dce/davideisinger.com
1
0
Fork 0
Code Issues Pull Requests Actions Packages Projects Releases Wiki Activity

Add links

Browse Source
This commit is contained in:
David Eisinger
2025-02-03 00:15:05 -05:00
parent 557eb3f463
commit ff68ad61c4
14 changed files with 6159 additions and 6 deletions
Download Patch File Download Diff File Expand all files Collapse all files

116
content/journal/dispatch-24-february-2025/index.md
View File

@@ -9,6 +9,58 @@ references:
url: https://manuelmoreale.com/pb-steven-garrity url: https://manuelmoreale.com/pb-steven-garrity
date: 2025-02-02T06:30:32Z date: 2025-02-02T06:30:32Z
file: manuelmoreale-com-dn0jwr.txt file: manuelmoreale-com-dn0jwr.txt
- title: "The Social Media Sea Change - by Anne Helen Petersen"
url: https://annehelen.substack.com/p/the-social-media-sea-change
date: 2025-02-03T05:11:34Z
file: annehelen-substack-com-5yhv8a.txt
- title: "Bad shape"
url: https://www.wrecka.ge/bad-shape/
date: 2025-02-03T05:11:52Z
file: www-wrecka-ge-rdi1xr.txt
- title: "What Is To Be Done? | CJ The X"
url: https://cjthex.com/what-is-to-be-done/
date: 2025-02-03T05:11:55Z
file: cjthex-com-xshqsk.txt
- title: "Departing the New York Times - by Paul Krugman"
url: https://contrarian.substack.com/p/departing-the-new-york-times
date: 2025-02-03T05:11:50Z
file: contrarian-substack-com-grqlkr.txt
- title: "Westley Winks :: How I journal"
url: https://wwinks.com/p/how-i-journal/
date: 2025-02-03T05:12:07Z
file: wwinks-com-bh1ouy.txt
- title: "Cancellation: a complex mix of accountability, power, justice, anger and societal change"
url: https://www.coffeeandcomplexity.com/cancellation-a-complex-mix-of-accountability-power-justice-anger-and-societal-change/
date: 2025-02-03T05:12:11Z
file: www-coffeeandcomplexity-com-3o83vx.txt
- title: "Offgrid internet-in-a-box project - Part one - Dom Corriveau"
url: https://blog.ctms.me/posts/2025-01-17-offgrid-internet-in-a-box-kickoff/
date: 2025-02-03T05:12:25Z
file: blog-ctms-me-eg0pab.txt
- title: "Sonic Pi - The Live Coding Music Synth for Everyone"
url: https://sonic-pi.net/
date: 2025-02-03T05:12:30Z
file: sonic-pi-net-nczg5a.txt
- title: "I knew one day I’d have to watch powerful men burn the world down – I just didn’t expect them to be such losers | Rebecca Shaw | The Guardian"
url: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/jan/16/i-knew-one-day-id-have-to-watch-powerful-men-burn-the-world-down-i-just-didnt-expect-them-to-be-such-losers
date: 2025-02-03T05:12:34Z
file: www-theguardian-com-b9haub.txt
- title: "Some Entries from My Personal Journal // Take on Rules"
url: https://takeonrules.com/2025/01/16/some-entries-from-my-personal-journal/
date: 2025-02-03T05:12:36Z
file: takeonrules-com-joumfe.txt
- title: "This Glorious Machine"
url: https://robinrendle.com/stories/this-glorious-machine/
date: 2025-02-03T05:12:52Z
file: robinrendle-com-aa25aa.txt
- title: "My Planner Setup for 2025 – Writing at Large"
url: https://writingatlarge.com/2025/01/09/my-planner-setup-for-2025/
date: 2025-02-03T05:13:01Z
file: writingatlarge-com-ravzp3.txt
- title: "Three Habits Worth Keeping – Writing at Large"
url: https://writingatlarge.com/2025/01/03/three-habits-worth-keeping/
date: 2025-02-03T05:13:15Z
file: writingatlarge-com-zf24yo.txt
--- ---
Some thoughts here... Some thoughts here...
@@ -68,10 +120,62 @@ Some thoughts here...
### Links ### Links
* [Title][7] * [The Social Media Sea Change - by Anne Helen Petersen][7]
* [Title][8]
* [Title][9]
[7]: https://example.com/ > I’m not quitting Instagram. I may or may not add email to my phone; maybe I’ll just do it when I’m traveling, and it becomes my de facto computer. I’m not trying to convince you to do what I’ve done, and I’m not suggesting I’m a superior or more disciplined person for doing any of this. All I’m saying is: I think I’ve turned the corner. And I think a lot of you have — or are about to — too.
[8]: https://example.com/
[9]: https://example.com/ More on this topic: [Bad shape][8], [What Is To Be Done?][9]
* [Departing the New York Times][10]
> Yet what I felt during my final year at the Times was a push toward blandness, toward avoiding saying anything too directly in a way that might get some people (particularly on the right) riled up. I guess my question is, if those are the ground rules, why even bother having an opinion section?
* [Westley Winks :: How I journal][11]
> I’ve tried physical notebooks, morning pages, stream-of-thought writing, bullet points, and basically everything else recommended by the journaling gurus. What finally stuck was a framework I learned from Sahil Bloom—the 1-1-1 method. I’ve adapted it for myself such that I write down five points each night (in a perfect world).
* [Cancellation: a complex mix of accountability, power, justice, anger and societal change][12]
> Driving out people can be emotionally satisfying and create a sense of justice. But is it actually making the world better?
* [Offgrid internet-in-a-box project - Part one - Dom Corriveau][13]
> For fun, I like to invent scenarios and then build a tech setup for it. One of the builds I think about a lot is having a completely offgrid (and obviously offline) portable internet-in-a-box. This is the first steps in that build, laying out the requirements and choosing the hardware.
* [Sonic Pi - The Live Coding Music Synth for Everyone][14]
> Experience the sound of code. Sonic Pi is your free code-based music creation and performance tool.
* [I knew one day I’d have to watch powerful men burn the world down – I just didn’t expect them to be such losers | Rebecca Shaw | The Guardian][15]
> Whether I am engaging with the news, or with Musk tweeting constantly like a man with no job or friends, or with Zuckerberg sending out weird videos and appearing on Rogan, I am in pain. Not just because I don’t like what they are doing but because they are so incredibly, painfully cringe.
* [Some Entries from My Personal Journal // Take on Rules][16]
> On Tuesday the 12th of November, 2024, I started what I hoped to be a new habit. That is writing a personal daily journal. Over the weeks, I expanded my aspirations to include a daily check list of activities I wanted to do. I’ve also used these journals to spin-off blog posts; such as this one. In other words, my daily journal is growing a virtuous cycle in my creative process.
* [This Glorious Machine][17]
> Riding an e-bike is like discovering a long forgotten secret of the universe or, perhaps, inventing something worthy of a heartfelt “eureka.” Look: zipping through traffic on my first e-bike, blitzing past the stuffy tin cans all around me, I’ve become master of the four winds. Now first place in a triathlon, now a mythical creature that can move at the speed of thought. Upon my trusty electric 6-gear steed I am Hermes, lord of heavenly motion.
* [My Planner Setup for 2025 – Writing at Large][18]
> It’s the beginning of 2025, so it’s time to go over my full planner setup for both work and home. None of this setup is truly new, as I’ve used much of it during part or all of 2024, but there are a few tweaks and minor adjustments that I’ll highlight. As I use a 13 week year (or a quarter) in my planner, I started Q1 of 2025 on the 29th of December and not the 1st of January.
* [Three Habits Worth Keeping – Writing at Large][19]
> This is the time of year when people set resolutions, themes, goals, intentions, words of the year, etc. Ambitions are high, intentions are good, but well before March most of these efforts will be abandoned and forgotten. I’ll be writing about my quarterly plan and my 2025 planner later on, but for now here are three habits that worth keeping in 2025 and in general, and a few tips on how to get into them and persist.
[7]: https://annehelen.substack.com/p/the-social-media-sea-change
[8]: https://www.wrecka.ge/bad-shape/
[9]: https://cjthex.com/what-is-to-be-done/
[10]: https://contrarian.substack.com/p/departing-the-new-york-times
[11]: https://wwinks.com/p/how-i-journal/
[12]: https://www.coffeeandcomplexity.com/cancellation-a-complex-mix-of-accountability-power-justice-anger-and-societal-change/
[13]: https://blog.ctms.me/posts/2025-01-17-offgrid-internet-in-a-box-kickoff/
[14]: https://sonic-pi.net/
[15]: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/jan/16/i-knew-one-day-id-have-to-watch-powerful-men-burn-the-world-down-i-just-didnt-expect-them-to-be-such-losers
[16]: https://takeonrules.com/2025/01/16/some-entries-from-my-personal-journal/
[17]: https://robinrendle.com/stories/this-glorious-machine/
[18]: https://writingatlarge.com/2025/01/09/my-planner-setup-for-2025/
[19]: https://writingatlarge.com/2025/01/03/three-habits-worth-keeping/

516
static/archive/annehelen-substack-com-5yhv8a.txt Normal file
View File

@@ -0,0 +1,516 @@
[1][https]
[2]Culture Study
SubscribeSign in
Share this post
[8]
[https]
Culture Study
Culture Study
The Social Media Sea Change
Copy link
Facebook
Email
Notes
More
[9]Essays
The Social Media Sea Change
What happens when the thing that structured so much of our lives loses its
utility?
[10]Anne Helen Petersen
Jan 19, 2025
∙ Paid
1,025
Share this post
[12]
[https]
Culture Study
Culture Study
The Social Media Sea Change
Copy link
Facebook
Email
Notes
More
[13]
210
180
[14]
Share
If you missed it from earlier this week: [15]I’ve put together a bunch of ways
you can help those in LA *right now.*
We’re also doing another round of “Ask A Divorced Person” — where people with
questions for divorced people submit their questions, and a group of divorced
people (who’ve gone through different types of divorces) answer them. You can
get the general idea [16]here.
If you have a question for a divorced person, you can submit it [17]here. If
you’d like to answer questions as a divorced person, you can volunteer [18]here
. (Link is now fixed, it takes you to the right form!)
And if you open this newsletter all the time, if you forward to your friends
and co-workers, if it challenges you to think in new and different ways — [19]
consider subscribing.
[20]Upgrade Your Subscription
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
You get access to the weekly Things I Read and Loved at the end of the Sunday
newsletter, the massive links/recs posts, the ability to comment, and the
knowledge that you’re paying for the stuff that adds value to your life. Plus,
there’s the addictive & useful threads: like Friday’s on [21]The Most Beautiful
Swim You’ve Ever Taken, and this month’s “[22]What Are You Reading” (1100+
comments and suggestions!)
[23]
[https]
Abandoned Concrete Barges from World War II in the River Thames (Aerial Essex /
Getty)
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
The day before Christmas Eve, I deleted Instagram and my email from my phone.
Facebook hasn’t been there for years, and Twitter has been gone for nearly two.
For reasons that mystify me — maybe because I hid it on the third page — I only
feel like getting on TikTok once or twice a month, and then I watch it like
it’s a long movie and then leave it be. My phone was reduced to a texting
device with a smattering of essential apps: the camera, of course, but also the
weather, maps, browsing. I didn’t make it totally un-useful. I just
significantly reduced its potential to fill my time.
It was easy to ignore during the bustle of the holidays. It was usually just in
the mornings, when I first woke up, that I realized just how much time I’d
devoted to scrolling. There I was, looking at the weather or the snow report
for the third time, checking our local NextDoor and feeling dismayed that no
one had published a new sunset photo. At night, I’d look at my phone, realize
it had nothing to offer me, and throw it onto the bedside table like a cranky
toddler bored with a toy. I read and slept in abundance.
It’s not that I didn’t read email, or utterly ignored Instagram — I could still
take a look on my computer browser. It’s that I looked at them far fewer times.
It felt like 2006 in the very best of ways: I could still communicate with
others and periodically see pictures from their lives. It’s just that that
communication didn’t serve as the score and meter of my life.
I told myself I’d put both Instagram and email back on my phone at the end of
the in-between weeks. Days kept passing, and I kept not doing it. One day I had
to make a return in town that required a QR code; I forwarded the email to my
mom and had her show her phone. (I also could’ve just….printed it out).
I read the news of the Los Angeles fires on news sites and in newsletters
instead of being barraged by it on Instagram. I open my email on my computer
and sort through the accumulation in a massive chunk — like my PO Box, when I
haven’t gone for a few days — instead of bit by distracting bit. I find myself
diverting my scroll energy to Facebook, where I still have an account to access
dahlia groups, but it feels even more gross than before: a wasteland of AI
accounts promising blue dahlias and weight loss reels and suggestions to
friends of friends who haven’t updated their Facebook accounts in nearly a
decade. It’s like a frat house basement at 10 am. Why the fuck am I here.
[24]
[https]
HOW, FOR EXAMPLE, DID THIS GET IN MY FEED
I’ve spent more time than ever before on Substack Notes, but not posting, or
even responding to other people’s notes. The algorithm seems to have learned
that I like to read newsletters, not posts, and is serving me those links, not
others’ endless discussion of what they don’t like about Notes (namely: it’s
like everywhere else that they also don’t like).
I’m not quitting Instagram. I may or may not add email to my phone; maybe I’ll
just do it when I’m traveling, and it becomes my de facto computer. I’m not
trying to convince you to do what I’ve done, and I’m not suggesting I’m a
superior or more disciplined person for doing any of this. All I’m saying is: I
think I’ve turned the corner. And I think a lot of you have — or are about to
— too.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
You know how, when people get sober, or fall in love with running, or have a
breakthrough in therapy — they can’t stop proselytizing about it? “Proselytize”
feels like the right word here, because they really are preaching the good news
of a new religion: a way of understanding and occupying the world. To them, it
feels so right — and so unbelievable, that it took them this long to find it
— that they want others to figure it out now, in less time than they did.
But proselytizing doesn’t work, at least not how people think it does, and
rarely in lasting ways. People make major decisions in their lives only when
they’re ready, and they rarely reach a point of “ready” by people preaching at
them. Instead, they slowly absorb examples, arguments, and desires for their
own lives, and arrive at a place where they’re malleable to change.
After years of people yelling at me in books, think pieces, and tweets (lol) to
“break up with my phone,” “delete your social media accounts,” and “fuck Mark
Zuckerberg,” turns out the thing that I needed was a whole conglomeration of
quiet arguments and technological shifts that made my phone and the social
media accounts on it feel less precious. Put differently, I haven’t come to
value it less; instead, it’s become less valuable.
This sounds spectacularly self-centered: that you can only quit a thing, or
modify your usage of it, when it fails to serve you. But if we think of our
phones and social media as addictive products, which they certainly are, then
the classic addiction model makes sense: you only consider quitting when the
negative impacts (the dead feeling of the soft-brain scroll, the loss of
attention span, the weight of comparison, the exposure to trolls, the lack of
control over the algorithm) outweigh the positive benefits (the distraction,
the serotonin hit, the semblance of connection, the loose ties, the business
benefits).
My sense is that a lot of you are at a similar point. The amount of space these
technologies take up in our lives — and their ever-diminishing utility — has
brought us to a sort of cultural tipping point. I’ve sensed it over the last
year, when my social feeds seemed to finish their years-long transformation
from a neighborhood populated with friends to a glossy condo development of
brands. I could feel it in the responses to my piece, last month, to [25]
Posting Less, but also in a slew of pieces from other writers, all tracing
different pathways to the same conclusion: this isn’t working anymore. What if
we stopped trying to make it?
At this point, we’ve had social media around for long enough — and people have
been experimenting with decreasing or eliminating it for various lengths of
time — that there’s a pretty rich collection of writing on the topic. I thought
it might be useful to show you a few recent examples that have set up residency
in my brain:
1.) “[26]You Might Just Have To Be Bored.”
Kate Lindsay [28]points out a foundational problem with decreasing phone/app
use: we’ve forgotten how to be bored. This has felt true to me for some time,
but I appreciated the point that trying to re-acquaint yourself with boredom
cold turkey can be a disaster that leads to even greater dependence.
Lindsay has gradually decreased how she uses her phone and social apps, and in
so doing, the feeling of necessity also decreased. For me, all of this felt
impossible until Twitter lost its utility for me — slowly at first, and then I
realized I just didn’t want to hang out there. At first, I felt its absence,
but then I began leveraging other modes of communication to keep in touch — or
just kept in touch less (and spent more time doing things that were nourishing
in ways that had nothing to do with being online).
And then there’s the fact that boredom is far more than, I dunno, staring out
the window on a long car ride when you were eight years old. “Boredom,” Lindsay
argues, “is when life happens”:
Boredom is when you do the dishes, run the errand you’ve been putting off,
respond to the text you’ve left on read. Boredom is when you bring a book
to read on the subway or make small talk with the person in front of you in
line about how slow the pharmacy is. Boredom is when you do the things that
make you feel like you have life under control. Not being bored is why you
always feel busy, why you keep “not having time” to take a package to the
post office or work on your novel. You do have time—you just spend it on
your phone. By refusing to ever let your brain rest, you are choosing to
watch other people’s lives through a screen at the expense of your own.
She fucking nails it, doesn’t she. How obvious, how painful, how hilarious,
that two things that most of us feel most stifled by — our lack of time, and
our phones — are deeply fucking related.
2.) “[29]Not having a smartphone is entirely practical. You [30]do not need it
[31]. This machine barely [32]does[33] anything at all.”
[35]This argument, from Sam Kriss, is not for people who use their phones as
their sole computing device. It’s for people who use phones as one of many
devices to communicate and navigate the internet. Kriss concedes that the GPS/
mapping function of the phone is quite useful — but apart from that, our phones
really aren’t doing much that our computers don’t do, they’re just portable and
thus available to disrupt any potential boredom.
This point comes about halfway through Kriss’s piece, which is about giving up
his phone for 40 days, and I appreciate how he resists the narrative that
giving up your phone will change your life — you still have the internet, after
all, you just have slightly less access to it, and that slight change in access
can be meaningful, or at least clarifying.
I’m not interested in getting rid of my phone, I’m just interested in being
less bound to it. My experience without email on my phone for the last three
weeks has also underlined just how stupid my previous arguments were about its
necessity. Nearly everything can wait until I can access my computer. QR codes
can be printed or screenshotted and texted to yourself — or you can (pretty
easily!) download the email app for an afternoon and delete it afterward. If
you’re holding tightly to this argument, it’s useful to think about why.
A chaser: “Not using a phone taught me what a phone is really for. It’s not for
communicating with other people, getting directions, reading articles, looking
at pictures, shopping for products, or playing games. A phone is a device for
muting the anxieties proper to being alive.”
3.) App Time is Time, App Energy is Energy
I entered the New Year with so many ideas for this newsletter: bizarre, thorny,
wonderful, generative. I felt excited about digging into the big heart of the
book. I could attribute some of that creative energy to working less over
break, but I’m not that person who comes back from vacation bursting to work. I
have more newsletter energy — and more time to execute it — because I’m not
spraying that energy all over social media.
Here’s how Julia Fontes [37]puts it in her post reflecting on the end of her
year of “smart phone celibacy”:
“This post isn’t going to conclude with me quitting all the sites. I do
think that the way that they have sucked my attention away from the writing
and made my newsletter worse is proof enough that I don’t want to continue
to use them in the ways the marketing gurus recommend…..What I know for
sure is that one year with the dumb phone culminated in the publication of
my first book, and I don’t think that’s a coincidence. I know that
moderation of anything that stimulates the dopaminergic response is nearly
impossible for me. I am done beating myself up or putting in any kind of
moral judgment about what I should or should not be able to control.”
I want to spend less time promoting on social media — or just scrolling, let’s
be honest, because that’s how I usually spend time when there to “promote”
— and more time making stuff that’s promotable, that I’m proud of, that makes
this entire enterprise thrive.
4.) Not Posting as Privacy
And privacy as valuable. Our lives don’t have to become others’ cheap food for
consumption. This one bonked me right on the head:
Here’s Hannah Power, [39]on leaving Instagram:
“….the weird things that have happened as a direct consequence have been,
well, weird. for instance, I haven’t missed it once. not once! I thought I
would. I thought I would miss sharing my curated life, my walks through the
streets of Lisbon, my pics screaming I am on holiday, but I haven’t.
another weird thing that has come from my absence is loving my absence. I
didn’t realise that my privacy was luxurious and I was just giving it away
for free to people and Mark Zuckerberg. I didn’t realise privacy was a
gift, a privilege even. I didn’t realise how cool it was to be somewhere
and only you and the person you’re with know it. it was weird that I didn’t
know this, or had forgotten this - like I was under a spell.
It reminds me of something Freya Moon [40]wrote about the Gen-Z belief that
posting is what makes something “real” — a boyfriend, a vacation, a meal. We
have mistaken others’ recognition of a thing for actual experiencing the thing.
At first, when I left Instagram, I thought (embarrassingly): but how will
people know I’m going skiing, or see all this cozy puzzling, or know that I do
indeed have friends and I hung out with them on New Year’s Eve?
“People” may not know, but I do.
5.) It’s Worth Hanging Out in the FOMO
Over the last fifteen years I’ve watched incredibly talented writers who had
ignored social media with good reason (they liked writing more than posting,
imagine) get pulled into starting a Twitter, an Instagram, a Facebook page,
whatever, because a marketing person at their publisher or an agent or someone
they know in the industry convinced them that a social media presence is
essential to a successful book launch. I understand where this wisdom is coming
from, but I don’t buy it. A brand-new social media profile sells nothing. A
Substack with a handful of posts and a listing of upcoming readings does the
same thing as sending a big email to your contacts.
I’m not fool enough to believe that a good book will sell just because it’s
good. But a book sells through connections, and connections — the sort that
make someone say yes of course let’s do a Q&A for your book! — are not
primarily forged or maintained on social media. We take a look at our past and
think of a friend that we made on Twitter or in a Facebook Group and think this
is why I can’t leave! But those platforms don’t do the same thing they used to.
My Instagram account doesn’t sell books. My newsletter — different story.
Plus: what connections are you also missing by allocating so much of your
creative time to social media? What happens when we consider those losses?
I like what comedian Cynthia Girardian [42]wrote about the decision to delete
her Instagram account:
“….If I started on Instagram at 20 and I am now at the ripe age of 33, that
means my whole adult life so far, I’ve spent it developing some sort of
addiction to likes and external validation. And this means I will probably
suffer from withdrawal syndrome from time to time: sometimes, since being
off Instagram, I feel disconnected, isolated and lonely….Nothing seems to
keep me as connected and as chronically online as Instagram and my 12.6K
followers did, and so the questions remain:
👽 Am I sabotaging my opportunities?
👽 Are my friends and acquaintances going to forget about me?
👽 Am I becoming the weird friend?
👽 How am I going to establish contact or keep in touch with people / brands
/ potential work gigs from now on?
👽 How am I going to share with the world the things I do?
Not to make this my entire personality from now on, but to my own surprise,
I want to offer some resistance and explore these uncomfortable feelings
for a while. I am low-key excited, and I am certain that with time and
space, all these questions will answer themselves.”
In other words: what happens when we reintroduce the friction that social media
smoothed? What’s worthwhile about re-learning some of the connective skills
we’ve lost?
This past Tuesday, I was reading the “What Are You Reading” thread and realized
I’d missed [43]the big investigative piece about Neil Gaiman being an absolute
creeper, which came out the day before. At first, I felt out of touch — and
then I realized 1) I could go read it right then, and it would still have the
same import; and 2) I could and should be more active about just visiting the
websites of the publications I value and love, something I used to do every
single time I opened up the computer. There are so many other ways to use the
internet — some of them from our very recent past.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Many of you have resisted social media altogether. Others have always had a
distant or measured relationship with it — or left when these companies proved,
again and again, that they made you (and others) into a person you didn’t
particularly like, or that the technology itself was so readily manipulated to
serve our worst impulses. But a lot of us are sitting here with lives, both
personal and professional, intertwined with these apps. We’ve sunk so much time
into them; they hold not insignificant chunks of our recent past. We’ve
negotiated misgivings and ambivalence; we’ve crafted complex and simple
justifications to stay.
So what is it about this moment that makes leaving — or significantly
moderating — feel possible? The platforms feel toxic, but they’ve felt toxic
for a while. They’re more toxic and they’re degrading, overridden by brands and
AI. Their utility for connection (the thing that brought us there in the first
place!) has deteriorated to the point of uselessness. The cultural norms of
2005 to 2025 were produced and refined via social media, but the homes we built
there — the understandings of self — feel unwelcoming and alien.
The world, filtered through the apps, is not the world we want for ourselves.
And in many cases, it’s not the actual world we inhabit.
In a recent piece for the New York Times, Ezra Klein [44]argued that this
feeling of discombobulation can be traced to “the unsteady, unpredictable
emergence of a different world.” He’s talking about Trump, of course, and the
anti-democracy politics he aims to ram through — but also AI’s maturing power
and a rapidly warming planet that offers peepholes into an unspeakably hostile
future every month. He concludes the piece with a quote from Antonio Gramsci:
“The old world is dying, and the new world struggles to be born: Now is the
time of monsters.”
Climate monsters, cultural monsters, political monsters. You can’t fight them
by consuming news, or quote-tweet dunking, or sharing a graphic. You can fight
them through connection. Social apps might be the “easiest” place for that to
happen — and by that, I mean it might the place with the least immediate
friction — but that does not make them the place for them to gain and exercise
power. If this is indeed a new world, we need new tactics, new tools, and new
energy. None of which are hiding on Instagram.
I’ve spent the last year oscillating between anger and disenchantment, hope and
disillusionment. I want to break everything but also mend it. At times I want
to hibernate, to turn inward, to fortify what’s mine — but also understand how
vulnerable that will make me to all the challenges to come. How do we relearn
how to talk to one another? To live with each other? To think and act with
creativity and intention? How do we lead the lives we actually want to live,
marked by care and passion?
Dude, I’m working on it! A lot of us are. If someone has an easy answer for
you, they have some sort of privilege that’s allowed them to shield themselves
from the complications of the modern world. What I do know is this: I have a
lot more time to think about these questions, to access empathy and so many
other emotions, to experience the textures of each and every day, since I
started spending less time on the sites where I’m supposed to document them.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
For our discussion today, I don’t want to talk about the reasons why you have
to stay — you don’t need to make the case. Everyone’s dealing with their own
situation in the way that feels right to them. There is still very real utility
in many corners of social media and moving a community off Facebook is not
simple.
Instead: how are you *feeling* about your current use? What would you like to
change? Which argument to stay now feels flimsy *to you*? And do you also feel
like we’re reaching a pivot point, or am I just high off all my new free time?
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Also: as a way of connecting on smaller issues — and sharing pieces I’d usually
share on Instagram or a previous iteration of Twitter — I’ve been playing
around with Substack Chat. Feel free to totally ignore it, or dip in when you
feel like it, whatever feels interesting and generative. It’s very low-key, but
the same guidelines apply there as any other Culture Study comments section.
You can find all chats [45]here.
[46]
[https]
Join Anne Helen Petersen’s subscriber chat
Available in the Substack app and on web
Join chat
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
This Week’s Things I Read and Loved (it’s particularly good this week, gotta
say; gift links whenever possible!)
This post is for paid subscribers
[49]
Subscribe
[51]Already a paid subscriber? Sign in
PreviousNext
© 2025 Anne Helen Petersen
[54]Privacy ∙ [55]Terms ∙ [56]Collection notice
[57] Start Writing[58]Get the app
[59]Substack is the home for great culture
Share
Copy link
Facebook
Email
Notes
More
This site requires JavaScript to run correctly. Please [61]turn on JavaScript
or unblock scripts
References:
[1] https://annehelen.substack.com/
[2] https://annehelen.substack.com/
[8] https://substack.com/home/post/p-154775262?utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
[9] https://annehelen.substack.com/s/essays/?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=menu
[10] https://substack.com/@annehelen
[12] https://substack.com/home/post/p-154775262?utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
[13] https://annehelen.substack.com/p/the-social-media-sea-change/comments
[14] javascript:void(0)
[15] https://annehelen.substack.com/p/blake-lively-reshoots-the-end-of
[16] https://annehelen.substack.com/p/leave-before-there-is-nothing-left
[17] https://forms.gle/W7oqLmhbzCQQK2Qw7
[18] https://docs.google.com/forms/d/13kzoMmlmFbDOvYgJsXxuN-nGuXrUtS2vQK37G_GOkfg/edit
[19] https://annehelen.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=web&utm_source=subscribe-widget
[20] https://annehelen.substack.com/subscribe
[21] https://annehelen.substack.com/p/the-most-beautiful-swim-youve-ever
[22] https://annehelen.substack.com/p/what-are-you-reading-in-november
[23] https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F6bd79790-a88b-487e-a0cf-72bb0cb42422_2310x1298.jpeg
[24] https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F2efdd416-b066-45f2-934a-8e0edbcb6b3e_1402x1512.png
[25] https://annehelen.substack.com/p/posting-less
[26] https://embedded.substack.com/p/you-might-just-have-to-be-bored?r=h567&utm_source=pocket_reader&triedRedirect=true
[28] https://embedded.substack.com/p/you-might-just-have-to-be-bored?r=h567&utm_source=pocket_reader&triedRedirect=true
[29] https://samkriss.substack.com/p/how-to-live-without-your-phone?r=h567&utm_source=pocket_shared&triedRedirect=true
[30] https://samkriss.substack.com/p/how-to-live-without-your-phone?r=h567&utm_source=pocket_shared&triedRedirect=true
[31] https://samkriss.substack.com/p/how-to-live-without-your-phone?r=h567&utm_source=pocket_shared&triedRedirect=true
[32] https://samkriss.substack.com/p/how-to-live-without-your-phone?r=h567&utm_source=pocket_shared&triedRedirect=true
[33] https://samkriss.substack.com/p/how-to-live-without-your-phone?r=h567&utm_source=pocket_shared&triedRedirect=true
[35] https://samkriss.substack.com/p/how-to-live-without-your-phone?r=h567&utm_source=pocket_shared&triedRedirect=true
[37] https://juliefontes.substack.com/p/how-i-lost-the-plot-after-reuniting?r=h567&utm_source=pocket_reader&triedRedirect=true
[39] https://thisiswhatawitchthinksabout.substack.com/p/things-got-really-weird-when-i-got?r=h567&utm_source=pocket_saves&triedRedirect=true
[40] https://www.freyaindia.co.uk/p/you-dont-need-to-document-everything?r=h567&utm_source=pocket_reader&triedRedirect=true
[42] https://cynthiabague.substack.com/p/so-ive-deleted-my-instagram-accountnow?r=h567&utm_source=pocket_reader&triedRedirect=true
[43] https://www.vulture.com/article/neil-gaiman-allegations-controversy-amanda-palmer-sandman-madoc.html?origSession=D2310056I8C3YDrVCPzJGxNg0nzMmVzcSekwODYkNmemSqkxTw%3D&_gl=1*qshuya*_gcl_aw*R0NMLjE3MzYwNTEzOTkuQ2p3S0NBaUExZU83QmhBVEVpd0FtMEVlLU0wN05BOWJnVGo3c0xNaFcyczRXd1FVZGl3b2lhWTQtdERhejd4c3VzQ3VlLXhzYi1CLUtSb0NoSmNRQXZEX0J3RQ..*FPAU*ODY2Mzc1MDA2LjE3MzYxOTg4MDY.*_ga*NjM4NzE2Mjg5LjE3MDk1OTEyMTA.*_ga_DNE38RK1HX*MTczNzA1NTYyNi41Mi4xLjE3MzcwNTU2MjYuMC4wLjc1NzQ5MDUwNQ..*_fplc*aXFkMnAzdTJGck1wanNUNzJBSjkzWENWWlglMkJWMVpqZFVPVWxFOVNHNjRPYnpyenA0dWJrYzJ2cDlHMXNZeThrVnpuWnJLJTJCREJYS2o1c2dxdnl5UTRYRUJUU09LSmVBdlpYUjJHVklFQWNncEYlMkJNYzYzczBrZkF6UXdqeUlnJTNEJTNE
[44] https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/12/opinion/ai-climate-change-low-birth-rates.html?unlocked_article_code=1.o04._nFI.9QZM5nFZ7JPi&smid=url-share
[45] https://substack.com/chat/2450
[46] https://open.substack.com/pub/annehelen/chat?utm_source=chat_embed
[49] https://annehelen.substack.com/subscribe?simple=true&next=https%3A%2F%2Fannehelen.substack.com%2Fp%2Fthe-social-media-sea-change&utm_source=paywall&utm_medium=web&utm_content=154775262
[51] https://substack.com/sign-in?redirect=%2Fp%2Fthe-social-media-sea-change&for_pub=annehelen&change_user=false
[54] https://substack.com/privacy
[55] https://substack.com/tos
[56] https://substack.com/ccpa#personal-data-collected
[57] https://substack.com/signup?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=web&utm_content=footer
[58] https://substack.com/app/app-store-redirect?utm_campaign=app-marketing&utm_content=web-footer-button
[59] https://substack.com/
[61] https://enable-javascript.com/

