If you haven’t read 🔗📚 Ollie Henderson’s Future Work/Life you should. Excellent.

This particular quote reminds me of something that Jason Fried wrote in one of his books ..

New technologies tend to imitate the old until people figure out what they’re really meant to do. Early websites were brochures. Early cars looked like horse-drawn carriages. Early TV shows were radio shows with pictures.

💬 Jason Fried

So too work. We ‘broke’ work about 5 years ago - but slowly people (Corporates) are ‘fixing it’ (As in making us all go back to our old ways.) This is because they are still looking at work through the lens of the brochure/horseless carriage. It will be a while before we break it again - BUT - it will be broken but only once we have truly unpacked how the new world of work works.

I’ve got ideas. I’ve got people. I’m excited for the future.

🔗 The Mediocrity of Modern Google

But here’s the thing about tech – and I’ve been saying this for years – technology’s self-obsolescence is a more effective regulator than any government agency. Google, despite its trillion-dollar market cap and infrastructure advantages, risks becoming the first of the mega-caps to fade into irrelevance as the internet evolves beyond the “10 blue links” paradigm that made it a giant.

Me - never been overly into the land of Google. Yes - I have an account - and of course I have Google Drive - but it is not my ‘go to’ - unless I am forced into it because a business I am working with has decided it hates Microsoft and has enabled Google. I do think it is hard to beat their ‘office suite’ - for the collaboration part of it - BUT I would never consider writing a doc or knocking out a spreadsheet on Google if I wasn’t expecting somebody to be collaborating with me.

In my world …

GoogleSheets Airtable

GoogleDocs Craft

GMail AppleMail/Spark mainly running my own domains in some data center

Google Search Perplexity

GDrive iCloud/Dropbox

GooglePhotos et al. Apple

What else do people use Google for - I forget.

Drafted while on my travels a couple of weeks ago …. Finally posting it ….

While there were 60 or so people in the ‘pre approved’ TSA line .. for some strange reason there were maybe 3 of us in the non pre approved line. Plain sailing right? Not so fast.

My computers could stay in the bag .. my shoes could stay on .. but my jacket and belt had to come off. #whatever … oh and empty your pockets. I did. Oh .. and take off your shoes (see earlier instruction). I walked into the scanner … and the alarms went off … bugger … had left my phone in the rear pocket of my jeans.

Off it went to get scanned. Meanwhile I now need to be ‘rescanned’.

I was told to stand to the side so i didn’t block the way. I looked behind me .. nobody there.

Eventually some dude appears and I am manually scanned. In a very rigorous, thorough and intimate way. (Though I was allowed to keep my clothes on and no anal probes were used.) Still nobody in my line .. so I asked .. why not just rescan me with the machine?

Because you fucked up

.. replied the Federal TSA agent.

Right then.

All done and I went over to collect my stuff off the conveyor. All there .. no phone. No people. No bags coming through STILL no phone. Eventually they tell me to go to a different line to get my phone.

####Thankyou …

In the big scheme of things - really - who cares - except ..

All of this in a little airport called Palm Springs. Not NYC. Not DFW. Not SFO. Not LAX .. but Palm Springs. I guess the TSA wannabe disease is spreading.

Imagine how you will be treated in a big airport if you make one step out of line - much less the treatment you are going to receive that is actually being reported (though not that much in the mainstream media).

Restaurant? Or Art?

🔗 How Long Can the Apple TV+ Experiment Sputter On?

🔗 Apple Losing Over $1 Billion A Year On Streaming

And still they don’t get it.

In business there is a concept called channel attribution where they try to tie the expenses of email, social, web site, collateral, inside sales, field sales …. You name it .. to sales - and then leaders of those departments attempt to win more budget for their channel because that channel will give the best ROI. #Bollocks

Back in ’96 a little company started up - its intention was to be the solution to omni channel attribution. Bought by Adobe 15 years later to continue to do that. It doesn’t but that’s an altogether different story. Today, the likes of Gartner even maintain a category called multi touch attribution it’s big - and still doesn’t answer the question.

But - back to Apple. The thing that both those pieces up there are going on about is meaningless and strikes me more as ‘reverse Channel attribution’. In this model they are trying to work out what revenue contribution to the mothership each channel (streaming in this case) is responsible for and whether it is profitable. I am far from convinced Apple thinks this way. In face they barely even break out their hardware, much less something like streaming. (That said - if anyone really wants to get into the down and dirty look no further than [Horace Dediu])(https://www.asymco.com) - but I digress.

IF that was even a concern of Apple’s do you think they wouldn’t have been doing something about it? I could go on - but will resist - because @gruber said it best.

How much did Apple “lose” on electricity bills last year?

He had two pieces on the NON story. 🔗 Here and 🔗 here

🔗🎵📼 Please Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood

Unless you live under a rock you know the Trump/Musk Euro issues which got me started on this post - and then it went downhill. (Hard to believe - but true.) It also had be examining my decisions on not becoming a US citizen - but first … beyond the Ukraine and Europe …

Over in The Far East.

🔗 The New World Order Is Here, And America Isn’t Part Of It

The foreign ministers of Japan, China, and South Korea gathered for the first time since 2023, posed for ceremonial photographs, and drafted plans for an Asian future where American preferences no longer command deference.

The collapse of American influence isn’t happening because the U.S. military is weaker or its economy smaller. It’s happening because trust in American judgment, consistency, and commitment has plummeted.

And in Global Intelligence

someone much more knowledgeable than me …

PS 5 March, 2025. A further sign of trouble in the Five Eyes' alliance was a long report just noticed in the Financial Times_ on 25 February that Peter Navarro, one of Trump’s closest advisers, was urging him to expel Canada from the membership, although even Steve Bannon is reported to have said that this was a bad idea.

Right then!

I have long been asked given how long I have lived in the USA - why I never became a US citizen. “Because I never wanted to become a US citizen”, was my usual reply. I am English. (Just in case you are new to this blog - I am being very specific. English - which politically and by my passport means that I am British - but how long is that going to last? So, just declaring my side.)

But you can keep your British citizenship an and become American - dual citizenship.

And my reply has always been that I find it intellectually challenging to swear allegiance to two countries. (OK - strictly speaking I never swore allegiance to The United Kingdom - I just am.), but were I to have become American …

“I hereby declare, on oath, that I absolutely and entirely renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state, or sovereignty, of whom or which I have heretofore been a subject or citizen; that I will support and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States of America against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I will bear arms on behalf of the United States when required by the law; that I will perform noncombatant service in the Armed Forces of the United States when required by the law; that I will perform work of national importance under civilian direction when required by the law; and that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; so help me God.”

(My bold)

I know - it’s ‘just words’. But to me - words mean something. That is why I am and remain British - until it goes to hell and a hand-basket - at which point - I am with the English.

Back to the USA ..

The principles embodied in the Oath are codified in Section 337(a) in the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), which provides that all applicants shall take an oath that incorporates the substance of ….

(Which includes these words - again my bold)

Renounce and abjure** absolutely and entirely all allegiance and fidelity to any** foreign prince, potentate, state, or sovereignty of whom or which the applicant was before a subject or citizen;

Pretty clear - which gets ignored when everything is sweetness and roses. But it isn’t any more. Which got me to wondering first about 🔗 John Oliver to pick one famous random name, but really more about people like Mike Myers, Drake, Neil Young, Justin Bieber, Will Arnett, Michael J Fox … well, here’s a 🔗 more complete list as Trump threatens Canada with war.

What Do You Think?