🖇️ HUB
Links to posts and pages that are within the philpin.com domains
We’re nearly into February - so the ‘Holiday lights’ at 🖇️ john.philpin.com have been uninstalled - and it is no longer snowing. #LifeMovesOn
I have something I call my public journal. Some might call it a blog. I used to call it a ‘Lifestream’, but the name doesn’t really matter. Does it? 🖇️ It’s here.
‘It’ is a chronological record of thoughts I have had over the years. (The Philpin domain moved to its 26th year - this year and the oldest post that I have yet found turned 21 (I keep hoping that I will rediscover the first 5 years somewhere.) Hope is good. Right?
There are gaps of days with nothing … not that I didn’t have a thought or two, I just didn’t record that thought on the ‘stream’, sometimes not even in the journal that sits in a ‘private’ corner of the words stored as 1s and 0s on my computer.
There are also some days where you can see 20 or 30 separate posts … and that doesn’t include the ‘extended thoughts’ … that are also recorded there.
If it wasn’t there, would the world change? No.
My life - all ‘three score years and ten’ (plus or minus) of it - is but a blip in the matrix, much less these words.
Which is to say that it was quick. Relative I suppose. But it was.
With two actions, I was 🖇️ gone and then 🖇️ not gone.
To tell the tale.
The tale is incomplete - until the future joins it. There is no past. But past is incomplete without future.
Oh - and of course I wasn’t truly gone. Just from this node.
A Reminder About ‘Content’
… 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?
🔗 The Case for the Executive Chair
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
🔗 Scorsese Takes Aim at Streaming’s Lack of Curation … and more … including ‘content’
the art of cinema is being systematically devalued, sidelined, demeaned, and reduced to its lowest common denominator” by conceptualization of films as “content.
🖇️ 🔍 You might recall - the ‘content thing’ has been a drum beat of mine for a while now.
As always delighted to find more people jumping on the bus … or is it a train now?
🎥 The Two Popes, 2019 - ★★★★½ 🖇️
I’ve clearly got something about Popes‼️
To be real clear - I am NOT an Airline Analyst. I haven’t even played one on TV. But I do tend to look around and question claims that seem spurious. (And in my time down in New Zealand, I do hear a large number of claims made that do not seem to add up).
(I wrote this in response to a newsletter on Substack suggesting that despite being one of those CEO types, he’s not doing a great job as PM. My point is that despite the press, I’m not sure he was what good as a CEO!)
(Another old post that didn’t make it into the ether until now)
🔗 Om on content, it’s as if I wrote it - not with the natural flow of Om - but definitely 🖇️🔎 the subject matter.
Not my words - but I did 🖇️ call it nearly 5 years ago - and 🖇️ 🔎 a few times since.
It All Makes Sense - until it doesn't. We are passed that point.
A few of today’s reads all came together this morning …
First up (which I am not even going to bother linking to) lead with something like … “how corporations can create emotional connections to their customers at ‘scale’.”
What the fucking what - do not even get me started. Do these people even think about what their words mean when they spew them out?
Anyway - onwards - and as so often happens Hugh over at Gaping Void says it the best …
🖇️ My highlights on the companion article
Meanwhile …
(Talking of ‘creating emotional connections at scale - one of those silent companies that you know the name of - but wonder what they do is Palantir (remember Cambridge Analytics - who paid the price?) .. yeah, Palantir was the ‘power behind the throne’ - who not only avoided paying the price - but have gone on from strength to strength.
Anyway, 🔗 over in Dana land .. he’s looking at the next 4 years - and pointing a very large finger at one 🖇️ Peter Thiel … you know the guy that really runs Palantir (all due respect to Karp), but to remind you who he really is …
The New Zealand Herald did quite a job on that topic - do take a read - eye opening - even if you think you know all about him. (Pro tip - if you have ‘reader mode’ - use it if you really want to read it.) .. and at the end…
According to building consent records, his Queenstown Plasma Screen holiday home last year suffered a serious fire, causing more than $500,000 in damage. Building consents for the repairs filed with the Queenstown Lakes District Council in May show Thiel took this opportunity to rebuild and repurpose a walk-in closet. Plans now describe this nook as a panic room.
