#obscurity — Public Fediverse posts

If you’re one of the initial users of the still relatively new Searcher Chromium browser extension (to protect privacy by triggering configurable random searches)—

—then Searcher now allows you to define how often a search should be triggered on a domain (useful to avoid one on every page navigation):

https://iadefensa.com/solutions/searcher-chromium/

(As with any of the IA Defensa tools, use is on you, so configure it responsibly.)

#search #privacy #obscurity

A quotation from Samuel Johnson

There is nothing more dreadful to an author than neglect, compared with which reproach, hatred, and opposition are names of happiness; yet this worse, this meanest fate, every one who dares to write has reason to fear.

Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) English writer, lexicographer, critic
Source (1750-03-24), The Rambler, No. 2

More about this quote: wist.info/johnson-samuel/24197…

#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #samueljohnson #author #forgotten #ignored #insignificance #literarycriticism #neglect #notice #oblivion #obscurity #publicity #reaction #unread #writer #writing

A quotation from Gracian

   Keep matters for a time in suspense. Admiration at their novelty heightens the value of your achievements, It is both useless and insipid to play with the cards on the table. If you do not declare yourself immediately, you arouse expectation, especially when the importance of your position makes you the object of general attention. Mix a little mystery with everything, and the very mystery arouses veneration. And when you explain, be not too explicit, just as you do not expose your inmost thoughts in ordinary intercourse. Cautious silence is the holy of holies of worldly wisdom. A resolution declared is never highly thought of; it only leaves room for criticism. And if it happens to fail, you are doubly unfortunate.
   Besides you imitate the Divine way when you cause men to wonder and watch.
 
   [Llevar sus cosas con suspensión. La admiración de la novedad es estimación de los aciertos. El jugar a juego descubierto ni es de utilidad ni de gusto. El no declararse luego suspende, y más donde la sublimidad del empleo da objeto a la universal expectación; amaga misterio en todo, y con su misma arcanidad provoca la veneración. Aun en el darse a entender se ha de huir la llaneza, así como ni en el trato se ha de permitir el interior a todos. Es el recatado silencio sagrado de la cordura. La resolución declarada nunca fue estimada; antes se permite a la censura, y si saliere azar, será dos veces infeliz.
   Imítese, pues, el proceder divino para hacer estar a la mira y al desvelo.]

Baltasar Gracián y Morales (1601-1658) Spanish Jesuit priest, writer, philosopher
The Art of Worldly Wisdom [Oráculo Manual y Arte de Prudencia], § 3 (1647) [tr. Jacobs (1892)]

More about (and translations of) this quote: wist.info/gracian-y-morales-ba…

#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #gracian #baltasargracian #anticipation #discretion #divineplan #divinepurpose #expectations #ineffability #mystery #obscurity #secrecy #silence #suspense #uncertainty

A quotation from Arendt

Real power begins where secrecy begins.

Hannah Arendt (1906-1975) German-American philosopher, political theorist
Origins of Totalitarianism, Part 3, ch. 12 “Totalitarianism in Power,” sec. 1 (1951)

More about this quote: wist.info/arendt-hannah/42155/

#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #arendt #hannaharendt #obscurity #power #secrecy #restraint

🎨🤔 The Art Institute of #Chicago has a revolutionary new #API field called "hasnotbeenviewedmuch"—a sophisticated boolean that lets you know which #masterpieces have been snubbed by web denizens since 2010. Because who wouldn't want to browse through a virtual gallery of #obscurity, tallying up views that are less frequent than a leap year? 📉💻
https://iamwillwang.com/notes/has-not-been-viewed-much/ #ArtInstitute #hasnotbeenviewedmuch #digitalgallery #HackerNews #ngated

Those who know that they are profound strive for clarity. Those who would like to seem profound to the crowd strive for obscurity.
-- Friedrich Nietzsche

