2024-12-12 18:29:55
Don’t worry, this isn’t the usual post about AI and it stealing everyone’s content. That’s true, of course, but this post is a bit different — although still AI-adjacent.
As is customary around this time of year, I start to think about my goals for the following year and, more importantly, the tools I am going to use to get to them. I usually start with digital things because my analogue choices are far easier and much more enjoyable. The first thing on my list is typically my note-taking and writing app.
After going around the houses more than a few times, it all boils down to two really — iA Writer and Ulysses. I always end up sticking with the tried and true on Ulysses, but there are a few features that I really like on iA Writer. The developers really think about what their app needs to do, but also how its usage affects the web as a whole. The best reflection of their shared thinking is arguably one of the best features I have seen for a long time, Authorship.
Born of a desire to see version control like changes, Authorship saves the state of your document, and then anything you pasted in is shown as dimmed. Keeping tabs on what you actually wrote and what has been appropriated is beneficial when researching topics and ensures you reference all of your work correctly. However, it goes much deeper than this when viewed in a world full of Ai.
It also remembers what ChatGPT wrote for you, and now with the launch of writing tools on Apple devices, what Apple Intelligence changed during a proofread. Why this doesn’t exist at an OS level I am not sure, but this has proved invaluable for me already, and means, of course, I am experimenting again — at least to see how good (or not) Apple Intelligence is.
I love the fact that the iA Writer developers have thought to develop a feature that should exist everywhere. I often wanted to see changes editors made to my writing before publishing but couldn’t be bothered to compare it in depth. That is how you become a better writer. Perhaps this information should be transferable to the webpage on publish?
I’m happy for readers to see what I wrote and what the super-intelligent spell check updated for me. I might launch it as a comedy B-side. With this said, I do feel that there’s some responsibility for those that post to the internet and particularly bloggers to ensure what they are posting is their own work. Removing all the arguments that LLMs stole all of our work, it still rests on our shoulders to ensure the web we all know and love remains genuine.
I would love to find a way we could ensure that the people we follow, and possibly even support, have full authorship. It might be words, or photos or increasingly video that AI muscles into, and I would rather not live in a world where we are not sure if you created what you post or not. We place a lot of trust in the things we consume online and with entertainment being provided increasingly by sole creators it would be nice to know it was all their own work.
2024-12-11 00:54:55
On a recent Vergecast, Nilay and David were chatting about the very real idea that the current state of streaming services is just cable TV all over again. Of course, they are correct, but they also kept coming back to the idea that the only services that make a serious amount of money are those that convince people to make the content for free. The best example of this is YouTube, and I just don’t see it that way.
I understand some people do. My son used to watch a huge amount of gaming content and toy reviews when he was younger. People I follow online seem to really value YouTube Premium to remove ads from one of their most used services. Yet I balk at the £12.99 per month cost because I don’t see any value outside of finding information on how to do things.
Don’t get me wrong, when a new phone comes out, or there’s an interesting camera I want to take a look at, YouTube is where I head to find video reviews. However, I think most of that is because web searching is so broken that it’s the only place I can reliably find what I am looking for. To me YouTube is transactional. I want to watch a few reviews of a new gadget, and that’s the place to find them all in one place. Outside of that, YouTube is a resource on the same level as Wikipedia.
I visit it often when something breaks in the house. The vacuum has yet another toy stuck in it, and I need to know how to take it apart. Or my heater is leaking, and I need to know if I can undo this screw or not. I can’t imagine YouTube being the place I go to watch something in the evening instead of Netflix — but clearly lots of people do.
Many years ago I tried, but I spent even more time trying to find something to watch than I would do in the Netflix never-ending carousel. Do people really sift through all the garbage to find something worth watching? What is there that’s worth my time? Certainly not Mr Beast or Fortnite streamers.
2024-12-04 21:44:24
The best feeling in my online life is when I have inspiration for a post and I open a fresh sheet in Ulysses. Just then, right before I start typing my garbled English onto the sheet and ruin the whole thing, that is an electric feeling that anything could happen.
Maybe I write a really great post, everyone loves it and I get loads of comments and replies. Writers I love begin posting link posts to it, and this fantastic post is referenced all over the web. Massive publications invite me to write op-ed’s for them and send me big cheques in the post.
Or maybe no one reads it. It gets buried in the constant stream of other blog posts being written. Drowned out by all the noise from influencers and stupid vertical videos of people dancing about. Perhaps it contains a stupid typo and I offend someone, meaning I lose my job and become homeless. My wife leaves me due to the embarrassment of writing ‘form’ instead of ‘from’, and now my kids hate me.
Perhaps I won’t bother. It was a stupid idea in the first place anyway.
2024-12-03 15:29:51
After more than 40 years (yes, I am old) I am well aware of needing massive barriers in the way of my bad habits. I have very little self-control when it comes to dopamine boosting things, and my phone is the worst.
