? Searched on John PHI⑊PIN

Sun, 08 Feb 2026 14:22:29 +1200

Today’s Surprise From History - 🖇️ is itself a surprise from history.

Meta❗️

Sat, 07 Feb 2026 11:53:56 +1200

Today’s Surprise From History - 🖇️ The Dems and Thugs agreed on something. Once.

Fri, 06 Feb 2026 16:02:04 +1200

Today’s Surprise From History - 🖇️ We are unfinished products up until the end.

.. on reflection - I am not sure I agree. The implication being that at the end we are suddenly ‘complete’❓ On the other hand - as far as the body is concerned - finished is definitely the conclusion.

Thu, 05 Feb 2026 15:05:04 +1200

Today’s Surprise From History - 🖇️ Road Trip

.. and it was a good - if short one - across the high desert - North of Palm Desert - other side of Joshua Tree - and beyond.

🔗 Robin Sloan - Pace layers

Pace Layers - Redux

Thu, 05 Feb 2026 11:08:34 +1200

As you climb the pace layers, your sources of information get fewer and farther between.

The Full Quote

As you climb the pace layers, your sources of information get fewer and farther between. Everyone has something to say about nature. But to remain relevant in the higher and more turbulent layers you must update rapidly, and be correct more often than not. Few people are worth listening to about commerce or fashion. Most people’s ideas are simply out of date. At a certain point you reach the edge of what is known or talked about at all, and there are only a few people left. I will find you there, among the researchers, the reporters, the shamans and the spies.

💬 ‘Deepfates’

I was referencing 🖇️🔎Pace Layers a few times through 2024 - and it very much ties to some of my recent thinking. More to come as I fold it all together.

Wed, 04 Feb 2026 15:35:56 +1200

Today’s Surprise From History - 🖇️ 10 years ago I was trying to celebrate independent thinking.

Still trying ☹️

Tue, 03 Feb 2026 15:37:23 +1200

Today’s Surprise From History - 🖇️ 6 years ago it looks like I discovered my test blog.

Mon, 02 Feb 2026 21:43:03 +1200

Today’s Surprise From History - 🖇️ And Bibi’s been wagging it ever since

Sun, 01 Feb 2026 21:48:04 +1200

Today’s Surprise From History - 🖇️ It was a great blog in 2022. Still is.

Sat, 31 Jan 2026 21:49:12 +1200

Today’s Surprise From History - 🖇️ Apparently my language pedantry is not new.

Fri, 30 Jan 2026 15:47:01 +1200

Today’s Surprise From History - 🖇️ Reich calling it Oct 31, 2018

Thu, 29 Jan 2026 09:14:54 +1200

Today’s Surprise From History - 🖇️ ‘Waving Canes’ back in 2019 - maybe time to formalise @bradenslen / @mitchwagner ❓

Wed, 28 Jan 2026 08:23:07 +1200

Today’s Surprise From History - 🖇️ Remember Clubhouse❓ Me .. back in ‘21

Tue, 27 Jan 2026 08:56:44 +1200

Today’s Surprise From History - 🖇️ When They Got There - The Cupboard Was Bare.

Mon, 26 Jan 2026 13:21:11 +1200

Today’s Surprise From History - 🖇️ Truth From Ted - not that one.

Sun, 25 Jan 2026 16:22:00 +1200

Today’s Surprise From History - 🖇️ June 2022 - it all seemed so innocent

Sat, 24 Jan 2026 09:24:32 +1200

Today’s Surprise From History - 🖇️ A 3 year old enhancement request that IMHO remains a good idea but has. not been implented.

Fri, 23 Jan 2026 13:29:59 +1200

Today’s Surprise From History - 🖇️ 2019 - a silouette

Thu, 22 Jan 2026 13:31:00 +1200

Today’s Surprise From History - 🖇️ Hell remains frozen - but it was only a couple of months ago.

Wed, 21 Jan 2026 13:25:20 +1200

Today’s Surprise From History - 🖇️ My 2021 Three Words

Tue, 20 Jan 2026 13:27:13 +1200

Today’s Surprise From History - 🖇️ NASA and Shovels

Mon, 19 Jan 2026 09:02:55 +1200

Today’s Surprise From History - 🖇️ in 2020 - proud of my ‘Drafts Inbox; having only 6 entries. - compare and contrast to 259 as of this morning.

Sun, 18 Jan 2026 13:43:38 +1200

Today’s Surprise From History - 🖇️ Biggest surprise here is that it is still marked 🚧 - so I guess I need to finish it off!

🖇️🔎 Here’s a few from the archives.