⬆ #Wisdom #Quotes #FriedrichNietzsche #Clarity #Obscurity

⬇ #Photography #Panorama #Rainbow #MississippiRiver #Iowa

Bevor Kanonenfieber die Bühne betrat, sorgten Obscurity bereits für den passenden Auftakt.
Trotz vereinzelter Regentropfen war die Stimmung vom ersten Song an da. Die Mischung aus Death- und Viking-Metal brachte das Publikum schnell in Bewegung und machte den Abend zu einem perfekten Start für die diesjährige Sommer-am-Kiez-Saison.
#Obscurity #SommerAmKiez #MetalPhotography #LiveMusic #Augsburg

A quotation from Samuel Johnson

Of many writers who filled their age with wonder, and whose names we find celebrated in the books of their contemporaries, the works are now no longer to be seen, or are seen only amidst the lumber of libraries which are seldom visited, where they lie only to show the deceitfulness of hope, and the uncertainty of honour.

Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) English writer, lexicographer, critic
Essay (1759-06-02), The Idler, No. 59

More about this quote: wist.info/johnson-samuel/84132…

#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #samueljohnson #authors #bestseller #celebrity #fame #fashion #forgotten #history #honors #memoryhole #oblivion #obscurity #paeans #past #posterity #writers #popularity #popculture

Pressed Petals

On Art, Obscurity, and Faithful Release

I am trying to understand the pressure within me.

I do not think the problem is that I want to complete things. Completion is not wrong. It is good to finish. It is good to give form to what has been stirring within me. It is good to bring a story, a song, a piece of art, a sermon, a reflection, or a book to the point into the world outside of me.

I also do not think the problem is that everything I see or do becomes inspiration. That is not really true. I am not endlessly turning every bird, every headline, every conversation, every historical fact, every passing image into a mandate. But I am a creative person. I do receive the world creatively. I do carry within me stories upon stories, art upon art, songs upon songs. I am full to the brim.

I could burn all my writings. I could get rid of all my wood and tools, my instruments, artist pens, notebooks, and unfinished manuscripts. I could live in an empty house. But I would still be me.

I would still be full.

So the question is not simply, “How do I get rid of the pressure?” The pressure is not only in the objects around me. The pressure is in the love, the longing, the calling, the imagination, and the grief within me. It is in the fact that I have created so much, imagined so much, begun so much, and hoped so much.

Maybe the deeper issue is timing.

Maybe it is not forcing things to be seen. Maybe it is not demanding that every creation immediately justify itself in the world. Maybe it is about creating because creating is part of who I am, and then learning when and how to release what I have made.

But even that is difficult, because my creations are not merely products to me. They are not just content. They are not just files, posts, pages, songs, or images. They feel like children.

And if they are children, then do I not owe them a life?

Do they not deserve to be born, released into the world, seen, growing, making children of their own? Is that not what seeds are supposed to do? A seed is not meant to remain forever in its packet. A song is not meant to remain forever unheard. A story is not meant to remain forever unread. A painting is not meant to remain forever unseen.

A child is not meant to remain forever in the nursery.

This is where the theology of less becomes hard for me.

I can understand becoming less before God. I can understand humility. I can understand that fame is not salvation, that platform is not faithfulness, that applause is not the measure of a life. I can understand that hiddenness can be holy and smallness can be faithful.

But I do not know how to make peace with the utter unfairness of being unknown.

It feels unfair that shallow things are seen while deep things disappear. It feels unfair that loud things are rewarded while quiet, careful, soulful things are ignored. It feels unfair that some people seem born with platforms, networks, confidence, and an audience, while others carry whole worlds inside them and can barely find a door. It feels unfair that my creations might never have the chance to become what they could become in the world.

Not to compare, but it seems others will always have more. Their gardens will be bigger. Their opinions will be loud. Their books will be published. Their children will be giants. Their lives will be important. Their plans will be successful. Their family will enlarge. Their church will be mega. Their ministry will be blessed. Their corporation will grow. Their house will be comfortable.

And I fear that I will become less.

A pressed faded flower in a dusty book.

My words without weight. My writings unknown. My children tufts of grass in city sidewalks. My life hidden. My hopes dashed. My name ended. My chapel tiny. My faith questioned. My business failed. My home feeling like old dead skin. And I, a creature curled in some coffin hole.

That is the fear underneath the pressure.