.. a panic room. In Queenstown? .. and this is the guy who is quietly influencing the US Govt?
And then there is ‘Ted’s Take’ on the changing nature of communication.
Are we doomed?
I guess not until this happens …
(The New Yorker)
“So are Sapiens and Neanderthals the same species or different species? And is “species” an objective reality that biologists discover, or is it an intersubjective reality that biologists impose?”
💬 Yuval Noah Harari
🔗🖇️ Coincidentally, have been exploring this idea as applied to Mathematics.
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?
🖇️🔎 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’.
🔗 🎙️You Must Answer The Questions About Feet
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.
🎵🖇️ 18 - 1975 - Pete Wingfield.
🎵🔗 19 - 1996 - Another Great (though very different) Track - this one from Paul Hardcastle.
Sometimes time goes slow.
Searching my site for something totally different and it found 🖇️ this joke post - one of those things that used to circulate the wires. It is seventeen years old. It’s funny - though the names are definitely from a moment in history. The fourth one down caught my eye …
MOHAMMED SAEED AL-SAHAF (COMICAL ALI):
The chicken did not cross the road. This is a complete fabrication. We do not even have a chicken.
Comical Ali (Ali G) is of course the Sacha Baron Cohen creation from before Borat …
Fake News in a comedian’s kitbag 17 years ago.
This shit has been going on for too long.
🖇️ The Coming Labor War - Dana F. Blankenhorn
.. yup. If I have posted this before. Sorry. But it does bear repeating.
Spatial Computing Has Another Contender - AND - They Are Not Called Meta.
Stumbled across this a week or so ago and it got me to thinking - remember the 🖇️ Vision Pro?
Still don’t have one - no plan to - no personal use case (desire is apparently not a use case … who knew?)
That said, there are bundles and bundles of Business Use cases.
Anyway, turns out that 🔗 Sightful are coming out with a solution to a specific use case early 2025.
Their glasses predates Zuck’s and I would argue stand to be adopted more because they are going to be focussed on what looks like a single use case … virtual screens in confined spaces.
Yes folks - Spatial Computing for the rest of us (though to be fair - no pricing that I can see - so may still be only for the wealthy.)
Revenge Of The Nerds - Real Revenge
Back a few years ago - I raised the idea that 🖇️ ATS systems should just be banned.. Nothing changed.
Then I found this clip from The Monkees TV show that aired in the late 60s … 🖇️ The Monkees Predicting ATS software THIRTY YEARS before it appeared. Yes - 30 years is right - that’s when these things started to appear.
Of course in the intermediate time - they have just got better worse.
Even to the point of AI🖇️ Avatars Doing Job Interviews
You cannot make this stuff up!
A lot of my objections about so much of this tech is that it;
- ends up in corporate hands
- is misused
- is badly misused
- is extremely and badly abused
… and all the time never does anyone build a similar system for people. AND corporates don’t end up recruiting the best people for reasons like;
- the best people ‘don’t have time for that’
- the best people want to work with the best people - not bots
- the best people don’t tune their resumes to be Keyword and SEO compliant - necessary if you stand any chance of an ATS letting you through its gates
Until now. Brilliant …. The new story is from 404 Media. I haven’t checked but - does this tickle your fancy? It does mine …
The solution is sitting in Github - 🔗The solution is sitting in github so I am not qualified to comment on how well this works - but I have friends.
Of course corporate HR is going to declare ‘no fair’ because their systems are going to be swamped … too bad.
I presume that someone is going to fork the code and use it to apply for contracts .. and it wont be long before their AIs contact someone on Amazon Turk and convince them to register and sign on (on their behalf) for Job Boards and Recruiter sites - so we can do the same thing there. (Of course it won’t be long before the AIs can also do that.)
We know that the retaliation is going to happen - example case - someone inside the company uses their brains and writes code to get their 5 day job done in 2 to 4 hours - and then take a second job - repeat - and a third job - repeat … what do you think the corporate does when they find out? Promote them?
My prediction - they will work out how to block this access.
Let the battle begin.