The Tyranny of the Town Square

Sun, 18 Jan 2026 12:30:58 +1200

The internet was supposed to celebrate differences. Instead, it’s weaponised conformity. We’ve narrowed acceptable discourse to a narrow band. A band where ±1 standard deviation seems to be too wide and anything outside the ‘consensus’ gets you piled on. (Consensus with a very loud and increasingly violent minority.) The phrase vive la différence is nearly extinct in modern English, and it shows. We are not ignorant of diversity - we’re terrified of it. So we hide the messy, interesting parts of ourselves and perform an acceptable vanilla version for the town square.

The result? A society suffocating under its own self-censorship. The crowd isn’t forcing us to conform - we’re doing it preemptively, trading authenticity for safety. We’ve accepted the bargain that you’re either with us or against us, and nobody wants to find out what happens if you dare explore the edges.

The road less taken isn’t less travelled anymore; it’s invisible.

This prompted on reading Om this morning: Our Algorithmic Grey-Beige World, but it isn’t a new theme of mine … or indeed others …

Sat, 17 Jan 2026 16:33:02 +1200

Today’s Surprise From History - 🖇️ Bit by bit we are being divided and ‘taken out’. That was 2022.

Fri, 16 Jan 2026 14:31:00 +1200

Today’s Surprise From History - 🖇️ 2019 - national gun awareness day.

Thu, 15 Jan 2026 04:36:34 +1200

Today’s Surprise From History - 🖇️ This was two years ago … nothing has changed

Wed, 14 Jan 2026 08:39:00 +1200

Today’s Surprise From History - 🖇️ Reflecting on the pillow guy back in 2022 - and thinking also how easily it all went away.

Tue, 13 Jan 2026 09:29:23 +1200

Today’s Surprise From History - 🖇️ Retro.

Mon, 12 Jan 2026 08:54:01 +1200

Today’s Surprise From History - 🖇️ Filling in some Burbank history.

Sun, 11 Jan 2026 08:46:33 +1200

Today’s Surprise From History - 🖇️ Back in 2018 I wrote a series of ’true life’ stories about people I randomly met - this is Benjamin’s

Sat, 10 Jan 2026 08:33:06 +1200

Today’s Surprise From History - 🖇️ From 8 years ago - you say complacent - I say complicit

Fri, 09 Jan 2026 08:30:00 +1200

Today’s Surprise From History - 🖇️ The Simple Life

Thu, 08 Jan 2026 08:29:00 +1200

Today’s Surprise From History - 🖇️ I should do more Snickelcasts

Wed, 07 Jan 2026 09:40:49 +1200

Today’s Surprise From History - 🖇️ Don’t Trust The Silos

🔗 The Year the World Broke

Tue, 06 Jan 2026 09:18:43 +1200

Not my first link to 🔗🔎 Umair - and probably not my last - and I really don’t do it all the time.

Tue, 06 Jan 2026 09:14:32 +1200

Today’s Surprise From History - 🖇️ Calling BS on ‘Great Thinking’ nearly three years ago.

Mon, 05 Jan 2026 08:37:00 +1200

Today’s Surprise From History - 🖇️ Syria - 2019 - Subject - Oil

Sun, 04 Jan 2026 13:38:57 +1200

Today’s Surprise From History - 🖇️ Brexit Explained … 😂

Sun, 04 Jan 2026 10:35:16 +1200

🔗 Derek Peden

Straight from the presidential playbook : When in trouble, distract the voters away from your own performance by an act of war. This time it’s the people of Venezuela who are paying the price.

🖇️🔎 Wag The Dog

Sat, 03 Jan 2026 13:06:01 +1200

Today’s Surprise From History - 🖇️ DIKW - 8 years ago

Fri, 02 Jan 2026 08:35:00 +1200

Today’s Surprise From History - 🖇️ A Misnomer? This is no surprise - even 6 years later.

Thu, 01 Jan 2026 08:28:00 +1200

Today’s Surprise From History - 🖇️ Fonts are not just a 2025/6 thing

🖇️🔎 Me in a series of posts in 2023

Sat, 27 Dec 2025 10:36:58 +1200

It all started as a fun and different challenge.

🔗🔎We got there - although some days were pretty difficult - but only 🖇️ one turned out to be a real stretch.

Sat, 27 Dec 2025 10:33:35 +1200

🔗 Russell Brand charged with new rape and sexual-assault crimes. - this link is 🍎 News - just sharing because Brand is - and always has been a total douche.