It is not only that I want success. It is that obscurity feels like abandonment. It feels like my creations have been born into a world that has no room for them. It feels like I have been faithful to them by bringing them forth, but the world has not been faithful in receiving them.

And yet, perhaps I am being asked to distinguish between faithful release and guaranteed reception.

I can birth the work.
I can name the work.
I can feed it, clothe it, revise it, shape it, bless it.
I can give it a door.
I can show it a road.
I can release it into the world.

But I cannot make the world welcome it.

That is where the pain is. That is where the unfairness lives. I want not only to create the work, but to protect it from neglect. I want to be artist and audience, parent and world, sower and weather, seed and soil. I want to make sure that what I have loved does not disappear.

But maybe that is too much for me to carry.

Maybe my creations are my children, but they are not my saviors.

Maybe I owe them faithful release, but I do not owe them guaranteed success.

Maybe I can grieve obscurity without hearing it as a verdict.

That sentence matters to me: I can grieve obscurity without hearing it as a verdict

Because obscurity speaks like a judge. It says, “No one knows this, therefore it does not matter. No one read this, therefore it has no weight. No one heard this, therefore it was not a real song. No one saw this, therefore it was not real art. No one published this, therefore it was not a real book. No one noticed this life, therefore this life was wasted.”

But obscurity is not God.

Obscurity does not get to name the value of my work.

Still, I cannot pretend that visibility does not matter at all. That would be dishonest. My creations do need windows. They do need doors. They do need pathways. They do need some way to move beyond me. If I keep everything hidden forever out of fear, confusion, perfectionism, or despair, then I am not being faithful to them.

So perhaps the theology of less is not to “make peace with never being seen.”

Perhaps it is: make doors without worshiping doors.

Make the book.
Make the post.
Make the song page.
Make the archive.
Make the submission.
Make the collection.
Make the small press.
Make the reading.
Make the gathering place.
Make the simple, faithful path by which the work can walk into the world.

But do not demand that the door become a throne.

Do not demand that every release become vindication.

Do not demand that every creation prove my life was worth living.

That is where I become Atlas beneath a planet of creation. I carry not only the work itself, but its future, its reception, its audience, its influence, its children, its grandchildren, its whole imagined destiny. I am not only trying to make things. I am trying to guarantee what they will become.

No wonder I feel incapacitated.

Perhaps the faithful question is smaller.

Not, “What will become of all my creations?”

But, “What does this one need next?”

This one story.
This one song.
This one image.
This one reflection.
This one book.
This one child of my imagination.

Does it need finishing?
Does it need editing?
Does it need a cover?
Does it need to be posted?
Does it need to be submitted?
Does it need to be gathered with others?
Does it need to rest until its season comes?
Does it need to remain a seed a little longer?

That is not abandonment. That is attention.

I cannot parent the whole household of my imagination all at once. I cannot carry every child at the same time. I cannot give every creation its full future today. But I can turn toward one and ask what faithfulness looks like now.

This is not less love.

It may actually be a better stronger love.

Panic says, “I must get everything out before it is too late.”

Faithfulness says, “I will give this one the care it needs today.”

Panic says, “If this is not seen widely, I have failed.”

Faithfulness says, “I will give it a real path into the world, and then I will release what I cannot control.”

Panic says, “My birthings are dying in obscurity.”

Faithfulness says, “Some seeds sleep before they rise.”

I do not want to use seed language too cheaply. Seeds are supposed to grow. I know that. That is exactly why it hurts. Seeds want soil, light, water, air, room. My creations want communion. They want to meet other lives. They want to make children of their own.

But perhaps the timing of growth is not always mine to command.

Some seeds grow quickly. Some grow slowly. Some are carried by birds. Some lie hidden until fire, flood, winter, or strange mercy opens them. Some become roots long before they become leaves. Some feed the soil that feeds another tree.

This does not remove the ache.

But maybe it removes some of the accusation and guilt.

I am not betraying my creations simply because they are not yet widely known. I betray them only if I refuse to love them truthfully, shape them faithfully, and give the ones that are ready a way outside myself.

So I will try to live by a gentler discipline.

