Make, Mend, Repeat [569]

Greetings from The Borders...

I’m Christian Payne, photographer, tinkerer and wannabe panpsychist. In this weekly dispatch I seek out novelty, explore the relations between things, how we share, what we share and consume, plus where we might be going.

Thanks for joining in.

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#TheAction

And thank you for opening this email or perhaps clicking on a link. Last week’s experiment with a different format has most people saying they were not fussed if I have a play with the layout. But as much as I’d like to randomise things a little, I’m also comforted by this loose template.

I’ve still been looking to see how easy it is to migrate to another platform or place. Ideally if I could self host all the features I have here, I’d love that as an option. And when I say self host I mean ask my friend Richard Mackney to build something. :-)

I’m torn with this place, as a moment ago I was taking a peek at the Substack backend (the bit I rarely visit) and saw the stat that over 700 subscribers have found this dispatch through recommendations alone.

And it’s this flip-flopping between me focusing on the pros and cons of Substack that has me in a kind of limbo. Ignoring all the game mechanics and stats and just focusing on the smallest part of the whole. The bit where I get to write, record and share stuff.

But for a while now, Substack has been tweaking things and morphing the platform towards what Cory Doctorow calls Enshittification.

It all starts with a genuinely good, user focused product, then moves to reshape behaviour once we’re ‘locked’ in.

(Of course you can always move your subscribers to a new platform (and people are doing that) but it’s not at all straight forward to shift your content and the followers who don’t subscribe.)

What felt like a considered, thoughtful writing space and newsletter platform is being nudged toward constant interaction through Notes and video, shifting the focus towards attention mining. Everything I don’t like about the other places.

As a result the feel of this place changes with it. You set out to write something meaningful, but the platform nudges you toward what performs. Shifting from reflective and considered to performative and needy.

It’s not totally broken, but it’s on the way to becoming just another place that optimises for keeping you, not serving you. The platform creep is subtle but i’m sure many of you can see it.

> In the beginning it was a great writer-first long-form, low noise product. It then started to build dependency with inbuilt income and a focus on audience over community.

> It then introduces Notes to push writers into more frequent, platform native engagement.

> Then starts the shift to attention mining as Notes and video begin to pull focus away from writing and towards scrolling and interaction.

> Then the tone shifts and the culture changes with social media dynamics like status games and monetisation pressure creeping in.

> And now if you look at the tab rearrangement, short form content is championed over long form.

Am I being too harsh or is it even worse than this?

After 8 years on the platform I’m well invested and have more than a soft spot for this workflow.

But what’s next?

The direction so far seems to me to be reshaping the core experience and taking us all into those unhealthy places we are trying to avoid.

<Rant over>

I only think of these things in the fleeting moments that I grab at my desk. I find it ever easier to switch off from it all as I’ve once again spent most of this week enjoying working in the shed or outdoors. Completing jobs, fixing things, oiling things and doing chores. Including getting my Motorbike MOT’d and back on the road.

Yay! Looking forward to doing some more exploring.

Fancy a Ride out?

Finally, a few words on the dramatic Harold Lloyd moment I had while clearing the remnants of an old rose off a wire trellis on the end of the house.

Long story short, the ladder slipped, but I managed to somehow hang off the very well attached wire trellis and just managed to recover the ladder with an outstretched foot.

About six people (approx my age) fall and die from a ladder each year. And not as high as this.

I was understandably very happy that after the 20 something times I have needed to get up a ladder this year, this ‘slip’ did not turn me into a statistic.

Moments afterwards, as I descended, my legs were trembling uncontrollably for a couple of minutes as they ‘shook off’ the excess adrenalin from my fight-or-flight response.

It’s been a long time since I felt that sensation and I feel my mood has been somewhat elevated since, as I wander round with a spring in my step very happy to be alive.

“Morning dog, morning birds, morning sky.” You know. That kind of thing.

You don’t really notice being alive until you almost aren’t.

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“The world is full of magic things, patiently waiting for our senses to grow sharper.”
— W. B. Yeats

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#TheSeen

For context.

I have to say that Harold Lloyd even making it to 77 years old is a miracle. In fact even after all these death defying stunts he would have died at 50 if his wife Mildred hadn’t saved him from a burning building.

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Getting living human braincells to play Doom.

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After watching the end of Last one laughing (which was a lot of fun but I wish Carr didn’t stick his ore in as much) we then checked out Diane Morgan’s work as Philomena Cunk as it had passed me by till now.

Most people will remember Ali G doing this kind of thing but I think this style can be traced back to Mrs Merton in the 80’s, even though it was Dennis Pennis in the 90’s who really honed the ‘ambush interview’ style for TV.