But most importantly 🔗 the BBC earlier this year

The BBC has apologised to staff who felt they could not speak up with concerns about Russell Brand’s behaviour because he was seen as “too influential” and they felt he “would always get his way and therefore they stayed silent”.

But Robin Ince? Fire🔗 the fucker.

All this comes to mind as I watch the emerging BBC/Trump case.

Thu, 11 Dec 2025 09:25:36 +1200

🖇️ 🔎 PageFind on my blog

🔗 Manton Documentation

Good. Clean. Fast. Not yet in my navigation - already have @sod search there. Unclear why one and not the other.

I do like the clean look of PageFind. Maybe add PageFind to the Nav - with Search as a choice from that page. #Thinking

Mon, 21 Apr 2025 16:18:37 +1200

A Public Policy Framework

Another doc prompted by something on LinkedIN - this one around a twenty year old doc called ‘Public Policy Framework for the New Zealand Innovation System’

I was curious as to

how well we had done - not well.
how well we could do - hard - but not impossible
how much the analysis connected to my own experiences and thinking - a lot

While down here, I bang on this a lot - as do others. It never seems to take hold. For whatever reason(s).

Get The Full List of The Articles 🖇️🔎 Hand Crafted With Love

Mon, 21 Apr 2025 13:48:21 +1200

Stop Calling It Content

Content is a non differentiated, horrible, generic, cheap, replaceable kind of word.

Content is stored in silos - with grains and other commodities.

Content has minimal value.

Get The Full List of The Articles 🖇️🔎 Hand Crafted With Love

Sun, 20 Apr 2025 07:12:20 +1200

Time To Self Medicate

🔗 Pattern Breakers | Breaking The Mold

Is Silicon Valley a destination, or just part of the journey?

… and where is it anyway?

… oh and why, despite the best attempts, countries all over the world seem to fall short of replicating it.

Get The Full List of The Articles 🖇️🔎 Hand Crafted With Love

Sat, 19 Apr 2025 21:05:21 +1200

Pattern Breakers | Breaking The Mold

I don’t particularly recommend books.

I recommend people.

Mike Maples is one of those people.

Get The Full List of The Articles 🖇️🔎 Hand Crafted With Love

Sat, 19 Apr 2025 13:10:01 +1200

Charity Is Doomed To Fail

🔗 Charity Is Doomed To Fail

If you don’t know who Dan Palotta is - you should.

This is a short introduction to him, his ideas and his work and how it ties to something I wrote nearly 10 years ago.

We built 🔗 The Future Found with these principles at core.

Get The Full List of The Articles 🖇️🔎 Hand Crafted With Love

Sat, 19 Apr 2025 10:24:59 +1200

Work Life Balance

🖇️ 🔎 My Other Location Posts

Chris Lockhead dropped a post on LinkedIN regarding retirement.

To me retirement is the macro version of the daily work-life balance.

It solves the wrong problem really well.

Get The Full List of The Articles 🖇️🔎 Hand Crafted With Love

Sat, 05 Apr 2025 21:16:58 +1200

The Tinted Rose 📍

Talking of excellent beverages … The Tinted Rose is just down the road from PPO. Smaller, more subtle. Beer choice not extensive - but great cocktails and an excellent wine list.

Sat, 05 Apr 2025 21:13:00 +1200

Hotel Ponsonby 📍

Stunning building known locally as The Ponsonby Post Office .. which is what it was - before its recent transition to The Ponsonby Hotel - which is called that by nobody. Through those hallowed doors can be found excellent beverages from the ‘Hops’ family.

🖇️ 🔎 My Other Location Posts

Thu, 03 Apr 2025 11:01:03 +1200

Goodness Cafe 📍

Back when we first arrived in New Zealand The Goodness was called The Governor and became our go to place for coffee and breakfast. I think it’s now onto something like the 4th or 5th owner since then (that’s what COVID has done), but it still remains our ‘go to’. BUT .. our hearts remain with ‘The Governor’ and Steve and Bernie who owned it remain great friends of ours.

🖇️ 🔎 My Other Location Posts

Sat, 15 Mar 2025 08:48:48 +1200

🔗🔎 You know how I hate that word ‘content’ .. it’s getting worse.

Generation Beta?

Sun, 09 Mar 2025 13:27:32 +1200

I think describing who I am, what I want and need and everything else besides based on my age is baloney and claptrap. Hell - I’d put more money on being defined by astrology. But still this bunk persists.

It’s getting weirder.