I will create because creating is part of who I am.

I will complete what I can, not because completion saves me, but because form and formation is a kind of love.

I will release what is ready, not because release guarantees success, but because communion is part of the nature of art.

I will build openings, but I will not worship doors.

I will grieve obscurity, but I will not hear it as a verdict.

I will remember that my creations may be my children, but they are not my saviors.

I will remember that I owe them faithful release, not guaranteed success.

I will remember that I am not artist and audience, parent and world, sower and weather, seed and soil. I am not Atlas. I am a finite creature with a full heart, a crowded imagination, and one life.

So perhaps my prayer is this:

God of seeds and seasons,
teach me how to love what I have made without being crushed by it.
Teach me how to complete what is mine to complete.
Teach me how to release what is ready to be released.
Teach me how to wait without calling waiting failure.
Teach me how to build openings without worshiping doors.
Teach me how to grieve the unfairness of being unknown without letting obscurity become my judge.

Bless my stories, my songs, my art, my sermons, my reflections, my unfinished fragments, my hidden children.

Give them life where life is possible.
Give them readers, listeners, viewers, companions, and future children if that is their path.
And where they must wait, let them wait as seeds, not broken corpses.

Let me be faithful to them.
Let me be free from needing them to save me.
Let me create because I am alive.
Let me release because love seeks communion.
Let me rest because I am not God.

I give you this one thing I make today.

I bless it.

I open the door.

I let it walk.

I return to the waiting room within.

More at Medium

Those who know that they are profound strive for clarity. Those who would like to seem profound to the crowd strive for obscurity.
-- Friedrich Nietzsche

⬆ #Wisdom #Quotes #FriedrichNietzsche #Clarity #Obscurity

⬇ #Photography #Panorama #Rainbow #MississippiRiver #Iowa

Behold, the grand revolution: yet another majestic #GitHub repo claiming to be the magical context sauce for your data agents 🥳. Spoiler alert: it's just a glorified buzzword salad with extra #AI dressing and a sprinkle of "advanced security" fluff to make you feel smart. Bravo, Kaelioktx, you've joined the hallowed ranks of open-source obscurity! 🎉
https://github.com/Kaelio/ktx #Revolution #BuzzwordSalad #DressedUp #OpenSource #Obscurity #HackerNews #ngated

Security Through Obscurity Is Not Bad

https://mobeigi.com/blog/security/security-through-obscurity-is-not-bad/

#HackerNews #Security #Obscurity #Cybersecurity #InfoSec #Technology

[en] Paper: LLMs can be used to perform at-scale #deanonymization

"With full Internet access, our #agent can re-identify Hacker News users and Anthropic Interviewer participants at high precision, given #pseudonymous online profiles and conversations alone, matching what would take hours for a dedicated human investigator."

"Our results show that the practical #obscurity protecting pseudonymous users online no longer holds and that #threat models for online #privacy need to be reconsidered."

"We demonstrate that LLMs fundamentally change the picture, enabling fully automated deanonymization attacks that operate on #unstructured text at scale."

Note: also check paragraphs "Potential harms" and "Potential benefits".

https://arxiv.org/html/2602.16800

#llm #research

A quotation from Horace

Dear sire, and offspring worthy of your fire!
We bards are dupes to what ourselves admire.
Would I be brief — I grow confused and coarse;
Who aims at smoothness, fails in fire and force;
In him who soars aloft, bombast is found;
Who fears to face the tempest, crawls aground.
Who courts variety and fain would ring
A thousand changes on the self-same string,
Will paint, as ’twere in fancy’s wildest mood
Boars in the wave and dolphins in the wood.
Thus even error, shun’d without address,
Breeds error, diff’rent in its kind, not less.
 
[Maxima pars vatum, pater et iuvenes patre digni,
decipimur specie recti: brevis esse laboro,
obscurus fio; sectantem levia nervi
deficiunt animique; professus grandia turget;
serpit humi tutus nimium timidusque procellae:
qui variare cupit rem prodigialiter unam,
delphinum silvis adpingit, fluctibus aprum:
in vitium ducit culpae fuga, si caret arte.]