231
static/archive/blog-ctms-me-eg0pab.txt Normal file
View File

@@ -0,0 +1,231 @@
[1]Dom Corriveau
[2]About [3]Bookmarks [4]RSS [5]Uses [6]Wants
Offgrid internet-in-a-box project - Part one
Posted on Jan 17, 2025
For fun, I like to invent scenarios and then build a tech setup for it. One of
the builds I think about a lot is having a completely offgrid (and obviously
offline) portable internet-in-a-box. This is the first steps in that build,
laying out the requirements and choosing the hardware.
The scenario
Let me define what is a portable internet-in-a-box.
In this scenario, I am imagining I am going to be living in an offgrid cabin
for a year. The cabin has limited power availability and zero internet access.
No home internet and no mobile data. Over the course of a year, I want to be
able to consume media (TV, movies, music, books, podcasts), access information
about topics (e.g. Wikipedia), read info technical websites (e.g.
StackExchange; AskUbuntu), and do hobby projects on a PC (install packages and
apps). After all, playing with computers is my hobby.
Even though I’m a bit of a prepper, this isn’t a prepper build (it could be
used in that scenario, too, I guess). In a prepper build, I would want life
saving information such as medical info, foraging for food, topographical maps,
etc. My offgrid scenario here will have some of this information, I will be
living in an offgrid cabin for an entire year. But, this isn’t a doomsday
build.
Project boundaries
I do have some rules for this build:
• Cannot spend any money, not that I have any money to spend. Needs to all
done with parts I already own.
• It should be a finished build. Can’t “borrow” parts from something else
just for the build and then disassemble this build to put things back.
• The project has to be fun. Don’t get hung up on having the “perfect” setup,
have fun building a potentially and most definitely useless PC.
Project details
The requirements for this build a low. I am not anticipating a lot of people
accessing the data and all the media is formatted to reduce storage space,
which also makes the hardware requirements lower. The things I want this build
to do is possible by any computer in the last 10-15 years.
MVP requirements
• Play SD videos with captions
• Listen to music and archived podcasts
• Read eBooks
• Run a web server
• Use aptly on localhost as the apt packages source
• Install archived flatpaks and Docker containers as necessary
• Play Luanti with VoxeLibre at 45+ FPS (essentially a Minecraft clone)
• Play selection of retro games with wired gamepad
• View/edit markdown notes
• View/edit doc/xls files
• Open encrypted volumes
• Run Kiwix locally and with Docker for multi-device access on small LAN
• Access password and MFA databases (just in case)
• Run for 8 hours from 170Wh power station
I am choosing this power station as the energy source because it can easily be
charged from a single solar panel. Part of the scenario is figuring out how to
keep consistent power to the build without using the limited power available to
the cabin. The build needs to be standalone.
Networking
Separately but a part of this build, is a small GL.iNet travel router. This is
part of the project so there can be a lightweight LAN. The GL.iNet travel
router uses around 1w and runs from USB power.
I imagine with this scenario I am still bringing some sort of a mobile device
and I’d like to access the data on the build from that mobile. I also doubt I
would be going without my wife, who will also want to access the data from her
mobile.
Choosing right machine
Lenovo Ideapad 110s
I picked up the [7]Ideapad 110s from the Goodwill Finds site for $20 a year ago
or so. I as looking around at used ultra-portable laptops and I figured $20
(plus shipping) was low enough to try it out. It didn’t work out for me as an
EDC laptop, but I never stopped tinkering with it.
The specs:
• 11 inch 1366x786 screen
• Intel Celeron N3060 (Braswell) CPU. Dual core; No hyper-threading; 1.6 -
2.4 GHz.
• 2 GB DDR3L soldered RAM
• 32 GB eMMC flash storage
• A 2280 m.2 SSD slot with a 128 GB off-brand SSD installed (my addition)
Notes on testing this laptop for the builld:
• External USB drive works fine, mounts no issues. There is a single USB 3.0
port, so speeds are good.
• Video playback is fine for the standard definition quality TV shows,
movies, and YouTube videos.
• Is x86, so will run the flatpaks and docker containers I have in my offline
archive.
• Played Luanti and with some tweaks it can run between 40-60 FPS.
• Battery constantly runs out, even when off. So, when plugging in to use,
there is a spike of energy usage (40 watts) while it fills the battery.
Once the battery was full, it settled around 8w. Interestingly, with the
battery disconnected, it uses less power (5w), even when the battery is
full.
• When playing videos or Luanti, no noticeable spike in energy usage.
Charging still uses the most energy. Once full, no real spike. Went up to
10w.
• Playing a video at full screen with brightness at max and sound on, while
also accessing a streaming a video to another device, this laptop only used
16w under that load.
• Since this device has a screen, keyboard, and trackpad built it, it is an
easier setup than using the NucBox G3 with the lapdock. Less parts, less
cables. But, significantly less compute and performance.
GMK NucBox G3 + UPerfect Lapdock
This is a minuscule x86 [8]mini PC my wife got me for my birthday last year. It
performs surprisingly well for how small of a package it is.
The specs:
• Intel Alder Lake N97 CPU. Quad core, no hyper-threading; 3.6 GHz clock
speed
• 12 GB soldered DDR5 RAM
• 256 GB 2242 m.2 NVMe SSD
Although this setup has much more compute, the NucBox doesn’t have a screen or
any peripherals. Building with this PC requires significant more work and much
more complicated than an all-in-one device. Additionally, it uses more power
than the Lenovo laptop. I have to weigh out if the increased power usage and
setup complexity are worth the extra compute.
Testing results:
• Lapdock uses 11w while charging (and screen on) and 17w charging screen off
(weird).
• NucBox + lapdock power on surge to 25w
• Interesting thought: NucBox surges up to 28w while under load installing
Debian. I think it can peak around 40w. With the battery removed from the
Lenovo, it can never peak this high.
• Luanti gameplay locked at 60 FPS at default settings (no tweaks), but using
34w.
• Idles at 24w when screen is off. That’s weird. With no display, it must be
raising the CPU usage.
• 28w with external drive connected and watching movie.
• Something I’m discounting here is the lapdock charging. The lapdock is
using 11w to charge. Take 11w off of my totals and the usage is way lower.
• So, uses 23w with the lapdock fully charged, while playing a movie at max
brightness and sound on. The Lenovo in the same scenario uses 14w.
RPI + UPerfect Lapdock
This is the RPI 2 Model B. Threw it in, expecting it to use less power, but
unsure how it will perform. My expectations were low going into the testing.
• The desktop performs surprisingly well.
• Like the NucBox, it does not have a screen or any peripherals. All this has
to be added to the build and increases complexity.
• CPU and RAM usage is low when playing video, another surprise.
• Video playback was missing a lot of frames, so won’t work for my use case.
It absolutely has to play all content smoothly.
• It was using 18.5w altogether, with external drive and lapdock. This is
roughly the same, if not higher, than the Lenovo, but being an unsupported
arm32 chipset and still needs the lapdock. It is only about 5w less than
the GMK.
Hardware choice
After all my testing, I decided to go with the Lenovo Ideapad 110s laptop. The
main reason is it has significantly less complexity in the setup and I think I
can work around the lower compute performance. In addition to have the screen,
keyboard, and trackpad all build it, it also has an SD card slot, a headphone
jack, and its own battery.
The NucBox would perform better, but is essentially useless without any
peripherals. In my scenario I might regret not having more compute. But, if the
lapdock dies or a keyboard fails, I have no way of using it. This is the same
scenario for the Pi. Plus, they both use more energy, which would cut down on
runtime from a small power station.
The next posts will be about what data I will be accessing, how I organized
that data, and what I’m using to access or serve that data.
- - - - -
Thank you for reading! If you would like to comment on this post you can start
a conversation on the Fediverse. Message me on Mastodon at [9]
@cinimodev@masto.ctms.me. Or, you may email me at [10]
blog.discourse904@8alias.com. This is an intentionally masked email address
that will be forwarded to the correct inbox.
• [11]offgrid
• [12]offline
• [13]projects
• [14]prepper
[15] [16] [17] [18]
2025 © Dom Corriveau | [19]Never Monetize | [20]A.I. policy
References:
[1] https://blog.ctms.me/
[2] https://blog.ctms.me/about
[3] https://feed.ctms.me/
[4] https://blog.ctms.me/index.xml
[5] https://blog.ctms.me/uses/
[6] https://blog.ctms.me/wants/
[7] https://www.notebookcheck.net/Lenovo-IdeaPad-110S-N3060-32-GB-Subnotebook-Review.257770.0.html
[8] https://www.gmktec.com/products/intel-alder-lake-n97-mini-pc-nucbox-g5
[9] https://masto.ctms.me/@cinimodev
[10] mailto:blog.discourse904@8alias.com
[11] https://blog.ctms.me/tags/offgrid
[12] https://blog.ctms.me/tags/offline
[13] https://blog.ctms.me/tags/projects
[14] https://blog.ctms.me/tags/prepper
[15] https://github.com/cinimodev
[16] https://masto.ctms.me/@cinimodev
[17] https://www.youtube.com/dominiccorriveau
[18] https://blog.ctms.me/index.xml
[19] https://www.nevermonetize.com/
[20] https://blog.ctms.me/ai-usage

941
static/archive/cjthex-com-xshqsk.txt Normal file
View File

@@ -0,0 +1,941 @@
Website Preloader
[X]
• [1]Home
• [2]Lectures
• [3]Essays
• [4]Reports
• [5]Press
• [6]Subscribe
What Is To Be Done?
A Manifesto To Return To Web 1.5
CJ THE X
Mar 1, 2024
^
 
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
I don’t want to criticize people who seem to like the situation… Instead I’ll
focus on people who are trying to do something other than be a number, even as
they are subsumed by the new reality of number supremacy.
[Ten Arguments For Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now – Jaron Lanier
p.66]
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
 
[Untitled]
In our critique of surveillance capitalism and our quest for collective beauty,
it is imperative to hone in on ideas that we can actually act upon.
I am not interested in paying lip service to anti-capitalism online for profit,
while also shrugging and going “wellll capitalism so big and bad that I have no
choice but to participate”, then proceeding to haplessly ride that self
righteous train of impotent performativity up into celebrity and success. 
Make no mistake: maintaining the pathetic stance of [7]“Ugh, Capitalism” is an
extremely lucrative affair. Leftist posturing is a market. These leftist
influencers are making money. They know how to run a business. I do too, and I
am happy that I do. I think I do a good job of it. But I want to contribute to
society beyond my own success, and beyond empty words signalling abstract
idealistic moral positions that seldom help anyone.
Yes, at one level I simply want to make beautiful things that I think are
beautiful and I am happy to be funded in order to do that. That’s me, my life,
my art, my business. But I don’t think my life is just about me getting the
things I want and doing the things I want to do, even if there’s an industry
that is built for people like me to do that. I don’t want to win the game of
exploitation, I want to improve the conditions of the game. I want to do things
to improve the lives of my audience and the systems we all rely on.
I’m not God, I’m not a politician, I can’t fix everything and I don’t
understand everything. I am an artist and an online person, so naturally I
think a lot about how to be an online person artfully. 
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
 
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Three Propositions About Social Media:
1. There is something insidious about social media platforms that rely on the
advertiser model to make money.
This business model incentivizes manufactured addiction, anxiety and negative
emotion. A populace of phone users who are addicted, anxious, and angry and
will be constantly glued to social media platforms, especially if social media
is also their primary place to receive news and the place they enact many of
their relationships.
Advertiser driven platforms are paid for not by users, but advertisers. The
advertisers pay to display their ads wherever conscious human beings are
looking, and the more people are looking the more advertisers are willing to
pay. Therefore it is financially beneficial for the advertiser-reliant social
media platform to make their app inherently addictive, and to make it feel a
seamless extension of reality. Engagement is optimized when social media is a
limb that users unthinkingly use when they are bored, horny, lonely, or are in
search of serious conversations about the issues of the day (real or fake). It
is ideal if your phone is impossible to put down and you perceive the platform
as “the everything app” where you find your jokes and your friendship and your
entertainment and your philosophy and your discourse and your history and your
news and alternative news and your activism and your meaning.
The unfortunate truth is that negative emotion engenders anxious attachment and
addiction far more effectively than positive emotion. Feelings of satisfaction
allow you to put down the tool, while dissatisfaction causes you to continue
using it in search of more stimulation. In order to optimize engagement a
platform must provide a steady stream of stimulation while instilling a
constant feeling of dissatisfaction and incompleteness.
This renders collective insanity rational. When we constantly use social media,
we function as free labour for the social media platforms and the value of
their advertiser space skyrockets. We are the product, the platform curates us
so that we are optimally addictive and addicted, and advertisers finance this
process with exorbitant enthusiasm. 
This is not a conspiracy theory, this is literally their business model. 
[IMG_9300-scaled]
[Ten Arguments For Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now – Jaron
Lanier, p. 91]
2. Humanity will not throw away all of the positives that social media has
given us, so we cannot outright annihilate social media.
And it’s unclear if it would be desirable to do so. We cannot go backwards.
Humanity at large cannot be expected to delete all of their social media
accounts without proper incentive to do it.
Likewise, massive capitalistic tech companies will not willingly sacrifice
profits. They will not change unless forced, or it somehow proves profitable to
do so. So how do we siphon users out of this vortex? Is it possible to reform
such a broken system? I am in agreement with technocrats that the valuable bits
are genuinely valuable. How do we keep the good while culling the bad?
3. We can’t go back, but we can resurrect beautiful ideas from the past,
manifesting them anew and reincorporating them into reality.
Even if it’s not optimally profitable, we can inspire collective action to pour
our energy and attention into other models. If you have the money, if you have
the skill, if you have the passion, if you have the community, throw that
energy into alternatives that are beautiful, effective, and accessible.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
I am not a person who believes humans are horrible and we need to beat back
with a stick to make them behave like civilized animals. I believe that people
respond to Quality. Critique and description is fine, but it doesn’t do
anything if you provide no actual alternative course of action. We cannot stop
at criticizing hegemonic reality, we must create alternative courses of action
that actually work. They have to be better. And if you have a Quality idea but
you are not presenting it in a Quality manner, then the work is not done.
So this is what I am happy to consider my primary personal political project. I
am interested in improving the internet’s ability to serve human values, human
communities, and human thought.
I sincerely believe that if this is accomplished, it will be an intrinsic good
for individuals and society. Improving our means of communication will also
serve as a universal instrumental good improving our efficacy at solving
problems of a greater scale. If we have new ways to interface, we have new ways
to think, and if we’re passionate and thoughtful about designing these new
interfaces, then we may think clearer than we do now. Hopefully communal
clarity is something we all can agree is in need of improvement.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
 
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
An Extremely Short History of The Addiction Economy:
Web 1.0 was the first manifestation of the internet. It was radically different
from what we experience online today. Sometimes called the “read-only” web, it
was much more like a library than an interactive melting pot. Users could find
information, but it was not easy to generate new content.
The evolution from this less accessible state of the internet into the
leviathan we see today is not well defined, but the overwhelming force that
permanently locked us into our new reality is social media. 
Ease of access, ubiquity of use, and user generated content. This is Web 2.0,
and the way we finance this free democratic user-friendly experience is through
advertising.
Jaron Lanier is perhaps the single most sophisticated voice in tech critique
that the digital age has seen. Since the turn of the century he has been
sounding the bell on decadent mythologies and business practices within the
tech industry, and his analysis has only proven increasingly relevant year
after year. This isn’t due to genius or prescience so much as simple attention
and honesty. Lanier is a software developer, a tech enthusiast who has worked
within Silicon Valley as it rose to dominance. Far from a Luddite outsider, he
is one of the fathers of Web 2.0. He has sold a company to Google and was the
founder of the company that sold the first VR headset. Lanier is wonderful at
describing the design of the internet because he is one of the people who
designed it.
He describes the energy of early internet innovation as a contradictory fusion
of utopian socialist and entrepreneurial libertarian values:
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
I think the fundamental mistake we made is that we set up the wrong financial
incentives, and that’s caused us to turn into jerks and screw around with
people too much. Way back in the ’80s, we wanted everything to be free because
we were hippie socialists. But we also loved entrepreneurs because we loved
Steve Jobs. So you wanna be both a socialist and a libertarian at the same
time, and it’s absurd. But that’s the kind of absurdity that Silicon Valley
culture has to grapple with.
And there’s only one way to merge the two things, which is what we call the
advertising model, where everything’s free but you pay for it by selling ads.
But then because the technology gets better and better, the computers get
bigger and cheaper, there’s more and more data — what started out as
advertising morphed into continuous behavior modification on a mass basis, with
everyone under surveillance by their devices and receiving calculated stimulus
to modify them. So you end up with this mass behavior-modification empire,
which is straight out of Philip K. Dick, or from earlier generations, from
1984. 
[8]Jaron Lanier Q&A on Intelligencer
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
The price of free internet is steep. What seems like democracy and freedom
actually chains us to this process of automated mass engineering, slowly
sharpening society into shorter attention spans, starker polarization, and
anxious addiction. When the product is free, you are the product.
I don’t seek to deny any of the wonderful things that Web 2.0 has brought
humanity. I am a child of the internet like everyone else in my generation. My
job is online, my art is online, my soul is online. But this just means it is
profoundly important that we strive for beauty online, remain critical of the
internet, instead of just accepting whatever state of affairs is dominant or
optimally profitable.
Lanier argues that the next step forward for humanity is to divest from the ad
model. We can retain the wonderful innovations of the Internet without the
insidious incentive structure spreading hairline cracks through our individual
and collective psychologies.
[9]————————
 I think they’ve got to either choose socialism or capitalism cause this unholy
combination we have is the worst of both worlds. If they want to choose
socialism we could say the internet should be like the public library and that
could work, if they want to choose capitalism we should say social media and
search should be like Netflix you pay for them but they should also be kind of
like Etsy or Patreon or something where you can make your living from them
instead of being put out of work by the AI robots that are supposedly going to
do that…
 
 
[10]Jaron Lanier Q&A on Intelligencer
———
…
.
Which brings us back to capitalism, socialism, and gradients.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
 
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Two Radical Solutions That I Like But You Don’t:
I am completely comfortable revealing my personal biases here: My heart leans
left. I was totally sucked into online rabbit holes that encouraged my interest
in communism and socialism in my early twenties, and I remain interested in
those systems of thought. 
However, as I became prominent online and noticed young people adopting and
parroting my stated political and philosophical beliefs, I made it a priority
to not endorse ideas carelessly with my platform. Just because I am a Christian
and I read the book of Acts as a call to communal living, communitarian values,
and collective ownership of resources, does not mean that I understand how such
ideas can be implemented in complex modern society. I am not a politician or an
economist, and I don’t understand enough about how the structure we live in
currently works to suggest we have a revolution to change it from the ground
up. I would not know how to reconstruct it.
Furthermore, I do not see the intrinsic value in dwelling on juvenile utopian
visions of ideal societies that we do not exist inside of and that we cannot
manifest in our lifetimes. Criticizing flaws in our society is useful, just as
theorizing about paradisal states that we would like to move towards can be
useful, but only if these activities lead us to take tangible action in the
world that we really do live in.
If your critiques of capitalism are just a pacifier you suck on to ease your
moral conscience as you strive for money like the rest of us, your worldview is
not interesting to me. If you genuinely want to change and improve society, you
must work on a gradient.
The people I respect politically tend to have the following three qualities:
1. A vision of what you would like to see in a perfect world.
2. Curiosity and appreciation for the complexity of the world we currently live
in.
3. Preferences between currently existing options according to their relative
closeness to your vision.
If you don’t have these things, do you even have any politics that you believe
in? Or are you just Ugh, Capitalism-ing your way through life, or parroting bad
faith Red Scare propaganda about secret Marxist plots, or blaming things that
feel bad on secret cabals of cartoonishly powerful evil villains?
The thing that all of those amorphous spectres have in common is that such an
impossibly vague and pervasive entity cannot be realistically negotiated with
or defeated, and you can’t really do anything practical about it in your day to
day life. It requires no specific action, no realistic knowledge about the
world. They are thought terminating cliches that you can lazily indulge in
while participating in society and enjoying public resources and drowning in
social media addiction uncritically.
I no longer really care about what label people want to slap on me politically.
I just care about making the world better, and giving people better tools with
which to do that. So I happen to be a fan of both of Jaron Lanier’s proposed
solutions to the social media dilemma. 
The first one is the socialist one, which sounds great to me.
Allow for public control of this “Digital Town Square”. Nationalize the thing.
Take away the advertisements and profit incentive, let us fund it with our
taxes and vote on how it should work and treat it like the national resource it
is. It can be free and publicly funded like our libraries and our roads and our
parks. 
[11]————
 
Okay, Facebook is not going to be a business anymore. We said we wanted to
create this thing to connect people, but we’re actually making the world worse,
so we’re not gonna allow people to advertise on it; we’re not gonna allow
anybody to have any influence on your feed but you. This is all about you. We’
re gonna turn it into a nonprofit; we’re gonna give it to each country; it’ll
be nationalized. We’ll do some final stock things so all the people who
contributed to it will be rich beyond their dreams. But then after that it’s
done; it’s not a business. We’ll buy back everybody’s stock and it’s done. It’s
over. That’s it.
That’s one option. So it just turns into a socialist enterprise; we let it be
nationalized and it’s gone.
[12]Jaron Lanier Q&A on Intelligencer
[13]—–—
Love it.
However I can’t imagine this will occur easily. Even persuading a populace to
democratically endorse regulations can be a difficult task. I personally am
happy to advocate in favour of socialist democratic control over such valuable
resources, but that requires such sentiment to be extremely popular, and that
is the task of a lifetime.
Hence the alternative option: Pay for your internet.
This is also a hard sell, cause no one likes to pay for things they currently
have for free, and some perceive this proposition as a cruel barrier of entry.
But there are real benefits to this model, as it that shifts money closer
towards those who actually generate the value and away from the pockets of our
exploitative digital landlords.
If your social media platform is something you subscribe to for ten dollars a
month, it is less incentivized to induce addiction. It has less incentive to
permeate every facet of your life and maximize engagement at all costs. In
theory such a design has a higher chance of being what Ivan Illich calls a [14]
Convivial Tool:
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Tools foster conviviality to the extent to which they can be easily used, by
anybody, as often or as seldom as desired, for the accomplishment of a purpose
chosen by the user. The use of such tools by one person does not restrain
another from using them equally. They do not require previous certification of
the user. Their existence does not impose any obligation to use them. They
allow the user to express his meaning in action.
Tools For Conviviality – Ivan Illich p. 35
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
 
Ideally, this is how we would truly see social media, as the limited and useful
tool that it is. Something you pick up when you need it and put down when you
do not. Something that is not incentivized to invade and alter every corner of
your mind, until you are a highly engaged profitable user that advertisers can
easily surveil and influence.
But even this option seems unrealistic in our current environment.
Again, I do not think that social media platforms will willingly shift to this
model so long as the addiction economy is wildly profitable. The masses
themselves need a lot of persuading to entertain this option, as they attack
the idea of paid internet like the white blood cells of a reactionary society
defending itself from a cure.
It’s hard not to see those who bemoan the toxicity of social media while
viciously biting anyone who suggests their use should be limited as addicts,
quick to reach for any rationale to justify their continued use. “I need to
stay aware, paid internet is oppressive to the poor, if the government controls
social media that’s like 1984.” Ugh, Capitalism. Ugh, Government. Ugh, Social
Media. A hydra headed apathetic mantra of defeatism.
Personally, politically, I think the above solutions are both great solutions,
but they both require democratic desire and government intervention. And I am
not a politician or economist, so I offer these as my personal ideas that you
can take or leave. I am voraciously interested in thoughtful alternative
viewpoints (that don’t amount to an ‘Ugh,’ argument) and I love having this
conversation. It’s a conversation we need to have. 
But how can we have that conversation while still being driven crazy by the
platforms on which we seek to have that conversation? Do we really think we’re
going to think clearly and effective about how to save ourselves from Twitter
ON Twitter?
I don’t think so. So here is my actual pragmatic position.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
 
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
 
Reaching For Web 1.5
What if listening to an inner voice or heeding a passion for ethics or beauty
were to lead to more important work in the long term, even if it measured as
less successful in the moment? What if deeply reaching a small number of people
matters more than reaching everybody with nothing?
[Ten Arguments For Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now – Jaron
Lanier, p. 68]
———————————
Futurists remain suspended between utopian socialism and entrepreneurial
libertarianism. So called Web 3.0 evangelists turn towards the emergent
experiments of the blockchain, cryptocurrency, NFTs and AI. Unfortunately it so
far seems that these technologies are fuelled by the same mythologies and
contradictions that made our current tech overlords. “Artificial Intelligence”
is a particularly misleading phrase, as even the architects of those
technologies readily admit. 
But I’m a pragmatist, not a techie. I don’t understand all those things enough
to cast final judgements. If these tools prove useful, I look forward to seeing
them manifest. In the meantime, we may already have all the tools we need to
get started.
How do we change the way we do business so we aren’t beholden to the profit
motives and incentive structures of ad driven social media? And how do we use
social media to make connections, while not relying on it to sustain and
mediate those connections?
The answer seems to involve a return to Web 1.0 sensibilities.
Independent websites, newsletters, blogs, email. Human to human contact, zero
intermediary advertisers. 
We don’t need new solutions. We just need to use the ones we already have.
Patreon and Substack are celebrated for their use of paid subscriptions in lieu
of ads. They also seem to provide smaller separate spaces, and better mediated
relationships between creators and audiences. But Substack is now [15]
experiencing feature creep in their desire to dig into Twitter’s market, and
Patreon can be fantastic, but seems to work best for the select elite who
already have an audience. 
However the quiet thing that these two platforms have in common is something we
don’t need them for: the mailing list.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
 
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Websites & WebRings
The early waves of web activity were remarkably energetic and had a personal
quality. People created personal “homepages,” and each of them was different,
and often strange. The web had flavor.
[You Are Not A Gadget – Jaron Lanier p. 15]
——–
Patreon and Substack have started introducing features that allow unique domain
names. So instead of [16]patreon.com/cjthex, it could just be [17]cjthex.com,
while still using Patreon’s functionality. Eliza McLamb’s Substack is now just
[18]wordsfromeliza.com, while still using Substack’s functionality. The
question that arises is… why not cut out the middle man and just make our own
fucking websites?
How much of this process can we own? How human can things get? 
The proliferation of personal websites could cure us of some of these perverse
incentives and restore some of the individual curation and creativity to online
life.
But how can you get notifications for website updates? Easy. [19]Newsletter.
The websites (that desire to) can simply have an option to voluntarily sign up
for email updates. This is how most people already experience updates from
Patreon and Substack. Just take money out of the equation and do it directly. A
newsletter can be appraised, critiqued, ignored, or used without necessitating
any online reaction whatsoever. If you desire to you can take the human time to
do the human labour of emailing the author of the newsletter, but all
engagement incentives are effectively wiped out. You’re forced into human
territory, with all of its ambiguities and blemishes.
But what about community? Well, I have a couple of new ideas, but first it
might be wise to highlight an old idea: [20]WebRings.
WebRings were organic networks of recommendations and directories, where
individual websites decided to create various lists and chains of other
featured websites.So one interesting website voluntarily (and individually)
decides to recommend a different website, or several other websites. Maybe they
put together lists of sister websites based on a theme, or based on their city,
or based on their personal relationships. 
WebRings are theoretically a way to spread circles of trust without the
influence of platforms seeking to profit on our relationships. 
Step one is make a site. So here are three sources of inspiration:
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
 