Consider the labels and birth-year brackets commonly used to pigeonhole entire generations:

1.	The Silent Generation: Born 1928–1945 (17 years)   
2.	Baby Boomers: Born 1946–1964 (18 years)   
3.	Generation X: Born 1965–1980 (15 years)   
4.	Millennials (Generation Y): Born 1981–1996 (15 years)   
5.	Generation Z: Born 1997–2012 (15 years)   
6.	Generation Alpha: Starting from 2013—so far, 12 years

And now?

Apparently we are already ushering in Generation Beta - 3 years (at least) early.

Generation Beta officially arrived on Jan. 1, successors to Gen Alpha. While the name follows the conventions of the Greek alphabet, its connotation is less scholarly and more sus for some young parents and every school-age child. Beta is commonly used as slang for weak and passive.

💬 Ann-Marie Alcántara, WSJ

Seriously - The Wall Street Journal? The article wasn’t on the ‘joke page’ - and last time I looked they weren’t doing satire - though I get it - it’s increasingly hard to tell in this climate. But still.

Is this really real?
Who decided this?
Who’s in charge?
Who’s making the rules?

It’s a Corporate Marketing con that for some eye popping reason ‘we the people’ seem to have adopted.

Why?

It’s right up there with ‘content’ - if you are following you know what I am talking about. But in case you don’t - 🖇️🔎 I have hundreds of posts on the topic) that can be reduced to this …

Content is a horrible, generic, cheap, ‘anything will do’ kind of word. Which is why it has no value.

As long as ‘we the creators’ fall into the trap of using low cost, homogenous, non-descript words like ‘content’ to describe our work, our soul, our beliefs, our passion, our effort, then our work will continue to be viewed as ’free–to–cheap–to–low–cost’, homogenized, non-differentiated, interchangeable fodder and we will only have ourselves to blame as the payment for our art, our thinking, our ideas continues to race to the bottom.

Bottom line … the ‘con’ in content is there with intent.

Wed, 29 Jan 2025 08:52:15 +1200

💬

🔗 From DEI to dei - Gapingvoid

Tue, 28 Jan 2025 09:16:06 +1200

The Intersection of Politics, Business, Culture and YOU.

Real change requires a change in mindsets and deep seated beliefs. And you only change that through culture.

🔗 The Curse of Easy Money - Gapingvoid

Soon you have a two-speed society: those riding the wave, and everyone else paying inflated prices with deflated opportunities.

We All Can Choose What We Do - Until We Can’t.

The Business Equation

Tue, 28 Jan 2025 09:07:55 +1200

I have on occasions referenced ‘The Business Equation’ within this ‘Personal Journal’. I shared it last week in a pack of mental models I use as part of my processes that businesses find helpful when building their company. In the sharing, it occurred to me that while pictures are worth 1,000 words - sometimes you might need 10,000.

For example, The Business Equation includes my take on concepts like;

The Virtual Corporation
The Future of Work
Outsourcing and Offshoring
The Company of One
Supply Chain Transparency

… and even my extension to Geoff Moore’s Core/Context model - applied to people and the roles they might be looking to take.

I use these models and more during my engagements and advisory services that are designed to grow businesses.

I might write more about this. Should I?

🔗 The Case for the Executive Chair

A Reminder About ‘Content’

Tue, 28 Jan 2025 09:04:25 +1200

… because it’s getting worse.

A strategic thinker wouldn’t call it content.

Sorry - no idea who wrote that - not me - but definitely on pace with my thinking - which you will know that 🖇️🔍 I have written about this many times over the years.

To save the click through - in a nutshell …

As long as ‘we the creators’ fall into the trap of using low cost, homogenous, non-descript words like ‘content’ to describe our work, our soul, our passion, our beliefs then our work will continue to be viewed as ‘free - to - cheap - to - low - cost’, as ‘homogenized, non differentiated, interchangeable fodder’. Moreover, we then only have ourselves to blame and the resultant payment for your art, your thinking, your ideas, will continue to race to the bottom.

💬 John Philpin

And

It is not in the interests of any creator to allow that, so why allow their interests to define how we think?

💬 John Philpin

And

Content is a horrible, generic, cheap, ‘anything will do’ kind of word. Which is why ‘content’ has no value. It is also important to know that it is in the best interests of the buyers of our sweat, labour, thought and time to keep their price down. But our costs are not kept down. So our net earnings suffer. And they are suffering badly. And it has to start with you - the creator, because it isn’t in the interests of buyers to change their behaviour and vocabulary - ’they’ want great work at no cost.

💬 John Philpin

So. What you going to do about it?

🔗🔎 BusinessBytes | 🔗🔎 Content

Mon, 06 Jan 2025 11:55:24 +1200

I annotated this in the middle of 2024 with the intention to share, it’s pretty damming.

