Add a draft for The Power of The Link

astro.config.mjs

@@ -22,6 +22,7 @@ export default defineConfig({
         mdx(),
         sitemap({
             filter: (page) =>
+                !page.includes("blog/the-power-of-the-link") &&
                 !page.includes("blog/software-engineering-manager-tactics") &&
                 !page.includes("blog/building-a-hyper-key-tree") &&
                 !page.includes("blog/debates-as-competitions") &&

src/pages/blog/the-power-of-the-link.md

@@ -0,0 +1,119 @@
+---
+layout: ../../layouts/BlogPostLayout.astro
+categories:
+  - programming
+date: "2024-03-10"
+unlisted: true
+title: The Power of the Link
+---
+
+I love [links](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperlink). They are such a
+fundamental part of the Internet that I think it's easy to forget how powerful
+they are.
+
+They show up twice in a typical [URL](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/URL),
+through the `https` and the `www`. The `https` stands for [Hypertext Transfer
+Protocol Secure](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTTPS), and the `www` stands for
+[World Wide Web](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Wide_Web). A web requires
+links. And what is [hypertext](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypertext)? Text
+documents that are connected to each other through links.
+
+`https` and `www` are so critical that we taken them for granted now. Chrome
+has been [hiding them from the address
+bar](https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/google/google-chrome-hides-www-and-https-in-the-address-bar-again/)
+since 2019, and many websites [don't
+bother](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTTP/Basics_of_HTTP/Choosing_between_www_and_non-www_URLs)
+with the `www` in their URLs anymore.
+
+Another way to think about the importance of the link is ask what are the most
+important [HTML](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTML) elements? Most lists [would
+probably](https://www.quora.com/What-are-the-most-important-HTML-elements)
+include [html](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTML/Element/html),
+[head](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTML/Element/head), and
+[body](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTML/Element/body). But I
+would put [anchor](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTML/Element/a)
+(not to be confused with the [link
+element](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTML/Element/link)) at the
+top of the list. Because an Internet that was stripped down to just plain text
+and links, hypertext in its purest form, would still be tremendously useful and
+interesting.
+
+While `html`, `head`, and `body` provide structure, they aren't necessary. If
+you don't provide them, a browser will still render text with links. And even
+the [HTML5](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTML5) specification [considers them
+to be optional](https://stackoverflow.com/a/25749523/1481479) tags. But [Tim
+Berners-Lee](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_Berners-Lee)'s World Wide Web
+requires `anchor`. It's the element that elevates text into hypertext.
+
+## Power
+
+Links are powerful because they give us a cheap way to reference something. It
+almost feels like cheating. With a simple link, you can nudge someone towards an
+unfathomably deep [rabbit
+hole](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Down_the_rabbit_hole). You've already
+encountered multiple links in this post. Have you opened any in separate tabs?
+Have you then opened any of their own links?
+
+That experience is what makes me appreciate good links as much as the immediate
+content of a website, like a witty phrase or an interesting insight. But a link
+*is* content.
+
+Links aren't just about making things more convenient for the reader. If I
+mention a concept and don't link to it, readers could look it up on their own
+for more details. But maybe I know of a particularly good explanation. Or maybe
+I did a search myself and decided that one result was better than the others.
+Choosing the link target allows me to implicitly provide a recommendation (a
+core aspect of Google's original
+[PageRank](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PageRank) algorithm). It allows me to
+express my judgment and taste. Just like the text itself.
+
+I also appreciate that the recommendation is subtle. Readers aren't forced to
+click a link. They have the choice to skip it immediately or maybe hover over it
+(on desktop at least) and decide if the full URL looks interesting.
+
+## Adding Links
+
+I add links liberally. They aren't just for websites. We can and should use them
+in emails, [Slack](https://slack.com/) messages,
+[Jira](https://www.atlassian.com/software/jira) tickets
+([unfortunately](https://ifuckinghatejira.com)), etc.
+
+At work (software engineering for me), they are an easy way to add context. For
+example, whenever I investigate a customer issue, I try to provide a link to the
+customer's profile in our admin dashboard. It only takes me a couple of seconds.
+But if someone else needs to investigate, that link could save minutes of their
+time. And that someone else could be my future self, so it can be selfishly
+helpful.
+
+In my blog posts, I link most proper nouns, at least the first time that they
+appear. And I try to make the links as useful as possible. I tend to use
+[Wikipedia](https://www.wikipedia.org/) articles, since Wikipedia provides great
+overviews, and I also trust Wikipedia links to not suffer from [link
+rot](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Link_rot).
+
+## Parallels
+
+The power of the link has parallels to other concepts. Links remind me of
+[pointers](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pointer_(computer_programming)) in
+[C](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C_(programming_language)). Like a hyperlink, a
+pointer is simple in theory: it's just a reference to a memory address. But it
+enables so much in terms of efficient memory management and data structures.
+But [with great power comes great
+responsibility](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/With_great_power_comes_great_responsibility).
+Being able to manipulate memory through pointers can lead to [segmentation
+faults](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Segmentation_fault), [memory
+leaks](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memory_leak), and security vulnerabilities
+(e.g. [Heartbleed](https://heartbleed.com/)).
+
+Similarly, links remind me of [financial
+derivatives](https://www.investopedia.com/terms/d/derivative.asp), financial
+instruments that don't have intrinsic value and depend on the value of something
+else. [Warren Buffet](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warren_Buffett) once
+[referred](https://www.investopedia.com/terms/d/derivativestimebomb.asp) to them
+as "financial weapons of mass destruction," a metaphor that became particularly
+relevant when the [2007-2008 financial
+crisis](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007%E2%80%932008_financial_crisis) hit.
+
+While a bad link isn't as terrible as a crashing program or an economic
+meltdown, I still try to make my link curation as good as possible [for the sake
+of the audience](https://www.dannyguo.com/blog/great-writing).