• Wednesday, 07/12/23 ** 11:27 Relaunch Thick walls Controlled rollout - look professional, not personal, post infrequently, always have a product ready Release something truly world-class Launch yourself as a project ** 12:39 Learn in private ** 20:21 I feel very lucky to be alive today. I'm lucky to be able to experience the best pop culture - the best literature - the best work the world has ever seen from the best people. Every 50 follower account on SoundCloud, every little guy at every company making beautiful animations, all of the brilliant developers making interactive articles, every little bit of pop art - and art acutely, acutely aware of its impact, thanks to better analytics than ever before - from Try Guys to Ryan Trahan to Mr. Beast to any word in any internet article - it's all so beautiful. We've distilled and synthesized thousands of thousands of years of intellect and history and people into text and PDFs and wikipedia articles and AI embeddings and images and stories that have been passed down from generation, and now Firefox gives me every word that has ever been said and written down and liked and shared for me to learn from.

We have the tools today to make the most impactful art we've ever made. Analytics are making artwork better than ever before. Art is the self-expression of a person, a product that finds a market, the ability to know when to go with the flow and follow the numbers vs. when to deviate and stand out because you have found a better way than the status quo. Art is self-expressive, allowing others to find interpretations in the content that you consume. 'Content creation' is incredibly dismissive as a term; making things to serve people who demand material, who demand attention, is an incredibly noble role to have. Most of 'content' work is noise - but innovation in art has been accelerating faster and faster than ever before now that its pursuit has become so incredibly prestigious. I love that meeting the needs of people more precisely has become the #1 item on the zeitgeist. The prying the money out of the hands of people is the hard part. Influencers - people who demand social prescence - deserve pedestals for perfecting something that contributes interest to the world. People today are rewarded for being so outgoing, rewarded for being independent, rewarded for putting themselves - or a particular facet of themselves - forward.

Goodbye Eri - a one-shot manga that I'm reading right now -

I just finished. That might have been the best thing I've ever read.

He's watched Erased at the least. I wonder what other references are used that I don't have any knowledge of. Maybe that's a good thing. This is one of the most moving things I've ever read. No more TikToks - at least not the bad ones. Only operas.

catherine never broke again reminded me of home, of people I know still back there in Portland, of my brother ** 20:59 My 'competitive advantage'. isn't writing

Ugh.

My unique contribution to the world will never be the software I write. I want to believe that I can accomplish something - that my work is big and important and pivo

I don't like that word either. Why do I have to be unique? How much time have I spent on the internet lately? Why am I not outside now? Isn't everyone fed by the same feed? Why am I? Why aren't I?

This speech is heavily scripted. Too many words. There is no understanding. Money is good - but are you doing this for the bit? ** 21:29 Living here feels important and leaving feels like running away. I feel like I need to accomplish something - something truly big - before I take off. will I leave? I'm not sure.