I’ve been thinking a lot about how I use computers this week. As I have written before (at great length) I still use computers like I was a full-time technology journalist, which means the tech is the point. I’m playing around a lot, but not necessarily getting a lot done.
So this week, I put a bit of thinking time into both the why and the what. Why I do this is pretty simple: I like playing around with tech, and while I was a full-time journalist, it was literally my job to use it and get to know it better. But what I also had to do was write about it, communicating what I found to other people. I don’t have to do that any more, but I would like to do it again.
The what was thinking about what tools I need to do the productive and creative things that I enjoy doing (and that make me some money). And that list turned out to be simple: a browser, a word processor, a few other things. I’m going to write a longer post about this, but actually sitting down and writing some thoughts on paper about it made me feel a lot calmer.
Three things which you might want to read
- I am shocked, shocked I tell you, that corporations have been using the cover of inflation to pad their margins and add to their bottom line. And I was told it was all greedy workers wanting to, you know, be able to buy groceries.
- No, just because you have paid millions of pounds for a train doesn’t mean you own it. You’ve simply taken on the responsibility of paying inflated fees to the company that made it when it needs servicing. Didn’t you get the memo?
- I really enjoyed John Scalzi’s post about abandoning Twitter. There are some interesting points about engagement on Bluesky and Mastodon compared there, too, if that’s your kind of thing.
What I’ve been reading
One of my bad habits is book bouncing. I’m like a magpie: I start on one thing and bounce to a new, shiny thing. And as I have a massive backlog of books to read, it’s easy to bounce from one to another.
All of which is a long-winded way of saying that this week I have been reading about five books, with no actual substantial reading done. I promise to be good next week.
What I have been writing
Other than this, absolutely nothing. It has not been a productive week.
