Categories
Rants

Not So Random Thoughts About AI

After working on a project for almost two years, I decided it was time to move on. Curious about who was going to replace my expertise, I took a peek and noticed two massive letters staring back at me: AI. Now, to be fair, it wasn’t AI in isolation, there was a human attached, but it got me thinking: Do we need experts anymore? Is AI just a form of corporate cosplay? Sure, I had questions, but I realized deep down inside, I wanted the transition to fail. To be clear, I didn’t want the project to fail, just the process, because I wanted to feel like my expertise still mattered.

In the early 2000s, I spent years learning Flash and ActionScript. I programmed solutions for clients that were unique, and dare I say it, awesome. Then Steve Jobs killed Flash single-handedly with the iPhone. The industry shifted to responsive, modular design that worked on multiple devices. I poured almost a decade of work developing custom WordPress themes.

On the surface, the technological promise of responsive design was huge, but what we got instead was an addiction to safety in the form of bland colors, stock art, and generic design systems. Projects were no longer about designers and developers working together to make the user experience exceptional, it was about satisfying the demands of the invisible hand of the market: the shareholders. They demanded money, not unique expression. Design became a search for relevance and revenue resulting in merit badges for mediocrity and boredom.

We are seeing this same pattern emerge in the age of AI, it’s just happening much faster. Does craft even matter when scale and speed drive decision-making from the top all the way to the bottom? Craft is irrelevant in a technological ecosystem dependent upon constant use and evolution. No time to stand still and think, you need to prompt!

How much time will AI save us? Will we finally do what our forebears could not and build lives of leisure or will we blindly accept that we must work even more to make ends meet? When the world is exponentially expensive but our tools only earn us fractions of what’s possible, we will have to work at a scale that justifies the existence of the tool. Thus, proving once again, that humans only exist to serve the machine in a capitalist society.

What’s going to happen when all the bros and girl bosses pour all their devotion into AI year after year only for the prompt to be replaced with something faster? Like a human centipede, we are eating the bullshit of others while feeding our own to those behind us, ultimately quickening our professional demise.

Only time will truly tell what we are becoming.

Categories
Rants Reflections

Why Write When No One Reads?

I’ve been thinking a lot about this quote from The paywall dilemma from Simon Owens’s Media Newsletter: “A lot of news consumers consider the headline and lede to be more than enough information, and so therefore are less likely to convert into paid subscribers after reading them…”

The study Owens references is from Nieman Journalism Lab entitled Less is more, and discounts work: A new study looks at the minutiae of paywall strategy. Here’s a quote to snack on: “Readers who see information-dense nuggets like ledes and decks, the authors write, may feel they’ve learned all they need to know in front of the paywall — and don’t need to subscribe to learn more…”

While this has everything to do with paywalls, I think we could see similarities with reading, learning, and saying we are informed. Do you really understand the nuance and intricacies of United States foreign policy from one headline about two countries? We have emboldened the idiots to believe it’s possible.

I remember when first learning to write a blog, the headline and post structure were the two most valuable considerations. The enticing or evocative headline got people to click through and read the post. Maybe. They sure got sensational. 5 ways to leave your lover! How I made 8 figures doing less work! Why Sasquatch really avoids humans…it might surprise you!

Growing up, my grandma loved reading National Enquirer and Star, two popular magazines near the checkout aisle of the grocery store. A lot of headlines operate like those magazines. It doesn’t matter if people read, only that they buy (or click).

The content and context don’t matter in a world dominated by headlines. Well, the content does matter, only that it is a delivery mechanism for ads. It’s amazing how many websites are unusable on mobile devices. Not because the information is bad, it’s buried beneath an avalanche of promises for pennies from our tech overlords.

Post structure was something highly prized. You’d use heading levels to show organization of thought and structure, bulleted and ordered lists for presented steps, links to sources, images to illustrate your point. Why all this work? Because even then we were told that people don’t read, so write and design your work in a manner that promotes skimming.

A lot has changed in twenty five years, but not in the ways we were hoping. Especially with technology. We got trapped in gardens of delight, pretty by sight, but rotten in substance. Our data mined and sold to anyone who would buy, and trust me, a lot of people have profited from your data. The only person who hasn’t, is you.

So, I return to my original question posed in the headline, Why Write When No One Reads? Because it’s how I think and get ideas out of my head into a form which allows me to share with others beyond 200 characters (or however long tweets and threads are these days).

But really, it’s me searching for others who also read.

Categories
Short and Sweet Thoughts & Ideas

From Surfing to Scrolling: How Social Media Changed My Behavior

I think too much about social media. Sadly, it doesn’t think much of me. All the discourse I see about whether you should leave one platform—X or Facebook or Instagram—for another with greener pastures and blue skies is all a distraction from a bigger issue. It’s like cleaning your house by shoving a pile of papers into a drawer instead of shredding them. Eventually that stack of papers becomes boxes of delayed decisions, taking up space in your closet.

