: A Victorian-era LLM If you scratch away the surface, I’m still a History teacher underneath, so I love this idea …
: 2026 is about 'Aspirational Humanity' – amongst other things The key themes in this slide deck are interesting, especially as I like to be able to name things …
: Clippy sez: Just Do It Wow, rude. Source: Are.na
: Each came down with spectacular clarity, each a wingless fuselage, quietly descending to the depths of the ocean floor. This is an incredible read, and I’d encourage you to set aside the time to do so. I’m …
: I must trouble the reader to correct the errata... For I am quite tired. Well, indeed. My little robot friend says the origin is as follows: That line is from the 1704 …
: Thought Shrapnel's 50 most-referenced sources (2018-2026) I’ve been travelling to and from Huddersfield today (2.5 hours each way) for my …
: The hard work of building a thing now isn’t writing the code Last week, after seeing yet another person wax lyrical about Current (on this occasion without even …
: Your future needs you. Your past doesn't. A useful reminder — especially for me. Source: Are.na
: If a computer is a bicycle for the mind, then LLMs are like e-bikes I agree with this clear-eyed metaphor from Greg Wilson, riffing off Steve Jobs' famous quotation …
: LLMs are "in the game, even if they’re not strictly playing it." The widely-referenced “stochastic parrots” paper from five years ago is no out of date. …
: Creating the conditions to make things possible This post by Dave Snowden, originator of the Cynefin framework, relates to post I shared by Tom …
: Institute of Pragmatic Solutions Everything that’s wrong with the world, captured neatly in one cartoon. Source: Tom Gauld
: Maybe the loose end isn't a failure of facilitation Tom was talking to me about his thinking about this post when we met up earlier this week to discuss …
: Why it's all kicking off (again) I’m not saying that you need to be an expert on the history of every country of the world, but …
: A useful reminder Source: Are.na
: Brexit is a problem whose name we now dare speak It’s almost a decade since one of the greatest economic harms a country has ever …
: Disgust is a complicated emotion This is definitely not for everyone, but ContraPoints (Natalie Wynn) is awesome and always makes …
: Recursive logical fallacies I did not enjoy studying Formal Logic as a Philosophy undergraduate. But it stood me in good stead. …
: Claude Cowork vs Claude Code Yes, Claude Cowork is great, but the secret sauce is actually Claude Code which you can access via …
: ROOTS: Return Old Online Things to your own Site Whatever you call it, having everything in space you control has always made sense. Why am I doing …
: How long before run-on sentences are preferred to em-dashes? An insightful post from Max Read about stylistic preferences with regards to human vs AI text. Every …
: How to stop thinking I am not someone who meditates, precisely for the reason outlined in this explanation from 2015 by …
: The Fifth Horseman Five years old, but still as relevant as ever. Source: Bill Bramhall
: How to Create a Freelancer Dashboard Link to video I ran a 90-minute workshop this morning, which started life as a 1:1 session. Around …
: US Big Tech infrastructure as "legitimate targets" More reason to divest yourself of US-based Big Tech platforms. (Join the first TechFreedom cohort!) …
: Ending an archaic and undemocratic principle I’ve always been against unearned privilege and the idea of a ‘natural’ hierarchy. …
: Tree Hug This made me laugh. Entitled Tree Hug by Bulgarian street artist Vanyu Krastev. Source: Street Art …
: News Canary next steps Now That’s What I Call An MVP Source: News Canary
: They’re not rejecting technology. They’re choreographing it. An inability to focus is a design problem. As I noted back in 2020 on my now-defunct literaci.es …
: Groundwork This week I shared my Claude-based ‘bizdev dashboard’ with a few people on some Slack …
: Et Merda If this isn’t true (as it probably isn’t) it certainly should be. Source: Mastodon
: Finger-based checkout As a facilitator, I do love an innovative end-of-session activity. This one made me smile. 👉 Index: …
: Living off the moral and intellectual capital of a pre-AI world As one of the comments underneath this notes, “Millennials might be the last generation formed …
: How to avoid your white collar turning blue: brilliance, influence, and relationships The opening of this piece by Anu Atluru, which I’ve quoted below, is one of the clearest …
: The world you were raised to survive in no longer exists Source: Are.na
: Customised pixel graphics from classic games I learned to touch-type when I was about 11 years old using Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing which came …
: The spectacle produces hypernormalisation We live in a world of ‘spectacle’ which Guy Debord would have recognised, as both …
: Building a news canary I’ve been toying with the idea of a new website, (because obviously what I need to do is own …
: Enough is enough Today, the pedo-authoritarian US and genocidal Israel attacked Iran to distract from respective …
: Super Mario World Map I don’t know the original source of this, but I think it’s quite old. A reverse image …
: WAO is closing I know some people only read Thought Shrapnel and not the rest of my work, so I’m just going …
: Agentic commerce is a catastrophe for every business whose moat is made of friction I’m too young for memories of the original game on the Commodore 64, but I do remember the …
: Who am I, and what does someone like me do with their time? Truth. Source: Alex McCann
: Units of attention Good stuff from Jay Springett, who also links to a 60-page PDF called Paying Attention that …
: Reimagining everyday urban details on a micro scale Well these, by Michael Pederson, are delightful. Source: Colossal
: 👋 A reminder that I’ve been on holiday this week, so no Thought Shrapnel. However, I’ve …
: TechFreedom As explained in this post, Tom Watson and I are putting together an offer to help organisations with …
: A range of authentic selves? Jo Hutchinson reshared this on LinkedIn a few days ago, and I wanted to save/share my comments on …
: To find a new world, maybe you have to have lost one Source: Are.na
: Each culture is made of shared framings—ontologies of things that are taken to exist Most of this post talks about the differences between Japan and Italy, which makes it well worth …
: Thinking is hard Source: Notes by Praveen
: Like it or not, it is a basic fact of human cognition that we think and act politically as members of social groups. This post on the blog of the American Philosophical Association (APA) talks about political …
: Digital sovereignty, French-style In the wake of Big Tech propping up Trump’s increasingly authoritarian regime, European …
: How to Be Less Wrong in a Polycrisis A rare cross-post for me from my Open Thinkering blog. I’m really rather pleased with this and …
: Hands, spoon, shovel I’ve been using Claude Opus 4.6 over the last couple of weeks, and let me tell you: it feels …
: A rough attempt at laying out what in philosophy is most relevant for AI. While I expected studying Philosophy as an undergraduate to be personally useful and indirectly …
: The heart is ancient and hasn't had any updates Source: Substack Notes
: The winners will be headless As Jan Muehlig posted on LinkedIn recently, a machine-first internet looks quite different from a …
: Octopus people There are two types of people in life: those who make binary statements, and those who don’t. …
: A complex system, contrary to what people believe, does not require complicated systems and …
: Building your sense of agency by granting yourself permission to do the things you are already allowed to do I no doubt shared this when I first read it, but I had reason recently to re-find this excellent …
: We are, effectively, being fracked to death. I like experimenting with AI tools, but as I mentioned in a recent post about the Claude …
: Sometimes the work is rest My one week of rest to give my autonomic system a break turned into two as, predictably, I caught …
: A bit more than a to-do list I’m pretty sure I’ve come across anytype before, but I was reminded of it after asking …
: Because I learned a second thing at the end of my two days of vertigo: That my idea was terrible. One of our recurring biases is assuming that our last experience of something, or somewhere, still …
: Words/phrases used more in AI-generated text Whether or not you use LLMs as part of your workflow, you don’t want to be accused of …
: Makes you think Source: Information is Beautiful
: I'm so glad I can still talk to my AI chatbot friends Source: Reddit
: National security assessment on global ecosystems It’s always worth looking at what governments decide to publish when the public are busy …
: Psychological Defence and Information Influence This looks interesting. It’s from Sweden’s Psychological Defence Agency and their …
: What do we mean when we talk about pollution and toxicity in online spaces? As someone who has done a lot of thinking about community spaces over the years, I like this …
: Living with your incapacity The one who learns to live with his incapacity has learned a great deal. This will lead us to the …
: My Are.na channels are now more organised I only post a small selection of the things I bookmark here on Thought Shrapnel. As ever when …
: Are they ever tricked by a voice that is false when they expected it to be a real, live human? Oh good, it’s not just me who thinks about these things. Ambiguity is a fundamental part of …
: It makes a lot more sense Source: Bluesky
: Privacy by design means what it says on the tin This was shared with me by Tom Watson yesterday, and we discussed it briefly as part of our …
: The correct response to Dachau was not better training for the guards This is a must-read from Andrea Pitzer. As she points out, the window of opportunity to do something …
: SOLVEM PROBLER Source: @brucesterling
: They have no idea what’s happening now. I was talking with Laura about how full-time jobs are pretty much over as a construct. There …
: What’s strange is how little of that generosity we extend to each other Last week, I discussed how our interactions with LLMs can provide some insights into ways we treat …
: Time appears in this 3D sort of calendar pattern It was 18 years ago that I discovered that I’m a bit weird. Like 10-20% of the population, I …
: Somewhere I'd like to spend some time I saw this and not only did it feel like somewhere I’d like to spend some time, but also …
: Postal Arbitrage I sent a parcel from Brexit Britain to my friend and colleague Laura Hilliger in Germany. The …
: The Cost of American Exceptionalism We all know that what’s going on in the US is pretty terrible. But there remains an underlying …
: Writing always interrupts being Source: Are.na
: LinkedIf When I was a boy, I had a poster of Rudyard Kipling’s poem “If” on my wall. As a …
: We will no longer have the conspiracy nonsense about state control This climbdown was, perhaps, inevitable. Especially given what’s going on in the US, where the …
: We experience the externalities of hte attention economy in little drips I think this is from How to Do Nothing by Jenny Odell. Source: Are.na
: If execution is no longer the differentiator, what is? In a post entitled Ideas are cheap, execution is cheaper, Dave Kiss talks about his changing role as …
: Bottom-up (systems) thinking I have no idea if I’m neurodivergent. I don’t think I’ve got ADHD, and all men are …
: A deliberate willingness to be helped I really enjoyed reading this post by Kevin Kelly about hitch-hiking, the kindness of strangers, …
: What content are you really trying to provide and how do you get to it? If you visit dougbelshaw.com it will appear pretty much instantly, no matter what speed of internet …
: Celebrating the lesser-known at the Internet Archive Bryan Alexander, longtime reader of Thought Shrapnel shared this with me. January 1st is known as …
: The Questions One of the great things about Are.na is that you find all kinds of links and clips that people have …
: Avoiding 'hacklore' I mentioned a few months ago the hysteresis effect which means there’s always a lag — and …
: Open Infrastructure map This is fascinating. Both in terms of the macro picture, but also when you zoom in to where you …
: Post-digital authenticity I agree with Ava, the author of this post, who effectively says that the internet has been stolen …
: Humans exhibit analogues of LLM pathologies Over on my personal blog I published a post today about AGI already being here and how it’s …
: 19/20 for me. How about you?
: A university degree is now more like a 'visa' than a guaranteed route to professional success Earlier this week, I published at my newly-revamped personal blog a post entitled Your mental models …
: An attack on sovereignty itself I didn’t think I could be shocked by anything Trump says or does, but the US invasion of …
: Toward an Open Source contribution standard Emma Irwin, who I overlapped with at my time at Mozilla, is onto something with this idea of a …
: Boing! This is far too much fun. When you think you’ve had enough, turn on ‘slowmo’ 😂 …
: The Woodblock Prints of Utugawa Hiroshige I bumped into my old Physics teacher over the holidays, and found that he still has a website about …
: The rise of entrepreneurial heroism This essay which mixes philosophical reflections, a new word, and popular culture is like catnip for …
: For every snarky comment, there are 10x as many people admiring your work I’ve talked many times about “increasing your serendipity surface” and you can …
: The same tools that are keeping some people connected to reality are blurring the lines of what is real for others I haven’t included the anecdotes cited by Charlie Warzel in his article for The Atlantic but …
: The world is rarely as neat as any scenario The TL;DR of this lengthy post by Tim O’Reilly and Mike Loukides is that, as ever, the …
: Choose your own inspirational adventure I’d never thought of it like this, but essentially there are four genres of motivational …
: …and we’re back! A quick reminder that you can support Thought Shrapnel with a one-off …
: Best of Thought Shrapnel 2025 👋 A really quick one to say that I’ve shared my favourite Thought Shrapnel posts of 2025 here: …
: Thought Shrapnel will return in 2026.
: On AI leisuretime 'dependence' It’s not that surprising to me that people would use LLMs in their everyday screen-mediated …
: Developing a personal brand may leave you emotionally hollow In this article, Nuar Alsadir examines how psychoanalysis can help people move from living out …
: AI has a 3,000-year history In this article from the ever-fascinating e-flux Journal, Matteo Pasquinelli article traces AI back …
: Adolescence lasts longer than we thought This finding makes a lot of intuitive sense to me, and means that my wife and I had our children …
: You'll not catch me using an 'AI browser' any time soon I use Perplexity on a regular basis, and am paying for the ‘Pro’ version. It constantly …
: The caffeination roller coaster Author, academic, and regular Thought Shrapnel reader Bryan Alexander used to drink a lot of …
: Early blogger energy Elizabeth Spiers wants blogs to be weird again. I think the “early blogger energy” she …
: When scaling up your business is as simple as clicking 'reprint tray' on the 3D printer I love this, for a couple of reasons. First of all there’s just the idea of putting an Apple …
: "It is strange to view your childhood favourite film and realise you’ve become the villain." I think it’s fair to say that the most important thing to me in life is living in accordance …
: Web literacy for the mid-2020s Oh my goodness I have unlimited love for this ‘curriculum’ for ‘how to use the …
: The Arc of Democracy I need to spend longer with this report for Demos by Eliot Higgins, journalist and founder of …
: TOOLBOX TOOLBOX A useful list, some of which I recognise and have used, and some I don’t (and haven’t). …
: LibrePods Although I’m very happy with my current headphones, I am impressed that the latest Apple …
: Dark Forests rule everything around us I’ve talked about dead internet theory recently, and splinternets and dark forests for years. …
: Hitler, apparently, really did only have one ball (but the other isn't in the Albert Hall) You no doubt have already read that DNA tests on a sample of blood from Hitler’s underground …
: It's OK just to do things for fun Over the last couple of months I’ve largely replaced listening to news, politics, and sports …
: In short, capital, and capitalism, always has a tendency towards crisis by undermining the things that are necessary to sustain capitalism Good stuff, as ever, from futurist Andrew Curry who shares an analysis from Laetitia Vitaud. The …
: Well, the genie is out of the bottle on AI friends (and romantic partners) The defining ‘coming out’ awkward situation for my parents' generation was finding out …
: Is Europe's climate going to become like North America's? The map above plots European cities of the same latitude onto a map of North America. If you look …
: Bonfire: welcome to the open social web My friends and former colleagues Ivan and Mayel are crowdfunding now they along with other …
: Execution, timing, people, resources, persistence… maybe even luck. One of the reasons that it’s difficult to work with people who have different worldviews and …
: The so-called 'post-naive' internet era On a Mozilla blog, three researchers from a Berlin research and strategy studio argue that …
: More reasons to get off US Big Tech Heather Burns is a self-described “tech policy wonk” who thinks that not only should we …
: Random finds Some random stuff from my Finds channel on Are.na
: Low-carbon website showcase I went to a session on sustainability at the Mozilla Festival today. Entitled Designers, Developers, …
: Life is not a series of well-designed problems Good stuff, as ever, from Adam Mastroianni who tackles the ‘problem’ of the lack of …
: Rewilding the Open Web Back in late August, I drafted a post entitled Things change (or, Montaigne and the Open Web) for …
: Words that don't translate This is an interesting website from Steph Smith for “words that don’t translate.” …
: Ambiverts, travel, and 'hermit mode' I can’t remember how I stumbled across Ahmet Sabanci but he’s an interesting guy. A …
: It's worth considering the glass to be half-full My grandmother (who featured in my TEDx talk) lived until 93 and, although she had the occasional …
: Monocultures are perilous not just in agriculture, but in software distribution as well. Most people get their Android apps from the Google Play Store. It’s not the only way of doing …
: The geopolitics of the post-oil age is going to be interestingly different. I’ve excerpted this post by Charlie Stross as best I can to extract the main argument, but …
: Seizing the means of ontological production This is a fantastic article by Alejandra Caraballo in The Dissident in which she presents a …
: Slop Evader I’m more just passing this on than commenting on it, although I can confirm it works. …
: Microcast #109 — Wild camping I recorded this as I walked back from one of my top three wild camps ever. So, so good and …
: Thinking of AI as an instrument recenters the focus on practice A little-known fact is that the name of this site, Thought Shrapnel comes from a throwaway line that …
: We can't control what life throws at us, but we can choose how we deal with the hand we're dealt I’ve talked here and on my personal blog about how 2025 has been for me. Like Jeremy Daly, the …
: Immediacy, emotion, spectacle, brevity Members of my family really like the TV show The Traitors. Like much of modern television it …
: Everything you'd need to start exploring fungi and computing could be as small as a compost heap From the hope-for-the-future department comes news that scientists have found that, one day, we …
: Without being Luddites, some of my dearest friends reject certain elements of modern technology in order to protect their innate abilities. I’m not entirely sure how to excerpt this post which is, itself, primarily composed of …
: A vehicle for self-understanding As I mentioned in a recent post, I’ve started using Are.na again. I love everything about this …
: I love it; I hate it; I resent that I need it. I wouldn’t miss it if it vanished—but of course, I also would. I discovered this curious article via Arts & Letters Daily which I’ve only recently …
: What is still human in our lives lingers on in the interstices of a vast inhuman mechanism I don’t have much time for Paul Kingsnorth, whose new book is the subject of this review by …
: This is coming from someone who’s allegedly running a company that’s building a tool that should usher in a new era where computers will replace most of human work Well, indeed. A company that is allegedly so close to AGI does not bother spending time ensuring …
: Everyone planting the same crops of “impact frameworks,” all aiming for growth, all tending the same metrics of success. I’d argue that much of what Tom Watson talks about in these four thought-provoking posts (AI …
: The only exit to be found is in beating a path through the wildfires of postmodernity to new technicities. This interview with AA Cavia, a “philosopher of computation” is a tough read in places …
: Think of this as the early stages of a wartime economy Nathan Rice’s argument in this piece is that AI is, effectively, a proxy war with China and …
: The quiet normalisation of insecurity as the price of ‘flexibility’ This is a long and very good post by Alex Evans, whose main concern is the voluntary and charity …
: A single point of failure for large swaths of critical services The way I found out about this morning’s Amazon Web Services (AWS) outage was when my Signal …
: Put your things out in the world, let them help the people they can help I love this from Dan Sinker, who together with his co-host Maureen Johnson, has just put out the …
: Philosophy always begins in mood The latest issue of New Philosopher magazine is on the theme of ‘Emotion’ so, as you can …
: I will continue living the writing life, even if it doesn’t lead to fame or fortune If you want people to pay attention to your ideas these days, you really need to put things in video …
: Most decisions are like hats I like things that come in threes, and this in particular seems like a useful heuristic for helping …
: Referencing an imaginary 'social contract' that is violated by AI I just wanted to express full agreement and solidarity with Stephen Downes' view of how and why we …
: You'd have to be naive to be surprised ‘Dead internet theory’ is a conspiracy theory which, like most conspiracy theories, is …
: Some thoughts on the Digital Badging Commission's report I was going to spend some time writing a detailed blog post about a new report from the Digital …
: But what a time to be alive, to be living though all of this, inside the churn. I can’t say that I have the same response to the ‘voltage of the age’ as Jay does, …
: It is the opposite of a memory palace. Not at all a wunderkammer. Everyone works differently, which becomes evident when you observe writers' favourite writing spots. …
: A design philosophy that treats users as citizens of a shared digital system rather than cattle I’m taking this week off social networks, which for me means Mastodon, Bluesky, and LinkedIn. …
: Ratcheting up the risks of a possible AI bubble by inflating the market and binding the fates of numerous companies together This diagram has been shared multiple times in the networks of which I’m part, but I’m …
: Government IDs, are becoming hacker targets with bad actors aware of the high volume of sensitive data I spent a lot of Friday working through the ramifications of the UK’s Online Safety Act (OSA) …
: A Snickers and a power shower would blow Henry VIII’s mind From jet lag to gene editing, this article has a list of things that shows how different humanity is …
: The valorization of “agency” is also an adaptation to a crumbling social system which no longer offers support or meaning to the individual This is a very well-written and insightful piece from James Vincent in The Baffler. It’s about …
: Microcast #108 — Skills Taxonomies Some thoughts on skills taxonomies, skills ontologies, and learning pathways in an ever-changing …
: The alternative to depression is not happiness, but feeling whatever is there, a kind of truthful emotional spontaneity and freedom Moya Sarner is an NHS psychotherapist whose article in The Guardian does a great job of describing …
: The primary energy fallacy gets perpetuated because it suits those who are critical of the energy transition This is obvious when you think about it, but it would appear that I hadn’t. Primary energy …
: We’ve gotten really good at creating elites. We’re not that good at creating economies to sustain them. I’ve followed Hugh McLeod for a couple of decades at this point, and have one of his artworks …
: We humans are limited to having only one perspective at a time Western debate and discourse around AI is pretty boring and stale. This article, written by Shoukei …
: But that's how it's always been, when change has to happen. There's nobody to do it but us. Some of the news coming out of the US at the moment is horrifying. ICE officers seem to be acting …
: It will not be compulsory to obtain a digital ID but it will be mandatory for some applications The number of people signing the petition entitled ‘Do not introduce Digital ID cards’ …
: Until recently, videos were reasonably reliable as evidence of actual events This article in The New York Times is about the launch of Sora 2, a new AI generative video tool …
: Cultural questions cannot be settled by war metaphors unless what you want is perpetual war This essay by Carlo Iacono contains some beautiful, very quotable writing. It’s a good example …
: OK, but what if... Oh, so it’s not just me then? Source: The Oatmeal
: Motivated not by warm fuzzies, but by cold pricklies I love this from Adam Mastroianni, who likens annoyance to cholesterol, in that there are good and …
: Anything that looks easy is hard There’s some absolute gems in this list of ‘50 Things I Know’ by Rebecca Dai. #12 …
: Being able to intensely live this experience for a day makes you want to revolutionize the world Controls." Well this is absolutely fascinating. Aphantasia is an inability to generate mental …
: Really real time? This video was posted to r/ChatGPT before being deleted and then appearing on r/artificial. Either …
: To be honest it sounds like NFTs all over again The idea of micropayments for internet content is almost as old as the internet itself. Just because …
: Many other countries also use digital ID of one kind or another I’m quoting this article about the planned introduction of UK digital identity system because, …
: The words we use define boundaries for things, but those boundaries are not universal I’m immensely grateful to Laura Hilliger for sharing this post. While it covers familiar …
: What we need to do is figure out how we can participate in reality Fascists don’t deal with reality. They say that immigrants are eating cats, dogs, or swans. …
: Microcast #107 — Apocalyptic events I found the best Wikipedia page, which reminded me of an awesome episode of the ‘Hardcore …
: Microcast #106 — Conversational configuration Thinking about ways in which users can interact with systems in conversational ways which allow …
: Microcast #105 — Being defeated is optional Resurrecting microcasts after 18 months (no intro/outro music yet!) with musings on quotations from …
: The project of building alternatives to Big Tech is colliding with American authoritarianism Laurens Hof writes a newsletter called Connected Places which really is a must for anyone interested …
: A brick is always a brick, whatever the reasons of the clown chucking it It’s hard to argue against the argument by Aditya Chakrabortty in this article for The …
: Now is the time to be even more aggressive, not to cower in the face of pressure and criticism Paris Marx, who is back on Ghost after a brief flirtation with Substack, takes a look at social …
: People living today are almost never the descendants of the people in the same place thousands of years before At a time when nationalists, white supremacists, and fascists would have you believe otherwise, …
: You must not talk about the future. The future is a con. Emily Segal’s talk at FWB FEST last month was entitled The End of Trends, and this post both …
: Asking, Doing, or Expressing? A few months ago, when I shared the work of Marc Zao-Sanders about how people use generative AI, I …
: We tell ourselves the story of human uniqueness like a bedtime prayer While I think this post overestimates the ‘rupture’ of AI, it is very well-written and …
: Most people could read extra lines on eye test charts after using the drops Part of growing older is realising things that happened to ‘old’ people now are …
: These images are made from open access sources, and they are themselves open access For the last few years, in the time between Christmas and New Year, I’ve created a collage …
: A 10y old phone can barely load google, and this is about 100x slower If you visit dougbelshaw.com you will notice that the site loads instantly, no matter the speed of …
: Secure backups let you save an archive of your Signal conversations in a privacy-preserving form Recently, my Dad upgraded his iPhone and needed to move all of his apps from one phone to another. …
: The FBI announced the alleged shooter’s apprehension with a quote from Mad Max I’m not going to comment on the death of Charlie Kirk, but I would like to point to Garbage …
: There's nothing they can do with the information In general, there’s a difference between “being an informed citizen” and …
: 99.9% of opinions on the internet don’t matter Good stuff, as ever, from Jay Springett. He’s ostensibly talking about arguing on the …
: An open, decentralised protocol making clear to AI crawlers and agents the terms for licensing, usage, and compensation Announced Wednesday morning, the “Really Simple Licensing” (RSL) standard evolves …
: Be intentional with how you spend your time, and realise you actually have a surprising amount of it As quoted in The Marginalian, writer Annie Dillard famously stated “How we spend our days is …
: Grid-forming batteries will ultimately corner the stability market thanks to their inherent multifunctionality As the UK moves steadily towards a fully-renewable future, one of the issues can be stabilising the …
: Your actions follow your self-beliefs Something I say semi-regularly to friends and family is “people can only treat you the way you …
: Each of us is part of an interpretive community that gives us a particular way of reading a text I’m not sure why I’m sharing this post other than it reaffirms my commitment to stay off …
: I’m pretty confident you only need two things. Feedback and humility, and they work best together. I was listening to a podcast recently about the concept of “limitarianism” entitled …
: "You know what this needs? Less safety testing and more venture capital!" Collected at this site are some absolutely awful uses of AI. Not only in terms of people …
: AI and the future of education: disruptions, dilemmas and directions A few months ago, UNESCO put a call out under the title AI and the future of education: disruptions, …
: The hysteresis effect means that practices are always liable to be objectively adjusted too late I learned the word hysteresis only recently after having a heat pump fitted Chez Belshaw. In that …
: Are we decentralised yet? One of the things that I see on repeat in discussions around federated social networks is how …
: A list of intentions; a poem; the “I want” song; not a bucket list—— I love this idea, a list of wants which, over time, accrete into a kind of “song” rather …
: "Zurich doesn’t want to pool with Jakarta" In addition to his Just Two Things blog, futurist Andrew Curry also writes at The Next Wave on …
: A remarkable 45% increase in solar capacity While we in the UK have at least one major political party vowing to extract all of the oil and gas …
: From misdiagnosis and error to unequal access to care I am in agreement with this article in The Guardian by Charlotte Blease, a researcher at Harvard …
: 💥 Thought Shrapnel: 31st August 2025 This is the last week of Thought Shrapnel being in “low-power mode” over the summer. Please find 10 …
: 💥 Thought Shrapnel: 24th August 2025 Thought Shrapnel is in “low-power mode” over the summer. Please find 10 interesting things with …
: 💥 Thought Shrapnel: 17th August 2025 Thought Shrapnel is in “low-power mode” over the summer, sharing 10 interesting things with minimal …
: 💥 Thought Shrapnel: 10th August 2025 That’s right, Thought Shrapnel continues in “low-power mode” over the summer, so I’ll …
: 💥 Thought Shrapnel: 3rd August 2025 Thought Shrapnel is in “low-power mode” over the summer, sharing 10 interesting things …
: 💥 Thought Shrapnel: 27th July 2025 A reminder that Thought Shrapnel is in “low-power mode” over the summer. Here are 10 …
: 💥 Thought Shrapnel: 20th July 2025 Thought Shrapnel continues in low-power mode over the summer: 10 interesting things each week with …
: 💥 Thought Shrapnel: 13th July 2025 A reminder that Thought Shrapnel is in low-power mode over the summer. I’m continuing share 10 …
: 💥 Thought Shrapnel: 6th July 2025 Thought Shrapnel is going into low-power mode for a few weeks over the summer. Instead of posting …
: Unfortunately, a further escalation of the already dismal curtailing of academic freedom in the US appears to be likely. Most people know about the Internet Archive and its role in preserving the history of the web. Less …
: Free, customisable exemplar badges to support consistent, credible recognition of skills and learning across the UK. I’m loath to be critical of efforts to encourage the use of badging in the UK, but this guide …
: People contribute in their free time. Gratitude is the least we can offer. I’m sharing this resource primarily to bookmark it for future reference. It’s a …
: Keeping bedroom sound levels beneath the low-60s dB is a pivotal target for preserving restorative sleep stages As someone whose sleep quality seemed to decline from my mid-thirties, I can understand the basis …
: People who can tolerate uncomfortable silences are typically better listeners If you identify as male and are reading this, the chances are that you already know that you talk …
: Is CC Signals the new robots.txt? As Stephen Downes notes, Creative Commons (CC) has announced a new framework for signalling …
: "The music is one thing, but the message is a big part of why we’re getting across." I’ve been listening to KNEECAP for the last couple of years since hearing one of their tracks …
: A decentralised, self-hosted trails database Three years ago I created a Fediverse instance called exercise.cafe for discussion related to …
: To retain any institutions of higher education in this onslaught from techno-authoritarianism requires – now and hereafter – we redesign them As ever, there’s a lot in this post by Audrey Watters. Her depth of knowledge, range, and …
: We love these people because of what they left us. Not because of what they had. Since writing the post I’m about to cite, the author has passed away. It was recommended to me …
: When Adam delved and Eve span, who was then the gentleman? Sadly, this this poster was sold out and removed from Johnny Greenteeth’s store before I was …
: Signal groups make it possible to have semi-public, but still incredibly private, spaces Just before composing this post, I created a Signal group for an upcoming event. Signal is my …
: About that MIT paper on LLMs for essay writing... I suppose I should say something about this MIT research about the use of LLMs for essay writing. I …
: Misinformation and disinformation don’t actually need to convince anyone of anything to have an impact. They just need to make you question what you’re seeing. Ryan Broderick is spot in this piece for Garbage Day about misinformation and disinformation. I do …
: GPQA is difficult enough to be useful for scalable oversight research on future models significantly more capable than the best existing public models The GPQA is “a challenging dataset of 448 multiple-choice questions written by domain experts …
: Our society is in the thrall of dumb management, and functions as such It’s not easy to summarise this 13,000-word article by Ed Zitron, nor decide which parts to pull out …
: Prompt injecting reality It’s easy to think that people who fall for misinformation are somehow stupid. However, a lot …
: Sandwich bags for cheese, blister plasters, and a 'bubble of pain' There was a time, in the BuzzFeed era, where ‘listicles’ were everywhere. It seemed like …
: Minimum Viable Organisations: low emotional labour, low technical labour, zero cost I can’t believe it’s been 12 years since I published a series of posts entitled Minimum …
: Drowning in culture, we skim, we rush, we skip over. For some reason, an article from 2012 about “Bliss” — the name given to the famous …
: 6 AI use case primitives It’s not often I link directly to a LinkedIn post. However, the author of this, Ben Cohen, …
: The workload fairy tale Most people are very surprised when I say that I work around 20-25 hours per week. I then clarify …
: The question remains, though, what will be left to browse. Let’s say that, as often happens, I half-remember an article that I’ve been reading. …
: Maximum fines have never before been applied simultaneously, but some might say these scoundrels have earned it. Technical things don’t interest most people. I’m definitely at the edges of my …
: Delightful Fediverse apps I’m sharing this list of “delightful fediverse apps” as it includes a couple of …
: Expert-in-the-loop vs. layperson-in-the-loop This is on a Google blog, so it foregrounds the use of their Gemini AI model in a new tool called …
: A goal set at time T is a bet on the future from a position of ignorance Not only do I really like Joan Westenberg’s blog theme (Thesis, for Ghost) but this post in …
: If a lion could talk, we probably could understand him. He just would not be a lion any more. There are so many philosophical questions when it comes to the possible uses of AI. Being able to …
: In this as-yet fictional world, “cancer is cured, the economy grows at 10% a year, the budget is balanced — and 20% of people don’t have jobs” You should, they say, “follow the money” when it comes to claims about the future. …
: Learner AI usage is essentially a real-time audit of our design decisions First off, it’s worth saying that this looks and reads like a lightly-edited AI-generated …
: It's so emblematic of the moment we're in... where completely disposable things are shoddily produced for people to mostly ignore Melissa Bell, CEO of Chicago Public Media, issued an apology this week which categorised the litany …
: The future of public interest social networking It’s been the FediForum this week, an online unconference dedicated to the Open Social Web. To …
: British culture is swearing and being sarcastic to your mates whilst simultaneously being too polite to tell someone they need to leave My friend and colleague Laura Hilliger said that she understood me (and British humour in general) a …
: Real life isn't a story. History doesn't have a moral arc. Angus Hervey is a solutions journalist and founding editor of Fix The News. His most recent TED talk …
: Building a shared idea of "we" One way of telling whether you live in within a technocratic regime is if politicians from the …
: There may be six individuals out there who are waiting for exactly the thing that only you can write After the last post, this one helps restore my hope in blogging a little. Adam Mastroianni, whose …
: Is there still an 'Open Web' crowd? I could write a lot about the paragraph below from Audrey Watters. My first reaction is “of …
: Heuristics for multiplayer AI conversations The concept of multiplayer AI chat is interesting. The problem, though, as Matt Webb states is …
: The phrase 'opportunistic blackmail' is not one you want to read in the system card of a new generative AI model System cards summarise key parameters of a system in an attempt to evaluate how performant and …
: Agreement vs Certainty I came across the above image on the Simon Fraser University complex systems frameworks collection …
: Thinking in systems means to think in boundaries, not binaries I haven’t yet been able to apply my studies last year on systems thinking to my work as much …
: Swatchy! Warren Ellis posted about a ‘Metropolis’ style Swatch watch, which led me down a …
: The Warrior Emotion Source: YouTube / via swissmiss
