🖇️ HUB
Links to posts and pages that are within the philpin.com domains
💬
I really don’t like ‘PM’ - so I take great delight from reading pieces like this. Robert Hutton is seriously funny and yet its true.
If you want to read the whole thing - 🖇️ I Put it up on Readwise - and you can speed read my highlights - some real zingers.
🎈035/366 | 🧊 TL;DR | VL;MR
This is published - but let me emphasize, most definitely a WIP. Hoping to get feedback from a few select people, not to say that I too am noodling more. I will return.
🚧
Out in the wild - and really - these days what else would you call ‘LinkedIN’, I 🔗 read a post by 🔗 Tim Parsons that had garnered a few comments. It was touching on a pet peeve of mine, despite TL;DR being a technique I use from time to time.
This was the essence;
Sometimes it just can’t be any shorter and still be useful. Some lynchpin bit of data or context would have to be sacrificed, a risk go unnamed, a requirement remain unidentified.
Sometimes information exchange has to include all the information AND the meta data it needs to build a bridge from you to me.
Sometimes “Too Long; Didn’t Read” is a terrible risk/reward proposition, and you have to go all the way to “Very Long; Must Read.”
When everything extra has been distilled out, but there’s still a lot there, that’s a sign of something complex enough to be fascinating, or at least full of critical, decision-influencing intel.
He ended his post with a reference back to the source.
I remember 🔗 Marjorie Anderson activating that thought in my head weeks ago, and now it won’t leave.
This resonated ….
Sometimes TL;DR simply must yield to VL;MR
Which got me to thinking.
You know how I am with that word … ‘content’.
To remind from one of many posts on the topic - just on this blog ….
As long as ‘we the creators’ keep 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’, ‘homogenized, non differentiated, interchangeable fodder’ (which coincidentally is what silos have always been used for), then, we only have ourselves to blame as the resultant payment for our art, our thinking and our ideas, will continue to race to the bottom.
And whilst on the topic of silos ….
You should never … ever … trust a Silo. It’s theirs. The stuff you put there is theirs. Even our' handle is actually ‘theirs’.
All this and more can be found in an earlier post here : 🖇️ Friends Don’t Let Friends Write Content
And it is not just me …
Just today
and last year .. Dana Carvey and Will Arnett brought it up (listen it’s a one minute snipped) on the Smartless podcast.
Anyway, with that all said … ‘set up’ done … ✅
So What?
It struck me that ‘TL;DR | VL;MR’ is the second axis I have been looking for in my one man war on ‘content’. So I drew the picture.
‘content | material ' on the x axis and ‘TL;DR | VL;MR’ on the y axis - and I was left with ‘Yeah .. so what?
The ‘so what’ was because I realized that it was missing the third axis …‘Entertainment | Understanding’
The fact is that so much that is running around the ‘interwebs’ is ‘Entertainment’. Nothing wrong with that, but VL;MR is really about Understanding.
Moreover, the front facing 4 quadrants are all about ‘Entertainment | Understanding’ and TL;DR | VL;MR - not ‘Content | Material’
So I drew it again.
The coloration isn’t quite right for all occasions, but in this particular context
- on the entertainment side - it doesn’t really matter which end of the TL;DR | VL;MR spectrum you are - a 240 character tweet can be as entertaining as a 3 hour movie or a 1,000 page book, BUT on the understanding side .. sure sometimes a pithy one liner can shed light on an issue that a three volume encyclopedia will never do. It’s also true that a very short mathematical equation is very powerful when it comes to ‘explaining’ - IF you understand the language of math(s) (I like to accommodate both sides of the Atlantic if I can), which most people do not.
But generally that is not the case, because what triggered me is that context and history and space and time and .. is needed to really bottom out ‘Understanding’
So far so good?
I added the third dimension.
And we are there … nearly.
The dimensions are right - but the colors remain at odds with my thinking. I have the image in my head plus the colors need to be fading from one color to the next - depending on the context. I am not a graphic artist … and I could draw what I am thinking … eventually … and maybe I will return to complete / correct this.
But before I do that. Make sense? See where I am coming from?
