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There is so much to gzip. It's a perfect microcosm of the experience of Computering. Fractally complex and clever. Hamstrung by the limitations of computers at the time it was invented. Dramatic, backstabby origin story. Completely unused extension points. Both prescient and myopic in its design.

You could frame an entire Computer Science curriculum around gzip. You could produce a pretty compelling dramatic film about its history. You could spend an entire (productive) career tinkering with gzip encoders.

Sometimes I am overwhelmed with existential dread because I accidentally looked inside this box and found an infinitely interesting little gadget. How many other boxes of infinite complexity did I ignore because I assumed they weren't interesting? It is unfair how little time we get to explore.

At the same time it's kind of beautiful. I imagine that every mundane experience that I take for granted daily is the product of an auteur's obsession with their own little corner of our reality. Every interaction with this world is the sum of a thousand tiny miracles we have achieved together.