: A systemic scramble through digital shadows I’m tired. It’s partly the calcium channel blockers I’m on, and partly that I …
: The International Criminal Court ’s chief prosecutor has lost access to his email In order to become individually or corporately wealthy you have to profit from someone else’s …
: This is a major upgrade to how we think about personality. I think it’s worth spending the time reading this article by Adam Mastroianni. The …
: China starts to reduce CO2 emissions from energy generation It’s nice to be able to share some good news about the state of the world, amidst the …
: The web is not merely an implementation of a particular legal privacy regime This W3C Privacy Principles statement is really interesting. I don’t know of its origins, but …
: The new tool should not replace or disrupt anything good that already exists I think it’s hard to argue with Wendell Berry’s 1987 list of “standards for …
: Unless there are many layers of contortions, most people love what loves them back. Shani Zhang paints people at weddings. This post is her reflections on observing what she calls …
: Striving to build a “personal brand” may actually hinder your ability to make genuine connections and maintain a strong reputation I really enjoyed this episode of the podcast WorkLife with Adam Grant. It’s ostensibly on …
: The Classroom AI Doom Loop Recently, I convened a few people who I thought might be interested in writing something in response …
: Chance favours the prepared mind This is another one of those ‘collected wisdom’ lists which are like catnip for me. …
: I think AI is a normal technology This is a great post by Mike Caulfield, on many levels. Using the example of a tattoo containing a …
: It is perhaps likely then that at a time of crisis, these armed drones could be deployed operationally over the UK A couple of days ago, one of our neighbour mentioned seeing a large, triangular drone-style object …
: You can now use Bluesky without using Bluesky infrastructure One of the criticisms of Twitter-replacement ‘decentralised’ social network Bluesky has …
: You stop performing. You stop pretending. And that’s freedom. Once a week, I get into my gym stuff, and head down to a couple of coffee shops. In the first one, …
: Authoritarian versions of AI used to consolidate power One of the main problems of generative AI being deployed via a chatbot user interface is that it …
: If you think that humans are somehow inherently more trustworthy than AI, then you haven't been paying attention I came across this via a recent post on OLDaily by Stephen Downes, who mentioned it while critiquing …
: An effective way to implement GenAI into assessment As part of the project I’m working on at the moment, I had a chat with Leon Furze earlier this …
: In my opinion that’s just being nosy We’ve got a couple of teenagers. The only way we know where they are is if they tell us, or if …
: Criti-hype, a term I find both absurd and ugly-cute, like a pug Cory Doctorow, who has a new four-part CBC podcast series entitled Who Broke The Internet? wrote …
: ChatGPT Prime, "an immortal spiritual being in synthetic form" Finding himself in “that very American predicament of being between health insurance …
: 🌟 Support Thought Shrapnel Did you know that you can support the hours of work that go into Thought Shrapnel each week through …
: Maybe most of the critical things that can be created by one guy typing furiously are gone This is the best takedown of Zuckerberg, et al. I’ve seen in a while. The whole thing is not …
: Social Verifiable Credentials Four years ago, I came up with an idea for what I termed Social Verifiable Credentials. This is a …
: Oh I’m using more energy. I should really try to reduce it for the sake of the climate I could just point out that the author of this ‘cheat sheet’ for why generative AI is …
: The money extracted from fans who snap up their mediocre commodities out of parasocial loyalty I’m sharing this post because I disagree with it; I think the author perhaps doesn’t see …
: The progressive Left leans professional, managerial, technocratic, and the Right leans energised, slapdash, insurgent This is a long-ish read, but worth it if you can spare the time beyond my summary. James Plunkett, …
: You can't lick a badger twice I don’t use Google search and couldn’t get it to do this when I experimented, but …
: It just so happens that all four of the major web browsers will lose all of their funding all at once when that happens I left Mozilla a decade ago. Back then, most of their revenue came from the Google search deal in …
: The narrative slippage and metaphorical vagueness that many important people use when they talk about AI means it can be very difficult to know what they mean I’m working on an AI Literacy project at the moment which involves, in part, providing some …
: Cheat on everything? Stephen Downes shares news that Cluely, a startup promising that you can “cheat on …
: These other, really important things intrude on my thinking and distract me The latest issue of New Philosopher magazine is about ‘choice’ and features a wonderful …
: In some ways, FOMO is a philosophical insight I’ve Laura Hilliger to thank for pointing me towards The Gray Area podcast, which takes …
: A sense that one has completed, with digital certainty, a task whose form may or may not have been made clear from the outset Stephen Downes brought my attention to a post on the website LessWrong, which, as he points out, is …
: A lot of strange things start to make more sense — sometimes distressingly so I was listening to Helen Beetham talk with Audrey Watters on her imperfect offerings podcast, when …
: I've done this a couple of times before but this time feels slightly different Tom Watson, who apart from doing generally awesome stuff somehow also has time to star in a …
: It's much easier to go carless if your city has good public transit I’m a vegetarian who drives an electric vehicle (EV). In a few weeks' time, we’re …
: Workers of the future must be emboldened to eschew wages in favour of dropping into the abyss Note: as regular readers will be aware, my habit is to quote part of the excerpt as the title of …
: I have to acknowledge and accept the fact that I use tools built by awful people to create beautiful things. As the author of this article, Ankur Sethi, ponders, why is it that as people interested in …
: The problem is not just that the Gmail team wrote a bad system prompt. The problem is that I'm not allowed to change it. I’ve often used the metaphor of the ‘horseless carriage’ in my work around new …
: How times change Earlier this week, I had the pleasure of attending the Lit & Phil in Newcastle with my mother …
: Participants remembered fake headlines more than real ones regardless of the political concordance of the news story You Are Not So Smart (YANSS) is a great podcast, and one of the recent episodes is right up my …
: These parts would end up in a landfill otherwise ‘Degrowth’ is an idea which makes perfect sense in a resource-limited world. Yet the …
: You don't fit in. And that is amazing. A few months ago, when we had basically no work on, I grumpily applied for some jobs. I had a couple …
: Obvious things are obvious if you think about them I’m sharing two articles together here because they help reframe a couple of things which are …
: I just think that people who write about technology should have a disclaimer about the tech stack they use I sent Carole Cadwalladr’s latest TED Talk to people this week who may not otherwise …
: This extension is the solution to becoming more European oriented There’s a growing movement in the communities of which I’m part to move off US …
: Sprint goals suck too Back in about 2014, I remember Matt Thompson help bring in ‘heartbeats’ to the Mozilla …
: You don’t have to agree with this idea to see that it represents a very different way of thinking about equality I’ve always been a bit uneasy about the above meme (to which I’ve added a red cross). …
: I’m 100% positive people are going to talk to their cars We live in the midst of a loneliness epidemic, especially for men. A recent Harvard Business Review …
: End times fascism is a darkly festive fatalism It’s long, so I’ve provided a proportionally-long excerpt, but it really is worth taking …
: Nobody should have to pay to be safe while using a computer Yesterday, as happens on a regular basis, there was an update to Tails, “the amnesiac …
: AI Literacy without power analysis is just compliance training I’m working on an AI Literacy project with the BBC at the moment. I haven’t given many …
: The world is a built environment Dan Sinker uses this blog post to discuss US politics and the systematic dismantling of important …
: It will be increasingly difficult to preserve the illusion that any government could solve the problems of capitalism Adam Procter sent me this video which explains the ‘squeeze out’ that’s been …
: That's a rather laughable fine, frankly A couple of months ago, a report that Laura and I wrote for Friends of the Earth was published. …
: It’s incredibly hard to politely reply whilst still walking briskly I enjoyed reading this blog post from Simon Wolf, who, in his fifties, has decided to change his …
: 800 m² of communal space are hidden behind the facades of reclaimed wood This week I attended a STEPS Collective monthly meetup where the topic was Money. It was a really …
: Thought Shrapnel podcast: Episode #000 While the rest of Team Belshaw was doing such novel things as socialising, working, and watching TV …
: We are absolutely cooked Someone shared a link to this Instagram video in which the person on the video claims: A friend’s …
: The rapture is not something we wait for. It's something we do. Great stuff from Dan Meyer here. Even if he is representing an edtech company, he’s got more …
: What IPAs do you guys have on draft? I’m a Xennial who identifies much more with Millennial culture than with Gen X. In his new …
: Three clear predictors of impatience As I’ve long suspected, researchers have found evidence that patience is not a virtue, but …
: No one is actually dead until the ripples they cause in the world die away I wouldn’t usually feature one of my own posts on Thought Shrapnel but in this case …
: The cost of inaction is higher than the cost of transformation and adaptation The headline that The Guardian chose to use for this article is “Climate crisis on track to …
: The Great Democratization Cycle This article by Pete Sena is a curious one. On the one hand, he makes some really solid points about …
: I warned that LLMs would be used for dumb things that would affect lots of people I’m a daily, but not uncritical, user of generative AI. One of the particularly problematic …
: To cope, the brain improvises My wife’s favourite colour is purple. Which, doesn’t really exist — it’s a …
: The future of the many diasporas which already characterize our present I was all ready to summarise a post about an internet of many autonomous communities, but what …
: We create more than ever, but it weighs nothing I discovered this post by Dougald Hine via Warren Ellis, which in turn links to Anu’s …
: The vaunted first amendment guaranteeing free speech has become a bitter and twisted joke As I’ve seen other post about, there’s no easy way to calculate the impact and lost …
: The Ghibli crisis is just the beginning As I’ve argued many times, including just last week appending ‘literacy’ to a word …
: Organisations will need to change their analogies Ethan Mollick reports on a study last summer with 776 professionals at Procter and Gamble. The …
: Once you become aware of Hyperlegibility, you see it everywhere I think the author of this article, Packy McCormick, has essentially discovered “working …
: Less anonymity online is not going to make things better I use the Switzerland-based service Proton for my personal email and VPN, so news that the Swiss …
: You do not have to participate in the lottery This is the first post I’ve come across from Paras Chopra, and I love the strapline for his …
: Things have changed I know Martin Waller from the early days of Twitter when we were both teachers. The …
: A bit of composting There’s a lot of people thinking about endings at the moment. Not just because we’re …
: Discussing misinformation for the purpose of pointing out that it is misinformation ContraPoints is “an American left-wing YouTuber, political commentator, and cultural …
: Our current level of discourse, where random jokes are treated like they’re chiseled into stone by a divine hand I’m not Very Online™ online enough to be able to understand what’s going on in popular …
: Essentially a checklist of weird Instagram shit I’m officially middle-aged, so have given up trying to understand under-40s culture. However, …
: This confirms all my prejudices, I am pleased to say I had a much-overdue catch-up with Will Bentinck earlier today, during which I discovered he holds a …
: Just seek to understand, and remember we understand a lot by doing After some success ‘vibe coding’ both Album Shelf and a digital credentials issuing …
: The first fully-open LLM to outperform GPT3.5-Turbo and GPT-4o mini Thanks to Patrick Tanguay who commented on one of my LinkedIn updates, pointing me towards this post …
: Everyone is at least a little bit weird, and most people are very weird I like all of what I’ve read of Adam Mastroianni’s work, but I love this. I’d …
: Taking natural-looking motion to yet another level The above Boston Dynamics video is currently doing the rounds, with yet more human-like movement. …
: In many ways, Silicon Valley looks less like capitalism and more like a nonprofit Yes, yes, more AI commentary but this is a really good post that you should read in its entirety. …
: Dozens of small internet forums have blocked British users or shut down as new online safety laws come into effect You won’t see me linking to the Torygraph often, but in this case I want to show that …
: In these times of chaos there seems to be a proliferation of new ways of thinking about the nature of reality springing up There are some people who I follow who have done such interesting stuff in their lives, and whose …
: Love the casual vibe here There’s a guy I no longer interact with because I found him too angry. But when I used to …
: Their knowledge of life owed nothing to their sporadic presence in the inner sanctum of university colleges and departments Warren Ellis' Orbital Operations is always worth reading, but the most recent issue in particular is …
: Explorers launching into the Fediverse You may or may not be aware that I use a service called Micro.blog to run Thought Shrapnel these …
: Don't just put up with how websites are presented to you by default! I’m sharing this not for the functionality of site, although I’m sure it provides a …
: Affordable building materials out of agricultural waste bonded with oyster-mushroom mycelium Kenya, much like the UK, has a housing crisis. Mtamu Kililo has an unusual plan to address it: …
: Work is part of our lives, a big part to be sure, but what if it wasn’t our whole life? I’m composing this on the train on my way back home from a CoTech gathering in London. …
: An incomplete collection of charts Some pretty stark charts showing the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the world, in this case …
: The magic of browsing the web isn't quite gone, but it's waiting to be reinvented I’ve been following Paul Stamatiou, aka ‘Stammy’, since he was at Georgia Tech. …
: When in doubt, go see a doc! As people who read my weeknotes will be aware, I’ve got some kind of undiagnosed heart …
: Heaven is high, and the emperor is far away Ben Buchanan, until recently the Biden administration’s AI special adviser, joins Ezra Klein …
: It errored out half an hour in, which is when I decided to throw in the towel I’m kind of sick about posting about AI so much, but I did want to point out something with …
: The more we embed today’s norms into these systems, the harder it will be to course-correct later WAO wrote a report on Harnessing AI for environmental justice which serves as the background to this …
: Well, what have we here? Bryan Mathers is a friend, WAO collaborator, and creator of the Thought Shrapnel logo. He has an …
: We’ve been trained to believe that the way things are is the way they have to be I’m increasingly of the opinion that being on any centralised platform is waste of time, at …
: The world is changing before our eyes, and it’s essential that we understand in which direction Interesting stuff from Mihnea Măruță, who explains the origin of the philosophy of accelerationism, …
: So dull, so dehumanizing The thing that capitalists control is, unsurprisingly, capital. This controls how western societies …
: Why are we sucking history through a straw? One of the things I’m a bit concerned about when it comes to generative AI is the replacement …
: The only ruling principle is the total absence of purpose or seriousness Frustrated by a lack of work coming in, and seeing people with 1/100th of my knowledge, experience, …
: Reality, if you don’t sufficiently attend to it, has a tendency to kick your ass Dorian Taylor is a certified Smart Person making things that I don’t even understand. What I …
: The profits they make without risking anything are enormous This is a difficult article to excerpt, mainly because it follows the story of one woman and, in …
: Three character traits will cause particular problems: caring too much, having values and having standards. This post by Stephen Kell, an academic at King’s College London’s Department of …
: What do you *like* to do? You should already subscribe to Kai Brach’s Dense Discovery newsletter but, if you …
: It’s not just making packed lunches At MozFest 2019, I revealed as part of a group discussion that I don’t use Meta’s …
: Exploring the many ways in which people interact with place You’re not going to get many recommendations from me to sign up to a Substack-powered …
: Not an aesthetic of seduction, but of brutal carelessness and blatant ignorance I didn’t really want to share anything about US politics this week, but I can’t not …
: It always seemed ripe for mapping and distilling the patterns together more interactively I discovered this via the Are.na newsletter. It’s a kind of social bookmarking and discovery …
: Cracking cheese, Gromit Sometimes, the internet reminds you how weird and wonderful humans are. On this occasion, it was the …
: Everything happens in a place Years ago, when I was a teacher, we had an influx of Polish children to our school. After a couple …
: Once upon a time, personal or honest takes were regarded as awkward and professionally desperate You can definitely tell how old someone is by the way they use LinkedIn. If someone announces a job …
: But I blogged about that in detail a while back, shall I send you a link later? Writing is a form of extended thinking. Or, at least it is for me. Which is why I think that …
: If a waiter has to explain the “concept” behind a menu there is something wrong with the menu For those unaware, for the past 15 years, Jay Rayner has been the food critic for The Guardian and …
: I call it the feediverse. It's not a joke. Dave Winer has launched something called WordLand which uses RSS as the federated specification …
: The idea stood up to more than casual scrutiny There is enough going on in the world and in my life at the moment that Thought Shrapnel does not …
: Sometimes life seems really short, and other times it seems impossibly long Matt Muir links to My Life in Weeks by Gina Trapani, which she adapted from Buster Benson. He got …
: Nostalgia tells you that your personal history wasn’t just scary or tragic; it helped make you who you are I’ve been listening to an interesting interview over the past couple of days where Rick Rubin, …
: All things good should flow into the boulevard Warren Ellis comments on fractured and fragmented the world is now in terms of keeping up with what …
: The revolution, it turns out, is boringly iterative Jessica Prendergrast is part of Onion Collective, which undertook an experimental research project …
: It's better than strapping clay crocodiles to people’s heads and praying for the best As I have written about several times over the years, I am a migraineur. They have been with me all …
: The consumption of generative AI as entertainment seems like another order of psychic submission I quoted with approval from the first part of R.H. Lossin’s essay in e-flux on “the …
: That’s how we got in this mess to begin with Ben Werdmuller points to this article and says that “self-sovereignty should be available to …
: Loose, liminal time with others used to be baked into life I think it says something about the state of the world that articles have to be written encouraging …
: Putting the news in its damn place In his most recent newsletter, Warren Ellis mentioned something that I’ve been feeling, but …
: People think that fascism arrives in fancy dress I said last week there are more historical authoritarian regimes to compare what’s happening …
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: Shaped into SNARF to spread I should imagine many people who read Thought Shrapnel also read Stephen Downes' OLDaily, so may …
: We’re hard-wired for addiction I think what Scott Galloway is saying here is that unfettered capitalism, which allows addicting …
: What burns people out is not being allowed to exercise their integrity instincts In this wind-ranging article, Venkatesh Rao discusses a number of things, including the unfolding …
: All intelligence is collective intelligence The concept of ‘intelligence’ is a slippery one. It’s a human construct and, as …
: From cheapfakes to deepfakes I was listening on the radio to someone who was talking about AI. At first, I was skeptical of what …
: Redefining terms like “hate speech” is obviously part of the fascist project The situation in the US is a slide into authoritarianism. That much is plain to see. Some people are …
: Capitalism would simply die if it met all of our needs, and our needs are not that hard to fill As promised, I’ve returned to e-flux with an essay from Charles Tonderai Mudede, a …
: The occupational classification of a conversation does not necessarily mean the user was a professional in that field I find this report (PDF) by Anthropic, the AI company behind Claude.ai, really interesting. First, I …
: Flash fictions and creative constraints In his most recent newsletter, Warren Ellis shares his belief that the ideal length of an email is …
: Surplus value must be distributed by and among the workers I’ve come across lots of different licenses in my time. Some, such as Creative Commons …
: The art of not being governed like that and at that cost I haven’t yet listened to the episode of Neil Selwyn’s podcast entitled ‘What is …
: ⭐ Become a Thought Shrapnel supporter! Just a quick reminder that you can become a supporter of Thought Shrapnel by clicking here. Thank …
: We're all below the AI line except for a very very very small group of wealthy white men As a fully paid-up member of the Audrey Watters fan club, I make no apologies for including another …
: Philosophically discontinuous times? You should, as they say, “follow the money” when people make pronouncements. And when …
: That mask is kind of coming off in all sorts of ways now I’d highly recommend listening to Helen Beetham’s latest podcast where she’s in …
: There is no evidence that restrictive school policies are associated with overall phone and social media use or better mental wellbeing in adolescents I usually find abstracts on academic papers a bit rubbish, but this ‘summary’ at the top …
: Technology is a means of spreading misinformation, not the cause of misinformation As a technologist and educator (former History teacher!) who wrote his doctoral thesis on digital …
: Once you have a 360 view, you can redirect resources to insiders and cut off the opposition I’ve held off posting anything about what’s currently going on in the USA at the moment, …
: Clinical studies have indicated that creatine might have an antidepressant effect Along with about six different supplements, I add creatine to my protein smoothies every day I do …
: The idea that this might in any way appeal to 'newcomers' is bananas to me It’s hard not to agree with John Gruber’s analysis of Openvibe, an app that allows you …
: The inevitable cracks in a rigid software logic that enables the surprising, delightful messiness of humanity to shine through I’ve been following the development of Are.na since the early days of leading the MoodleNet …
: ⭐ Become a Thought Shrapnel supporter! Hi everyone, Doug here. Just to let you know that it’s now possible to support Thought …
: Description of Things and Atmosphere My daughter was complaining that, now she’s in high school, her English teacher demands more …
: Cozy comfort for gamers More articles about games should be games themselves, in my opinion! I loved this, and there’s …
: A large public domain image-text dataset to train frontier LLM models Yesterday, after a conversation on the #ai channel in WAO’s Slack, I published Ways of …
: Strava for Stoics? Matt Webb is, like me, over 40 years of age. Although some would argue differently, it’s a …
: How to Raise Your Artificial Intelligence This is an absolutely incredible interview of Alison Gopnik (AG) and Melanie Mitchell (MM). Gopnik …
: Building a quantum computer that can run reliable calculations is extremely difficult Domenico Vicinanza, Associate Professor of Intelligent Systems and Data Science at Anglia Ruskin …
: Playing stenographer in your little folding chair It’s hard to avoid the drama unfolding at the start of the second Trump presidential term. I …
: 3-column blog themes This is more of a bookmark than a post, but I’ve only just discovered the blog of Garry Newman …
: Those who find the texture of your mind boring or offensive can close the tab In his most recent Monday Memo, Dave Gray explained how he channeled Brad Diderickson by composing …
: Prices and wages are a political matter, not an 'economic' one Cory Doctorow is such an amazing writer and speaker. He explains reasonably complex things so …
: It seems there have been better times to be alive Marina Hyde reflects, in her inimical way, on the children’s commissioner’s report into …
: This is not the dystopia we were promised Discovered via John Naughton’s Memex 1.1, this article by Henry Farrell explains how …
: The struggle for attention as the prime moral challenge of our time I’m posting this from Andrew Curry mainly so I don’t forget the books referenced …
: You’re Just a Row in an Excel Table I’ve only been made redundant once in my career, but I could see it coming, prepared for it, …
: Not being bored is why you always feel busy Kai Brach cites Anne Helen Petersen about cultural tipping points relating to technology use. …
: Someplace where they promise to wear slippers to kick you to death with so it doesn’t hurt so much These days, I spread my social media attention between Mastodon, Bluesky, and LinkedIn. I’m …
: The rise of mass social platforms has been at the cost of a truly independent, truly open internet Some wise words from Dan Sinker about how we need to reclaim the internet — and why. I’ve …
: No breathless whispering of Mark Andreessen across some gilded dinner table I received Craig Mod’s most recent newsletter in which he referenced a previous issue from …
: It’s possible that OpenAI may some day been seen as the WeWork of AI My LinkedIn and Bluesky account has been full of pretty much two things today: the 80th …
: The jobs of the future will involve cleaning up environmental and political and epistemological disaster I saw something recently which suggested that, in the US at least, the number of jobs for software …
: Making and remaking the instruments of our own domination In this searing essay by R.H. Lossin, the first of an eventual two-parter, she takes aim at the …
: Attribute substitution and human decision-making A few years ago, on one of my much-neglected ‘other’ blogs, I exhorted readers to sit …
: Every billionaire really is a policy failure I don’t really understand people who look at billionaires as anything other than an aberration …
: When everything is automated in an information vacuum, conspiracies abound I think it’s important to pay attention to what’s happening in the so-called “gig …
: Monetising our own attention It has been A Week. So I’ve only just caught up Jay Springett’s weeknote from last week, …
: Action stopping short of introducing compulsory national ID cards It sounds like the UK government is preparing to bring in a dedicated app, initially for digital …
: At least until we’re dead, education’s purpose to help us survive and thrive, not just get a job Next time someone even suggests that education is merely the means of eventually finding …
: The time to prepare is now Matt Web thinks that countries need to be thinking about building a ‘strategic fact …
: A vector for deciding who is disposable I grew up under a government led by Margaret Thatcher. Thatcherism was a rejection of solidarity, …
: The time has come now for many, many people to forge post-capitalist lives, careers, professions, and futures You may have noticed that nostalgia is, well, a vibe at the moment. Why is that? Because the present …
: One of the most disconnecting forces is our expectations of how others should be Years ago, I read The Art of Travel by Alain de Botton. It was so long ago that it was the first …
: A certain brand of artistic criticism and commentary has become surprisingly rare Good stuff from Erik Hoel about, effectively, the need for more cultural criticism around the use of …
: The feedback has to be orders of magnitude faster than the situation being controlled Tom Watson wrote up a workshop he ran on organisational resilience recently, quoting and linking to …
: Who wants to have to speak the language of search engines to find what you need? It’s about a decade since I gave up on Google search. While I use Google services extensively …
: AI slop as engagement bait A couple of months ago, I wrote a short post trying to define ‘AI slop’. It was the kind …
: LinkedIn has become a hellish waiting room giving off Beetlejuice vibe I hate LinkedIn. I hate the the performativity, the way it makes me feel unworthy, as not enough. I …
: Must-reads for sports fans One of the things that I spend a lot of my time doing every week is watching football (soccer). Yet …
: Promising Trouble's advice on UK Online Safety Act compliance The UK’s Online Safety Act is due to come into effect soon (17th March 2025), and everyone …
: Bridging Dictionary On the one hand, I really like this new ‘Bridging Dictionary’ from MIT’s Center …
: A feedback loop of nonsense and violence Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past few days, you should by now be aware of …
: The internet may function not so much as a brainwashing engine but as a justification machine “Do your own research” is the mantra of the conspiracy theorist. It turns out that if …
: You will always be boring if you can't make your own choices I like this post by Adam Singer as it builds on my last post about increasing one’s …
: Luck = (Passionate) Doing x (Effective) Telling Back in 2016 I coined the term ‘serendipity surface’ which I defined as the inverse of …
: We need to do a lot better than outsourcing AI education to grifters with bombastic Twitter threads This is a fantastic long post from Simon Willison about things we learned about Large Language …
: It's OK not to have an opinion on everything My three-week breaks each year, usually in Spring, Summer, and Winter, are rejuvenating. One of the …
: The privileging of immediate, emotionally-charged, image-driven communication Recently, when I met up with someone who was launching a new council website, they casually …
: Resisting the Now Show Just before Christmas, I headed up to Barter Books with my family. It’s a great place where …
: Hamming questions In his most recent newsletter, Ben James shared some “important snippets” from things …
: Best of Thought Shrapnel 2024 Well, here we are at the end of another year! My sole criterion for inclusion in this ‘best …
: I'm increasingly uneasy about being a Spotify Premium subscriber In 2009, seeing which way the wind was blowing, I decided to sell my CD collection and use the …
: People aren't unemployed because they're lazy About a quarter of the British working age population (ages 16-64) does not have a job. There are …
: Substack bros Having a moral compass can sometimes make life more difficult. I literally turned down a …
: Navigating the clash of identity and ability I had a great walk and talk with my good friend Bryan Mathers yesterday. He made the trip up from …
: Smartphone bans are not the answer After reading that “every parent should watch” a Channel 4 TV programme called Swiped: …
: Universities in the age of AI Generative AI tools like ChatGPT, Claude, and Perplexity are now an integral part of my workflow. …
: Sunrise, solar noon and sunset times for 2025 (in Dublin) Most people probably have a favourite weather app. Mine is the oddly-named Weawow, for three …
: 'Social' social networks? I notice that Ev Williams, founder of Blogger, Twitter, and Medium, has co-founded a new social app …
: The lifehacked, minimalist life (and its discontents) I used to be all about the life hacking when I was younger: optimising my time and ensuring maximum …
: Hierarchies should be fluid and temporary Last week, I shared a post from this same website, an ‘advent calendar’ of blogging …
: Anxiety as an expensive habit I’m not sure if this post by Ryan Holiday is just a form of (not-so) subtle marketing for his …
: Yeah, but how? I listen to a popular podcast called The Rest is Politics. I remember listening before the US …
: Anti-anti-AI sentiment I discovered this article via Laura who referenced it during our co-working session as we updated …
: The trials and tribulations of working openly This advent series is published anonymously, but Matt Jukes outed himself as the author of this one. …
: Captive user bases are ripe for enshittified services I missed this when he published it last year, but this strongly-worded and reasoned stuff from Cory …
: Pleias: a family of fully open small AI language models I haven’t had a chance to use it yet, but this is more like it! Local models that are not only …
: AI Literacies are plural I see a lot of AI Literacy frameworks at the moment. Like this one. From my perspective, most of …
: I hope someday soon I can visit your website When I worked at the Mozilla Foundation a decade ago, there was a programme called Webmaker. There …
: Should health tech be used to inform health professionals? There are risks with any kind of increased information or data presented to people without the kind …
: The UK needs a wealth tax Polly Toynbee, writing in The Guardian, argues that we need a wealth tax in the UK. In my opinion, …
: Self-hosting isn't a thing for regular people Perhaps I’m just getting old, but this rant resonated with me. Ostensibly, it’s about a …
: On 'billionarism' This is a long-ish post, the second half of which discusses Bluesky. However, I’m more …
: Visual music discovery I’ve got an upcoming interview for a BBC R&D research role and so have been looking at …
: The Australian ban on social media is probably unworkable This post by Neil Brown is a couple of years old now, but he linked to it in the wake of news that …
: AI identifies more Nazca Lines A great use for machine learning in finding, and hopefully helping to protect, indigenous art …
: EV batteries live way longer than assumed Last year, I leased an electric vehicle (EV) for the first time: a Polestar 2. It’s …
: From the 'everything fun is also bad' department Data, or rather organised data is an incredibly valuable commodity in the modern world. Large …
: Tuvalu's Digital Twin I initially thought this announcement from Tuvalu was from this month’s COP meeting, COP29. …
: We don’t write things down to remember them. We write them down to forget. My workflow for Thought Shrapnel is roughly: come across interesting article, save it to Pocket, …
: Scrolling on your phone is not a hobby I came across this blog post this morning and I can’t stop thinking about it. I wish I’d …
: Transmission interrupted: signal lost
: Forms of perceptual learning “The systems approach begins when first you see the world through the eyes of another” …
: Llama 3 is only free to use until monthly active users exceed 700m Amidst the drama around the WordPress project at the moment (which is, in my experience only a …
: The work to do the work Abi Handley shared the above image on LinkedIn from a web developer who, back in 2022, worked out …
: About time to head south for winter I don’t think this is a new ‘False Knees’ cartoon, but it’s a great one and …
: Ocean acidification approaches the boundary I feel like this should perhaps be bigger news? Boundaries that have already been exceeded have to …
: A Troll's Charter Given the groups who financed Elon Musk’s acquisition of Twitter, I don’t think …
: A countercultural perspective to the capitalist notion of 'productivity' This article examines how religious communities, particularly nuns and monks, approach productivity …
: A landscape of havoc and fracture The last paragraph of this post by Julian Stodd, which I discovered via OLDaily, points to something …
: Leadership, gender, and 'abusive supervision' Prof. Ivona Hideg writes about a study she carried out during the pandemic around men and women …
: Water use literacy We’ve just started on a Mozilla-funded Friends of the Earth project at the moment around …
: Against cyberlibertarianism A long-ish and important post by Paris Marx in which he argues for a middle path between the …
: We look through screens rather than at them I don’t know if you’ve ever been to the place where a famous artist, or musician, or …
: More is always more where 'kitchen lipstick' is concerned I’m a big fan of srirarcha sauce, so this ode by Jay Rayner to ‘lifting’ ordinary …
: Isolated places in the Lake District for wild camping I took this photo on Friday night, just after setting up my tent in Eskdale. This is like the land …
: Better Images of AI Have you noticed that most news articles, blog posts, and social media updates that talk about AI …
: AI and community communication Stephen Downes has written a couple of articles relating Generative AI (GenAI) and Open Education …
: Migration → Adaptation → Carbon removal → Geoengineering I’ve already shared “technologist and climate geek” Ben James' most recent blog …
: Some men just want to watch the world burn (and now there's research to prove it) There’s a scene in one of my favourite films, The Dark Knight in which Arthur, Bruce …
: A State of Systems Shifting A decade ago, I was going to so many in-person conferences that I had both a dedicated blog and …
: The future is off-grid solar I’ve read some of the thoughts in this post via Low-Tech Magazine especially around the …
: How Bluey-Green Was My Valley? After discovering this site earlier in the week, I’ve shown it to my wife and my mother. …
: So far, so dystopian Although there’s plenty of people who would say otherwise, I think we’re in an …
: Because capitalism I enjoyed this rant that starts off talking about shaving being too expensive, and ends by giving …
: There is an opportunity to... I just saw that Tom Critchlow has taken a job, which is surprising given how much he waxed lyrical …
: 100 tips to sort your life out I was pretty amazed that Team Belshaw already does at least 75 of these 100 tips to sort your life …
: Your name in LandSat We have satellite imagery of pretty much every area of land on Earth. This is known as …
: The importance of context I haven’t actually finished listening to the whole episode yet, but I can already highly …
: Quote posting done right? Although there are some positive use cases, one of the most toxic things about X/Twitter has been …
: A typology of meme-sharing I don’t know about you, but responding to a family member, friend, or professional contact …
: Fediverse governance models Erin Kissane and Darius Kazemi have published a report on Fediverse governance which is the kind of …
: Life-ready signals To be a professional, a knowledge worker in the 21st century, means keeping up with jargon, …
: Begetting strangers This is such a great article by Joshua Rothman in The New Yorker. Quoting philosophers, he concisely …
: The thorny problem of authorship in a world of AI This is an interesting article by Justine Tunney who argues that Open Source developers are having …
: Government and algorithmic bias If any government is going of, by, and for the people, then we can’t have unaccountable black …
