2023-07-02

• Writing [[Newsletter July 2023]]

• Does [[trade unionism]] represent a radical challenge to [[capitalism]], or is it reformist?

• [[Listened]]: [[Everyday Utopia and Radical Imagination with Kristen Ghodsee]]

• Sunday, 07/02/23 ** 13:22 Lessons learned this week:

• Do not fuck with experimental data storage. Worrying about whether your data will be safe when you experiment with new technologies is not worth the anxiety. Experimenting with everything else is fine, but when working with 'raw data', use the safest and most reliable services you can think of.
• Work slowly and deliberately every day, not in short bursts. The anxiety isn't worth it.
• Think, carefully evaluate, and write in depth about decisions you make, technical or otherwise. Writing is thinking.
• Feeling comfortable experimenting with your computer and the software on it is really important. Giving users that safety allows them to explore, to play, to learn to use devices in unexpected ways. Computers should not expose these levels of unsafety to most people. The cloud-native operating system - a Chromebook, or similar - is the best way to preserve information safely, everywhere, for the future. The con is the subscription cost. ** 17:58 What have I let hold me back from being prolific in the past?
• Not taking care of my basic needs. Friends, company, diet, exercise, sleep, consistent schedule.
• No stable storage infrastructure. Unwilling to trust 'unethical' or paid services, instead doing a ton more work for no tangible benefit provided to the end user.
• A bias against modern tech and towards innovative, alternative strategies that are - in reality - more art project than modern tool.
• Unwillingness to rely on large communities and groups.
• Emotional strength to do annoying or difficult things every day.

Finishing this in a second. New thoughts incoming. ** 18:20 The 'first order' phenomenon of crypto - these tokens you could spend outside of traditional financial systems - weren't as attractive as the 'second order' design work that emerged from these systems. Crypto had a lot of surplus income nad needed lots of marketing to keep that cool factor coming. Many crypto organizations poured their money into some of the world's most innovative graphic design work. That surplus o income gave people with lots of time and creativity the money to spend their time expressing themselves however they wanted - obscurity and miscommunication in crypto was a benefit, not a detriment, as the more cool and obscure your technology was, the further you'd drive some interest in and obsession over the associated 'lore'.

I think a lot of people I met on the internet during that time - summer 2021 - are now secret crypto millionaires who can now spend their time doing whatever they want. I've seen a huge surplus of wealth and a lot more secrecy in those communities. Wasn't added to the right discord servers. Oh well.