Only one or two directors on the typical 11-member board say they understand industry economics and how the company makes money. Two or three say they have little or no understanding.

Exactly in line with my observations - failure to understand leads to a focus on history, compliance and not losing - because they don’t even understand how to grow and win.

🖇️ You might not be surprised to learn that I have a fix. It’s called The Business Equation

Sun, 24 Nov 2024 11:17:27 +1200

Systems of Record are transitioning to System of Compliance while Systems of Engagement are still on the whole being ignored.

Sun, 24 Nov 2024 10:46:25 +1200

🔗 Om on content, it’s as if I wrote it - not with the natural flow of Om - but definitely 🖇️🔎 the subject matter.

Sun, 24 Nov 2024 08:56:11 +1200

Not my words - but I did 🖇️ call it nearly 5 years ago - and 🖇️ 🔎 a few times since.

Wed, 13 Nov 2024 16:19:29 +1200

So I will plant this post in various places across the inter webs as I reach out to find those customers that need what I do.

The link is worth clicking on, but that’s not really what this is about. Except, in a way, it kinda is… let me explain.

This part of John’s business model is a weekly sponsorship. He sells them upfront. He can sell two on the same week. And if one becomes open suddenly

Here’s the deal: my calendar is showing some similar gaps. Now, I don’t operate exactly like John Gruber—heck, we’re not even in the same space—but at the core, the goal is the same.

And honestly, for-profit organizations aren’t as different from each other as we might like to think.

I like to imagine every organization as a magic box. It takes inputs—people, capital, resources—and transforms them into outputs: products and services that are sold to customers. Ideally, every window of time is filled with something that generates revenue for the business.

These are sold to customers. Ideally, every window of time is filled with something that generates revenue for the business.

This urgency is one reason why so many rush to create products that can “make money while you sleep.” The aim is to replace perishable inventory with non-perishable. And while that’s a great approach, it’s not what I do, because—despite what I just said—every organization is unique.

So here I am, reaching out to the internet to help fill those gaps.

If you have a business—or know someone who does—that’s struggling to boost revenue, let’s chat. I’ve got frameworks, methods, and a book that’s gotten some praise from fellow writers worldwide.

Over the years, I’ve tried it all: flywheels, funnels, category marketing, guerrilla sales, challenger sales, social selling—you name it, I’ve probably experimented with it.

Here’s the biggest takeaway:

It’s all about the synergy of teamwork and a shared purpose.

If you’re ready to turn those inputs into something extraordinary, drop me a line. Let’s make some magic happen.

This version aims for a conversational tone while still driving home the main points and inviting engagement.

Tue, 12 Nov 2024 14:54:58 +1200

Over on Substack I published 🔗🖇️ this …

At first blush, it might seem to be about maths and it certainly connects, but it’s really about those who challenge the status quo, see something different, push boundaries, which, not coincidentally is exactly what great startups do.

Love to know what you all think?

Sun, 03 Nov 2024 12:36:19 +1200

🖇️🔎 The Business Equation involves a number of dimensions starting with ‘The Quadrants’ - the top quadrant is market facing, bottom is organisation facing.

The Organisation Facing quadrant is supported by ‘Systems of Record’ - increasingly transitioning to ’Systems of Compliance’

The Market Facing quadrant is supported by ‘Systems of Engagement’.

Businesses spend an inordinate amount of time focussed on ‘systems of compliance’ - to the detriment of ‘systems of engagement’.

Despite Business Growth emerging from ‘Systems of Engagement’.

🔗 Evan Shapiro on LinkedIN

Thu, 31 Oct 2024 12:02:41 +1200

It’s not just being different. It’s not only being the ‘only one that ‘does what you do’ (hat tip to ‘Jerry’). It’s not just following your dreams. It’s all of that - at the intersection of letting go of the ‘woulda coulda shoulda’ and wrapping that all up in a package that others value and give a shit about.

Part of an occasional series focused on the 🧶 thinking and methods. of 🧶 People First. Time will tell if it becomes something bigger like a book or ‘manual for survival’ (though that is the plan.)

🔗 It takes courage to take any kind of stand against ‘the flow’, much less a principled one. The story reminded me of the much heralded Saudi launch of LIV back in 2022, but the short post is really seeking a solution to a totally different, yet related dilemma. Feel free to weigh in.

Thu, 31 Oct 2024 10:53:25 +1200

🔗 🎙️You Must Answer The Questions About Feet

Wed, 30 Oct 2024 13:22:26 +1200

I might have posted this link before, but I keep sending it to people. It ties back to 🖇️🎙️my own podcast about Agents - nearly two years ago now. Still an issue - and will be for a long time yet.

