Obeying Postel's Law - Arkansas Online
In 1981, a computer scientist named Jon Postel came up with what he called the "robustness principle" and what others call Postel's Law: "Be conservative in what you do, be liberal in what you accept from others."
Postel was thinking about a specific technical implementation in the design of software for computers, something about the ways of Internet protocols ought to mesh, but we don't need to get too deep in the weeds on that. All he's saying is that the best way for machines (and people) to work together is if everyone is very careful about what they are saying.
Because the world is imperfect and people make mistakes, we should also be forgiving of other machines' (and people's) imprecision. So long as we can understand what they mean, we ought to be able to work with them, no matter how crudely they express themselves.
Say, for example, someone sends you a message with misspelled words or grammatical lapses. It's inefficient to simply reject the message as nonsensical when you can make out what it is intended to say. If someone sends you a text that reads "Hurry home you're house is burning" you shouldn't waste time correcting them.
At the same time, when communicating with others, you should strive to say precisely what you mean.
There is some pushback against Postel's Law among computer scientists these days; apparently there are circumstances where following it can lead to what they call "deployment issues" and that, over years and years, a tolerance for mistakes produces a kind of cyber-anarchy. But that's beside the point, because I'm not talking about designing transmission control protocols or creating Web pages.
I'm thinking about how we ought to live in the world now.
Postel's Law just seems like good sense, especially when everybody's preferred mode of communication is texting. Thanks to the pandemic, a lot of us might have colleagues we've never met in person who we might know only through Slack, email or text messages.
When you don't have the luxury of hearing someone's tone of voice or reading their face, it's best to accord them the benefit of the doubt. They are probably not trying to come across as a jerk.
Postel's Law could also be applied to the way we use the Internet in general; while we might stand to benefit from consuming all the diverse opinions--even mad and unhappy ones--that populate the cyberverse, we ought to be careful about what we add to the cacophony.
That might seem rich coming from someone who is paid to formulate and disseminate opinions, but here's the thing: I am paid to formulate and disseminate those opinions. Which means I'm a professional and ought to be precise about what I'm putting on the Internet. I'm even encouraged to have a social media presence and to try to promote what I write for this newspaper in that space.
I expect my work to be scrutinized, criticized and mischaracterized by people whose agendas are at cross purposes with mine. That's part of the deal, and you roll with it. You either grow a thick skin or you get in silly slap fights all the time. (Which is a lazy way to keep the columns coming.)
But there are lots of things I don't talk about in this space. Much as I might say I love you, I'm not an open book. I reserve a certain zone of privacy. I'm in control of how much I want to pull the curtain back.
That's how you approach the Internet. It's a public space; you don't want to be pulling down your pants while you're online. (Unless that's your thing, and if it is, there's probably a Reddit forum for it.)
When you're on Facebook or any other social media site, you're in a public square. You should assume that people are looking at you and judging. And probably taking screenshots they might use against you at some future date. You ought to be conservative in what you post.
And you ought to give everyone else the benefit of the doubt, because anyone can have a bad day or hour. Anyone can make an embarrassing typo. We ought to consider that we live in a world where anyone can commit social suicide by smashing a "send" button and have some empathy for those who've made that kind of stupid mistake.
On the other hand, what some people call "cancel culture" is simply the marketplace sorting things out. Unlikable people don't make good spokesmodels, and none of us are guaranteed an audience. All actions--even speech--have consequences, and anything short of the government turning off your microphone, confiscating your ballpoint, or shuttering your newspaper is not censorship.
While a lot of us believe there is value in hearing even the worst opinions expressed con brio, if you position yourself as a jackass you shouldn't be surprised if people start crossing the street to avoid you.
Similarly, you should always be in control of what you tell corporations about yourself. The deal you make when you use social media is that, in exchange for this platform, through which you can do useful stuff like make and connect with far-flung friends, follow entertaining and insightful people, and pretend that someone cares about the plate of risotto you photographed before consuming, is you tell them things about yourself. You let them in on your preferences, what kind of sneakers and cars you aspire to, where you might vacation.
It's your choice.
My choice is not to indulge in privacy paranoia but to understand that if I'm carrying a little spy in my pocket I shouldn't have much of an expectation of privacy. Mostly I feel like Gary Hart; anyone who wants to follow me around is going to be pretty bored. I like it when, after I've taken a break to window shop for restored '60s muscle cars, ads for the same start to pop up on my timeline.
I understand how this might freak some people out. But it's just a dumb algorithm, and you're not defined by your data points. You can't lose any privacy that you don't put on the table. Be liberal in what you take in, conservative in what you put out.
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source: https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2022/feb/20/obeying-postels-law/
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