Thought Shrapnel | Read Write Collect

Replied to Issue [#328]: Back at it by Doug Belshaw (Thought Shrapnel)

Last week's issue of Thought Shrapnel, prompted a response from Aaron Davis, an Australian education with an excellent monthly newsletter. He disagreed with my position, which he is of course welcome to do, but it served as a reminder to me that, if you find value in my work, you're very likely to also find value in his.

Thank you Doug for the shout-out. As someone who has:

Listened to every episode of TIDE (usually at x1.7 to be honest)
Followed your work for quite a few years, including reading your excellent book and backing your work on productivity.
Wrote my own chapter, that almost constitutes ‘fan (non) fiction’?

I think that I would probably describe myself as a non-financial supporter?

On other matters, I am always intrigues by your conversations about time and enjoyed the post about ‘social jetlag‘. It reminds me of Audrey Watters’ point about technology is a system.

Replied to Issue [#327]: Happy New Year! by Doug Belshaw (Thought Shrapnel)

I had a bit of an epiphany when I realised that one of the main uses of AI is, or will be, voice assistants. In practice, that means a lot less time spent looking at displays and a lot more time interacting with devices using natural language. To do that, voice assistant need to know the context in which you operate, so they need to have data on you.

I'm not delighted to be handing over so much data to Google, but given their GDPR-compliant controls, I'm willing to give it a try. The Lenovo device is in our kitchen and has replaced our DAB radio, and the Onkyo speaker is in our bedroom. Both of them have hardware switches which mute the microphone when they're not being used.

I really am not sold on all this move to smart devices Doug. My wife recently purchased an iWatch and has taken to messaging directly from it. I now need to check if she is talking to her phone, watch or me. I have also noticed this on public transport. I have two particular reservations:

What if everyone was talking at once? What would that look and sound like?
What about the conversations that may not be appropriate for speaking out loud in public or in private.

I respect there are some who see such constructive uses as a God send (read Richard Wells reflection), however this depends upon an appropriate space.

My other question is uses beyond the novel. Yeah I can ask Google a question or play a track from The National, but what else? I am really interested in what particular workflows you develop in conjunction with your smart things.

NOTE: I have written this response in the open web and respect your desire to restrict such conversations to paying subscribers, which I am not one, sorry.

Replied to Issue [#316]: Is that better? 🙄 🙄 🙄 (Doug Belshaw's Thought Shrapnel)

The latest issue of the newsletter hit inboxes earlier today! 💥 Read 🔗 Subscribe

Like the re-redesign Doug, better than just the links.

Replied to Issue [#315]: Minimalism FTW (Doug Belshaw's Thought Shrapnel)

Now then, here's an experiment. After gaining some feedback from some of you in response to last week's newsletter, I've stripped this week's issue down to its bare essentials.

I am not against the minimalist newsletter. I would just prefer a single sentence summary associated with each post? That is my only frustration with Adam Proctor’s newsletter too.