Wed, 30 Oct 2024 09:19:46 +1200

I am writing a post for 🔗 ‘Human By Design’ .. and this popped up today. Very relevant.

Thu, 24 Oct 2024 08:56:42 +1200

Just joined a Discord and was asked to ‘introduce myself’. This is what I said …

I have lived at the intersection of ‘people empowerment through technology transformation’ for most of my career.

Problem - most of those people were INSIDE corporations and if you were on the outside - forget about it - you were a user, a ‘target’ and there was one objective … ‘maximize our share of your wallet’!

25 years ago a group of us asked if a Corporation can have a ‘CRM’ - why can’t a Person have a VRM (Vendor Relationship Manager) .. the question remains unanswered and definitely not implemented.

About ten years ago, I started focussed writing and podcasting about ‘People First’ and been doing it ever since.

I have this feeling that Task driven Agent AIs might be the first opportunity to start solving these very real problems.

Finally - I am NOT a coder - fascinated by it - but I know my skills.

My job is to understand what is being produced and explain it to others in terms that THEY can understand and unpack the relevance.

Wed, 23 Oct 2024 22:37:43 +1200

Spent my life connecting dots.

Wed, 23 Oct 2024 22:35:27 +1200

The constant push by ‘Industry’ and as a result - ‘Academia’ to specialize, specialize, specialize has resulted in way too many specialized specialists and very few ‘cloud hoppers’.

Cloud Hopping has always been a differentiator.

Wed, 23 Oct 2024 22:24:51 +1200

In the past We might have thought that expertise is only domain.

Real expertise has always been about synthesis.

Mon, 21 Oct 2024 22:30:09 +1200

I like to think of every organization being a magic box.

3 inputs [I] : people, capital and tangible assets
2 outputs [0] : products and services

The rest is just context.

Mon, 21 Oct 2024 17:58:55 +1200

Occasionally a post on Daring Fireball reads something like this:

After being sold out for months, the upcoming sponsorship schedule at DF is unusually open at the moment—especially this week!

I don’t sell sponsorship, I sell me, but at the highest level we both trade in what we might call perishable inventory;

A hotel room not sold on Monday night can’t be sold Tuesday.
John can’t sell this week’s sponsorship next week.
If I don’t bill today I can’t catch up tomorrow.

I’ll be back with some more thoughts, but for now, I’m just letting this lie.

🔗 Slop is the new name for unwanted AI-generated content

Mon, 27 May 2024 11:22:49 +1200

🎈148/366 Talking about ‘series’ .. as we are in the process of closing out ‘May’ - I finally got round to updating my 🖇️ 🔎 366 series

🎈142/366 A Bucket Of Slop

Tue, 21 May 2024 14:06:59 +1200

I am well aware that despite my years long campaign to stop people from describing their words, articles, photographs, thinking … beliefs, soul … Intellectual Property even … ‘content’ … they continue to… unabated.

🔎 🖇️ It drives me nuts.

But I am not giving up …

That said - there are people that ‘get it’. (Though I will freely admit that we are also in the minority there!)

Meanwhile the ‘bot farms that have been delivering the real content (sic) to our uncurated feeds and inboxes have been gearing up for the AI revolution - and indeed as reported in many places are already shaping our ’thinking’. (I use the word loosely.)

Imagine then my delight to read that ‘Slop is the new name for unwanted AI-generated content’.

Sidebar - if you don’t know what a ‘bucket of slop’ is - ‘Slop is the new name for unwanted AI-generated content’.

Perfect.

Slop is also a name given to what is left at the bottom after any of the remotely useful homogenized content that has been stored in a silo has been removed.

The trick now is going to be how readers will be able to spot the slop - given that they already have difficulties separating content from any kind of value.

Read the whole piece …

… and hat tip to John Gruber who referenced this post on Daring Fireball.

🔗 Meanwhile, over in Finland, they do have an idea or two.

Thu, 02 May 2024 12:45:40 +1200

I have referenced 🔎 🖇️ The UNDaunted on this blog a few times. On a call this morning - and we are going live in two weeks . Letting a few friends and family in early. If you are into Social Impact - you are going to love The UNDaunted. Hit me up in whatever way makes sense to learn more.

Sun, 28 Jan 2024 11:02:32 +1200

I just worked out how to add captions to my images on my blog like🖇️ here for example.

I adjusted my TextExpander template for future 🖇️ 🔎 366 posts.

I need to decide if I should go back and fix all the posts published in 366 thus far?

