I try to “be the change I wish to see in the world” but, unfortunately, this doesn’t always work out for me. For example in ~2015,¹ I decided to update this Infinite Ink website and use AsciiDoc as my lightweight markup language (LML). I chose AsciiDoc partly because I thought the tech world would be a better place if AsciiDoc, rather than Markdown, were the default LML. And then I wrote a bunch of articles in AsciiDoc and about AsciiDoc (to help spread the word about AsciiDoc). Unfortunately, Markdown won the LML battle and in 2024 I switched from AsciiDoc to Markdown and wrote about that in Why I’ve (mostly) Switched from AsciiDoc to Markdown. Now I’m often in the unpleasant situation of editing an older Infinite Ink article and using Markdown syntax when I should be using AsciiDoc syntax.😩

This got me thinking about “being the change” and inspired me to write this article. Fortunately, I feel good about – and have stuck with – most of my choices, including:

• being vegetarian
• minimizing the amount of driving I do
• being a cash-only person as much as possible (to avoid tracking)²
• boycotting places that do not accept cash
• using free/libre open source software (FLOSS)
• using standards-based systems and tools (e.g., email based on IMAP and microblogging based on ActivityPub)
• not signing up for any non-essential system that requires a birthday (e.g., Facebook and Bluesky)
• more coming soon

In the Discuss & Share section below, please post ways that you are being the change.◊

Endnotes