This post is extracted from something I received from my friend 🔗 Randall Rospond - over on Maui.

He writes …

I first became aware of this song in 1989 when I purchased the cassette of Jackson Browne’s ‘World in Motion’ … and it spoke to me deeply then and has throughout the years.
It speaks to me more these days in the midst of America’s great lying disaster in the White House and the ruin of what I believed the USA had always ‘tried’ to stand for. Freedom. The song was written by Little Steven … and released on his Disciples of Soul album 1984. With this … I pray some sanity , rule of law , integrity , honesty and compassion return to America and the world … asap. … peace and aloha Randall

Ticketmaster - for it is they that own ‘Moshtix’ now have in THEIR system MY full and legal name that ‘must match’ the name I used to book my tickets, my phone number, my email, which city and country and zip code I live in - all of which was ‘needed’ as I booked tickets for a concert. Quite why they needed all that is unclear - because even the ID ‘enshitification’ stuff is their ‘information grab’ doesn’t solve the problem of scalping - they are just forcing data out of people - the bad guys have ways round it.

This all came to mind as I read 🔗 this from Don Marti - after he read this from Doc Searls.

Doc is a personal story - the key one to read is Don’s where he summarises surveillance ‘myths and the reality’.

I particularly liked this one …

surveillance myth: small businesses want social media advertising
reality: they wanted social networking and got switched over. Policy changes that limit surveillance will make independent businesses better off.

.. but the others are just as important.

Which is all currently high in my mind - because I am reviewing a new app that someone has recommended to me - and on their web site they write ( I paraphrase and add bold)

… a B2B marketing company that helps businesses find and close high-value customers faster by identifying which companies are most likely to buy before they raise their hand. They use AI and data signals to spot early intent, then deliver targeted ads and personalised outreach to decision-makers at those companies. Their model blends analytics, account-based marketing and sales activation to reduce waste and boost conversion.

I wonder how they do all that if they aren’t into surveillance … which as you know - I am not a big fan of … back to Don

surveillance myth: content is fungible, targeting algorithms are uniquely valuable.
reality: expert brands such as King Arthur Baking and Tieman Tire have product and service knowledge that differentiates them, and that the company can keep and build on.

The problem with that reality is that it takes time - and most people want the shortcut.

What was I thinking? I knew it wasn’t my kind of movie. And still I watched and … yeah. No.

What was I thinking? I knew it wasn’t my kind of movie. And still I watched and … yeah. No.

If you are keeping track of - the second part of my ‘Ages’ series has just been published on Substack.

The Age of Experience is rising even as the Age of Reason declines. Not to erase it, but to end its monopoly. Power is shifting from rigid logic and control to lived insight, emotional depth, and adaptive thinking, where success depends on how well you sense, respond, and connect. How then does Business adapt to survive? It must relearn its purpose: to serve people. To feel as well as think, to listen as well as plan, and to treat people not as inputs to optimise, but as meaning-makers to support. A feeling business? How? Well that’s down to the people in the business.

🔗 Read ON

It was ok. Something to watch. Didn’t like ending.

It was ok. Something to watch. Didn’t like ending.

The straight-line, box-ticking path to the finish line belongs to the Age of Reason. And good riddance. An age when most of humanity tried to shape the universe in their own image, then crushed its complexity into two-dimensional metaphors.

The Age of Experience doesn’t flatten, it folds. The grids morph into swarms of tesseracts, truly seen only in equations, never in full. Creativity spirals into infinite fractals. Community pulses - unpredictable, electric, impossible to ignore. Collaboration completes the pattern break - thriving in asymmetry.

And somewhere in that beautiful mess, we finally admit: the world never - ever - fit into three dimensions, let alone two.