I’ve started a new AlbumWhale list (and I haven’t even finished the others! Still.) The new list is called ‘Formative Years’ …

I’m an ‘artist’ guy, then an ‘album’ guy and then a singles/track guy. I like my music ‘in context’ The lists in here are way behind what I see in my mind’s eye - BUT the topics provide a clue to how I relate them all.
This new list is all about albums that ‘formed me’ and contributed to the music world I am today. At the time I might not have recognised it - but in the rear view mirror - absolutely.

First Up: Odessey and Oracle By The Zombies

We are told that AI will assist us, that platforms will adapt to us, and that services will respect what we want. But we are not being asked what we want. We are being modeled, approximated, and acted upon. Once that system achieves high enough fidelity and the simulation of our intent is “good enough,” our actual presence becomes redundant.

This is not empowerment. It is erosion.

🔗 The whole piece is on LinkedIN - via Doc Searls.

Updated my 🔗🎬 Mythic Quest review to include the 4th series .. watched the final episode last night.

🔗 LinkedIn’s cofounder Reid Hoffman says seeking work-life balance is a red flag that you’re ‘not committed to winning’ | Fortune

But the reward on the other side is second to none; the 100 or so first employees at LinkedIn don’t need to work anymore, he added. Microsoft purchased the professional networking platform for $26.2 billion in 2016.

.. so why is he still working?

🔗 If you are happy and need something to take you off your high … - don’t worry - its not that you don’t know l this - it’s just when you see it summarised and ending with …

But the public is too dumb and too uninformed to wake up and smell the coffee.

It ain’t morning in America, it’s closing in on midnight.

If you speak up, no one will rally to your defense, like the law firms sitting on the sidelines and refusing to defend 🔗 Perkins Coie

But you’ll compete with other influencers for the last buck, listening to mindless drivel .. happy that you’re still alive.

🔗 📚‘On Tyranny’ by Timothy Snyder

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.

🔗 ‘A Complete Disaster,’ Says Daniel Ives About Tesla Stock

The EV giant delivered 336,681 vehicles in Q1 – falling far short of Wall Street’s expectation of around 378,000. Even the more cautious analyst forecasts, hovering near 360,000, were missed by a wide margin. In all, Tesla missed consensus by more than 10% and underperformed even the lowest projections by about 20,000 vehicles. Deliveries also tumbled 13% year-over-year, the sharpest quarterly drop in the company’s history.

.. and then …

And yet, in a twist straight out of the Musk playbook, Tesla stock staged a comeback. After plunging as much as 6%, shares flipped positive – up 5% – on a Politico report suggesting Musk might step away from his role at the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

Really? If he stops DOGE it’s all going to be ok? Where do these people live?

🔗 Daring Fireball: ‘What Makes an App Feel “Right” on the Mac?'

Martin has a good list here of fundamentals, but ultimately, you know it when you see it.

💬 JohnGruber

.. like ‘pornography’ and ‘art’ then?