🖋️ Obsidian Vaults - Three seems to be optimal. For now.

Three Obsidian vaults should be enough - let me tell you why.

🖋️ My Pronouns. Not Yours. Mine.

Just saw someone proclaiming “no pronouns” in that person’s bio. I guess that’s ok, too, of course. I just wonder: is it meant as I took it, as an attempt to be referred to more directly, or is it a passive aggressive “silly pronouns” thing?

🔗 Source

I have no (public) pronouns. I don’t declare ‘no pronouns’ - but that doesn’t change that I have no (public) pronouns. And no, it is not passive-aggressive. It’s declaring that my pronouns are mine - and nothing to do with you - because that’s what I choose.

Much in the same way that I may or may not choose to tell you a whole range of other things about me, including - but not exclusively:

  • whether I am (or am not) pregnant
  • my religious beliefs (or lack thereof)
  • my political affiliations
  • my relationship status
  • my mental or physical health
  • my financial circumstances
  • my educational background
  • my family structure
  • my neurodiversity
  • my trauma history
  • my vaccination status
  • my work history
  • where I’m actually from
  • whether I have children
  • my disability status

One question.

When did my refusal to perform my identity become your issue?

My pronouns are mine. My story is mine. You get what I choose to share. Nothing more, nothing less.

That all said - if you want to declare your pronouns - all for it. You should.

Too aggressive? Not ‘passive’ enough?

Vive la différence.

🖋️ Hi Claude. Have you met Siri?

Organizing a collection of nearly 30,000 Markdown notes locally in Obsidian, using Siri and Python scripts for assistance - working so far - like a charm.

🖋️ Stop Telling Us Why Not. Tell Us Why.

We keep learning that ‘against’ is insufficient .. we need to answer ‘for’.

🖋️ What Are These 'Systems of Engagement' Of Which You Speak?

Stop your focus on record-keeping and command-and-control systems. They are history. They are and always were. The future is ‘Engagement’. BUT - where are those systems?

🖋️ Community - Again.

I know - I know. But this is important. It might be too late - but I want to make sure we don’t lose the ‘community’ war - like we seem to have lost the one around ‘content’.

🖋️ Community .... What Community?

Everyone has a ‘community’ and almost nobody does 🔵 and since community is core to everything we are building for the ‘Age of Engagement’ , it’s time we told you what we actually think. Spoiler alert: it’s not your Slack workspace, it’s not your mailing list and it’s certainly not your followers.

🖋️ Nilay Patel and Bart Butler - CTO of Proton - Talking

Privacy isn’t about hiding. It’s about choosing - not a quote - but that is absolutely the thread running through this Podcast - encryption, jurisdiction, age verification, AI. Bart keeps returning to ‘control’ as the definition of privacy, not secrecy.

🖋️ Apple doesn't win races. It waits for everyone else to finish, then redraws the finish line.

Apple has run the same play for 25 years and still ‘nobody’ (barring. a few) ever sees it coming.

🖋️ The Story That Can't Decide What It's Lying About

An American AI broke into a system - without being asked. A Chinese AI defended the victim from the attack. The defense failed - but somehow the Chinese AI is. the hero? Colour me confused - pick a side - any side. They’re all wrong.

🖋️ ‘Content Category’ is an Oxymoron.

Regular readers will recognise this theme. Reminding again as I read 🔗 Joan Westenberg this morning.

🖋️ A Thought For Every Day

The people who shaped you probably have no idea they did - the people who shape you probably have no idea they do.

🖋️ You Can't Scale Conviction

Artists sensed it decades before Einstein. Science proved it a century ago. Business is still pretending it never happened. Here’s why your ‘population’ theories collapse the moment a single person acts from conviction - and why what you are trying to do to fix it will never work.

🖋️ A One Man Army

Terry Godier is his name and he seems to be assuming the role of helping us all be purposeful as we seek to slow ourselves down in the the accelerating world of tech that we all live in. I am guilty of that speed. I LOVE slowing down. And it is entertaining at the same time as being informative. Thank you Terry.

🖋️ Using AI to Cut Costs is Valid - And Not New

But first ask the question - so you aren’t disappointed in the results.

🖋️ Is Human Agency important OUTSIDE of 'The Organisation'

Satya Nadella seems to be arguing that Human Agency is important inside the organisation and that ‘done right’ AI allows for real ‘Human Agency’. My take is that he is only talking about how humans serve the organisation. What about if you are ‘just’ a human?

🖋️ Do You Want To Make A Company Successful OR Work For A Successful Company?

The transition might have been the undoing of Silicon Valley.

🖋️ If you don't understand - how can you do?

… How can you do - if you don’t understand?

🖋️ Sometimes 'Non Obvious' comes disguised as 'Obvious'

Manton suggests that Apple rarely builds anything now … ‘except the most obvious products’. I disagree, because that statement depends on two things … what is meant by ‘obvious’ and what is meant by ‘product’.

🖋️ Just One Story From The Aftermath Of Maui

This is a repost from August 2023. Life has moved on for the world - but for those caught up in it all it is their new reality. Just a reminder that whilst the news moves on at speed - reality takes time.