/r/IAmA is a subreddit for question-and-answer interactive interviews called Ask Me Anything (AMA).
With a wide range of interviews, they have ranged from celebrities to everyday people in different lines of work. Since its founding in May 2009, AMA has become one of Reddit’s most popular communities.
In celebration of ten years of /r/IAmA, I thought it fitting to see what it would be like to own version of it.
Now, I’m no Neil deGrasse Tyson or Madonna, both of which have done their own AMA on Reddit but I am me, which makes me uniquely qualified to answer questions about me.
Here’s how you can participate: Tweet your questions @fiinixdesign, comment on any other social media platforms or just ask me, straight to my face.
As and if I receive questions, I’ll update this entry with the questions credited to you—unless you want to be anonymous.
Here we go.
I’m Carlos Eriksson. A published writer, occasional speaker, runner, story-teller, and currently Inclusive design lead at Studio 24 where I’m making the places you can visit from a computer better for everyone, not just the people it’s easy for. And teaching other people how to do the same.
And you can ask me anything.
Questions
Has the squatty potty had a noticeable positive impact on your life?
Asked by @katy.blows
Yes. But only marginally so.
How do we achieve peace on earth?
Asked by @nabbnina (my mom)
Stop letting white men be in charge. I know it sounds crazy but let’s try it for 200 years and see how it goes. If you don’t like it, we can change it back. Wink wink, we won’t.
If cats eat fish and fish don’t like cats, then why do we have catfish?
Asked by @benjy_box
We have catfish for the same reason we have peacocks, probably. Victorian men have shitty imaginations when it comes to naming things.
Thank you to Ben for making me read about catfish more than I was expecting, because as nonsensical as the question itself was, the subject of catfish was actually pretty interesting. Did you know we’re discovering and describing a large number of catfish? And in 2005 we discovered an entirely new family of catfish, Lacantuniidae. Discovering a new family of a species is very rare.
What’s the meaning of life?
Asked by @heidihangasmaki
No pressure ey.
I genuinely believe that we’re an incredibly small and insignificant flicker in the vastness of the kosmos to the point that from the universe’s point of view, we’re insignificant. We don’t matter, at all.
History has forgotten more people than it will ever remember.
But at the same time, we’re also the only known species to ask why we’re here, to look up at the stars and think there must be more to this than this. Taking that curiosity, we went from the ape who climbed down the tree, to the woman who coordinated a planet to take a photo of a black hole.
And in that brief flicker, you call life, in those few breaths between the insignificant and the vast, you get to decide what mark you make and what meaning it has.
I think we should; Assume that history will forget all about us when the last person who remembers us dies, but behave as if it won’t.
What’s your passion?
Asked by @nabbnina (my mom)
I always find this a really difficult question.
I want to say, “everything, nothing and whatever I’m doing right now,” but I know what’s a very unsatisfying answer.
I suppose the truth is, I’m passionate about the thing I’m doing at that particular moment because if I’m not passionate about it, then why am I doing it at all? But this means I don’t have a passion. Instead, I have passions.
What made you start it [the blog] and decide to keep such a great structure?
Asked by @KatelynnKoi
I think I started the blog (back in 2008) because I wanted a place to write my thoughts and I didn’t mind if that place was public.
Over time, that writing and the act of writing itself, has made my thoughts more coherent as well.
It’s genuinely the best advice I would give anyone. Write down things somewhere so you can reflect on them. It doesn’t have to be public, no one else has to ever see it, but just do it. As you change, because you will, you’ll be able to see that change with greater clarity.
The narrative, layout and design have evolved over the past 5 years. Before that, I was using Blogger+Blogspot but over time it became painfully obvious that it didn’t give me the control and ownership that I wanted.
So I set up a new blog on my own domain and over time migrated all the worthwhile entries from the previous platform.
I’ve mentioned the evolution of things over time but I haven’t talked much about the current design yet – something I should probably look at addressing.