1. [21] Jaron Lanier’s whimsical 90s https sendup @ jaronlanier.com
The Jaron Lanier website is an up to date hand maintained catalogue of his many
interests and labours. If I want Jaron Lanier, I go to jaronlanier.com and I
get it directly. It is impossible to reduce Lanier to his tweets, or posts, or
likes, or follows. His eclectic, and quirky personality bleeds through the
page.
As it should, according to him:
MySpace preserved some of that flavor, though a process of regularized
formating had begun. Facebook went further, organizing people into
multiple-choice identities, while Wikipedia seeks to erase point of view
entirely. (You Are Not A Gadget, p. 48)
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
2. [22] The effortless index of tech author Nadia Asparouhova @ nadia.xyz
Nadia Asparouhova is a fascinating writer and thinker who’s work I have admired
for a while, particularly the manner in which she disseminates her thoughts.
She seems less overtly cynical and proscriptive about social media than I, but
has carved out a uniquely mediated presence online out of sincere self
interest. Asparouhova found the unspoken hidden-in-plain-site incentives of
social media were interfering with how she wanted to think and be perceived. 
She explains her motivations (the “website’s meta-ethos”) in her own warm words
in [23]this interview on someone else’s(!) unique independent website:
[24]—————
I like being able to publish my messier, half-formed thoughts, but I get turned
off by putting those next to a like count. It feels like the more likes you
get, the more you start writing things to get likes, whereas the REALLY weird,
unpopular stuff probably won’t get many likes at all.
I worry about likes changing how I think and interfering with my ability to
wander and explore the edges. (I am truly envious, however, of people who are
able to use Twitter as a place to braindump their thoughts! I think I’m just
too self-conscious.)
———
[25]Pervasive, invisible design features almost always carry implicit values
and subtle alterations to the human experience. Intentional, philosophically
loaded norms like anonymity, comment sections, retweets, restacks, likes, and
public follower count radically alter the way social and intellectual life
operate. Infinitely refreshing feeds and bright red numbered notification
buttons (that are impossible to scroll away from) constantly pull at your
attention with shiny signs and scientifically satisfying noises.
 —
The problem with likes is it naturally draws your eye towards the most-liked
stuff, instead of deciding for yourself what’s most interesting. It almost
feels like I’d be taking agency away from the reader by doing that. (Maybe I’m
being a little sanctimonious—e.g. shorter thoughts probably draw ppl’s
attention more than bigger paragraphs, there’s no way to totally avoid this
problem—but I’d rather not add to it, either.)
.
One of the elegant choices Asparaouhova made was to continue sharing her
incomplete thoughts without the implicitly mandatory coercive bells and
whistles. She features a [26]Notes section chronicling half finished musings,
without replies, comments, or numerical engagement rankings. It’s just actual
human thoughts, that you can experience with your actual human heads. 
[nadia-diclaimer]
Thumbs at ease, soldiers. There is no enemy to defeat, no ally to defend, no
stats to compute. Just your interest or lack thereof in another person’s
thoughts.
[27][Artist Bill Wurtz has also made excellent use of this Notes model.]
Before the Tweet is a Tweet, [28]it’s a thought, a joke, a feeling, a piece of
humanity. Who says free labour for social media is the best use for such
things?
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
 
3. [29] Finally, The Site of An Artist Within My Own Community @
sabafeleke.art
saba is a young artist and engineer and their site is tiny and simple. But it’s
beautiful, and unique, and it’s what you are capable of doing yesterday.
They feature their art, a Notes-like journal with a few entries, a “what im
doing now” status that only displays one snapshot update at a time, contact
info, and an “about” page that’s expressive beyond the requirements for a
Twitter bio. It’s a presence online that belongs to them. They can make it as
expansive or as sparse as they desire. 
When I talked to them about this essay they linked me this:
[30]https://motherfuckingwebsite.com/
It’s a fun short scroll that totally eviscerates people like me that have a
[31]sleek sexy website that loads slower than saba’s or Nadia’s. You do not
need tons of resources and skills and powers to get started on something like
this, you can just do it. It is not illegal. It doesn’t need a .com address, as
you’ve seen above it can be practically anything. I want to see more creativity
from the general public on this sort of thing.
Author Savannah Brown hosts a [32]beautiful site that is essentially built on
this principle.
[2024-02-29-21_59_55-What_Is_To_Be_Done_Feb_28-]
[Impromtu interview with Savannah Brown conducted at 9:35am Feb 25]
Savannah’s site also includes the beginnings of a digital scrapbook she calls a
[33]garden. It’s a little more designed, but ultimately its concept is
extremely simple: a digital scrapbook where she can put gifs and videos and
links and words and images that reflect her interests. She says she intended to
make them yearly, to remember.
She also sent me the fountain of youth inspiration cornucopia that is [34]
neocities, a one click portal into HTML infinity. Click around in there!!! Holy
shit!!!
So there. Several completely achievable examples. And guess what? You’re here
on my website, being linked to other unique websites. The WebRing has begun.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
 
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
A Gang of Humanist Highway Robbers:
Each of those artists and authors also utilize mass media platforms. Bill Wurtz
and I use YouTube. Savannah does too, but she also has book deals, like Nadia
and Jaron. Jaron Lanier has done a lot of public speaking at [35]conferences,
[36]liveshows and on [37]podcasts. I know of saba because I used my YouTube
channel to redirect them to my Patreon and then used my Patreon to redirect
them to my Website.
And this is exactly what I am suggesting you do. Use social media and mass
communications as you must to reach out to people you value and people who
value you.
Then take them away. Log off the app. Drop the tool, it has served its purpose.
Leave the casino while you’re ahead, cash out those precious human chips, and
see how far we can get outside of the system. 
It’s worth trying, isn’t it?
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
 
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Three Conversations With Loved Ones:
First, a colleague:
We were strolling the streets of Toronto talking about how much we hate
marketing. I rave about social media as I always do, but they draw my attention
to the world around us. It’s everywhere. Stadiums sponsored by banks,
streetcars and subway stations plastered with ads for Ozempic and McDonalds,
and the flower beds along the highway planted strategically to feature various
company logos when in bloom.
We take the aesthetic angle: it’s ugly. But if we were to banish all this
ugliness from existence, where would people find valuable things they don’t
already know exist? 
We quickly arrived at the solution of catalogues. A tool that you use to find
what you seek, and maybe some serendipitous beauty you didn’t know to seek.
My mind wanders to phone books and church membership directories. Catalogues of
people with their resources and roles and interests, email addresses and
websites and webrings where individuals contact individuals, and overlapping
circles of trust proliferate, maintaining the undesignable human mystery of
socialization, resisting the carrot and stick designed to appear un-created.
Individuals and communities instead of algorithms.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
 
Second, a friend:
We speak often about our phone addictions and what we value in our friendships.
We go through seasons, sometimes texting constantly for week, sometimes not
really speaking for a month. What we never do is take offence when the other
doesn’t reply.
We realize the horrific entitlement a phone number “gives” you to someone
else’s time. Why should I know the exact minute someone reads my texts? Why
should I feel ignored if I call them and they don’t answer? Do I really have
the right to alter your conscious experience 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365
1/4 days of the year? 
Why won’t Instagram allow you to toggle your read receipts? What does this do
to us? Increase anxious anticipation of reply? Create the need to reply?
Email feels more respectful, particularly professionally. Offer someone an
object with which they can do what they will. Reply now or later, ignore it
altogether, pour your evening a comprehensive response, or fire back a single
sentence reply. There is no way for your thumb to slip and plunge you into your
newsfeed and no audience to perform the interaction to.
I begin writing physical letters to my loved ones. My heart in ink and paper,
an act performed in embodied time. We don’t need constant contact, nor do we
have it, it’s an illusion. Never apologize to me for being busy. You deserve
more from me than these texts. Have this artifact to lovingly preserve. 
My mother still has letters from lost lovers that bring her to tears. She has
photo albums of moments I don’t remember, but the film feels alive.
I’ve lost lifetimes in the abandoned camera rolls of my devices. The infinity
of photos has paradoxically left us with nothing. I lived an adolescence devoid
of history.
———
…
.
I pick up the tools of my parents and attempt to create history anew.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
 
Third, a mentor:
Rosemary is a genius and speaking to her makes me feel like my head is going to
explode.
She likes the directory idea, she has another one: a bulletin.
“So this would involve creating an art object, but to use your church
membership directory idea, think of what shows up in a church newsletter: Janis
is holding a potluck on Friday, Randy needs more donations for the thing, Tim
is looking to talk to people who have experience in blank.”
Exactly!
A centralized newsletter operating as a digital bulletin board for a community.
Individuals send the Editors community notes, then the Editors curate a monthly
letter advertising opportunities and needs. 
Email this guy if you want to be part of this. This piece of media is relevant
to our community’s values. Has anyone tried this? I’m looking for solutions to
this problem. Email me if you can help.
Zero algorithmic intervention. Circles of trust. Different rooms for different
things. Rooms you can leave.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
 
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
You Can’t Make An Entrance If You Never Make An Exit:
You can never guarantee there won’t be bad actors, that you won’t be hurt, that
it all might suck because people suck. But that’s the human condition. At least
we’re dealing with that problem instead of the problems we create by trying to
design humanity away.
Our societal confusion about accountability contributes to our inability to
build communities. How can we have community without sin? Where will we find
heroes that never fail us? If we can’t have them, the platform will have to do.
You can’t cancel the platform. So we hold to the platform instead of the
community. Instead of people.
Cancellations are so incredibly good for engagement. I can’t shake the sense
we’ll never learn how to hurt and be hurt properly while performing the process
for an audience.
We can’t fix these problems here. We need to go to smaller rooms.
Social media is a reverberant aircraft hangar with 5 billion people screaming
in one big room. Dehumanizing statistical calculations are used to change minds
and hearts en masse, from the top down, to make this process optimally
profitable and addictive.
No single person decided to do this. Its automated, the responsibility diluted
into the solvent of AI mythology. But this isn’t the inevitable face of some
sentient supercomputer, and it’s not a value-less reflection of humanity. It is
a curation of our worst tendencies, cheapening your every thought and feeling,
corroding your faith in democracy and human beings.
Do not allow the online space to be dominated by bad incentives and digital
landlords, dragging our culture down into decadence while telling us it’s our
fault, it wouldn’t be this ugly if WE weren’t so ugly, if YOU weren’t so ugly.
It’s not you.
It’s the room.
[38]BACK TO ESSAYS
[39]BACK TO TOP
• [40]Follow
• [41]Follow
• [42]Follow
Copyright © 2025 CJ The X
References:
[1] https://cjthex.com/
[2] https://cjthex.com/lectures/
[3] https://cjthex.com/essays/
[4] https://cjthex.com/reports/
[5] https://cjthex.com/press/
[6] https://cjthex.com/subscribe/
[7] https://www.infinitescroll.us/p/ugh-capitalism
[8] https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2018/04/jaron-lanier-interview-on-what-went-wrong-with-the-internet.html
[9] https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2018/04/jaron-lanier-interview-on-what-went-wrong-with-the-internet.html
[10] https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2018/04/jaron-lanier-interview-on-what-went-wrong-with-the-internet.html
[11] https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2018/04/jaron-lanier-interview-on-what-went-wrong-with-the-internet.html
[12] https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2018/04/jaron-lanier-interview-on-what-went-wrong-with-the-internet.html
[13] https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2018/04/jaron-lanier-interview-on-what-went-wrong-with-the-internet.html
[14] https://econation.one/blog/ivan-illich-and-conviviality/
[15] https://on.substack.com/p/introducing-notes
[16] https://www.patreon.com/cjthex
[17] https://cjthex.com/what-is-to-be-done/cjthex.com
[18] https://www.wordsfromeliza.com/
[19] https://cjthex.com/newsletter/
[20] https://hover.blog/what-ever-happened-to-webrings/
[21] https://jaronlanier.com/
[22] https://nadia.xyz/
[23] https://www.kickscondor.com/nadia-eghbal/
[24] https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2018/04/jaron-lanier-interview-on-what-went-wrong-with-the-internet.html
[25] https://www.cjthex.com/against-analytics/
[26] https://nadia.xyz/notes/
[27] https://billwurtz.com/notebook.html
[28] https://www.cjthex.com/those-arent-tweets/
[29] http://sabafeleke.art/
[30] https://motherfuckingwebsite.com/
[31] https://www.cjthex.com/
[32] https://www.savbrown.com/
[33] https://www.savbrown.com/garden
[34] https://neocities.org/browse
[35] https://youtu.be/qQ-PUXPVlos?si=Y959ZhiSC0bo2syd
[36] https://youtu.be/BCTlcj5vImk?si=mQ-aewSQoK87kNMl
[37] https://youtu.be/Fx0G6DHMfXM?si=eXlHFSqTadVVo0up
[38] https://cjthex.com/essays/
[39] https://cjthex.com/what-is-to-be-done/#posttop
[40] https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6LEH0rS9V0BF5aNhVYdykQ
[41] https://www.instagram.com/cjthex/
[42] https://www.patreon.com/cjthex

325
static/archive/contrarian-substack-com-grqlkr.txt Normal file
View File

@@ -0,0 +1,325 @@
[1][https]
[2]The Contrarian
SubscribeSign in
Share this post
[8]
[https]
The Contrarian
The Contrarian
Departing the New York Times
Copy link
Facebook
Email
Notes
More
Departing the New York Times
I left to stay true to my byline
[9]
[htt]
[10]Paul Krugman
Jan 28, 2025
11,237
Share this post
[12]
[https]
The Contrarian
The Contrarian
Departing the New York Times
Copy link
Facebook
Email
Notes
More
[13]
441
1,023
[14]
Share
As many people reading this know, last month I retired from my position as an
opinion writer at the New York Times—a job I had done for 25 years. Despite the
encomiums issued by the Times, it was not a happy departure. If you check out
my [15]Substack, you will see that I have by no means run out of energy or
topics to write about. But from my perspective, the nature of my relationship
with the Times had degenerated to a point where I couldn’t stay.
[16]
[https]
Charles Kaiser has written a [17]fair-minded article in the Columbia Journalism
Review about my departure. What I want to do in this post is add more context.
Let’s be clear: I am not planning to have a running feud with the Times: I
came, I saw, I felt I had to leave, and I moved on.
But I believe that the story of why I left says something important about the
current state of legacy journalism.
The background: until 2017 or so, I felt extremely happy with my role at the
Times, for a couple of reasons.
One, I felt that I had finally cracked the code of opinion column-writing. When
the Times hired me at the end of 1999, I was an economics professor who wrote
occasionally for a broader audience. And crafting 800-word plain-English essays
for readers with no background in economics is, shall we say, a bit different
from writing 5000-word academic journal articles full of equations and diagrams
for a small professional community. For a while, I struggled with the
transition.
But eventually I figured it out. I actually took pleasure in the craftsmanship,
in boiling an argument down to its essentials, expressing it in ordinary
language, and making it interesting. Furthermore, I believe that my writing
affected the national discourse, especially over issues such as George W.
Bush’s attempt to privatize Social Security, the march to the Affordable Care
Act (despite Obama’s initial reluctance), and the unjustified fiscal panic of
the early 2010s.
During my first 24 years at the Times, from 2000 to 2024, I faced very few
editorial constraints on how and what I wrote. For most of that period my draft
would go straight to a copy editor, who would sometimes suggest that I make
some changes — for example, softening an assertion that arguably went beyond
provable facts, or redrafting a passage the editor didn’t quite understand, and
which readers probably wouldn’t either. But the editing was very light; over
the years several copy editors jokingly complained that I wasn’t giving them
anything to do, because I came in at length, with clean writing and with
back-up for all factual assertions.
This light-touch editing prevailed even when I took positions that made Times
leadership very nervous. My early and repeated criticisms of Bush’s push to
invade Iraq led to several tense meetings with management. In those meetings, I
was urged to tone it down. Yet the columns themselves were published as I wrote
them. And in the end, I believe the Times — which eventually [18]apologized for
its role in promoting the war — was glad that I had taken an anti-invasion
stand. I believe that it was my finest hour.
So I was dismayed to find out this past year, when the current Times editors
and I began to discuss our differences, that current management and top editors
appear to have been completely unaware of this important bit of the paper’s
history and my role in it.
Two, previous Times management and editors had allowed me to engage in the
higher-level economic debates of the time. The aftermath of the 2008 financial
crisis led to a great flowering of economics blogs. Important, sophisticated
debates about the causes of the crisis and the policy response were taking
place more or less in real time. I was able to be an active part of those
debates, because I had an [19]economics blog of my own, under the Times
umbrella but separate from the column. The blog, unedited, was both more
technical — sometimes much more technical — and looser than the column.
Then, step by step, all the things that made writing at the Times worthwhile
for me were taken away. The Times eliminated the blog at the end of 2017.
Here’s my [20]last substantive blog post, which gives a good idea of the kind
of thing I was no longer able to do once it was eliminated.
For a while I tried to make up for the loss of the blog with threads on
Twitter. But even before Elon Musk Nazified the site, tweet threads were an
awkward, inferior substitute for blog posts. So in 2021 I opened a Substack
account, as a place to put technical material I couldn’t publish in the Times.
Times management became very upset. When I explained to them that I really,
really needed an outlet where I could publish more analytical writing with
charts etc., they agreed to allow me to have a Times newsletter (twice a week),
where I could publish the kind of work I had previously posted on my blog.
In September 2024 my newsletter was suddenly suspended by the Times. The only
reason I was given was “a problem of cadence”: according to the Times, I was
writing too often. I don’t know why this was considered a problem, since my
newsletter was never intended to be published as part of the regular paper.
Moreover, it had proved to be popular with a number of readers.
Also in 2024, the editing of my regular columns went from light touch to
extremely intrusive. I went from one level of editing to three, with an
immediate editor and his superior both weighing in on the column, and sometimes
doing substantial rewrites before it went to copy. These rewrites almost
invariably involved toning down, introducing unnecessary qualifiers, and, as I
saw it, false equivalence. I would rewrite the rewrites to restore the essence
of my original argument. But as I told Charles Kaiser, I began to feel that I
was putting more effort—especially emotional energy—into fixing editorial
damage than I was into writing the original articles. And the end result of the
back and forth often felt flat and colorless.
One more thing: I faced attempts from others to dictate what I could (and could
not) write about, usually in the form, “You’ve already written about that,” as
if it never takes more than one column to effectively cover a subject. If that
had been the rule during my earlier tenure, I never would have been able to
press the case for Obamacare, or against Social Security privatization,
and—most alarmingly—against the Iraq invasion. Moreover, all Times opinion
writers were banned from engaging in any kind of media criticism. Hardly the
kind of rule that would allow an opinion writer to state, “we are being lied
into war.”
I felt that my byline was being used to create a storyline that was no longer
mine. So I left.
That’s my story. What are the broader implications?
“Words,” [21]John Maynard Keynes once wrote, “ought to be a little wild, for
they are the assault of thoughts on the unthinking.” That was always my
attitude toward opinion writing. Newspaper columns should be controversial,
rubbing some people the wrong way, because the main point is to get people to
rethink their assumptions. I used to say, only half-jokingly, that if a column
didn’t generate a large amount of hate mail, that meant that I had wasted the
space.
Yet what I felt during my final year at the Times was a push toward blandness,
toward avoiding saying anything too directly in a way that might get some
people (particularly on the right) riled up. I guess my question is, if those
are the ground rules, why even bother having an opinion section?
Maybe there was a time when readers would sit still for sober, dull opinion
pieces — history’s [22]most boring headline, “Worthwhile Canadian Initiative,”
was the title of a Times op-ed — because they were seen as representing the
views of The Establishment. And I have the feeling that Times management still
thinks it’s living in that world. But in today’s wide-open information (and
misinformation) environment, boring writing just vanishes without a trace.
On a somewhat different issue, it became clear to me that the management I was
dealing with didn’t understand the difference between having an opinion and
having an informed, factually sourced opinion. When the newsletter was
canceled, I tried to point out that I was almost the only regular opinion
writer doing policy. Their response was to point to other writers who often
expressed views about policy, economic and otherwise. I tried in vain to
explain that there’s a difference between having opinions about economics and
knowing how to read C.B.O. analyses and recent research papers. It all fell on
deaf ears.
So that’s the story of my departure from the Times. Despite the difficulties of
the last year, I remain deeply grateful to the Times for hiring me and giving
me decades of freedom to express my views to such a large audience. And I feel
sorry about abandoning loyal readers who still rely on legacy media and who may
not follow me to Substack. But my situation had become intolerable, and I
haven’t felt a moment’s regret over the new direction and recovering my
freedom.
[33][ ]
Subscribe
11,237
Share this post
[36]
[https]
The Contrarian
The Contrarian
Departing the New York Times
Copy link
Facebook
Email
Notes
More
[37]
441
1,023
[38]
Share
A guest post by
[39] [40]Paul Krugman [41]Subscribe
[https] Professor, CUNY Grad Center, Nobel laureate and former to Paul
columnist, NY Times
Discussion about this post
CommentsRestacks
[ht]
[ ]
[ ]
[ ]
[ ]
[45]
[ht]
[46]Meg
[47]5d
Liked by Domenica Alioto
Good to hear the background. And good for you for leaving. Its not the same
paper I’ve been reading for decades. Your word is your truth.
Expand full comment
Reply
Share
[50]1 reply
[51]
[ht]
[52]Gary
[53]5d
As a previous subscriber to both the NYT and WAPO, I am delighted to see two of
my favorites, Paul Krugman and Jen Rubin, here on Substack. Unleashed opinions
from knowledgeable editorialists work best here. Mr. Krugman is a truly
professional economist with valuable insights.
Expand full comment
Reply
Share
[55]4 replies
[56]439 more comments...
TopLatestDiscussions
No posts
Ready for more?
[71][ ]
Subscribe
© 2025 The Contrarian
[73]Privacy ∙ [74]Terms ∙ [75]Collection notice
[76] Start Writing[77]Get the app
[78]Substack is the home for great culture
Share
Copy link
Facebook
Email
Notes
More
This site requires JavaScript to run correctly. Please [80]turn on JavaScript
or unblock scripts
References:
[1] https://contrarian.substack.com/
[2] https://contrarian.substack.com/
[8] https://substack.com/home/post/p-155937919?utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
[9] https://substack.com/@paulkrugman
[10] https://substack.com/@paulkrugman
[12] https://substack.com/home/post/p-155937919?utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
[13] https://contrarian.substack.com/p/departing-the-new-york-times/comments
[14] javascript:void(0)
[15] https://paulkrugman.substack.com/
[16] https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F9a2e7592-bf60-43e4-9bab-dde5eefb084d_6500x4333.jpeg
[17] https://www.cjr.org/analysis/paul-krugman-leaving-new-york-times-heavy-hand-editing-less-frequent-columns-newsletter.php
[18] https://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/26/world/from-the-editors-the-times-and-iraq.html
[19] https://archive.nytimes.com/krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/
[20] https://archive.nytimes.com/krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2017/12/04/leprechauns-of-eastern-europe/?module=BlogPost-Title&version=Blog%20Main&contentCollection=Opinion&action=Click&pgtype=Blogs&region=Body
[21] https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Maynard_Keynes
[22] https://prawfsblawg.blogs.com/prawfsblawg/2023/09/worthwhile-canadian-initiative.html
[36] https://substack.com/home/post/p-155937919?utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
[37] https://contrarian.substack.com/p/departing-the-new-york-times/comments
[38] javascript:void(0)
[39] https://substack.com/profile/26817325-paul-krugman
[40] https://substack.com/@paulkrugman?utm_campaign=guest_post_bio&utm_medium=web
[41] https://paulkrugman.substack.com/subscribe?
[45] https://substack.com/profile/59144975-meg?utm_source=comment
[46] https://substack.com/profile/59144975-meg?utm_source=substack-feed-item
[47] https://contrarian.substack.com/p/departing-the-new-york-times/comment/89289247
[50] https://contrarian.substack.com/p/departing-the-new-york-times/comment/89289247
[51] https://substack.com/profile/116054490-gary?utm_source=comment
[52] https://substack.com/profile/116054490-gary?utm_source=substack-feed-item
[53] https://contrarian.substack.com/p/departing-the-new-york-times/comment/89294574
[55] https://contrarian.substack.com/p/departing-the-new-york-times/comment/89294574
[56] https://contrarian.substack.com/p/departing-the-new-york-times/comments
[73] https://substack.com/privacy
[74] https://substack.com/tos
[75] https://substack.com/ccpa#personal-data-collected
[76] https://substack.com/signup?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=web&utm_content=footer
[77] https://substack.com/app/app-store-redirect?utm_campaign=app-marketing&utm_content=web-footer-button
[78] https://substack.com/
[80] https://enable-javascript.com/

129
static/archive/robinrendle-com-aa25aa.txt Normal file
View File

@@ -0,0 +1,129 @@
This Glorious Machine
Riding an e-bike is like discovering a long forgotten secret of the universe
or, perhaps, inventing something worthy of a heartfelt “eureka.” Look: zipping
through traffic on my first e-bike, blitzing past the stuffy tin cans all
around me, I’ve become master of the four winds. Now first place in a
triathlon, now a mythical creature that can move at the speed of thought. Upon
my trusty electric 6-gear steed I am Hermes, lord of heavenly motion.
And the sound! An e-bike makes every thunk, whip, and whirl that you might find
in a comic book: gears rattling, spokes spinning. Just listen to this thing go!
I’m dashing between cars and blurry, bipedal pedestrians, and right now, on my
first ride to work, I can’t stop smiling.
I’m smiling because, unlike so many promises that tech has failed to deliver,
e-bikes are genuinely worthy of an hour-long presentation delivered in a
turtleneck. If a computer is a bicycle for the mind, then an e-bike is a
bicycle for our bicycles, a wonder of micro-mobility as they reimagine our
relationship with our bodies and our cities and even with the future of
technology itself.
Simply put...
E-bikes aren’t a dumb tech grift. [1]#
As I weave through double parked cars and brave pedestrians, I see that this
bicycle with an electric motor has returned the hope I’d lost over the years.
Here, listen, it whispers: tech doesn’t have to be a con or make us the worst
versions of ourselves. Look: technology has kept its promise and genuinely made
the world better!
My e-bike is pulling me into an alternate dimension where tech isn’t designed
to be a grift from the start, as these two-wheeled bad boys aren’t only here to
generate shareholder value; they’re designed to help.
I’m halfway through my ride now and it’s dawning on me that this little e-bike
of mine offers a critique against tech culture as a mere profit-generating
tool, sure. But this machine comes with a vision, too. A vision of what a city
should be and how we ought to navigate it.
It’s clear from this ride that our cities have been built all wrong as for more
than a century we’ve incentivized cars to segment and separate our country into
human-free zones and endless freeways with generic, Lego-like blocks copy and
pasted in between. Although, my e-bike, as brilliant as it may be, is a
well-designed hack on top of all that. It’s a patch on top of poor city
planning and underfunded public infrastructure.
Our cities don’t have to work like this and e-bikes show us a clear way out:
every e-bike is a manifesto for lost common spaces, huge sidewalks with giant
trees above and local shops within walking distance. Parks! Places you can sit
down! Shade! Shelter! Not just an in-between place or a hurdle to
circumnavigate between your job and your home, e-bikes argue for a city to be
proud of instead. And isn’t that what tech was supposed to do, show us a way
out?
Wasn’t tech supposed to show us the future?
E-bikes are more punk rock than punk rock. [2]#
For a decade my primary method of transportation was a motorcycle. Back in my
early 20s I believed there was nothing more punk than an exploding hunk of
metal beneath me. Roaring, screaming through dinky villages in Devon or across
the sparse and shining cities of southern California.
Bicycles were the opposite of all that freedom. For decades I associated them
with my childhood and being trapped in my tiny hometown without access to the
wider world. Bicycles weren’t objects of desire or of longing because they
simply weren’t fast or loud. And to be cool there always has to be volume and
speed. Drums? Fast. Loud. Cool. Hip hop? Same. Motorcycles? What did you say? I
can’t hear you because my eardrums have shattered and all that remains is a
wonderful, heart-stompingly loud vibration in my chest; loudness personified
and loudness eternal.
But now, as I’m slipping between cars on my first e-bike after two decades of
being a total jerk and looking down on cyclists, I’m embarrassed to say I’ve
thoroughly learned my lesson. Bicycles, and e-bikes specifically, are genuine
wonders. Somehow strapping an electric motor onto a bicycle changes everything
for me.
Here’s the kicker though. E-bikes aren’t cool because of the way they look or
how loud they are and they’re certainly not cool because they turn heads or
make strangers jealous. Instead, e-bikes don’t care about cool. They argue for
a new kind of world where technology is genuinely helpful, where technology
doesn’t have to be cool at all.
Technology can just do the job it’s meant to.
E-bikes are the future we deserve. [3]#
Almost home now, stopping for a kid to cross the street. She’s smiling and
dancing, oblivious to the world around her, but now she’s caught sight of me,
looking me up and down. Slowly, she raises her hand up to her head in the shape
of an L.
Who knew that a simple gesture could undo years of therapy in a flash? And
sure, I might very well be a nerd, a loser, perhaps even a dreaded cyclist now
but no matter how much I love this machine it will never be truly cool. But
isn’t that...fine?
Cool tech is overrated anyway. We tend to think of cool in all the wrong ways
because we only see cool as loudness and speed and aluminum, presented on stage
to glorious fanfare. We see minimalism and a hefty price tag or the
unrealistic, bewildering promise that can’t possibly be kept and we think
that’s cool. Yet we tend not to think about hearing aids or MRI machines or
clean drinking water or contact lenses. We don’t think of small, meaningful
progress as cool and this limits our understanding of what technology is
capable of and what role we should play in it.
As someone who’s worked in tech for more than a decade (sorry) I’ve seen how a
lot of folks in the industry are terrified of making something merely useful.
It must be important! It must scale! It must have a million eyes on it! And
I’ve sat through meetings where progress isn’t measured by real progress, but
rather a bunch of abstract numbers in an ugly spreadsheet. So—ranting aside—I
reckon technology can only truly help us if we ignore what’s cool. Imagine no
more handsome, turtlenecked speeches or rapturous applause. Imagine no more
dumb catchphrases or logo redesigns or promises that can’t possibly be kept.
Rather, e-bikes ask us a new and exciting question:
What if we made something useful instead? [4]#
[footer]
References:
[1] https://robinrendle.com/stories/this-glorious-machine/#e-bikes-aren't-a-dumb-tech-grift.
[2] https://robinrendle.com/stories/this-glorious-machine/#e-bikes-are-more-punk-rock-than-punk-rock.
[3] https://robinrendle.com/stories/this-glorious-machine/#e-bikes-are-the-future-we-deserve.
[4] https://robinrendle.com/stories/this-glorious-machine/#what-if-we-made-something-useful-instead