Horace (65–8 BC) Roman poet, satirist, soldier, politician [Quintus Horatius Flaccus]
Epistles [Epistularum, Letters], Book 2, ep. 3 “Art of Poetry [Ars Poetica; To the Pisos],” l. 24ff (2.3.24-31) (19 BC) [tr. Howes (1845)]

More about (and translations of) this quote: wist.info/horace/14582/

#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #horace #arspoetica #poet #bombast #brevity #brief #caution #clarity #criticism #edit #error #explanation #extremes #faults #force #mistake #obscurity #overcompensation #overcorrection #poetry #smoothness #strangeness #style #succinctness #talent #timidity #tryingtoohard #unintelligibility #variety #vigor #writing

AWK #tech notes: a riveting tale of why abandoning #GC #collectors is super cool 🚀. Apparently, #AWK is like a #hipster bash with some forbidden array-returning #magic, as learned from another guy's blog 📚. Who needs Python when you can AWK your way to obscurity? 😂
https://maximullaris.com/awk_tech_notes.html #obscurity #HackerNews #ngated

A quotation from Joseph Addison

I yesterday passed a whole afternoon in the churchyard, the cloisters, and the church, amusing myself with the tombstones and inscriptions that I met with in those several regions of the dead. Most of them recorded nothing else of the buried person, but that he was born upon one day, and died upon another: the whole history of his life being comprehended in those two circumstances, that are common to all mankind. I could not but look upon these registers of existence, whether of brass or marble, as a kind of satire upon the departed persons; who had left no other memorial of them, but that they were born and that they died. They put me in mind of several persons mentioned in the battles of heroic poems, who have sounding names given them, for no other reason but that they may be killed, and are celebrated for nothing but being knocked on the head.

Joseph Addison (1672-1719) English essayist, poet, statesman
Essay (1711-03-30), “Thoughts in Westminster Abbey,” The Spectator, No. 26

More info about this quote: wist.info/addison-joseph/80135…

#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #josephaddison #graveyard #cemetery #birth #death #impact #legacy #meaningoflife #memorial #obscurity #remembrance #tombstone #history

A quotation from La Rochefoucauld

Perfect valour is to behave, without witnesses, as one would act were all the world watching.
 
[La parfaite valeur est de faire sans témoins ce qu’on serait capable de faire devant tout le monde.]

François VI, duc de La Rochefoucauld (1613-1680) French epigrammatist, memoirist, noble
Réflexions ou sentences et maximes morales [Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims], ¶216 (1665-1678) [tr. FitzGibbon (1957)]

More info about (and translations of) this quote: wist.info/la-rochefoucauld-fra…

#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #larochefoucauld #action #alone #audience #behavior #bravery #courage #deed #obscurity #selfchallenging #selfdiscipline #selfmotivation #selfstarter #solitude #unknown #valor #witness

through twisted trees' gloom
hooves concert rhythm beneath
Komorebi sun

---
#DailyPictureTheme #horse
#vss365 #malformed
#WordedArt #orchestrate
#BlueSkyRelay #obscurity
#DailyHaikuPrompt lantern
#WritingCommunity #poetry #haiku
#KBFPhotography #MobilePhonePhotography #Photography

@dailyhaikuprompt
@vss365 @writingcommunity @poetry @haiku @photography

Saturday, August 2, 2025

HIV rates among Russian soldiers surge 2,000% since start of full-scale invasion of Ukraine — Ukraine is deploying new drones to target Russian armor beyond radio horizon — Russia’s industrial activity falls to lowest level since 2022, Reuters reports — With all eyes on Kyiv, its surrounding villages are unspoken victims of Russian attacks … and more

https://activitypub.writeworks.uk/2025/08/saturday-august-2-2025/

Pō == night, darkness, obscurity, the realm of the gods
Do click through and listen to the host listing the days of the week in Hawaiian, or rather the nights of the week: “Pōʻakahi, Pōʻalua, Pōʻakolu a pēlā aku,” where “a pēlā aku” means “and so on.”
#hawaiianWordOfTheDay #night #darkness #obscurity #HPR #HawaiianPublicRadio #hawaiian https://www.hawaiipublicradio.org/hawaiian-word-of-the-day-july-22

Thrive in obscurity via Jeet Mehta [Shared]

Most things take forever to bear fruit.