I realise how pathetic that is. Over the years, I’ve given advice which is regurgitated from that which I receive (often unrequested) multiple times. To simply stop. Much like an addict l, because that is what I am of sorts, I’ve tried too hard too quickly and slowly returned to ‘normal’.
This is a personality weakness that unfortunately I just can’t overcome. Hence, why I need to babysit myself and treat myself like an idiot. A title that I well deserve because I can’t put the shinny thing with bright flashing colours down and live in the world.
So in steps Screen Time. Yes, that truly pathetic attempt and virtue signalling that Apple introduced with iOS12 six years ago. It’s slow, it uses unnecessary battery life at times, and it’s easy to get around. Let me tell you though — it works.
Typically, the criticism with Screen Time is that it is too easy to bypass. That instead Apple should have built some kind of phone jail to keep people like me out in times of weakness. Instead, I think it strikes the right balance. By putting a simple screen in between me taping the icon and opening the app ensures I think about if I do want to open the app. Something the popular Opal app charges a fortune for.
It puts just enough friction between me and something that won’t benefit my future self, and still being able to use the app if I need to. I have set downtime for the times I want to switch off and also limits to some apps for each day. Babysitting myself works really well, because my monkey mind just can’t stay away.
2024-11-26 21:04:58
There’s an old adage: today’s news is tomorrow’s chip paper. For anyone outside the UK, it essentially means that news—and the attention it garners—moves on fast. Nowhere is this truer than when it comes to products, influencers, and technology. That said, some topics tend to be very cyclical (note-taking apps on micro.blog, anyone?), and fortunately, the discussion about Substack has cycled back to the forefront.
Before Anil Dash’s excellent post a few days ago, I was disappointed to see how many people had either returned to Substack or started using it anew. If you’ve forgotten, there was a strong movement to abandon Substack only 11 months ago—a movement I supported by deleting my subscriptions, waiting for my favourite newsletters to move away due to Substack’s “Nazi problem”.
This isn’t up for debate. There’s no argument over whether there was an issue—there was, and there still is. This video from Decoder should be motivation enough to pack your stuff up and leave a platform that won’t remove content expressing racism as blatantly as Nilay puts it to their CEO. Like I said, there’s no debate here. Unless you’re John Gruber because, “If I never see it, I don’t care.”
Another argument I’ve heard is that it doesn’t matter because Substack is “just a hosting company.” Admittedly, it was a pretty great one—until all of this started. Free hosting for your newsletter, blog, and podcast—where’s the catch?
Well, here it is, folks. The fact is, Substack is not just a host for your content like WordPress, Ghost, or micro.blog. It uses your content to pitch others on their platform, recommends other publications alongside yours, and pushes its users toward its Twitter clone, Notes, which allows people to post some truly terrible things.
As Anil points out, Substack has now become a noun. When people say things like “subscribe to my Substack” (which they really shouldn’t), you can’t use the passive “just a hosting company” excuse. WordPress may host your website, and its CEO might go a bit crazy and start a feud with another billionaire, but that doesn’t directly impact your blog. However, when Substack uses your content to legitimise some of the worst society has to offer, it’s not just me being annoyed—you should be annoyed too.
Yet here we are, months later. Substack still exists. High-profile people don’t care and continue to open new accounts instead of searching for better options. And the world keeps spinning. It’s remarkable how quickly people forget. Even when something as serious as this happens, it only takes a few weeks to blow over. Perhaps I expect too much as someone who consumes a large volume of publications.
I have no issue with where you choose to host your content—that’s entirely up to you as a writer. However, much like the people still buying Teslas or still posting on X, know that people will be judging you. Most importantly, post somewhere you can own your content. Please.
2024-11-26 18:24:24
There is nothing I enjoy more than an insightful discussion on notebooks, and hearing Sam Altman on the How I Write Podcast was a fascinating listen. I made a few notes whilst walking the dog this morning, but before I got a chance to go over them, this excellent rebuttal from Liz Lopatto at The Verge made me laugh out loud.
My favourite quote from the post sums up my thoughts:
I do not rip pages out of my notebook regularly because I am not deranged
This part really made me wonder what on earth is going on in the world. Sam describes ripping pages out of his spiral notebook (this being one of the reason he uses a spiral version) and throwing them on the floor for his cleaner to pick up.
Not putting them in the bin himself, he’s too busy for that. He just throws them on the floor and relies on his housekeeper to pick them up whenever they are around. The whole podcast / video is well worth watching, but this part in particular is really revealing about the personality of the man in charge of Open Ai.
As Liz writes:
This is a man who has not carefully considered his tools and expects someone else to pick up after him. That does explain a lot about OpenAI, doesn’t it?
As saside note, spiral notebooks are not my thing, neither is the pen he writes with, but there’s no getting around the fact that writing in a notebook is the best!