It doesn’t matter whether you stay or go, your behavior has been rewired to favor the passivity of being fed endlessly. The infinite scroll will keep you entertained and informed until you realize you’ve been in the bathroom longer than your sanctioned 15-minute break.

I’m old enough to remember times before social media and the internet. Searching was active, it was tubular, “I’m surfing the web, mom!” While it was endless, it was finite because we were bounded by the limits of Moore’s Law, dreadfully slow connectivity, and the things in real life that were actually more important than whatever random bulletin board we stumbled upon. The active nature of surfing the web meant that we had a purpose, an end goal, and then we moved onto whatever we were doing next.

As technology moved from a spare bedroom to a pocket in our pants, it became integrated into our life, something we couldn’t live without. Or so we continue to tell ourselves as we move from one digital platform to another, wondering why we do this to ourselves, waiting for sustenance promised from above.

I’m all for technological growth, but let’s have some perspective. Make a really cool spare bedroom for your phone. Start living life. Learn to sew, cue up Careless Whisper at karaoke, hell, sing it loud in the middle of the grocery store. Sure, you’ll probably be filmed by people who don’t have a cool spare bedroom like you, but you didn’t have to wait for a trend to tell you what to sing or where to sing it.

Categories
Ideas Short and Sweet Things That Blow My Mind

Support Your Local Monster Maker?

Hanging in my closet next to a Godzilla t-shirt is my favorite shirt (one that provokes ample conversation in public). A simple black t-shirt with white, glow-in-the-dark, letters that read: “SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL MONSTER MAKER.”

Designed by Deadbolt Design in The Dalles, Oregon, the minute I saw the shirt, it called to me. I’m not sure why. Maybe it had to do with supporting a cool company that also loves monsters. Perhaps there was a deeper message lurking in my subconscious.

Whenever I wear the shirt in public, there is usually a conversation around the meaning of the phrase. I tell the story about Deadbolt Design and The Dalles, the love of monsters, and end with, “Honestly, it means whatever you want it to mean.”

Talk about dissatisfaction. People want to know right now, they don’t want the burden of finding the underlying meaning in five words. I didn’t want the burden either. But little did I know, the search was on deep in the realm of the unconscious.

The question of meaning is not found in “support your local,” we generally understand what that means, but the confusion is with “monster maker.” What is a monster maker?

A monster maker lives in the space between imagination and reality. They dream of what could be and set out to make it. They are looked at by society as oddballs and outcasts because they are modern-day alchemists, delving into the past trades for tools and techniques to combine with the latest technology. They defy the rules of our gods to make monsters that show us what we’ve become and what we could be. They toil in ambiguity and obscurity. They are revered and reviled. The angry mob is just beyond the borders of their workshop, pitchforks and fire in hand, ready to destroy what they’ll never understand.

In short, a monster maker does what we can’t do. They are in every community, town, and province. They lurk in the shadows, not to destroy, but to illuminate, educate, and to lead the willing to the next level of understanding.

Support your local monster maker.

Categories
Thoughts

A Return to the Printed Page

This is the sixth year I’ve been tracking my annual reading lists, and I’m noticing a trend: I’m moving away from ebooks and back toward printed books.

The shift originally happened in 2020, when the lockdown happened, and I wanted to checkout books from the library. I read more books I didn’t think I’d read because of the immediate availability. But the interesting thing that also happened, I got hooked on the “Reading Insights” in the Kindle app. Days in a row, weeks in a row, books finished, statistics kept me glued to the screen.

How is reading on the phone that much different than reading a book?

I still read printed books, but I had a focus problem. It didn’t take me long before I jumped back to the phone to “check” something on social media. When I started reading more printed books, I could only read a page or two at a time before moving on. Now, with practice, I can read huge sections at a time.

Even though I had a focus problem, I also wanted to win. I needed to finish the book and move onto the next. Why? Because there was a ticking clock on digital library books. Three weeks and then the book disappeared. It wasn’t like the physical copy where you could hold onto it for an extra day or two to finish it.

Last night, as I was reading, I felt calmer than I have in a while. Reading does that for me. I lose myself in a story. The words comfort me. The texture of the paper gives my thumbs something to touch as I flip page after page.

An added bonus: what I read isn’t being tracked by an algorithm or a computer system other than my own.

I think it’s important to say that reading is reading whether you are holding a physical book or an ebook, listening to an audio book, or taking in the latest graphic novel. A lot of people like to be reading gatekeepers, but whatever it takes for you to read, do it. We’re going to need our books in the coming days, weeks, months, and years.