🎈033/366 | 🥇 And The Winner Is …
This 366 project is officially one month in, so I thought I’d take a look at how we are doing on the ‘view’ front .. I won’t use ‘read’ (no assumptions here 😀).. so, without further ado, and for your delectation, coming in at Number 5 …
5 : 🖇️ 013/366 ⌨️ Typewriters .. and more.
And so on down the line …
4 : 🖇️ 026/366 | 🆔 The ‘entity’ in Identity.
3 : 🖇️ 004/366 | 🏢 Demonstrating The Pace Layer).
2 : 🖇️ 003/366 | 💬 A New Purpose.
And the winner - at least for this month, coming in at number …
1 : 🖇️ 002/366 | ♟️ Is There Planning In Strategy❓
Thoughts
Numbers 1, 2 and 3 are respectively the 2nd, 3rd and 4th posts in the series, so not surprised.
I am surprised at the 26th post coming as high as 4th, after all, It only had 5 days to get there.
By the time you get down to Number 5 - well, it’s a topic that resonates, and had a full half month to ‘move on up’, so once again, no real surprise.
I will run the numbers again next month, for February - and again for January - and will also provide a ‘year to date’. Be interesting to see the comparisons. (BTW, I am specifically running the data between specific dates - in this case for example Jan 1 to Jan 31 - not just ‘last month’.)
I am also interested to see if this posts gives a jump on these particular posts, so I will check the data in 7 days.
That’s all for now - except to say, my many thanks to 🔗 Vincent who wrote and maintains the 🔗 tinylytics app that in turn produces the data I need to write this email. Couldn’t do without it.
🔗 Pakistani military use age-old tactics to keep Imran Khan away from election.
Any pretence of due judicial process being followed was abandoned entirely at both cases where Khan was sentenced this week. Instead of an open courtroom, the trials were conducted inside the jail where Khan is being detained and his lawyers were not allowed to choose or cross-examine any witnesses.
🔗Elon Musk’s $56bn Tesla pay package is too much, judge rules.
A line in the sand has been drawn.
That said - not quite where the 🖇️‘limitareanists think it should be drawn.
But it is a start.
🎈030/366 | 🔗 Just A ‘Few’ Links
Still battling with my ‘in process’ (I am being generous) archive that 🖇️ I referenced here. Tucked away I had literally hundreds of links - some of which I have no clue why I saved them to drafts - rather than 🔗 Raindrop (a far more logical place). This is a random election from said list. Trust me - you don’t want the whole thing!
- Together - A social reader.
- An app.
- The Connecticut CyberHub Initiative.
- Provides a pipeline of talent to fill security jobs.
- National Cyber Group.
- A national version of same.
- John Wooden - Wikipedia.
- It’s funny who gets places named after them, a bar/restaurant in LA I frequented in the early part of 2023 had a John Wooden room. Famous apparently. I had never heard of him.
- Is “stream” as a design paradigm over?.
- One of ‘Om’s’ - I started to write about ‘Streams’ at the time.
- Streams of Consciousness · Matthias Ott – User Experience Designer.
- So did Matthias.
- Adactio: Journal—Home stream.
- …and Jeremy.
- Organizing my blog - Ben Werdmuller.
- Ben on - well - organizing hi blog, which is what I was doing at the time. Still am! Witness this 366 entry.
- Every Company Disney Owns: A Map of Disney’s Worldwide Assets.
- Always loved these kind of visuals.
- Reflect.
- An app
- Andrew Corser.
- a small blog by a long time family friend that I didn’t even know had a blog.
- Geyerhof StockWerk Grüner Veltliner, Kremstal 2021
- Organic wines anyone?
- Sky Bridge.
- A bridge - twixt Mastodon and BlueSky.
- AI risk must be treated as seriously as climate crisis, says Google DeepMind chief.
- A Guardian Article
- Obsidian ✍️ A new take on notes .
- A newsletter.
- Grupa Trias.
- a company I met in Poland.
- Personal Digital Agent - Google Slides.
- It is what it says on the tin.
- Motion | Pricing.
- An app.
- The Great Cash For Carbon Hustle.
- Is it? I am mixNo doubt it makes a lot of money for people - but we all know thatisnt right - don’t we.
- Micro.blog Feature Requests - Developers - Micro.blog Help Center
- MicroBlog feature requests.