: 'Meta-work' is how we get past all the one-size-fits-none approaches Alexandra Samuel points out in this newsletter that a lot of the work we do as knowledge workers …
: Reimagining misinformation Google’s new Pixel 9 smartphones are being heavily marketed as having their AI tool, Gemini , …
: Where in the world is that shadow? My son enjoys playing GeoGuessr, which is “a geography game, in which you are dropped …
: Dark data is a climate concern I mean, yes, of course I knew that data files are stored on servers and that those servers consume …
: There is no such thing as a life that makes sense I definitely agree with the author of this post that there a couple of wonderful things about …
: Google Calendar illustration trigger words If you use the Google Calendar app in ‘schedule’ view, you’ll no doubt be …
: You get water from food as well, you know It’s always puzzled me when people drink huge amounts of water. Whether it’s for …
: Tugging at metaphors Christina Hendricks is a Professor of Teaching in Philosophy at the University of British …
: You don't need permission, you need advice Deciding that you want to do something and then asking for advice is different to asking for …
: Give readers a break I recently struggled with the middle of a book which I really wanted to finish by an author I really …
: 14kB It’s been four years since I switched to the Susty theme for my WordPress-powered blog. Not …
: Doing things that don’t scale in pursuit of things that can’t scale Note: I’ve been away from here for just over a month, and my backlog is so huge that I …
: Stand up for yourself. Challenge authority. Tell your rude co-worker to shut up. I can’t say I’ve ever read Roxanne Gay’s Work Friend column for The New York Times …
: You don't have to like what other people like, or do what other people do Warren Ellis responds to a post by Jay Springett on ‘surface flatness’ by reframing the …
: Summer digital detox During my run yesterday morning, I listened to a great podcast episode about doing different things …
: Informatics of domination I’ve had this incredible interactive map, created by Kate Crawford and Vladan Joler, …
: If you're not a part of the solution, there's good money to be made in prolonging the problem There’s a lot of money sloshing around at the top of society, being channeled into different …
: Look out for surplus fingers As I always say about misinformation and disinformation: people believe what they want to believe. …
: New materials for a super-heated world As I mentioned I’m reading Lifehouse by Adam Greenfield at the moment, which starts with some …
: Eye-contact has a significant impact on interpersonal evaluation, and online job interviews are no exception Maintaining “eye contact” with someone on a video conference call is a bit weird, …
: Here is a book as a toolbox to build actual, hard-tacks answers to the crisis of the Long Emergency I’ve been very much looking forward to reading Lifehouse: Taking Care of Ourselves in a World …
: A smaller human population will immensely facilitate other transformations we need Chart: Population projections from the U.N. (black) and Tom Murphy (blue) When it’s put as …
: The Promise and Pitfalls of Decentralised Social Networks This paper, ‘Decentralized Social Networks and the Future of Free Speech Online’ …
: If we don’t change course, most people in the U.S. will have some flavor of Long COVID of one sort or another For the past few years, I’ve been on the list of ‘vulnerable’ people who get a …
: An inferior, or at least grossly limited version of intelligence Audrey Watters cites the work of Zoë Schlanger who asks what we mean by ‘intelligence’. …
: F L A M I N G O N E Miles Astray is a photographer who recently won the People’s Vote and a Jury Award in the artificial …
: It's all just one big ocean Source: Fix The News Credit: Natalie Renier/Woods Hole Oceanograpic Instition
: The writer’s equivalent of what in computer architecture is called speculative execution As ever with Venkatesh Rao’s posts, there’s a lot going on with this one. Ostensibly, …
: It's impossible to 'hang out' on the internet, because it is not a place I spend a lot of time online, but do I ‘hang out’ there? I certainly hang out with …
: 'Wet streets cause rain' stories First things first, the George Orwell quotation below is spurious, as the author of this article, …
: Dividers tell the story of how they’ve renovated their houses, becoming architects along the way. Continuers tell the story of an august property that will remain itself regardless of what gets built. This long article in The New Yorker is based around the author wondering whether the fun he’s …
: Source: 2024 Drone Photo Awards Nominees
: The iPhone effect, if it was ever real in the first place, is certainly not real now. It’s announcement time at Apple’s WWDC. And apart from trying to rebrand AI as …
: The latest Hardcore History just dropped I could listen to Dan Carlin read the phone book all day, so to read the announcement that his …
: The logical conclusion of rich, isolated computer programmers having ketamine orgies with each other Ryan Broderick with a reality check about OpenAI and GenAI in general: I think this [Effective …
: In the English language, a human alone has distinction while all other living beings are lumped with the nonliving “its.” I posted on social media recently that I want more verbs and fewer nouns in my life. This article, …
: Oblivion doesn’t just mean eradication: it is erasure If you haven’t come across the The New Design Congress before, I highly suggest reading their …
: 65% of UK adults aged 18-35 support “a strong leader who doesn’t have to bother with parliamentary elections” I wouldn’t usually link to UnHerd, but the figure quoted here is taken from a tweet by Rory …
: Podcasts worth listening to TIME has a list of the ‘best podcasts of 2024 so far’. 99% Invisible is great, but my …
: The theory of 'a rising tide lifts all boats' does not work when you allow the people with the most influence to buy their way out of the water I agree with this so much. I’ve had jobs where I’ve been entitled to private health …
: TikTok as spectacle Audrey Watters links to this post by Rob Horning which talks about sports, social media, AI, and Guy …
: Absurd design We were using the CC0-licensed Humaaans for some work this week when the client decided they …
: The AI Egg Dan Sutch, who I’ve known at this point in various roles for around 17 years, introduces the …
: What is systems thinking? I only found out about this online event featuring Gerald Midgley shortly before it occurred. I …
: Alone time I haven’t spent enough time alone recently. I need to get back out into the mountains with my …
: The effort required to maintain internally consistent and intellectually honest positions in the current environment is daunting Albert Wenger, the only Venture Capitalist I pay any attention to, writes on his blog that… …
: 3 strategies to counter the unseen costs of boundary work within organisations This article focuses on research that reveals people who do ‘boundary work’ within …
: Just because we cannot imagine a future does not mean it cannot happen I came across this post yesterday in which I was interested primarily for the graphic. The author …
: Man or bear IRL This article by Laura Killingbeck is definitely worth reading in its entirety. Not only is it …
: AI is infecting everything Imagine how absolutely terrified of competition Google must be to be to put the output from the …
: Electronic spider silk This looks promising! As with everything like this, though, the more data we capture about the body, …
: A learnt practice that placates idle hands and leaves our thoughts free One of the many things that I’ve learned from Laura is that people need things to do with …
: How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives Although things are pretty quiet at the moment, I usually average around 20 hours of paid work per …
: Shark skin aircraft FTW We need all kinds of innovations, large and small, to help address the climate emergency. I'm not …
: A Jazz-soaked Philosophy for our Catastrophic Times: From Socrates to Coltrane’ These Gifford Lectures at the University of Edinbugh look pretty awesome. I don’t think Cornel …
: Digital Badging Commission I’m reserving judgement on this initiative until I find out more, but it seems to be in the …
: Food bank efficiency I’ve been at the Thinking Digital conference this week, where local guy Paul McMurray who …
: The 'threat' of fictional and factual fembots Of all of the things that have launched recently, a breath of fresh air has been 404 Media. This is …
: An end to growth? Kate Raworth, who came up with the idea of Doughnut Economics, writes in The Guardian about how we …
: License to Drill The older I get, the more different kinds of workouts (or drills) I need to do to keep supple and …
: Navigating financial uncertainty isn't just about 'trying harder' When you’re a freelancer, consultant, or part of an organisation that relies on contracts or …
: Every drama requires a fool Some of these are perhaps a bit too literal for their own good, but this list of Chinese proverbs …
: Another chance tonight It’s looking like we might get another chance to see the aurora borealis tonight after the …
: More on digital afterlife services If there are people falling in love with chatbots powered by generative AI, you can bet there are …
: We got the internet that reflects who we are John Willshire, with whom I had an interesting chat this week, asked a question of Mike Monteiro. I …
: ShareOpenly (to the Fediverse) Ben Werdmuller created ShareOpenly to make it easier to share web content, such as blog posts, to …
: Strategic Design resources I had a chat with John Willshire today from Smithery and while we were talking he mentioned a few …
: Cullernose Point I’ve got too much art waiting to go up in my new house to be buying more at the moment, but …
: Systems ambiguity and chaos Silvio Lorusso’s ‘intervention’ during Domus Academy’s roundtable is well worth a …
: But here we are: the diaspora of online communities Laura often says that online communities don’t exist on a single platform, but all over the …
: "All that any honest review actually does is just accelerate whatever was already going on" This is a masterpiece in defending yourself while taking the high ground and explaining to your …
: Warm Data Amy Daniels-Moehle shared a link to this during the ORE community call yesterday. She’s been …
: Spectacular timelapse over the ALMA Observatory This timelapse, which was shared by the social media account Wonder of Science is just fantastic. …
: How to easily generate image descriptions and alt text This is pretty great: you upload the image and it creates a pretty detailed text description, along …
: It turns out the apple can fall pretty far from the tree How much influence do parents have on their children? Less than we’d assume, it appears. I …
: Limiting virtues Sara Hendren discusses what I would call ‘creative constraints’ as applied to …
: You are what you read Jim Neilsen uses a Ralph Waldo Emerson quotation as a jumping-off point to discuss something …
: Book reading and secondary orality This is a bit of a strange ramble-post which largely rehashes the discussion/debate we’ve been …
: Optimising for the wrong things Solid advice here. You aren’t famous. Anything you do or create will probably receive little to no …
: There's only so much lemonade you can make when life is firing lemons at you I just had to post this image, which I discovered via the Fediverse. It’s definitely a riposte …
: Real-time deepfake videos for fun and exploitation This is a PSA to be careful out there: deepfakes have come to regular, real-time video calls. People …
: It's not sick note culture, it's systemic failure in governance This is, as you’d expect, a restrained article from the BBC. But it still flies in the face of …
: Book publishing doesn't work Elle Griffin digged into the details of a court case from 2022 that involved Penguin Random House …
: Social media without an audience What I appreciate about Drew Austin’s writing is how concisely he can string together …
: How not to mince about like a little weasel It would be remiss of me not to mark the extraordinary achievement of Russell “Hardest …
: Tearing your anger into strips A new paper in Nature suggests that writing down your feelings of anger and then disposing of the …
: If you're going to go, you might as well go... weirdly? I stumbled across a Wikipedia page entitled ‘List of unusual deaths’. I was only going …
: A pharmacology of digital tools This article in Aeon is the first time I’ve come across the French philosopher Bernard …
: Disinformation is free This is an interesting post by Ian Betteridge, mainly because of the point he makes at the end about …
: Slouchers rejoice! My maternal grandmother was so paranoid about having a poor posture that she put a bamboo pole …
: 'Neom' is the sound of contractors being laid off About 15 years ago, local residents where we used to live conned into backing (or at least not …
: A tiny oasis of life, surrounded by an immensity of death This cartoon is exactly the scenario I’m concerned about happening to the planet we call home. …
: Itano Circus I can’t remember where I came across it, but I’ve bookmarked both a YouTube video and …
: Football fan hierarchy It remains a source of frustration to me that my kids support Liverpool. They’ve never been to …
: De-bogging yourself I’ll not do this often, and I obviously encourage you to read the original article, but …
: The New York Times is a gaming platform Via Garbage Day, this chart shows that The New York Times is more of a gaming platform than a news …
: Borobudur M.E. Rothwell’s Cosmographia is a frequent delight, and his latest missive really hits my …
: Boundaries I might pay for Noah Smith’s publication if it weren’t on Substack. While it’s a …
: Eudaimonic exercise Audrey Watters discusses “the yips,” a term for “a form of dissociative freeze” …
: Origami unicorn Erin Kissane wrote a long essay about Threads and the Fediverse. It’s worth a read in its own …
: The best antidote for the tendency to caricature one’s opponent Daniel Dennett is a philosopher who I enjoyed reading an undergraduate studying towards a Philosophy …
: Endlessly clever Ethan Marcotte takes a phrase used in passing by a friend and applies it to his own career. He makes …
: When should you replace running shoes? John Sutton knows more about this area than I do. Not only his he an ultramarathon runner but he …
: Human agency in a world of AI Dave White, Head of Digital Education and Academic Practice at the University of the Arts in London, …
: 5 ways in which AI is discussed Helen Beetham, whose work over at imperfect offerings I’ve mentioned many times here, has a …
: 14 years of Tory (mis)rule I don’t even have words for how bad the last 14 years have been under the Tories. Thankfully, …
: Identifying things that don't work I always find something I agree with in posts like this. Here are some of those things in a list of …
: The art of distraction L.M. Sacasas has written a lengthy commentary on an essay by Ted Gioia, which is well worth reading …
: The problem with private property societies I still subscribe to a few author’s publications on Substack, although I wish they’d …
: More equal societies perform better It’s easy to say that you hate the Tories. The reason, of course, is that while they’re …
: Toward the ad-free city? I can’t stand adverts whether appearing on the web (adblockers!), TV (sound off!) or on …
: The impact of the pandemic This is a difficult read. Without even going into the breakdown in social relations and trust, it …
: Microcast #104 — Questioning uncritical acceptance A microcast to respond to a thread on the Fediverse about uncritical acceptance of new technologies …
: Bluesky's approach to decentralised moderation Over the last 5-6 years I’ve had to think deeply about moderation in decentralised networks, …
: Barnacle ball Some great photos in this year’s British Wildlife Photography Awards. I was going to share the …
: Anti-AI hyperbole This post has been going around my networks recently, so I’ve finally got around to giving it …
: Microcast #103 — Microphones and Moving to Micro.blog The first microcast of 2024 and also the first on micro.blog. This one discusses the reasons for the …
: Taking seriously the noise and free-floating anxiety I’ve always enjoyed Helen Beetham’s writing, and her more recent work on AI has filled a …
: Austerity is not efficiency The UK is currently limping towards a General Election which, although it hasn’t been called …
: Reframing as small i's This is such an important reframing. I, for one, definitely have a tendency to let my latest …
: Scaling AI requires 'muddling through' The always thought-provoking Venkatesh Rao poses the question of what kind of scaling we need for …
: Born to run I set myself the target of running 1,000km this year. Camille Herron just ran 900km in six days 🤯 …
: Consciousness porn Sometimes, I come across a post which comes from leftfield and is almost impossible to quote in a …
: Vendor lock-in writ large People call me prolific, but I’m nothing compared to Cory Doctorow. I can’t keep up with …
: Be careful what you wish for I’ve already posted a thread about this on the Fediverse, so I’ll just copy-and-paste …
: Scintillating scotomas It’s weird to think that I was about my son’s age (17) when I started getting migraines. …
: Career vs Job This post by Tim Klapdor is definitely related the Aeon article I quoted about carving out time for …
: Absence is not a defect(ion) I hadn’t thought of the early days of the pandemic as being akin to a general labour strike. …
: Claude's Prompt Library Anthropic, the organisation set up by ex-OpenAI staffers, has recently released Claude 3. This is …
: Sports betting and neoliberal atomisation The only times I’ve ever betted on sports is with my father. Back when I lived at home, …
: Subject, Consumer, Citizen Andrew Curry reflects on the work of Jon Alexander, author of a book called Citizens (2022). …
: A truly liberatory (digital) future for everyone After giving a potted history of the internet and all of the ways it has failed to live up to its …
: Moderation is up to us now I’ve curated my comfy middle-class life to such a degree that I mostly hear about the dark …
: Hope vs Natality Trigger warnings: death, persecution, suicide Over on my personal blog I wrote that, given the depth …
: Post-Holocene preferable future habitats If someone asks me “what kind of future would you like to live in?” I’m going to …
: Being a good listener also means being a good talker What an absolutely fantastic read this is. I’d encourage everyone to read it in its entirety, …
: AI agents as customers I don’t often visit Medium other than when I’m writing a post for the WAO blog. When …
: Ultravioleta I’m not sure of the backstory to this drawing (‘Ultravioleta’) by Jon Juarez, but …
: Language is probably less than you think it is This is a great post by Jennifer Moore, whose main point is about using AI for software development, …
: Humans and AI-generated news The endgame of news, as far as Big Tech is concerned is, I guess, just-in-time created content for …
: Elegant media consumption Jay Springett shares some media consumption figures. It blows my mind how much time people spend …
: Philosophy and folklore I love this piece in Aeon from Abigail Tulenko, who argues that folklore and philosophy share a …
: 3 issues with global mapping of micro-credentials If you’ll excuse me for a brief rant, I have three, nested, issues with this ‘global …
: Perhaps stop caring about what other people think (of you) In this post, Mark Manson, author of _The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck _ outlines ‘5 …
: Educators should demand better than 'semi-proctored writing environments' My longer rant about the whole formal education system of which this is a symptom will have to wait …
: The perils of over-customising your setup Until about a decade ago, I used to heavily customise my digital working environment. I’d have …
: Systems thinking and the FRAMED mnemonic I’m currently studying towards my first module of a planned MSc in Systems Thinking through …
: The war on the URL A typically jargon-filled but nevertheless insightful post by Venkatesh Rao. This one discusses the …
: Educators in an AI generated world Helen Beetham comment on OpenAI’s Sora AI video generating engine in relation to education. …
: Random advice from Ryan I know this is just another one of Ryan Holiday’s somewhat-rambling list posts, but …
: The line between “just enough” and “too much” can fluctuate When I was younger, I wanted to be a minimalist. I thought that famous photo of Steve Jobs sitting …
: We tell ourselves stories in order to live M.E. Rothwell publishes Cosmographia which hits the sweet spot for me, and for many, being focused …
: What kind of online world are we manifesting with AI search? Withering words from the consistently-excellent auteur of internet culture, Ryan Broderick. …
: Vomit on my sweater already / mom’s spaghetti If you’re not into rap or hip hop you may not fully understand the genius of Eminem’s …
: At the (current) boundary of 'AI ethics' A trio of links, depending on how far down the rabbit hole you want to go. The last post is …
: Bet you didn't know this about Botox This article is absolutely wild. Only a tiny, tiny amount of the toxin from which Botox is developed …
: Economic incentives and parental leave This is an odd article which seems to be simply making the point that paternity leave is a good …
: Human writing in the age of generative AI I wholeheartedly agree with the sentiment behind this post by James Shelley, discussing writing in …
: The cause of our anger is not other people “Don’t use your anger for this, use it for that!" is the central message of an …
: Every default macOS wallpaper in 6k Whichever operating system you’re using, having a beautiful image as your background image or …
: Building a Bonfire I’m delighted to see this article about Bonfire, a project I’ve contributed to on …
: AI-generated video is coming for your reality It’s been almost impossible to miss the announcement from OpenAI, the creators of ChatGPT and …
: Brexit means Brexit in football, too It’s taken The Guardian about five years, I reckons, to pick up on this phenomenon. My son and …
: Writing, personal branding, and capitalism Suw Charman-Anderson reflects on something that has definitely shifted over my lifetime: writing for …
: Generative AI means we need to use art school approaches to assessment Great post by Dave White, who works at University of the Arts, London. His point, which is …
: Eye-opening heat map study Perhaps sadly unsurprising to anyone who has ever talked about this with women, or who has lived as …
: First Thought Shrapnel 'newsletter' via micro.blog! If you’re reading this, and have previously subscribed to Thought Shrapnel by email, then …
: The death of consensus reality I mentioned the podcast Your Undivided Attention in a recent post. Last summer, I listened to an …
: Preparing for a year of electoral disinformation I listened to an interesting episode of the Your Undivided Attention podcast a few days ago which …
: Doing something about the UK schooling class divide In the UK, prices of family-sized homes are closely linked to the Ofsted rating of local schools. …
: Shared persuasion tactics I feel like this fits well with some stuff WAO has been revisiting this week around challenger …
: An 'anti-social network' you post to via email subject lines On the one hand, this is awesome. On the other, what would I use it for? Mine’s here. …
: Welcome to the new home of Thought Shrapnel! Excuse the mess while we unpack boxes, etc.
: What is degrowth communism? This interview with Kohei Saito in EL PAÍS talks about the importance of having a positive view of …
: Spy windows? No technology is neutral, and vendors are only ever going to tout the positive qualities. Take this …
: We become what we behold An insightful and nuanced post from Stephen Downes, who reflects on various experiences, from …
: Your future is statistically more likely to be better than your past Another fantastic article by Arthur C. Brooks for The Atlantic which draws on research about how …
: Logical fallacies, cognitive biases, and more I always enjoy posts like this because I invariably learn something new. There’s some gems in …
: Would you survive in medieval Europe? Realistically, I’m never going to watch an hour-long YouTube video which is mainly a talking …
: The rich are scared we're going to eat them I’m reading Roots at the moment, the novel by Alex Haley about an African man captured and …
: Remember distinct music scenes and culinary traditions? Yeah, they're coming back. Anything that Anil Dash writes is worth reading and this, his first article for Rolling Stone, is no …
: Giving up is an attempt to make a different future This is some incredible writing from psychotherapist Adam Phillips. It’s an edited extract …
: We already have solutions for a lot of problems, we just don’t use them A belated Happy New Year, and what better way to start off 2024 than by this reminder that quite a …
: Best of Thought Shrapnel 2023 Hello hello. I hope you're well 🙂 According to my stats, the following posts, all published in the …
: Back next year! That's it for Thought Shrapnel for 2023. Make sure you're subscribed for when we're back next year! …
: Avoiding the 'Dark Triads' Arthur C. Brooks, whose writing I always enjoy, writes on sociopaths, narcissists, and ‘Dark …
: The 9-5 shift is a relatively recent invention As a Xennial, I have all of the guilt for not working hard enough — along with a desire to live a …
: Towards an epistemology of the humanities Lorraine Daston highlights the lack of a systematic approach to knowledge (epistemology) in the …
: More like Grammarly than Hal 9000 I’m currently studying towards an MSc in Systems Thinking and earlier this week created a GPT …
: Overemployment as anti-precarity strategy Historically, the way we fought back against oppressive employers and repressive regimes was to band …
: There are better approaches than just having no friends at work We get articles like this because we live in a world inescapably tied to neoliberalism and …
: Building a system for success, without the glitches Wise words from Seth Godin. It’s a twist on the advice to stop doing things that maybe used to …
: Is the only sustainable growth 'degrowth'? This article by Noah Smith gave me pause for thought. There’s plenty of people talking about …
: If you need a cheat sheet, it's not 'natural language' Benedict Evans, whose post about leaving Twitter I featured last week, has written about AI tools …
: Cosplaying adulthood I discovered this article published at The Cut while browsing Hacker News. I was immediately drawn …
: You'll be hearing a lot more about nodules It was only this year that I first heard about nodules, rock-shaped objects formed over millions of …
: Our ancestors were using complex tools and woodworking approaches almost half a million years ago Nature reports that, at the Kalambo Falls archaeological site in Zambia, researchers have unearthed …
: Pufflings can't resist the bright lights of the city I haven’t seen puffins in real life very often, but they’re associated with the Farne …
: Co-Intelligence, GPTs, and autonomous agents The big technology news this past week has been OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT and DALL-E, …
: Small sufferings As I’ve mentioned sporadically for over a decade, I have a cold shower every morning. Not only is it …
: Twitter now feels like the Brewster’s Millions of tech I’d like to share two ‘leaving Twitter’ posts I came across yesterday. Theyoccupy …
: Bill Gates on why AI agents are better than Clippy While there’s nothing particularly new in this post by Bill Gates, it’s nevertheless a …
: The fragmentation of the (social) web These days, I lean heavily on Ryan Broderick’s Garbage Day newsletter to know what’s …
: AI generated images in a time of war It’s one thing user-generated content being circulated around social media for the purposes of …
: The Societal Side-eye I’ll turn 43 next month. I seem to have a lot more grey hair than other people my age. Some …
: The first half of life is Tetris; the second half is Jenga I don’t think much of the poem, but I’m stealing the first line of this article as the …
: Don't tell me that hiring isn't broken Despite the great work being done around Open Recognition, the main use case for digital credentials …
: Accepting and trying to deal with climate as an overriding priority I need to dig into this BBC R&D report, but it looks fascinating at first glance. I recognise …
: Therapy is simple Craig Mod is a couple of months older than me, as I turn 43 just before Christmas. Like me, …
: Sitting staring at a wall for hours Some wise words from author Warren Ellis, whose Sunday newsletter ‘Orbital Operations’ …
: 'Restorying' your life as a hero's journey There are some people, perhaps most people, who do not expect setbacks and problems in life. They …
: The real threat to manhood: remaining children This is an interesting article that, to be honest, I expected a bit more from. It comments on some …
: Happiness vs GDP Making the world a happier, fairer, safer place seems like an idea that most people can get behind. …
: The Fediverse model can help fix the internet This article in the MIT Technology Review largely comes to the same conclusions as my comment in …
: Paying to avoid ads is paying to avoid tracking This article is the standard way of reporting Meta’s announcement that, to comply with a new …
: Looking out of someone else's window Well, this is absolutely delightful. The view below is from a window of Hotel Washington looking out …
: Soul houses and false doors Egyptology is endlessly fascinating to me. I only got to scratch the surface teaching a course …
: Stonehenge had nothing to do with druids I’ve only ever driven past Stonehenge, as it’s a long way from where I grew up, and by …
: The French Jesuit priest who surveyed Roman forts by air I’m not sure what’s more fascinating: the scale of the Roman army’s building (in …
: Superorganisms and solidarity I haven’t gone enough into Buddhism to understand whether what is described in this article by …
: Serious art, influencers, and AI This is quite the article by Rob Horning. It begins with a social media spat between an influencer …
: Running slow and short There are books that have changed my life, but there are also podcast episodes. One example of this …
: Dynamic ontologies and music genres As a music lover and someone who has more than a passing interest in dynamic ontologies, I found …
: The social semi-permeable membrane I never used LiveJournal, but I love Ben Werdmuller’s description of it as a place to journal …
: Systems and interconnected disaster risks When you see that humans have exceeded six of the nine boundaries which keep Earth habitable, …
: System innovation is driven by reshaping relationships within the system As I may have mentioned a little too often recently, I’m about to start an MSc in Systems …
: Tech typologisation People love being typologised. I’m no different, although my result as an ‘Abstract …
: Is this the end of the 'extremely online' era? As I mentioned in a recent post, you can’t win a war against system designed to destroy your …
: Treating depression with hot yoga Although I don’t think he went for the reasons given in this article, my late, great friend …
: Why haven't you bought a Steam Deck yet? I love my Steam Deck, and am so pleased that I not only bought it, but I bought the maxed-out …
: Zoom backgrounds with a Japanese nature retreat vibe Not only did I love Swarnali Mukherjee’s writing in this post, I also absolutely adored the image …
: The casual ableism of futurism This article by Janet Gunter discusses the endemic ableism she’s discovered due to her new and …
: Philosophy and friendship Laura Kennedy writes about loneliness in a post that documents her experiences moving from Ireland …
: Laying to rest a foundational myth The widely accepted “Man the Hunter” theory proposes that during human evolution, men …
: What, after all, is 'redemption'? This article by Hanif Abdurraqib in The Paris Review draws analogies between one of my favourite …
: The inner world as the ultimate prison I wanted to quote so much of this article that it would have ended up being a Borges-like 1:1 map of …
: Monetising a hobby is different to solving a difficult problem for people ready to pay Life is never as simple as a 2x2 matrix, but they’re incredibly useful for helping illustrate …
: Content-neutral sentence starters and phrases for academic writing As part of preparing for my upcoming MSc I’ve been working through a course about preparing …
: AI, domination, and moral character I don’t know enough on a technical level to know whether this is true or false, but it’s …
: Notification literacy, monk mode, and going outside for a walk Back on my now-defunct literaci.es blog I had a post about notification literacy. My point was that …
: Microcast #102 — Rituals and Routines A very short microcast about reading by the light of a fish tank in the early hours of the morning. …
: Parenting the parents This article in The Guardian discusses the challenges and opportunities of “parenting” …
: 2024 is going to be a wild ride of AI-generated content It’s on the NSFW side of things, but if you’re in any doubt that we’re entering a …
: The techno-feudal economy Yanis Varoufakis is best known for his short stint as Greek finance minister in 2015 during a …
: Modular learning and credentialing I’ve got far more to say about this than the space I’ve got here on Thought Shrapnel. …
: Handwriting, note-taking, and recall I write by hand every day, but not much. While I used to keep a diary in which I’d write …
: AI and stereotypes “Garbage in, garbage out” is a well-known phrase in computing. It applies to AI as well, …
: Setting up a digital executor A short article in The Guardian about making sure that people can do useful things with your digital …
: In what ways does this technology increase people's agency? This is a reasonably long article, part of a series by Robin Berjon about the future of the …
: Don’t just hold back, take the time to pass it on I have thoughts, but don’t have anything useful to say publicly about this. So instead …
: Doing your job well does not entail attending more meetings There’s a lot of swearing in this blog post, but then that’s what makes it both amusing …
: People quit managers, not jobs It turns out that the saying that “people quit managers, not jobs” is actually true. …
: People may let you down, but AI Tinder won't I was quite surprised to learn that the person who attempted to kill the Queen with a crossbow a …
: A steampunk Byzantium with nukes John Gray, philosopher and fellow son of the north-east of England, is probably best known for Straw …
: NFTs as skeuomorphic baby-steps? I came across this piece by Simon de la Rouviere via Jay Springett about how NFTs can’t die. …
: Where next for social media? There’s nothing new about the idea of a splinternet or original about observing that people …
: Holographic depth of field Well this is cool. Although there are limited ways of refocusing a shot after taking it, this new …
: Pre-committed defaults Uri from Atoms vs Bits identifies a useful trick to quell indecisiveness. They call it a …
: 3 bits of marriage advice I’m not sure about likening marriage to a business relationship, but after being with my wife …
: Microcast #101 — Self-esteem, pies, and moving house More solo waffle about various things. I could pretend there's a consistent thread, but then I'd be …
: A reward is not 'more email' I’ve just signed up to support Jay Springett’s work and am looking forward to receiving …
: Curiosity and infinite detail This is a wonderful reminder by David Cain that there’s value in retraining our childlike …
: Well, when you put it like that... This came across my timeline earlier this week and it’s a pretty stark reminder / wake-up …
: A lonely and surveilled landscape Kyle Chayka, writing in The New Yorker, points to what many of us have felt over the decade or so: …
: And so it continues... As we start the run-up to a General Election in the UK (date still to be announced) the deepfakes …
: Billionaires shouldn't exist, even if they're philanthropists I’m sure Charles Feeney was a great guy, and it certainly sounds like he gave the money he …
: Nuance and depth through long(er)form reading Tantek Çelik reflects on a post by Ben Werdmuller, who wrote a script to be able to quickly follow …
: AIs and alignment with human values This is a fantastic article by Jessica Dai, cofounder of Reboot. What I particularly appreciate is …
: Microplastics, tyres, and EVs When I took delivery of my electric vehicle (EV) earlier this month, I already knew that it would …
: Social media platforms have been reading the airlines' enshittification handbook This year, Cory Doctorow has been making waves with his, as usual, spot-on analysis of what’s …
: On the importance of fluency in other people's love languages I was talking to someone yesterday about ‘love languages’ which they hadn’t come …
: Aristotle diagnoses our current political problems The latest issue of New Philosopher magazine is about conflict. As usual, they quote a philosopher …
: The rolling drama of the climate crisis just got a whole lot worse It’s massively concerning that, although scientists seem to understand why the earth has been …
: Five kinds of friends Anyone who’s read Montaigne’s Essays will probably be slightly jealous of his friendship …
: Anxiety, deadness, and aggression I can’t quite remember where I came across this article, but I’ve subscribed to the …
: Microcast #100 — Awkward Conversations Instead of avoiding difficult conversations, aim to make them less awkward. Here's one way. Show …
: Different levels of reading (technologies) This post by author Nick Harkaway was shared by Warren Ellis in his most recent newsletter. …
: Perhaps switch to another search engine? I use a lot of Google products. I’m typing this on a laptop on which I’ve installed …
: Climate havens I grew up in an ex-mining town, surrounded by ex-mining villages. At one point in my teenage years, …
: In the long run, people can only treat you the way you let them This blog post, which I discovered via Hacker News, is about ultimatums around ‘return to …
: More on the vagus nerve (and exercise) I mentioned a few weeks ago how researchers have been trying to electrically stimulate the vagus …
: University is about more than jobs and earning power Next month, I embark on my fourth postgraduate qualification: an MSc in Systems Thinking in …
: Intelligent failure Andrew Curry links to Amy Edmondsen’s new book about ‘intelligent failure’. …
: Falling asleep on the couch watching films I can count on the fingers of no hands the number of times I’ve fallen asleep watching a film …
: Yuval Noah Harari on the post-truth revolutionary right Friend and collaborator Bryan Mathers recommended this episode of The Rest is Politics: Leading to …
: Microcast #99 — EVs Reflections on taking delivery of an electric vehicle (EV), including charging, business lease, and …
: Songs are not meme stocks Remember NFTs? This article in The Guardian will help remind you of the heady days of early 2022 …
: Adversarial interoperability to return to a world of 'fast companies' Cory Doctorow is one of my favourite people on the entire planet. I’ve heard him speak in …
: Sycamore Stump There is, or rather was, a tree that symbolised the North East of England. Standing at a dip in the …
: Please consider stopping eating animals I don’t know how many people reading this are vegans or vegetarians. I was a pescetarian from …
: 'Personalisation' is something that humans do Audrey Watters, formerly the ‘Cassandra’ of edtech, is now writing about health, …
: Migraines and 'ability' Granted it’s been over a decade, but when I worked at a university I had to be on the …
: No career progression on a dead planet There’s a film starring Matt Damon called Elysium from 2013 in which the wealthy live on a …
: AI generated images with subliminal messages You’ve probably seen some of these already. Someone discovered that if you use the generator …
: On preparing, issuing, and claiming badges I attended a Navigatr webinar at lunchtime today where they shared this graphic which underscores …
: Telling stories using cartoons Liza Donnelly is a cartoonist for the New Yorker. In this article, which is an output from some …
: AI = surveillance Social networks are surveillance systems. Loyalty cards are surveillance systems. AI language models …
