Exploring the Living World
I’ve been using David Allen’s “Getting Things Done” methodology almost as long as GTD has been around. But I’ve been struggling with the “Someday/Maybe” portion of the Weekly Review. This week I found something that put it all together for me. Luke, a commenter on the GTD website writes: It’s not a parking lot for …
Correlation is not the same as causation, I get that. But the past week I felt positively wrung out, crumpled up, and stomped upon at the end of every workday. And every day was a full-court press to write four pages of user documentation by EOD, using Anthropic Claude as my research assistant. Are the …
I’m old enough to remember the warning about social media, “if you’re not paying for the product, then you’re the product.” In any social club, somebody’s got to pay to keep the lights on. With online platforms there is a process of growing a customer base, locking people in to the platform by making it …
I have to say that “respect” isn’t the first thing that comes to mind when I think of Slab City, an informal community of faded snowbirds, desert rats, creatives, burnt-out meth heads, and a few others who simply want to drop off the grid. But there it is, emblazoned on the side of a concrete …
Here’s to the start of another year. My personal goal for the coming year is to spend a part of every day simply “writing to be writing.” Not writing for blog posts, not writing for publication, not writing to anyone in particular. Just putting my butt in the chair and putting words to paper…or whatever …
One way to bring life back to the internet is to make it weird again. According to software developer Jonas Hultenius, quirkiness is one of the things that made the early web feel alive. Today’s obsession with metrics and vitality are starving off everyday treasures, small wonders, and genuine oddities. If you were online in …
Maria Farrell and Robin Berjon use the word Waldsterben, meaning “forest death,” to describe the state of the internet today. Just like a forest that has been clear-cut and replanted with a single species, the internet is quickly depleting itself of life and vitality. The walled gardens of Facebook, Twitter, and Google each act to …
In the final act of Picasso at Lapin Agile, a mysterious visitor from the future, wearing blue suede shoes, enters the bar and makes a striking pronouncement. VISITOR: ‘Cause this century, the accomplishments of artists and scientists outshone the accomplishments of politicians and governments. The rest of ensemble, including Albert Einstein, Pablo Picasso, and a …
When a system is far from equilibrium, small islands of coherence have the capacity to shift the entire system. This quotation, attributed to the Belgian physical chemist Ilya Prigogine, gives me hope that small groups of people working together may be able to shift our chaotic politics into something better. But is it realistic, or …
Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and then go do that. Because what the world needs is people who come alive.— Dr. Howard Thurman Also on Wild Rye This year’s theme: Awakening