- Struck | No Mercy / No Malice.
- A link I have saved for a future post - not yet. I think (know?) he is wrong.
- Seven Gigabytes.
- Robin Rendle.
Sometimes There Is No Pleasing People
Another old note, that deserves to see the light of day. I have 🖇️ written before on my position (a fan - not a fanboy), still …
The Masses:
“Apple hasn’t produced anything new since the iPhone.”
But surely: …
- Apple TV
- AirPods revenue roughly equivalent to Netflix
- Apple Watch
- A whole new range of Apple Silicon
- Apple Services …
The Masses:
“Yeah yeah yeah … but nothing like the iPhone. Nothing innovative.”
Apple … hold by beer.
Behold, not just a new product, a new category that we call ‘Spatial Computing’, to give you an idea of what we mean.
The Masses:
“Yeah - that sucks it is going to fail.”
A couple of links.
This is about ‘that’ Andreesen post/ But first … context, because I know - life has moved on.
I am in the process of trying to catch up on a massive backlog of notes that I am steadily
- deleting
- filing in Obsidian
- posting to 🖇️John.Philpin
Not sure if this will end up taking longer than the 🖇️ category deletion. We will see.
This one is in the third category. The news has been and gone now - but my opinion hasn’t changed.
Some of you might have stumbled across Andreesen’s Substack :
TL;DR .. who cares.
Despite what he wrote, he’s wrong … not least of which being that word ‘world’ .. it will be fine - regardless of what Marc thinks. People? Yeah - that’s different. Anyway …
What you might NOT have stumbled across are these;
🔗 Alan Jacobs (pdf)
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?
🎈028/366 | 📸 Just A Picture
Because somedays 🖇️ Ain’t Nobody Got Time For ‘Dis’. Sorry.
That’s how long I have been thinking about writing a newsletter around this thought (surviving that is).
I really should extract the digit!
🎈025/366 | 🐫 Do Not Put ‘Product’ In Charge
Don’t get me wrong. I have a lot of time and respect for 🖇️ Dana Blankenhorn - as you can see … so this one caught my attention
There’s a single rule I’ve learned studying technology this last half century. Product must be in charge.
.. and 🔗then he goes on
I totally disagree, so had to comment and did. Reproduced here for posterity
I don’t disagree on taking the finance wonks out .. but not sure I agree on putting product in … I know lots of companies that lead with product .. and it doesn’t work unless there is wider purview which is often missing in product thinking. Our friends in Cupertino don’t lead with product .. though many pundits think they do .. they lead with vision, experience and story that the product delivers against.
The ‘top’ needs to be market, future market, visionary oriented. Disciplines that used to fall under marketing … though sadly not anymore .. as they are all chasing data and models and RoI .. but those people exist. In all of those disciplines. The dude at the top can still be a focussed finance wonk … their ancillary skill (beyond those three core requirements) is to listen to everyone, take advice and pay attention.
Again .. the man at the top of Cupertino is ‘operations and supply chain’ ( by history ) but to the casual observer, that isn’t so obvious. Meanwhile, the man before him was vision and experience and story .. sure he definitely had a say in product … but from an holistic viewpoint -
Just one slice of the holisticism (is that even a word)… how many ‘product’ people get what good design can do.
If they do .. I mean REALLY do .. why are there so many badly designed, poorly performing products out there?
What Do You Think?
Postscript - sometimes the Leonardo images take a few tweaks to get even close to my underlying message - but in this case - third go - and was only generating 1 image at a time. Sometimes I run out of the 150 free credits that I get every day - and have to choose from a bad lot.
This image just spoke volumes to me as ‘the house that ‘product’ built.
Funnily enough - today’s emoji was also absolutely clear.
🔗 Donald Trump wins Republican primary in New Hampshire
He is representing the American people. He is not out for himself. He’s not out for political gain. He’s not out for financial reasons. He doesn’t need money, he doesn’t need fame and fortune. He already has all of that.
💬 Tina Lorenzo, 63, a Trump supporter since 2016
No comment … you know 🖇️ my position
🎈024/366 | 🍏 Tim’s Job Is Safe
🖇️ This fine piece of writing dates back to June 2016. What? 7 1/2 years ago?
