I watched The Social Dilemma on Netflix. Much of the information presented I already knew - big tech mines all of our personal data and manipulates us to increase screen time in whichever way they can.

The movie itself has a story in-between the interview clips that help demonstrate the effects that social media (and cellphones) enable within a family. In one scene the son's cellphone's screen's cracks and the mom says that she'll replace it if he can not use his phone for a week, since, as he says "it's no big deal".

The algorithms notice his usage has changed, i.e. stopped, analyze that similar people in his area haven't changed their usage and start a "reactivation" sequence, to suck him back in. To tempt him to open the app they find a recent event that will entice him back in and, like a drug addict, he's back.

It reminds me of the seemingly random push notifications I get from instagram when I haven't used the app in a few days. Nothing is random with social media, but it didn't occur to me that they were trying to "reactivate" me and just how slimy that is. There's no regard for the "user" - only their advertisers, which is their real user.

Most of all, watching The Social Dilemma makes me grateful for the indie web, communities like micro.blog, and apps like Sunlit that allow social media without algorithms without manipulation for advertisers, powered (more or less) by RSS and other open standards.

The more I think about it, the more I think Apple should knock FB/Instagram down a peg with a iWeb-powered micro.blog style blog-based social network.

Having a blog again, especially one weekly post is changing how I interact with the internet. It's making it fun again.

Like most I had a blog in the early 2000's and it slowly faded from use with the rise of FB, Twitter, and other social media. But by limiting myself to those platforms, I also limited how I could share.

There is no "save draft" of a tweet. And you can only fit so much nuance in 140 280 characters.

Now, with a blog, when I find something that looks like I'd want to share or I might want to share, I simply append the link to the latest The Week post. Then, either throughout the week, or in the 15 minutes before posting, I expand upon that link, maybe even add some context. Sharing has become more about than just sharing some random link or video. I have the space to show how it relates to me and make it personal, rather than just a simple retweet that gets lost in the stream.

I didn't realize it, but I was missing that space. My own cubby on the internet. No longer being locked into a format, time, or design decided by someone I don't know gives me a place I can call home.

No algorithms. No ads. Just me.

I’m not a New Yorker. I’ve only visited New York once for a week 4 years ago. But I think this oped by Jerry Seinfeld So You Think New York Is ‘Dead’: (It isn't) is spot on - New York isn't going anywhere.

Yes, Remote everything is becoming the norm, people are moving away from world class cities, but it won't be forever. The cities won't vanish, they'll do what they always do: change.

There is an energy in the big cities that you can't find anywhere else and can't replicate remotely. While I've been nearly 100% remote working for the last 7 or 8 years, I always felt recharged by my trips into the cities. And when this is all over, I look forward getting back in the mix of things.

This past week was the 75th anniversary of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings. I found this article "Hiroshima" on the New Yorker that goes into detail about the actual experiences of survivors in the days and weeks afterwards and it's sobering. Not just because of single event, as they're all sobering, but the sheer volume.

It's a long read (~100 pages) and well worth your time. What's more is that it's not based on long-ago recollections. This article was originally published in August 1946.

I rarely finish books that I start reading. Usually I'll get what I need out of it, plan to finish it, and start a new book in the mean time. Some may shake their heads in disbelief, but I don't think this is a problem.

While I feel like retain "a lot" of what I read, a few months down the like and I usually only remember the gist. I'm wondering if I couldn't retain more details if I were to take notes when I read. Writing down notes physically on paper is an option, but transcribing them so I can easily reference them becomes a burden. My handwriting is also horrible as I write with paper so rarely.

One thought that comes to mind is to setup a personal wiki where I can just store anything and everything, including notes on book and articles that I read. I could easily link/categorize content. I don't necessarily want to make everything I read and write fully public and managing which page are private, which are public could become a chore.

The other thought is, I have this blog why don't I just write what I learn here. Start interspersing notes about books / magazines that I read here on this blog. It should help me retain more of what I read as well as help people discover new and interesting topics.

Podcasting is perhaps the last bastion of the open web. Where the distribution system isn’t centralized into a single large tech company’s systems. Yes, those big tech companies run directories, but they’re all powered by the same open technology under the hood - rss. Which is quite surprising as Podcasting was popularized by Apple and the iPod. One might argue that the Apple of the early 2000’s is different than the Apple of today and they’d be right. But despite the podcasting boom, they don’t seem to have any interest in closing the podcast kingdom.

I want to help the health of the open web with the next service that I build. While I try to figure exactly what that service will be, I do what I can to help by blogging and mostly syndicating what I write to social media.

Building a service around podcasting or starting a podcast may seem like the simplest way to help reinforce the open web and build a fun new service. But I’m not a podcaster and, most importantly, the world needs another audio blog by a white 30-something software engineer as much as I need a poke in the eye with a sharp stick.

But the open web doesn’t need a new service to make it strong again. It’s easier today than ever before to setup your own site using open source software and start publishing. What it needs is more people participating. More people. Writing more. In more places.

Blogs didn’t die because Google killed reader. Blogs died because people starting posting their content on social media and not their own site.

And so, to help the web, I’ll continue doing what I’ve been doing this past year. I’ll think. I’ll read. And I’ll write. But under my own domain.

I bought a new (shorter) domain for my new email address. One advantage of migrating away from gmail that I hadn’t anticipated is how much calmer I feel.

You see, Gmail technically supports IMAP, but it’s more of a shim. You’re not really supposed to use IMAP with Gmail. And as such I never felt comfortable using a regular email client, instead opting to check mail via the web-app.

Checking mail via a browser is fine but being in a browser switches your mind to a different context. Browsers are meant for consuming. The entire internet is just a simple cmd-T away. So “checking email” became a mental excuse to open my web browser. And then Twitter. And then Hacker News. And then Reddit. Oh, I wonder if I got any new email? And repeat.

Now with a provider where IMAP is a first class citizen, I can use Mail.app again. Mail is set to be pulled in once an hour. No more temptation from a web browser. And an unexpected sense of calm.

I’m back in control.

Each time I watch “Rams”, a documentary of Dieter Rams, something different gets stuck in my head.

This time was brief interaction at the very start of the film. A designer asks how he can propel his work beyond mediocracy. Rams’ response is simple: Find people whom you can collaborate, and to use this collaboration to move beyond mediocracy.

The shift in ability required to elevate your craft is something that often can’t happen alone. Collaborating is the most effective method to improve your work. Looking back, I can pinpoint exactly when and where my sense of design as a developer went from typical engineer to closer to a designer.

I was moonlighting and doing some work with a designer, who was also the lead on the project. I’d submit a revision and she she noticed immediately when my implementation wasn't perfect. A section was a bit too tall, or a line off by a pixel. Through this back and forth, I began to catch things I didn’t before. My eyes began to see what she saw.

Before I was blind and, through collaboration, I could see.