What’s the name of that psychological problem again?

Wed, 03 Jan 2024 09:50:27 +1200

It has taken a couple of days (and gos), but I am beginning to get my new series settled in. Still some tweaks to go - and there is a BIG fix needed on the site around syndication - but nearly there.

🖇️ 🔎 You can see the series coming together here.

Mon, 18 Sep 2023 03:25:41 +1200

🔗 Russell Brand: In Plain Sight review – so many red flags ignored for so long.

From demeaning sexual remarks on radio to offering his assistant naked to Jimmy Savile, every disturbing detail of this cogent documentary makes it mind-boggling that these alleged abuses have taken so long to surface.

Exactly.

🖇️ 🔎 Branded

Sun, 17 Sep 2023 04:12:15 +1200

I am no fan of Brand … as I have 🖇️ 🔎 previously touched on … so this comes as no surprise. Of course, I have no idea of the truth and we don’t yet know the story … but where there’s smoke etc etc.

🔗 Russell Brand accused of rape, sexual assault and emotional abuse.

🔗 Just some of his shit.

Sat, 12 Aug 2023 04:36:21 +1200

🌺 🔎

Wed, 09 Aug 2023 05:51:25 +1200

Wed, 09 Aug 2023 05:50:57 +1200

Wed, 09 Aug 2023 05:39:43 +1200

Mon, 27 Jun 2022 07:39:14 +1200

5th Session of 🖇️ 🔎The Readers Republic starts in 25 minutes … live conversation with a few of us across 3 continents who like to read books … let me know if you’d like to join us .. I’ll send you the zoom link.

Tue, 24 May 2022 22:07:27 +1200

I promise that I didn’t plan it this way but the last three meetings of 🖇️ 🔎The Readers Republic differ in length by only 14 seconds.

Mon, 16 May 2022 12:04:47 +1200

📚Great Meeting Of 🖇️ 🔎The Readers Republic today - wonderful book recommendations that I am documenting. Notes to follow.

Fri, 29 Apr 2022 17:05:05 +1200

📚 🖇️ 🔎The Readers Republic Invite was just sent out for May 15th/16th - let me know if you didn’t receive it.

Mon, 25 Apr 2022 21:44:34 +1200

📚 Just looking out ahead and realized that I still need to come up with my two books for the next meeting of 🖇️ 🔎The Readers Republic.

Mon, 04 Apr 2022 13:48:25 +1200

I have closed and archived a number of blogs I had in different places over the past year.

They all now sit in words.philpin.com.

During ‘🖇️ 🔎The Readers Republic meeting’ this morning, I finally decided to point an obsidian vault at the blot folder - and see what comes out.

Fri, 01 Apr 2022 07:41:26 +1200

📚My Goodness Time Flies …

🖇️ 🔎The Readers Republic is upon us again!

Watch out for the deets in your email and calendars ….

Notes Reminding Us About Notes

Sat, 26 Mar 2022 16:47:56 +1200

Two short posts that arrived almost back to back in the multivarious reading apps that seem to be multiplying on my iPad.

The first came from Derek Silvers about why we should write plain text files.

The ‘shouldness’of that instruction cant be more emphasised. All that he says I do know, but it’s good to be reminded. But, even then it still doesn’t stop me from writing a lot of stuff in a couple of the most proprietary formats out there .. Apple’s ‘Pages’ and ‘Keynote’.

YES Keynote … it isn’t just for presentations, I use it to create simple graphics and structured workbooks.

The second was Note-taking became a full-time job, so I stopped

Last year out of nowhere, I became aware and interested in Obsidian. I learnt about Zeitelkasten. I discovered that Obsidian was just the latest application that promised to be my salvation.

I haven’t stopped using it - but boy did that post resonate!

Important to 🖇️ 🔎The Readers Republic

Wed, 09 Mar 2022 13:58:07 +1200

With thanks to @richnewman and his demo on 🖇️ 🔎The Readers Republic earlier this week, I find myself looking at DevonTHINK again.

The price mentioned on the day was a couple of hundred bucks - but it looks like there is a version at $100 - will I be disappointed?

Sun, 27 Feb 2022 15:00:46 +1200

🧶 📚The second session of 🖇️ 🔎The Readers Republic is coming up - delighted that @artkavanagh will be hosting. Sadly @ton will not be able to make it, so his session will need to run at a future event.

Otherwise, looks like we are all in for a good session on the 6th/7th March.

Thu, 10 Feb 2022 16:34:01 +1200

‘Language Is Important’ - a new category now available on this blog.