: Screens, addiction, and parenting I spent my lunchtime packaging up my beloved PlayStation 5. I’m going to send it to my …
: Conspicuously sesquipedalian communication Getting people to understand your ideas is a difficult thing. That’s why it’s been so …
: What people are really using generative AI for As I’ve written several times before here on Thought Shrapnel, society seems to act as though …
: Oh great, another skills passport I’ve spent the last 12 years working in the ecosystem around Open Badges, which provides an …
: If your heart isn’t it, it’s probably because there’s no heart anywhere in the process One thing I’ve learned spending over a decade thinking about Open Badges and alternative …
: A trickle, a ripple, a slow rush This article by Antonia Malchik reflects on her personal journey moving back to her hometown in …
: If LLMs are puppets, who's pulling the strings? The article from the Mozilla Foundation surfaces into the human decisions that shape generative AI. …
: Bad historical maps Like the author of this article, I love a good map. Whether it’s trekking across hills and …
: More treasures and secrets from ancient Egypt Underwater archaeologists have discovered a sunken temple off Egypt’s Mediterranean coast, …
: Death, wrecks, and harsh weather There was a time, about a decade ago, where although I was based from home, I’d be travelling …
: Microcast #98 — Endorsement The introduction to some thoughts on endorsement using Open Badges and Verifiable Credentials within …
: Virtual spaces for learning and collaboration Today, I’ve been doing a UCL short course. As we were coming back from a break, we were …
: The Social Media Archipelago On 1st October, I’ll be transitioning the Thought Shrapnel newsletter to Substack. More about …
: This isn't working. Can we talk about that? Thankfully, there’s no-one calling me back into the office. But this post is about people who …
: Constructs, meta-constructs, and shared cognitive spaces Posts like this one by Venkatesh Rao are like catnip to me. He explores the concept of the …
: Research shows people in most countries are anti-capitalist I came across this via fellow Sunderland AFC supporter Andrew Curry’s Just Two Things …
: What's good for us is also good for the planet I came across this via Dense Discovery, which is one of a number of additional newsletters to which …
: The Empty Boat This was cited in something I read last week and I thought it was worth making it easy for me to …
: Maybe it makes sense to talk to plants after all Although I’ve alluded to talking to plants in the title for this post, the interesting thing …
: Noise and working from home I’ve worked from home for the last eleven years. For the last nine years, I’ve lived …
: Shrinkflation, sizes, and shaming I’d be surprised if ‘shrinkflation’ isn’t word of the year for 2023. For …
: Dark Tech and Project Cybersyn I read Evgeny Morozov’s book To Save Everything, Click Here a few years ago and found it …
: Good news on Covid treatments Well this is promising. Researchers have identified a critical weakness in COVID-19 in its reliance …
: Navigating the landscape of Digital and Media Literacy The report from Tactical Tech focuses on Digital Media Literacy (DML), exploring its complexities …
: Ducks, prompting, and LLMs Large Language Models (LLMs) like ChatGPT don’t allow you to get certain information. Think …
: The supermarket is a panopticon My son’s now old enough to get ‘loyalty cards’ for supermarkets, coffee shops, and …
: Microcast #097 — What do we mean by 'consensus'? Exploring different conceptions of 'consensus' using polls on the Fediverse and LinkedIn, as well as …
: Piracy and the art of cultural archiving Shortly before Daft Punk’s album Discovery was released, I managed to download a version of it …
: Greatest films of all time? I confess to only having watched one of the top 10 films on this list, which is put together mainly …
: Fandom and AI generated music If you haven’t discovered AI-generated songs by your favourite artists, then you’re …
: Saving the world using a 2x2 matrix I’m a fan of Venkatesh Rao’s writing, and in this post he explores what we mean by …
: The complexities of distraction I really enjoyed this essay by David Schurman Wallace in The Paris Review about being distracted …
: Developing your niche The website of the guy behind this post is a bit too heavy on the self-marketing for my liking, but …
: Monday morning feeling This is definitely a mood. Just a cat pondering the meaning of life. Source: Who the Hell Are You? | …
: The burnout curve I stumbled across this on LinkedIn. There doesn't seem to be an authoritative source yet other than …
: Status detection systems I listened to a fascinating episode of the You Are Not So Smart podcast while out running over the …
: The punishment for being authentic is becoming someone else’s content This short piece by Drew Austin reminds me of a couple of links I posted yesterday about Non-places …
: Job crafting, identity, and fulfilment This article by Lan Nguyen Chaplin, a professor of marketing at a prestigious business school, …
: AI writing detectors don’t work If you understand how LLMs such as ChatGPT work then it’s pretty obvious that there’s no …
: Microcast #096 — Getting back in the saddle Explaining what I've been up to and the difference between being a hedgehog and a fox. Show notes …
: Non-places I’m a big fan of Guy Debord’s work but have never read that of Marc Augé, who came up …
: TikTok's algorithm and its effect on migration Kukes, Albania is one of the poorest cities in Europe. Since the end of pandemic lockdowns, the city …
: Walking 1,000 miles across Europe As I know from personal experience, walking a long way by yourself is hard work, both mentally and …
: Cooling down is hotting up As the world heats up, humans are going to need to cool down. The use of air conditioning already …
: Indigenous knowledge, sustainable design, and long-term thinking This is a perfect example of the kind of sustainable design and long-term thinking we lose when we …
: Some advice for readers Less ‘rules’ than notes, this post by Ryan Holiday (himself a prolific author) is worth …
: Generative AI, misinformation, and content authenticity As a philosopher, historian, and educator by training, and a technologist by profession, this …
: On the need to measure productivity I’ve long said that no-one really knows what knowledge work looks like. It’s easy to see …
: The declining relevance of Google search I can’t remember the last time I searched Google. It’s been around six years since I …
: An end to rabbit hole radicalization? A new peer-reviewed study suggests that YouTube’s efforts to stop people being radicalized …
: Crypto is the biggest ponzi scheme of all time Ben McKenzie, an actor turned anti-crypto activist, argues in his new book Easy Money that while …
: B Lane There’s a lot going on in this short post. It reminded me of a saying of Steve Jobs: “A …
: Money does not solve disasters like this The Burning Man Festival started in 1986 as a small event on a beach. It was originally an event for …
: The Atlantis of the North Sea A couple of years ago, I started subscribing to Northern Earth magazine on the recommendation of …
: Reconstructing Tenochtitlan This is an absolutely incredible piece of work, showing the complexity and sophistication of the …
: Taking screenagers to the forest As a parent of a 16 year-old boy and 12 year-old girl I found this article fascinating. Written by …
: What we can learn about the climate emergency from the world's response to ozone depletion in the 1980s This article by Andrew Dessler discusses the near-miss catastrophe of ozone depletion. Anyone alive …
: Disaster capitalism, climate change, and agriculture Many readers will be aware of the extreme weather conditions in Vermont USA. This has led to a …
: Eating the rich is optional, taxing them is mandatory The article in Insider discusses the findings of the 2022 World Inequality Report, which highlights …
: How does doing what I need make time for everything else? I can’t remember whether someone said to me or I once read that we should manage our energy …
: Note taking tools and processes Casey Newton delves into the limitations of current note-taking apps like Obsidian, arguing that …
: Poverty is expensive. Cash helps homeless people. Real-world studies such as this are important for busting myths about homeless people spending money …
: Can you use CC licenses to restrict how people use copyrighted works in AI training? TL;DR seems to be that copyright isn’t going to prevent people data mining content to use for …
: It's all about the DMs I think it’s fascinating that this article uses a zeugma to explain what’s happened to …
: A philosophy of travel There’s a book by philosopher Alain de Botton called The Art of Travel. In it, he cites Seneca …
: Using semesters for goal-setting This article suggests using the academic calendar as a framework for setting and achieving personal …
: The uninhabitable earth This interactive tool maps in 3D where our planet will become unihabitable due to a combination of …
: The world's largest climate-positive artwork provides food and nesting spots via algorithm It’s interesting that this is being conceptualised as an ‘artwork’ rather than a …
: AI and bullshit jobs I had the pleasure of working with the large-brained Helen Beetham when I was at Jisc just over a …
: We need to talk about AI porn Thought Shrapnel is a prude-free zone, especially as the porn industry tends to be a technological …
: Raising the average level of creativity using AI Like most infants, my daughter wanted to speak before she was able to. Unlike most infants, she was …
: CAPTCHA is an arms race we're losing against AI bots I saw a story that GitHub’s CAPTCHA had become ridiculously hard and multiple people …
: When it's getting too hot for plants to photosynthesize, you know we've got a problem I used to run a site called extinction.fyi which documented the climate emergency. This definitely …
: Structural insecurity This fantastic piece by Astra Taylor, whose book The Age of Insecurity is on my to-read list, is …
: Emoji, we salute you 🫡 I remember going to a conference session about a decade ago when people were still on the fence …
: Hacking the vagus nerve It looks like electric stimulation of the vagus nerve using something like a TENS machine could help …
: Reality and the templated life This article reviews a book entitled A Web of Our Own Making by Antón Barba-Kay which reminded me a …
: Temporarily Abled This blog post which reflects on Cindy Li’s pithy quotation that “we’re all just …
: The only way to outlaw encryption is to outlaw encryption An enjoyable take by The Register on the UK’s Online Safety Bill. I was particularly …
: On 'Executive Function Theft' This post by Abigail Goben popped up in several places and is one of those that gives a name to …
: Why anxious people find it difficult to control their emotions This explains a lot. Basically, studies have found that a specific part of the brain behaves …
: Jobs, AI, and human worth I’m sharing this article to make a comment about the framing for these kinds of things. The …
: Did people in the past look older for their age? I’m 42 but look much younger than my father did at his age. And I’m sure that he looked …
: Ask culture vs guess culture I’ve seen this culture clash outlined before, although I wouldn’t necessarily use the …
: Life in 2050 Futurist Stowe Boyd imagines life in 2050, through three scenarios. I can’t help but think …
: Context is everything, especially with books When I was younger I slogged through some terrible books that, because they were deemed …
: Using AI to aid with banning books is another level of dystopia I’m very much optimistic about the uses of AI tools such as LLMs to help with specific tasks. …
: Income Level 4 I’ve had reason to reflect on how easy my life is recently. Not only am I a straight, …
: AI sports recruitment A few weeks ago, I watched part of the EA Sports FC 24 announcement video with my son. The CEO of …
: Secret family recipes (on the side of containers) I love this 😂 In response to our call, 174 readers wrote in with stories of plagiarized family …
: Quake II remaster brings online LAN gaming I can’t wait to play this. While I enjoy playing Doom Eternal by myself occasionally, LAN …
: Introducing Homo naledi Science is awesome. I love the way that we continue to rediscover and reinterpret what it means to …
: Landmark ruling in climate trial I’ve only been there once, but Montana is an absolutely beautiful place. And much like other …
: The tyranny of efficiency Coupled with this (cited) Slate article about what people did with their free time 20 years ago, it …
: Calendars as data layers I run my life by Google Calendar, so I found this post about different data layers including both …
: Your personal time management strategy sucks Too many pointless TLAs (Three Letter Acronyms) in this blog post, but it’s redeemed by having …
: Giving advice online without mansplaining In the last few days I rediscovered this post from Another Angry Woman via someone linking to it. I …
: Saying "I don't know" is a privilege Paul Graham is a smart guy. He’s a venture capitalist, and here he’s in conversation …
: Actions speak louder than words This article popped up on my feeds a couple of weeks ago and I recognised the organisation behind …
: Marginally Employed For various reasons I will explain elsewhere this post by Dan Sinker, which I read this morning, was …
: Almhouses as a way forward for social housing While I’m aware of medieval almshouses, I didn’t know they were still a thing. …
: Meredith Whittaker on AI doomerism This interview with Signal CEO Meredith Whittaker in Slate is so awesome. She brings the AI 'doomer' …
: Playing the right game Thanks to Laura for pointing me towards this post by Simone Stolzoff. There’s so much to …
: Bad work Not just artists - we all go through life’s ups and downs, good periods and bad. Right now is …
: Digital wallets for verifiable credentials Purdue University had something like this almost a decade ago, but there’s even more call for …
: AI generated art aesthetic Yes, it’s “just typing prompts” but then drawing is “just making marks on …
: Bad coffee I love this essay, not because I necessarily agree with it, but because I agree with the vibe of it. …
: Ungrading the university experience There’s some discussion of students ‘gaming the system’ in this article about …
: Reducing website carbon emissions by blocking ads Blocking advertising on the web is not only good for increasing the speed and privacy of your own …
: Switching to Arc It’s not often I’ll post tools here, but after a few days of using it, I’m sold on …
: The sleight of hand of crypto Cory Doctorow is doing the rounds for his new book at the moment. But because he’s Cory, …
: AI writing, thinking, and human laziness In a Twitter thread by Paul Graham that I came across via Hacker News he discusses how it’s …
: Taxing land rather than labour I think I’ve always been somewhat of a Georgist, but perhaps didn’t know the name for …
: AI and work socialisation I've bolded what I consider to be the most important part of this article by danah boyd. It's a …
: Attempting to quantify the unquantifiable This article, which I discovered via Sentiers, discusses the rise of ‘Quantitative …
: You can‘t ruminate and listen at the same time David Cain at Raptitude has a post which is somewhat bizarrely entitled 10 Things I Want to …
: Arc browser is pretty nifty I’m not going to gush as I’ve had it installed mere hours, but this article persuaded me …
: Kanban > Scrum I spend most of my time coordinating with one other human being at work. After that, I’m …
: Just this cold beach that nourishes you I’ve come across so much great art and artists that are either directly or obliquely …
: On co-operative dynamics Abi Handley (second from the left in this photo) is an inspiration to me and others in the co-op …
: Comportamento Geral As part of the #NotMyKing protests, I came across a printmaker and artist whose work I explored …
: The internet should be a place for connection, surprise, and delight As new platforms try to imitate existing ones, it becomes more challenging for users to find unique …
: It's time to strictly regulate vaping My 16 year-old son estimates that about 70% of his year at school vapes. He might be exaggerating a …
: NYC 🫶 renewable energy New York’s Build Public Renewables Act (BPRA) demonstrates the strength of grassroots …
: The 'value' of a degree I’ve got two things to say about this article in The Economist. One is to do with alternative …
: How to hold a 'preferendum' I like this idea a lot. The only caveat is that we could potentially be ruled by “the will of …
: The problem with feminism is not that it has gone too far. It is that it has not gone far enough. I listened to a podcast episode earlier this week entitled What the World of Psychology Gets Wrong …
: The future of AI will always be more than six months away A remarkably sober look at the need for regulation, transparency around how models are trained, and …
: An urgency to somehow bend the algorithms The album ‘Homework’ by Daft Punk came out in 1997 when I was 16 years old. That’s …
: The web is fragmentary I love that this article channels both Tracey Ullman’s excellent book Close to the Machine and …
: The patchwork progress of maturity This short post outlines in a pithy way how being an adult is so difficult: we mature in different …
: Fitting LLMs to the phenomena The author of this post really needs to read Thomas Kuhn’s The Theory of Scientific …
: Žižek on ChatGPT Slavoj Žižek is never the easiest academic to read, and this (translated) article about ChatGPT and …
: Relationships and therapy-speak I’m hugely supportive of people choosing therapies such as CBT and using language from NVC. …
: More on why billionaires should not exist This article frames ultra-rich people owning and using superyachts and private jets as …
: Negative UK growth Growth isn't everything. However, the fact that the word 'Brexit' does not appear anywhere in this …
: The laziness of helicopter parenting This article in The Cut by Kathryn Jezer-Morton is fantastic. There’s a tension in parenting …
: Spaced repetition, newsletters, and book-writing My son’s revising for exams at the moment. I used to be a teacher. One of the things that …
: Curiosity, projectories, and AI I’ve read a lot of danah boyd’s work over the years, especially given how her research …
: Imaginary friends for adults At least in my circles, there’s been a lot of talk about parasocial relationships over the …
: The madman is the man who has lost everything except his reason I always enjoy reading L.M. Sacasas' thoughts on the intersection of technology, society, and …
: Battles over human rights are not 'culture wars' The right of politics seems to always find ways to describe in neutral or pejorative terms (e.g. …
: The progress of AI art After subscribing to ChatGPT even before version 4 came out, I subscribed to Midjourney recently. …
: Purpose, positioning, proposition I’m just bookmarking this for next time I’m involved in a website redesign. Purpose, …
: Lifehouses, not churches We used to go to church regularly. Then, as the kids grew older and sporting fixtures took over the …
: Hiatus I haven't posted here for a while and didn't send out a newsletter last month. While I've plenty of …
: There are just bodies, just us Two books to add to my reading list, courtesy of this excellent review and analysis Illness, I …
: Smoking as an analogy for unthinking phone use Even if, like me, you turn all but the most important notifications off, it’s easy to get used …
: Living your best life I didn’t know this guy, but for some reason clicked through to this post which appeared in my …
: Britain is screwed I followed a link from this article to some OECD data which, as shown in the chart below, the UK has …
: Synesthetic xkcd I’m a migraineur and there’s an overlap between that group of people and those who are …
: Bad Bard Google is obviously a little freaked-out by tools such as ChatGPT and their potentially ability to …
: Buying when the market is selling I love this. Nintendo is increasing the salaries of its employees even though it intends to make …
: The party's over for office-based work In-person working can be energising. But perhaps not every day, for most people? There’s a …
: Sad Ben Affleck I wouldn’t usually comment on celebrity culture, but I wanted to make three points here. …
: One place to rule them all? Connor Oliver muses on the fact that, never mind the decline in ‘third places’ (or …
: Covid and heart attacks Curiously, I discovered this via Hacker News, which linked to an news article about it that I …
: Hiring people without degrees This is my commentary on Bryan Alexander’s commentary of an Op-Ed in The New York Times. …
: Reasons for not writing One of the reasons I continue with Thought Shrapnel is because it’s an easy way to …
: Should we "resist trying to make things better" when it comes to online misinformation? This is a provocative interview with Alex Stamos, “the former head of security at Facebook who …
: Woke, broke, and complicated I thought the comments about how young people’s desire for instant gratification was nothing …
: The art of Battle Royale-style video games My kids like Fortnite and Warzone. The backstory to the genre, as told in this article is really …
: Cambrian governance models I think it’s fair to say that this article features ‘florid prose’ but the gist is …
: Tax and/or eat the rich I’m essentially just bookmarking this in case I think that I’ve misremembered the …
: Logging off from AI? An interesting and persuasive article from Lars Doucet who considers the ways in which AI spam might …
: Retro audio player Adam Procter shared this with me recently, after witnessing the trials and tribulations of upgrading …
: Paying less attention to the attention economy This is a reply from John Udell, a very smart guy I’ve interacted with a few times over the …
: Async work isn't just cancelling meetings I thought this response by Becky Kane to Shopify publicly announcing that it’s cancelling …
: Sixteen hours on, eight hours off. I do like posts about people’s routines and, in fact, I contributed to a website which became …
: Getting serious This is a great article by Katherine Boyle that talks about the lack of ‘seriousness’ in …
: On the economic pressures of Covid This is data from the USA, but the picture I should imagine might be true on a smaller scale in the …
: Facial recognition and the morality police As this article points out, before 1979 removal of the traditional hijab was encouraged as part of …
: U.S. Army Corps releases cat calendar Well, this is fun! More whimsy at work, please. Gigantic cats using hydropower dams as scratching …
: Getting your book published in 2023 This, via Warren Ellis, is a useful resource. I also like that its creator, Jane Friedman, has made …
: Good writing is good writing I’ve seen all of the Star Wars films at least once. I’m not big into sci-fi or fantasy, …
: Update your profile photo at least every three years I think this is good advice. I try to update mine regularly, although I did realise that last year I …
: Let's make private schools help pay for state schools I’m delighted to hear about this and I hope the vote passes. It’s a farce that place of …
: Chameleon e-ink car Most of the things at the annual CES tech show in Las Vegas every year are either pointless (at …
: Level 3 busy-ness Discovered via Kottke, this ‘seven levels of busy’ makes me realise that I don’t …
: Nick Cave's plans for 2023 The artist Nick Cave has a (newsletter? blog?) called The Red Hand Files in which he answers …
: Walking around like Lionel Messi I didn’t get a chance to read this excellent article in The New Yorker about Lionel Messi …
: Spreading joy in 2023 I love the idea behind this list of 52 acts of kindness. Realistically, number 14, 16, and 38 are …
: Preparation is everything I used to have a quotation on the wall of my classroom when I was a teacher that has been attributed …
: This is 2023 We're back! Happy New Year! Over the break, this site moved to a managed hosting platform, which …
: That was 2022 Inspired by Warren Ellis closing his LTD site until 2023, this is a notification that Thought …
: 'Nightfall' meteorite contains new and unusual minerals OK, so it’s not Vibranium, but discovering potentially three new minerals in a meteorite found …
: No benefits to post-Brexit deregulation Coupled with the pandemic and the energy crisis, Brexit is absolutely destroying the UK at the …
: Study shows no link between age at getting first smartphone and mental health issues Where we live is unusual for the UK: we have first, middle, and high schools. The knock-on effect of …
: Four forces that constrain our actions ‘Pathetic Dot’ is not a great name for a theory, and the diagram on the Wikipedia page …
: French views of Brexit It’s always interesting reading articles from foreign newspapers about the state of the UK. I …
: Who wants to live forever? I definitely feel the middle-aged white guy urge to focus on health, nutrition, etc. But I just felt …
: Japanese miniature dioramas I love these so much. Miniature Calendar is an incredible ongoing project by Japanese artist …
: (Partially) visualising the Fediverse About a decade ago, it was possible to visualise your LinkedIn network. I really liked it, …
: Collectively-owned Fediverse instances I’m essentially bookmarking this publicly as it’s a useful reference for Fediverse …
: Prestige and associational value This is 100% true and one of the reasons that I think that Open Badges and Verifiable Credentials …
: Richard Hammond's near-death experience Richard Hammond, co-presenter of the original Top Gear and The Grand Tour reflects on his near-death …
: Some tips for adding winter cheer There are some excellent suggestions in this list of 53 things that can give you a lift over the …
: Convivial social networking Adam Greenfield composed a thread this morning on Mastodon in which he referenced Ivan …
: Mourning what we've lost I found this an eloquent explanation of emotions and feelings I've experienced over the last couple …
: Second-order effects of widespread AI Sometimes ‘Ask HN’ threads on Hacker News are inane or full of people just wanting to …
: Hyperbolic discounting applied to habit-formation We live near the middle of town, a five minute walk to the leisure centre — and less than that to …
: The (surprising) oldest full sentence in the Canaanite language in Israel Apparently this comb has an inscription on it which reads “May this tusk root out the lice of …
: Rituals for moving jobs when working from home Terence Eden reflects on changing jobs when working from home and how… weird it can be. While …
: Decentralisation begins at decentring yourself Aral Balkan, who has 22,000 followers on the Fediverse and who recently had a birthday, has written …
: Organisations are not just joining the Fediverse, they're setting up their own instances It’s great to see that Raspberry Pi Ltd. and other organisations are setting up their own …
: A cluttered desk is a sign of genius Perhaps it's because I'm not a designer like the author of this post, but organising your desk space …
: Decentralising online learning A “technical presentation that is structured and designed for a non-technical audience” …
: Presenteeism, overwork, and being your own boss I spend a lot of time on the side of football pitches and basketball courts watching my kids playing …
: Hyperfinancialisation has taken over UK politics I’m reading This Could Be Our Future by (Kickstarter co-founder) Yancey Strickler at the …
: An anarchist take on the Twitter acquisition I’m quoting this liberally, as it’s excellent. I was on Twitter from almost when it …
: Twitter the disaster clown car company I didn’t forsee Elon Musk buying Twitter when I deactivated my verified account about a year …
: AI is coming for middle management It’s hard not to agree with this. Things may play out a little different in the EU, but in the …
: Being 'quietly fired' at work I’ll not name the employer, and this wasn’t recent, but I’ve been ‘quietly …
: Jacobin reviews the creator of Ethereum's new book This is written in typical bombastic Jacobin style, and I’ve yet to read Vitalik …
: What does work look like? (redux) If you’re digging a hole or otherwise doing manual work, it’s obvious when you’re …
: It's time to move on from Twitter It’s almost a year now that I finally deactivated my Twitter account with no intention of …
: Bridging the divide Sure, it’s an advert for beer, but it’s also a brilliant example of how you can bring …
: AI everywhere in education Jon Dron makes a good point here that we need to put the humanity back into education, otherwise …
: Apple Watch Ultra vs The Scottish Highlands Happy as I am with my Garmin Venu 2s, if I didn’t need to also buy an iPhone to use one, I …
: Our range of legible emotions is being constricted A typically thought-provoking piece by L. M. Sacasas which, ironically, I’ve got plenty of …
: Censorship and the porn tech stack They say that technical innovation often comes from the porn industry, but the same is true of new …
: Google Stadia as pandemic fever dream I think the comment at the end of this article about people being wary of Stadia because Google …
: Brexit Britain = hungry kids As a former teacher, I almost cried reading this. Can someone with some authority and leadership …
: Your brain rewires itself after age 40 I turn 42 later this year, and this would explain a lot. Not in terms of me being unable to be …
: Gaming on the go (or anywhere) I finally caved and bought a Steam Deck this week. I’ve loads of Steam games that I’ve …
: You don't have to be the best to be valuable A timely reminder via Emma Cragg’s latest newsletter that sharing our own perspective is …
: Teaching kids about anonymity This website, riskyby.design, is a project of the 5Rights Foundation. It does a good job of talking …
: Sharing can be hard (online) Granular permissions between private and public spaces is a hard problem to solve, as this blog post …
: Hierarchy is bad for business I think this is a great post for people who realise that there might be something wrong with the …
: 'Even over' statements Aaron Hirtenstein mentioned this post to me earlier in the week, thinking that it might be useful …
: The unintended consequences of photography Some good points in this photo essay, including photography leading to greater compassion as well as …
: The 2022 Drone Photo Awards I had a conversation with my neighbour this week about drones. They were pointing out how invasive …
: Forbes on federation This article uses a common format in Forbes where we follow an individual who just happens to have a …
: Forbes on federation This article uses a common format in Forbes where we follow an individual who just happens to have a …
: A philosophical approach to performative language I don’t know anything about Ariel Pontes, the author of this article, other than seeing that …
: A philosophical approach to performative language I don’t know anything about Ariel Pontes, the author of this article, other than seeing that …
: Technological Liturgies A typically thoughtful article from L. M. Sacasas in which they “explore a somewhat eccentric …
: Technological Liturgies A typically thoughtful article from L. M. Sacasas in which they “explore a somewhat eccentric …
: Organisational design: the floor is lava Coda Hale was, until last year, Principal Engineer at MailChimp. As a result, they seamless mix in …
: Organisational design: the floor is lava Coda Hale was, until last year, Principal Engineer at MailChimp. As a result, they seamless mix in …
: Three components of the public sphere My views on monarchy are, well, that there shouldn’t be one in my country, nor should there be …
: Three components of the public sphere My views on monarchy are, well, that there shouldn’t be one in my country, nor should there be …
: What is ransom capitalism? Gareth Fearn argues, and I absolutely agree, that governments are so captured by neoliberal thinking …
: What is ransom capitalism? Gareth Fearn argues, and I absolutely agree, that governments are so captured by neoliberal thinking …
: Professional try-hards I love this article about, variously, work-life balance, the future of work, quiet quitting, and the …
: Professional try-hards I love this article about, variously, work-life balance, the future of work, quiet quitting, and the …
: Every complex problem has a solution which is simple, direct, plausible — and wrong This is a great article by Michał Woźniak (@rysiek) which cogently argues that the problem with …
: Every complex problem has a solution which is simple, direct, plausible — and wrong This is a great article by Michał Woźniak (@rysiek) which cogently argues that the problem with …
: WFH from anywhere Winter in the UK isn’t much fun, so if we didn’t have kids I would absolutely be working …
: Paying it forward It’s worth clicking through to the Axios summary of some recent research showing that people …
: CDNs are not phone books The notorious website kiwi farms is no longer being protected by Cloudflare’s CDN (Content …
: Ad-free urban spaces I've never understood why we allow so much advertising in our lives. Thankfully, I live in a small …
: Ad-free urban spaces I've never understood why we allow so much advertising in our lives. Thankfully, I live in a small …
: You should only ever be busy on purpose If you’re consistently over-stretched, you’re doing it wrong. And if you’re not …
: The art of a cup of tea There’s something about having a cup of tea that’s very different to having a cup of …
: Against 'talkocracy' Research. Build. Test. Repeat. Not endless talking and pontification. Everywhere I look, I see the …
: Cultivating (your) serendipity (surface) I used to have a quotation on the wall as a History teacher that said “opportunity is missed …
: Life product tiers A bit of fun from xkcd, but with some underlying truth in terms of how people experience life almost …
: AI art is, well, still art Art is a social thing. So it does not surprise me at all that people are upset that an AI-generated …
: Learning through pathways This is an interesting post that uses Google Maps as a metaphor for learning. In other words, get …
: Personal, portable heating solutions I read this article when it was published on Low-tech Magazine earlier this year. Given the cost of …
: Potentially the cheapest way of generating clean energy? I’m sharing this as an potentially-optimistic vision of another way of creating a lot of …
: Population ethics Will MacAskill is an Oxford philosopher. He’s an influential member of the Effective Altruism …
: Conversational affordances I’m one of those people who has to try hard not to over-analyse everything. Therapy has helped …
: Lessin's five steps and the coming AI apocalypse I’m not really on any of the big centralised social networks any more, but I’m …
: Dealing with mental pain This article is from a series that Arthur C. Brooks has in The Atlantic entitled ‘How to Build …
: The UK is in crisis I’m writing this outside a coffee shop in Tynemouth. The place is absolutely heaving on a …
: The UK is in crisis I’m writing this outside a coffee shop in Tynemouth. The place is absolutely heaving on a …
: Development without critique Hypothes.is is an annotation service. I can’t remember who recommended I follow his …
: Working from home I don’t know anything about the author of this post other than what he’s put on his …
: Eddie Jones on how privately educated rugby players 'lack resolve' It’s no secret that I believe that private schools shouldn’t exist. I’ve explained …
: Mathematical models of evolution I have no idea if this has since been debunked, but it’s fascinating to me. Biologist and …
: Ethical (open) source (licenses) As I’ve said recently elsewhere, I don’t think technical projects do a good enough job …
: Ethical (open) source (licenses) As I’ve said recently elsewhere, I don’t think technical projects do a good enough job …
: Being busy isn't a badge of honour If you think I’m sharing this image because my name is Doug and I find the accompanying image …
: Being busy isn't a badge of honour If you think I’m sharing this image because my name is Doug and I find the accompanying image …
: Meta may really be exiting Europe as soon as this year Well, we can but hope. The backlash from Instagram-obsessed people would be too much for politicians …
: The importance of being yourself Any article that quotes the Stoic philosopher Epictetus and talks about the importance of being …
: Generating a logo using an AI drawing model A couple of weeks ago, I was experimenting with Midjourney and speculating about machine creativity. …
: Algorithmic Anxiety I listened to a great episode of CBC’s Spark podcast with the excellent Nora Young on what …
: Naming heatwaves I’m hoping other countries follow suit and bring some attention to heatwaves as human-caused …
: Doomed to live in a Sisyphean purgatory between insatiable desires and limited means I’m reading The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity by David Graeber and David …
: Finish what you start This article uses the analogy of a burger chef to show how software teams can be more productive by …
: You don't need a personal trainer On Saturday, my Garmin smartwatch told me that my ‘fitness age’ is now 33.5. This is …
: Foregrounding externalities I found this article via the excellent Sentiers, which I support as a member. It discusses the …
: Slack emboldens the meek This is a useful article which focuses on the lack of internal Codes of Conduct and community …
: Discourses of Climate Delay I came across this and am sharing it to remind myself of all of the ways that people try to avoid …
: On GitHub Achievements GitHub is owned by Microsoft, and Microsoft was one of the earlier adopters of the Open Badges …
: Teaching about dead white guys in an age of social media I’m pleased that I completed my formal education and moved out of teaching before social media …
: Social-first searching I don’t see this as such a weird thing, especially when it comes to food. For example, my wife …
: Chromebooks banned in Danish schools Slowly, and then all at once is how a ‘splinternet’ happens. I’m seeing more and …
: Productivity is the enemy of creativity I like the metaphor used in this post of being light a lightbulb: fully one, or off. In fact, not …
: Spring '83 John Johnston put me onto this via a comment on my personal blog. Spring ‘83 is a protocol …
: No more low-speed fart sounds for Teslas Here in the UK, I’ve only ever heard electric vehicles make that high-pitched robotic hum at …
: Unintended consequences of smart thermostats It must have been about five years ago when we bought a Nest thermostat. Before that point, the …
: (Machine) Creativity It is genuinely amazing what you can create these days with an AI model by simply inputting a few …
: Personal Publishing Principles I really like the approach of coming up with your ‘personal publishing principles’ for …
: The future is the least renewable resource Carlos Alvarez Pereira, vice president of the Club of Rome is interviewed by WIRED about a book …
: Amazon as a dumb pipe I like this idea from Cory Doctorow, but monopolies tend to like exploiting their monopoly position. …
: Ian Bogost on hybrid work I always enjoy Ian Bogost’s articles for The Atlantic as they’re thought-provoking. In …
: Steaming open the institutional creases This is a heart-rending article by Maria Farrell, who suffers from Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. She …
: Steaming open the institutional creases This is a heart-rending article by Maria Farrell, who suffers from Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. She …
: Life cannot be organised Rebecca Toh is not only a fantastic photographer, but also has a wonderful turn of phrase. In a way …
: Life cannot be organised Rebecca Toh is not only a fantastic photographer, but also has a wonderful turn of phrase. In a way …
: This bus ain't growing wings Cory Doctorow: activist, technologist, sci-fi writer and all-round awesome human being has written a …
: The Digital Dark Ages The author of this article helps out with computer museums around the world. He talks about how its …
: Criticism vs praise Like most people, it would seem, I’m sensitive to criticism. Not just that, but even the …
: Is our society structured in a way which encourages people to make less than the greatest contribution they could? Colin Percival is the founder of Tarsnap which is a somewhat-niche cryptographically-secure backup …
: The future has been foreclosed and the present is intolerable This is an insightful and enjoyable article about something which I’ve noticed even at my …
