Again, thanks to everyone who has supported Thought Shrapnel with their attention and, in some cases, money over the years. It’s still going, it’s just changing along with me.
Good luck Doug with the new Doug-shaped blogging beginnings.
Tag: Thought Shrapnel
Ultimately, then, we’re going to need a whole new politics and social contract after the pandemic. I sincerely hope we manage to grasp the nettle and do something radically different. I’m not sure how we’ll all survive if the rich, once again, come out of all this even richer than before.
Well put Doug. Not sure what tomorrow is to bring. I liked how Seth Godin puts it too:
My generation was the dominant voice for sixty years. A voice that worried about the next 24 hours, not the next 24 years. That’s about to shift, regardless of what year you were born.
I purchased Doug Belshaw’s new book based on his newsletter Thought Shrapnel.
Doug Belshaw (Doug Belshaw’s Thought Shrapnel)I don’t think I’ve ever seen an example where, without any contextualisation, an individual or organisation has taken something ‘off the shelf’ and applied it to achieve uniformly fantastic results. That’s not how these things work.
Humans are complex organisms; we’re not machines. For a given input you can’t expect the same output. We’re not lossless replicators.
This microcast covers ethics in decision-making for technology companies and (related!) some recent purchases I’ve made.
It feels like we have been here before Doug in regards to Google? Wondering what you are doing about your smart speakers or are they already gone?
Doug Belshaw (Doug Belshaw’s Thought Shrapnel)Google’s auto-delete tools are practically worthless for privacy (Fast Company) — “In reality, these auto-delete tools accomplish little for users, even as they generate positive PR for Google. Experts say that by the time three months rolls around, Google has already extracted nearly all the potential value from users’ data, and from an advertising standpoint, data becomes practically worthless when it’s more than a few months old.”
Doug, I will admit that maybe I do not truly understand how all this works, but isn’t there a difference between deleting the data and deleting the data about the data? For example, the Guardian recently hightlighted that Facebook’s ‘delete data’ merely disconnects the data from the user profile? I would imagine that it would not wipe any sort of shadow profile that is inferred from the data?
Doug Belshaw (Doug Belshaw’s Thought Shrapnel)I think the best thing to take from the experience of losing someone close to us other is to begin a life worth living right now. Not putting off for the future right action and virtuous living, but practising them immediately.
Doug Belshaw (Doug Belshaw’s Thought Shrapnel)Going forward, I’m going to try a different approach. For everything I publish:
- Comments are on
- Three different types of post each week
- Everyone gets access at the same time
On Mondays I’ll publish an article-style post. On Wednesdays I’ll publish a post answering any questions that have come in, or a microcast. And then on Fridays I’ll publish a round-up post of interesting links.
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.
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.
You have to watch his keynote at the Decentralized Web Summit last month. It’s not only a history lesson and a warning, but he puts in ways that really make you see what the problem is. Inspiring stuff.
I agree Doug about listening to Cory Doctorow speak. Along with Audrey Watters and Douglas Rushkoff, he is one of those authors whose performance really brings new life and urgency to the text.
In regards to forwarding your newsletter on, it is just not something I do. I usually share via social media if I know something might be of interest. Hope that makes sense.
The latest issue of the newsletter hit inboxes earlier today! 💥 Read 🔗 Subscribe
Like the re-redesign Doug, better than just the links.
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.