“The best-laid schemes o’ mice an’ men” is what Robert Burns wrote in a poem entitled “To a Mouse, On Turning Her up in Her Nest with the Plough”, November 1785.
The quote has been paraphrased and used, attributed and mis-attributed thousands and thousands of times, but its meaning is essentially still the same:
No matter how well we’ve planned or pre-planned, there is always something that will disrupt that plan
And so it was for me over the last couple of weeks.
In a how-the-sausage-is-made moment, how I write this and other writings is not a simple process of sitting in front of a computer opening Ulysses (my preferred app for writing), bashing away on the keyboard for fifteen minutes or so. Not at all.
It starts with me spending horrendous hours scanning news, reading articles, papers, and books. Filling my mind with millions of seemingly inconsequential details, anecdotes, thoughts, feelings, the reading usually prescribes some kind of idea of a topic to write about. Then comes the hard work. I generally try to read around the subject, getting as much as I can in a limited amount of time, parallel to all the other reading that is going on. Because the world doesn’t stand still and there is always new stuff to read. Once I’ve compiled some material, I try to work it into some kind of coherent article that is more of an opinion piece than an academic discussion. This sometimes works well and sometimes, er, less so. An article idea can have been born weeks ago, but stayed in an embryonic state until I get the urge to write something. Which doesn’t come as often as that. The article is then written, edited, and eventually posted, with the actual writing process taking a couple of hours or so. Think 3 to 4 hours.
That was essentially what I’d hoped to have done last week, but my body had other plans. I seem to have picked up a god awful cold (flu?) and have been suffering for about a week now. And yes, if you’re reading this, or more accurately, if I’m writing this, it is because I am feeling much better, and I am the current vainqueur in this war against the virus that is trying to kill me. I say current, as it has not completely surrendered yet, but just like the Battle of Little Bighorn, Custer (the virus) is surrounded and will ultimately lose, and die.
In fact, while I think of it —and this is just brain dumping as I write— I watched the two finals at Indian Wells this Sunday and thoroughly enjoyed them both. But a stand-out moment for me was the winner’s address to the public in the Women’s final. Mirra Andreeva decided to thank herself, her belief, her determination, her doubts, her fears, etc. “I’d like to thank me” is what she said. I think she’s right. It is not born of arrogance. It is born of thanking all of those that go to make a Master’s Champion, which is a big team, and herself!
So, I’ll forgive myself, and acknowledge that I was ill, and I couldn’t function at all for three days, and the rest of time was a fog and time passing by. And that not writing to a schedule is fine, and I can take a break when needed.
This week is probably going to be scrappy as I haven’t had the opportunity to do what I usually do (see above).
If you’ve been paying attention, you may have noticed that I’m not the biggest fan of online advertising, or more precisely, the current form of online advertising.
I am not the only one, and there are a number of people and organisations around the world working to reign in the abuses of the adtech world, that has become so toxic that people have died as direct consequences of their reckless business practices.
I’ve discussed what the problem is. TLDR; wonky moral compasses and incentives that are aligned to put people in danger to make a quick profit.
I’ve even discussed how. TLDR; mass surveillance technologies that track absolutely everything you do online. And I mean EVERYTHING. Hoarding of information that is both consensual and non-consensual to produce questionably reliant “profiles” and even more questionably predict behaviours.
I’ve discussed how we can go about doing something to prevent, setback, or otherwise disrupt the flow of this information. TLDR; install ad-blockers and use them liberally. File GDPR requests liberally, using the tools to largely automate that. And lobby for non-invasive and non-surveillance-tech-based advertising models that have been shown to perform about as well as the “profiled” ads do, but with little to no personal information leaked in exchange.
If you think I’m being over-dramatic, have a read of the third article in the reading list and then reach out to me. I’d be happy to discuss.
Reading
If you’re not familiar with the Streisand Effect, you’re going to love this. If you are, you can skip over this bit.
Sometime between 2002 and 2003, a California Coastal Records project was measuring the coastal erosion in a well healed area of the Californian coastline. Malibu was being photographed in detail to see how much the sea had encroached on the land and its data used to help identify properties that might need remedial action or evacuation to save the occupants from major loss or even loss of life.
Barbra Streisand, a resident in the area, objected to her house being identified in one of the publicly available photographs. So she set about correcting that, and I, unlike many, feel that she did this from a good place and not from the privileged arsehole perspective. In trying to rectify the breach of privacy, she instructed a lawyer to help her do something about this. Said lawyer proceeded to sue the photographer, a government contractor, for 50 million USD.
What that eventually did is rock the ears of many a newspaper and journalist, thus blowing the story into proportions beyond anyone’s control, ultimately bringing the private information to the masses in a spectacular own goal. More ordinary people knew the property than before the lawsuit, and thus the term was coined by a well-known online writer, Mike Masnic. You can read more here.
The top book on the reading list, is going through the same situation.
It’s like the tech dudes read a lot of stuff but don’t actually understand the message or learn from previous events, or in fact, history as a whole. And a case in point is the first link on the list today.
Meta stops ex-director from promoting critical memoir
I don’t know how many times we need to keep hearing Meta disgraceful record of playing fast and loose with human mental health before we conclude that it is a fundamentally immoral organisation akin to the tobacco companies of yesterday. If you work there, you should probably reconsider (if you can) your part in the machine and perhaps find a way out.
Their actions on this book will propel it to a bestseller in no time. Stupid, and immoral, are Meta.
Meta mocked for raising “Bob Dylan defense” of torrenting in AI copyright fight
In a follow-up to the article I wrote where it was shown that Meta wilfully torrented nearly 82 TB of data, including previously known pirated material, they have now pulled out a stupid defence ploy. OpenAI is just as bad, lobbying for free access to everything to train its mediocre models. That might backfire on them in the not too distant future.
Data Broker Brags About Having Highly Detailed Personal Information on Nearly All Internet Users
I’ve been on a roll criticising adtech lately and for good reason. I am not convinced that many have even an inkling of the amount and depth of data that is being collected and weaponised against us. We’ve built the Stasi’s wet dream, and we have absolutely no idea where it is going to lead us. TLDR; somewhere you would rather not be.
It’s time for the European Union to rethink personal social networking
I’m torn, really torn about what is happening on the Internet lately. On the one hand I see the need for a certain amount of sovereignty, on the other hand, I absolutely detest and react negatively to nationalistic tendencies. Nationalism —not to be confused with pride of one’s nation— is a destructive force, because it relies on deliberate strategies to denigrate others to appear better. It doesn’t work with me and I seem to have a very sensitive sensor and spot it a mile off. This discussion gives me a lot to think about.
I’ve a busy week, catching up on time lost and to make the days go even faster, I’m recording two podcasts this weeK. The first is with my friend Jean-François Nantel on the Innovation, Agilité & Excellence podcast, and the second with another friend, Michele Marius on the ICT Pulse Podcast.
I’ll let you know when they’re out.
Have a fantastic week.