LATER

Category depricated - that said 🔗 🔎 click here - and all those posts re categorized will come up - along with a lot more.

Tue, 08 Feb 2022 14:56:42 +1200

“If, at the end of your show you say “Available where you get podcasts,” then my friend, you have a podcast. If you have to say “Only available on Spotify” (or some other exclusive service), good for you, but it’s not a podcast.”

💬 Dave Winer

… and I very much agree with him.

Language is important … and I am done with Corporates hijacking language so to appear better than they are.

🔗 The Crypto Crash Has Destroyed a Trillion Dollars in Wealth

Fri, 04 Feb 2022 15:35:49 +1200

I question the use of the word ‘wealth’.

The $1Trillion came from nowhere … and now it’s gone back to nowhere.

Thu, 03 Feb 2022 13:03:03 +1200

Building on an earlier thought Whoopi Goldberg has been suspended …

Bit by bit we are being divided and ‘taken out’ …

United we stand … divided we fall!

🔗 Read the whole thing here.

Tue, 01 Feb 2022 07:29:26 +1200

If you are part of 🖇️ 🔎The Readers Republic - check your inbox.

🚧Rebuilding My Micro Blog

Thu, 27 Jan 2022 09:56:14 +1200

By simply adding stuff / pages and plugins to my blog without thinking something eventually had to break - and it did. My thanks to @manton and @pimoore for pointing out the error. Turns out Hitchens doesn’t include a ‘Replies’ page - which caused my archive to disappear.

Flat Earth time. I mean - everything. (Barring two hidden pages being used for 🖇️ 🔎The Readers Republic ).

The Rebuild

Install Hitchens ✅ - thankyou @pimoore
(need to move my footer into Hitchens footer.)
Install Conversation ✅ - thankyou @sod
Install Surprise Me ✅ - thankyou @sod
Reply By EMail ✅ - thankyou @sod

Next Steps

Install Bookshelves - courtesy @moondeer
Install Webmentions
Install Cards - courtesy @moondeer

Thu, 27 Jan 2022 07:16:05 +1200

📚Promoted on Substack this morning

Struck me as an interesting read for a number of Micro Bloggers including 🖇️ 🔎The Readers Republic

What To Read

Wed, 12 Jan 2022 17:23:34 +1200

📚 🪦 🔗12 Authors Who Died In 2021

Of interest to *🖇️ 🔎The Readers Republic

Thu, 06 Jan 2022 10:53:15 +1200

🧶 📚[This is what 🖇️ 🔎The Readers Republic is all about - so far!](https://www.craft.do/s/q4t5GKyMPcWXCp)

If you click through - and are interested … there is a link to register at the top of the page.

// @artkavanagh @pimoore

Thu, 06 Jan 2022 09:45:26 +1200

📚 🚧 Funny how you come across stuff that is so cool - and then it disappears again … such as the Literature Map

I used it to create a 🔗 series of 7 posts last year and then it got lost.

Maybe something to use in the 🖇️ 🔎The Readers Republic?

Thu, 06 Jan 2022 09:21:47 +1200

🖇️ 🔎The Readers Republic Signal Group Is Now 13 Strong

Corporate Speak

Wed, 26 Jun 2019 12:11:29 +1200

I have a problem with ‘Corporate Speak’. Putting aside how ‘we the people’ seem to adopt corporate speak as part of our conversation - how else does ‘content’ become part of our day to day vocabulary? (Although that is an entirely different topic.)

Here’s the thing … the same organisations that use phrases like;

‘Share of Wallet’

‘Attacking and Targeting a Market’ (that’s you and me folks) and breaking down those

‘Adoption Barriers’

‘Taking the hill’

‘Users’ not ‘People’

And have something called a ‘War Room’ !!! - you know the place where Marketing meet to plan how to extract out last cent. Anyway these organisations are exactly the same organisations that say things like

‘Your Passion Is Our Satisfaction’,

‘Pleasing People Is Our Motto’ and

‘A Customer Is Always Right’.

Which language do you believe reflects the true nature of the corporation?

Me? I think what is said behind closed doors more often reflects the truth. What is broadcast in public is what they think we want to hear. It’s politics, not business, but isn’t that what happened to Mitt Romney?

This week’s newsletter explores corporate language and asks why have people just blindly adopted it without question? It doesn’t serve us - only the corporation.

🖇️ 🔎 .. and much more on what I think about language here.

Wed, 05 Jun 2019 07:10:36 +1200

Sorry - just because we voted you in, or you own a newspaper or are a big strapping tech jock … whatever … you are not ‘an elite’ … another example of language being co-opted to maintain the status quo.