Why Not Go Straight To The Good Bit?

In today’s fast-paced world, the concept of ‘hustle culture’ and the proliferation of productivity-focused videos on platforms like YouTube have become the norm. The underlying message in this sea of content is clear: to earn more, to achieve a higher status, and ultimately, to be “successful”. This chase for success is often equated with a promise of increased happiness and a more fulfilling life. But is this relentless pursuit really the key to happiness?

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Essay

19 Dec 2023

Just One Place To Publish

For a few years I have been banging on about the indie web, webmention and Activitypub. Since moving to micro.blog in 2018, these principles at first went over my head and are now what I believe the web should be built on. These thoughts are not exclusively mine, but in the last few months, plenty of people have begun to share this belief since the downfall of Twitter. Although there have been strides to move in this direction, the abundance of new social networks have increased my desire to just post in one place.

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Essay

14 Dec 2023

The Way I Format My Posts

When I first moved to micro.blog I had this dream that I would be able to write and publish freely. By removing the worry about what to post where and how it looked should have released more posts into the world. No stress from separating what goes on my blog and what goes on social media. By publishing whatever I wanted, however I wanted, I freed myself up to do more.

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Essay

14 Dec 2023

The Ups and Downs of My Notebook Habit

This past April, I hit a bit of a snag with my journaling. I had this idea in my head that I’d be one of those people with a notebook always at hand, filled with insightful notes and daily reflections. Ready to write the best blog posts you’ve ever read — but the truth is, it wasn’t working out like that. I went on holiday this summer and didn’t miss scribbling in my notebook, which made me stop and think.

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Essay Notebooks

14 Dec 2023

The Joy Of The Ramble

Can I come straight out and say it? I love reading, and books are my favourite. That gets all the disclaimers out of the way and makes my probable bias obvious right from the start. However, there is something about reading books that not only entertains me but means I learn more along the way, and the web will never replace that. Books receive a lot of criticism. Even perceived intellectuals, like the now-disgraced crypto guru SBF, fail to see the value in books.

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Essay

14 Dec 2023

🔗 ChatGPT Is Turning the Internet Into Plumbing

At its core, generative AI cannot distinguish original journalism from any other bit of writing; to the machine, it’s all slop pushed through the pipes and splattered out the other end.

Ai trained on any of my drivel is going to suck, big time.

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14 Dec 2023

Don’t Fear Failure

Perhaps I have listened to too many bro-podcasts over the last few days, but I am led to believe that a massive fear of failure exists in people. I fail at so many things that perhaps I am desensitised to the whole experience, but there is absolutely nothing to fear from not getting the result you wanted. I should preface this with a warning about taking unneeded risks and not ruining things that make huge changes to your life — but outside this, fail hard and often.

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Essay

12 Dec 2023

When The Pursuit Of Less Becomes More

If you’ve read more than 2 of my blog posts, you will know I yearn for a simpler time. A time pre-smartphone, where everything didn’t rely on my having a computer in my pocket — whilst also loving technology. There is no getting away from the feelings, but I have become to realise that if you are not paying attention, how ridiculous the pursuit of less can become. One of my favourite sub-Reddits is r/dumbphones, it is wonderful to see the phones people are still using and the ones available if you look hard enough.

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Essay

11 Dec 2023

🔗 The Imperfectionist: You can’t hoard life

we make ourselves miserable, not just by railing against bad experiences, or craving experiences we aren’t having, but by trying too hard to hold onto the good experiences we are currently having.

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08 Dec 2023

🔗 You are more interesting than you think.

The trust was always about the person behind the index.html file, not the information itself. We gave that up in the years since. We put our trust in algorithms. Look how they’ve paid us back.

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07 Dec 2023