a picture of him younger on his blog. Will you be able to find it?

I like his blog, even if he doesn’t post on a daily basis which is fine, I already have too many links. Go, and check it.

You can follow him on Mastodon.

Perl

Underrated.

DWIM—Do What I Mean—makes it easy to shoot yourself in the foot with Perl if you haven’t figured out what you meant. People were so eager to throw out the footguns that they also ignored a whole lot of good, portable ideas like the CPAN and cpantesters. Routinely see programming language package managers suffering from issues that Perl folks solved a quarter century ago. The language itself remains unrivaled (for me) when it comes to processing text and getting small tasks done in a hurry. PS RakuLang FKA Perl 6 is way under but that’s a whole other rant.

Arizona

Ovder

Ok fine: under. The government and populace that shows up to elect them are every bit the tedious pain you might imagine them to be. But that’s not everyone. Plenty of cool people. What makes my corner of Arizona underrated? It is absolutely gorgeous, with varied wildlife, the signature saguaro cactus that defines “desert” in popular consciousness, every sunrise and sunset an artist’s rendition of heaven, monsoon season bringing a flood of green after every epic storm, and a dark sky policy allowing the crispest night sky I’ve ever seen from a suburban front door. I do kinda love it in Arizona. (Not you, Phoenix)

PKM

Overrated

I love my notes. I love making them, sharing them, building them up, talking about them, rearranging them. I paused from my notes to write this note that’ll go back into my notes when you’re done with it. But there’s another layer of enthusiast that gets particularly glassy-eyed and evangelical about correct Personal Knowledge Management techniques and taxonomy. Don’t like that, nope. So “PKM” in big neon letters? Way overrated. My core PKM rules: write notes that you enjoy reading. Use tools to help you find stuff. Links are cool.

CSS frameworks

Underrated

I’m not a fan of utility class frameworks like Tailwind. Their conveniences quickly turn beyond a new vocabulary, into a new language parallel to CSS. But a framework or even single cohesive stylesheet that helps you better understand CSS, and maybe gives you a useful context for that understanding? People could definitely appreciate that more. Personal favorites include Picnic CSS, MVP.css, and Open Props.

Pizza

Overrated

Whoever says “bad pizza is like bad sex: there’s no such thing” has led a blessedly sheltered life. Good pizza is underrated. It will make you feel momentarily ascended and give you a sense memory that will linger for years. Bad pizza will make you question every life decision that led you to this moment in your life, with one huge bite of regret in your mouth waiting for you to swallow. So I mark pizza “overrated” just so folks remember: let’s all be careful out there.

Books

• Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary of English Usage: out-pedant the pedants; see how “less vs fewer” is just an opinion one dude wrote down in 1770; the history of they/them as a common-gender or common-number pronoun; and other fun-at-parties trivia.
• Everybody should have at least one book of pretty pictures; my personal favorite is Fantasy: the golden age of fantastic illustration by Brigid Peppin, an overview of 19th & early 20th Century fantasy illustrators; but you pick one for your own pet topics.

And my replies ⤵️

Perl

Definitely underrated. Of course, TIMTOWTDI, but I always loved Perl. The Perl Golf, the CPAN, the back compatibility between versions, all those things made Perl great. I can’t exactly remember why Perl 6, now Raku, never came out. That’s when the sneaky Python got in, and stole all the hype.

I used to packages some libraries for Debian, but those days are way behind me.

Arizona

I can’t judge Arizona, I’ve never been there. Arizona to me rhymes with the Phoenix Suns, Barkley, and Dan Majerle. Not the current team that I don’t enjoy watching.

I would love to go one day, but maybe the Orange man has to go before.

PKM

Overrated overall. I like taking notes, and being able to find something I wrote quickly. But, I’m not a fan of all those big systems to make the perfect note. Perfect for who? Everyone has his own system, and maybe my Neovim snippets, and how I take notes won’t be great for you. Find your own way!

CSS frameworks

Underrated when they aren’t reinventing the wheel. I don’t want to learn a full new language to build a couple of HTML forms. KISS as usual! Keep It Simple Stupid!

Pizza

I share the same point of view as Brian. Good pizza is underrated. Many places make pizzas, but usually they are bad. Avoid restaurants where you have too much things on the menu. I prefer to go to restaurants where they do one thing, but they do it well.