It’s the Easter holidays and the forecast for the UK is the traditional “wet”. So with some time to kill I thought I’d try a little experiment and set up a salon.
I have no idea how this will go, but I would love to be a fab host and encourage cordial discussion whilst also helping you to get to know your fellow subscribers better (if you wish).
So, to get the ball rolling, here are three starter questions…
Who are you? Introduce yourself, as much or as little as you’d feel comfortable with.
What brings you here? What do you enjoy or gain from my newsletter, website or even emails? Anything you dislike? Anything you’d like covered?
I write a lot about technology and the good life. Although I spend some time on looking to reduce the effects of what I consider damaging or bad technology, I’m not anti-all-tech. For example a bicycle is an amazingly good invention in my opinion. So thinking about this, which technologies do you feel are good and crucially, what is it that makes them so?
Answers/ideas in the comments please!
And with that your host moves to the sidelines, fills everyone’s glass and let’s the conversation flow…
Hi Alastair. Normally I'm a lurker. But today you've convinced me to emerge from the shadows.
1. I'm Joe. From the wetlands mentioned above. Programmer.
2. If I remember correctly, I found this blog down a BuJo web rabbit hole at some point. I came for the bujo, but stayed for your trying to piece together an appropriate philosophy for this resistance to technology. n.b. I realise the irony, given my job
3. I like my daily bicicle ride too. One technology I think is good: The wooden chisel - it enables me to be good at something I wouldn't be able to otherwise. But I guess that applies to all techs, the ones we like and the ones we don't :( Like I said: Still looking for a consistent philosophy.
I'll jump in first, Alastair:
1. I'm Jesse, a writer in Seattle. Among other things I write the I Like How You Think Substack.(apologies for the shameless plug!)
2. I'm here because I like your take on...pretty much everything. Please don't ask how I found my way here...that one's lost to time. 🤦🏼♂️
3. After my first career in IT, I grew pretty disillusioned with most tech. Frankly, I wasn't all that techy to start, so also please don't ask how I ended up in IT in the first place. That one will require more time than we have here. As of now, I view tech, computers specifically, as tools. My iPhone is my mobile sound system, GPS, note repository, and occasional draft-creation device, and it allows me to text my family. That's it. I don't have any other apps on it. I'm no fan of AI, but part of that is a semantic argument with the term itself. Machine Learning stands to revolutionize back-end automation tools, but the current hype cycle around LLMs is just that, hype and I hope it dies off soon (following in the footsteps of crypto, the metaverse, etc...). I should add that yes, I do use ChatGPT or Jasper on occasion when brainstorming whitepaper topics, or for SEO assistance when coming up with article headers and the like. It's actually quite good at that sort of support role. I am not scared it will come for my job as a writer, humans are wired to resonate with words when they come from other humans and that's not going to change any time soon.