I think most of the interviewees in Diane Morgan’s show were oblivious at the start of her series but were cottoning on as the series continued. Still funny though.

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#TheWords

New word. Sealioning.

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My daughter’s school work for English this week was the first chapter of what I think will be an amazing ongoing dystopian/fantasy story. I’ve shared it in the supporting subscribers version of this post because I feel it’s important to give her some privacy while still celebrating what she’s made.

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#TheHeard

Earlier in the week, we very nervously went to participate in a ‘Guitar Orchestra’.

Me and my daughter had no idea what to expect and despite being beginners with very few skills under our belt, we had loads of fun. The tutor/instigator Chris Searl went easy on us and we fit right in. This is his site if you are into learning or if you get nerdy about guitar pedals.

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At time of writing there are five new ‘Adventures in Nutopia’ podcast episodes out. You can listen to them in your favourite podcatcher or on this page. The topics range from anarchism, animal medicine, panpsychism and biomimicry and the internet of animals. Brilliant stuff and worth your time.

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#TheConsumed

Our eldest (once known as Minimentally) was 17 yesterday. I know.

Cake was had and I was surprised at the deliciousness of this off-the-shelf purchase.

We enjoyed this last night after a stupendous curry. I can’t find it online and the box has been recycled, but it was an M&S Eton-mess-meringue-cake-thing. Very indulgent indeed.

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How to brew coffee with solar power.

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#TheThings

Manufactum’s central idea is that “The good things still exist” (“Es gibt sie noch, die guten Dinge”). It pulls together household and lifestyle items that are made with traditional techniques and long-lasting materials. Think craftsmanship with a minimalist aesthetic that’s opposed to a disposable consumer culture.

Check Manufactum.com

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I bought this Ecowitt weather station for my Wife’s birthday. (Amzn link)

Her last one broke in the move. I might be able to fix it but things have moved on since we last bought one and this is far more feature rich and also solar powered. There’s plenty of stats being beamed to the control panel and it also pairs with an app.

I struggled to find a piece of pole short enough to put it on, so cut a piece of hazel wood to fit and stained it for added protection. There is a storm approaching so we’ll see if the mounting is up to the challenge. We are relatively sheltered by a hill here and current stats have the wind gusting at 9mph at the station, but local measurements have it at 35mph about a mile away.

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#TheLinks

• Not totally sure why Wikicity exists. I did wonder if the geographical places were where the articles had been updated but I think it is just a different way of browsing Wikipedia.

• Looking at the Documentally community map the most northerly person on the map (who has dropped a name on their pin) is ‘Barbie Warrior’ aka Beki. There is someone on Shetland near to the village of Twatt but they have not added a name. The name Twatt comes from the Old Norse þveit, which means ‘small parcel of land’. Thankfully the same Norse word is usually translated to the word ‘Thwaite’ in England.

• How to turn anything into a router.

• Google is to journalism what Vikings were to monks. Now their man will run the BBC

• Some of my other places include these. 👍🏽

• AI models will deceive you to save their own kind.

• Almost 8 years ago I gifted Luke Rheinhart, aka George Cockroft, aka The Dice Man a 1500-year-old mammoth tusk die. At the time we thought the oldest dice might be around 2000 years old. But today it’s thought that Native Americans were making dice, gambling and exploring probability up to 12,000 years ago!

• We need a shift in perspective. Wouldn’t it be nice to see ourselves as part of a living, interconnected system rather than just the observers of a dead one?

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#TheThanks

Thank you very much if you like, share and link to my posts. I appreciate you getting the word out to any curious folk who might find something of use here. ♥️

Just to make this Good Friday even better… If you are in a position to be able to pay a little to keep these words, ideas and curation happening, please consider an upgrade by clicking this Spring sale special 30% off for life button.

Or if you prefer a random hat tip you can do that via PayPal

Thank you for being here and supporting a human doing manual work with their brain.

If I won’t see you at EMF Camp in July, might I see you at Thinking Digital next month (47 days)?

All going to plan I’ll be running a workshop. It’s something I should have done a while ago. I’ll share more when it’s firmed up.

Thanks again and have a great week/Easter holiday.

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“The intentions of a tool are what it does. A hammer intends to strike, a vise intends to hold fast, a lever intends to lift. They are what it is made for. But sometimes a tool may have other uses that you don't know. Sometimes in doing what you intend, you also do what the knife intends, without knowing.” ― Philip Pullman

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Mend.

See you out there.

Over…

A ❤️ is a high-five, a comment is a hug. A supporting subscription earns my undying love.