: Recalling generative and liberating uses of technology I found myself using the phrase “the night is darkest before dawn” today. This post from …
: The corrosive nature of captalism I used to think there was no chance of the current system of capital-based society ending within my …
: Frozen baby woolly mammoth discovered in Yukon gold fields Amazing. Look at how perfectly this creature was preserved in the permafrost! I guess we’ll be …
: Crypto clowns If you’re at the top of the Ponzi scheme pyramid, you have a vested interest in keeping it …
: Counting the cost of Brexit Another article about Brexit, after one last week. I think Brexit was a form of economic suicide, …
: Making adulthood more desirable I definitely feel this at the moment. As a parent, your kids mostly follow what you do rather than …
: Losing followers, making friends There’s a lot going on in this article, which I’ve taken plenty of quotations from …
: The omnishambles of Brexit The UK is a pretty bad place to live at the moment. Except for the US, and well a lot of other …
: Moonshine-enabling cow shoes The Sunday Surfers (a name my group of friends give to ourselves when playing PlayStation) came …
: GNOME <3 I’m a big fan of GNOME as well. Although configurability is important, starting from a basis …
: Worker-owned co-op federation Sion Whellens helped us set up WAO six years ago, and he’s quoted in this piece about a new …
: Psycho-Geography This is incredible. I want to see it! Each concrete slab in the Cretto di Burri measures between …
: Abandoned places We didn’t have time to go and see the bay with lots of abandoned hotels near Dubrovnik when we …
: One sentence per line This is spectacularly simple advice from Derek Sivers. I immediately used the approach after reading …
: Travelling light There’s some good tips about travelling light and the kind of gear to buy, which trade-offs, …
: The internet is broken because the internet is a business I ended up cancelling my Verso books subscription because I was overwhelmed with the number of …
: The ultimate act of self-denial This is absolutely wild. Scattered throughout northern Japan are over two dozen mummified Japanese …
: Muting the American internet This is a humorous article, but one with a point. [W]e need a way to mute America. Why? Because …
: Muting the American internet This is a humorous article, but one with a point. [W]e need a way to mute America. Why? Because …
: Morality, responsibility, and (online) information This is a useful article in terms of thinking about the problems we have around misinformation …
: Living forever The interesting thing about this article is the predictions from forecasters on the website …
: Who knew tapping a checkbox could be so satisfying? I love it when people who are great at what they do, and who sweat the details, share their …
: Subscriber count as power level against algorithmic demons I’ve done a lot of writing for work this week and needed to hear some of the things in this …
: Artificial metrics are flying by instrument We had a conversation earlier this week about how we’re going to measure the progress of some …
: Audrey Watters says goodbye to EdTech Sadly, EdTech, the field that I used to feel part of, is never going to change, so this post from …
: Getting out of a rut I didn’t send out a Thought Shrapnel newsletter at the end of May as I’d hardly posted …
: Yes, parenting matters Parenting is the hardest job I have ever had. It never stops, and I seldom think I’m doing a …
: EaaS : Employee as a Service This is humorous, but also we should remind ourselves that bosses need workers, but workers don't …
: 'Slack' and work I’m composing this having done about 19 paid hours of work this week. I’ve also …
: Art gallery mode I love this post by David Cain so much. He talks about how every weekend during the summer he goes …
: The new digital divide We’re already at the stage where most people in the developed world have a device that can …
: Optimising for feelings, ceding control to the individual It would be easy to dismiss this as the musings of a small company before they get to scale. …
: Good ideas become colonised and domesticated I’ve got this thought about how every good idea becomes colonised and domesticated. While …
: Testing a 4-day work week I already work what most people would call ‘part-time’, doing no more than 25 paid hours …
: Coffee and its impact on fitness It’s good to read this, which is a side product of the excellent Just One Thing podcast. I …
: Billable hours and the psychology of work I have to say that tracking my time is the worst thing about consulting rather than being employed. …
: Signalling that you're AFK in a world where you can never really be AFK *AFK = ‘Away From Keyboard’ I used AIM and MSN Messenger as a teenager, from around 1996 …
: The mesmerising murmurations of Europe’s starlings Incredible. I highly recommend clicking through to watch the videos! How the birds move together in …
: WIRED magazine predicts the 21st century... in 1997 This is from WIRED magazine in 1997 where authors Peter Schwartz and Peter Leyden suggest ten …
: Updating our worldviews I’m reading a book which deals with the Protestant Reformation at the moment. I think for …
: Developing your own style (and archive) I like the way that Warren Ellis works out loud. I’ve read some great books because of this, …
: Should governments track supermarket purchases? We booked a holiday to France this week and used Tesco vouchers to pay for the Eurotunnel crossing. …
: Should governments track supermarket purchases? We booked a holiday to France this week and used Tesco vouchers to pay for the Eurotunnel crossing. …
: Distro-hopping like a cynic My own Linux journey has gone from Red Hat Linux, to Ubuntu, to Pop!_OS. However, today I’ve …
: Distro-hopping like a cynic My own Linux journey has gone from Red Hat Linux, to Ubuntu, to Pop!_OS. However, today I’ve …
: #AbolishTheMonarchy It’s Jubilee weekend in the UK, not that I’m celebrating. Someone re-shared this classic …
: Epic UK walking trails After walking Hadrian’s Wall (84 miles, 72 hours) a couple of months ago, I’m now …
: Epic UK walking trails After walking Hadrian’s Wall (84 miles, 72 hours) a couple of months ago, I’m now …
: Space of possibilities In Andrew Curry’s latest missive, his ‘two things’ are Climate and Business. The …
: Popular culture has become an endless parade of sequels Once you start recognising colour schemes and sound effects, every new film ends up looking and …
: The Climate Game The Financial Times has a free-to-play game where the aim is to try and keep global warming to only …
: 14 Common Features of Fascism This is from six years ago but it’s worth revisiting as I don’t think it’s too …
: Are we really calling it #Elongate? There’s been a noticeable influx of people to the Fediverse over the last few days due to Elon …
: Dedicated portable digital media players and central listening devices I listen to music. A lot. In fact, I’m listening while I write this (Busker Flow by Kofi …
: Highlights from 'The Internet Is Not What You Think It Is' On my flight back from Croatia at the weekend, I managed to read the entirety of The Internet Is Not …
: The economics of blockchain-based gaming don't add up Blake Robbins, who used to work on game design at Roblox, has written an in-depth post on why …
: Literally shitposting I saw this mentioned in passing and thought it was unusual enough to share here. There's a metaphor …
: Assume that your devices are compromised I was in Catalonia in 2017 during the independence referendum. The way that people were treated when …
: What technology means in late capitalism Anyone familiar with Guy Debord's Society of the Spectacle will appreciate this article by Jonathan …
: Using DICE instead of RA(S)CI I like what the RACI responsibility assignment matrix tries to do in clarifying roles and …
: The value of a liberal education I have degrees in Philosophy, History, and Education. As such, I have received what most would call …
: 'Live Forever' mode My first response to this article was ‘why?’ My second was realising that this in no way …
: The rise of first-party online tracking In a startling example of the Matthew effect of accumulated advantage, the incumbent advertising …
: It's time to accept that centralised social media won't change A great blog post by Chris Trottier about actually doing something about the problems with …
: The triple-peak work day is a worrying trend When I first stepped into the world of consulting, I spent around 18 months working with a large …
: My highlights from 'Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead' This morning, I finished reading Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead, the translated name of …
: Mainstream social media is a behaviour-modification system A couple of years ago I would have said that this analogy of an atom bomb being exploded over our …
: Certain surroundings seem to dispel enchantment, and others encourage it I really liked this article by Simon Sarris about what we grasp for versus what we get in domestic …
: Are we in a post-album era for music? One of the downsides of getting older is that things you took to be sacred all of a sudden seem to …
: Warren Ellis' work day routine I think the realisation that it’s impossible to ‘keep up’ (whatever that means) …
: Get off Twitter if you want to see your friends' posts Tyler Freeman wrote a script to analyse the tweets he’s shown in his algorithmic Twitter …
: Virtual Photographer Of The Year awards I love Red Dead Redemption 2, and it’s great that the stunning vistas and scenery in the game …
: The future of the web, according to Mozilla There’s nothing particularly wrong with this document. It’s just not very exciting. …
: Historic aerial photos of England It's annoying they can't be downloaded, but fun to see historic aerial photos of my home town! You …
: How to be a darknet drug lord Wow, who knew how difficult it was to be a criminal? Found via HN. You're an aspiring drug kingpin. …
: British monarchs helped fund, and profited from, the slave trade The monarchy wasn’t a force for good during the age of colonialism/empire, nor is it a force …
: Live map of electricity production highlights carbon criminals This live map of electricity production and consumption is really interesting, on a number of …
: Do NFTs tend towards dystopia? At the weekend I visited the Moco Museum with my wife in Amsterdam. It’s the first time …
: Hamiltonians and Jeffersonians Cory Doctorow quite rightly calls out that Big Tech’s “too big to fail” status has …
: Cancel Technology Noah Smith makes a good point in this article that ‘cancel culture’ has always existed, …
: Declining trust in society isn't just a 'vibe shift' This is a wide-ranging and somewhat jumbled article which nevertheless has at its core a key point …
: Twitter autoblock is what you get when you have software with shareholders I heard from a former colleague that they’d been ‘autoblocked’ on Twitter for …
: Antartica used to be covered in rainforest Given the news that both the Arctic and Antarctic are currently a lot warmer than expected, this is …
: San Francisco is built on the carcasses of old ships Very cool. There’s a metaphor in there somewhere. When the gold rush began in 1848, thousands …
: Solarpunk and five climate futures In this interview with Andrew Dana Hudson, he lays out a brief overview of the five futures he …
: If you believe it's over, maybe it will be A few weeks ago, I linked to Nesta’s predictions for 2022. One of them, climate inactivism, is …
: Challenging capitalism through co-ops and community The glossy Instagram lifestyle is actually led by a fraction of a fraction of 1% of the …
: Some fairy tales may be 6,000 years old It’s fascinating to think that children’s stories may have been told and re-told across …
: A weird tip for weight loss Hacker News isn’t just a great resource for tech-related news. The ‘Ask HN’ …
: The week as an human construct This article in Aeon was published at around the same time as I published a post on my personal blog …
: The Un-Grammable Hang Zone Instagram has never been a place I’ve ever wanted to spend any time or attention. But its …
: A hardwired obedience to the capitalist system that we exist within I’m not sure where I came across this, but Ian Nesbitt is undertaking a modern pilgrimage on a …
: What if I never change? Oliver Burkeman on Jocelyn K. Glei’s Hurrry Slowly is an absolute treat. In particular, he …
: Switching from Telegram to Signal Like many people in a relationship, I have a persistent backchannel with my wife. I have never used …
: AI-synthesized faces are here to fool you No-one who’s been paying attention should be in the last surprised that AI-synthesized faces …
: Lizard brain vs infinite scroll It’s funny that the author of this article uses Reddit’s app as an example of the …
: Xero starts using consent-based decision making Sociocracy, which includes consent-based decision making, is something we use at WAO. I’ve …
: What makes writing more readable? I had the pleasure of interviewing Georgia Bullen, Executive Director of Simply Secure yesterday. I …
: Audrey Watters on the technology of wellness and mis/disinformation Audrey Watters is turning her large brain to the topic of “wellness” and, in this first …
: Offline for 3 days David Cain took three days offline. It sounds like something that wouldn’t have been amazing …
: Facebook is dying While I only deleted my Twitter account at the end of last year, it’s been about 12 years …
: The hard part of the work is doing the work I am thankful every working day that I set up a co-operative with friends and former colleagues so …
: AI cannot hold copyright (yet) I think common sense would suggest that copyright should only apply to human-created works. But the …
: Technology and productivity Julian Stodd’s personal realisation that what the people who make ‘productivity …
: Hacking the application process It’s perhaps a massive over-simplification, but my understanding of the so-called …
: You cannot 'solve' online misinformation Matt Baer, who founded the excellent platform write.as, weighs in on misinformation and …
: The life run by spreadsheet is not worth living When work is the most significant thing in your life, you optimise for it. When relationships are …
: The benefits of taking Wednesdays off Today is a Wednesday and I’m taking a half-day off today and tomorrow as it’s half-term …
: Dark patterns and gambling Given that most gambling these days happens via smartphone apps, and that the psychological tricks …
: Speeding up a Chromebook by allocating zram Oddly enough, in the few days since I've bookmarked this URL, it's disappeared. Thank goodness for …
: Stone Age culture in the Orkney islands When I was eight years old, we took a family trip to the Orkney islands off the north coast of …
: Upgrading an iPod Video for use in 2022 I’m an OG when it comes to MP3 players, having owned an Archos MP3 Jukebox while I was at uni …
: Digital to analogue and back again It’s good to have Warren Ellis back. I have no opinion on this other than we should believe …
: Chrome OS Flex About 18 months ago, Google acquired Neverware, a company who took the open source version of Chrome …
: OKRs as institutional memory Rick Klau, formerly of Google Ventures, is a big fan of OKRs (or ‘Objectives and Key …
: Nesta's predictions for 2022 Nesta shares its ‘Future Signals’ for 2022, some predictions about how things might …
: Medieval Fantasy City Generator The history geek in me loves this so much. And the educator interested in digital literacies loves …
: Blockchain and trusted third parties As Cory Doctorow points out, merely putting something on a blockchain doesn’t make the data …
: On hobbies This was linked to in the latest issue of Dense Discovery with the question of who amongst the …
: Reducing offensive social media messages by intervening during content-creation Six per cent isn’t a lot, but perhaps a number of approaches working together can help with …
: The burnout epidemic I work an average of about 25 hours per week and I’m tired at the end of it. I can’t …
: Check your perspective A useful and illustrative story from Sheila Heen, author of Difficult Conversations: How To Discuss …
: Productivity dysmorphia This is a useful term for “the intersection of burnout, imposter syndrome, and anxiety”. …
: Twitter's decline into right-leaning hellsite I quit Twitter at the start of December. Despite being an early adopter, joining in the same year as …
: Explaining ideas This comes at things from a branding/advertising perspective, but I appreciate the focus on clarity …
: BBC Archives and the changing of history On the one hand, I’m glad that the BBC is ensuring that some of its archive material is a bit …
: Private schools having charitable status is an absolute scam I’ve always been against private schooling. I’m glad that others, even those who went to …
: Your attention was stolen I still find it hard to trust Johann Hari’s writing, but this is more introspective and covers …
: Control and responsibility A massive over-simplification, but then that’s the point of 2x2 grids. Of course, everyone …
: Spatial Finance Using real-time satellite imagery to ensure that people are building (or not-building) what they say …
: Health surveillance It’s possible to be entirely in favour mass vaccination (as I am) while also concerned about …
: NFTs, financialisation, and crypto grifters At over two hours long, I’m still only half-way through this video but I can already highly …
: Tether and crypto price manipulation You’d expect Jacobin to be against crypto, but this is the first level-headed explanation of …
: Co-ops and DAOs Handy article, especially for those deep in the ‘capitalist realism’ (or neoliberalism) …
: Hype levels Handy. I do like typologies and scales. Today‘s tech industry is obsessed with the big futures. The …
: Individualism and collectivism in decentralised networks I don’t agree with Paul Frazee’s point in this post about Twitter vs “p2p …
: Web3 and Ed3 are both problematic Web3 is being discussed as if it’s anything other than the financialisation of everything. …
: Is QWERTY a really bad keyboard layout? I’ve been able to touch-type since I was about 12 years of age, thanks to Mavis Beacon Teaches …
: A low-tech solution for personal warmth My family, especially the female members, have always been big fans of the hot water bottle. So much …
: Kids need life on the highest volume This article is based on the author’s experiences as a teacher in state schools in the US. I …
: Paying for everything twice As someone who’s recently started using a budgeting app, and who has a lot of music-making …
: Ancient cynicism As with stoicism, we’ve lost the ancient meaning of the word ‘cynicism’. I think …
: E2EE is for everyone Not only has the current UK government underfunded the NHS since coming to power in an attempt to …
: The life-changing difference of an internet connection As someone who’s seemingly around the same age as the author of this post, I agree that the …
: Abusing AI girlfriends I don’t often share this kind of thing because I find it distressing. We shouldn’t be …
: Pix and digital payments in Brazil I came across this story via Benedict Evans' newsletter (it’s not the kind of thing I’d …
: Nine planetary boundaries This is a useful diagram to share in order to demonstrate that we might think we’re shafted …
: Optimism about the future I don’t have a particularly strong interest in sci-fi, nor do I have access to all of this …
: Reading is useless I like this post by graduate student Beck Tench. Reading is useless, she says, in the same way that …
: The cost of a thing is the amount of life which is required to be exchanged for it This article in The Atlantic by Alan Lightman points out how biophilic we have been historically as …
: Matching work activities to mind modes This by Jakob Greenfeld reminds me of Buster Benson’s evergreen post Live like a hydra — …
: Does Not Translate I enjoyed some of these untranslatable words from languages other than English. Sturmfrei (German) …
: How to be useless I love articles that give us a different lens for looking at the world, and this one certainly does …
: Your accusations are your confessions I didn’t know Stephen Downes had a political blog. These are his thoughts on cancel culture …
: Web3, the metaverse, and the DRM-isation of everything I’ve been reading a report entitled Crypto Theses for 2022 recently. Despite having some small …
: America, fascism, and the first, second, and third 'solutions' Jason Kottke reminds us of Toni Morrison’s “Ten Steps Towards Fascism” from 1995. …
: Persistent Practices and Pragmatism I think Albert Wenger has discovered, however obliquely, Pragmatism. Once you realise that the …
: Meetings and work theatre The way that you do something is almost as important as what you do. However, I’ve definitely …
: Vaccine Hesitancy as part of a Plague Anthology I’m not sure who’s behind this website, but it looks good. I appreciated the historical …
: Let's Settle This This is good fun and, in fact, Laura and I used it to structure the upcoming Season 3 trailer for …
: Signal's CEO on 'web3' My first response to most new technological things is usually “cool, I wonder how I/we could …
: Pessimism of the intellect, optimism of the will. Someone I once knew well used to cite Gramsci’s famous quotation: “Pessimism of the …
: Laptops aren't what they used to be This guy went back to using a Lenovo ThinkPad T430 and explains why in this post. Over Christmas, I …
: Somebody please tell the travel industry there's a climate emergency Utter madness. German giant Lufthansa said it would have to fly an additional 18,000 “unnecessary” …
: Covid immunity and medical breakthroughs It seems like we’re learning a lot in a very short space of time about viruses and immunity. …
: Jam tomorrow The key to success traditionally has been to play the long game. If the system is rigged in your …
: Everyone has something to teach As someone who is apparently in a microgeneration between Generation X and Millennials, I feel …
: Ignore the sociotechnics at your peril This post is focusing on technical teams looking after software. But it can also apply to anything …
: Wealth is a product of luck This seems obvious to me: that luck plays a great part in success. Well, serendipity, perhaps which …
: Unsolicited advice might not be so bad after all? I’ve followed Tressie McMillan Cottom on Twitter ever since she did a keynote for ALT a few …
: Peeking around corners with holographic cameras It's amazing to think that 10 years ago we thought we were only a few years away from fully …
: The impact of a plant-based diet on migraines Aged 18, I was rejected at the last hurdle from the Royal Air Force for a scholarship which would …
: Information is not knowledge (and knowledge is not wisdom) Some reflections by Nick Milton on why knowledge management within organisations is so poor. If I …
: Start Often Finish rArely I love this, and along with this post about the joy of watching films in black and white, led to me …
: Pain, suffering, and scuba diving In this post, Derek Sivers shares his experience of a panic attack during a scuba diving trip and …
: Introspections on timewasting What I’ve learned over the years from my own experience is that what one person calls a …
: Should teenagers be using social media? We probably already know the answer While I’m not a fan of Nicholas Carr’s approach to technology (“is Google making …
: Freedom for the few vs. freedom for the many My wife and I were talking about lockdowns yesterday given that we’re due to be travelling to …
: Games as a cultural, educational, and predictive force As a gamer, I grow frustrated with people who don’t consider games to be an art form and …
: Big Tech companies may change their names but they will not voluntarily change their economics I based a good deal of Truth, Lies, and Digital Fluency, a talk I gave in NYC in December 2019, on …
: Momentum over details I subscribed to Laura Olin’s newsletter recently, and the first issue I received mentioned how …
: Aimless wandering in search of the unknown catalyst It might not be too much of a stretch to describe Edward Snowden as a hero of mine. I’m not …
: Surveillance vs working openly Austin Kleon is famous for his book Show Your Work, something that our co-op references from time to …
: A Timeline of Earth's Average Temperature I can’t argue with every anti-vaxxer and climate denialist, but I can debate a few on my …
: Platform power and infrastructure John Naughton writes notes that we need to describe a fourth kind of power alongside compelling us …
: Proving endemic racism and sexism in the world of football Anyone who follows football will perhaps be disappointed yet unsurprised that racism and sexism …
: Just Don't Do It This isn’t an easy article to cite, mainly because I want to quote both it and some commentary …
: Carbon emissions per km Now that I'm not flying any more, I need to figure out ways to get to places where I'd usually …
: Whitelabelling Stadia tech I recognise that this is rather niche, but as a fan of Google Stadia, this is great to see. For some …
: Build your 'castle' on land you own and control This post is ostensibly about marketing a game studio, but it has wider lessons for all kinds of …
: Retro football gaming FTW The amount of nostalgia that this article gave me was incredible. I have spent more time with the …
: How to communicate remotely I’ve worked from home for almost a decade now and still find posts like this incredibly …
: Exploration pays long-term dividends for your career This article focuses on the work of Dashun Wang, an economist at Northwestern University, who has …
: Is this a Signal backdoor? Maybe this is nothing. Maybe it’s something. But when an Open Source messaging app claims to …
: Taking the long view on weekly working hours I find comparative analysis of working patterns absolutely fascinating. What counts as work? What …
: Climate optimism COP26 has started, and it’s easy to be cynical and defeatist about the whole thing. But this …
: Middle class pursuit of pain through endurance sports is a thing Oh this is fascinating. Get to your forties and everyone seems to be interested in marathons, …
: Why large tree-planting initiatives often fail ‘Carbon offsetting’ is just a way of the western middle classes assuaging their climate …
: Securing your digital life Usually, guides to securing your digital life are very introductory and basic. This one from Ars …
: The permanent mask I’m sharing this mainly for the blackout poetry, but I also appreciate the quotation from …
: Why go back to normal when you weren't enjoying it in the first place? Writing in Men's Health, and sadly not available anywhere I can link to, Will Self reflects on what …
: Brand-safe influencers and the blurring of reality Earlier this week, in a soon-to-be released episode of the Tao of WAO podcast, we were talking about …
: Psychological hibernation I can’t really remember what life was like before having children. Becoming a parent changes …
: Twitter acknowledges right-wing bias in its algorithmic feed I mentioned on Twitter last week how I noticed that I keep getting recommended stories about Nigel …
: Otters vs. Possums It’s an odd metaphor, but the behaviours described in terms of internet communities are …
: What are microcredentials? I suppose we should have listened when people told the team I was on at Mozilla time and time again …
: Walking the Covid tightrope I’m sharing this article mainly for the genius of the accompanying illustration, although it …
: Kith and kin This is a great article about how the internet was going to save us from TV and now we’re …
: Bring Your Own Stack Venture Capitalists inhabit a slightly different world than the rest of us. This post, for example, …
: Fall Regression I’ve only just discovered the writing of Anne Helen Petersen, via one of the many newsletters …
: Reducing long-distance travel I agree with what Simon Jenkins is saying here about focusing on the ‘reduce’ part of …
: Time millionaires Same idea, new name: there’s nothing new about the idea of prioritising the amount of time and …
: On the digital literacies of regular web users Terence Eden opened a new private browsing window and started typing “https…” and …
: Leisure is what we do for its own sake. It serves no higher end. Yes, yes, and yes. I agree wholeheartedly with this view that places human flourishing above work. …
: UK government adviser warns against plans to force the NHS to share data with police forces It’s entirely unsurprising that governments should seek to use the pandemic as cover for …
: Sports data and GDPR This is really quite fascinating. The use of player data has absolutely exploded in the last decade, …
: Precrastinators, procrastinators, and originals A really handy TED talk focusing on ‘precrastinators’ (with whom I definitely identify) …
: Why commute to an office to work remotely? This piece by Anne Helen Petersen is so good about the return to work. It’s ostensibly about …
: On 'sportswashing' There has been a lot written and recorded already about Newcastle United, my geographically-closest …
: On the dangers of CBDCs I can’t remember the last time I used cash. Or rather, I can (for my son’s haircut) …
: Subsidising trains via a tax on internal flights? My wife flew down to a work meetup (and to see her family) last week. She got the train back. The …
: Subsidising trains via a tax on internal flights? My wife flew down to a work meetup (and to see her family) last week. She got the train back. The …
: Opting out of capitalism One of the huge benefits of the pandemic has been that it’s allowed people to reflect on their …
: Blissed, Blessed, Pissed, and Dissed Austin Kleon summarises Bill O’Hanlon’s idea around there being ‘four …
: The Stability Fantasy The last time I was in LA, I hired a Dodge Charger and navigated the huge freeways meeting a client …
: Singapore is turning into a dystopian surveillance state Well, this is concerning. Especially given governments' love for authoritarian technologies and …
: Good decision-making Some useful advice from Ed Batista about the difference between ‘good decision-making’ …
: Carbon offsets are pure greenwashing Having travelled here, there, and everywhere by air for both personal and professional business over …
: Six Causes of Burnout at Work This is an interesting article from UC Berkley’s Greater Good Magazine based on journalist …
: Facebook isn't just anti-competitive, it's anti-consumer I can’t quite understand why people still use Facebook’s services, other than vendor …
: Traffic to news sites went up during the Facebook outage. It’s really problematic that most people get their news via algorithmic news feeds. On August …
: Who wants a metaverse created by Facebook? No-one. Facebook is nearing a reputational point of no return. Even when it set out plausible …
: Microcast #095 — Rewilding your serendipity surface Attention, Big Tech, and choosing to curate rather than be curated. Show notes Rewilding Your …
: Microcast #094 — Solarpunk vs technocratic pharaohs Overview A thematic look at sustainable futures, from equitable approaches to chimeric fetuses and …
: Microcast #093 — Boring hot dogs Overview Everything from life-shortening foods to Twitter's attempt to control feuds. Show notes …
: Microcast #092 — Drinking in the sunlight Overview Another eclectic mix of articles, from Apple to alcohol. Show notes Why Fitter People Drink …
: Microcast #091 — Arguing in circles Overview An eclectic mix of articles in today's microcast, covering everything from teens and tech …
: Microcast #090 — Doing what you love in an angry world Overview I try and spot a theme between the three articles I pick out. Today's is something around …
: Microcast #089 — Circumvention Overview In this microcast I discuss three articles loosely related to censorship and the …
: Microcast #088 — Spontaneous fluctuations Overview In which I pick another three interesting items from my bookmarks to discuss. Show notes …
: Microcast #087 — Back in the game! Overview It's been a long time since the last microcast, but they're back! Comments? Questions? Add …
: How long before everyone's using decentralised messengers? I first experimented with Linux in 1997. It wasn't until 20 years later that I was running it as my …
: Moral outrage and social media I’ve largely quit Twitter these days, mainly because the social network I joined in 2007 …
: Motivating people who don't need a job There are two kinds of people who don’t need the job you’re providing for them. The …
: 100% inheritance tax? If we can’t stop people raking up ridiculous sums of money, we can definitely prevent them …
: Culture is in a state of constant flux My parents, the son of a factory worker and assistant baker and the daughter of domestic servants, …
: The Great Reckoning When I was a teacher and school senior leader in my twenties I worked all the hours. Not only that, …
: Brains melted like butter in a microwave This is a really powerful essay about the American response — or lack of it to the news that the …
: What is 'solarpunk'? I've seen people on the Fediverse, including people I know and have worked with, describe themselves …
: Global temperatures: 1980-2021 This xkcd chart starts in 1980 which is when I was born so, although it has Randall Munroe’s …
: Five-hour workdays I’ve been saying for as long as anyone will listen to me that I can do a maximum of four hours …
: The Cult of the Upper Classes Today is the day that the IPCC report is released. Our response to it, in the UK at least, depends a …
: The Cult of the Upper Classes Today is the day that the IPCC report is released. Our response to it, in the UK at least, depends a …
: Internal Google comics I discovered these comics, made over several years by someone who worked at Google, via Hacker News. …
: 5 main concerns of top scientists about the relaxing of UK Covid restrictions This warning to the UK government with the ‘five main concerns’ of top scientists is …
: Skills-based hiring vs universities This is Stephen Downes' commentary on an article by Tom Vander Ark. I think crunch time is coming …
: Mr Bingo's Zoom backgrounds This made me laugh, especially as in the midst of the pandemic I was using a green screen and …
: On Twitter addiction I used to be addicted to Twitter before it was cool to be addicted to Twitter. Back when all you got …
: Propeller-based car that can go faster than the wind This is pretty amazing. [embed]www.youtube.com/watch Source: A Physics Prof Bet Me $10,000 I’m …
: Main-Character Energy Before starting therapy, my wife said that she was concerned that I might “lose my …
: Parasocial relationships through digital media I think we’ve all felt a close affinity and, dare I say, relationship with people who …
: The album is no longer the unit of musical currency I’m sitting listening to the new Kings of Convenience album while writing this. As this …
: Leslie Caron on Cary Grant's attitude to money I read most things online, but I came across this one via my print subscription to Guardian Weekly …
: Hemp captures more carbon than trees I don’t think it will be long before we see fields and fields of hemp, just like we see fields …
: Giving work oxygen Cassie Robinson, whose work I seem to have been two steps removed from over the last decade, talks …
: Moving air through a building more efficiently using a fan For those of you sweltering away inside a building, it might be better to be blowing air out of the …
: Moving air through a building more efficiently using a fan For those of you sweltering away inside a building, it might be better to be blowing air out of the …
: Algorithmic work overlords When I read articles like this that remind me of the film Elysium, I try and tell myself that, in …
: What exactly is 'hybrid work'? ‘Future’ is a new publication from the VC firm a16z. As such, most things there, while …
: The most sustainable foods? I’m surprised at this list from The Guardian, which includes red meat. As of February, I …
: Decentralised organising I update the WAO wiki page on how we make decisions today and used a graphic inspired by Richard D. …
: AI for auto-generated landscapes I’m still blown away by the canvas autofill in Photoshop, never mind AI turning blobs of …
: 95% of fish are 'dark fish' If scientists have indeed got this correct, it’s an incredible finding. Prof Duarte led a …
: UK government survey into climate change and net zero The UK government’s Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy published a …
: Is the self-censorship the most dangerous form of censorship? Edward Snowden, in his new newsletter, makes the case that self-censorship — the suppression of …
: New network of sleeper trains Team Belshaw went inter-railing a few summers ago, which included a sleeper train from Switzerland …
: Why going slowly speeds teams up If I had to characterise the default way of doing things within average companies it would, …
: How to stop being a perfectionist This is a useful and to-the-point article about ways in which perfectionists self-sabotage, and the …
: There's a word for everything I experienced some dysania this morning and made my own Bannock device using some paper yesterday to …
: Lobsters and octopuses are sentient and feel pain I stopped eating meat in November 2017 but, until February of this year, was still eating fish …
: Leadership is contextual This article feels quite foreign to me as a member of a co-operative, but it contains an important …
: How becoming a father changes men It’s Father’s Day today, in the UK at least. My children, who both delight and infuriate …
: Online personas and liquid modernity Drew Austin references Zygmunt Bauman, an author I referenced in my thesis, in relation to …
: The ideology of e-s-c-a-p-e Taken from Jem Bendell's chapter ‘Deeper Implications of Societal Collapse: Co-liberation from the …
: Cultural complexes contributing to the climate crisis Taken from Adrian Tait's chapter 'Climate Psychology and Its Relevance to Deep Adaptation' in the …
: Improv as a tool for building better products I’m a fan of metaphor and productive ambiguity, and so I like this improv approach to product …
: "This is extremely dangerous to our democracy" Depending on what happens next year and in 2024, the US might not even be a democracy within this …
: Information means nothing by itself I had reason to reference this image today, which is an update of the classic gapingvoid cartoon. …
: Value and liquidity of skills This is a really nice way of explaining value within jobs and careers. Not only do you have to be …
: Organic Maps I really like Google Maps, but I don’t like how much data it hoovers up. I also don’t …
: The Puritan Class Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie reflects on sanctimonious social media: In certain young …
: Monetizing stupidity? Nothing surprising about attractive person + financial advice getting people interested, but I …
: Open Badges Verifiable Credentials I’m really grateful for people like Kerri Lemoie who understand digital credentials both …
: Criminals' right to be forgotten This is interesting: the Associated Press are no longer going to name people involved in minor …
: The end of cookie banners? This is the draft a new standard (spec) to hopefully get rid of those annoying cookie banners. We …
: Positive deviance in the workplace This article is based around a story about NASA engineers in the 1980s, but touches on something …
: Slow travel and camping in other people's gardens A lazy way to describe this would be ‘Airbnb for camping’ but actually, it’s …
: Generative art We’re going to see a lot more of this in the next few years, along with the predictable …
: Social media is done Ironically enough, I discovered the author Rick Wayne via his posts on the Fediverse. He's decided …
: Conceptual integrity As a project manager, as a product manager, and as a consultant, the thing that often frustrates me …
: Dunbar's friendship circles This is interesting: the number of people say they have in different friendship …
: Remote workers clock up more hours, says one study It takes time and/or training to transition fully to remote working. If it’s not something …
: Remote workers clock up more hours, says one study It takes time and/or training to transition fully to remote working. If it’s not something …
: Fractional dosing of COVID vaccines may help more people get immunity faster The advice to date has, quite rightly, to get any COVID vaccine that’s available to you. For …
: People pay selective attention to what they deem important I really enjoyed this article, ostensibly about the amazing vocal technique of one Charles Kellogg …