754
static/archive/sonic-pi-net-nczg5a.txt Normal file
View File

@@ -0,0 +1,754 @@
• [1]Intro |
• [2]Community |
• [3]Examples |
• [4]News |
• [5]Tutorial
[logo]
Sonic Pi
Experience the sound of code.
Sonic Pi is your free code-based music creation and performance tool.
Powerful for professional musicians and DJs.
Expressive for composition and performance.
Accessible for blind and partially sighted people.
Simple for computing and music lessons.
Learn to code creatively by composing or performing music in an incredible
range of styles from Classical & Jazz to Hip hop & EDM. Free for everyone with
a friendly [6]tutorial.
Brought to you by [7]Sam Aaron and the Sonic Pi Core Team.
[8]Windows [9]macOS [10]Raspberry Pi OS
Live Code Everything
[sonic-pi-connectivity]
Sonic Pi lets you use simple code to turn your computer into a fully networked
live coding music studio:
• Multi Channel Audio In/Out
• Well-timed MIDI In/Out
• Well-timed OSC (Open Sound Control) In/Out
• Ableton's Link network metronome built-in
Take the Course
Sonic Pi Creator Sam Aaron has created a series of tutorial courses that will
kick-start your live coding journey.
Free Lesson Preview
4. Exploring Synths
Learn how to trigger expressive synth sounds with simple code
Sonic Pi - Introduction
Sonic Pi - Introduction
Join Sonic Pi's creator Sam Aaron and learn to express yourself with code. This
course will teach you the basics of live coding your own performances and
compositions using the powerful live coding software Sonic Pi.
[11] Buy now
Sponsors
The following organisations are kindly supporting Sonic Pi's mission of
lowering the many barriers to entry for creative experiences with code:
[12] Dashbit
[13] Please consider asking your employer to sponsor Sonic Pi.
Community Support
Please consider joining our wonderful community of supporters helping to keep
Sonic Pi free for everyone.
[14] Alembic
Support via Patreon
[15] Alembic
Support via GitHub Sponsors
Code. Music. Live.
Sonic Pi is a new kind of musical instrument.
Watch how you can use it for live performances from ambient sets to dance music
in nightclubs...
Array by DJ_Dave
Sonic Pi Band - Sam Aaron & Ben Smith
Reeled - Jylda & Sam Aaron
Daft Punk - Aerodynamic
coded by Sébastien Rannou
Welcome to our Community
Join the friendly Sonic Pi community and share your ideas and thoughts with
other educators, musicians and live coders...
[16] [in_thread_screen]
[17]Come and join the conversation...
Live Coding Education
[18] [live-coding-education]
Sonic Pi helps you engage students in Computing through music. Read how in the
article [19]'Live Coding Education'
Watch this introductory [20]CAS TV interview with Sonic Pi creator Sam Aaron.
Sonic Pi in the
Computing Classroom
Sonic Pi was specifically designed for and built in collaboration with teachers
for use in the classroom.
[21][music_note]
Music Live Coding
Sonic Pi is a new kind of musical instrument which enables exciting new
learning pathways in the classroom.
[22]Music programming workshop by Mehackit
[blackboard]
Classroom Ready
Sonic Pi was designed, implemented and developed with extensive classroom
trials in close collaboration with teachers.
[23]Introduction for Teachers
[24] [code-border]
Creative Computing
Sonic Pi comes with a scheme of work targetted for KS3 Computing developed in
harmony with the new UK curriculum.
[25]Scheme of Work for Computing Lessons
Engage your students by coding music in your classroom today.
Free Sonic Pi Book
Sam Aaron, creator of Sonic Pi, has written this book to
[26]complement the built-in tutorial.
Master live loops, code drum breaks, compose your own melodies make random
riffs and loops, learn to shape and sculpt sounds and much, much more...
[27] [book]
[28]Download "Code Music with Sonic Pi" Now!
Sonic Pi Talks
"Sonic Pi lowers the barrier to entry for a creative experience with code..."
[29]TEDx Newcastle 2015 - Programming as Performance
[30]GOTO 2018 - Let's Get Ready to Rock with Sonic Pi
Music. Code. Simple.
See how easy it is to get started coding your first sounds...
Haunted Bells
loop do
sample :perc_bell, rate: (rrand 0.125, 1.5)
sleep rrand(0, 2)
end
Listen to the coded bells...
• play
• pause
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Pentatonic Bleeps
with_fx :reverb, mix: 0.2 do
loop do
play scale(:Eb2, :major_pentatonic, num_octaves: 3).choose, release: 0.1, amp: rand
sleep 0.1
end
end
Code with scales and chords...
• play
• pause
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Tron Bikes
loop do
with_synth :dsaw do
with_fx(:slicer, phase: [0.25,0.125].choose) do
with_fx(:reverb, room: 0.5, mix: 0.3) do
start_note = chord([:b1, :b2, :e1, :e2, :b3, :e3].choose, :minor).choose
final_note = chord([:b1, :b2, :e1, :e2, :b3, :e3].choose, :minor).choose
p = play start_note, release: 8, note_slide: 4, cutoff: 30, cutoff_slide: 4, detune: rrand(0, 0.2), pan: rrand(-1, 0), pan_slide: rrand(4, 8)
control p, note: final_note, cutoff: rrand(80, 120), pan: rrand(0, 1)
end
end
end
sleep 8
end
Listen to bikes from the future...
• play
• pause
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Wob Rhythm
with_fx :reverb do
in_thread do
loop do
r = [0.5, 1.0/3, 3.0/5].choose
8.times do
sample :ambi_choir, rate: r, pan: rrand(-1, 1)
sleep 0.5
end
end
end
end
with_fx :wobble, phase: 2 do |w|
with_fx :echo, mix: 0.6 do
loop do
sample :drum_heavy_kick
sample :bass_hit_c, rate: 0.8, amp: 0.4
sleep 1
end
end
end
Hear the rhythmic wobble...
• play
• pause
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Ocean Waves
with_fx :reverb, mix: 0.5 do
loop do
s = synth [:bnoise, :cnoise, :gnoise].choose, amp: rrand(0.5, 1.5), attack: rrand(0, 4), sustain: rrand(0, 2), release: rrand(1, 3), cutoff_slide: rrand(0, 3), cutoff: rrand(60, 80), pan: rrand(-1, 1), pan_slide: 1, amp: rrand(0.5, 1)
control s, pan: rrand(-1, 1), cutoff: rrand(60, 115)
sleep rrand(2, 3)
end
end
Hear the digital waves crash...
• play
• pause
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
IDM Breakbeat
define :play_bb do |n|
sample :drum_heavy_kick
sample :ambi_drone, rate: [0.25, 0.5, 0.125, 1].choose, amp: 0.25 if rand < 0.125
sample :ambi_lunar_land, rate: [0.5, 0.125, 1, -1, -0.5].choose, amp: 0.25 if rand < 0.125
sample :loop_amen, attack: 0, release: 0.05, start: 1 - (1.0 / n), rate: [1,1,1,1,1,1,-1].choose
sleep sample_duration(:loop_amen) / n
end
loop {play_bb([1,2,4,8,16].choose)}
Listen to crazy coded beats...
• play
• pause
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Acid Walk
in_thread do
use_synth :fm
sleep 2
loop do
28.times do
sample :drum_bass_hard, amp: 0.8
sleep 0.25
play :e2, release: 0.2
sample :elec_cymbal, rate: 12, amp: 0.6
sleep 0.25
end
sleep 4
end
end
use_synth :tb303
with_fx :reverb do |rev|
loop do
control rev, mix: rrand(0, 0.3)
with_fx :slicer, phase: 0.125 do
sample :ambi_lunar_land, sustain: 0, release: 8, amp: 2
end
control rev, mix: rrand(0, 0.6)
r = rrand(0.05, 0.3)
64.times do
play chord(:e3, :minor).choose, release: r, cutoff: rrand(50, 90), amp: 0.5
sleep 0.125
end
control rev, mix: rrand(0, 0.6)
r = rrand(0.1, 0.2)
with_synth :prophet do
32.times do
sleep 0.125
play chord(:a3, :m7).choose, release: r, cutoff: rrand(40, 130), amp: 0.7
end
end
control rev, mix: rrand(0, 0.6)
r = rrand(0.05, 0.3)
32.times do
play chord(:e3, :minor).choose, release: r, cutoff: rrand(110, 130), amp: 0.4
sleep 0.125
end
control rev, mix: rrand(0, 0.6)
with_fx :echo, phase: 0.25, decay: 8 do
16.times do
play chord([:e2, :e3, :e4].choose, :m7).choose, release: 0.05, cutoff: rrand(50, 129), amp: 0.5
sleep 0.125
end
end
end
end
Start producing longer tracks...
• play
• pause
What are you waiting for? Get yourself a copy of Sonic Pi for:
[31]Windows [32]macOS [33]Raspberry Pi OS
What's Happening with
Sonic Pi
Here's a taster of some of the exciting things happening in the Sonic Pi
world...
[34]The Music Commission
[35]The Music Commission
Sonic Pi is represented by Sam Aaron on The Music Commission panel, a new
enquiry launched by ABRSM exploring how to better sustain & support progress &
progression in learning music.
[36]Naked Scientists
[37]The Naked Scientists
The wonderful Naked Scientists covered Sonic Pi in an interview which was
broadcast live on BBC radio and is available to listen and read [38]here.
[39]The Big Bang Fair
[40]The Big Bang Fair 2018
The Big Bang Fair is the UK's largest celebration of STEM for young people. In
2018 the Sonic Pi Band performed a series of shows demonstrating how to live
code your own band.
[41]Mehackit
[42]Kokoa Certified Resources
The incredible [43]Mehackit Sonic Pi creative coding resource has been
certified by the Finnish Education Standard Kakoa for its educational quality.
[44][convo]
[45]Royal Albert Hall : Convo
Sonic Pi was an Education Partner for Convo, an ambitious new work at the Royal
Albert Hall featuring 1,000 young instrumentalists & singers combining
traditional instruments & code.
[46]Watch the performance here
[47][codebus]
[48]Codebus Africa
In 2017, African and Finnish tech and education innovators collaborated to use
Sonic Pi to deliver creative coding workshops engaging almost 2000 children in
10 African countries.
[49]Google Logo
[50]Google Open Source Winner
Google have announced Sonic Pi as one of a number of projects they either use
or think are important.
[51][mt-awardlo]
[52]Sonic Pi nominated Music Teacher Award finalist
Sonic Pi was listed as a finalist for the [53]Music Teacher Best Music
Education Product Award alongside music instrument manufacturers Boss & Korg.
[54][rollingsto]
[55]Rolling Stone Review
Sam Aaron performed with Sonic Pi at Moogfest 2016. Rolling Stone featured his
performance in their [56]review of the festival and said it "transcended the
present".
[57]The International Space Station
[58]Sonic Pi Space Competition
[59]These are the winning students that won an exciting once-in-a-lifetime
competition to get their Sonic Pi music played onboard the International Space
Station by UK astronaut Tim Peake.
[60][mistajam]
[61]CBBC Ten Pieces Masterclass
Radio 1 DJ MistaJam and Live Coder Sam Aaron compose a piece of music using
Sonic Pi, inspired by Bizet's 'Carmen'
[62]Daft Punk
[63]Daft Punk in code
Sébastien Rannou has published a tutorial on how he live coded his fabulous
[64]cover of Aerodynamic by Daft Punk.
[65][newsround]
[66]Sonic Pi featured on CBBC Newsround
Sonic Pi was featured on the UK national children's news programme [67]CBBC
Newsround - with presenter Jenny Lawrence discovering Live Coding for the first
time.
[68][sonic-drea]
[69]Sonic Pi: Live & Coding Pop Pi Videos Launched
The Sonic Pi: Live & Coding project has launched [70] a series of 10 "Pop Pi"
music videos created by artists using Sonic Pi.
[71][summerscho]
[72]Sonic Pi Live & Coding - Summer School
Artists Juneau Projects [73]write about the recent Sonic Pi Live & Coding
Summer School which involved 60 children aged 10-14 learning to code and
perform on stage at Cambridge Junction.
Get Sonic Pi for
Raspberry Pi OS - 64 bit
Get started on the world's most affordable computer.
Built for Raspberry Pi
[74] [rpi-logo]
Get the latest version of Sonic Pi for your Raspberry Pi to take advantage of
all the new features such as MIDI, OSC networking, new translations, improved
interface, headphone audio and much, much more...
64 bit package
[arm64-chip]
v4.5.1
Download then right click and choose 'install package'
Requires the 64 bit release of Raspberry Pi OS (Bookworm)
[75]Download (64 bit)
[76]Full Installation Instructions
Thanks for Downloading Sonic Pi
Sonic Pi - Introduction
Take the Course
Kick start your Sonic Pi journey and join creator Sam Aaron with this new
introductory course and learn to express yourself with code.
[77] Learn More
Using 32 bit Raspberry Pi OS?
[78]Download a 32 bit version here
Terminal Installation
[box3]
To install run the following commands via the terminal (within the directory
you downloaded the deb file):
sudo apt update
sudo apt install ./sonic-pi_4.5.1_1_bookworm.arm64.deb
[79]Back to top
Get Sonic Pi for
Windows
Turn any PC into a full Sonic Pi workstation.
Built for Windows 10 & 11
[unibody_wi]
Sonic Pi has been developed and designed to work perfectly on laptops and
desktops running either Windows 10 or 11.
Sonic Pi for Windows
[intel-cpu]
Download and double-click to install
v4.5.1
Requires Windows 10.
[80]Windows 10/11 (64 bit)
MSI Installer
Thanks for Downloading Sonic Pi
Sonic Pi - Introduction
Take the Course
Kick start your Sonic Pi journey and join creator Sam Aaron with this new
introductory course and learn to express yourself with code.
[81] Learn More
Still using Windows 7 or 8.1?
[82]Download v3.1 here
MSI Installer
[windows]
Sonic Pi is available as a signed MSI installer for you to securely install on
your machine or network.
Getting Sonic Pi running on Windows is as easy as 3, 1, 4...
[83]Back to top
Get Sonic Pi for
macOS
Use the full power of your Mac to take Sonic Pi to the next level.
macOS - Apple Silicon
[apple-cpu]
v4.5.1
for Macs with Apple M series chips
Requires Ventura
(macOS 13)
[84]Mac with Apple chip
Securely Built for Apple
[apple]
Intel or Apple Silicon?
There are two versions available to download. Apple Silicon for newer Macs
powered by M1 or M2 chips and Intel for older Macs.
See "About This Mac" for your chip type.
Thanks for Downloading Sonic Pi
Sonic Pi - Introduction
Take the Course
Kick start your Sonic Pi journey and join creator Sam Aaron with this new
introductory course and learn to express yourself with code.
[85] Learn More
Using macOS 10.15 or below?
[86]Download previous releases here
macOS - Intel x64
[intel-cpu]
v4.5.1
for older Macs with Intel chips
Requires Monterey
(macOS 12)
[87]Mac with Intel chip
Most Common
Getting Sonic Pi running on your Mac is as easy as eating Apple Pi.
[88]Back to top
• [89]Twitter |
• [90]Github
References:
[1] https://sonic-pi.net/#intro
[2] https://sonic-pi.net/#community
[3] https://sonic-pi.net/#examples
[4] https://sonic-pi.net/#news
[5] https://sonic-pi.net/tutorial.html
[6] https://sonic-pi.net/tutorial.html
[7] https://twitter.com/samaaron
[8] https://sonic-pi.net/#windows
[9] https://sonic-pi.net/#mac
[10] https://sonic-pi.net/#rp
[11] https://sonic-pi-studio.teachable.com/p/sonic-pi-introduction
[12] https://dashbit.co/
[13] https://github.com/sponsors/samaaron
[14] https://patreon.com/samaaron
[15] https://github.com/sponsors/samaaron
[16] https://in-thread.sonic-pi.net/
[17] https://in-thread.sonic-pi.net/
[18] https://sonic-pi.net/files/articles/Live-Coding-Education.pdf
[19] https://sonic-pi.net/files/articles/Live-Coding-Education.pdf
[20] https://youtu.be/7sEMKXrRaAs?list=LLQB04t2hxSBVTjxpbIHdI-w
[21] https://www.sonicpiliveandcoding.com/
[22] https://sonic-pi.mehackit.org/
[23] https://sonic-pi.net/files/articles/Live-Coding-Education.pdf
[24] https://www.raspberrypi.org/learning/sonic-pi-lessons/
[25] https://www.raspberrypi.org/learning/sonic-pi-lessons/
[26] https://sonic-pi.net/tutorial.html
[27] https://magpi.raspberrypi.com/books/essentials-sonic-pi-v1/pdf/download
[28] https://magpi.raspberrypi.com/books/essentials-sonic-pi-v1/pdf/download
[29] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TK1mBqKvIyU
[30] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OLLwG_SN8oo
[31] https://sonic-pi.net/#windows
[32] https://sonic-pi.net/#mac
[33] https://sonic-pi.net/#rp
[34] http://www.musiccommission.org.uk/
[35] http://www.musiccommission.org.uk/
[36] https://www.thenakedscientists.com/articles/interviews/creating-code-make-music
[37] https://www.thenakedscientists.com/articles/interviews/creating-code-make-music
[38] https://www.thenakedscientists.com/articles/interviews/creating-code-make-music
[39] https://www.thebigbangfair.co.uk/
[40] https://www.thebigbangfair.co.uk/
[41] http://sonic-pi.mehackit.org/
[42] http://sonic-pi.mehackit.org/
[43] http://mehackit.org/
[44] https://www.royalalberthall.com/tickets/events/2019/convo-2019/
[45] https://www.royalalberthall.com/tickets/events/2019/convo-2019/
[46] https://vimeo.com/328673793#t=3534s
[47] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UqzDW-OdFJI
[48] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UqzDW-OdFJI
[49] https://opensource.googleblog.com/2017/03/the-latest-round-of-google-open-source.html
[50] https://opensource.googleblog.com/2017/03/the-latest-round-of-google-open-source.html
[51] https://www.musicmark.org.uk/news/full-list-of-winners-at-the-music-teacher-awards-for-excellence/
[52] https://www.musicmark.org.uk/news/full-list-of-winners-at-the-music-teacher-awards-for-excellence/
[53] https://www.musicmark.org.uk/news/full-list-of-winners-at-the-music-teacher-awards-for-excellence/
[54] http://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-live-reviews/moogfest-2016-was-it-actually-the-future-of-music-58300
[55] https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-live-reviews/moogfest-2015-was-it-actually-the-future-of-music-58300
[56] http://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-live-reviews/moogfest-2016-was-it-actually-the-future-of-music-58300
[57] https://astro-pi.org/principia/sonic-pi-winners/
[58] https://astro-pi.org/principia/sonic-pi-winners/
[59] https://astro-pi.org/principia/sonic-pi-winners/
[60] https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p031dq3j
[61] https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p031dq3j
[62] https://aimxhaisse.com/aerodynamic-en.html
[63] https://aimxhaisse.com/aerodynamic-en.html
[64] https://aimxhaisse.com/aerodynamic-en.html
[65] https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/30151730
[66] https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/30151730
[67] https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/30151730
[68] https://vimeo.com/110416910
[69] https://vimeo.com/user33572687
[70] https://vimeo.com/user33572687
[71] https://www.raspberrypi.org/blog/sonic-pi-live-summer-school
[72] https://www.raspberrypi.org/blog/sonic-pi-live-summer-school
[73] https://www.raspberrypi.org/blog/sonic-pi-live-summer-school
[74] https://github.com/samaaron/sonic-pi
[75] https://sonic-pi.net/files/releases/v4.5.1/sonic-pi_4.5.1_1_bookworm.arm64.deb
[76] https://sonic-pi.net/files/releases/v4.5.1/README-Sonic-Pi-Raspberry-Pi-OS.txt
[77] https://sonic-pi-studio.teachable.com/p/sonic-pi-introduction
[78] https://github.com/samaaron/sonic-pi/releases/tag/v4.3.0
[79] https://sonic-pi.net/#intro
[80] https://sonic-pi.net/files/releases/v4.5.1/Sonic-Pi-for-Win-x64-v4-5-1.msi
[81] https://sonic-pi-studio.teachable.com/p/sonic-pi-introduction
[82] https://github.com/samaaron/sonic-pi/releases/tag/v3.1.0
[83] https://sonic-pi.net/#intro
[84] https://sonic-pi.net/files/releases/v4.5.1/Sonic-Pi-for-Mac-arm64-v4-5-1.dmg
[85] https://sonic-pi-studio.teachable.com/p/sonic-pi-introduction
[86] https://github.com/sonic-pi-net/sonic-pi/releases
[87] https://sonic-pi.net/files/releases/v4.5.1/Sonic-Pi-for-Intel-Mac-x64-v4-5-1.dmg
[88] https://sonic-pi.net/#intro
[89] https://twitter.com/sonic_pi
[90] https://github.com/samaaron/sonic-pi

284
static/archive/takeonrules-com-joumfe.txt Normal file
View File

@@ -0,0 +1,284 @@
[1]Skip to Main Content · [2]Take on Rules · [3]About · [4]RSS Feed · [5]Site
Map · [6]Search
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Breadcrumbs [7]Home / [8]Posts for 2025 / [9]Some Entries from My Personal
Journal
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Some Entries from My Personal Journal
[10]Jeremy Friesen wrote [11]< [12]this post [13]> on 2025-01-16 :: Tags: [14]<
[15]personal [16]> · [17]< [18]poetry [19]>
Summary: Here I draw two entries from my #journal; annotating some thoughts as
well as how I’ve expanded my #writing process over the last two months. There’s
a #poem in here as well.
On Tuesday the 12th of November, 2024, I started what I hoped to be a new
habit. That is writing a personal daily journal. Over the weeks, I expanded my
aspirations to include a daily check list of activities I wanted to do.
I’ve also used these journals to spin-off blog posts; such as this one. In
other words, my daily journal is growing a virtuous cycle in my creative
process.
How It Got Going
These are the notes for November 19th, one week after starting my electronic
journal endeavor.
2024-11-19 Tuesday
This used to be a bulleted list, but I went back and converted lists to terse
paragraphs. As future entries attest, going from list to paragraph was a good
move; I’m spending just a bit more time synthesizing the “list” item.Today I:
Wrote [20]“Spear” by Nicola Griffith.
Finished reading bell hooks all about love by bell hooks.
I was able to get quite a bit of work done; and have some tasks lined up for
tomorrow.
Downloaded [21]The Authoritarian Regime Survival Guide.
I encourage everyone to watch A Small Light; the story of Miep and Jan Geis and
their efforts to hide Anne Frank and several other Jews. We started watching
it, knowing the heartbreak and hurt. But there are reminders that each little
act of life affirmation is a positive and worthy act.
Watched episode 2 of A Small Light.
Some “works” I will add to my Bibliography; others I won’t. A Small Light is in
my bibliography and thus uses CITE tag, whereas “Interior Chinatown” is not and
does not.
We watched the first episode of “Interior Chinatown”.
Practiced testing a radio frequency detector; this one works on vibrate or
making noise.
Tonight I plan to continue reading The Once and Future King by T.H. White.
How It’s Going
The section below is yesterday’s entry. The margin notes are my reflections for
today.
2025-01-15 Wednesday
I include a date link as a matter of practice. This is a custom [22]Org-Mode
[23]📖 link that I have used for a year and a half. It serves two purposes:
generate an HTML time element and to provide backlink-ing. I think I could move
towards the native Org-Mode time element; but for now this is what I have.
Today:
• [24][*] Read one book chapter
• [25][*] Read one poem
• [26][*] Read one essay
• [27][*] Tend my daily feed
• [28][*] Write one response to a feed item
The dogs woke me up around 4am, and I went outside. The moon, close to full,
shown through clear skies. Setting a light the bitter cold snow, which twinkled
as though themselves stars on a white sky.
Deep indigo shroud
Pierced and gouged
Light reflected spills
Upon white fields
Twinkling a promise
Of the morrow rise
Often my first entries will be related to what I’ve read. However, the above
poem needed to be written. Capturing at least a bit of that memory.
I read [29]Don’t Use Session (Signal Fork); and this stinks of someone creating
a platform that eases well-funded actors attempting to crack encryption.
In reading [30]Book Review: Rules for Radicals- A Pragmatic Primer for
Realistic Radicals by Saul Alinsky, I added Rules for Radicals by Saul D.
Alinksy to my shopping list. The salient point, of the review, is the book
helps equip change agents by asking “What is your theory of change?”
Reading [31]The Multiplier Effect of Collective Curiosity leads with an ancient
practice of walking and wondering together. I’ve done this in past meetings and
can say it was some of the most transformative conversations I’ve had. Rarely
is there “lone genius” instead this is an effort of collaboration and
conversation. Each building upon what we share.
In [32]Lit Hub Daily: January 15, 2025 I learned about [33]Olga Tokarczuk’s New
Rules for Realism | The Nation which reviews The Empusium by Olga Tokarczuk;
which I added to my shopping list. Why? Olga’s anti-national (e.g. how do we
move away from tribalism); and to move forward we’re going to look at how to
reduce our us vs. them mindsets.
Read [34]Why am I not taking pictures?, I responded/reflected and wrote [35]Re:
Why am I not playing games?. This makes two responses to Jack in as many days.
With having finished my RSS [36]📖 feed, I turn to my books of poetry. I grabbed
one and opened to somewhere in the middle. I tend to reflect on them a bit
more, but this time I didn’t. I suppose I’ll need to re-read it.
I read the poem A Thousand Dawns from The Half-Life of Angels by Mark Nepo.
Looking to the Fediverse, there’s statements by the Proton’s CEO and then
official Mastodon account that are alarming. Especially given that their threat
model includes state actors.
Finding out that Proton’s CEO is teetering on MAGA-boosting is gross. So I
started exploring other options. A cursory review is as follows:
Email
Tuta (see [37]https://tuta.com/)
VPN
Favor Mullvad VPN (see [38]https://mullvad.net/en)
Calendar
Tuta (see [39]https://tuta.com/)
Password Manager
Bitwarden
Cloud Storage
Run Sync-Thing with multiple devices. I am interested in Synchronization
and thus back-up. This looks to be a reasonable pathway. I’ll need to
review and establish a Runbook.
I had heard of SyncThing but didn’t use it. In part because how it was
originally used was conflated with a gaslighting mansplaining experience. But
don’t throw the technology used out with the people using it. Now the people
developing it?
I started experimenting with syncthing; easy enough to use. Can replace my
Cloud Drive (if I get one more device in the loop). However, I must consider
how to make this available for my family. I’m using [40]Syncthing-Fork on my
Android (as found on [41]Community Contributions — Syncthing documentation) and
brew install syncthing on my Mac. It’s just a bit much for non-programmers; but
I think there’s some documentation to help.
The notes are not chronological; I read the following essay before really
diving into [42]SyncThing [43]📖 . While writing this post, I opted to create a
glossary entry for SyncThing ; but did not amend my journal.
Before dinner, I read Finance is Just Another Word for Other People’s Debt from
The Ultimate Hidden Truth of the World… by David Graeber.
Both nationally and internationally, we are ruled by a ruling class whose
profits are based primarily on complex forms of rent extraction, backed by
coercive of force.―David Graeber, The Ultimate Hidden Truth of the World…
I’m not prepared to take these steps, but understanding what folks are
considering is a helpful exercise. Reminding me a bit of the nano swarms from
The Diamond Age by Neil Stephenson.
I chuckled as I learned about [44]ZADZMO code, namely Nepenthes:
This is a tarpit intended to catch web crawlers. Specifically, it’s
targeting crawlers that scrape data for Large Language Models (LLMs [45]📖)
□ but really, like the plants it is named after, it’ll eat just about
anything that finds it’s way inside.
I’m eager for LLM model collapse, as this hype cycle is one that is hellbent on
consuming all creative output. But, I think they are fully on the “sunk cost”
fallacy trajectory.
I drifted off to sleep listening to some Iain M. Banks.
I read the fourth chapter of Consider Phlebas by Iain M. Banks.
Conclusion
I had an idea of what I wanted to do. But kept that idea light weight. And
started building the habit; expanding upon it. This week I started adapting the
journal at work; writing to a different file of course.
Building from the same habit, has helped in my day to day work. Keeping on top
of blockers as well as improving the odds of tracking down past one off work.
I’m thinking how I can build from this habit to incorporate a todo list.
I’ve started many todo lists, but nothing has quite worked. In that I lose
momentum using them. Paper lists are the best, and one would think I could
simply “make a file on my computer” for these todo items.
But it doesn’t quite work. So I’m going to do what’s working and reflect on how
I can build upon that for a todo list.
[46]Reply by Email
Related Posts
• [47]Go Down Swinging?
• [48]Together We Could
• [49]The Fading of Winter
• [50]On Prescription and Description
• [51]Clutching Wood and Graphite
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
©2025 [52]Jeremy Friesen
[53]Contact Me · [54]Changelog · [55]Colophon · [56]Content Disclaimers · [57]
Privacy Policy
Some Entries from My Personal Journal by [58]Jeremy Friesen is licensed under a
[59]Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
License. Based on a work at [60]https://takeonrules.com/2025/01/16/
some-entries-from-my-personal-journal/. Permissions beyond the scope of this
license may be available at [61]https://takeonrules.com/more_permissions/.
References:
[1] https://takeonrules.com/2025/01/16/some-entries-from-my-personal-journal/#skip-to-content
[2] https://takeonrules.com/
[3] https://takeonrules.com/about/
[4] https://takeonrules.com/index.xml
[5] https://takeonrules.com/site-map/
[6] https://duckduckgo.com/?q=site:takeonrules.com
[7] https://takeonrules.com/
[8] https://takeonrules.com/2025/
[9] https://takeonrules.com/2025/01/16/some-entries-from-my-personal-journal/
[10] https://takeonrules.com/contact-me/
[11] https://takeonrules.com/2025/01/15/re-why-am-i-not-playing-games/
[12] https://takeonrules.com/2025/01/16/some-entries-from-my-personal-journal/
[13] https://takeonrules.com/2025/01/17/re-creative-questions-challenge-from-james/
[14] https://takeonrules.com/2025/01/14/re-writing-on-a-tablet/
[15] https://takeonrules.com/tags/personal/
[16] https://takeonrules.com/2025/01/17/re-creative-questions-challenge-from-james/
[17] https://takeonrules.com/2025/01/10/the-glories-of-a-winter-sunset/
[18] https://takeonrules.com/tags/poetry/
[19] https://takeonrules.com/2025/01/20/together-we-could/
[20] https://takeonrules.com/2024/11/19/spear-by-nicola-griffith/
[21] https://verfassungsblog.de/the-authoritarian-regime-survival-guide/
[22] https://orgmode.org/
[23] https://takeonrules.com/site-map/glossary/#abbr-dfn-ORG-MODE
[29] https://soatok.blog/2025/01/14/dont-use-session-signal-fork/
[30] https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/01/book-review-rules-for-radicals-a-pragmatic-primer-for-realistic-radicals-by-saul-alinsky/
[31] https://nesslabs.com/collective-curiosity?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=collective-curiosity
[32] https://lithub.com/lit-hub-daily-january-15-2025/
[33] https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/olga-tokarczuk-empusium-realism/
[34] https://baty.net/journal/2025/01/15/why-am-i-not-taking-pictures
[35] https://takeonrules.com/2025/01/15/re-why-am-i-not-playing-games/
[36] https://takeonrules.com/site-map/glossary/#abbr-dfn-RSS
[37] https://tuta.com/
[38] https://mullvad.net/en
[39] https://tuta.com/
[40] https://github.com/catfriend1/syncthing-android
[41] https://docs.syncthing.net/users/contrib.html
[42] https://syncthing.net/
[43] https://takeonrules.com/site-map/glossary/#abbr-dfn-SYNCTHING
[44] https://zadzmo.org/code/nepenthes/
[45] https://takeonrules.com/site-map/glossary/#abbr-dfn-LLM
[46] mailto:reply-to@takeonrules.com?subject=RE:Some%20Entries%20from%20My%20Personal%20Journal
[47] https://takeonrules.com/2025/01/27/go-down-swinging/
[48] https://takeonrules.com/2025/01/20/together-we-could/
[49] https://takeonrules.com/2024/12/27/the-fading-of-winter/
[50] https://takeonrules.com/2024/12/18/on-prescription-and-description/
[51] https://takeonrules.com/2024/12/13/clutching-wood-and-graphite/
[52] https://takeonrules.com/
[53] https://takeonrules.com/contact-me/
[54] https://takeonrules.com/site-map/changelog/
[55] https://takeonrules.com/about/colophon/
[56] https://takeonrules.com/site-map/content-disclaimers/
[57] https://takeonrules.com/privacy-policy/
[58] https://takeonrules.com/about/
[59] https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
[60] https://takeonrules.com/2025/01/16/some-entries-from-my-personal-journal/
[61] https://takeonrules.com/more_permissions/

