<p>About a year ago, I was offered a presentation slot at the <a href="https://www.wearedevelopers.com/" rel="noreferrer">WeAreDevelopers</a> World Congress in Berlin. I rarely take speaking engagements, especially international ones, but this one arrived at just the right time, the right place, and with the right person – I said yes, on the contingency that</p>
<p>About 3 weeks ago, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leo_Laporte" rel="noreferrer">Leo Laporte</a> and I recorded the first episode of what will be a new monthly show on the <a href="https://twit.tv/" rel="noreferrer">TWiT network</a>. Naming things is hard, and we almost voted on the name, like we did for <a href="https://blog.codinghorror.com/help-name-our-website/" rel="noreferrer">Stack Overflow</a>, but we quickly landed on <a href="https://twit.tv/obo" rel="noreferrer"><strong>Off By One with</strong></a></p>
<p>It's been one of those months, and by that, I mean one of the 663 months since I was born. This won't be a long post, because I only have two things to say. First, I'm really glad we re-ordered the <a href="https://rgmii.org/" rel="noreferrer">GMI (Guaranteed</a></p>
<p>It's been a year since I invited Americans to join us in a <strong>pledge to Share the American Dream</strong>:</p><blockquote>1. Support organizations you feel are <a href="https://www.charitynavigator.org/" rel="noopener noreferrer">effectively helping</a> those most in need across America <strong>right now</strong>.<br><br>2. Within the next five years, also contribute <strong>public dedications</strong></blockquote>
The dream is incomplete until we share it with our fellow Americans.
<p>A few months ago I wrote about what it means to <a href="https://blog.codinghorror.com/stay-gold-america/" rel="noreferrer"><strong>stay gold</strong></a> — to hold on to the best parts of ourselves, our communities, and the American Dream itself. But staying gold isn’t passive. It takes work. It takes action. It takes hard conversations that ask</p>
We are at an unprecedented point in American history, and I'm concerned we may lose sight of the American Dream.
<p>With a <a href="https://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/science/featured_science/tenyear/age.html" rel="noreferrer">13 billion year head start</a> on evolution, why haven’t any other forms of life in the universe contacted us by now?</p><figure class="kg-card kg-image-card"><img src="https://imgproxy.citrusreader.com/VnglAbleK10F3N3WRDOabk3_JeU81YcbCGlhRHrySpI/raw:1/aHR0cHM6Ly9zdG9yYWdlLmdob3N0LmlvL2MvZWIvYWEvZWJhYTI2NjUtMDFhOC00NDE1LTg4MjUtNjlkMWYwZThmZDE5L2NvbnRlbnQvaW1hZ2VzLzIwMjUvMDIvaW1hZ2UtMjQ0LnBuZw" class="kg-image" alt loading="lazy" width="1024" height="692" srcset="https://imgproxy.citrusreader.com/i10o2FjNxslEtcdatqd1MaNB_7zElbC386U2p8jT5Zc/raw:1/aHR0cHM6Ly9zdG9yYWdlLmdob3N0LmlvL2MvZWIvYWEvZWJhYTI2NjUtMDFhOC00NDE1LTg4MjUtNjlkMWYwZThmZDE5L2NvbnRlbnQvaW1hZ2VzL3NpemUvdzYwMC8yMDI1LzAyL2ltYWdlLTI0NC5wbmc 600w, https://imgproxy.citrusreader.com/9X2OSXaeunHRzF5YJoUhUci5Q0LYJjc4tqEnM2TnVGM/raw:1/aHR0cHM6Ly9zdG9yYWdlLmdob3N0LmlvL2MvZWIvYWEvZWJhYTI2NjUtMDFhOC00NDE1LTg4MjUtNjlkMWYwZThmZDE5L2NvbnRlbnQvaW1hZ2VzL3NpemUvdzEwMDAvMjAyNS8wMi9pbWFnZS0yNDQucG5n 1000w, https://imgproxy.citrusreader.com/VnglAbleK10F3N3WRDOabk3_JeU81YcbCGlhRHrySpI/raw:1/aHR0cHM6Ly9zdG9yYWdlLmdob3N0LmlvL2MvZWIvYWEvZWJhYTI2NjUtMDFhOC00NDE1LTg4MjUtNjlkMWYwZThmZDE5L2NvbnRlbnQvaW1hZ2VzLzIwMjUvMDIvaW1hZ2UtMjQ0LnBuZw 1024w" sizes="(min-width: 720px) 720px"></figure><p>(<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arrival_(film)" rel="noreferrer">Arrival</a> is a fantastic movie. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tFMo3UJ4B4g" rel="noreferrer">Watch it</a>, but don’t stop there – read the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Story_of_Your_Life" rel="noreferrer">Story of Your Life</a> novella it was based on</p>
<p>If you haven’t been able to keep up with my blistering pace of one blog post per year, I don’t blame you. There’s a lot going on right now. It’s a busy time. But let’s pause and take a moment</p>
<p>It’s my honor to announce that <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Carmack">John Carmack</a> and I have initiated a friendly bet of $10,000* to the 501(c)(3) charity of the winner’s choice:</p><blockquote><strong>By January 1st, 2030, completely autonomous self-driving cars meeting SAE J3016 level 5 will be commercially available</strong></blockquote>