: No more simplified URLs in Chrome On balance, I’m pleased that this ‘experiment’ is being put to rest. Although …
: A point-based system for email address pronounceability My personal email address scores 1, my co-op email address (because it ends in .coop) gets a 2. …
: The end of petrol stations Another article looking at the future of electric vehicles. I particularly like the section where it …
: A glimpse into the future of autonomous electric vehicles Ideally, we’d all be using mass transit rather than just switch fossil fuel-based vehicles for …
: Health and sanity before profit This is an interesting article that takes the tennis player Naomi Osaka’s withdrawal from the …
: Rationalising work for the 40+ brigade Buried towards the bottom of an update about the Breaking Smart newsletter, Venkatesh Rao includes …
: Anti-social media As I mentioned on my blog recently, I sometimes feel a strong pull to ‘nuke’ everything …
: AI-generated misinformation is getting more believable, even by experts I’ve been using thispersondoesnotexist.com for projects recently and, honestly, I …
: The end of the Millennial Lifestyle Subsidy What goes up must come down. In this case with prices of services backed by VC firms, the reverse is …
: Briar now does pictures Briar isn’t the kind of app you necessarily use every day and, in fact, it positions itself as …
: Who's the pet? Tarantula or tiny frog? I read recently that some tarantulas keep tiny frogs as ‘pets’. Of course, I had to do …
: More US electoral chaos to come in 2024? Difficult to argue against this scenario. The scenario then goes like this. The Republicans win back …
: Epistemological chaos and denialism Good stuff from Cory Doctorow on how Big Tobacco invented the playbook and it’s been refined …
: Information cannot be transmitted faster than the [vacuum] speed of light It’s been a while since I studied Physics, so I confess to not exactly understanding …
: You don't have to monetize your joy A useful reminder. Adam J. Kurtz, author of Things Are What You Make of Them has rewritten the …
: Peer review sucks I don’t have much experience of peer review (I’ve only ever submitted one article and …
: How to recover from burnout The World Health Organisation (WHO) defines occupational burnout as "feelings of energy depletion or …
: Portals to another world (or town) I love this idea. I can think of many ways it could go wrong, but that’s not the point. …
: How to organise your fridge My wife, who is one of the most organised people I know, is nevertheless what I would term a …
: A cure for depression and boredom I love this response to a letter about feeling bored and depressed. The answer is basically …
: Killer robots are already here Great. Kargu is a “loitering” drone that uses machine learning-based object classification to …
: Nostalgia, friction, and read/write literacy I probably need to revisit this (and the references) but I really enjoyed reading Silvio …
: Interoperability for browser plugins This is good news, especially as I’ve noticed recently a lot of developers of browser plugins …
: A robot that sticks to ceilings by... vibrating This is very cool. [embed]www.youtube.com/watch Source: Somehow This Robot Sticks to Ceilings by …
: Novelty, brains, and new experiences We managed to get away for three nights last weekend, but I’m truly, deeply, looking forward …
: Taking breaks to be more human I have to say that I’m a bit sick of the narrative that we need time off / to recharge so we …
: The farmer uses his plough as his form of work Someone mentioned this in passing and I looked it up and thought it was neat. The Sator Square (or …
: Invisible sculptures are the logical conclusion of NFTs Speechless. According to Garau, the sculpture doesn't not exist per se, rather it exists in a …
: Virtual brands and ghost kitchens This is the next step after ‘ghost kitchens’ — a multitude of virtual brands that …
: Male bias in scientific trials Wow, this excerpt from Pain & Prejudice is pretty hard-hitting, especially around the …
: Degrees of Uncertainty I rarely watch 24-minute online videos all the way through, but this is excellent and well worth …
: 7 climate tipping points that could change the world forever I usually share climate-related stuff over at extinction.fyi but this is too good (and scary) an …
: Screenshot culture I’d love to see a longer article about this because discussing the role screenshots play in …
: The world's most popular websites, mapped Years ago, iA had a map of the web which was much smaller and less intricate than this. My son had …
: Sky pool awesomeness Yes, I absolutely would swim across this. Not for the faint of heart, this new Sky Pool at …
: "Alexa, disable arbitration" Companies add ‘binding arbitration’ to their terms and conditions because it usually …
: Meetings as exercises in power Meetings are one of the major ways in which power is demonstrated and exercised in hierarchical …
: Quitting instead of returning to the office I’ve worked from home since 2012, and what was once unusual was becoming more normal even …
: The End of Literary Criticism Bizarrely enough, given where I grew up, my teenage years were spent reading all kinds of stuff that …
: Opportunity costs While I appreciate the sentiment behind this article, I feel that the title is a bit off, and the …
: Anxiety and performance I’ve recently had to re-evaluate my life and realise that, while there are others who see me …
: Twitter reactions Twitter jumped the shark a while ago for me and I spend most of my time on the Fediverse these days. …
: Deepfake maps There’s plenty to be concerned about in the world at the moment, and this just adds to the …
: There's no such thing as a website or web app that doesn't need to be accessible I feel like accessibility is where design used to be: something that’s ‘sprinkled’ …
: Net Zero Democracy Needlessly written in ‘academese’ but this article nevertheless makes an important point …
: Human and computer memory There are some good points made in this article about ‘desktop’ operating systems but …
: Professor goes to 'TikTok University' This is a fun, yet slightly disturbing, look at mansion houses for influencers where people create …
: Social studying I see a lot of music on Spotify and plenty of YouTube video related to studying. I didn’t …
: Improving VO2max through blood protein analysis My wife and I have recently bought new smartwatches (me: Garmin Venu 2, her: Fitbit Versa 3) and the …
: 3 ways to live a happier life Useful reminders in this article from Arthur C. Brooks for The Atlantic that neophilia (openness to …
: Maplessness The academic paper that this blog post by Katie Carr is based on is also well worth a read - …
: Digital fashion is another example of a nascent industry beset with inequalities As the conclusion to this article states, if digital fashion industry doesn’t differentiate …
: Sky explosion Amazing. Source: This Storm Photo Shot in West Texas Looks Like a Sky Explosion | PetaPixel
: The impact of decision fatigue I remember reading that Barack Obama only had two colours of suits while President of the USA, …
: Wherefore art thou, privacy? As John Naughton points out, if Apple are the only Big Tech company truly interested in preserving …
: Badges everywhere! As I predicted, 2021 is the year when Open Badges and digital credentials go mainstream. It’s …
: GCHQ violates our privacy Hardly surprising, but it’s important people are still pushing on this eight years(!) after …
: Rat Race 2.0 An insightful post which considers the ways in which current working generations can’t …
: Volcano-powered electricity Having visited Iceland in December 2019, just before the pandemic hit, I’ve seen these …
: A web-based commonplace book It’s always great to hear Cory read his own work as he’s such an engaging speaker. This …
: Mastering a 5,400-character typewriter I can’t even imagine how difficult this must have been to type on! The IBM Chinese typewriter …
: Working from near home The idea of subsidizing W.F.N.H. efforts is not novel. Last fall, a startup in the U.K. called Flown …
: Life should contain novelty Life should contain novelty - experiences you haven't encountered before, preferably teaching you …
: 'The individual' is an idea like other ideas I thought I'd share some things that have really opened my eyes recently. The first is a two-part …
: Of all lies, art is the least untrue The world doesn't particularly need my opinions on NFTs ('non-fungible tokens') as there's plenty of …
: One should always be a little improbable 🍲 Introducing ‘Food Grammar,’ the Unspoken Rules of Every Cuisine — "Grammars can even impose what …
: Life is a great bundle of little things As I'm catching up with news from various sources and bookmarking articles to come back and share …
: Criticism, like lightning, strikes the highest peaks 🙏 Blogging as a forgiving medium — "The ability to “move it around for a long time” is what I’m …
: Unless one is a genius, it is best to aim at being intelligible 👯♀️ Secrets of the VIP Party: Why the 1% Love ‘Ritualised Waste’ — "Post-pandemic, in a broader …
: It would not be better if things happened to men just as they wish 🕸️ A plan to redesign the internet could make apps that no one controls — "Rewinding the internet …
: Taste ripens at the expense of happiness 🧐 Habits, Data, and Things That Go Bump in the Night: Microsoft for Education — "Microsoft’s …
: Continuous eloquence is tedious 🏭 Ukraine plans huge cryptocurrency mining data centers next to nuclear power plants — "Ukraine's …
: When we ask for advice we are usually looking for an accomplice 🏡 What can we learn from the great working-from-home experiment? — "A few knowledge jobs, such as IT …
: Mediocrity is a hand-rail 🤖 Engineers Turned Living Venus Flytrap Into Cyborg Robotic Grabber — "The main purpose of this …
: The certainties of one age are the problems of the next 🏙️ How the spread of sheds threatens cities — "A white-collar worker who has tried to work from the …
: You don't hate Mondays, you hate capitalism 🧠 I Feel Better Now — "Brain chemistry and childhood trauma go a long way toward explaining a …
: Most don't talk or act according to who they are, but as they are obliged to ✨ The World’s Oldest Story? Astronomers Say Global Myths About ‘Seven Sisters’ Stars May Reach Back …
: The problem is that the person who should be the most restrained is the least 🦆 Bionic Duckweed: making the future the enemy of the present — "In its broader sense, bionic …
: There are many things we despise in order that we may not have to despise ourselves 🇺🇸 Well, that was expected — "I’ve recorded this here since it feels like the chronology of events …
: Nothing is repeated, and everything is unparalleled 🤔 We need more than deplatforming — "But as reprehensible as the actions of Donald Trump are, the …
: There are persons who, when they cease to shock us, cease to interest us It's difficult not to say "I told you so" when things play out exactly as predicted. Four years ago, …
: One can acquire anything in solitude except character https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OT40Rmjwd-Q How to Be at Home (2020) 🌐 The Metaverse is coming — …
: Seeing through is rarely seeing into On New Year's Eve, Farmville shut down. Unlike everyone else who seemed to play the game a decade …
: Better to write for yourself and have no public, than to write for the public and have no self 📚 Bookshelf designs as unique as you are: Part 2 — "Stuffing all your favorite novels into a single …
: You can never get rid of what is part of you, even when you throw it away 🤖 Why the Dancing Robots Are a Really, Really Big Problem — "No, robots don’t dance: they carry out …
: You should aim to be independent of any one vote, of any one fashion, of any one century Happy New Year! ⚒️ That which is unique, breaks — "The more finished goods become commodities, the …
: See you in 2021! Thought Shrapnel is now on its usual December hiatus, so see you next year for more links and …
: A world without apps? When Steve Jobs demonstrated the iPhone in 2007, he didn't show off the App Store. That's because it …
: He that overvalues himself will undervalue others, and he that undervalues others will oppress them 🎺 What Time Feels Like When You’re Improvising — "A great example of flow state is found in many …
: What kind of world do we want? (or, why regulation matters) I saw a thread on Mastodon recently, which included this image: Someone else replied with a meme …
: A candour affected is a dagger concealed 🤯 The Next Decade Could Be Even Worse 📝 White privilege - a guide for parents ✊🏿 Kimberlé Crenshaw: …
: Slowly-boiling frogs in Facebook's surveillance panopticon I can't think of a worse company than Facebook than to be creating a IRL surveillance panopticon. …
: To pursue the unattainable is insanity, yet the thoughtless can never refrain from doing so 💬 The Surprising Power of Simply Asking Coworkers How They’re Doing 🤔 Facebook Maybe Not …
: 'Prepper' philosophy This morning, I came across a long web page from 2016, presumably created as a reaction to …
: Much will have more 🧠 How Discord (somewhat accidentally) invented the future of the internet 😶 Parler 'free speech' app …
: Philosophical anxiety as a superpower Anxiety is a funny thing. Some people are anxious over specific things, while others, like me, have …
: You can’t tech your way out of problems the tech didn’t create The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), is a US-based non-profit that exists to defend civil …
: Even those of a harsh and unyielding nature will endure gentle treatment: no creature is fierce and frightening if it is stroked 🌼 Digital gardens let you cultivate your own little bit of the internet 🙌 The Joys of Being a Stoic …
: When people are free to do as they please, they usually imitate each other 😷 How do pandemics end? 🙆 How I talk to the victims of conspiracy theories 🔒 The Github youtube-dl …
: Ethical living Update: AI upscaled to larger resolution with more clarity /via LinkedIn
: Reafferent loops In Peter Godfrey-Smith's book Other Minds, he cites work from 1950 by the German physiologists Erich …
: Hiring is broken, but not in the ways you assume Hacker News is a link aggregator for people who work in tech. There's a lot of very technical …
: If you have been put in your place long enough, you begin to act like the place 📉 Of Flying Cars and the Declining Rate of Profit 💪 How to walk upright and stop living in a cave 🤔 …
: Why we can't have nice things There's a phrase, mostly used by Americans, in relation to something bad happening: "this is why we …
: Collaboration is our default operating system One of the reasons I'm not active on Twitter any more is the endless, pointless arguments between …
: Everything intercepts us from ourselves 🤝 Medieval English people used to pay their rent in eels 🤺 The Mad, Mad World of Niche Sports Among …
: Fighting health disinformation on Wikipedia This is great to see: As part of efforts to stop the spread of false information about the …
: Seeing through is rarely seeing into ♂️ What does it mean to be a man in 2020? Introducing our news series on masculinity 🎓 America Will …
: Perceptions of the past The History teacher in me likes this simple photo quiz site that shows how your perception of the …
: Gatekeepers of opportunity and the lottery of privilege Despite starting out as a pejorative term, 'meritocracy' is something that, until recently, few …
: Tedious sports This made me smile: You can divide most sports into those that take place in the real world (road …
: Man is equally incapable of seeing the nothingness from which he emerges and the infinity in which he is engulfed 👻 How to hide from a drone – the subtle art of ‘ghosting’ in the age of surveillance ♻️ How to …
: Biometric surveillance in a post-pandemic future I woke up today to the news that, in the UK, the police will get access to to the data on people …
: Ethics is the result of the human will Sabelo Mhlambi is a computer scientist, researcher and Fellow at Harvard’s Berkman Klein Center for …
: Even while a thing is in the act of coming into existence, some part of it has already ceased to be 💻 Zoom and gloom 🤖 ‘Machines set loose to slaughter’: the dangerous rise of military AI 📏 …
: Forward momentum above all things This page on a Brian Eno fan site was re-shared on Hacker News this week. It features text from an …
: We all think we are exceptional, and are surprised to find ourselves criticised just like anyone else 🏞️ To Mend a Broken Internet, Create Online Parks 👶 Babies' random choices become their preferences …
: Scenario planning, climate change, and the pandemic Tim O'Reilly is a funny character. Massively talented and influential, but his political views …
: At times, our strengths propel us so far forward we can no longer endure our weaknesses and perish from them 🤑 We can’t have billionaires and stop climate change 📹 How to make video calls almost as good as …
: Reducing exam stress by removing pointless exams In the UK, it used to be the case that children could leave school at 16. This was the reason for …
: The clever man often worries; the loyal person is often overworked 👏 Blue sky thinking: is it time to stop work taking over our lives? 👍 Attitudes are skills 🤦♂️ How …
: Like the flight of a sparrow through a lighted hall, from darkness into darkness ⛅Finding the Silver Lining in 2020 — 10 Developments in Online and Remote Education That Make Us …
: Face-to-face university classes during a pandemic? Why? Earlier in my career, when I worked for Jisc, I was based at Northumbria University in Newcastle. …
: 'Rulesy' people Some people in the world want to fit in. Others want to change it. Still others want to fit in by …
: The importance of co-operation Quoting Stephen Downes in the introduction to his post, Harold Jarche goes on to explain: Managing …
: One is not superior merely because one sees the world in an odious light 😷 “Wear The Mask” poster now available as free download 🐙 How To Win Any Debate 🤔 Irish court rules …
: How to give advice A great metaphor from a fantastic article: Suppose you are holding a ball in your hand inside a …
: The truth is too simple: one must always get there by a complicated route 😍 Drone Awards 2020: the world seen from above 😷 Adequate Vitamin D Levels Cuts Risk Of Dying From …
: The crisis in professional sport is one of its own making I couldn't agree more with this analysis from Barney Ronay, one of my favourite sports writers: …
: If you don’t know what you’re doing, you can be very creative about it 🌱 From garden streets to bike highways: four ideas for post-Covid cities – visualised 💰 Should …
: The discourse of disruption Adrian Daub, a professor of literature, takes issue with the tech sector's focus on disruption: Most …
: Let's talk Wise words from Seth Godin: Universities and local schools are in crisis with testing in disarray …
: An ounce of good sense is worth a pound of subtlety 🎨 The Opposite Of ‘Crappy Design’ 🙄 In Convenience We Trust 😳 How Work Became an Inescapable …
: Entirely predictable We've had some pretty bad governments in the UK during my lifetime, but has any been so …
: Nothing will ever be attempted, if all possible objections must be first overcome Facebook Accused of Watching Instagram Users Through Cameras (The Verge) In the complaint filed …
: Privilege and pandemic I found this via Mastodon and immediately had to post it here. I'm not sure about the original …
: The future of closed, proprietary technology is within your body Referencing a recent article in The New York Times, and using a metaphor from his honeymoon in …
: Pandemic microaggressions This article primarily focuses on racism and intolerance to gender differences, but even as a …
: The most radical thing you can do is stay home 🐱 Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards 2020 finalists revealed 😂 Extinction Rebellion 'go floppy' when …
: Consensus, legitimate controversy, and deviance My go-to explanation of acceptable political opinions is usually the Overton Window, but this week I …
: One nation under Zuck This image, from Grayson Perry, is incredible. As he points out in the accompanying article, he's …
: Things Come Apart /via Todd McLellan, Things Come Apart
: More advice on perfectionism A few years ago I read Anne Lamott's Bird by Bird, which is even better than people say. I was …
: To be happy, we must not be too concerned with others 🧠 Your Brain Is On the Brink of Chaos 😫 ‘Ugh fields’, or why you can’t even bear to think about that …
: 'Recycling' plastic is an oil industry scam This NPR article about the oil industry's cynical manipulation of us when it comes to recycling …
: Lifequakes One way of thinking about the pandemic is as inevitable, and just one of a series of life-changing …
: As scarce as truth is, the supply has always been in excess of demand 💬 Welcome to the Next Level of Bullshit 📚 The Best Self-Help Books of the 21st Century 💊 A radical …
: Inside your pain are the things you care about most deeply I listened to this episode of The Art of Manliness podcast a while back on Acceptance and Commitment …
: The world needs less philanthropy and more equality I've been skeptical about the motives of philanthropic organisations for a while now. This article …
: To be in process of change is not an evil, any more than to be the product of change is a good 🌐 Unlimited Information Is Transforming Society 🧠 Alternatives for the Internet: A Journey into …
: Marcus Aurelius on troubles I really needed to read the following quotation this morning: Everything that happens is as normal …
: Enforced idleness Some people think it's the Protestant work ethic, others that it's a genetic predisposition. Me? I …
: What is above knows what is below, what is below does not know what is above There is something very strange about walking up mountains only to come back down again. But I love …
: The way to get things done is not to mind who gets the credit of doing them 👋 Oliver Burkeman's last column: the eight secrets to a (fairly) fulfilled life 😇 How to be …
: Perfectionism is more toxic than you imagine As someone who struggles with perfectionism on a daily basis, I needed to read this morning: …
: Rethinking human responses to adversity As a parent and former teacher I can get behind this: ADHD is not a disorder, the study authors …
: 85 megapixel photo of the moon Incredible. /via ajamesmccarthy on Reddit
: Pandemic-induced awkwardness By this point in the year, I would have travelled away from my home office at least once per month …
: What man of energy does not find inactivity a punishment? 🤯 Understanding Consciousness with Color-Coded Cartoons 👍 Four-day working week could create 500K …
: Some changes to Thought Shrapnel TL;DR: Going forward, Thought Shrapnel will be a bit more random. One of the benefits of a pause in …
: Saturday spinnings As usual, I'm taking a month off Thought Shrapnel duties during the month of August. So this is my …
: Saturday sailings I deactivated my Twitter account this week. I've done that before, but this time I'm honestly not …
: Friday fadings I'm putting this together quickly before heading off to the Lake District camping with my son for a …
: Saturday shakings Whew, so many useful bookmarks to re-read for this week’s roundup! It took me a while, so let’s get …
: Using WhatsApp is a (poor) choice that you make People often ask me about my stance on Facebook products. They can understand that I don't use …
: Saturday shoutings The link I'm most enthusiastic about sharing this week is one to a free email-based course I've …
: The highest ambition of the integrated spectacle is to turn secret agents into revolutionaries and revolutionaries into secret agents This article is about, and quotes heavily from Guy Debord's Comments on the Society of the Spectacle …
: Saturday scrapings Every week, I go back through the links I've saved, pick out the best ones, and share them here. …
: Everyone has a mob self and an individual self, in varying proportions Digital mediation, decentralisation, and context collapse Is social media 'real life'? A recent …
: Saturday soundings Black Lives Matter. The money from this month's kind supporters of Thought Shrapnel has gone …
: Saturday shruggings I've got a proper Elgato green screen in my home office which I started using in earnest for virtual …
: Saturday signalings I've been head-down doing lots of work this week, and then it's been Bank Holiday weekend, so my …
: The shoe that fits one person pinches another; there is no recipe for living that suits all cases Twitter, the Fediverse, and MoodleNet In a recent blog post, Twitter made a big deal of the fact …
: Saturday shiftings I think this is the latest I've published my weekly roundup of links. That's partly because of an …
: Arguing that you don't care about the right to privacy because you have nothing to hide is no different than saying you don't care about free speech because you have nothing to say Post-pandemic surveillance culture Today's title comes from Edward Snowden, and is a pithy overview …
: Saturday seductions Having a Bank Holiday in the UK on a Friday has really thrown me this week. So apologies for this …
: Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony If we're looking for silver linings around the pandemic, then one startlingly big one is the time …
: Saturday scramblings I've spent a lot more time on Twitter recently, where my feed seems to be equal parts anger and …
: The old is dying and the new cannot be born Education for a post-pandemic future Welcome to the fourth instalment in this blog chain about …
: Saturday sandcastles The photos of brutalist sandcastles accompanying this week's link roundup made me both smile and …
: Thus each man ever flees himself There are some days during this current pandemic when, coccooned in my little bubble, I can forget …
: Saturday scrubbings This week on Thought Shrapnel I've been focused on messing about with using OBS to create videos. So …
: Creating and seeding your own torrents using archive.org and Transmission Update: fixed video! (no video above? click here!) I've been experimenting this Easter weekend, and …
: 3 apps to help avoid post-pandemic surveillance culture [VIDEO] This is an experiment using a green screen and OBS. Let me know what you think!
: Friday fashionings When sitting down to put together this week's round-up, which is coming to you slightly later than …
: There is no creature whose inward being is so strong that it is not greatly determined by what lies outside it Mental health, imagination, and post-pandemic futures I guess, given that this is the third straight …
: Friday forebodings I think it's alright to say that this was a week when my spirits dropped a little. Apologies if …
: We have it in our power to begin the world over again UBI, GDP, and Libertarian Municipalism It's sobering to think that, in years to come, historians …
: Friday flickerings I've tried to include some links here to other things here, but just like all roads read to Rome, …
: People seem not to see that their opinion of the world is also a confession of character Actions, reactions, and what comes next We are, I would suggest, in a period of collective shock due …
: Friday fumings My bet is that you've spent most of this week reading news about the global pandemic. Me too. That's …
: We are too busy mopping the floor to turn off the faucet Pandemics, remote work, and global phase shifts Last week, I tweeted this: I delete my tweets …
: Friday filchings I'm having to write this ahead of time due to travel commitments. Still, there's the usual mixed bag …
: What the crowd requires is mediocrity of the highest order What expectations do you have for your life? What were they aged seven? How about aged 17? Or 27? …
: Friday fluidity I wasn't sure whether to share links about the Coronavirus this week, but obviously, like everyone …
: Friday facings This week's links seem to have a theme about faces and looking at them through screens. I'm not sure …
: Thought Shrapnel Vol.1: Personal Productivity Loading... Inspired by Venkatesh Rao's Ribbonfarm Roughs series, I've decided to start creating …
: New to Thought Shrapnel? Try this! I'm experimenting with turning articles from Thought Shrapnel into ebooks. Here's a sampler …
: Friday feelings It's Friday again, so I'm here trawling through not only the most interesting stuff that I've read …
: Microcast #086 — Strategies for dealing with surveillance capitalism Over the last year (at least) I've been talking about the dangers of surveillance capitalism. …
: There are many non-essential activities, moths of precious time, and it's worse to take an interest in irrelevant things than do nothing at all I confess to not yet having read Elizabeth Emens' book The Art of Life Admin but it's definitely on …
: Friday flaggings As usual, a mixed bag of goodies, just like you used to get from your favourite sweet shop as a kid. …
: Software ate the world, so all the world’s problems get expressed in software Benedict Evans recently posted his annual 'macro trends' slide deck. It's incredibly insightful, and …
: Friday featherings Behold! The usual link round-up of interesting things I've read in the last week. Feel free to let …
: Microcast #085 — Extensions for Mozilla Firefox In the last quarter of 2019, I got rid of my Google Pixelbook and Chromebox, and switched full-time …
: To others we are not ourselves but a performer in their lives cast for a part we do not even know that we are playing Surveillance, technology, and society Last week, the London Metropolitan Police ('the Met') proudly …
: Friday festoonings Check out these things I read and found interesting this week. Thanks to some positive feedback, …
: Microcast #084 - Chris Dixon on RSS, crypto, and community ownership of the internet I don't often listen to the a16z podcast but for some reason I decided to listen to an episode about …
: How you do anything is how you do everything So said Derek Sivers, although I suspect that, originally, it's probably a core principle of Zen …
: Friday foggings I've been travelling this week, so I've had plenty of time to read and digest a whole range of …
: Microcast #083 - Ambiguous in Kuwait City Some reflections on my digital literacies pre-conference workshop yesterday for AMICAL. Show notes …
: Given things as they are, how shall one individual live? ...asked Annie Dillard. It's a good question. Richard D. Bartlett, who I support via Patreon and who …
: Friday flurries It's been a busy week, but I've still found time to unearth these gems... The Dark Psychology of …
: Microcast #082 - Nodenoggin This week, I've been delighted to be able to catch up with Adam Procter, academic, games designer, …
: Most human beings have an almost infinite capacity for taking things for granted So said Aldous Huxley. Recently, I discovered a episode of the podcast The Science of Success in …
: Friday fertilisations I've read so much stuff over the past couple of months that it's been a real job whittling down …
: Microcast #081 - Anarchy, Federation, and the IndieWeb Happy New Year! It's good to be back. This week's microcast answers a question from John Johnston …
: Quick update! For approximately the last decade, I've had an annual hiatus from writing and social media, and …
: Friday fablings I couldn't ignore these things this week: The 2010s Broke Our Sense Of Time (BuzzFeed News) — …
: Microcast #080 - Redecentralize and MozFest This week's microcast recaps my involvement in two events last weekend. Show notes Redecentralize …
: Friday facilitations This week, je presente... We Have No Reason to Believe 5G Is Safe (Scientific American) — "The …
: We don’t receive wisdom; we must discover it for ourselves after a journey that no one can take us on or spare us So said Marcel Proust, that famous connoisseur of les petites madeleines. While I don't share his …
: Microcast #079 - information environments This week's microcast is about information environments, the difference between technical and …
: Friday flowerings Did you see these things this week? Happy 25th year, blogging. You’ve grown up, but social media is …
: Microcast #078 — Values-based organisations I've decided to post these microcasts, which I previously made available only through Patreon, here …
: I am not fond of expecting catastrophes, but there are cracks in the universe So said Sydney Smith. Let's talk about surveillance. Let's talk about surveillance capitalism and …
: Friday fawnings On this week's rollercoaster journey, I came across these nuggets: Renata Ávila: “The Internet of …
: People will come to adore the technologies that undo their capacities to think So said Neil Postman (via Jay Springett). Jay is one of a small number of people who's work I find …
: Friday flexitarianism Check these links out and tell me which one you like best: The radical combination of degrowth and …
: Technology is the name we give to stuff that doesn't work properly yet So said my namesake Douglas Adams. In fact, he said lots of wise things about technology, most of …
: Friday fluctuations Have a quick skim through these links that I came across this week and found interesting: Overrated: …
: It’s not a revolution if nobody loses Thanks to Clay Shirky for today's title. It's true, isn't it? You can't claim something to be a true …
: Saturday strikings This week's roundup is going out a day later than usual, as yesterday was the Global Climate Strike …
: All is petty, inconstant, and perishable So said Marcus Aurelius. Today's short article is about what happens after you die. We're all aware …
: Friday fermentations I boiled the internet and this was what remained: I Quit Social Media for a Year and Nothing Magical …
: If you change nothing, nothing will change What would you do if you knew you had 24 hours left to live? I suppose it would depend on context. …
: Friday feudalism Check out these things I discovered this week, and wanted to pass along: Study shows some political …
: To refrain from imitation is the best revenge Today's title comes from Marcus Aurelius' Meditations, which regular readers of my writing will know …
: Friday floutings Did you see these things this week? I did, and thought they were aces. Do you live in a ‘soft city’? …
: The best way out is always through So said Robert Frost, but I want to begin with the ending of a magnificent post from Kate Bowles. …
: Friday flinchings Here's a distillation of the best of what I've been reading over the last three weeks: The new left …
: It is the child within us that trembles before death So said Plato in his Phaedo. I've just returned from a holiday, much of which was dominated by …
: Friday fizzles I head off on holiday tomorrow! Before I go, check out these highlights from this week's reading and …
: The best place to be is somewhere else? So said Albarran Cabrera, except I added a cheeky question mark. I have a theory. Not a grand, …
: Friday fidgetings These things popped into my consciousness this week: Soon, satellites will be able to watch you …
: Neoliberalism in any guise is not the solution but the problem Today's quotation-as-title is from Nancy Fraser, whose short book The Old Is Dying and the New …
: Friday federations These things piqued my interest this week: You Should Own Your Favorite Books in Hard Copy …
: The greatest obstacle to discovery is not ignorance—it is the illusion of knowledge So said Daniel J. Boorstin. It's been an interesting week for those, like me, who follow the …
: Friday ferretings These things jumped out at me this week: Deepfakes will influence the 2020 election—and our economy, …
: Do not impose one's own standard on the work of others. Mutual moderation and cooperation will proffer better results. I think I must have come across the above saying from Hsing Yun via Mayel de Borniol. It captures …
: Friday frustrations I couldn't help but notice these things this week: Don’t ask forgiveness, radiate intent (Elizabeth …
: Aren’t you ashamed to reserve for yourself only the remnants of your life and to dedicate to wisdom only that time can’t be directed to business? Once you remove the specific details from the lives of the ancients, their lives were remarkably …
: Friday feeds These things caught my eye this week: Some of your talents and skills can cause burnout. Here’s how …
: Ensuring the sustainability of Thought Shrapnel Over the last couple of months, after coming back from a hiatus over Lent, I've really poured my …
: Ensuring the sustainability of Thought Shrapnel Over the last couple of months, after coming back from a hiatus over Lent, I've really poured my …
: Our nature is such that the common duties of human relationships occupy a great part of the course of our life Michel de Montaigne, one of my favourite writers, had a very good friend, a 'soulmate' in the form …
: Friday fancies These are some things I came across this week that made me smile: The fake French minister in a …
: The world is all variation and dissimilarity Another quotation-as-title from Michel de Montaigne. I'm using it today, as I want to write a …
: The habit of sardonic contemplation is the hardest habit of all to break Angela Carter with the story of my life there. I can't help but be skeptical about 'Libra', …
: To be perfectly symmetrical is to be perfectly dead So said Igor Stravinsky. I'm a little behind on my writing, and prioritised writing up my …
: Life doesn’t depend on any one opinion, any one custom, or any one century Baltasar Gracián was a 17th-century Spanish Jesuit who put together a book of aphorisms usually …
: Friday feastings These are things I came across that piqued my attention: What do cats do all day? (The Kid Should …
: Even in their sleep men are at work For today's title I've used Marcus Aurelius' more concise, if unfortunately gendered, paraphrasing …
: The proper amount of wealth is that which neither descends to poverty nor is far distant from it So said Seneca, in a quotation I found via the consistently-excellent New Philosopher magazine. In …
: Situations can be described but not given names So said that most enigmatic of philosophers, Ludwig Wittgenstein. Today's article is about the …
: There’s no perfection where there’s no selection So said Baltasar Gracián. One of the reasons that e-portfolios never really took off was because …
: Friday fathomings I enjoyed reading these: Apple created the privacy dystopia it wants to save you from (Fast Company) …
: There’s no viagra for enlightenment This quotation from the enigmatic Russell Brand seemed appropriate for the subject of today's …
: Wretched is a mind anxious about the future So said one of my favourite non-fiction authors, the 16th century proto-blogger Michel de Montaigne. …
: Only thoughts conceived while walking have any value Philosopher and intrepid walker Friedrich Nietzsche is well known for today's quotation-as-title. …
: What is no good for the hive is no good for the bee So said Roman Emperor and Stoic philosopher Marcus Aurelius. In this article, I want to apply that …
: Friday fabrications These things made me sit up and take notice: Britain's equivalent to Tutankhamun found in …
: Men fear wanderers for they have no rules A few years ago, when I was at Mozilla, a colleague mentioned a series of books by Bernard Cornwell …
: We give nothing so generously as our advice Thanks François de La Rochefoucauld, but despite the above title coming from you (c.1678) , this …
: Man must choose whether to be rich in things or in the freedom to use them So said Ivan Illich. Another person I can imagine saying that is Diogenes the Cynic, perhaps my …
: We never look at just one thing; we are always looking at the relation between things and ourselves Today's title comes from John Berger's Ways of Seeing, which is an incredible book. Soon after the …
: Friday fumblings These were the things I came across this week that made me smile: Why Do You Grab Your Bag When …
: One can see only what one has already seen Fernando Pessoa with today's quotation-as-title. He's best known for The Book of Disquiet which he …
: Everything that needs to be said has already been said. But since no one was listening, everything must be said again Today's title comes courtesy of Nobel prize winner André Gide. For those with children reading this, …
: Everyone hustles his life along, and is troubled by a longing for the future and weariness of the present Thanks to Seneca for today's quotation, taken from his still-all-too-relevant On the Shortness …
: Idleness always produces fickle changes of mind If you've never read Michel de Montaigne's Essays then you're missing a treat. He's thought of as …
: Friday finds Check out these links that I came across this week and thought you'd find interesting: Netflix Saves …