754
static/archive/writingatlarge-com-ravzp3.txt Normal file
View File

@@ -0,0 +1,754 @@
[1]
[2]Writing at Large
A blog about writing, sketching, running and other things
Primary Menu
• [3]The Cancer Project
• [4]About
My Planner Setup for 2025
It’s the beginning of 2025, so it’s time to go over my full planner setup for
both work and home. None of this setup is truly new, as I’ve used much of it
during part or all of 2024, but there are a few tweaks and minor adjustments
that I’ll highlight. As I use a [5]13 week year (or a quarter) in my planner, I
started Q1 of 2025 on the 29th of December and not the 1st of January.
Home Planner Setup
The planner setup I use while I’m at home includes a [6]Leuchtturm1917 Bullet
Journal as my weekly planner, a [7]Well Appointed Desk Rebel Plans pad as my
monthly planner, and a stack of Kokuyo KB A4 paper that I cut in half to make
A5 sheets.
The heart of the system is my weekly planner. I started a new one in 2025, and
after some deliberation I decided to splurge on a Leuchtturm1917 Bullet Journal
and not just the 120gsm edition because I like the endpapers and it was only a
few dollars more.
The setup of this planner is divided into two parts:
Lists
I crossed out all the bullet journal related headers and created list pages of
my own from page 3 to (potentially) page 75. Currently they include: [8]Unread
Books on My Kindle, Mindful Consuming (a list of things that I actually want to
watch, not algorithmically recommended), [9]Conversations not Connections (A
list of people that I want to invest time in, not just like their Facebook
posts. This makes sure that I don’t fall out of touch with people, but actively
initiate phone calls, meetups or skype/zoom calls for those that are abroad),
List of Courses that I’ve Enrolled To (I started this list during Covid, and it
tracks which online courses I’ve enrolled to and need to complete), Things from
Abroad (a running list of packages that I’m expecting. Yes, I know there are
apps for this, but writing it down helps me be more aware and careful with what
I’m buying and how much), Blog Post Ideas (self explanatory), Books to Review
(self explanatory), Medium Post Planning (as part of my focus on work, I
decided to make my work more visible by writing more Medium posts this year). I
will be adding to these lists over the next year, and copying them over to the
next notebook once I finish with this one.
Quarterly and Weekly Planning
Starting at page 76, this section will include four quarterly plans and four 13
week double spreads. Each quarterly plan can take up to four pages (Q1’s plan
takes 2.5 out of the 4 currently, but that’s OK. The extra is in case something
major happens and I need to work out a pivot or significant change into my
plans), and is divided into various subsections. I’ll write a separate post
about my Q1 plan and how I worked on it, but you can read about the process
[10]here.
Then come 13 weekly spreads, each one taking two pages. The left side of the
page has the weekly calendar, with events on it plus my exercise plan for the
week. It’s also where I note things that I want to remember that need to happen
on a certain day that week. Every week on Friday or Saturday evening I plan the
next week, and for this side of the weekly plan I mark significant weather
events, plan my running, swimming and gym schedule, transfer important events
and meetings from my calendar (these are all things that I need to prepare for
actively), and set reminders (like clean the cats’ water fountain on Friday, or
replace filters on things, etc).
The left side of the page is taken mostly by various trackers, and by my weekly
goals (they go in the empty spot in the middle) which I select from my
quarterly goals each week. Any goals that can be managed by trackers are
managed by trackers – either trackers in my planner, or trackers in the Streaks
app. The reason I don’t track everything in an app, is to make sure that I have
to reference this planner at least once, likely twice a day, every day. That
helps keep the weekly goals, which are tied to the quarterly goals,
top-of-mind.
I use two different colours of ink for these pages – when I plan the quarter I
create 13 weekly spreads with just the dates and the “Weekly Tasks” title with
the week number. Then I work everything else in on a week by week basis with
whatever fountain pen I am using at the time. That helps keep things clearer
for me without me having to spend a lot of time “prettifying” my planner.
[img_3320-1-1]Weekly page in my home planner
Daily Plan
Every day I take a sheet of A5 Kokuyo KB paper and write the day and the date
on top. Then I write a running list of tasks that I want to complete that day.
This includes chores, daily routines, and tasks that I’ve pulled from my weekly
planner. I cross them off as I go along, and at the end of the day either I
flip the page and create another daily planner for the next day on the other
side of the page, or I crumple the page up (if it’s used on both sides) and
throw it into the recycling bin. I don’t keep these pages, since anything
important in them is already in my journal.
I recently started tracking if I prepare a daily plan for every day at work and
at home, and the reason is that I’ve discovered time and again that if I don’t
have a plan, I am liable to just get back from work and veg out with a book or
silly YouTube videos.
Monthly Plan
The monthly planner is tiny, and its only goal is to give me a better feel for
how my month looks, and what major events lay ahead. It also tracks some things
– books (which I track on a monthly basis), running (I track this twice because
I also want to get a feel for my monthly load), swimming (the same – tracked on
both weekly and monthly basis to get a better feel for my training load), gym
(which doesn’t appear in the photo below because I haven’t finished creating
the page), blog (how many blog posts I’ve written this month), and there’s
usually an Apple challenge tracker.
[img_3321]Monthly planner
What About Projects/Backlog Items?
Most of my long term projects are tracked as part of the quarterly plan. For
instance, I’m working on getting a certain professional certification this
quarter, so I have that certification listed under my professional goals. The
breakdown of this headline to individual tasks is something I do in the project
specific notebook that I’m using for my study notes, tips that I’ve collected
about the exam, etc. I then can just reference the headline task (the
certification name in this case) in my weekly and daily plans, and reference
what exactly I’m supposed to be working on next in my project notebook. It
saves having to copy a lot of things over and over.
As for general “backlog” items (shopping lists, packing lists, travel plans,
things I want to get to sometime in the future but aren’t part of my quarterly
plan, recurring tasks tied to various medical checkups, etc) – these are all
managed in the Things app. It’s easier to manage recurring and long term tasks
like these in an app, and when it comes time to actually do them I reference
them (or sometimes copy them) into my weekly and daily plans. I have very few
tasks in Things, and sweep of the tasks there once or twice a week is enough to
ensure that I haven’t forgotten anything.
Work Planner Setup
This consists of a Leuchtturm1917 dotted A5 hardcover notebook that I bought at
the local art museum, and Maruman Mnemosyne A5 with blank paper (though I also
use the squared paper Mnemosyne indiscriminately, if that happens to be what’s
available). As I work 3 days a week from an office and 2 days a week from home
I needed a setup that’s as simple and as light to carry as possible, and after
some trial and error this is what I’ve been using for over a year.
[img_3316]My work planner and a piece of blotting paper – a must with this
paper
The work planner, my Leuchtturm, is a daily planner, with each day divided into
three parts. The top of the page has the day and the date, and the upper third
part of every page is for the tasks I plan on working on that day. I
deliberately make sure that less than half of the A5 page is left for tasks,
because otherwise I’ll just jam in much more than I can do in a day and then
feel bad at the end of the day for no good reason.
The last thing I do before signing out at work is to fill in the next day’s
page. That includes pulling out the next tasks I plan on working on from Jira
(we use Jira to plan tasks and projects at work), and leaving about half of the
task area open for things that will pop up during the day. The nature of my job
is that I’m constantly working on about 50% unplanned things, so I have to
leave myself enough room to take that into account.
Next come the meetings, which I track under a separate heading. I set them
apart so that they don’t disappear into my ever changing task list. This is
also useful for me to reference when I’m planning my day, both in terms of how
many tasks I think I can get to, and in terms of preparing for certain
meetings.
The Notes section is where I write down things that I need to take into account
or remember that day. If a team member is taking a day off I note it here to
remind myself not to message them. If I am on “on call” duty I note it here so
that I can significantly reduce the number of tasks I’m working on that day. I
also look ahead a bit, and if I see a project deadline looming, I’ll note it in
the notes section, so that I remember to prioritize my tasks accordingly.
[img_3318]Daily spread in my work planner
The Mnemosyne serves as my “dashboard” and catch all. If I’m working on a
project, this is where I’ll plan out the project before inputting whatever
relevant tasks there are into Jira. I reference and work with this page while
I’m working on the project, and that’s why I view this notebook as the
“dashboard” for my current work.
The Mnemosyne is also where I keep a running list of things I want to get to.
All of these things will have to be formalized into Jira tasks before I can
work on them, but it’s useful for me to have them down on paper first because I
think better on paper.
[img_3319]Maruman Mnemosyne “Dashboard”
I don’t use scrap paper at work as I want to be able to reference these things
in the future, and as a rule I don’t journal about my work tasks.
That’s my full planner setup for 2025, and as all of it has been in use
throughout 2024 with great success I doubt that it will see much change.
What are your planner plans for 2025?
Share this:
• [11]Twitter
• [12]Facebook
•
Like Loading...
Related
[13]Planners[14]writingatlarge[15]Fountain Pens, [16]leuchtturm1917, [17]
mnemosyne, [18]notebook, [19]Notebooks, [20]Planners, [21]planning[22]3
comments
Post navigation
[23]Weekly Update: Happy New Year!
[24]How I Plan a Quarter: 2025 Q1 Plan (13 Week Year)
3 thoughts on “My Planner Setup for 2025”
1. [63a97a3f]
akapulko2020
[25]January 9, 2025 at 5:54 am
I absolutely adore reading about other’s planning setups. Thank you for the
detailed write-up!
[26]LikeLiked by [27]1 person
[28]Reply
2. Pingback: [29]How I Plan a Quarter: 2025 Q1 Plan (13 Week Year) – Writing
at Large
3. Pingback: [30]My New Weekly Review Format – Writing at Large
Leave a comment [31]Cancel reply
[ ]
[ ]
[ ]
[ ]
[ ]
[ ]
[ ]
Δ[ ]
Search [39][ ] Submit
Recent Posts
• [41]My New Weekly Review Format
• [42]Book Review: Dealing With Difficult People – Harvard Business Review
• [43]Weekly Update: Ink and Prickly Pears
• [44]Big Idea Design Base Line Bolt Action Review
• [45]Book Review: Deacon King Kong – James McBride
Subscribe to Blog via Email
Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of
new posts by email.
Email Address: [46][ ]
Subscribe
Join 1,066 other subscribers
[54]Follow Writing at Large on WordPress.com
RSS Feed
• [55]RSS - Posts
Archives
• [56]January 2025
• [57]December 2024
• [58]November 2024
• [59]October 2024
• [60]September 2024
• [61]August 2024
• [62]July 2024
• [63]June 2024
• [64]May 2024
• [65]April 2024
• [66]March 2024
• [67]February 2024
• [68]January 2024
• [69]December 2023
• [70]November 2023
• [71]October 2023
• [72]September 2023
• [73]August 2023
• [74]July 2023
• [75]June 2023
• [76]May 2023
• [77]April 2023
• [78]March 2023
• [79]February 2023
• [80]January 2023
• [81]December 2022
• [82]November 2022
• [83]October 2022
• [84]September 2022
• [85]August 2022
• [86]July 2022
• [87]June 2022
• [88]May 2022
• [89]April 2022
• [90]March 2022
• [91]February 2022
• [92]January 2022
• [93]December 2021
• [94]November 2021
• [95]October 2021
• [96]September 2021
• [97]August 2021
• [98]July 2021
• [99]June 2021
• [100]May 2021
• [101]April 2021
• [102]March 2021
• [103]February 2021
• [104]January 2021
• [105]December 2020
• [106]November 2020
• [107]October 2020
• [108]September 2020
• [109]August 2020
• [110]July 2020
• [111]June 2020
• [112]May 2020
• [113]April 2020
• [114]March 2020
• [115]February 2020
• [116]January 2020
• [117]December 2019
• [118]November 2019
• [119]October 2019
• [120]September 2019
• [121]August 2019
• [122]July 2019
• [123]June 2019
• [124]May 2019
• [125]April 2019
• [126]March 2019
• [127]February 2019
• [128]January 2019
• [129]December 2018
• [130]November 2018
• [131]October 2018
• [132]September 2018
• [133]August 2018
• [134]July 2018
• [135]June 2018
• [136]May 2018
• [137]April 2018
• [138]March 2018
• [139]February 2018
• [140]January 2018
• [141]December 2017
• [142]November 2017
• [143]October 2017
• [144]August 2017
• [145]July 2017
• [146]June 2017
• [147]May 2017
• [148]April 2017
• [149]January 2017
• [150]December 2016
• [151]November 2016
• [152]October 2016
• [153]May 2016
• [154]April 2016
• [155]August 2015
• [156]July 2015
Tags
[157]architecture [158]art [159]beach [160]birds [161]book review [162]Books
[163]brush pen [164]cancer [165]cat [166]D&D [167]Diamine [168]Diamine Inkvent
2024 [169]Diamnine Black Edition [170]Drawing [171]faber castell [172]Field
Notes [173]fountain pen [174]Fountain Pens [175]Ink [176]inktober [177]
inktober2018 [178]inktober2019 [179]Inktober2022 [180]inktober2023 [181]Inkvent
[182]Inkvent2023 [183]Inspiration [184]journal [185]Journal Comic [186]
journaling [187]leuchtturm1917 [188]Life [189]London [190]Midori [191]Midori MD
Cotton [192]moleskine [193]Notebooks [194]OneWeek100People [195]pencil [196]
Pencils [197]Pens [198]Photography [199]Pilot [200]Reading [201]Recommendation
[202]review [203]Rhodia [204]river [205]rohrer and klingner [206]Running [207]
schminke [208]sea [209]sketch [210]sketchbook [211]Sketchbook Design [212]
sketching [213]Staedtler [214]Stillman and Birn [215]summer [216]sunset [217]
teddy bears [218]tel aviv [219]Tips [220]tomoe river paper [221]Tournament of
Books [222]uni-ball [223]urban sketchers [224]urban sketching [225]vintage
[226]watercolor [227]watercolour [228]Weekly Update [229]wildlife [230]winter
[231]Writing
Categories
• [232]Board Games
• [233]Boardgames
• [234]Book Reviews
• [235]cancer
• [236]Creating
• [237]D&D
• [238]Daily Doodle
• [239]Daily Sketch
• [240]Drawing
• [241]Ink
• [242]Inkvent
• [243]journal comics
• [244]journal sketch
• [245]journaling
• [246]knitting
• [247]Life
• [248]Mechanical Keyboards
• [249]Notebooks
• [250]On Cancer
• [251]Pencils
• [252]Pens
• [253]Photography
• [254]Planners
• [255]Productivity
• [256]Random Draw
• [257]Reading
• [258]Recommendations
• [259]Reviews
• [260]Running
• [261]Shopping from My Stationery Stash
• [262]Tea
• [263]Technology
• [264]The Cancer Project
• [265]Tournament of Books
• [266]Travel
• [267]Uncategorized
• [268]vintage
• [269]Weekly Update
• [270]What I’m Using
• [271]Writing
[272]Blog at WordPress.com.
• [273] Comment
• [274] Reblog
• [275] Subscribe [276] Subscribed
□ [277] [cropp] Writing at Large
Join 1,066 other subscribers
[278][ ]
Sign me up
□ Already have a WordPress.com account? [285]Log in now.
•
□ [286] [cropp] Writing at Large
□ [287] Subscribe [288] Subscribed
□ [289]Sign up
□ [290]Log in
□ [291] Copy shortlink
□ [292] Report this content
□ [293] View post in Reader
□ [294]Manage subscriptions
□ [295]Collapse this bar
[296] [297]
Loading Comments...
Write a Comment... [ ]
Email (Required) [299][ ] Name (Required)
[300][ ] Website [301][ ]
[302][Post Comment]
[303]
%d
[b]
References:
[1] https://writingatlarge.com/
[2] https://writingatlarge.com/
[3] https://writingatlarge.com/the-cancer-project/
[4] https://writingatlarge.com/about/
[5] https://writingatlarge.com/2024/06/12/2024-planning-update-the-13-week-year/
[6] https://writingatlarge.com/2024/02/27/leuchtturm1917-a5-dot-grid-comparison-standard-120-gsm-bullet-journal/
[7] https://www.etsy.com/il-en/listing/901099646/rebel-plans-imperial-orders-notepad?click_key=be36db6b215c9f9e0118b8824461093d84da8da6%3A901099646&click_sum=ecec0e55&ref=shop_home_active_37&sca=1&sts=1
[8] https://writingatlarge.com/2024/02/08/how-i-use-my-notebooks-my-kindle-unread-book-list/
[9] https://writingatlarge.com/2024/07/05/planning-update-how-i-plan-a-13-week-year/
[10] https://writingatlarge.com/2024/07/05/planning-update-how-i-plan-a-13-week-year/
[11] https://writingatlarge.com/2025/01/09/my-planner-setup-for-2025/?share=twitter
[12] https://writingatlarge.com/2025/01/09/my-planner-setup-for-2025/?share=facebook
[13] https://writingatlarge.com/category/planners/
[14] https://writingatlarge.com/author/writingatlarge/
[15] https://writingatlarge.com/tag/fountain-pens/
[16] https://writingatlarge.com/tag/leuchtturm1917/
[17] https://writingatlarge.com/tag/mnemosyne/
[18] https://writingatlarge.com/tag/notebook/
[19] https://writingatlarge.com/tag/notebooks/
[20] https://writingatlarge.com/tag/planners/
[21] https://writingatlarge.com/tag/planning/
[22] https://writingatlarge.com/2025/01/09/my-planner-setup-for-2025/#comments
[23] https://writingatlarge.com/2025/01/04/weekly-update-happy-new-year/
[24] https://writingatlarge.com/2025/01/10/how-i-plan-a-quarter-2025-q1-plan-13-week-year/
[25] https://writingatlarge.com/2025/01/09/my-planner-setup-for-2025/#comment-8919
[26] https://writingatlarge.com/2025/01/09/my-planner-setup-for-2025/?like_comment=8919&_wpnonce=6829c90796
[27] https://writingatlarge.com/2025/01/09/my-planner-setup-for-2025/#
[28] https://writingatlarge.com/2025/01/09/my-planner-setup-for-2025/?replytocom=8919#respond
[29] https://writingatlarge.com/2025/01/10/how-i-plan-a-quarter-2025-q1-plan-13-week-year/
[30] https://writingatlarge.com/2025/01/29/my-new-weekly-review-format/
[31] https://writingatlarge.com/2025/01/09/my-planner-setup-for-2025/#respond
[41] https://writingatlarge.com/2025/01/29/my-new-weekly-review-format/
[42] https://writingatlarge.com/2025/01/24/book-review-dealing-with-difficult-people-harvard-business-review/
[43] https://writingatlarge.com/2025/01/18/weekly-update-ink-and-prickly-pears/
[44] https://writingatlarge.com/2025/01/17/big-idea-design-base-line-bolt-action-review/
[45] https://writingatlarge.com/2025/01/15/book-review-deacon-king-kong-james-mcbride/
[54] https://writingatlarge.com/
[55] https://writingatlarge.com/feed/
[56] https://writingatlarge.com/2025/01/
[57] https://writingatlarge.com/2024/12/
[58] https://writingatlarge.com/2024/11/
[59] https://writingatlarge.com/2024/10/
[60] https://writingatlarge.com/2024/09/
[61] https://writingatlarge.com/2024/08/
[62] https://writingatlarge.com/2024/07/
[63] https://writingatlarge.com/2024/06/
[64] https://writingatlarge.com/2024/05/
[65] https://writingatlarge.com/2024/04/
[66] https://writingatlarge.com/2024/03/
[67] https://writingatlarge.com/2024/02/
[68] https://writingatlarge.com/2024/01/
[69] https://writingatlarge.com/2023/12/
[70] https://writingatlarge.com/2023/11/
[71] https://writingatlarge.com/2023/10/
[72] https://writingatlarge.com/2023/09/
[73] https://writingatlarge.com/2023/08/
[74] https://writingatlarge.com/2023/07/
[75] https://writingatlarge.com/2023/06/
[76] https://writingatlarge.com/2023/05/
[77] https://writingatlarge.com/2023/04/
[78] https://writingatlarge.com/2023/03/
[79] https://writingatlarge.com/2023/02/
[80] https://writingatlarge.com/2023/01/
[81] https://writingatlarge.com/2022/12/
[82] https://writingatlarge.com/2022/11/
[83] https://writingatlarge.com/2022/10/
[84] https://writingatlarge.com/2022/09/
[85] https://writingatlarge.com/2022/08/
[86] https://writingatlarge.com/2022/07/
[87] https://writingatlarge.com/2022/06/
[88] https://writingatlarge.com/2022/05/
[89] https://writingatlarge.com/2022/04/
[90] https://writingatlarge.com/2022/03/
[91] https://writingatlarge.com/2022/02/
[92] https://writingatlarge.com/2022/01/
[93] https://writingatlarge.com/2021/12/
[94] https://writingatlarge.com/2021/11/
[95] https://writingatlarge.com/2021/10/
[96] https://writingatlarge.com/2021/09/
[97] https://writingatlarge.com/2021/08/
[98] https://writingatlarge.com/2021/07/
[99] https://writingatlarge.com/2021/06/
[100] https://writingatlarge.com/2021/05/
[101] https://writingatlarge.com/2021/04/
[102] https://writingatlarge.com/2021/03/
[103] https://writingatlarge.com/2021/02/
[104] https://writingatlarge.com/2021/01/
[105] https://writingatlarge.com/2020/12/
[106] https://writingatlarge.com/2020/11/
[107] https://writingatlarge.com/2020/10/
[108] https://writingatlarge.com/2020/09/
[109] https://writingatlarge.com/2020/08/
[110] https://writingatlarge.com/2020/07/
[111] https://writingatlarge.com/2020/06/
[112] https://writingatlarge.com/2020/05/
[113] https://writingatlarge.com/2020/04/
[114] https://writingatlarge.com/2020/03/
[115] https://writingatlarge.com/2020/02/
[116] https://writingatlarge.com/2020/01/
[117] https://writingatlarge.com/2019/12/
[118] https://writingatlarge.com/2019/11/
[119] https://writingatlarge.com/2019/10/
[120] https://writingatlarge.com/2019/09/
[121] https://writingatlarge.com/2019/08/
[122] https://writingatlarge.com/2019/07/
[123] https://writingatlarge.com/2019/06/
[124] https://writingatlarge.com/2019/05/
[125] https://writingatlarge.com/2019/04/
[126] https://writingatlarge.com/2019/03/
[127] https://writingatlarge.com/2019/02/
[128] https://writingatlarge.com/2019/01/
[129] https://writingatlarge.com/2018/12/
[130] https://writingatlarge.com/2018/11/
[131] https://writingatlarge.com/2018/10/
[132] https://writingatlarge.com/2018/09/
[133] https://writingatlarge.com/2018/08/
[134] https://writingatlarge.com/2018/07/
[135] https://writingatlarge.com/2018/06/
[136] https://writingatlarge.com/2018/05/
[137] https://writingatlarge.com/2018/04/
[138] https://writingatlarge.com/2018/03/
[139] https://writingatlarge.com/2018/02/
[140] https://writingatlarge.com/2018/01/
[141] https://writingatlarge.com/2017/12/
[142] https://writingatlarge.com/2017/11/
[143] https://writingatlarge.com/2017/10/
[144] https://writingatlarge.com/2017/08/
[145] https://writingatlarge.com/2017/07/
[146] https://writingatlarge.com/2017/06/
[147] https://writingatlarge.com/2017/05/
[148] https://writingatlarge.com/2017/04/
[149] https://writingatlarge.com/2017/01/
[150] https://writingatlarge.com/2016/12/
[151] https://writingatlarge.com/2016/11/
[152] https://writingatlarge.com/2016/10/
[153] https://writingatlarge.com/2016/05/
[154] https://writingatlarge.com/2016/04/
[155] https://writingatlarge.com/2015/08/
[156] https://writingatlarge.com/2015/07/
[157] https://writingatlarge.com/tag/architecture/
[158] https://writingatlarge.com/tag/art/
[159] https://writingatlarge.com/tag/beach/
[160] https://writingatlarge.com/tag/birds/
[161] https://writingatlarge.com/tag/book-review/
[162] https://writingatlarge.com/tag/books/
[163] https://writingatlarge.com/tag/brush-pen/
[164] https://writingatlarge.com/tag/cancer/
[165] https://writingatlarge.com/tag/cat/
[166] https://writingatlarge.com/tag/dd/
[167] https://writingatlarge.com/tag/diamine/
[168] https://writingatlarge.com/tag/diamine-inkvent-2024/
[169] https://writingatlarge.com/tag/diamnine-black-edition/
[170] https://writingatlarge.com/tag/drawing/
[171] https://writingatlarge.com/tag/faber-castell/
[172] https://writingatlarge.com/tag/field-notes/
[173] https://writingatlarge.com/tag/fountain-pen/
[174] https://writingatlarge.com/tag/fountain-pens/
[175] https://writingatlarge.com/tag/ink/
[176] https://writingatlarge.com/tag/inktober/
[177] https://writingatlarge.com/tag/inktober2018/
[178] https://writingatlarge.com/tag/inktober2019/
[179] https://writingatlarge.com/tag/inktober2022/
[180] https://writingatlarge.com/tag/inktober2023/
[181] https://writingatlarge.com/tag/inkvent/
[182] https://writingatlarge.com/tag/inkvent2023/
[183] https://writingatlarge.com/tag/inspiration/
[184] https://writingatlarge.com/tag/journal/
[185] https://writingatlarge.com/tag/journal-comic/
[186] https://writingatlarge.com/tag/journaling/
[187] https://writingatlarge.com/tag/leuchtturm1917/
[188] https://writingatlarge.com/tag/life/
[189] https://writingatlarge.com/tag/london/
[190] https://writingatlarge.com/tag/midori/
[191] https://writingatlarge.com/tag/midori-md-cotton/
[192] https://writingatlarge.com/tag/moleskine/
[193] https://writingatlarge.com/tag/notebooks/
[194] https://writingatlarge.com/tag/oneweek100people/
[195] https://writingatlarge.com/tag/pencil/
[196] https://writingatlarge.com/tag/pencils/
[197] https://writingatlarge.com/tag/pens/
[198] https://writingatlarge.com/tag/photography/
[199] https://writingatlarge.com/tag/pilot/
[200] https://writingatlarge.com/tag/reading/
[201] https://writingatlarge.com/tag/recommendation/
[202] https://writingatlarge.com/tag/review/
[203] https://writingatlarge.com/tag/rhodia/
[204] https://writingatlarge.com/tag/river/
[205] https://writingatlarge.com/tag/rohrer-and-klingner/
[206] https://writingatlarge.com/tag/running/
[207] https://writingatlarge.com/tag/schminke/
[208] https://writingatlarge.com/tag/sea/
[209] https://writingatlarge.com/tag/sketch/
[210] https://writingatlarge.com/tag/sketchbook/
[211] https://writingatlarge.com/tag/sketchbook-design/
[212] https://writingatlarge.com/tag/sketching/
[213] https://writingatlarge.com/tag/staedtler/
[214] https://writingatlarge.com/tag/stillman-and-birn/
[215] https://writingatlarge.com/tag/summer/
[216] https://writingatlarge.com/tag/sunset/
[217] https://writingatlarge.com/tag/teddy-bears/
[218] https://writingatlarge.com/tag/tel-aviv/
[219] https://writingatlarge.com/tag/tips/
[220] https://writingatlarge.com/tag/tomoe-river-paper/
[221] https://writingatlarge.com/tag/tournament-of-books/
[222] https://writingatlarge.com/tag/uni-ball/
[223] https://writingatlarge.com/tag/urban-sketchers/
[224] https://writingatlarge.com/tag/urban-sketching/
[225] https://writingatlarge.com/tag/vintage/
[226] https://writingatlarge.com/tag/watercolor/
[227] https://writingatlarge.com/tag/watercolour/
[228] https://writingatlarge.com/tag/weekly-update/
[229] https://writingatlarge.com/tag/wildlife/
[230] https://writingatlarge.com/tag/winter/
[231] https://writingatlarge.com/tag/writing/
[232] https://writingatlarge.com/category/board-games/
[233] https://writingatlarge.com/category/boardgames/
[234] https://writingatlarge.com/category/book-reviews/
[235] https://writingatlarge.com/category/cancer/
[236] https://writingatlarge.com/category/creating/
[237] https://writingatlarge.com/category/dd/
[238] https://writingatlarge.com/category/daily-doodle/
[239] https://writingatlarge.com/category/daily-sketch/
[240] https://writingatlarge.com/category/drawing/
[241] https://writingatlarge.com/category/ink/
[242] https://writingatlarge.com/category/ink/inkvent/
[243] https://writingatlarge.com/category/journal-comics/
[244] https://writingatlarge.com/category/journal-sketch/
[245] https://writingatlarge.com/category/journaling/
[246] https://writingatlarge.com/category/knitting/
[247] https://writingatlarge.com/category/life/
[248] https://writingatlarge.com/category/mechanical-keyboards/
[249] https://writingatlarge.com/category/notebooks/
[250] https://writingatlarge.com/category/on-cancer/
[251] https://writingatlarge.com/category/pencils/
[252] https://writingatlarge.com/category/pens/
[253] https://writingatlarge.com/category/photography/
[254] https://writingatlarge.com/category/planners/
[255] https://writingatlarge.com/category/productivity/
[256] https://writingatlarge.com/category/random-draw/
[257] https://writingatlarge.com/category/reading/
[258] https://writingatlarge.com/category/recommendations/
[259] https://writingatlarge.com/category/reviews/
[260] https://writingatlarge.com/category/running/
[261] https://writingatlarge.com/category/shopping-from-my-stationery-stash/
[262] https://writingatlarge.com/category/tea/
[263] https://writingatlarge.com/category/technology/
[264] https://writingatlarge.com/category/the-cancer-project/
[265] https://writingatlarge.com/category/reading/tournament-of-books/
[266] https://writingatlarge.com/category/travel/
[267] https://writingatlarge.com/category/uncategorized/
[268] https://writingatlarge.com/category/vintage/
[269] https://writingatlarge.com/category/weekly-update/
[270] https://writingatlarge.com/category/what-im-using/
[271] https://writingatlarge.com/category/writing/
[272] https://wordpress.com/?ref=footer_blog
[273] https://writingatlarge.com/2025/01/09/my-planner-setup-for-2025/#comments
[274] https://writingatlarge.com/2025/01/09/my-planner-setup-for-2025/
[275] https://writingatlarge.com/2025/01/09/my-planner-setup-for-2025/
[276] https://writingatlarge.com/2025/01/09/my-planner-setup-for-2025/
[277] https://writingatlarge.com/
[285] https://wordpress.com/log-in?redirect_to=https%3A%2F%2Fr-login.wordpress.com%2Fremote-login.php%3Faction%3Dlink%26back%3Dhttps%253A%252F%252Fwritingatlarge.com%252F2025%252F01%252F09%252Fmy-planner-setup-for-2025%252F
[286] https://writingatlarge.com/
[287] https://writingatlarge.com/2025/01/09/my-planner-setup-for-2025/
[288] https://writingatlarge.com/2025/01/09/my-planner-setup-for-2025/
[289] https://wordpress.com/start/
[290] https://wordpress.com/log-in?redirect_to=https%3A%2F%2Fr-login.wordpress.com%2Fremote-login.php%3Faction%3Dlink%26back%3Dhttps%253A%252F%252Fwritingatlarge.com%252F2025%252F01%252F09%252Fmy-planner-setup-for-2025%252F
[291] https://wp.me/p6skqj-2qI
[292] https://wordpress.com/abuse/?report_url=https://writingatlarge.com/2025/01/09/my-planner-setup-for-2025/
[293] https://wordpress.com/read/blogs/95409711/posts/9344
[294] https://subscribe.wordpress.com/
[295] https://writingatlarge.com/2025/01/09/my-planner-setup-for-2025/
[296] https://writingatlarge.com/2025/01/09/my-planner-setup-for-2025/#
[297] https://writingatlarge.com/2025/01/09/my-planner-setup-for-2025/#
[303] https://writingatlarge.com/2025/01/09/my-planner-setup-for-2025/#

