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ArjinFerman  Tinfoil Gigachad  3mo ago (text post)   689 thread views

Tinker Tuesday for February 17, 2026

This thread is for anyone working on personal projects to share their progress, and hold themselves somewhat accountable to a group of peers.

Post your project, your progress from last week, and what you hope to accomplish this week.

If you want to be pinged with a reminder asking about your project, let me know, and I'll harass you each week until you cancel the service

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Jump in the discussion.

No email address required.

I’m up for giving feedback on about as long a passage as you want (within reason).

As someone who’s tried to write sci-fi multiple times but got busy and bogged down in work (and also story-planning considerations), you’re doing better than 90% of us by having a completed manuscript. I have a good number of half-finished stories and plans for such collecting dust.

Link to the Google Forms survey.

I've just filled out the survey and left a pretty long comment with a bunch of pointers.

Thank you!

Thank you! Will DM you shortly.

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A motte is a stone keep on a raised earthwork common in early medieval fortifications. More pertinently, it's an element in a rhetorical move called a "Motte-and-Bailey", originally identified by philosopher Nicholas Shackel. It describes the tendency in discourse for people to move from a controversial but high value claim to a defensible but less exciting one upon any resistance to the former. He likens this to the medieval fortification, where a desirable land (the bailey) is abandoned when in danger for the more easily defended motte. In Shackel's words, "The Motte represents the defensible but undesired propositions to which one retreats when hard pressed."

On The Motte, always attempt to remain inside your defensible territory, even if you are not being pressed.


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