Categories
Short and Sweet Thoughts

Deconstructing Labels

For decades, I coasted on the labels bestowed upon me by others: smart, intelligent, talented. I could extrapolate to pad my ego and call myself gifted. The question I have to this day: At what?

I chased my curiosity with a blatant lack of regard for facts and reality. I knew nothing. People were around to tell me, but I didn’t listen. Why should I? I was told so many times what I would be and I liked what I heard. Why listen to the naysayers?

The truth about labels is they hold you back. They are the expression of blessing in the face of fear that you might not succeed: “Please god make my kid successful so I won’t have to accept the fact that I fucked them up with my nature and lack of nurture.”

Welcome to the middle of your life. No one cares to label you anymore. The old ones have crumbled with overuse; childhood’s one hit wonder. But overcome you must, even though it’s hard, because you never needed the labels. You knew who you were then, you know who you are now. You know what you want. It was the others who needed to label you, so they wouldn’t have to get to know the real you. To see you. To experience who you’ve become beyond the labels of youth.

It is the later years when labels reemerge to rewrite our history. The sweet lie we tell ourselves, on repeat, so one day we can die in peace.

Categories
Reflections Short and Sweet Thoughts

Take your time and enjoy the process

I get a lot of emails from the local business newspaper celebrating the latest round of 40 under 40. I’m glad some people found success in their 20s and 30s. But that’s not my story, and it’s probably not yours either.

I’m proud of what I have accomplished. As I approach my 44th birthday in a month, I realize that I will never be on the 40 under 40 list—or any list in reality—but I can look myself in the mirror and know I’ve done what I’ve wanted to do.

If you are struggling to be seen, validated, and heard, I understand that and feel you. I hope you won’t make decisions based on lists and recognition. I’ve disrupted my journey enough to know it’s not worth it.

In the meantime, let’s get back to work and keep building what is alive in our imaginative souls.

Categories
Reflections Short and Sweet Thoughts

Searching for the truth in conversation

I take interviewing people seriously because I’m searching for the truth and looking for wonder. Someone once told me during an interview to relax; it’s not 60 Minutes. True, it’s not. I’m not a journalist. I’m a soul explorer.

In every pound of pain and joule of joy, I’m looking for pure human expression in all its glory. Identifying the connection between meaning, purpose, voice, and craft is art and alchemy. When two people come together to share the stories that have shaped us, we have the opportunity to form a new narrative in the present for a better future for everyone connected to us.

That is the power of pure conversation.

Categories
Reflections Thoughts

Addicted to Infinity

It took longer than usual to recognize a significant problem that took root in my daily routine over the last few months: I’ve become addicted to infinity.

Instead of spending time in the morning reading books, I was flinging birds at pigs and bubbles—over and over—until I completed the daily tasks or ran out of lives.

Sure, my skill in digital bird throwing was increasing, but I recognized that what was once an enjoyable break from the stress of the day quietly became an addiction. I was numbing my emotions, checking out of the present, and opening myself up to advertisements so I could get more lives, gems, and a semblance of pride.

The digital world is lovely; the pros are as endless as the cons. And that is the problem. Unless I make an effort to construct boundaries and limits, I will constantly be refreshing algorithmic infinity instead of creating an actual future with images, words, stories, and curiosity.

What was I hiding from in the addiction of infinity?

Choice.

I have chosen, and now I step into digital withdrawal.

Categories
Randomness Reflections Thoughts

Give change a few days

Day one of my four-month journey to write my first book. I planned to get out of bed at 5:30 AM to make coffee, get settled into the couch, and begin capturing what’s in my mind.

The alarm greeted me at 5:30 AM after an interrupted night of sleep. I stumbled out to make coffee. Measured the beans and poured them into the grinder. Just like I’ve always done for years. Pressed the grind button and something was wrong. It didn’t sound right. Was the motor burnt out?

*Sigh*

I made some tea and got to work. Once I finished my hour of writing, I went to the store and bought a new coffee grinder. I chose a different brand because it was five dollars cheaper than the brand of my previous grinder.

Walking to the self-checkout, I was joyful, “How exciting, change is good! Yay coffee!”

I got home, gave the grinder a slight clean and preceded to fill it with coffee beans. It was significantly smaller and didn’t hold my usual amount.

While grinding away, I started wondering about the best way to get the coffee grounds into the filter. The setup was fundamentally different than my old grinder. I tipped the unit upside down, removed the lid, and got some grounds in the filter with a healthy amount on the counter.

Messy.

Grumpy.

Need coffee.

*Sigh*

“I hate this coffee grinder,” I told myself.

“It sucks,” I whined while the coffee brewed.

“It doesn’t do what I want it to do,” I lied to myself.

Then a different thought emerged, “What if you tried another way to make coffee?”

Change is hard. It requires you to look at life in a different light with a new lens. Give it a few days, it will be okay. In the meantime, clean up your mess and drink your coffee.