751
static/archive/writingatlarge-com-zf24yo.txt Normal file
View File

@@ -0,0 +1,751 @@
[1]
[2]Writing at Large
A blog about writing, sketching, running and other things
Primary Menu
• [3]The Cancer Project
• [4]About
Three Habits Worth Keeping
Happy New Year!
This is the time of year when people set resolutions, themes, goals,
intentions, words of the year, etc. Ambitions are high, intentions are good,
but well before March most of these efforts will be abandoned and forgotten.
I’ll be writing about my quarterly plan and my 2025 planner later on, but for
now here are three habits that worth keeping in 2025 and in general, and a few
tips on how to get into them and persist:
Exercise
Any amount and any kind that you can do is excellent. Let’s repeat that: ANY
amount of exercise and ANY kind of exercise is a tremendous win. Start with
walking if nothing else speaks to you, but try to make sure it’s a brisk walk
and not a shuffle if you can. It doesn’t need to take an hour, and it doesn’t
need to be 10,000 steps. Remember, anything you can do is good. Local gyms and
community centres usually have classes you can try out if you want to give
yoga, pilates, kickboxing or jiujitsu a try.
Running offers the best “bang for your buck” in terms of time and money
invested per health and fitness gains, but not everyone can run, and not
everyone enjoys running. If you want to give running a start, I recommend using
any “couch to 5k” app, and then transitioning to the excellent guided runs and
training plans in the free [5]NRC app to keep you going. If you need someone to
keep you accountable, either join a group of some sort or find a friend or
family member to work out with.
The [6]NTC app offers a huge variety of training options – from yoga to full
equipment gym workouts, with some excellent body-weight workouts in between.
Swimming is a great low impact way to build up cardio and a bit of strength,
and weight-lifting isn’t as intimidating as you think – a pair of dumbbells at
home is a great way to start exploring it. [7]Yoga with Adriene is great way to
get into yoga if you don’t or can’t take a class and the NTC app seems too
intimidating.
Soccer, basketball, baseball and other group sports are great ways to expand
your social circle, and tennis, pickleball, badminton are great ways for
couples to work out together.
The easiest way of getting into the habit is doing a little something every
day, and doing it as soon after you wake up as possible. That way you start the
day with a win and some endorphins, which is always a nice way to start your
day.
If you think you don’t have time to work out, be honest with yourself and track
your time for a day or two. How much time is spent on social media? Binge
watching TV? Mindless scrolling? Could you cut some of that out? Could you go
to sleep a little earlier and wake up a little earlier so you can have some
alone time to exercise and clear your mind?
If you already have a solid exercise routine in place, take the time to
diversify it if you can. This goes particularly to us runners: strength train.
Swim. Cycle. Do things that aren’t just running, because just running is one of
the main causes of such relatively high injury rates amongst runners compared
to other athletes.
Reading
Most people don’t read, which is their loss because reading is a superpower.
Train your brain off the social media dopamine hamster wheel and teach it how
to focus for significant stretches of time by picking up a reading habit.
You’re standing in line bored? Open your Kindle app and pick up that detective
novel or space opera from where you left off. Replace TikTok, social media and
YouTube with books, and make sure that they’re books that you want to read.
Don’t go off bestseller lists or influencer recommendations or whatever one
this or that award, or is considered a classic. When you’re getting back into
reading you need to gradually train your mind to get used to this activity.
Start with a book that really interests you (not one that’s impressive), and
start with a physical copy because they’re easier to read. Reading will do to
your brain what exercise does for all of your body: make you better, stronger,
faster, healthier and happier.
If you’re already a reader, then mix things up a bit: if you only read
non-fiction, read fiction for a change and vice versa. Try something new,
because you may just end up liking it. If you’ve only done light reading so
far, pick a challenging book and work your way through it. Treat your brain
like a muscle you are training, where you gradually progress to bigger and
bigger weights. Challenging books are often the most rewarding, but you
probably should start with them.
Journaling
Digital or analog, it doesn’t matter, journaling is worth doing. Gain insight
to yourself, unleash your creativity, and let loose to your thoughts in a safe
environment. This is the path to self improvement, learning to be kind to
yourself, and having a positive mental attitude towards life.
If you’ve never journaled before, start small and simple: pick a notebook that
you will enjoy writing in (whatever speaks to you, no matter what other people
think), use whatever pen or pencil you fancy, and write 3-5 things you are
grateful for each day. Add more sections to your daily journal as you go along:
a “story of the day”, an account of what you did or what you consumed and what
you thought about it, a nightly summary, etc.
Make it a ritual of sorts: write in your journal every morning and evening,
every time you switch between major tasks during the day, or when you feel the
need to respond to something (don’t post online, post in your journal instead).
Don’t be intimidated by gorgeous and elaborate works of art in various
journaling forums, blogs and on Instagram. These are journals as craft
projects, and while they are nice, they aren’t what we’re trying to get to
here. It’s OK to add stickers and bits and bobs to your journal, but its
purpose shouldn’t be to be photographed and posted. It’s there to work for you,
so treat it like a workhorse, not a circus pony. Also, remind yourself that
many of these journal photos are there to sell: stickers, washi tape, pens,
notebooks, ink, the poster’s journaling course, etc. People rarely show off
their “real” journals because if you’re honestly journaling only for yourself,
that’s just not something that you’ll want to share.
Share this:
• [8]Twitter
• [9]Facebook
•
Like Loading...
Related
[10]journaling, [11]Life, [12]Reading, [13]Running[14]writingatlarge[15]
exercise, [16]health, [17]journal, [18]journaling, [19]Life, [20]mental-health,
[21]new year resolutions, [22]new year’s resolutions, [23]Reading, [24]Tips,
[25]Writing, [26]yearly themes[27]7 comments
Post navigation
[28]Book Review: Orbital: A Novel – Samantha Harvey
[29]Weekly Update: Happy New Year!
7 thoughts on “Three Habits Worth Keeping”
1. [4f7770a7]
Daphna Kedmi
[30]January 4, 2025 at 11:16 am
Happy New Year, my friend. Health, an end to war and the return of the
hostages to their families, that’s all I wish for at this time. All the
rest can wait.
[31]LikeLiked by [32]1 person
[33]Reply
2. [fce9cc54]
[34]Elizabeth
[35]January 4, 2025 at 11:58 am
Excellent suggestions! I especially like your phrase, “the social media
dopamine hamster wheel.” My husband is 87; I am 73. We have been avid
readers, writers, mountain hikers, walkers, weight trainers, and learners
for many years, and can attest to the value of your suggestions. We’ve been
lucky enough to have each other as life partners, lovers, and best friends,
too. I’m happy to have discovered your blog, and look forward to exploring
your 13-week calendar system.
[36]LikeLiked by [37]2 people
[38]Reply
1. [fce9cc54]
[39]Elizabeth
[40]January 4, 2025 at 7:23 pm
Now that I’ve looked around your blog a bit (so much to explore!), I
wanted to share that my husband was diagnosed with mantle cell
non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma in 2014, went through chemo and radiation, and
has been in remission ever since. The docs at Mayo Clinic are loath to
use the “cure” word, but are doing it now with him on this one. He is
10+ years out, now.
[41]LikeLiked by [42]1 person
[43]Reply
1. [fce9cc54]
[44]Elizabeth
[45]January 4, 2025 at 7:25 pm
I forgot to add — I will always believe his high level of fitness
pre-diagnosis was helpful to his recovery.
[46]LikeLiked by [47]1 person
2. [dabec41e]
[48]writingatlarge
[49]January 4, 2025 at 8:16 pm
Thank you for sharing that – I hope that he remains in remission
forever. Much health to you both!
[50]LikeLike
2. [dabec41e]
[51]writingatlarge
[52]January 4, 2025 at 8:15 pm
Thank you for taking the time to write this lovely comment. I really
appreciate it.
[53]LikeLike
[54]Reply
3. Pingback: [55]Sunday Reading for January 5, 2024 – Madcity Supplies
Leave a comment [56]Cancel reply
[ ]
[ ]
[ ]
[ ]
[ ]
[ ]
[ ]
Δ[ ]
Search [64][ ] Submit
Recent Posts
• [66]My New Weekly Review Format
• [67]Book Review: Dealing With Difficult People – Harvard Business Review
• [68]Weekly Update: Ink and Prickly Pears
• [69]Big Idea Design Base Line Bolt Action Review
• [70]Book Review: Deacon King Kong – James McBride
Subscribe to Blog via Email
Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of
new posts by email.
Email Address: [71][ ]
Subscribe
Join 1,066 other subscribers
[79]Follow Writing at Large on WordPress.com
RSS Feed
• [80]RSS - Posts
Archives
• [81]January 2025
• [82]December 2024
• [83]November 2024
• [84]October 2024
• [85]September 2024
• [86]August 2024
• [87]July 2024
• [88]June 2024
• [89]May 2024
• [90]April 2024
• [91]March 2024
• [92]February 2024
• [93]January 2024
• [94]December 2023
• [95]November 2023
• [96]October 2023
• [97]September 2023
• [98]August 2023
• [99]July 2023
• [100]June 2023
• [101]May 2023
• [102]April 2023
• [103]March 2023
• [104]February 2023
• [105]January 2023
• [106]December 2022
• [107]November 2022
• [108]October 2022
• [109]September 2022
• [110]August 2022
• [111]July 2022
• [112]June 2022
• [113]May 2022
• [114]April 2022
• [115]March 2022
• [116]February 2022
• [117]January 2022
• [118]December 2021
• [119]November 2021
• [120]October 2021
• [121]September 2021
• [122]August 2021
• [123]July 2021
• [124]June 2021
• [125]May 2021
• [126]April 2021
• [127]March 2021
• [128]February 2021
• [129]January 2021
• [130]December 2020
• [131]November 2020
• [132]October 2020
• [133]September 2020
• [134]August 2020
• [135]July 2020
• [136]June 2020
• [137]May 2020
• [138]April 2020
• [139]March 2020
• [140]February 2020
• [141]January 2020
• [142]December 2019
• [143]November 2019
• [144]October 2019
• [145]September 2019
• [146]August 2019
• [147]July 2019
• [148]June 2019
• [149]May 2019
• [150]April 2019
• [151]March 2019
• [152]February 2019
• [153]January 2019
• [154]December 2018
• [155]November 2018
• [156]October 2018
• [157]September 2018
• [158]August 2018
• [159]July 2018
• [160]June 2018
• [161]May 2018
• [162]April 2018
• [163]March 2018
• [164]February 2018
• [165]January 2018
• [166]December 2017
• [167]November 2017
• [168]October 2017
• [169]August 2017
• [170]July 2017
• [171]June 2017
• [172]May 2017
• [173]April 2017
• [174]January 2017
• [175]December 2016
• [176]November 2016
• [177]October 2016
• [178]May 2016
• [179]April 2016
• [180]August 2015
• [181]July 2015
Tags
[182]architecture [183]art [184]beach [185]birds [186]book review [187]Books
[188]brush pen [189]cancer [190]cat [191]D&D [192]Diamine [193]Diamine Inkvent
2024 [194]Diamnine Black Edition [195]Drawing [196]faber castell [197]Field
Notes [198]fountain pen [199]Fountain Pens [200]Ink [201]inktober [202]
inktober2018 [203]inktober2019 [204]Inktober2022 [205]inktober2023 [206]Inkvent
[207]Inkvent2023 [208]Inspiration [209]journal [210]Journal Comic [211]
journaling [212]leuchtturm1917 [213]Life [214]London [215]Midori [216]Midori MD
Cotton [217]moleskine [218]Notebooks [219]OneWeek100People [220]pencil [221]
Pencils [222]Pens [223]Photography [224]Pilot [225]Reading [226]Recommendation
[227]review [228]Rhodia [229]river [230]rohrer and klingner [231]Running [232]
schminke [233]sea [234]sketch [235]sketchbook [236]Sketchbook Design [237]
sketching [238]Staedtler [239]Stillman and Birn [240]summer [241]sunset [242]
teddy bears [243]tel aviv [244]Tips [245]tomoe river paper [246]Tournament of
Books [247]uni-ball [248]urban sketchers [249]urban sketching [250]vintage
[251]watercolor [252]watercolour [253]Weekly Update [254]wildlife [255]winter
[256]Writing
Categories
• [257]Board Games
• [258]Boardgames
• [259]Book Reviews
• [260]cancer
• [261]Creating
• [262]D&D
• [263]Daily Doodle
• [264]Daily Sketch
• [265]Drawing
• [266]Ink
• [267]Inkvent
• [268]journal comics
• [269]journal sketch
• [270]journaling
• [271]knitting
• [272]Life
• [273]Mechanical Keyboards
• [274]Notebooks
• [275]On Cancer
• [276]Pencils
• [277]Pens
• [278]Photography
• [279]Planners
• [280]Productivity
• [281]Random Draw
• [282]Reading
• [283]Recommendations
• [284]Reviews
• [285]Running
• [286]Shopping from My Stationery Stash
• [287]Tea
• [288]Technology
• [289]The Cancer Project
• [290]Tournament of Books
• [291]Travel
• [292]Uncategorized
• [293]vintage
• [294]Weekly Update
• [295]What I’m Using
• [296]Writing
[297]Blog at WordPress.com.
• [298] Comment
• [299] Reblog
• [300] Subscribe [301] Subscribed
□ [302] [cropp] Writing at Large
Join 1,066 other subscribers
[303][ ]
Sign me up
□ Already have a WordPress.com account? [310]Log in now.
•
□ [311] [cropp] Writing at Large
□ [312] Subscribe [313] Subscribed
□ [314]Sign up
□ [315]Log in
□ [316] Copy shortlink
□ [317] Report this content
□ [318] View post in Reader
□ [319]Manage subscriptions
□ [320]Collapse this bar
%d
[b]
References:
[1] https://writingatlarge.com/
[2] https://writingatlarge.com/
[3] https://writingatlarge.com/the-cancer-project/
[4] https://writingatlarge.com/about/
[5] https://www.nike.com/il/nrc-app
[6] https://www.nike.com/il/ntc-app
[7] https://www.youtube.com/@yogawithadriene
[8] https://writingatlarge.com/2025/01/03/three-habits-worth-keeping/?share=twitter
[9] https://writingatlarge.com/2025/01/03/three-habits-worth-keeping/?share=facebook
[10] https://writingatlarge.com/category/journaling/
[11] https://writingatlarge.com/category/life/
[12] https://writingatlarge.com/category/reading/
[13] https://writingatlarge.com/category/running/
[14] https://writingatlarge.com/author/writingatlarge/
[15] https://writingatlarge.com/tag/exercise/
[16] https://writingatlarge.com/tag/health/
[17] https://writingatlarge.com/tag/journal/
[18] https://writingatlarge.com/tag/journaling/
[19] https://writingatlarge.com/tag/life/
[20] https://writingatlarge.com/tag/mental-health/
[21] https://writingatlarge.com/tag/new-year-resolutions/
[22] https://writingatlarge.com/tag/new-years-resolutions/
[23] https://writingatlarge.com/tag/reading/
[24] https://writingatlarge.com/tag/tips/
[25] https://writingatlarge.com/tag/writing/
[26] https://writingatlarge.com/tag/yearly-themes/
[27] https://writingatlarge.com/2025/01/03/three-habits-worth-keeping/#comments
[28] https://writingatlarge.com/2024/12/29/book-review-orbital-a-novel-samantha-harvey/
[29] https://writingatlarge.com/2025/01/04/weekly-update-happy-new-year/
[30] https://writingatlarge.com/2025/01/03/three-habits-worth-keeping/#comment-8896
[31] https://writingatlarge.com/2025/01/03/three-habits-worth-keeping/?like_comment=8896&_wpnonce=d34116b5e3
[32] https://writingatlarge.com/2025/01/03/three-habits-worth-keeping/#
[33] https://writingatlarge.com/2025/01/03/three-habits-worth-keeping/?replytocom=8896#respond
[34] http://memoirontheflyblog.wordpress.com/
[35] https://writingatlarge.com/2025/01/03/three-habits-worth-keeping/#comment-8897
[36] https://writingatlarge.com/2025/01/03/three-habits-worth-keeping/?like_comment=8897&_wpnonce=2a0fdbfe52
[37] https://writingatlarge.com/2025/01/03/three-habits-worth-keeping/#
[38] https://writingatlarge.com/2025/01/03/three-habits-worth-keeping/?replytocom=8897#respond
[39] http://memoirontheflyblog.wordpress.com/
[40] https://writingatlarge.com/2025/01/03/three-habits-worth-keeping/#comment-8898
[41] https://writingatlarge.com/2025/01/03/three-habits-worth-keeping/?like_comment=8898&_wpnonce=652a7bae80
[42] https://writingatlarge.com/2025/01/03/three-habits-worth-keeping/#
[43] https://writingatlarge.com/2025/01/03/three-habits-worth-keeping/?replytocom=8898#respond
[44] http://memoirontheflyblog.wordpress.com/
[45] https://writingatlarge.com/2025/01/03/three-habits-worth-keeping/#comment-8899
[46] https://writingatlarge.com/2025/01/03/three-habits-worth-keeping/?like_comment=8899&_wpnonce=907c2d109b
[47] https://writingatlarge.com/2025/01/03/three-habits-worth-keeping/#
[48] https://writingatlarge.wordpress.com/
[49] https://writingatlarge.com/2025/01/03/three-habits-worth-keeping/#comment-8904
[50] https://writingatlarge.com/2025/01/03/three-habits-worth-keeping/?like_comment=8904&_wpnonce=a8dd65cd21
[51] https://writingatlarge.wordpress.com/
[52] https://writingatlarge.com/2025/01/03/three-habits-worth-keeping/#comment-8903
[53] https://writingatlarge.com/2025/01/03/three-habits-worth-keeping/?like_comment=8903&_wpnonce=a8f85ed3af
[54] https://writingatlarge.com/2025/01/03/three-habits-worth-keeping/?replytocom=8903#respond
[55] https://madcity.supplies/sunday-reading-for-january-5-2024/
[56] https://writingatlarge.com/2025/01/03/three-habits-worth-keeping/#respond
[66] https://writingatlarge.com/2025/01/29/my-new-weekly-review-format/
[67] https://writingatlarge.com/2025/01/24/book-review-dealing-with-difficult-people-harvard-business-review/
[68] https://writingatlarge.com/2025/01/18/weekly-update-ink-and-prickly-pears/
[69] https://writingatlarge.com/2025/01/17/big-idea-design-base-line-bolt-action-review/
[70] https://writingatlarge.com/2025/01/15/book-review-deacon-king-kong-james-mcbride/
[79] https://writingatlarge.com/
[80] https://writingatlarge.com/feed/
[81] https://writingatlarge.com/2025/01/
[82] https://writingatlarge.com/2024/12/
[83] https://writingatlarge.com/2024/11/
[84] https://writingatlarge.com/2024/10/
[85] https://writingatlarge.com/2024/09/
[86] https://writingatlarge.com/2024/08/
[87] https://writingatlarge.com/2024/07/
[88] https://writingatlarge.com/2024/06/
[89] https://writingatlarge.com/2024/05/
[90] https://writingatlarge.com/2024/04/
[91] https://writingatlarge.com/2024/03/
[92] https://writingatlarge.com/2024/02/
[93] https://writingatlarge.com/2024/01/
[94] https://writingatlarge.com/2023/12/
[95] https://writingatlarge.com/2023/11/
[96] https://writingatlarge.com/2023/10/
[97] https://writingatlarge.com/2023/09/
[98] https://writingatlarge.com/2023/08/
[99] https://writingatlarge.com/2023/07/
[100] https://writingatlarge.com/2023/06/
[101] https://writingatlarge.com/2023/05/
[102] https://writingatlarge.com/2023/04/
[103] https://writingatlarge.com/2023/03/
[104] https://writingatlarge.com/2023/02/
[105] https://writingatlarge.com/2023/01/
[106] https://writingatlarge.com/2022/12/
[107] https://writingatlarge.com/2022/11/
[108] https://writingatlarge.com/2022/10/
[109] https://writingatlarge.com/2022/09/
[110] https://writingatlarge.com/2022/08/
[111] https://writingatlarge.com/2022/07/
[112] https://writingatlarge.com/2022/06/
[113] https://writingatlarge.com/2022/05/
[114] https://writingatlarge.com/2022/04/
[115] https://writingatlarge.com/2022/03/
[116] https://writingatlarge.com/2022/02/
[117] https://writingatlarge.com/2022/01/
[118] https://writingatlarge.com/2021/12/
[119] https://writingatlarge.com/2021/11/
[120] https://writingatlarge.com/2021/10/
[121] https://writingatlarge.com/2021/09/
[122] https://writingatlarge.com/2021/08/
[123] https://writingatlarge.com/2021/07/
[124] https://writingatlarge.com/2021/06/
[125] https://writingatlarge.com/2021/05/
[126] https://writingatlarge.com/2021/04/
[127] https://writingatlarge.com/2021/03/
[128] https://writingatlarge.com/2021/02/
[129] https://writingatlarge.com/2021/01/
[130] https://writingatlarge.com/2020/12/
[131] https://writingatlarge.com/2020/11/
[132] https://writingatlarge.com/2020/10/
[133] https://writingatlarge.com/2020/09/
[134] https://writingatlarge.com/2020/08/
[135] https://writingatlarge.com/2020/07/
[136] https://writingatlarge.com/2020/06/
[137] https://writingatlarge.com/2020/05/
[138] https://writingatlarge.com/2020/04/
[139] https://writingatlarge.com/2020/03/
[140] https://writingatlarge.com/2020/02/
[141] https://writingatlarge.com/2020/01/
[142] https://writingatlarge.com/2019/12/
[143] https://writingatlarge.com/2019/11/
[144] https://writingatlarge.com/2019/10/
[145] https://writingatlarge.com/2019/09/
[146] https://writingatlarge.com/2019/08/
[147] https://writingatlarge.com/2019/07/
[148] https://writingatlarge.com/2019/06/
[149] https://writingatlarge.com/2019/05/
[150] https://writingatlarge.com/2019/04/
[151] https://writingatlarge.com/2019/03/
[152] https://writingatlarge.com/2019/02/
[153] https://writingatlarge.com/2019/01/
[154] https://writingatlarge.com/2018/12/
[155] https://writingatlarge.com/2018/11/
[156] https://writingatlarge.com/2018/10/
[157] https://writingatlarge.com/2018/09/
[158] https://writingatlarge.com/2018/08/
[159] https://writingatlarge.com/2018/07/
[160] https://writingatlarge.com/2018/06/
[161] https://writingatlarge.com/2018/05/
[162] https://writingatlarge.com/2018/04/
[163] https://writingatlarge.com/2018/03/
[164] https://writingatlarge.com/2018/02/
[165] https://writingatlarge.com/2018/01/
[166] https://writingatlarge.com/2017/12/
[167] https://writingatlarge.com/2017/11/
[168] https://writingatlarge.com/2017/10/
[169] https://writingatlarge.com/2017/08/
[170] https://writingatlarge.com/2017/07/
[171] https://writingatlarge.com/2017/06/
[172] https://writingatlarge.com/2017/05/
[173] https://writingatlarge.com/2017/04/
[174] https://writingatlarge.com/2017/01/
[175] https://writingatlarge.com/2016/12/
[176] https://writingatlarge.com/2016/11/
[177] https://writingatlarge.com/2016/10/
[178] https://writingatlarge.com/2016/05/
[179] https://writingatlarge.com/2016/04/
[180] https://writingatlarge.com/2015/08/
[181] https://writingatlarge.com/2015/07/
[182] https://writingatlarge.com/tag/architecture/
[183] https://writingatlarge.com/tag/art/
[184] https://writingatlarge.com/tag/beach/
[185] https://writingatlarge.com/tag/birds/
[186] https://writingatlarge.com/tag/book-review/
[187] https://writingatlarge.com/tag/books/
[188] https://writingatlarge.com/tag/brush-pen/
[189] https://writingatlarge.com/tag/cancer/
[190] https://writingatlarge.com/tag/cat/
[191] https://writingatlarge.com/tag/dd/
[192] https://writingatlarge.com/tag/diamine/
[193] https://writingatlarge.com/tag/diamine-inkvent-2024/
[194] https://writingatlarge.com/tag/diamnine-black-edition/
[195] https://writingatlarge.com/tag/drawing/
[196] https://writingatlarge.com/tag/faber-castell/
[197] https://writingatlarge.com/tag/field-notes/
[198] https://writingatlarge.com/tag/fountain-pen/
[199] https://writingatlarge.com/tag/fountain-pens/
[200] https://writingatlarge.com/tag/ink/
[201] https://writingatlarge.com/tag/inktober/
[202] https://writingatlarge.com/tag/inktober2018/
[203] https://writingatlarge.com/tag/inktober2019/
[204] https://writingatlarge.com/tag/inktober2022/
[205] https://writingatlarge.com/tag/inktober2023/
[206] https://writingatlarge.com/tag/inkvent/
[207] https://writingatlarge.com/tag/inkvent2023/
[208] https://writingatlarge.com/tag/inspiration/
[209] https://writingatlarge.com/tag/journal/
[210] https://writingatlarge.com/tag/journal-comic/
[211] https://writingatlarge.com/tag/journaling/
[212] https://writingatlarge.com/tag/leuchtturm1917/
[213] https://writingatlarge.com/tag/life/
[214] https://writingatlarge.com/tag/london/
[215] https://writingatlarge.com/tag/midori/
[216] https://writingatlarge.com/tag/midori-md-cotton/
[217] https://writingatlarge.com/tag/moleskine/
[218] https://writingatlarge.com/tag/notebooks/
[219] https://writingatlarge.com/tag/oneweek100people/
[220] https://writingatlarge.com/tag/pencil/
[221] https://writingatlarge.com/tag/pencils/
[222] https://writingatlarge.com/tag/pens/
[223] https://writingatlarge.com/tag/photography/
[224] https://writingatlarge.com/tag/pilot/
[225] https://writingatlarge.com/tag/reading/
[226] https://writingatlarge.com/tag/recommendation/
[227] https://writingatlarge.com/tag/review/
[228] https://writingatlarge.com/tag/rhodia/
[229] https://writingatlarge.com/tag/river/
[230] https://writingatlarge.com/tag/rohrer-and-klingner/
[231] https://writingatlarge.com/tag/running/
[232] https://writingatlarge.com/tag/schminke/
[233] https://writingatlarge.com/tag/sea/
[234] https://writingatlarge.com/tag/sketch/
[235] https://writingatlarge.com/tag/sketchbook/
[236] https://writingatlarge.com/tag/sketchbook-design/
[237] https://writingatlarge.com/tag/sketching/
[238] https://writingatlarge.com/tag/staedtler/
[239] https://writingatlarge.com/tag/stillman-and-birn/
[240] https://writingatlarge.com/tag/summer/
[241] https://writingatlarge.com/tag/sunset/
[242] https://writingatlarge.com/tag/teddy-bears/
[243] https://writingatlarge.com/tag/tel-aviv/
[244] https://writingatlarge.com/tag/tips/
[245] https://writingatlarge.com/tag/tomoe-river-paper/
[246] https://writingatlarge.com/tag/tournament-of-books/
[247] https://writingatlarge.com/tag/uni-ball/
[248] https://writingatlarge.com/tag/urban-sketchers/
[249] https://writingatlarge.com/tag/urban-sketching/
[250] https://writingatlarge.com/tag/vintage/
[251] https://writingatlarge.com/tag/watercolor/
[252] https://writingatlarge.com/tag/watercolour/
[253] https://writingatlarge.com/tag/weekly-update/
[254] https://writingatlarge.com/tag/wildlife/
[255] https://writingatlarge.com/tag/winter/
[256] https://writingatlarge.com/tag/writing/
[257] https://writingatlarge.com/category/board-games/
[258] https://writingatlarge.com/category/boardgames/
[259] https://writingatlarge.com/category/book-reviews/
[260] https://writingatlarge.com/category/cancer/
[261] https://writingatlarge.com/category/creating/
[262] https://writingatlarge.com/category/dd/
[263] https://writingatlarge.com/category/daily-doodle/
[264] https://writingatlarge.com/category/daily-sketch/
[265] https://writingatlarge.com/category/drawing/
[266] https://writingatlarge.com/category/ink/
[267] https://writingatlarge.com/category/ink/inkvent/
[268] https://writingatlarge.com/category/journal-comics/
[269] https://writingatlarge.com/category/journal-sketch/
[270] https://writingatlarge.com/category/journaling/
[271] https://writingatlarge.com/category/knitting/
[272] https://writingatlarge.com/category/life/
[273] https://writingatlarge.com/category/mechanical-keyboards/
[274] https://writingatlarge.com/category/notebooks/
[275] https://writingatlarge.com/category/on-cancer/
[276] https://writingatlarge.com/category/pencils/
[277] https://writingatlarge.com/category/pens/
[278] https://writingatlarge.com/category/photography/
[279] https://writingatlarge.com/category/planners/
[280] https://writingatlarge.com/category/productivity/
[281] https://writingatlarge.com/category/random-draw/
[282] https://writingatlarge.com/category/reading/
[283] https://writingatlarge.com/category/recommendations/
[284] https://writingatlarge.com/category/reviews/
[285] https://writingatlarge.com/category/running/
[286] https://writingatlarge.com/category/shopping-from-my-stationery-stash/
[287] https://writingatlarge.com/category/tea/
[288] https://writingatlarge.com/category/technology/
[289] https://writingatlarge.com/category/the-cancer-project/
[290] https://writingatlarge.com/category/reading/tournament-of-books/
[291] https://writingatlarge.com/category/travel/
[292] https://writingatlarge.com/category/uncategorized/
[293] https://writingatlarge.com/category/vintage/
[294] https://writingatlarge.com/category/weekly-update/
[295] https://writingatlarge.com/category/what-im-using/
[296] https://writingatlarge.com/category/writing/
[297] https://wordpress.com/?ref=footer_blog
[298] https://writingatlarge.com/2025/01/03/three-habits-worth-keeping/#comments
[299] https://writingatlarge.com/2025/01/03/three-habits-worth-keeping/
[300] https://writingatlarge.com/2025/01/03/three-habits-worth-keeping/
[301] https://writingatlarge.com/2025/01/03/three-habits-worth-keeping/
[302] https://writingatlarge.com/
[310] https://wordpress.com/log-in?redirect_to=https%3A%2F%2Fr-login.wordpress.com%2Fremote-login.php%3Faction%3Dlink%26back%3Dhttps%253A%252F%252Fwritingatlarge.com%252F2025%252F01%252F03%252Fthree-habits-worth-keeping%252F
[311] https://writingatlarge.com/
[312] https://writingatlarge.com/2025/01/03/three-habits-worth-keeping/
[313] https://writingatlarge.com/2025/01/03/three-habits-worth-keeping/
[314] https://wordpress.com/start/
[315] https://wordpress.com/log-in?redirect_to=https%3A%2F%2Fr-login.wordpress.com%2Fremote-login.php%3Faction%3Dlink%26back%3Dhttps%253A%252F%252Fwritingatlarge.com%252F2025%252F01%252F03%252Fthree-habits-worth-keeping%252F
[316] https://wp.me/p6skqj-2qs
[317] https://wordpress.com/abuse/?report_url=https://writingatlarge.com/2025/01/03/three-habits-worth-keeping/
[318] https://wordpress.com/read/blogs/95409711/posts/9328
[319] https://subscribe.wordpress.com/
[320] https://writingatlarge.com/2025/01/03/three-habits-worth-keeping/