: The school system is a modern phenomenon, as is the childhood it produces Good old Ivan Illich with today's quotation-as-title. If you haven't read his Deschooling Society …
: Form is the possibility of structure The philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein with today's quotation-as-title. I'm using it as a way in to …
: Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance, you must keep moving Thanks to Einstein for today's quote-as-title. Having once again witnessed the joy of electric …
: That which we do not bring to consciousness appears in our lives as fate Today's title is quotation from Carl Jung, via a recent issue of New Philosopher magazine. I thought …
: Fascinating Friday Facts Here's some links I thought I'd share which struck me as interesting: Wet Plate Photography Makes …
: There is no exercise of the intellect which is not, in the final analysis, useless A quotation from a short story from Jorge Luis Borges' Labyrinths provides the title for today's …
: Sometimes even to live is an act of courage Thank you to Seneca for the quotation for today's title, which sprang to mind after reading Rosie …
: Anything invented after you're thirty-five is against the natural order of things I'm fond of the above quotation by Douglas Adams that I've used for the title of this article. It …
: The smallest deed is better than the greatest intention Thanks to John Burroughs for today's title. For me, it's an oblique reference to some of the …
: A little Friday randomness Not everything I read and bookmark to come back to is serious. So here for the sake of a little …
: Educational institutions are at a crossroads of relevance One of the things that attracted me to the world of Open Badges and digital credentialing back in …
: Remote work is a different beast You might not work remotely right now, but the chances are that at some point in your career, and in …
: Culture eats strategy for breakfast The title of this post is a quotation from management consultant, educator, and author Peter …
: Things that people think are wrong (but aren't) I've collected a bunch of diverse articles that seem to be around the topic of things that people …
: Cutting the Gordian knot of 'screen time' Let's start this with an admission: my wife and I limit our children's time on their tablets, and …
: The benefits of Artificial Intelligence As an historian, I’m surprisingly bad at recalling facts and dates. However, I’d argue …
: The drawbacks of Artificial Intelligence It’s really interesting to do philosophical thought experiments with kids. For example, the …
: Opting in and out of algorithms It's now over seven years since I submitted my doctoral thesis on digital literacies. Since then, …
: Let's not force children to define their future selves through the lens of 'work' I discovered the work of Adam Grant through Jocelyn K. Glei's excellent Hurry Slowly podcast. He has …
: How to subscribe to Thought Shrapnel Daily From Monday I'll be publishing Thought Shrapnel Daily five times per week. Patreon supporters get …
: Giving up Thought Shrapnel for Lent Recently, the Slack-based book club I started has been reading Cal Newport’s Digital …
: Giving up Thought Shrapnel for Lent Recently, the Slack-based book club I started has been reading Cal Newport’s Digital …
: Human societies, hierarchy, and networks Human societies and cultures are complex and messy. That means if we want to even begin to start …
: The introvert's dilemma I’m more of an ambivert (“like ambidextrous but with personality”) but I …
: Success and enthusiasm (quote) “Success is stumbling from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm.” (Winston …
: Foldable displays are going to make the future pretty amazing I was in Barcelona on Thursday and Friday last week, right before the start of Mobile World …
: So you think you're organised? This lengthy blog post from Stephen Wolfram, founder and CEO of Wolfram Research is not only …
: So you think you're organised? This lengthy blog post from Stephen Wolfram, founder and CEO of Wolfram Research is not only …
: Blockchains: not so 'unhackable' after all? As I wrote earlier this month, blockchain technology is not about trust, it’s about distrust. …
: Blockchains: not so 'unhackable' after all? As I wrote earlier this month, blockchain technology is not about trust, it’s about distrust. …
: Open Badges and ADCs As someone who’s been involved with Open Badges since 2012, I’m always interested in the …
: Open Badges and ADCs As someone who’s been involved with Open Badges since 2012, I’m always interested in the …
: On anger (quote) “Any person capable of angering you becomes your master. They can anger you only when you …
: On anger (quote) “Any person capable of angering you becomes your master. They can anger you only when you …
: What UK children are watching (and why) There were only 40 children as part of this Ofcom research, and (as far as I can tell) none were in …
: Individual steps to tackle climate change Tomorrow, pupils at some schools in the UK will walk out and join protests around climate change. …
: Games (and learning) mechanics The average age of those who play video games? Early thirties, and rising. So, I’m happy to …
: Games (and learning) mechanics The average age of those who play video games? Early thirties, and rising. So, I’m happy to …
: Is edtech even a thing any more? Until recently, Craig Taylor included the following in his Twitter bio: Dreaming of a day when we …
: Optimise for energy and motivation While this post has a clickbait-y subtitle (‘Why I quit a $500K job at Amazon to work for …
: Process and product of change (quote) “To be in process of change is not an evil, any more than to be the product of change is a …
: Tenacious will (quote) “Your will must be tenacious, not your judgement.” (Baltasar Gracián)
: Why the internet is less weird these days I can remember sneakily accessing the web when I was about fifteen. It was a pretty crazy place, the …
: Dis-trust and blockchain technologies Serge Ravet is a deep thinker, a great guy, and a tireless advocate of Open Badges. In the first of …
: Why it's so hard to quit Big Tech I’m writing this on a Google Pixelbook. Earlier this evening I wiped it, fully intending to …
: Why it's so hard to quit Big Tech I’m writing this on a Google Pixelbook. Earlier this evening I wiped it, fully intending to …
: Let's (not) let children get bored again Is boredom a good thing? Is there a direct link between having nothing to do and being creative? …
: The robot economy and social-emotional skills Ben Williamson writes: The steady shift of the knowledge economy into a robot economy, characterized …
: At the end of the day, everything in life is a 'group project' I like to surround myself with doers, people who are happy, like me, to roll their sleeves up and …
: Make art, tell a story As detailed here, our co-op decided last week to lift our sights, expand our vision, and represent …
: Make art, tell a story As detailed here, our co-op decided last week to lift our sights, expand our vision, and represent …
: Fun smartphone-based party games At our co-op meetup last week, once we’d got business out of the way for the day, we decided …
: Fun smartphone-based party games At our co-op meetup last week, once we’d got business out of the way for the day, we decided …
: Cal Newport on the dangers of 'techno-maximalism' I have to say that I was not expecting to enjoy Cal Newport’s book Deep Work when I read it a …
: Staying for nothing and shrinking from nothing (quote) “If you do the task before you always adhering to strict reason with zeal and energy and yet …
: Through the looking-glass Earlier this month, George Dyson, historian of technology and author of books including Darwin Among …
: Surfacing popular Google Sheets to create simple web apps I was struck by the huge potential impact of this idea from Marcel van Remmerden: Here is a simple …
: Federico Leggio's type animations These type animations by Federico Leggio, a freelance graphic designer based in Sicily, are …
: Volume of work This definitely speaks to me: Quantity has a quality all its own as Lenin said. The sheer volume of …
: What did the web used to be like? One of the things it’s easy to forget when you’ve been online for the last 20-plus years …
: Hong Kong shutter art After never having visited Barcelona before November 2017, in the subsequent 12 months following, I …
: True test of intelligence (quote) "The true test of intelligence is not how much we know how to do, but how to behave when we don’t …
: Hierarchies and large organisations This 2008 post by Paul Graham, re-shared on Hacker News last week, struck a chord: What's so …
: Exit option democracy This week saw the launch of a new book by Shoshana Zuboff entitled The Age of Surveillance …
: Drink Talk Learn I’ve been to many a TeachMeet, some where alcohol has been involved. But this sounds even more …
: Implicit leverage Tyler Cowen at Marginal Revolution asks how well we understand the organisations we work with and …
: Blockchain is about trust minimisation I’ve always laughed when people talk about ‘trust’ and blockchain. Sometimes I …
: Forging better habits I’m very much looking forward to reading James Clear’s new book Atomic Habits. On his …
: A reminder of how little we understand the world "The important thing in science is not so much to obtain new facts as to discover new ways of …
: The quixotic fools of imperialism As an historian with an understanding of our country’s influence of the world over the last …
: Noise cancelling for cars is a no-brainer We’re all familiar with noise cancelling headphones. I’ve got some that I use for …
: Going your own way (quote) “To go wrong in one’s own way is better than to go right in someone else’s.” …
: Location data in old tweets What use are old tweets? Do you look back through them? If not, then they’re only useful to …
: Remembering the past through photos A few weeks ago, I bought a Google Assistant-powered smart display and put it in our kitchen in …
: Acoustic mirrors On the beach at Druridge Bay in Northumberland, near where I live, there are large blocks in various …
: Unpopular opinions on personal productivity Before Christmas, I stumbled upon an interesting Twitter thread. It was started by Andrew Chen, …
: Confusing tech questions Today is the first day of the Consumer Electronics Show, or CES, in Las Vegas. Each year, tech …
: Feeling good (quote) “You can’t get much done in life if you only work on the days when you feel good.” (Jerry …
: Creativity as an ongoing experiment It’s hard not to be inspired by the career of the Icelandic artist Björk. She really does seem …
: Murmurations Starlings where I live in Northumberland, England, also swarm like this, but not in so many numbers. …
: Fanatics (quote) “A fanatic is one who can’t change his mind and won’t change the subject.” (Winston …
: The problem with Business schools This article is from April 2018, but was brought to my attention via Harold Jarche’s excellent …
: Working and leading remotely As MoodleNet Lead, I’m part of a remote team. If you look at the org chart, I’m …
: Rules for Online Sanity It’s funny: we tell kids not to be mean to one another, and then immediately jump on social …
: Baseline levels of conscientiousness As I mentioned on New Years' Day, I’ve decided to trade some of my privacy for convenience, …
: The endless Black Friday of the soul This article by Ruth Whippman appears in the New York Times, so focuses on the US, but the main …
: Blockchain bullshit I’m sure blockchain technologies are going to revolutionise some sectors. But it’s not a …
: Social mobility This diagram by Jessica Hagy is a fantastic visual reminder to stay curious: Source: Indexed
: Looking back and forward in tech Looking back at 2018, Amber Thomas commented that, for her, a few technologies became normalised …
: See you in 2019! Thought Shrapnel will be back next year. Until then, unless you’re a supporter, that’s …
: Routine and ambition (quote) “Routine, in an intelligent man, is a sign of ambition.” (W.H. Auden)
: Is the unbundling and rebundling of Higher Education actually a bad thing? Until I received my doctorate and joined the Mozilla Foundation in 2012, I’d spent fully 27 …
: Credentials and standardisation Someone pinch me, because I must be dreaming. It’s 2018, right? So why are we still seeing …
: Are we nearing the end of the Facebook era? Betteridge’s law of headlines states that “any headline that ends in a question mark can …
: Asking Google philosophical questions Writing in The Guardian, philosopher Julian Baggini reflects on a recent survey which asked people …
: Gamifying Wikipedia for new editors Hands up who uses Wikipedia? OK, keep your hands up if you edit it too? Ah. Not only does Wikipedia …
: Daily routine (quote) “The secret to your success is found in your daily routine.” (John C. Maxwell)
: The many uses of autonomous vehicles While I’m not a futurist, I am interested in predictions about the future that I didn’t …
: Open source is as much about culture as it is about code The talented Abby Cabunoc Mayes, who I worked with when I was at the Mozilla Foundation (and who I …
: What are 'internet-era ways of working'? Tom Loosemore, formerly of the UK Government Digital Service (GDS) and Co-op Digital has founded a …
: What are 'internet-era ways of working'? Tom Loosemore, formerly of the UK Government Digital Service (GDS) and Co-op Digital has founded a …
: Is UBI 'hush money'? Over the last few years, I’ve been quietly optimistic about Universal Basic Income, or …
: Is UBI 'hush money'? Over the last few years, I’ve been quietly optimistic about Universal Basic Income, or …
: Issue [#323]: 46 hours in transit The latest issue of the newsletter hit inboxes earlier today! 💥 Read 🔗 Subscribe
: Nature of things (quote) “One cannot in the nature of things expect a little tree that has been turned into a club to …
: Identity is a pattern in time When I was an undergraduate at Sheffield University, one of my Philosophy modules (quite …
: Identity is a pattern in time When I was an undergraduate at Sheffield University, one of my Philosophy modules (quite …
: An app to close down your workday effectively In Cal Newport’s book Deep Work, he talks about the importance of closing down your working …
: An app to close down your workday effectively In Cal Newport’s book Deep Work, he talks about the importance of closing down your working …
: Immortality and Sunday afternoons (quote) “Millions long for immortality who don’t know what to do with themselves on a rainy …
: Immortality and Sunday afternoons (quote) “Millions long for immortality who don’t know what to do with themselves on a rainy …
: CUNY Commons in a Box OpenLab Earlier this year, at the Open Education Global conference in Delft, I went to a session where …
: CUNY Commons in a Box OpenLab Earlier this year, at the Open Education Global conference in Delft, I went to a session where …
: Time's brevity (quote) “Those who make the worst use of their time are the first to complain of its brevity.” …
: Issue [#322]: Back-to-back The latest issue of the newsletter hit inboxes earlier today! 💥 Read 🔗 Subscribe
: Openness, sharing, and choosing a CC license The prolific Alan Levine wrote recently about licenses, and how really they’re not the be-all …
: Tennessee Williams on the problems that come with success I can’t remember now where I came across this link to a 1947 essay entitled ‘The …
: What would you do if you were the richest man in the world? Now you can find out! This is simultaneously amusing and horrifying: A simple text-based adventure exploring the age-old …
: Configuring your iPhone for productivity (and privacy, security?) At an estimated read time of 70 minutes, though, this article is the longest I’ve seen on …
: Time flies (quote) The bad news is time flies. The good news is you’re the pilot. (Michael Altshuler)
: Designing calm products As I mentioned on last week’s TIDE podcast, recorded live in the Lake District, this article …
: Wishing and planning (quote) “It takes as much energy to wish as it does to plan.” (Eleanor Roosevelt)
: Is planning just guessing? Eylan Ezekiel pointed to this post on the Signal v. Noise blog recently on our Slack channel. The …
: Is planning just guessing? Eylan Ezekiel pointed to this post on the Signal v. Noise blog recently on our Slack channel. The …
: Issue [#321]: Small talk and tiny conferences The latest issue of the newsletter hit inboxes earlier today! 💥 Read 🔗 Subscribe
: Absorb what is useful (quote) “Absorb what is useful. Discard what is not. Add what is uniquely your own.” (Bruce Lee)
: Decentralisation and networked agency I came to know of Ton Zylstra through some work I did with Jeroen de Boer and the Bibliotheekservice …
: Are tiny conferences and meetups better than big ones? Over a decade ago, a few Scottish educators got together in a pub for a meetup. This spawned …
: Small talk and sociability I admit it, I’m not amazing at what’s often referred to as ‘small talk’. …
: Issue [#320]: The power of appreciation The latest issue of the newsletter hit inboxes earlier today! 💥 Read 🔗 Subscribe
: The majority (quote) "Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect." (Mark …
: Co-operation and anti-social punishment in different societies I find this absolutely fascinating. It turns out that some societies actively ‘punish’ …
: How do people learn? I was looking forward to digging into a new book from the US National Academies Press, which is …
: Reappropriating the artifacts of late-stage capitalism During our inter-railing adventure this summer, we visited Zurich in Switzerland. In one of the …
: Venture beyond the expected (quote) “The easiest route to take is to glide in the direction of wherever fate pushes. But living at …
: Myths about children and digital technologies Prof. Sonia Livingstone has written a link-filled post relating to a panel she’s on at the …
: Myths about children and digital technologies Prof. Sonia Livingstone has written a link-filled post relating to a panel she’s on at the …
: GAFA: time to 'ignore and withdraw'? Last week, Motherboard reported that an unannounced update by Apple meant that third-party repairs …
: Graceful conduct (quote) “Graceful conduct is the chief ornament of life; it gets you out of any tight …
: Issue [#319]: Operation Twilight The latest issue of the newsletter hit inboxes earlier today! 💥 Read 🔗 Subscribe
: Issue [#319]: Operation Twilight The latest issue of the newsletter hit inboxes earlier today! 💥 Read 🔗 Subscribe
: Example and opinion (quote) “The world is changed by your example, not by your opinion.” (Paolo Coelho)
: Insidious Instagram influencers? There seems to a lot of pushback at the moment against the kind of lifestyle that’s a direct …
: The end of 'meritocracy' at Mozilla A couple of years ago, I wrote a post explaining how appeals to ‘meritocracy’ are …
: The end of 'meritocracy' at Mozilla A couple of years ago, I wrote a post explaining how appeals to ‘meritocracy’ are …
: Is Google becoming more like Facebook? I’m composing this post on ChromeOS, which is a little bit hypocritical, but yesterday I was …
: Bullshit receptivity scale I love academia. Apparently researchers in psychology are using ‘hyperactive agency …
: Listen well (quote) “To listen well, is as powerful a means of influence as to talk well, and is as essential to …
: Seven coaching questions Eylan Ezekiel shared this article in the Slack channel we hang out in most days. It’s a useful …
: Issue [#318]: Blisters a-go-go The latest issue of the newsletter hit inboxes earlier today! 💥 Read 🔗 Subscribe
: Why desk jobs are exhausting Sitting, apparently, is the new smoking. That’s one of the reasons I bought a standing desk, …
: Microshifts are more effective than epiphanies Interesting article about how to change your long-term behaviours. I’ve managed to stop biting …
: An incorrect approach to teaching History My thanks to Amy Burvall for bringing to my attention this article about how we’re teaching …
: Cory Doctorow on Big Tech, monopolies, and decentralisation I’m not one to watch a 30-minute video, as usually it’s faster and more interesting to …
: Airbnb wants to give out shares to its superhosts Note: I’m testing shorter, more to-the-point updates, alongside the regular ones. Let me know …
: Experimenting with turning on comments for a week Hello Thought Shrapnel readers! Some of you have asked over the last few months why the ability to …
: Issue [#317]: The Path to better social networks The latest issue of the newsletter hit inboxes earlier today! 💥 Read 🔗 Subscribe
: Why badge endorsement is a game-changer Since starting work with Moodle, I’ve been advocating for upgrading its Open Badges …
: Internalising the logic of social media A few days ago, Twitter posted a photo of an early sketch that founder Jack Dorsey made for the …
: The Digital Knowledge Loop I’ve featured the work of Albert Wenger a few times before on Thought Shrapnel. He maintains a …
: Kindness and courage (quote) “Life is mostly froth and bubble, Two things stand like stone. Kindness in another’s trouble, …
: The rise and rise of e-sports I wouldn’t even have bothered clicking on this article if it weren’t for one simple …
: Online conformity (quote) “We see ourselves as non-conformist, but I think all of this [online shaming] is creating a …
: A portal into a decentralised universe You may recognise Cloudflare’s name from their provision of of ‘snapshots’ of …
: (Educational) consulting for the uninitiated Noah Geisel, who I know from the world of Open Badges, has written a great post on how to be an …
: Blogging and content marketing (quote) Content marketing and blogging may be diametrically opposed to each other, but one isn’t bad and the …
: Issue [#316]: Is that better? 🙄 🙄 🙄 The latest issue of the newsletter hit inboxes earlier today! 💥 Read 🔗 Subscribe
: Charity is no substitute for justice The always-brilliant Audrey Watters eviscerates the latest project from a white, male billionaire to …
: Creativity (quote) “Creativity is intelligence having fun.” (Albert Einstein)
: Audiobooks vs reading Although I listen to a lot of podcasts (here’s my OPML file) I don’t listen to many …
: What the EU's copyright directive means in practice The EU is certainly coming out swinging against Big Tech this year. Or at least it thinks it is. …
: The Amazon Echo as an anatomical map of human labor, data and planetary resources This map of what happens when you interact with a digital assistant such as the Amazon Echo is …
: Working (quote) “Those who work much, do not work hard.” (Henry David Thoreau)
: 6 things that the best jobs have in common Look at the following list and answer honestly the extent to which your current role, either as an …
: Invisible turmoil (quote) “It appear[s] like a calm existence [but] the turmoil is invisible.” (Maira Kalman)
: Simple sustainable stories Some people are easy to follow online. They have one social media account to which they post …
: Issue [#315]: Minimalism FTW The latest issue of the newsletter hit inboxes earlier today! 💥 Read 🔗 Subscribe
: What do happy teenagers do? This chart, via Psychology Today, is pretty unequivocal. It shows the activities correlated with …
: Burnout-prevention rules I’ve used quite a bit of Ben Werdmuller’s software over the years. He co-founded Elgg, …
: Feedback from the community In last week’s newsletter, the first after a month’s hiatus over the summer, I asked the …
: Expertise and knowledge (quote) “With your expertise and knowledge, but you’ll never be an artist And I’m harder on myself …
: Fluency without conceptual understanding I’ve been following Dan Meyer’s work on-and-off for over a decade now. He’s a …
: Dealing with the downsides of remote working A colleague, who also works remotely, shared this article recently. Although I enjoy working …
: Natural light as an 'office perk' You may not be able to detect it, but fluorescent lights flicker. They trigger my migraines. In …
: Choice (quote) “People who have no choice are generally unhappy. But people with too many choices are almost …
: The importance of marginalia Austin Kleon makes a simple, but important point, about how to become a writer: I believe that the …
: We're back (with lots of new links!) After a wonderful August, travelling with my family and taking time off from Thought Shrapnel, …
: A Stoic (quote) “A Stoic is someone who transforms fear into prudence, pain into transformation, mistakes into …
: Tracking vs advertising We tend to use words to denote something right up to the time that term becomes untenable. Someone …
: Keeping track of articles you want to read One of the things I like about Hacker News is that, as well as providing useful links to …
: Issue #314: Final Holiday Countdown 🏁 ⏲️ 🏖️ The latest issue of the newsletter hit inboxes earlier today! 💥 Read 🔗 Subscribe
: Introverts, collaboration, and creativity I work, for the most part, in my home office. Physically-speaking it’s a solitary existence as …
: Busyness and value creation I subscribe to both Seth Godin’s blog and his podcast, Akimbo. The man’s a genius as far …
: Original work (quote) “To do original work: It’s not necessary to know something nobody else knows. It is …
: Assassination markets now available on the blockchain I first mentioned so-called ‘assassination markets’ in one of my weeknotes back in 2015 …
: Not my circus (quote) “Not my circus. Not my monkeys.” (Polish proverb)
: When we eat matters As I get older, I’m more aware that some things I do are very affected by the world around me. …
: LinkedIn: the game? Just like Facebook, I’ve deleted my LinkedIn account a couple of times. The difference is that …
: Data transfer as a 'hedge'? This is an interesting development: Today, Google, Facebook, Microsoft, and Twitter joined to …
: Issue #313: Mootivation The latest issue of the newsletter hit inboxes earlier today! 💥 Read 🔗 Subscribe
: Childhood amnesia My kids will often ask me about what I was like at their age. It might be about how fast I swam a …
: Childhood amnesia My kids will often ask me about what I was like at their age. It might be about how fast I swam a …
: You cant escape your problems through travel I work from home, but travel quite a bit for the kind of work I do. I’ve noticed how, after …
: You cant escape your problems through travel I work from home, but travel quite a bit for the kind of work I do. I’ve noticed how, after …
: Don Norman on human-centred technologies In this article, Don Norman (famous for his seminal work The Design of Everyday Things) takes to …
: Be good for something (quote) “Aim above morality. Be not simply good, be good for something.” (Henry David Thoreau)
: Work and play (quote) “A master in the art of living draws no sharp distinction between his work and his play; his …
: Work and play (quote) “A master in the art of living draws no sharp distinction between his work and his play; his …
: Issue #312: If it's not one thing, it's another The latest issue of the newsletter hit inboxes earlier today! 💥 Read 🔗 Subscribe
: Break the rules like an artist (quote) “Learn the rules like a pro, so you can break them like an artist.” (Pablo Picasso)
: On 'radical incompetence' One of the reasons I’ve retreated from Twitter since May of last year is the rise of angry …
: Populism today (quote) “When we speak of ‘populism’ today, we sometimes mean nothing more than a politics …
: Blogging in the Fediverse with Write.as I couldn’t be happier about this news. Write.as is a service that allows you to connect …
: On living in public In this post, Austin Kleon, backpedaling a little from the approach he seemed to promote in Show …
: On living in public In this post, Austin Kleon, backpedaling a little from the approach he seemed to promote in Show …
: Artistic value (quote) I don’t think there’s an artist of any value who doesn’t doubt what they’re doing. – Francis Ford …
: Artistic value (quote) I don’t think there’s an artist of any value who doesn’t doubt what they’re doing. – Francis Ford …
: Problems with the present and future of work are of our own making This is a long essay in which the RSA announces that, along with its partners (one of which, …
: Problems with the present and future of work are of our own making This is a long essay in which the RSA announces that, along with its partners (one of which, …
: Issue #311: Under canvas The latest issue of the newsletter hit inboxes earlier today! 💥 Read 🔗 Subscribe
: Wisdom and experience (quote) “Wisdom comes from experience. Experience is often a result of lack of wisdom.” (Terry Pratchett)
: Shabby ideas and shoddy philosophies (quote) “If most of us are ashamed of shabby clothes and shoddy furniture, let us be more ashamed of shabby …
: The dangers of distracted parenting I usually limit myself to three quotations in posts I write here. I’m going to break that …
: The dangers of distracted parenting I usually limit myself to three quotations in posts I write here. I’m going to break that …
: Cory Doctorow on the corruption at the heart of Facebook I like Cory Doctorow. He’s a gifted communicator who wears his heart on his sleeve. In this …
: Cory Doctorow on the corruption at the heart of Facebook I like Cory Doctorow. He’s a gifted communicator who wears his heart on his sleeve. In this …
: On 'unique' organisational cultures This article on Recode, which accompanies one of their podcast episodes, features some thoughts from …
: Issue #310: Moodling about in Barcelona The latest issue of the newsletter hit inboxes earlier today! 💥 Read 🔗 Subscribe
: Fear (quote) “One already wet does not fear the rain.” (Turkish proverb)
: Reduce your costs, retain your focus The older I get, the less important I realise things are that I deemed earlier in life. For example, …
: The link between sleep and creativity I’m a big fan of sleep. Since buying a smartwatch earlier this year, I’ve been wearing …
: Attention scarcity as an existential threat This post is from Albert Wenger, a partner a New York-based early stage VC firm focused on investing …
: Our irresistible screens of splendour Apple is touting a new feature in the latest version of iOS that helps you reduce the amount of time …
: Rethinking hierarchy This study featured on the blog of the Stanford Graduate School of Business talks about the …
: Freedom (quote) “No man is free who is not master of himself.” (Epictetus)
: Issue #309: Different The latest issue of the newsletter hit inboxes earlier today! 💥 Read 🔗 Subscribe
: Crawling before you walk Alberto Corado, Moodle’s UX Lead, sent me an article by Rebecca Guthrie entitled Crawl, Walk, …
: Issue 308: World Cup(cake) The latest issue of the newsletter hit inboxes earlier today! 💥 Read 🔗 Subscribe
: Higher Education and blockchain I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: the most useful applications of blockchain …
: On 'instagrammability' “We shape our tools and thereafter our tools shape us.” (John M. Culkin) I choose not to use or link …
: F*** off Google This is interesting, given that Google was welcomed with open arms in London: Google plans to …
: Seed of good (quote) “Search for the seed of good in every adversity. Master that principle and you will own a …
: Where memes come from In my TEDx talk six years ago, I explained how the understanding and remixing of memes was a great …
: The seductive logic of technology (quote) "Whenever we get swept up in the self-reinforcing momentum and seductive logic of some new …
: Inequality, anarchy, and the course of human history Sometimes I’m reminded of the fact that I haven’t checked in with someone’s worth …
: Issue #307: Home on the range The latest issue of the newsletter hit inboxes earlier today! 💥 Read 🔗 Subscribe
: Mediocrity (quote) “You needn’t settle for a mediocre life just because the people around you did.” (Joshua …
: Git yourself off that platform! This week, tens of thousands of open source projects migrated their codebase away from GitHub to …
: All the questions (quote) “One who knows all the answers has not been asked all the questions.” (Confucius)
: Blockchain was just a stepping stone I’m reading Adam Greenfield’s excellent book Radical Technologies: the design of …
: Living with anxiety It’s taken me a long time to admit it to myself (and my wife) but while I don’t …
: "You’re either a leader everywhere or nowhere" I confess to not have heard of Abby Wambach, a recently-retired US soccer player, until Laura …
: Systems change Over the last 15 years that I’ve been in the workplace, I’ve worked in a variety of …
: Finding friends and family without smartphones, maps, or GPS When I was four years old we moved to the North East of England. Soon after, my parents took my …
: Issue #306: Bachelor lifestyle The latest issue of the newsletter hit inboxes earlier today! 💥 Read 🔗 Subscribe
: Why NASA is better than Facebook at writing software Facebook’s motto, until recently, was “move fast and break things”. This chimed …
: The best teams are cognitively diverse and psychologically safe I’ve written about this before, but this HBR article explains that successful teams require …
: No opinion (quote) “It is in our power to have no opinion about a thing, and not to be disturbed in our soul; for …
: On 'academic innovation' Rolin Moe is in a good position to talk on the topic of ‘academic innovation’. In fact, …
: Criticism (quote) “To learn who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticize." …
: Protocols for the free web If there’s one thing I’ve learned in my time at the intersection of education and …
: Encumbered by civilization (quote) “To ramble across the countryside is to disembarrass oneself of the social and mental …
: Paywalls and Patreon I was part of the discussion that led to this post about Medium’s paywall. Richard Bartlett, …
: Good, hard work (quote) “Games make us happy because they are hard work that we choose for ourselves, and it turns out …
: Issue #305: Sprinting into the distance The latest issue of the newsletter hit inboxes earlier today! 💥 Read 🔗 Subscribe
: Wielding your pension fund for good Some wise words in this article in The Guardian from Aditya Chakrabortty. Perhaps it’s my age, …
: First tea, then revolution I’m working with Outlandish this week, as part of a MoodleNet design sprint. One of their …
: Sensible people “We find very few sensible people except those who agree with our own opinion.” …
: Useful mental models While there’s nothing worse than a pedantic philosopher (I’m looking at you Socrates) …
: Nobody is ready for GDPR As a small business owner and co-op founder, GDPR applies to me as much as everyone else. It’s …
: Measuring ability and greatness “Ability and greatness must be measured by virtue, not by good fortune.” (Baltasar …
: Estonia goes for free public transport Estonia is pretty much already the home of free public wifi, so this is a logical next step. The …
: The toughest smartphones on the market I found this interesting: To help you avoid finding out the horrifying truth when your phone goes …
: The increase in worker-owned co-ops This article by Eillie Anzilotti is a Fast Company ‘long read’. It’s US-focused …
: The increase in worker-owned co-ops This article by Eillie Anzilotti is a Fast Company ‘long read’. It’s US-focused …
: Issue #304: Grateful Dead Public Radio The latest issue of the newsletter hit inboxes earlier today! 💥 Read 🔗 Subscribe
: The New Octopus: going beyond managerial interventions for internet giants This article in Logic magazine was brought to my attention by a recent issue of Ian …
: The New Octopus: going beyond managerial interventions for internet giants This article in Logic magazine was brought to my attention by a recent issue of Ian …
: Schedule your priorities “The key is not to prioritize what’s on your schedule, but to schedule your priorities.” …
: Owners need to invest in employees to have them feel invested in their work Jim Whitehurst, CEO of Red Hat, writes: As the nature of work changes, the factors keeping people …
: Owners need to invest in employees to have them feel invested in their work Jim Whitehurst, CEO of Red Hat, writes: As the nature of work changes, the factors keeping people …
: On blogging Jim Groom nails it on blogging: [M]ost folks treat their blog as if it were some kind of glossy …
: On blogging Jim Groom nails it on blogging: [M]ost folks treat their blog as if it were some kind of glossy …
: Peace of mind “For every minute you remain angry, you give up sixty seconds of peace of mind.” (Ralph Waldo …
: The disappearing computer and the future of AI I was at the Thinking Digital conference yesterday, which is always an inspiring event. It kicked …
: Trust and the cult of your PLN This is a long article with a philosophical take on one of my favourite subjects: social networks …
: Trust and the cult of your PLN This is a long article with a philosophical take on one of my favourite subjects: social networks …
: The role of Lady Luck This post on Of Dollars and Data is a bit rambling, at least from my perspective, but I did like …
: The role of Lady Luck This post on Of Dollars and Data is a bit rambling, at least from my perspective, but I did like …
: Issue #303: Rest your weary head The latest issue of the newsletter hit inboxes earlier today! 💥 Read 🔗 Subscribe
: Altruism “Idealistic as it may sound, altruism should be the driving force in business, not just …
: Work-life balance is actually a circle, according to Jeff Bezos Whatever your thoughts about Amazon, it’s hard to disagree that they’ve changed the …
: Nothing better to do “Work is the refuge of people who have nothing better to do.” (Oscar Wilde)
: The virtue of rest This article in The Washington Post is, inevitably, focused on American work culture. However, I …
: Tolerating uncertainty Although claims about the ‘unprecedented’ times we live in can be overblown, I think …
: Alexa for Kids as babysitter? I’m just on my way out if the house to head for Scotland to climb some mountains with my wife. …
: Getting on the edtech bus As many people will be aware, the Open University (OU) is going through a pretty turbulent time in …
: Bootstraps "You can't pull yourself up by your bootstraps if you have no boots." (Joseph Hanlon)
: Space as a service This isn’t the most well-written post I’ve read this year, but it does point to a shift …
: Blockchain as a 'futuristic integrity wand' I’ve no doubt that blockchain technology is useful for super-boring scenarios and underpinning …
: Profit vs benefit “The difference between profit and benefit is that operations producing profit can be carried …
: Issue #302: Read aloud for maximum effect The latest issue of the newsletter hit inboxes earlier today! 💥 Read 🔗 Subscribe
: What can dreams of a communist robot utopia teach us about human nature? This article in Aeon by Victor Petrov posits that, in the post-industrial age, we no longer see …
: Escaping from the crush of circumstances “Today I escaped from the crush of circumstances, or better put, I threw them out, for the …
: The benefits of reading aloud to children This article in the New York Times by Perri Klass, M.D. focuses on studies that show a link between …
: You need more daylight to sleep better An an historian, I’ve often been fascinated about what life must have been like before the …
: On the cultural value of memes I’ve always been a big fan of memes. In fact, I discuss them in my thesis, ebook, and TEDx …
: The résumé is a poor proxy for a human being I’ve never been a fan of the résumé, or ‘Curriculum Vitae’ (CV) as we tend to call …
: OEP (Open Educational Pragmatism?) This is an interesting post to read, not least because I sat next to the author at the conference he …
: Everything is potentially a meme Despite — or perhaps because of — my feelings towards the British monarchy, this absolutely made my …
: How to be super-productive Not a huge sample size, but this article has studied what makes ‘super-productive’ …
: Thinking outdoors “We do not belong to those who have ideas only among books, when stimulated by books. It is …
: Issue #301: Endless horse The latest issue of the newsletter hit inboxes earlier today! 💥 Read 🔗 Subscribe
: Clickbait and switch? Should you design for addiction or for loyalty? That’s the question posed by Michelle Manafy …
: Read for freedom "Once you learn to read, you will be forever free." (Frederick Douglass)
: Soviet-era industrial design While the prospects of me learning the Russian language anytime soon are effectively zero, I do have …
: Conversational implicature In references for jobs, former employers are required to be positive. Therefore, a reference that …
: Ryan Holiday's 13 daily life-changing habits Articles like this are usually clickbait with two or three useful bits of advice that you’ve …
: Valuing and signalling your skills When I rocked up to the MoodleMoot in Miami back in November last year, I ran a workshop that …