It popped up yesterday when I was searching my site for something else. A few things dawned on me, not least of which … whatever happened to Scoble? Not that I care.
Don’t get me wrong. I am sure he is bouncing around somewhere - I just don’t track him. I am guessing that at some point in time I just closed him out of my mind, because he more often than not wrote rubbish.
That certainly seemed to be my opinion .. what? 7 1/2 years ago! 😃
That all said, posting this as an early (quasi) ‘claim chowder’ (tip o' the hat to @gruber) entry. I didn’t believe him (Scoble) then - and said so - and though the jury is strictly still out - I am firmly in the camp that the vision pro IS the next big thing and more importantly that it is because of ‘Tim Apple’ - not despite him. In short - I don’t think Tim needs to worry too much. Certainly not about ‘Bob’.
There’s 📼🎵 something in the air. Anybody else feeling it?
It started happening last week. All good.
But .. not all good apparently 😖
I tried to find a post on my site to link to - #FAIL.
This is the message
2024-01-23 11:34:07 Error: Error building site: open content/2022/01/01/the-first-message.md: no such file or directory
Gnashing teeth.
Talk about a downer!
If you are reading this post on my site, the inline video gives an error. Click on the link above. The 'error' is only because the creator wants you to got to YouTube to watch it.
🖇️ Today’s 366 Contribution is different again.
Continuing to experiment with both format and material in the 🖇️ 366 posts to see what resonates with others - because they all resonate with me. I mean, why would I bother posting things that don’t?
🎈023/366 | 9️⃣ Highlights From Yesterday
A different theme for today’s 366 … nine links to yesterday’s news - complete with pithy comment - courtesy of this author
1️⃣ 🖇️ Remember my post from a couple of weeks ago?
Well, it turns out that though he might have been expecting .. hoping for that … it might not be a slam dunk.
🔗 Tories hire coordinator to get expat supporters to vote in general election.
Who knew?
2️⃣ 🔗 Trump Says He ‘Aced’ Cognitive Test, Mind Is ‘Stronger’ Than 25 Years Ago
.. not exactly a high bar.
3️⃣ 🔗 Flanders government looks to force TikTok and YouTube to share revenue | Belgium.
Some lessons here. Most Governments pay (they don’t use that word … but that is what they are doing) to attract film production.
I think this is the right way round.
4️⃣ 🔗 Rise in measles cases prompts vaccination campaign in England.
Oh .. so it’s ok to get vaccinated now?
5️⃣ 🔗 The Musical Instruments Market Size Is Expected To Reach $14 Billion By 2027.
Wonder what constitutes a ‘musical instrument ‘ these days?
6️⃣ 🔗 January 21, 2024 - by Heather Cox Richardson
I wonder if Dobbs, with its announcement that when Republicans are given power over our legal system they do not consider themselves obligated to recognize an established constitutional right, will turn out to be today’s version of the Kansas-Nebraska Act.
No Comment. Yet.
7️⃣ 🔗 Thousands of Māori gather to tell New Zealand’s government: you cannot marginalise us.
Got to say .. ‘Cristopher (sic) and crew’ were warned.
8️⃣ 🔗 DeSantis Might Be the Worst Presidential Candidate in Recent Memory
Say what now?
Isn’t The Orange Clown a Presidential candidate? Problem nailed .. ‘they’ve forgotten already .. and he is in the fucking race!
9️⃣ 🔗 It seems that ‘God sent a quitter’
If his campaign is remembered at all, it will be for setting fire to a pile of money big enough to be seen from space in order to win a grand total of nine Iowa delegates.
ROTFFLOL
So here’s an odd thing for anyone interested to do with the very excellent ‘Conversation on Micro.blog’ plugin. 🖇️ This link (2016) works - BUT at the bottom - it reads ‘Also on Micro.blog - and not the usual ‘Conversation on Micro.blog’ like on say 🖇️ this post.
‘Also on’ - just takes you to the home page of the blog.
‘Conversation on’ - takes you to the actual post.
On closer looking at the plugin I see something that is called a fall back link - which i THINK is new? Certainly newer than my original install - so I am guessing that posts of a certain age and/or posts that were imported (like this one) don’t work.
Is that right @sod ?
Anything a mere mortal can do to improve this?