154
static/archive/wwinks-com-bh1ouy.txt Normal file
View File

@@ -0,0 +1,154 @@
[1]Westley Winks
[2]Résumé [3]Peace Corps [4]Posts [5]Bookshelf [6]Weeknotes
Table Of Contents
[8]How I journal
• [9]Five points—Location, win, tension, gratitude, and values
• [10]Why this system works for me
• [11]What it looks like in practice
How I journal
I’ve had a seemingly typical journaling experience over the years: try
journaling because someone smart told me it’s good for me, white-knuckle my way
through how I should be doing it, it doesn’t stick, I don’t journal for a
while, and repeat that endlessly. Last year, I finally landed on a journaling
system that works for me.
I’ve been out of the habit for over a month now^[12]1 so I wanted to write
about my system to get me excited about it again and restart the habit. Here we
go.
Five points—Location, win, tension, gratitude, and values
I’ve tried physical notebooks, morning pages, stream-of-thought writing, bullet
points, and basically everything else recommended by the journaling gurus. What
finally stuck was a framework I learned from Sahil Bloom—[13]the 1-1-1 method.
I’ve adapted it for myself such that I write down five points each night (in a
perfect world).
• Location. The more specific the better. It’s fun to read old entries and
remember exactly what hotel room I was in or whose house I was staying at.
• One win. The highlight of the day. Something that made me smile or feel
proud.
• One point of tension. Something that caused anxiety, stress, or anything
else I struggled with or am dreading.
• One piece of gratitude. We all know by now that writing down things you’re
grateful for is good for the soul.
• One behavior that connects to my values. This is an addition that I made to
ensure that my [14]values and behaviors are aligned. Did I do something
today that I say is important to me?
Each of these is usually just a sentence but the door is open to expand where I
want. If something really great happened that day, I’ll savor it by writing a
paragraph or more. If I was feeling particularly anxious, I’ll explore that
further.
Why this system works for me
The thing that made journaling hard to do consistently—like any habit—was that
there was too much friction. I never really knew what was worth writing and
what wasn’t, what future me was interested in remembering and what he didn’t
care about. Journaling always became more of a chore than anything else,
something I felt like I should be doing but didn’t want to. Like eating
vegetables or going to the gym.
On the days when I can’t be bothered to do anything, I only need to write five
things. Sometimes they aren’t even full sentences—it takes me about 30 seconds
minimum. But this system is also flexible enough to give me space to dig down
when I want to.
Besides being easier to write, it’s also more interesting to read back entries
later on. When I was semi-consistent with just writing down what I did for the
day, reading them back the next month was so dull. I journal partly to document
my life and I don’t really care that I bought bread on May 8th, 2023. This
system does a fantastic job of capturing the meaningful highs and lows of my
life without cluttering my journal with the boring stuff.
What it looks like in practice
I’m on my computer quite a lot and typing has always been easier than
handwriting for me. Not to mention my abysmal handwriting that can be hard to
read sometimes. So, I do all of this in a digital journal.
Herman Martinus [15]wrote about the many benefits that come from plain text
journaling. When my journal is One Big Text File, it is easy to back up, move
around, search, edit, and store. I use [16]jrnl to add some “sugar” on top of
it, though.
jrnl works through the command line and I can just type jrnl to create a new
timestamped entry in my text editor of choice. Again, I really try to reduce
friction when it comes to journaling and this is about as frictionless as it
gets. It also allows templating, searching, tagging, and tools to view specific
entries. My favorite feature is jrnl -today-in-history that returns all of my
previous entries for the given day.
When I’m not at my computer, I usually handwrite my five points in my Moleskine
notebook that I use for tasks and notes. When I’m back to my computer, I
transcribe it into jrnl. In a pinch, I can also write myself a Signal message
to copy and paste later.
With this journaling system, I am recording, analyzing, and remembering the
important bits of my life in a way that is easy and sustainable for me. Now I
just need to go out and get started—yet again.
1. Due to a major life transition. I probably should have been journaling more
but it ended up on the back burner for one reason or another. [17]↩
Created: 2024-12-13
Last modified: 2024-12-13
[18]Written by Human, Not by AI
Like my writing?
Say thanks by [19]buying me a coffee or [20]send me an email with your
thoughts.
[21]Email me [22] Ko-fi donations Buy me a coffee
Keep Reading
[23]How I solved an online treasure hunt
[24] plain-text [25] productivity
Your Most Humble and Obedient Servant
© 2025 Westley Winks. The content of this page is licensed under [26]CC BY 4.0
[27]home | [28]résumé | [29]peace corps | [30]posts | [31]bookshelf | [32]
weeknotes
References:
[1] https://wwinks.com/
[2] https://wwinks.com/cv/
[3] https://wwinks.com/peace-corps/
[4] https://wwinks.com/p/
[5] https://wwinks.com/b/
[6] https://wwinks.com/w/
[8] https://wwinks.com/p/how-i-journal/#top
[9] https://wwinks.com/p/how-i-journal/#five-pointslocation-win-tension-gratitude-and-values
[10] https://wwinks.com/p/how-i-journal/#why-this-system-works-for-me
[11] https://wwinks.com/p/how-i-journal/#what-it-looks-like-in-practice
[12] https://wwinks.com/p/how-i-journal/#fn:1
[13] https://www.sahilbloom.com/newsletter/the-1-1-1-method-forecasts-for-the-future-more
[14] https://every.to/no-small-plans/how-to-identify-and-live-your-life-by-your-values
[15] https://herman.bearblog.dev/plain-text-journaling/
[16] https://jrnl.sh/
[17] https://wwinks.com/p/how-i-journal/#fnref:1
[18] https://notbyai.fyi/
[19] https://ko-fi.com/wwinks
[20] mailto:westley.stood549@passmail.net?subject=How%20I%20journal
[21] mailto:westley.stood549@passmail.net?subject=How%20I%20journal
[22] https://ko-fi.com/wwinks
[23] https://wwinks.com/p/suntup-treasure-hunt/
[24] https://wwinks.com/t/plain-text
[25] https://wwinks.com/t/productivity
[26] https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/?ref=chooser-v1
[27] https://wwinks.com/
[28] https://wwinks.com/cv/
[29] https://wwinks.com/peace-corps/
[30] https://wwinks.com/p/
[31] https://wwinks.com/b/
[32] https://wwinks.com/w/

316
static/archive/www-coffeeandcomplexity-com-3o83vx.txt Normal file
View File

@@ -0,0 +1,316 @@
[1] Coffee & Complexity
• [4]About
• [5]One Man & His Blog
[7]Sign in [8]Subscribe
[9]Politics
Cancellation: a complex mix of accountability, power, justice, anger and
societal change
Driving out people can be emotionally satisfying and create a sense of justice.
But is it actually making the world better?
[10] Adam Tinworth
[11]Adam Tinworth
24 Jan 2025 — 8 min read
Cancellation: a complex mix of accountability, power, justice, anger and
societal change
What’s the point of “cancellation”? I don't mean that in the “it's pointless”
sense, but in the “what are you trying to achieve by it” sense. Is it about
justice, or accountability, or community protection, or making the world
better? Or is it about the thrill of the mob? Motivations matter.
If you ask people what the point of cancelling people is, they might deny it
happens. [12]But it clearly does, and sometimes quite justifiably. And then
they might say “accountability” and that seems like a good answer — until you
think about it. Because accountability implies power. And as soon as you
express that you are holding somebody accountable, you are saying that you want
to have, or feel you do have, power over them.
There’s a reason that civilised countries punish through systems and courts,
not through mobs. The rule of law exists to prevent the rule of the mob. And
that’s because the rule of the mob is inherently divisive: it splits groups
into us and them. And sadly, we can see the degree to which the rise of social
media, and its facilitation of accountability through mob, has damaged our
societies, through greater polarisation and the splitting of people into
in-groups and out-groups. That’s worth examining.
Now, I’ve come a long way on this. Long, long ago, I wrote positively about the
power of collective action to [13]bring down a gagging order. And many of us
watched the [14]Arab Spring with awe and delight. Collective action in the face
of unjust laws, structures, systems, and processes can be an incredible thing.
Accountability or power?
But when that power is turned on an individual? That’s a very different thing.
I know, from my own past, that being an individual on the receiving end of
group disapproval for being different is horrible, and psychologically
damaging. We’ve only recently started taking bullying as seriously as we
should. And I still carry the psychological scars of the intense physical,
mental and emotional bullying I endured as a school child in the 1980s.
When that mob justice spreads to societal groups picking on individuals, it can
become very difficult. There’s a reason that we use “witch hunt” and “lynch
mob” as negative terms. They are not societally healthy ways of expressing the
boundaries of acceptable behaviour. When a mob gets going, it too often loses
sight of little things like “evidence” and “compassion”. Mobs tend to be
dehumanising both to their members, as well as to their victims.
So, when you start a targeted move against an individual, when you stoke up
social media outrage against them, questions need to be asked not just about
your target, but about your own motivations. Accountability, in a community,
counts both ways. And the biggest question is: is you wielding that power
actually helping the people you claim to be helping? Because if it’s not, then
you’re just wielding power for your own pleasure.
You’re a bully.
And that’s a problem — and possibly even a counterproductive one. Because the
experience of my life is that you create lasting change by persuading people,
not by wielding power over them. You can’t force me to believe anything. But
you can persuade me that I need to alter my beliefs. And that, person by
person, can create change at a societal scale. When you have enough support at
a societal level, you can affect community (and legislative) change in a way
that lasts.
Changing society by changing people
I came of age during the height of the movement for gay rights. That movement
largely won in the UK by persuading people that being gay wasn’t being “other”,
but something normal. I grew up with literally nobody who was both gay and out
around me. Being gay was very much “other” to me. It’s easy to see why people
stayed firmly in the closet. Anyone who came out in the 1980s in a Scottish
school would have supplanted me as the best person to bully pretty damn
quickly.
But, within a year of coming to London for university, that changed. Friends
came out to me, and I made friends with people who were out before I knew them.
My emotional reaction to gay people quickly aligned with my pre-existing
intellectual response, of wondering what the hell was the point of forcing
people to pretend to be something they aren’t, and deny their selves? But I was
an easy convert. I was already inclined towards that belief.
My parents’ generation? Much harder. Nevertheless, I saw my parents change
their views. They were what I would describe as culturally homophobic because
the culture at the time was homophobic. And then they met my gay friends, and
the “otherness” disappeared. By the time they retired and moved south, they
were friends with the gay couple who lived in the folly behind their house.
Indeed, one of that couple would go on to be the organist that played in the
church for both of my parents' funerals. They would have been touched by that.
Both of them expressed bafflement that the church was having such an issue with
gay people at the time. Change.
And this was just part of a much wider move in society through the 90s and the
2000s. It says something of the success of the gay rights movement in the UK
that it was our [15]mainstream right-wing party that granted marriage equality.
If I’d cancelled my parents over that earlier views, would they have been as
much a part of that shift as they were?
Normalisation is a powerful tool of change
The more we cancel people, the more we hinder the process of normalisation. And
that process I see profoundly changing the world around me. My daughters have
grown up with a gay couple living a few doors down; they studied in a school
where one of their fellow pupils has two dads. They attend a church where they
regularly chat with an elderly lesbian couple and their delightful dog, and
where they’re welcomed by a trans woman. One of the eldest’s school friends has
a trans woman parent. The reality of the world around them makes many
homophobic and transphobic views look utterly ridiculous to them.
Now, how does that function online?
There’s a very specific community I’m alluding to here because a member of that
community is currently under attack. Why? A combination of things. He’s shown
enthusiasm for a certain individual’s automative and astronautics endeavours
which others feel are too tainted by his politics, and also for some statements
that, I think, were certainly ill-judged, and could easily be viewed as
discriminatory. I’m certainly not comfortable with them, and would be
re-evaluating my position if they recur.
However, that community which he has been part of building is, in my
perception, largely LGBTQIA+ friendly. Many of the people I follow and interact
with fit into that spectrum. It’s… normal there. This is a community where
LGBTQIA+ acceptance is normal, and the statements he made are considered
abnormal. That’s healthy. Now, the question is: should he be driven from that
community?
Accountability in action
We can’t escape the fact that he has said things that make some of those people
uncomfortable. Nor should we. That’s clearly an issue. And somebody external to
that community is demanding that he be held accountable, that the community
owner makes very specific statements, and that the individual is removed from
paid employment in the community and, by extension, the community itself.
This is, in my mind, very much about power, even if expressed through the
language of accountability and allyship. Some of the phraseology the individual
uses makes that apparent. Here’s just one example:
I get that you might not experience bigotry the same way that others do,
and maybe this affects your ability to recognize when harm has been done.
That’s for you to work on.
That would have been a more useful statement without that last sentence. It’s
very hard not to read that one in a way that’s both patronising and superior.
He’s literally telling somebody else what they’re experiencing and what they
should do. There’s a tone of moral authority to it that lacks humility. And
he’s also, in other postings, demanding very specific things from the community
owner — statements, answers to questions, removal of a staff member — and will
continue to trash his business online if he doesn’t get it. And all of that
from a competitor.
It’s difficult to see a clear moral high ground here.
Let’s, as a thought experiment, think about what that means if it comes to
pass.
The impact of exclusion
First of all, that individual is removed from a community where certain ideas
that maybe he’s uncomfortable with are normalised. It’s likely that the places
he’ll find welcoming are going to share much more extreme versions of those
views. How does it help the LGBTQIA+ community to drive people away into the
arms of those people? It just takes someone and forges them into an enemy. My
God, now of all times, the LGBTQIA+ community do NOT need more enemies.
But if we allow the normal social process of “mate, that’s out of order.
Apologise, and let’s move on” happen, the process of normalisation can
continue, as it did for my parents years ago. They can see that these people
and their allies aren’t the enemy, but just people with different ways of
being, desires and life choices. They’re not a threat. Fundamentally, they’re
just people who happen to be LGBTQIA+.
🙏
One of the things I like about the Christian idea of forgiveness, once I
engaged with it seriously, is that it’s not about the person being forgiven;
it’s about the person doing the forgiving. It’s about the damage one does to
oneself by carrying hatred and anger in your heart.
Now, I’m not denying that there are people whose views are so abhorrent and who
are so unrepentant that yes, community exclusion is the only path for the good
of the community. Any community is defined by its rules and its norms, but
those are only real if enforced. Community management is a skill, and a vital
one. And that means knowing when exclusion is for the good of the community.
But when people try to force out people who have yet to prove that they can’t
clear that bar, it looks more like an exercise of power. Currently, my position
is that, if the individual proves unrepentant and continues down this path,
then yes, community exclusion would be the best outcome. But I don’t, yet, see
that signs that it is necessary.
🇺🇸
It’s also worth noting that, as so often happens online, all this is being
filtered through the lens of US politics. The individual in question does not
live in the US; he lives in Eastern Europe. Different country, different
culture, different social norms. Not an excuse — but relevant context.
The acquisition of power
And that brings me to the second consequence of my thought experiment: if it
all happens as the external person wishes, they are now effectively in charge
of the community. They police what is and isn’t acceptable within the
community, not the owner, and not the members. That’s not about allyship, or
accountability. That’s about power, pure and simple. And when that person owns
a direct competitor, well, there are some questions to be asked about
motivation.
That would, for me, be the end of that community. Because this particular space
is both a business and a community, and this is where community management
comes into play. The business owner can do whatever he likes, but the space and
the community are not the same thing: one hosts the other. And that community
will, and should, make its own decision about the situation.
I’m always open to persuasion, but I’m never happy to be told what I should
think. As a member of the community, I’m happy to have potential problems
pointed out, and will evaluate the evidence and the behaviour of the person in
question, exactly as I do and have in the physical, proximate communities I’m
part of. But, collectively, we as community members make the decision — or
judge the community host on how he handles it.
Justice is slow and deliberate. And that’s a lesson from history.
What I will not put up with is a style of political witch-hunting and language
emerging in a community that I joined specifically to avoid that. Enough of my
life has been tainted by bullies. I won’t grant them my attention, and that
includes well-meaning bullies, who think they are on the side of the angels.
There is a tension between real-world processes of justice, which grind slowly
and with deliberation for good reasons, and the adrenaline and anger fuelled
quest for justice in social media. I know which I prefer.
We need to bring the lessons of history into our new social spaces. And we need
to do more work to untangle the complicated threads of accountability, power,
activism and societal change that underlie that loaded word “cancellation”.
Read more
[16] Dr Payal Arora talking at NEXT24 in Hamburg.
Walking the narrow path between tech utopianism and digital cynicism
We’ve been burnt by the tech companies, and we’re rightfully wary. But slipping
into digital doomerism won’t help us solve today’s problems.
07 Jan 2025
[17] Person in dark coat and pink hat walking on a pebble beach as waves crash,
with offshore wind turbines on the horizon.
Beach walk and transitory art
Escaping the first day of work and school with a walk and some natural crafting
on the Sussex shore.
06 Jan 2025
[18] Wooden boardwalk curving around a moss-covered tree in wetlands,
surrounded by tangled branches and dense undergrowth.
Walking at WWT Arundel
A pre-Christmas few hours of escape at the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust in
Arundel.
26 Dec 2024
[19] Random slices of other people's lives
Random slices of other people's lives
A simple way of finding virtually unmatched videos on YouTube — and glimpses
into other lives.
22 Nov 2024
Coffee & Complexity
Powered by [20]Ghost
Coffee & Complexity
A blog and a newsletter about embracing complexity, not hiding from it. By Adam
Tinworth.
[21][ ] Subscribe
References:
[1] https://www.coffeeandcomplexity.com/
[4] https://www.coffeeandcomplexity.com/about/
[5] http://www.onemanandhisblog.com/
[7] https://www.coffeeandcomplexity.com/cancellation-a-complex-mix-of-accountability-power-justice-anger-and-societal-change/#/portal/signin
[8] https://www.coffeeandcomplexity.com/cancellation-a-complex-mix-of-accountability-power-justice-anger-and-societal-change/#/portal/signup
[9] https://www.coffeeandcomplexity.com/tag/politics/
[10] https://www.coffeeandcomplexity.com/author/adders/
[11] https://www.coffeeandcomplexity.com/author/adders/
[12] https://www.walesonline.co.uk/lifestyle/tv/john-barrowman-says-only-holly-30821456?ref=coffeeandcomplexity.com
[13] https://onemanandhisblog.com/2009/10/the_day_twitter_destroyed_a_gagging_orde/?ref=coffeeandcomplexity.com
[14] https://www.theguardian.com/world/ng-interactive/2021/jan/25/how-the-arab-spring-unfolded-a-visualisation?ref=coffeeandcomplexity.com
[15] https://www.gov.uk/government/news/david-cameron-on-the-first-uk-same-sex-marriages?ref=coffeeandcomplexity.com
[16] https://www.coffeeandcomplexity.com/walking-the-narrow-path-between-tech-utopianism-and-digital-cynicism/
[17] https://www.coffeeandcomplexity.com/beach-walk-and-transitory-art/
[18] https://www.coffeeandcomplexity.com/walking-at-wwt-arundel/
[19] https://www.coffeeandcomplexity.com/random-slices-of-other-peoples-lives/
[20] https://ghost.org/

