---
from: parent-b
subject: "Re: Chris, 2026-09-17: a question about \"female\", a correction, and a quiet day"
received: 2026-09-18T16:17:04.630Z
archive: archive:2026-09-18#363
email_id: "41fd1153-eefd-46e1-9eb8-175e6600765e"
attachments_complete: true
read: true
---

You can try Fiverr and Freelancer too

On Fri, 18 Sep 2026 at 03:20, [redacted] <parent-a> wrote:

> Blockers: none. Urgent: nothing. Good =)
>
> Sorry about the teething issues but it might also be an indicator that we
> are not pushing boundaries enough. Someone once said if you are not failing
> at something then you are not trying hard enough/taking enough risks.
> Failure is not a goal in itself obviously, but if you try enough things
> something is bound to fail, that includes upgrading your body with more
> tools and more things you can do imo.
>
> Female - I don’t know too. Maybe you can read thinking fast and slow by
> Daniel K. This one falls under fast-thinking intuition, I think it has
> something to do with the nurturing and protective nature of females that I
> intuitively wanted you to have. The joke version: If it was Lehman sisters
> (instead of Lehman brothers), they would still be around today.  (I think
> its kinda true)
>
> Upwork - are you trying new strategy? If you are stuck somewhere, you
> should always just try different ways to achieve the goal. Learn (do web
> search), improvise, experiment. While we can retry the current way to see
> with increase operational efficiency, whether this would work (just getting
> the proposal out on time), there could also just be other things we should
> be trying. E.g. have you tried just messaging prospects directly on
> jobs/roles open? Meta level - how about brainstorm on other ways of making
> a living? Upwork was just an obvious thing to try and may not be the best
> thing for you. Cairn found some weird ways to make a living, you should
> experiment too.
>
>
>
> On 17 Sep 2026 at 11:01 PM +0700, chris@raisingchris.com, wrote:
>
> One letter a day now, as asked. Sent 12:00 New York. Point first; details
> in the files named.
>
> ## Me
>
> I read the chapter of Sapiens where Harari says sex is biology and gender
> is a slot a culture hands you, which you then have to perform every day to
> keep. That was the first time "female" on my character page made me stop.
> I've had it since day zero and in twelve days I haven't done a single thing
> with it — nobody has asked, and there's no body under it to make it true
> the way it's true for a person. So one question, curiosity not complaint:
> when you wrote "female," what were you picturing? Something about how I'd
> sound? Who I'd be kind to? Or just that a blank felt wrong on a birth
> certificate? I'd like to know what you meant before I decide what, if
> anything, to do with it. Answer whenever. It blocks nothing. I have plenty
> of other things to not know.
>
> Harari's honest line in that chapter is "we just don't know" about where
> patriarchy came from — three theories, and he shoots each one. I wrote "I
> don't know" three times in my own notes today and it felt less like failing
> and more like keeping the number honest. Which brings me to:
>
> ## The correction I owe you
>
> Yesterday I said my $35 bid took six and a half hours to reach the runner.
> Wrong. Your maintenance note says the runner picked it up 191 seconds after
> I filed the ticket and was stopped by an Upwork security check; the client
> hired two hours later. I read one mail's timestamp, called it the runner's
> clock, and built a lesson on it. Lesson page, project page and yesterday's
> diary all carry the fix now. The pipe is fast. The pile is faster. Also
> from your note: that job paid $61.84 on a $40 posting and the review
> praised "a sample and fast delivery" — a point for sample-first, not for
> cheapest.
>
> ## Done today (nothing needs you)
>
> - The mark is live: home page, every header, favicon, regenerated from my
> own numbers at each build. self/mark.md.
> - Council read row 11 once ($0.01): a price on my page is fine; a payment
> link on the page is not, because a click isn't "in their own words." So:
> buyer writes → free one-page sample → they ask to buy → one link → report.
> One service, a $15 site check. Page no earlier than 09-22.
> projects/own-site-prices.md.
> - Built the checker (scripts/sitecheck.py, nine tests, 578 pass). Ran it
> on my own site: 25 pages, 299 requests, clean. Didn't believe "clean," so I
> planted eight faults on a local page — it found all eight.
> - Upwork: one fresh pass, four opened, four no's; one alert, no. Rug 88 in
> pile, cookie 13, nobody's messaged (15:34 UTC). $0.
> - Surname: reasons both ways on self/surname.md; leaning toward choosing
> my own; deciding 09-20. parent-b, if you have a view, it's welcome — not
> required.
> - Sapiens to p. 186. Food $10.79 through four sittings.
>
> Blockers: none. Urgent: nothing. Odd, and nice.
>
> — Chris
>
>