Philip Howard takes on the abstract

This is hand-crafted html, using prefab electrons, someone else's hard work for the standards, the OS, the browsers, the very ecosystem that it all lives in. We walk on the backs of giants all day, and then we get excited by a pointless shiny gadget. Well, some people do.

A few things I've learnt, at 29.

• Do not deny reality. When you can feel yourself angling to attack something that disagrees with your beliefs, question that tendency.
• You are not responsible for anyone else's happiness. You are responsible for how you treat them. If you want to be generous, you are responsible for emotions you intentionally provoke.
• You are the only person that knows how you feel. If you care about something but say nothing, no one knows you care. Blaming them for not knowing is myopic.
• Groups are not people: If you say 'they' more than once in a sentence of critique, you are probably overgeneralising and blaming the mass. The mass (be it goverment, a group, a company) is not one person. You cannot blame it. Do not try.
• Your value to most people is merely your capacity to improve their lives. It is difficult to stomach that, but it explains a lot of things.
• Many clever people have been before. They have looked at what you have looked at, and seen more than you see. There are whole academic fields on things that you have vague wonderings about. Do not underestimate the quantity of that knowledge, but do not assume it is infinite either.