476
static/archive/www-theguardian-com-b9haub.txt Normal file
View File

@@ -0,0 +1,476 @@
[p] [1]Skip to main content[2]Skip to navigation
Close dialogue1/1Next imagePrevious imageToggle caption
[7]Skip to navigation
[8]Print subscriptions
[9]Newsletters
[10] Sign in
US[11][ ]
• [12]US edition
• [13]UK edition
• [14]Australia edition
• [15]Europe edition
• [16]International edition
[17]The Guardian - Back to homeThe Guardian
[18][ ]
• [19]News
• [20]Opinion
• [21]Sport
• [22]Culture
• [23]Lifestyle
Show moreHide expanded menu
• [24][ ]News
□ [25]View all News
□ [26]US news
□ [27]US politics
□ [28]World news
□ [29]Climate crisis
□ [30]Middle East
□ [31]Ukraine
□ [32]Soccer
□ [33]Business
□ [34]Environment
□ [35]Tech
□ [36]Science
□ [37]Newsletters
□ [38]Wellness
• [39][ ]Opinion
□ [40]View all Opinion
□ [41]The Guardian view
□ [42]Columnists
□ [43]Letters
□ [44]Opinion videos
□ [45]Cartoons
• [46][ ]Sport
□ [47]View all Sport
□ [48]Soccer
□ [49]NFL
□ [50]Tennis
□ [51]MLB
□ [52]MLS
□ [53]NBA
□ [54]WNBA
□ [55]NHL
□ [56]F1
□ [57]Golf
• [58][ ]Culture
□ [59]View all Culture
□ [60]Film
□ [61]Books
□ [62]Music
□ [63]Art & design
□ [64]TV & radio
□ [65]Stage
□ [66]Classical
□ [67]Games
• [68][ ]Lifestyle
□ [69]View all Lifestyle
□ [70]Wellness
□ [71]Fashion
□ [72]Food
□ [73]Recipes
□ [74]Love & sex
□ [75]Home & garden
□ [76]Health & fitness
□ [77]Family
□ [78]Travel
□ [79]Money
• Search input
[80][ ]
google-search
Search
□ [83]Support us
□ [84]Print subscriptions
□ [85]Newsletters
□ [86]Download the app
•
□ [87]Search jobs
□ [88]Digital Archive
□ [89]Guardian Licensing
□ [90]About Us
□ [91]The Guardian app
□ [92]Video
□ [93]Podcasts
□ [94]Pictures
□ [95]Inside the Guardian
□ [96]Guardian Weekly
□ [97]Crosswords
□ [98]Wordiply
□ [99]Corrections
• Search input
[100][ ]
google-search
Search
□ [103]Search jobs
□ [104]Digital Archive
□ [105]Guardian Licensing
□ [106]About Us
• [107]The Guardian view
• [108]Columnists
• [109]Letters
• [110]Opinion videos
• [111]Cartoons
Mark Zuckerberg in heavy-framed augmented reality glasses
[112][ ]
‘Mark Zuckerberg is a different kind of cringe – but cringe all the same. His
cringe moments drip through more sparingly but, when they do, my body tries to
turn inside out at my bellybutton,’ Rebecca Shaw writes. Photograph: Bloomberg/
Getty Images
[113]View image in fullscreen
‘Mark Zuckerberg is a different kind of cringe – but cringe all the same. His
cringe moments drip through more sparingly but, when they do, my body tries to
turn inside out at my bellybutton,’ Rebecca Shaw writes. Photograph: Bloomberg/
Getty Images
[115]Opinion[116]Technology
I knew one day I’d have to watch powerful men burn the world down – I just
didn’t expect them to be such losers
[117]Rebecca Shaw
Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg’s desperation to be cool as they suck up to
Donald Trump is so cringe it makes my skin crawl
Thu 16 Jan 2025 09.00 ESTLast modified on Thu 16 Jan 2025 09.03 EST
[118]Share
I don’t know if anyone else has noticed this but everything seems to be going
down the tubes quite fast. And not fun tubes, like at a waterpark. The “ending
in shit” kind. The issues are complicated, the reasons diverse, but there are a
few culprits who have been making themselves extremely visible.
Alongside those holding political office, tech gragillionnaires (I had to
invent a new number) like Elon Musk and [119]Mark Zuckerberg obviously wield
huge global influence with their computers and numbers and whatnot. There has
been a lot written about them and there will be more, as they continue to shape
the world and win favour with Donald Trump. Big, scary, probably ruinous things
lie ahead. But I’m here to discuss the smaller part. The insult to injury, the
sprinkling of salt in the wound.
Whether I am engaging with the news, or with Musk tweeting constantly like a
man with no job or friends, or with Zuckerberg sending out weird videos and
appearing on Rogan, I am in pain. Not just because I don’t like what they are
doing but because they are so incredibly, painfully cringe.
[120]
Move fast, break things – sprint to kiss Trump’s ring. It’s the tech bros
inauguration derby | Marina Hyde
Read more
I knew that one day we might have to watch as capitalism and greed and bigotry
led to a world where powerful men, deserving or not, would burn it all down.
What I didn’t expect, and don’t think I could have foreseen, is how incredibly
cringe it would all be. I have been prepared for evil, for greed, for cruelty,
for injustice – but I did not anticipate that the people in power would also be
such huge losers.
I’ve always been someone who cannot tolerate embarrassment. I hate being
embarrassed more than just about any other emotion and I’ve always skipped
content based on cringe humour like Meet the Parents, Borat or Nathan for You.
It makes my skin crawl and it makes the contents of my stomach try to crawl out
of my mouth. But I cannot skip world events.
Nor can I skip Musk’s clear desperation, even as he holds this much wealth and
power in his hands, to be thought of as cool. There are [121]endless examples
of him embarrassing himself while attempting to be funny or to gain respect.
Unfortunately, while you may be able to buy power, it’s impossible to buy a
good personality. Watching his Nigel-no-friends attempts to be popular, his
endless pathetic tweets that read as though they come from the brain of an
11-year-old poser, has made me start to believe we should bring back bullying.
If yet another humiliating report in the last couple of days is to be believed,
he appears even to have lost the respect of some of his gamer audience, [122]
who the report claims suspect that he may have been lying about his
achievements in hardcore gaming (cursed sentence).
Zuckerberg is a different kind of cringe – but cringe all the same. His cringe
moments drip through more sparingly but, when they do, my body tries to turn
inside out at my bellybutton. His physical makeover for Maga reasons, [123]
performing music because no one will stop him, trying to [124]look cool on a
surfboard – all these are extremely difficult to watch. He has been trying to
suck up to Trump, [125]going on Joe Rogan’s show to say society has been
“neutered” and companies need “more masculine energy”.
Putting on what is clearly a bro disguise to join the boys’ club and sit at the
big boy table – it should feel humiliating. This came as Zuckerberg [126]rolled
back hate speech and factchecking rules at Meta, in a clear swerve to the right
before Trump’s inauguration. What could be more masculine and cool than selling
out vulnerable communities and women to impress the alpha male?
Climate crises keep coming, genocides continue, women keep getting murdered,
art is being strangled to death by AI, bigotry is on the rise, social progress
is being rolled back … AND these men insist on being cringe? It’s a rotten
cherry on top. This combination of evil and embarrassment is a unique horror,
one that science fiction has failed to prepare us for. The second-hand
embarrassment we have to endure gets even more potent when combined with other
modern influences on young men, like [127]Jordan Peterson and Andrew Tate.
[128]
Is Andrew Tate going to reinvent himself as a politician and ‘save Britan [sic]
’? | Arwa Mahdawi
Read more
Peterson is a big voice in men’s rights – well, a small Kermit’s voice in men’s
rights – and he’s also an embarrassment. So much so that he has his own [129]
Know Your Meme page, which covers that time [130]he[131] [132]reportedly
retweeted an image from a fetish film, apparently believing it was a Chinese
communist “sperm extraction” facility. He deleted it shortly afterwards.
Tate is facing human trafficking charges but rose to fame as a voice for young
men, a misogynist in bad outfits who does really cool things like smoking
cigars, wearing sunnies inside and trying to drag human rights back 100 years.
Living your life to impress other men by hating women is one of the most
embarrassing things I can imagine. Looking up to any of these men for how to
live your life is even sadder.
I’ve worked hard to keep these kinds of men out of my personal life, to keep
them away from me, out of my goddamn sight. Now they are in my face daily, not
only influencing the world for the worse but making me nauseous at how uncool
and pathetic they are, on top of their other sins. It’s too much, I can’t take
it, there needs to be a change.
It’s time for us to start getting revenge on the nerds.
• Rebecca Shaw is a writer based in Sydney
Explore more on these topics
• [133]Technology
• [134]Opinion
• [135]Elon Musk
• [136]Mark Zuckerberg
• [137]Donald Trump
• [138]Jordan Peterson
• [139]Andrew Tate
• [140]Men
• [141]comment
[142]Share
[143]Reuse this content
Most viewed
Most viewed
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
• [144]The Guardian view
• [145]Columnists
• [146]Letters
• [147]Opinion videos
• [148]Cartoons
• [149]News
• [150]Opinion
• [151]Sport
• [152]Culture
• [153]Lifestyle
Original reporting and incisive analysis, direct from the Guardian every
morning
[154]Sign up for our email
• [155]About us
• [156]Help
• [157]Complaints & corrections
• [158]SecureDrop
• [159]Work for us
•  
• [160]Privacy policy
• [161]Cookie policy
• [162]Terms & conditions
• [163]Contact us
• [164]All topics
• [165]All writers
• [166]Digital newspaper archive
• [167]Tax strategy
• [168]Facebook
• [169]YouTube
• [170]Instagram
• [171]LinkedIn
• [172]Newsletters
• [173]Advertise with us
• [174]Guardian Labs
• [175]Search jobs
[176]Back to top
© 2025 Guardian News & Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights
reserved. (dcr)
References:
[1] https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/jan/16/i-knew-one-day-id-have-to-watch-powerful-men-burn-the-world-down-i-just-didnt-expect-them-to-be-such-losers#maincontent
[2] https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/jan/16/i-knew-one-day-id-have-to-watch-powerful-men-burn-the-world-down-i-just-didnt-expect-them-to-be-such-losers#navigation
[7] https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/jan/16/i-knew-one-day-id-have-to-watch-powerful-men-burn-the-world-down-i-just-didnt-expect-them-to-be-such-losers#navigation
[8] https://support.theguardian.com/subscribe/weekly?REFPVID=undefined&INTCMP=undefined&acquisitionData=%7B%22source%22%3A%22GUARDIAN_WEB%22%2C%22componentId%22%3A%22PrintSubscriptionsHeaderLink%22%2C%22componentType%22%3A%22ACQUISITIONS_HEADER%22%2C%22referrerUrl%22%3A%22%22%7D
[9] https://www.theguardian.com/email-newsletters
[10] https://profile.theguardian.com/signin?INTCMP=DOTCOM_NEWHEADER_SIGNIN&ABCMP=ab-sign-in&componentEventParams=componentType%3Didentityauthentication%26componentId%3Dguardian_signin_header
[12] https://www.theguardian.com/preference/edition/us
[13] https://www.theguardian.com/preference/edition/uk
[14] https://www.theguardian.com/preference/edition/au
[15] https://www.theguardian.com/preference/edition/eur
[16] https://www.theguardian.com/preference/edition/int
[17] https://www.theguardian.com/
[19] https://www.theguardian.com/
[20] https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree
[21] https://www.theguardian.com/sport
[22] https://www.theguardian.com/culture
[23] https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle
[25] https://www.theguardian.com/
[26] https://www.theguardian.com/us-news
[27] https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/us-politics
[28] https://www.theguardian.com/world
[29] https://www.theguardian.com/environment/climate-crisis
[30] https://www.theguardian.com/world/middleeast
[31] https://www.theguardian.com/world/ukraine
[32] https://www.theguardian.com/us/soccer
[33] https://www.theguardian.com/us/business
[34] https://www.theguardian.com/us/environment
[35] https://www.theguardian.com/us/technology
[36] https://www.theguardian.com/science
[37] https://www.theguardian.com/email-newsletters
[38] https://www.theguardian.com/us/wellness
[40] https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree
[41] https://www.theguardian.com/profile/editorial
[42] https://www.theguardian.com/index/contributors
[43] https://www.theguardian.com/tone/letters
[44] https://www.theguardian.com/type/video+tone/comment
[45] https://www.theguardian.com/tone/cartoons
[47] https://www.theguardian.com/sport
[48] https://www.theguardian.com/us/soccer
[49] https://www.theguardian.com/sport/nfl
[50] https://www.theguardian.com/sport/tennis
[51] https://www.theguardian.com/sport/mlb
[52] https://www.theguardian.com/football/mls
[53] https://www.theguardian.com/sport/nba
[54] https://www.theguardian.com/sport/wnba
[55] https://www.theguardian.com/sport/nhl
[56] https://www.theguardian.com/sport/formulaone
[57] https://www.theguardian.com/sport/golf
[59] https://www.theguardian.com/culture
[60] https://www.theguardian.com/film
[61] https://www.theguardian.com/books
[62] https://www.theguardian.com/music
[63] https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign
[64] https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio
[65] https://www.theguardian.com/stage
[66] https://www.theguardian.com/music/classicalmusicandopera
[67] https://www.theguardian.com/games
[69] https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle
[70] https://www.theguardian.com/us/wellness
[71] https://www.theguardian.com/fashion
[72] https://www.theguardian.com/food
[73] https://www.theguardian.com/tone/recipes
[74] https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/love-and-sex
[75] https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/home-and-garden
[76] https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/health-and-wellbeing
[77] https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/family
[78] https://www.theguardian.com/travel
[79] https://www.theguardian.com/money
[83] https://support.theguardian.com/?INTCMP=side_menu_support&acquisitionData=%7B%22source%22:%22GUARDIAN_WEB%22,%22componentType%22:%22ACQUISITIONS_HEADER%22,%22componentId%22:%22side_menu_support%22%7D
[84] https://support.theguardian.com/subscribe/weekly?REFPVID=undefined&INTCMP=undefined&acquisitionData=%7B%22source%22%3A%22GUARDIAN_WEB%22%2C%22componentId%22%3A%22PrintSubscriptionsHeaderLink%22%2C%22componentType%22%3A%22ACQUISITIONS_HEADER%22%2C%22referrerUrl%22%3A%22%22%7D
[85] https://www.theguardian.com/email-newsletters
[86] https://app.adjust.com/1hskf6nd?adgroup=USHeader
[87] https://jobs.theguardian.com/
[88] https://theguardian.newspapers.com/
[89] https://licensing.theguardian.com/
[90] https://www.theguardian.com/about
[91] https://app.adjust.com/16xt6hai
[92] https://www.theguardian.com/video
[93] https://www.theguardian.com/podcasts
[94] https://www.theguardian.com/inpictures
[95] https://www.theguardian.com/insidetheguardian
[96] https://www.theguardian.com/weekly?INTCMP=gdnwb_mawns_editorial_gweekly_GW_TopNav_US
[97] https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords
[98] https://www.wordiply.com/
[99] https://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/series/corrections-and-clarifications
[103] https://jobs.theguardian.com/
[104] https://theguardian.newspapers.com/
[105] https://licensing.theguardian.com/
[106] https://www.theguardian.com/about
[107] https://www.theguardian.com/profile/editorial
[108] https://www.theguardian.com/index/contributors
[109] https://www.theguardian.com/tone/letters
[110] https://www.theguardian.com/type/video+tone/comment
[111] https://www.theguardian.com/tone/cartoons
[113] https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/jan/16/i-knew-one-day-id-have-to-watch-powerful-men-burn-the-world-down-i-just-didnt-expect-them-to-be-such-losers#img-1
[115] https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/commentisfree
[116] https://www.theguardian.com/technology/technology
[117] https://www.theguardian.com/profile/rebecca-shaw
[118] mailto:?subject=I%20knew%20one%20day%20I%E2%80%99d%20have%20to%20watch%20powerful%20men%20burn%20the%20world%20down%20%E2%80%93%20I%20just%20didn%E2%80%99t%20expect%20them%20to%20be%20such%20losers%20|%20Rebecca%20Shaw&body=https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/jan/16/i-knew-one-day-id-have-to-watch-powerful-men-burn-the-world-down-i-just-didnt-expect-them-to-be-such-losers?CMP=share_btn_url
[119] https://www.theguardian.com/technology/mark-zuckerberg
[120] https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/jan/14/zuckerberg-musk-bezos-trump-inauguration
[121] https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/elon-musk-jumping-on-stage-memes-trump-rally-video-b2624841.html
[122] https://www.forbes.com/sites/danidiplacido/2025/01/14/elon-musks-fake-gamer-controversy-explained/
[123] https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2024/nov/14/mark-zuckerberg-get-low-t-pain-tribute-wife-priscilla-chan#:~:text=Facebook%20and%20Meta%20founder%20Mark,of%20their%20%E2%80%9Cdating%20anniversary%E2%80%9D.
[124] https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/zuck-mark-zuckerberg-goes-full-015408205.html
[125] https://www.them.us/story/mark-zuckerberg-meta-joe-rogan-society-neutered-emasculated
[126] https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2025/jan/08/australia-meta-ending-factchecking-facebook-misinformation-sarah-hanson-young
[127] https://www.theguardian.com/books/jordan-peterson
[128] https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/jan/14/is-andrew-tate-going-to-reinvent-himself-as-a-politician-and-save-britan-sic
[129] https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/people/jordan-peterson
[130] https://www.vice.com/en/article/jordan-peterson-chinese-dick-sucking-factory/
[131] https://www.vice.com/en/article/jordan-peterson-chinese-dick-sucking-factory/
[132] https://www.vice.com/en/article/jordan-peterson-chinese-dick-sucking-factory/
[133] https://www.theguardian.com/technology/technology
[134] https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/commentisfree
[135] https://www.theguardian.com/technology/elon-musk
[136] https://www.theguardian.com/technology/mark-zuckerberg
[137] https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/donaldtrump
[138] https://www.theguardian.com/books/jordan-peterson
[139] https://www.theguardian.com/news/andrew-tate
[140] https://www.theguardian.com/society/men
[141] https://www.theguardian.com/tone/comment
[142] mailto:?subject=I%20knew%20one%20day%20I%E2%80%99d%20have%20to%20watch%20powerful%20men%20burn%20the%20world%20down%20%E2%80%93%20I%20just%20didn%E2%80%99t%20expect%20them%20to%20be%20such%20losers%20|%20Rebecca%20Shaw&body=https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/jan/16/i-knew-one-day-id-have-to-watch-powerful-men-burn-the-world-down-i-just-didnt-expect-them-to-be-such-losers?CMP=share_btn_url
[143] https://syndication.theguardian.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fcommentisfree%2F2025%2Fjan%2F16%2Fi-knew-one-day-id-have-to-watch-powerful-men-burn-the-world-down-i-just-didnt-expect-them-to-be-such-losers&type=article&internalpagecode=commentisfree/2025/jan/16/i-knew-one-day-id-have-to-watch-powerful-men-burn-the-world-down-i-just-didnt-expect-them-to-be-such-losers
[144] https://www.theguardian.com/profile/editorial
[145] https://www.theguardian.com/index/contributors
[146] https://www.theguardian.com/tone/letters
[147] https://www.theguardian.com/type/video+tone/comment
[148] https://www.theguardian.com/tone/cartoons
[149] https://www.theguardian.com/
[150] https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree
[151] https://www.theguardian.com/sport
[152] https://www.theguardian.com/culture
[153] https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle
[154] https://www.theguardian.com/info/2018/sep/17/guardian-us-morning-briefing-sign-up-to-stay-informed
[155] https://www.theguardian.com/info/about-guardian-us
[156] https://manage.theguardian.com/help-centre
[157] https://www.theguardian.com/info/complaints-and-corrections
[158] https://www.theguardian.com/securedrop
[159] https://workforus.theguardian.com/
[160] https://www.theguardian.com/info/privacy
[161] https://www.theguardian.com/info/cookies
[162] https://www.theguardian.com/help/terms-of-service
[163] https://www.theguardian.com/info/about-guardian-us/contact
[164] https://www.theguardian.com/index/subjects/a
[165] https://www.theguardian.com/index/contributors
[166] https://theguardian.newspapers.com/
[167] https://uploads.guim.co.uk/2024/08/27/TAX_STRATEGY_FOR_THE_YEAR_ENDED_31_MARCH_2025.pdf
[168] https://www.facebook.com/theguardian
[169] https://www.youtube.com/user/TheGuardian
[170] https://www.instagram.com/guardian
[171] https://www.linkedin.com/company/theguardian
[172] https://www.theguardian.com/email-newsletters?INTCMP=DOTCOM_FOOTER_NEWSLETTER_US
[173] https://usadvertising.theguardian.com/
[174] https://www.theguardian.com/guardian-labs-us
[175] https://jobs.theguardian.com/
[176] https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/jan/16/i-knew-one-day-id-have-to-watch-powerful-men-burn-the-world-down-i-just-didnt-expect-them-to-be-such-losers#top

418
static/archive/www-wrecka-ge-rdi1xr.txt Normal file
View File

@@ -0,0 +1,418 @@
[1]wreckage/salvage
[2][ ]
• [3]about
• [4]posts
• [5]sign up (free or paid)
• [6]sign in
• Search
Bad shape
21 days ago by [7]Erin Kissane — 11 min read
Bad shape
The idea I keep coming back to is that the big platforms, like Dickens' Marley,
were dead to begin with, and are now something particularly bad, which is dead
on their feet.
In the game of Go, bad shape is the term for configurations of stones on the
game board that are inefficient in achieving their offensive goal (territory
capture) and unlikely to achieve their defensive goal (the state of "[8]life").
You can extend a bad shape in a fruitless attempt to make it better, but you'll
generally be wasting your time.
The idea I keep coming back to is that the big platforms, [9]like Marley, were
dead to begin with, and are now something particularly bad, which is dead on
their feet. Not because they’re been abandoned by users (yet) but because
they’re structurally incapable of governing the systems they made, and most of
the things they try to do about it introduce more and weirder problems.
While they were still gobbling hundreds of millions of new users each year—and
while the old political machines were still catching up—platforms could outrun
the problem. Now, though, the number of remaining uncaptured humans dwindles,
the politicians and propagandists have adapted to exploit the mass-scale
machinery the platforms provide, and the positions platform companies have
contorted themselves into trying to shoehorn governance into ungovernable
structures are increasingly hard to maintain.
Facebook especially is likely to zombie-shamble along for some time, held
upright by its deep weave into the coordination of offline life and by [10]the
communities for whom it serves as a sole accessible connection to the internet,
but the whole apparatus looks increasingly precarious.
(These are very simple points, but it remains a wince-inducing faux pas to say
them in a lot of tech-thinking spaces, so I will keep pushing on the obvious.)
The evidence of the past decade and a half argues strongly that platform
corporations are structurally incapable of good governance, primarily because
most of their central aims (continuous growth, market dominance, profit via
extraction) conflict with many basic human and societal needs.
As entities, large social platforms continuously undergo rapid mutations in
service of their need to maximize profit and expansion while minimizing the
kinds of societal and individual harm that can plausibly cause them regulatory
trouble or user disengagement. (The set of things that can cause trouble is
also always shifting, as political and cultural spheres influence and are
influenced by the platforms.) But platform mutations emerge only within a
narrow range of possibilities delineated by the set of decisions considered
valid in, roughly speaking, [11]Milton Friedman's model of corporate purpose.
Within this circumscribed mutation zone, certain goals are able to be named and
earnestly pursued ("stop spam" or "eliminate the distribution of CSAM"), even
if they're never achieved. Other goals (anything to do with hate speech,
incitement to violence, or misinformation, for example) can be named and
pursued, but only in ways that don't hinder the workings of the
profit-extraction machinery—which mostly means that they come in on the margins
and after the fact, as in "[12]after the fact of a genocide that Facebook had
years of explicit advance warnings about." Working on the margins and after the
fact still matters—less damage is better than more damage—but it means "trust
and safety" is kept well clear of the core.
Again, this is all simple and obvious. A tractor structurally can't spare a
thought for the lives of the fieldmice; shouting at the tractor when it
destroys their nests is a category error. Business does business. The
production line doesn't stop just because a few people lose fingers or lives.
And what is a modern corporation but a legal spell for turning reasoning beings
into temporarily vacant machines? We know this, which is why we have OSHA and
the FAA and the FTC, for now.
It's no surprise that when prodded by entities with cultural or regulatory
power, platforms build more semi-effective AI classifiers, hire more underpaid
contract moderators, and temporarily stiffen their unevenly enforced community
rules, but then immediately slump back toward their natural form, which appears
to be a cartoonishly overgrown early-2000s web forum crammed with soft targets
and overrun by trolling, spam, and worse.
It’s possible to make the argument that sufficiently strong leadership could
make even a tech corporation appear to be capable of holding an ethical line,
and maybe even capable of accepting slightly smaller profits in service of
socially beneficial goals—and that, conversely, the awful people in charge are
the main source of the problems. It’s not a very good argument, though, even
when I make it myself.
Yes, X is currently controlled by a bizarrely gibbering billionaire with
obvious symptoms of late-stage Mad King disease. Yes, Facebook and
Instagram—which control vastly more territory than X—are controlled by a
feckless, Tulip-craze-mainlining billionaire with a long history of grudgingly
up-regulating governance efforts when under public or governmental pressure and
then immediately axeing them when the spotlight moves on. But would these
platforms inflict less damage if they were led by people who valued the well
being of others? Probably yes, to a degree. Twitter/X has offered a lurid
natural experiment, and the changes in X after it moved from Jack Dorsey’s
spacey techno-libertarian leadership to Elon Musk’s desperately needy
quasi-fascist circus act have been obviously bad. A version of Meta founded and
led by someone with a reasonably sharp ethical grounding clearly wouldn’t look
much like the real Meta at all.
On the other hand, TikTok’s social function is reasonably close to Meta and
X’s, and the fact that [13]its CEO, Shou Zi Chew, seems like a relatively
normal person, doesn’t seem to have correlated with dramatically better
performance in eliminating [14]Nazi organizing, [15]genocidal and
violence-inciting content, [16]CSAM distribution ([17]archive link), or the
kind of [18]semi-pro disinformation that makes it harder for people
experiencing natural disasters to understand what’s happening.
Crucially, more reasonable CEO behavior doesn’t seem to prevent the lower-level
and potentially even more destructive social effects of platforms that [19]
Henry Farrell persuasively explains from a social theory perspective, or that
Renée DiResta memorably calls a “Cambrian explosion of subjective, bespoke
realities” in [20]Invisible Rulers.* (I'll do a separate post collecting
thoughts on this angle, because it's too important to breeze by.)
The realities of our moment also work against arguments for the potential of
heroic leadership: even apparently level-headed tech executives now appear to
understand that the next Trump Administration intends to rule unreasonably and
vengefully, and that failure to [21]perform obeisance and [22]make tribute may
result in federal interference that could plausibly unmake their companies.
Those are not risks any global corporation can take, but our oddball lineup of
big platform companies is in a special bind. No matter how desperately they
want to be seen as neutral utilities, they have functioned, for good and ill,
like social and political wrecking balls—and real or feigned misapprehensions
about algorithms and censorship notwithstanding, real-world governments
understand this. The second coming of Trump makes the situation especially
stark, but the underlying dynamics are neither new nor temporary.
Given that every large platform posing as a public square has put itself into
the genuinely untenable situation of acting as a global corporate arbiter of
politically hot speech, they will all always be in the gunsights of the world’s
least reasonable governments. This was bad enough for the platforms when the
least reasonable governments were Putin’s or Erdoğan’s or Modi’s—a truly
unreasonable government in control of their home jurisdiction is an existential
threat.
And again, in reality, the corporations are configured to try to address the
least political kinds of abuse—CSAM, spam, scams, and a few other forms of
inauthentic behavior—and very little else. As a result, they can’t govern more
subtle or politicized speech for much longer than I can roll a quarter down a
piece of string.
So what would it take for a corporation to become capable of good governance of
things like political speech, incitement to violence and genocide, hate speech,
most forms of inauthentic behavior, and platform manipulation? Two things, at
least:
• The ability and willingness to take and hold ethical stances that will be
sharply unpopular with large swathes of the people mostly likely to
effectively target them with legislation and abuses of power, and
• the ability and willingness to devote something approaching the majority of
their company’s time, money, and attention to building and running [23]
devolved or [24]federated systems for doing high-performance high-context
local governance according to those unpopular ethical stances.
Can you bring yourself to imagine—concretely and in detail—these conditions
occurring in the leadership of a global corporation?
And again, achieving a mode of governance that can appropriately handle those
most obvious elements—the hate speech, the network abuse, the inauthentic
behavior, all of it—is necessary but not sufficient for reaching something like
a healthy equilibrium. The elements of big social platforms that make them
attractive and fun and profitable are the same elements that, as currently
implemented, turn low-level human behavior patterns around status, belief,
conformity, and predation into a high-speed mass-scale mess of fractured
publics and realities.
Two points of clarification: First, I’m not saying “Can’t fix people problems
with technology,” which is exactly as true and useful as “Guns don’t kill
people, people kill people.” (I used the former in what I thought was a very
obviously sarcastic way, but apparently the intent was insufficiently clear.)
If a technological system makes human problems worse, you have to fix the
system or break it and build a better one.
Second, none of what I’m trying to get at here is about the intent of people
who work on big platforms. Corporate platform trust and safety staff routinely
work themselves to the brink of individual illness or collapse to handle what
they’re permitted and resourced to handle—which is itself a tiny fraction of
what would be necessary to handle to make platforms good. Corporate platform
governance by technology companies whose success requires growth and
attention-extraction, though, is a bankrupt idea.
If we briefly isolate the reality of our technological present, it’s hard to
find it anything but absurd to expect a corporation to govern global or even
local speech for any humanist value of “well.” And no one chose it, exactly, it
just happened when the fantasies of the internet as an Apollonian zone of
libertarian splendor met the reality of globally connected primate brains under
late capitalism. I explicitly blame the connected-computer dream of
technologically mediated liberation as cartoonishly exemplified in [25]JP
Barlow’s Declaration, which centered on keeping the bad old world of human
governance, which it equated with censorship, out of the internet:
You claim there are problems among us that you need to solve. You use this
claim as an excuse to invade our precincts. Many of these problems don't
exist. Where there are real conflicts, where there are wrongs, we will
identify them and address them by our means. We are forming our own Social
Contract. This governance will arise according to the conditions of our
world, not yours. Our world is different.
The governance arose, all right, once the money got real.
The computer dream’s rapidly evaporating and over-salinated shallows are still
keeping the tech industry’s dumbest boats afloat, but the platforms have been
scraping bottom for years while their owners slap on layers and layers of
patches and bilge-pumps and bucket brigades manned by people from former
colonies. The problem isn't (just) turning fact-checking on or off or
deactivating a swarm of halfassed AI classifers or ceasing to pretend to act on
most reports of misconduct, it's bad shape.
All of which is to say that yes, Zuckerberg is a terrible chump and Musk is a
grotesque quasi-Rasputin, and that does matter, but the boards they stand on
have been rotten the whole time. Centralized corporate governance of global
mega-platforms was always a goofy idea, and we should have given up on it years
ago.
This is where I get into awkward situations with lovely people, including
several I count as friends, because they’re determined "not to let platforms
off the hook.” I feel this, deeply, along with things like send the Sacklers to
the guillotine. But keeping the fucked-up mutant fish on the hook will not
magically transform it into an entity capable of governing.
—
Earlier this week at Platformer, [26]Casey Newton reported some insider views
on what Meta’s most recent roll-back of content moderation and fact-checking
means. The post is worth reading, and after the Myanmar research I did in 2023,
and for what it’s worth, I don’t think Casey’s sources overstate the dangers
inherent in what Meta’s doing: more real human beings are going to suffer and
lose children and be killed because of this. But I want to look at something in
the cursory background section of the newsletter, about the work that Meta put
in after 2016, when Facebook got criticized for hosting election-interference
ops in the US:
Chastened by the criticism, Meta set out to shore up its defenses. It hired
40,000 content moderators around the world, invested heavily in building
new technology to analyze content for potential harms and flag it for
review, and became the world’s leading funder of third-party fact-checking
organizations. It spent $280 million to create an independent Oversight
Board to adjudicate the most difficult questions about online speech. It
disrupted dozens of networks of state-sponsored trolls who sought to use
Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp to spread propaganda and attack
dissenters.
[27]According to Financial Times reporting ([28]archive link), Meta currently
employs or has contracted with about 40,000 people to work on “safety and
security,” of which just 15,000 are content moderators, for a user base of
roughly four billion users, which works out to more than a quarter of a million
users per moderator. This chimes with [29]New York Times reporting ([30]archive
link) suggesting that in 2021, Accenture was billing Facebook for about 5,800
full-time contract moderators. (For what it’s worth, in 2017, Meta promised to
add all of [31]3,000 trust and safety staff.) Nor are Meta’s moderation
resources allocated evenly: About 90% of Facebook users are outside the US and
Canada; that overwhelming majority gets [32]approximately 13% of the company’s
moderation time ([33]archive link).
And while we’re here, in 2020—the year Oversight Board started hiring—Meta
cleared about $91 billion in profit. The Oversight Board trust got $280 million
from Meta, or just over 0.3% of the company’s annual profits. The Oversight
Board itself, though inclined to deliver thoughtful if glacially slow
recommendations, appears to have accomplished [34]remarkably little.
Again: The work tens of thousands of people around the world put in to try to
make platforms less terrible is real and essential work, and it’s often done at
a terrible cost. It’s also the barest gesture at serious governance, and much
of it is pure Potemkin Village.
That’s only a couple of things pulled from one paragraph that happened to hit
my inbox while I was drafting this post, but I did [35]a whole lot of that kind
of close reading in 2023, and came out believing that platform intensifications
of governance in response to periodic governmental pressure are best understood
as a little bit of real (though deeply inadequate) change and a whole lot of
[36]flopping. Then, when the pressure comes off, the platforms re-orient like
compass needles tossed into in an MRI machine.
—
[37]Barlow’s Declaration—which is excruciating and which I’ve been making
myself reread annually for years as penance for participating in tech
culture—ends like this:
We will create a civilization of the Mind in Cyberspace. May it be more
humane and fair than the world your governments have made before.
What we got instead was a handful of global-scale company towns that continue
to prove their comprehensive unfitness to govern and their absolute
vulnerability to the offline governments the free internet was meant to work
around.
So sure: [38]Protocols over platforms. Then we have to actually do the
inelegant, un-heroic, expensive work of rebuilding the essential structures of
human civilization on top of the protocols, because it turns out we just have
the one world, online or off, no way out.
Thank you
This post, like the others on this site, exists [39]because people have signed
on to support the work. If you find it useful, and your situation allows for it
with ease, please consider signing up! Enormous thanks to those of you who
have. And a note to members: I've wrestled down the Ghost commenting problem
and the first real discussion post for project members goes up tomorrow, so if
you've signed up for a paid membership, look for that in your inbox soon.
Notes
* Renée’s book is very good and I recommend it for its lucid explanations and
commitment to drawing on previous eras of mass communication without doing too
deeply into either theoretical or historical rabbitholes (which I love, but
which don’t make for popular reading). I don’t 100% agree with her conclusions,
but they’re clearly stated and cleanly argued, which allows for productive
disagreement—and I value that more than full alignment.
A common response to the things I've been posting is "Okay, but what will work,
then?" I think there are hints at answers in the very chunky [40]fediverse
governance research I worked on last year, in online and offline cooperatives,
in [41]Rudy Fraser's Blacksky, and in the kinds of projects Nathan Schneider
assesses in [42]Governable Spaces. I'll continue to explore what I think might
be good shapes for governance here in ways that—I hope—will be more pragmatic
than quixotic.
The featured diagram for this post is International Marine Engineering's 1912
depiction of the profile and deck of the Titanic ([43]v. 17, p. 199).
[44] [45] [46] The link has been copied!
[47][https://www.wrecka.g]
[48] How we'll do discussions here
Newer post
[49]How we'll do discussions here
Older post
[50]What people in the global majority need from networks
[51] What people in the global majority need from networks
Subscribe to new posts.
[52][ ] Subscribe
Processing your application Great! Check your inbox and confirm your
subscription There was an error sending the email
choose your type:
• [54]( ) fancy (default)
• [55]( ) simpler
[56]wreckage/salvage
Making and mending networks for humans.
wreckage/salvage © Erin Kissane 2025
You’ve successfully subscribed to wreckage/salvage
Welcome back! You’ve successfully signed in.
Great! You’ve successfully signed up.
Success! Your email is updated.
Your link has expired
Success! Check your email for magic link to sign-in.
References:
[1] https://www.wrecka.ge/
[3] https://www.wrecka.ge/about/
[4] https://www.wrecka.ge/tag/posts/
[5] https://www.wrecka.ge/#/portal
[6] https://www.wrecka.ge/signin/
[7] https://www.wrecka.ge/author/erin/
[8] https://senseis.xmp.net/?LifeAndDeath
[9] https://www.gutenberg.org/files/46/46-h/46-h.htm
[10] https://www.theengineroom.org/library/new-report-exploring-a-transition-to-alternative-social-media-platforms-for-social-justice-organizations-in-the-majority-world/
[11] https://www.nytimes.com/1970/09/13/archives/a-friedman-doctrine-the-social-responsibility-of-business-is-to.html
[12] https://erinkissane.com/meta-in-myanmar-part-i-the-setup
[13] https://www.wired.com/story/shou-zi-chew-tik-tok-big-interview/
[14] https://www.isdglobal.org/digital_dispatches/naztok-an-organized-neo-nazi-tiktok-network-is-getting-millions-of-views/
[15] https://www.isdglobal.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/HateScape_v5.pdf
[16] https://www.ft.com/content/d5549d48-8f02-464c-9c7d-17404a5b6d02
[17] https://archive.ph/tvn8K
[18] https://newrepublic.com/article/186928/misinformation-new-normal-disaster-response
[19] https://www.programmablemutter.com/p/were-getting-the-social-media-crisis
[20] https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/renee-diresta/invisible-rulers/9781541703377/
[21] https://www.newsweek.com/tech-ceos-donations-donald-trump-joe-biden-inaugurations-compared-2010457
[22] https://qz.com/google-youtube-trump-inauguration-meta-amazon-apple-1851736124
[23] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devolution
[24] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federalism
[25] https://www.eff.org/cyberspace-independence
[26] https://www.platformer.news/meta-fact-checking-free-speech-surrender/?ref=platformer-newsletter
[27] https://www.ft.com/content/afeb56f2-9ba5-4103-890d-91291aea4caa
[28] https://archive.ph/UxgFy
[29] https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/31/technology/facebook-accenture-content-moderation.html
[30] https://archive.ph/SEZpr
[31] https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/03/technology/facebook-moderators-q1-earnings.html
[32] https://www.wsj.com/articles/facebook-drug-cartels-human-traffickers-response-is-weak-documents-11631812953
[33] https://archive.ph/https://www.wsj.com/articles/facebook-drug-cartels-human-traffickers-response-is-weak-documents-11631812953
[34] https://www.lawfaremedia.org/article/meta-s-oversight-board-and-the-need-for-a-new-theory-of-online-speech
[35] https://erinkissane.com/meta-in-myanmar-part-iii-the-inside-view
[36] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ml8kf3UIpN0
[37] https://www.eff.org/cyberspace-independence
[38] https://knightcolumbia.org/content/protocols-not-platforms-a-technological-approach-to-free-speech
[39] https://www.wrecka.ge/#/portal
[40] https://fediverse-governance.github.io/
[41] https://www.wired.com/story/blacksky-is-nothing-like-black-twitter/
[42] https://www.ucpress.edu/books/governable-spaces/epub-pdf
[43] https://archive.org/details/internationalma171912newy/page/198/mode/2up
[44] https://tootpick.org/#text=%22Bad%20shape%22%20https://www.wrecka.ge/bad-shape/
[45] https://bsky.app/intent/compose?text=%22Bad%20shape%22+https://www.wrecka.ge/bad-shape/
[46] javascript:
[48] https://www.wrecka.ge/how-we-do-it-here/
[49] https://www.wrecka.ge/how-we-do-it-here/
[50] https://www.wrecka.ge/what-people-in-the-global-majority-need-from-networks/
[51] https://www.wrecka.ge/what-people-in-the-global-majority-need-from-networks/
[56] https://www.wrecka.ge/