Even the most successful creators have spent years (if not decades) putting content out in obscurity. Just a complete total void. Youtube videos with 4 views. Newsletters with 3 subscribers. Podcasts with 10 listeners. Blogs with 6 readers. Songs with 4 downloads. No one but their parents and their spouse consuming their work. And sometimes not even that.

If you’re in it purely for the promised land of love, praise, followers, and fame from millions of people - it’s impossible to sustain. In every field, it takes years of practice, repetition, and “failed performances” before the first hit. In the worst case, artists go their entire life without ever receiving the praise they deserved.

https://welchwrite.com/blog/2025/07/15/thrive-in-obscurity-via-jeet-mehta-shared/

#blog #blogging #creativity #obscurity #support #rewards #validation #shared

New Artist announced for Summer Breeze Open Air 2025: 🔥 Obscurity 🔥

🎶 Listen to the current LineUp on YouTube and Spotify: https://fyrefestivals.co
🎟️ Get your Tickets now: https://prf.hn/l/EJnYMdO

#Summer_Breeze_Open_Air_2025 #Obscurity #fyre_festivals #livemusic #youtube #spotify #music #musicfestivals #playlist #tickets #announcement

😂 Oh, the irony! An article about escaping the attention economy that's begging for your attention. 📢 Let's just share it on Facebook and email it around while we #vanish into #obscurity. 🧙‍♂️ Poof!
https://indignified.substack.com/p/how-to-disappear-from-the-attention #irony #attentioneconomy #shareable #HackerNews #ngated

🎨 So, you can be an "unknown" designer just like Leonardo da Vinci! 🌟 Because, apparently, #obscurity is the new fame. 👻 Who needs recognition when you can be a misunderstood genius, amirite? 😏
https://www.chrbutler.com/you-can-be-a-great-designer-and-be-completely-unknown #unknowndesigner #newfame #misunderstoodgenius #artworld #creativity #HackerNews #ngated

A quotation from Shakespeare

CASSIUS: Did Cicero say anything?
CASCA: Ay, he spoke Greek.
CASSIUS: To what effect?
CASCA Nay, an I tell you that, I’ll ne’er look you i’ th’ face again. But those that understood him smiled at one another and shook their heads. But for mine own part, it was Greek to me.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616) English dramatist and poet
Julius Caesar, Act 1, sc. 2, l. 289ff (1.2.289-295) (1599)

Sourcing, notes: wist.info/shakespeare-william/…

#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #foreignlanguage #ignorance #incomprehensibility #obscurity #other #uncertainty

A quotation from John Adams

The poor man’s conscience is clear; yet he is ashamed. His character is irreproachable, yet he is neglected and despised. He feels himself out of the sight of others, groping in the dark. Mankind takes no notice of him: he rambles and wanders unheeded. In the midst of a crowd, at church, in the market, at a play, at an execution or coronation, he is in as much obscurity as he would be in a garret or a cellar. He is not disapproved, censured, or reproached: he is only not seen. This total inattention is to him, mortifying, painful and cruel. […] To be wholly overlooked, and to know it, are intolerable.

John Adams (1735-1826) American lawyer, Founding Father, statesman, US President (1797-1801)
Essay (1790), “Discourses on Davila: A Series of Papers on Political History,” No. 5, Gazette of the United States

Sourcing, notes: wist.info/adams-john/18189/

#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #destitute #homeless #ignored #invisibility #obscurity #poor #poverty #unseen

🧐 Ah yes, the "revolutionary" #Nebu, because what we all need is a #spreadsheet editor for an obscure system no one uses 🌟. It calculates like your grandma on a calculator while reciting Pi, and if you blink you might miss its lightning-speed launch 🚀—faster than your Excel crash recovery! 🙄
https://wiki.xxiivv.com/site/nebu #Obscurity #LightningLaunch #GrandmaCalculator #ExcelCrash #HackerNews #ngated