As millions of users scramble to see where to place our social alliance in the next wave of locked platforms, there is an opposite movement. Existing social networks are investigating how to attract new users but seem destined to put their foot in it by ruining their service. One after another, services change major features, or their whole app, searching for revenue. Forgetting everything that set them apart in the first place and ruining lots of the user experience.
Without going back and checking where, I am sure I have referred to my wife description of me. No, not that one. This might come of a bit of a shock to someone that follow me online, given my disposition to moan about lots of things — she calls me “annoyingly positive”. To her, I am that guy that looks at everything one way and sees where we can move forward from it.
Since the launch of dark mode in iOS I don’t think I’ve disabled the feature other than testing. I’ve never been a fan of the constant white used in modern iOS and, although debatable, it saves a bit of battery life by switching off pixels. However apps that don’t customise the way dark mode looks really suck.
There’s much more personal preference that’s needed once you flick the switch to dark mode.
I think I get it now. I’ve been asked for years how I manage to write a lot, and I just shrug and think it’s not so hard. Even though my blogging does come and go I manage to have plenty of ideas and publish posts, but not at the moment.
At the minute I feel as if I am blocked from ideas. I feel as if inspiration doesn’t like me, or my brain is now broken.
My daughter is the cutest little thing. I know everyone says that about their kids, but here is my submission as proof. Lucie struggles with almost everything, she has what most people call ‘complex needs’. She relies completely on us as a family to help to support her, but she tries her hardest to do whatever one else does.
She has only two loves in the world, shoes, and teddies. Perhaps I come a distant third, but I’m not convinced.
The arrival times of ideas are strange. Often when I feel like writing, there is nothing ready to come out. Then at other points, ideas come at the wrong times and never get to fruition. Despite thinking about the ideas, and sometimes writing a blog post in my head, they are gone as soon as I get distracted. As I strain myself afterwards, willing my neurones to make the same connections they did before, I am typically led to think about inspiration and where it comes from.
I forget where I first heard the expression, but I have long held the idea that we are all the same person wearing a different mask. We all arrive in the same state, and sure we might have some biological tendencies toward certain things, but the only separator is life. At any moment, the only difference between us is a combination of our experiences up to that point. For me, that is the most fascinating thing about the world.
It’s been a while since I updated my blog because I’ve been pretty busy with life, and my posts often come in waves of inspiration. The thoughts that I have that turn into blog posts are ones that I don’t go looking for, they are ones that strike me, cause me to think about them, perhaps write a note, that later turns into a post. They come at unpredictable times, but they are regularly dulled by my emotions.
Whenever the internet loses its mind on something, I find it fascinating. Not to join in with the hot takes, but to see and digest what makes a large proportion of people emotional and try to understand the world a bit better. In these instances, a large proportion of people become experts in the respective field being discussed. The most notable of which was everyone who turned into immunologists during the pandemic, but it constantly happens.
I am amazed at the usefulness of recent advancements in Large Language Model AI. Having it integrated into Notion, the tool I use most, has saved me a significant amount of time and increased my productivity at work. I use it to summarise meeting notes, write content from video scripts, and more. The cost pays for itself several times over in time saved – but that doesn’t mean I have no concerns.