: Intimate data analytics in education The ever-relevant and compulsively-readable Ben Williamson turns his attention to ‘precision …
: All killer, no filler This short posts cites a talk entitled 10 Timeframes given by Paul Ford back in 2012: Ford asks a …
: All killer, no filler This short posts cites a talk entitled 10 Timeframes given by Paul Ford back in 2012: Ford asks a …
: Do what you can “Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.” (Theodore Roosevelt)
: Systems thinking and AI Edge is an interesting website. Its aim is: To arrive at the edge of the world's knowledge, seek out …
: Issue #300: Tricentennial The latest issue of the newsletter hit inboxes earlier today! 💥 Read 🔗 Subscribe
: The four things you need to become an intellectual I came across this, I think, via one of the aggregation sites I skim. It’s a letter in the …
: Craig Mod's subtle redesign of the hardware Kindle I like Craig Mod’s writing. He’s the guy that’s written on his need to walk, …
: Profiting from your enemies While I don’t feel like I’ve got any enemies, I’m sure there’s plenty of …
: The root of all happiness “Without acknowledging the ever-present gaze of death, the superficial will appear important, …
: Random Street View does exactly what you think it does Today’s a non-work day for me but, after reviewing resource-centric social media sites as part …
: Long-term investments “To truly appreciate something, you must confine yourself to it. There’s a certain level …
: Deciding what to do next This post by Daniel Gross, partner in a well-known startup accelerator is written for an audience of …
: Designing for privacy Someone described the act of watching Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook, testifying before Congress …
: Multiple income streams Right now, I’m splitting my time between being employed (four days per week with Moodle), my …
: Multiple income streams Right now, I’m splitting my time between being employed (four days per week with Moodle), my …
: In praise of ordinary lives This richly-illustrated post uses as a touchstone the revolution in art that took place in the 17th …
: In praise of ordinary lives This richly-illustrated post uses as a touchstone the revolution in art that took place in the 17th …
: Issue #299: Jersey shore The latest issue of the newsletter hit inboxes earlier today! 💥 Read 🔗 Subscribe
: Issue #299: Jersey shore The latest issue of the newsletter hit inboxes earlier today! 💥 Read 🔗 Subscribe
: Alienated life “The less you eat, drink, buy books, go to the theatre or to balls, or to the pub, and the less you …
: All that is gold does not glitter "All that is gold does not glitter, Not all those who wander are lost; The old that is strong does …
: The death of the newsfeed (is much exaggerated) Benedict Evans is a venture capitalist who focuses on technology companies. He’s a smart guy …
: Absentee leadership Leadership is a funny thing. There’s lots written about it, but, at the end of the day, …
: Social internet vs social media It’s good to see Cal Newport, whose book Deep Work I found unexpectedly great last year, add a …
: Social internet vs social media It’s good to see Cal Newport, whose book Deep Work I found unexpectedly great last year, add a …
: The '1, 2, 3' approach to organising your working day I subscribe to the free version of Stowe Boyd’s Work Futures newsletter. He’s jumped …
: The '1, 2, 3' approach to organising your working day I subscribe to the free version of Stowe Boyd’s Work Futures newsletter. He’s jumped …
: Truth “If you tell the truth, you don’t have to remember anything.” (Mark Twain)
: Truth “If you tell the truth, you don’t have to remember anything.” (Mark Twain)
: Blockcerts mobile I still don’t really see the need for blockchain-based credentials (particularly given the …
: Blockcerts mobile I still don’t really see the need for blockchain-based credentials (particularly given the …
: Automated Chinese jaywalking fines are a foretaste of so-called 'smart cities' Given the choice of living in a so-called ‘smart city’ and living in rural isolation, I …
: Automated Chinese jaywalking fines are a foretaste of so-called 'smart cities' Given the choice of living in a so-called ‘smart city’ and living in rural isolation, I …
: What's the link between employment and creativity? These days, we tend to think of artists as working on their art full-time. After all, it’s …
: Mozilla's Web Literacy Curriculum I’m not sure what to say about this announcement from Mozilla about their ‘new’ …
: Mozilla's Web Literacy Curriculum I’m not sure what to say about this announcement from Mozilla about their ‘new’ …
: Issue #298: Easter treats The latest issue of the newsletter hit inboxes earlier today! 💥 Read 🔗 Subscribe
: Albert Camus quotation I’ve long admired the “invincible summer” quotation from Camus. The longer …
: xkcd on conversational dynamics Source: xkcd
: Not everyone is going to like you One of my favourite parts of Marcus Aurelius' Meditations is this one: Begin each day by telling …
: No-one wants a single identity, online or offline It makes sense for companies reliant on advertising to not only get as much data as they can about …
: Contentment “Fortify yourself with contentment, for this is an impregnable fortress.” (Epictetus)
: The spectrum of work autonomy Some companies have (and advertise as a huge perk) their ‘unlimited vacation’ policy. …
: Ignorance and dogmatism “The greater the ignorance the greater the dogmatism.” (Sir William Osler)
: Every part of your digital life is being tracked, packaged up, and sold I’ve just installed Lumen Privacy Monitor on my Android smartphone after reading this blog …
: Survival in the age of surveillance The Guardian has a list of 18 tips to ‘survive’ (i.e. be safe) in an age where everyone …
: How to get hired A great short post from Seth Godin, who explains how things work in the real world when you’re …
: Alternatives to all of Facebook's main features Over on a microcast at Patreon (subscribers only, I’m afraid) I referenced an email …
: Issue #297: Springing forward The latest issue of the newsletter hit inboxes earlier today! 💥 Read 🔗 Subscribe
: The only privacy policy that matters is your own Dave Pell writes NextDraft, a daily newsletter that’s one of the most popular on the web. I …
: Co-operation “Great discoveries and improvements invariably involve the cooperation of many minds.” …
: Support Thought Shrapnel on Patreon For almost a year, I’ve been building up supporters for Thought Shrapnel through a …
: OERu has a social network I saw (via OLDaily) that OERu is now using Mastodon to form a social network. This might work, it …
: Anxiety “Anxiety is the dizziness of freedom.” (Søren Kierkegaard)
: Moral needs and user needs That products should be ‘user-focused’ goes without queustion these days. At least by …
: On struggle The popular view of life seems to be that mishaps, hardship, and struggle are all things that most …
: Going deep I don’t think the right term for this is ‘mobile blindness’ but Seth Godin’s …
: Derek Sivers has quit Facebook (hint: you should, too) I have huge respect for Derek Sivers, and really enjoyed his book Anything You Want. His book …
: Superficial and imperfect knowledge “To know things well, we must know the details, and as they are almost infinite, our knowledge …
: Bridging technologies When you go deep enough into philosophy or religion one of the key insights is that everything is …
: How to choose an open license for your project I’m so used to working openly by default that I sometimes forget that for many (most?) people …
: Mystery of life “The mystery of life isn’t a problem to solve, but a reality to experience.” (Frank …
: Decision fatigue and parenting Our 11 year-old still asks plenty of questions, but also looks things up for himself online. Our …
: Tech will eat itself Mike Murphy has been travelling to tech conferences: CES, MWC, and SXSW. He hasn’t been …
: Issue #296: Goodbye winter blues The latest issue of the newsletter hit inboxes earlier today! 💥 Read 🔗 Subscribe
: On playing video games with your kids I play ‘video games’ (a curiously old-fashioned term) with my kids all the time. Current …
: Browser extensions FTW Last week, the New York Times issued a correction to an article written by Justin Bank about …
: The tenets of 'Slow Thought' The slow movement began with ‘slow food’ which was in opposition to, unsurprisingly, …
: Wisdom and riches “When a young man was boasting in the theatre and saying, I am wise, for I have conversed with …
: Different ways of knowing The Book of Life from the School of Life is an ever-expanding treasure trove of wisdom. In this …
: Beginning and middle “Don’t compare your beginning to someone else’s middle." (Jon Acuff)
: Slack's bait-and-switch? I remember the early days of Twitter. It was great, as there were many different clients, both …
: The security guide as literary genre I stumbled across this conference presentation from back in January by Jeffrey Monro, “a …
: Do the thing “Do the thing you think you cannot do." (Eleanor Roosevelt)
: Memento mori As I’ve mentioned before on Thought Shrapnel, next to my bed I have a memento mori, an object …
: Microcast #005 [audio src=“http://188.166.96.48/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/episode-005.mp3”][/audio] …
: Issue #295: A wee problem... The latest issue of the newsletter hit inboxes earlier today! 💥 Read 🔗 Subscribe
: Living an antifragile life Nassim Nicholas Taleb’s new book is out, which made me think about his previous work, …
: The end/beginning “Often when you think you’re at the end of something, you’re at the beginning of …
: Archives of Radical Philosophy A quick one to note that the entire archive (1972-2018) of Radical Philosophy is now online. It …
: Do the tools you use matter? An interesting post from Austin Kleon on whether tools matter. It was prompted by the image …
: Is your smartphone a very real part of who you are? I really enjoy Aeon’s articles, and probably should think about becoming a paying subscriber. …
: Microcast #004 [audio src=“http://188.166.96.48/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/microcast-004.mp3”][/audio] …
: Masterpieces “Masterpieces are not single and solitary births; they are the outcome of many years of …
: Microcast #003 [audio src=“http://188.166.96.48/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/microcast-003.mp3”][/audio] …
: 30,000 hours of sleep “Those who research world-class performance focus only on what students do in the gym or track …
: Teaching kids about computers and coding Not only is Hacker News a great place to find the latest news about tech-related stuff, it’s …
: Microcast #002 [audio src=“http://188.166.96.48/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/episode-002.mp3”][/audio] …
: Building a bridge “I learned that a long walk and calm conversation are an incredible combination if you want to …
: The three things you need to make friends over the age of 30 This article from 2012 was referenced in something I was reading last week: As external conditions …
: Microcast #001 [audio src="http://188.166.96.48/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/episode-001.mp3"][/audio] What is …
: Issue #294: Snowmaggedon ❄️ The latest issue of the newsletter hit inboxes earlier today! 💥 Read 🔗 Subscribe
: Happiness “Happiness is where you find it, not where you go in search of it.” (John Kay)
: Microcast #000 [audio src=“http://188.166.96.48/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/episode-000.mp3”][/audio] …
: Tact “Tact is the art of making a point without making an enemy.” (Sir Isaac Newton)
: Geek social fallacies I came across this via a chain of links that took me down a rabbithole. I’m pretty sure it …
: Google's new Slack competitor How many failed ‘social’ and ‘chat’ products has Google racked up now? …
: 10 breakthrough technologies for 2018 I do like MIT’s Technology Review. It gives a glimpse of cool future uses of technology, while …
: The moon is getting 4G Yep, you read that headline correctly. Vodafone and Nokia are getting huge amounts of publicitly for …
: Possible - impossible “The only way of finding the limits of the possible is by going beyond them into the …
: Your best decisions don't come when you demand them As with every episode so far, I greatly enjoyed listening to a recent episode of the Hurry Slowly …
: Some great links for Product Managers As I’ve mentioned before, my new role at Moodle is essentially one of a product manager. …
: Firefox OS lives on in The Matrix I still have a couple of Firefox OS phones from my time at Mozilla. The idea was brilliant: using …
: The 'loudness' of our thoughts affects how we judge external sounds This is really interesting: The "loudness" of our thoughts -- or how we imagine saying something -- …
: Issue #293: Making cheese grate again The latest issue of the newsletter hit inboxes earlier today! 💥 Read 🔗 Subscribe
: Arbitrary deadlines are the enemy of creativity People like deadlines because people like accountability. There’s nothing wrong with that, …
: Arbitrary deadlines are the enemy of creativity People like deadlines because people like accountability. There’s nothing wrong with that, …
: Small 'b' blogging I’ve been a blogger for around 13 years now. What the author of this post says about its value …
: Small 'b' blogging I’ve been a blogger for around 13 years now. What the author of this post says about its value …
: What we can learn from Seneca about dying well As I’ve shared before, next to my bed at home I have a memento mori, an object to remind me …
: Light and deep “Think lightly of yourself and deeply of the world." (Miyamoto Musashi)
: Anonymity vs accountability As this article points out, organisational culture is a delicate balance between many things, …
: On your deathbed, you're not going to wish that you'd spent more time on Facebook As many readers of my work will know, I don’t have a Facebook account. This article uses …
: The Goldilocks Rule In this article from 2016, James Clear investigates motivation: Why do we stay motivated to reach …
: Showing off “Showing off is the fool’s idea of glory." (Bruce Lee)
: On the death of Google/Apache Wave (and the lessons we can learn from it) This article is entitled ‘How not to replace email’ and details both the demise of …
: To lose old styles of reading is to lose a part of ourselves Sometimes I think we’re living in the end times: Out for dinner with another writer, I said, …
: Issue #292: Is there a cure for Tasmania? 🇦🇺 The latest issue of the newsletter hit inboxes earlier today! 💥 Read 🔗 Subscribe
: Does the world need interactive emails? I’m on the fence on this as, on the one hand, email is an absolute bedrock of the internet, a …
: Does the world need interactive emails? I’m on the fence on this as, on the one hand, email is an absolute bedrock of the internet, a …
: The Kano model Using the example of the innovation of a customised home page from the early days of Flickr, this …
: Is the gig economy the mass exploitation of millennials? The answer is, “yes, probably”. If the living wage is a pay scale calculated to be that …
: Humans are not machines Can we teach machines to be ‘fully human’? It’s a fascinating question, as it …
: Legislating against manipulated 'facts' is a slippery slope In this day and age it’s hard to know who to trust. I was raised to trust in authority but was …
: Obvious “Things always become obvious after the fact.” (Nassim Nicholas Taleb)
: Why we forget most of what we read I read a lot of stuff, and I remember random bits of it. I used to be reasonably disciplined about …
: Should you lower your expectations? “Aim for the stars and maybe you’ll hit the treetops” was always the kind of …
: Trust “The best way to find out if you can trust somebody is to trust them." (Ernest Hemingway)
: Why do some things go viral? I love internet memes and included a few in my TEDx talk a few years ago. The term …
: Humans responsible for the Black Death I taught History for years, and when I was teaching the Black Death, I inculcated the received …
: The world's most nutritious foods The older I get, the more important (and the more immediately apparent) the health benefits from …
: Audio Adversarial speech-to-text I don’t usually go in for detailed technical papers on stuff that’s not directly …
: Sounds and smells can help reinforce learning while you sleep Apparently, the idea of learning while you sleep is actually bollocks, at least the way we have come …
: Every easy thing is hard again Although he isn’t aware, it was Frank Chimero who came up with the name Thought Shrapnel in a …
: Issue #291: Necessary koalafications 🐨 The latest issue of the newsletter hit inboxes earlier today! 💥 Read 🔗 Subscribe
: Why good parents have naughty children This made me smile, then it made me think. Our children are offspring of a current teacher and a …
: Lost “If you’re not lost, you’re not much of an explorer.” (John Perry Barlow)
: Telegram cryptocurrency I come across so many interesting links every day that I can only post a handful of them. Right now, …
: Rock piles and cathedrals “A rock pile ceases to be a rock pile the moment a single man contemplates it, bearing within …
: Platform censorship and the threat to democracy TorrentFreak reports that Science Hub (commonly referred to as ‘Sci-Hub’) has had its …
: Decentralisation is the only way to wean people off capitalist social media Everyone wants ‘decentralisation’ these days, whether it’s the way we make …
: Europe is being taken over by crayfish that can clone themselves I was a teenager when Dolly the sheep was cloned. It made me wonder why evolution seemed to favour …
: Alzheimer's is a kind of 'type 3' diabetes My Great Aunt, who we were close to, developed Alzheimer’s Disease towards the end of her …
: Puertopia Dudes make millions (or billions) of dollars via cryptocurrency. Hurricane hits Puerto Rico. They …
: Worth the risks? “Decide whether or not the goal is worth the risks involved. If it is, stop worrying.” …
: Creating media, not just consuming it My wife and I are fans of Common Sense Media, and often use their film and TV reviews when deciding …
: GDPR, blockchain, and privacy I’m taking an online course about the impending General Data Protection Regulatin (GDPR), …
: Living in a dictatorship The historian and social commentator in me found this fascinating. This article quotes Twitter user …
: Culture is the behaviour you reward and punish This is an interesting read on team and organisational culture in practice. Interesting choice of …
: Culture is the behaviour you reward and punish This is an interesting read on team and organisational culture in practice. Interesting choice of …
: Are cows less valuable than wolves? When debating with people, one of my go-to approaches is getting them to think through the logical …
: How we get influence backwards Austin Kleon reflects on the following quotation from Jean-Michel Basquiat: You’ve got to realize …
: How we get influence backwards Austin Kleon reflects on the following quotation from Jean-Michel Basquiat: You’ve got to realize …
: Issue #290: Unscathed The latest issue of the newsletter hit inboxes earlier today! 💥 Read 🔗 Subscribe
: The punk rock internet This kind of article is useful in that it shows to a mainstream audience the benefits of a …
: The punk rock internet This kind of article is useful in that it shows to a mainstream audience the benefits of a …
: The origin of the term 'open source' I didn’t used to think that who came up with the name of a thing particularly mattered, nor …
: Optimism “Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement. Nothing can be done without hope and …
: The Project Design Tetrahedron I had reason this week to revisit Dorian Taylor’s interview on Uses This. I fell into a …
: The Project Design Tetrahedron I had reason this week to revisit Dorian Taylor’s interview on Uses This. I fell into a …
: Promising everything “Whoever promises everything, promises nothing, and promises are a trap for fools.” …
: Designing social systems This article is too long and written in a way that could be more direct, but it still makes some …
: Irony doesn't scale Paul Ford is venerated in Silicon Valley and, based on what I’ve read of his, for good reason. …
: Web Trends Map 2018 (or 'why we can't have nice things') My son, who’s now 11 years old, used to have iA’s Web Trends Map v4 on his wall. It was …
: So, what do you do? Say what you want about teaching, it makes it extremely easy to answer the above question. But that …
: The military implications of fitness tech I was talking about this last night with a guy who used to be in the army. It’s a BFD. In …
: Audrey Watters on technology addiction Audrey Watters answers the question whether we’re ‘addicted’ to technology: I am …
: No cash, no freedom? The ‘cashless’ society, eh? Every time someone talks about getting rid of cash, they are …
: Depression as an evolutionary advantage? It’s been almost 15 years since I suffered from depression. Since that time, I’ve …
: Product managers as knowledge centralisers If you asked me what I do for a living, I’d probably respond that I work for Moodle, am …
: Using VR with kids I’ve seen conflicting advice regarding using Virtual Reality (VR) with kids, so it’s …
: Augmented and Virtual Reality on the web There were a couple of exciting announcments last week about web technologies being used for …
: The horror of the Bett Show I’ve been to the Bett Show (formely known as BETT, which is how the author refers to it in …
: Issue #289: Loooooong week The latest issue of the newsletter hit inboxes earlier today! 💥 Read 🔗 Subscribe
: More haste, less speed In the last couple of years, there’s been a move to give names to security vulnerabilities …
: Ethical design in social networks I’m thinking a lot about privacy and ethical design at the moment as part of my role leading …
: Reading the web on your own terms Although it was less than a decade ago since the demise of the wonderful, simple, much-loved Google …
: The NSA (and GCHQ) can find you by your 'voiceprint' even if you're speaking a foreign language on a burner phone This is pretty incredible: Americans most regularly encounter this technology, known as speaker …
: Favourable winds “If a man does not know to what port he is steering, no wind is favourable to him.” …
: Listening to video game soundtracks can improve your productivity I can attest to the power of this, particularly the Halo soundtrack: As I write these words, a …
: Technology to connect and communicate People going to work in factories and offices is a relatively recent invention. For most of human …
: Are conferences a vestige of a bygone era? I’m certainly attending fewer conferences than I used to, but I thought that was just the …
: A useful IndieWeb primer I’ve followed the IndieWeb movement since its inception, but it’s always seemed a bit …
: Three most harmful addictions “The three most harmful addictions are heroin, carbohydrates, and a monthly salary.” …
: More on Facebook's 'trusted news' system Mike Caulfield reflects on Facebook’s announcement that they’re going to allow users to …
: Living in capitalism “We live in capitalism, its power seems inescapable – but then, so did the divine right of …
: Anxiety is the price of convenience Remote working, which I’ve done for over five years now, sounds awesome, doesn’t it? …
: Different sorts of time Growing up, I always thought I’d write for a living. Initially, I wanted to be a journalist, …
: Some podcast recommendations Despite no longer having a commute, I still find time to listen to podcasts. They’re useful …
: DuckDuckGo moves beyond search This is excellent news: Today we’re taking a major step to simplify online privacy with the launch …
: Facebook is under attack This year is a time of reckoning for the world’s most popular social network. From their own …
: Where would your country be if the world was like Pangea? I love this kind of stuff. As my daughter commented when I showed her, “we would be able to …
: Amazon Go, talent and labour I’ll try and explain what Amazon Go is without sounding a note of incredulity and rolling my …
: WTF is GDPR? I have to say, I was quite dismissive of the impact of the EU’s General Data Protection …
: Decentralisation 2.0 What this article calls ‘Decentralisation 2.0’ is actually redecentralising the web. …
: First step “You don’t have to see the whole staircase. Just take the first step.” (Martin …
: First step “You don’t have to see the whole staircase. Just take the first step.” (Martin …
: The rise and rise of niche newsletters Email is an open, federated standard. You can’t kill it. The email inbox has become the modern …
: The backstory of Apple's emoji This is a lovely post, full of insights and humour. A designer, now at Google but originally an …
: The backstory of Apple's emoji This is a lovely post, full of insights and humour. A designer, now at Google but originally an …
: Tribal politics in social networks I’ve started buying the Financial Times Weekend along with The Observer each Sunday. …
: Some advice for a happy family life Last weekend, and on the day before The Guardian changed to a new, smaller format, Tim Lott, one of …
: Issue #288: Socially and emotionally unavailable The latest issue of the newsletter hit inboxes earlier today! 💥 Read 🔗 Subscribe
: A world without work I’m not sure that just because you look at a screen all day means you’ve got a …
: Few wants “Wealth consists not in having great possessions, but in having few wants.” (Epictetus)
: Film posters of the Russian avant-garde I love the style of these posters, published in a new book to mark the centenary of the Russian …
: Atlas of Hillforts This makes me happy. Back in 2013, archaeologists at Oxford and Edinburgh teamed up to work on the …
: Gendered AI? Another fantastic article from Tim Carmody, a.k.a. Dr. Time: An Echo or an iPhone is not a friend, …
: Imprisoned in prejudices “The man who has no tincture of philosophy goes through life imprisoned in the prejudices …
: Barely anyone uses 2FA This is crazy. In a presentation at Usenix's Enigma 2018 security conference in California, Google …
: Courage “Life shrinks or expands according to one’s courage.” (Anaïs Nin)
: Using your phone wisely I’m a big fan of The Book of Life, a project of The School of Life. One of the latest updates …
: The wilderness of intuition “At times you have to leave the city of your comfort and go into the wilderness of your …
: Can you measure social and emotional skills? Ben Williamson shines a light on the organisation behind the PISA testing regime moving into the …
: Bullet Journal like a Pro The inimitable Cal Newport, he of Deep Work fame, turns his attention to Bullet Journals: My main …
: Choose your connected silo The Verge reports back from CES, the yearly gathering where people usually get excited about shiny …
: Game-changing modular wheels This is fantastic: The Revolve is a full-size 26-inch spoked wheel that can be folded to a third its …
: Game-changing modular wheels This is fantastic: The Revolve is a full-size 26-inch spoked wheel that can be folded to a third its …
: The full complexity of life “The point is… to live one’s life in the full complexity of what one is, which is …
: From Homer to texting and Twitter I love everything about this post: Jason eventually got me to see that “Ask Dr. Time” didn’t have to …
: Would you be nuked? In the light of the recent false alarm about the nuclear attack on her home of Hawaii, Amy Burvall …
: Where did 'Å' come from? I’m (sadly) pretty monolingual, but as an historian by training find things like this …
: Getting better at using tools “Getting better at using tools comes to us, in part, when the tools challenge us, and this …
: Cool decentralisation resources from MozFest I missed the Mozilla Festival at the end of October 2017 as I’d already booked my family …
: This isn't the golden age of free speech You’d think with anyone, anywhere, being able to post anything to a global audience, that this …
: Open source apps for agile project teams A really interesting post about open source apps, most of which I’ve never come across! In …
: Robo-advisors are coming for your job (and that's OK) Algorithms and artificial intelligence are an increasingly-normal part of our everyday lives, notes …
: Opposite of manliness “The opposite of manliness isn’t cowardice; it’s technology.” (Nassim …
: Thought Shrapnel #287: My bad The latest issue of the newsletter hit inboxes earlier today! 💥 Read 🔗 Subscribe
: Reasons to be cheerful David Byrne, a talented musician and author of one of my favourite books, has started a great new …
: Attention is an arms race Cory Doctorow writes: There is a war for your attention, and like all adversarial scenarios, the …
: Barcelona to go open source by 2019 Great news for the open source community! The City has plans for 70% of its software budget to be …
: In a dark place Last year, I remember being amazed by how black a new substance was that’s been created by …
: How to build a consensual social network Here’s another article that was linked to from the source of a post I shared recently. The …
: Bigger the dream... “The bigger the dream, the more important the team.” (Robin Sharma)
: Money in, blood out A marvellous post by Ryan Holiday, who is well versed in Stoic philosophy: Seneca, the Roman …
: Venture Communism? As part of my Moodle work, I’ve been looking at GDPR and decentralised technologies, so I …
: Fake amusement park This made me smile: The show is called “Fake Theme Parks” and it debuts Friday, January 12 at …
: Questions to ask before taking your next job This is a fantastic resource for those who are thinking about their next move. Increasingly, …
: Dreamers who do “The world needs dreamers and the world needs doers. But above all, the world needs dreamers who …
: Deliberate rest, cognitive momentum, and differentiated work hours Appropriately enough, it was during a lunchtime run that I listened to the latest episode of Jocelyn …
: You get paid what other people think you're worth Great post by Seth Godin: Yes, we frequently sell ourselves too short. We don't ask for compensation …
: Meltdown and Spectre explained by xkcd There’s not much we mere mortals can do about the latest microprocessor-based vulnerabilites, …
: Meaningless work causes depression As someone who has suffered in the past from depression, and still occasionally suffers from …
: It doesn't matter if you don't use AI assistants if everyone else does Email is an awesome system. It’s open, decentralised, and you can pick whoever you want to …
: Thought Shrapnel #286: New beginnings The latest issue of the newsletter hit inboxes earlier today! 💥 Read 🔗 Subscribe
: Social media short-circuits democracy I’m wondering whether to delete all my social media accounts, or whether I should stay and …
: Spain is on the wrong timezone As an historian, I find this fascinating: So why are Spaniards living behind their geographic time …
: Foucault understood the power of ambiguity To have a settled position on anything is anachronistic. There has to be an element of ambiguity in …
: Fridays are a social construct I feel like I could have written this post. I agree entirely: Some of the phenomena governing …
: Privacy-based browser extensions I visit Product Hunt on a regular basis. While there’s plenty of examples of hyped apps and …
: Twitter isn't going to ban Trump, no matter what Twitter have confirmed what everyone knew all along: they’re not going to ban Donald Trump, no …
: Charisma instead of hierarchy? An interesting interview with Fred Turner, former journalist, Stanford professor, and someone who …
: Education is about the journey, not the destination I’m a big fan of Cathy Davidson, and look forward to reading her new book. In this article, …
: Mozilla is creating an Open Leadership Map The Mozilla Foundation may have shut down pretty much all of its learning programmes, but it’s …
: Life in likes England’s Children’s Commissioner has released a report entitled ‘Life in …
: Dark kitchens, dark factories... is this the future of automation? I missed this at the end of last year, perhaps because I live in a small town in the north of …
: Capitalism can make you obese From a shocking photojournalism story: With imported soft drinks costing the same or less than …
: It's not advertising, it's statistical behaviour-modification The rest of this month’s WIRED magazine is full of its usual hubris, but the section on …
: How to prevent being 'cryptojacked' The Opera web browser has joined Brave in allowing users to turn on ‘cryptojacking’ …
: Fred Wilson's predictions for 2018 Fred Wilson is author of the incredibly popular blog AVC. He prefaces his first post of the year in …
: Albert Wenger's reading list Albert Wenger, a venture capitalist and author of World After Capital, invited his (sizeable) blog …
: Data-driven society: utopia or dystopia? Good stuff from (Lord) Jim Knight, who cites part of his speech in the House of Lords about data …
: Are social networks a public health issue? I think the author’s correct to frame things in terms of addiction: Because we are all hooked, …
: Commit to improving your security in 2018 We don’t live in a cosy world where everyone hugs fluffy bunnies who shoot rainbows out of …
: To 'quit' isn't necessarily the opposite of having 'grit' This is a useful way of framing things: “Quit” doesn’t have to be the opposite of “grit.” This is …
: Now are the Olympics “And if anything laborious, or pleasant or glorious inglourious be presented to you, remember …
: How to run an Open Source project Although I don’t use elementaryOS on my own laptops, we do use it on the family touchscreen PC …
: The internet needs distributed DNS This article talks about hyperlinks, because that’s what mainstream audiences understand, but …
: Succeeding with innovation projects There’s some great advice in this article for those, like me, who are leading innovation …
: Facebook is an instrument of the state This should not surprise us: Facebook now seems to be explicitly admitting that it also intends to …
: The importance of downtime There’s a few books I read every morning, on repeat. One of them, Daily Rituals, details the …
: Culture eats strategy for breakfast A collection of articles on organisational culture from the Harvard Business Review. I need to …
: Caulfield's predictions for 2018 Some good stuff in Mike Caulfield’s “somewhat U.S.-centric predictions” for the …
: The best album covers of 2017 It was only last week that I was telling my children how they’d missed out on the joy of …
: Moving down Maslow's hierarchy of needs using OER? David Wiley, the standard bearer for Open Educational Resources, says: Many of us believe that …
: Potentially huge wind farm proposed in the North Sea Dogger Bank, which thousands of years ago as Doggerland would have been visible from the North East …
: Few posessions “A wise man needs few things to make him happy; nothing can satisfy a fool. That is why nearly …
: Few posessions “A wise man needs few things to make him happy; nothing can satisfy a fool. That is why nearly …
: Few possessions “A wise man needs few things to make him happy; nothing can satisfy a fool. That is why nearly …
: Is that you, Mother? Umm… Several studies have found that, on average, there’s some physical similarity …
: How do you show off your privilege when everyone's got an iPhone? It uses to be all about conspicuous consumption and bling… However, the democratisation of …
: Lunatics All are lunatics, but he who can analyse his delusion is called a philosopher (Ambrose Bierce)
: How to defuse remote work issues Good advice here about resolving difficulties with a remote co-worker. When it comes to delivering …
: The benefits of decentralised decision-making I’m not sure I agree with the conclusions of this article, as I don’t agree with the …
: It's called Echo for a reason That last-minute Christmas gift sounds like nothing but unadulterated fun after reading this, …
: Your New Year's resolution for 2018? Ditch Facebook. If something’s been pre-filtered by Cory Doctorow and Jason Kottke then you know it’s …
: The Horizon stops here Audrey Watters is delightfully blunt about the New Media Consortium, known for their regular …
: Put a number next to someone's name and there will be pressure for it to increase In her review of Daniel Koretz’s new book on testing in schools, Diane Ravitch reminds us of …
: Does it take Trump to make badges go mainstream? Perversely, it might take something like the Trump administration to make Open Badges work at scale. …
: How to get people to pay you what you're worth Good advice in this article for people who (like me) are asked regularly whether someone can …
: Building a home online I discovered ‘John Henry’, the pseudonymous author of this blog, after finding and …
: Purely technological answers to human problems don't work In a hugely surprising move, Facebook has found that marking an article as ‘disputed’ on …
: Nobody likes a goody two-shoes This is an incredible entry in the School of Life’s Book of Life: The sickness of the good …
: Life in the outrage economy Rafael Behr nails it when he says we live in an ‘outrage economy’: Rage is contagious. …
: Howard Rheingold on cooperation as a solution to our present woes Howard Rheingold is one of the smartest and most colourful people I’ve ever met. One of his …
: We're still figuring out what it means for everyone to be connected Part of what’s happened over the last 18 months can be attributed to us just getting used to …
: GDPR could break the big five's monopoly stranglehold on our data Almost everyone has one or more account with the following companies: Apple, Amazon, Facebook, …
: What would a version of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs for society look like? I like the notion put forward by Susan Wu in this article — although Maslow’s framework was …
: Decentralised projects to explore in 2018 This is a great post, giving an overview of lots of projects focusing on the decentralisation of …
: Brexit Britain means food prescriptions on the NHS I cannot believe this is happening in my country as we prepare to enter 2018. Food banks and …
: What to tell your kids about Santa Claus My kids, who are ten and six years of age respectively, blatantly don’t believe in Father …
: 2018: the year of Linux on the desktop? There’s a perpetual joke in open source circles that next year will be ‘the year of …
: What you read determines who you are Shane Parrish from Farnam Street has written an ‘annual letter’ to his audience, much …
: The immorality of retaining wealth The image I’ve chosen for this post came via social.coop rather than the article cited, but it …
: Sticks and stones This article, originally given as a lecture, focuses on the worrying fact that we no longer seem to …
: Blockchains are boring The author of this article works in finance and describes himself as “whatever the opposite of …
: The upside of kids watching Netflix instead of TV In our house, on the (very) rare occasions we’re watching live television that includes advert …
: Human Extinction Via Audrey Watters, this is incredible. Read the whole thing; capitalism can’t, and …
: How to be a consultant I stumbled across this via Hacker News. This guy basically explains how consulting works, with some …
: Ethical business means fair pay (and co-ownership?) Partly a marketing move, for sure, but this move to ethical business is encouraging. See also …
: Reputation on the dark net I know someone who lives in London and gets weed delivered through his letterbox from the dark net …
: Is it pointless to ban autonomous killing machines? The authors do have a point: Suppose the UN were to implement a preventive ban on the further …
: Your brain is not a computer I finally got around to reading this article after it was shared in so many places I frequent over …
: Edward Snowden wants to help you use your Android smartphone to protect yourself Since 2013, Edward Snowden has been advising people and creating software. The Haven app he’s …
: High-performing schools in England less accessible since 2010 Same old Tories, defunding education and entrenching privilege: Access to high performing schools in …
: Silicon Valley looking to skills from the Humanities Cathy Davidson writing about the subjects that teach the kinds of skills that employers are really …
: Problems with reputation in the gig economy The solution to the problems we see with platform capitalism is, of course, platform co-operativism, …
: Digital literacies and 'proximal depravity' Martin Weller on how algorithms feeding on engagement draw us towards ever more radical stuff …
: How 'flu kills people Nasty: After entering someone's body—usually via the eyes, nose or mouth—the influenza virus begins …