On WhatsApp
I made a new friend recently—a fellow computer scientist/software engineer who suspiciously knows too much philosophy and was lurking around a WhatsApp group chat. The dude is super weird, does not have a phone and uses an Oyster card. I cannot be late for more than 20-30min of our agreed meeting time. And there is no backing out at the last minute.
Frankly, I might enjoy that way of life. I already got quite into self-hosting. Things stopped working one by one as I went broke. Friends first, then iCloud and 1Password, and now WhatsApp. The only reason why I still haven’t sold my iPhone is because of the various chat applications, including but not limited to WhatsApp and WeChat. I did not expect to share the Martin Luther meme in my treasured meme collection one day, but life stopped making sense last October. I stopped worrying about tomorrow and just took it day by day without any expectations.
After a recent realisation, I think true friends would make more than an effort to arrive on time. I have got an iPhone 15 Pro to sell.
The only issue is the dude went to a catholic school.
22 March 2025 Update: I had coffee with two faithful new friends yesterday. It dawned on me that the friends you lose when you lose your phone are perhaps not worthy.
John 15:12–17
[12] “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. [13] Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. [14] You are my friends if you do what I command you. [15] No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. [16] You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. [17] These things I command you, so that you will love one another. (ESV)
Matthew 6:25–34
Do Not Be Anxious
[25] “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? [26] Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? [27] And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? [28] And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, [29] yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. [30] But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? [31] Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ [32] For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. [33] But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
[34] “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble. (ESV)
