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Where Do the Children Play? ⚓︎

But that doesn’t change the fact that kids need their independent peer cultures. If we can’t provide physical spaces for them to form, then we must accept that they will often form in digital spaces instead. So if we’re unhappy with the digital spaces on offer — if we think there are too many figurative leopards in those forests — then we should make something better.

An interesting and important read.

My daughter loves her music. Listening to it. Making it. Learning it. She enjoys her music classes and recently started self-learning Ukelele through YouTube. It didn’t take her long to get the chords right for one of her favourite songs. As she performed, I recorded it and up it went on her channel. A new video is out now.

She’s also super excited that she is a click away from reaching 100 subscribers. I calm her down. But the excitement of any milestone is challenging to push away.

I haven’t posted anything since I last wondered “why I even write anymore in public”. This question still crowds my mind. But I read what other folks write, which, in turn, makes me want to do that. So, I am not going to stop writing on my blog anytime soon.

What do I write about? Well, about nothing and everything. That has been my mantra.

I usually do not have a set template for my posts. I start writing, and the thoughts pour themselves out. The only thing I have to do is sit down at my desk and start hammering on my keyboard.

Recently, I read some excellent posts on blogging versus social media. The first is Robb Knight talking about how the web is fantastic. This feeling resonated with my current state of mind.

Blogs and RSS never died. Some of us just took a little break from it while we all shitposted on Twitter for likes, retweets, and validation. While we wrote long, unfindable threads instead of blog posts. I’m as guilty of this as anyone.

It’s been some time now since I posted to any social network. 20 days to be exact. It’s freeing to not worry about how my posts look on different timelines or how people react to them. I write on and for my blog. I have also accepted that I won’t get any reaction on even my most thoughtful posts.

I have yet to find a frictionless way to respond to a post I read. I want that.

The second post is Chris McLeod vouching for the resurgence of blogging.

[S]tumbling into such a trove of active blogs has enthused me about blogging as a medium again. It’s sparked a thought that through a combination of increased blogging activity, declining platforms, and increasing adoption of open standards to glue everything together, that maybe — just maybe — we can swing the web back towards the blog again.

I share Chris’s optimism – posting micro thoughts on social media led to the discovery of many good bloggers. I maintain my apprehensions about micro posts on the blog – I cannot write and post them. But I am okay with others doing it.

Anyway, I continue to read blogs through RSS. I continue to write on my blog. All’s well.

Sam Altman to return as OpenAI CEO →

The move would appear to bring resolution to a roller coaster drama that began Friday when OpenAI announced that its non-profit board had voted to remove Altman.

So much drama in just five days. I am sure many secret meetings were convened, and scenarios explored.

Blogging is a lifeline, a connection to people and a world that might not be possible offline because of the reticence to interact and the fear doing so generates. I can’t think of a better reason to do it.

Source: Colin Walker on Blogging →

Is it true? Is it necessary or at least useful? Is it compassionate or at least unharmful?

A sign on Ursula Le Guin’s desk. h/t: Seth Godin →

Numberphile’s bread and butter remains the intimate, idiosyncratic one-on-ones with a veritable who’s who of mathematicians and math communicators that have both endeared Haran to his presenters and humanized for viewers a subject often perceived as devoid of color or personality.

Source: A Duodecade of Numberphile →

Numberphile remains one of the few channels that I never miss an episode from.

Sensitivity is a gift but handling it requires skill. Change is what life is, yes, but it still disorients. Learning how to navigate change without terror (or with less terror) is necessary.

Source: Rumbling at the bones →

I wish I would someday be able to write with the same clarity as Annie. Another must-read post from her.

Success at an extreme level is usually the overlap of many competing factors, only some of which are in your control. If your personal definition of success or happiness depends on being in a rarefied elite, this analysis should chasten you to the reality of that goal.

Why I’m Not More Popular →

Straight drives with so little fuss it felt like the fulfilment of a pact. “Just be a good ball and go for four, okay?” Back-foot punches that combined the grace of a ballet dancer with the power of a heavyweight fighter. And those flicks. If they could talk, they’d be like, “Come on, man. Don’t make it this easy.” He was geometric perfection.

Source - Sachin Tendulkar at 50 - The stranger we kept calling by his first name →

Until digital video arrived in the late 1990s, 16-millimeter film was the mainstay of the amateur or independent filmmaker, requiring neither the investment nor the know-how of commercial cinema.

Source: Happy 100th Birthday, 16-Millimeter Film →

Fascinating. I had no idea about this history.

Lawmakers have begun to contemplate new rules around authorship and ownership in connection with creative machines, and the stakes are huge for both the businesses that depend on creative work and the investors who poured billions into new AI tools.

Source - Who Owns a Song Created by AI? →

This is an important debate that needs addressed before it becomes a legal mess.

Photography is a visual art, and as with most art forms, there are no rigid rules or formulas that guarantee a captivating image. However, there are certain key elements that often contribute to an image’s impact and appeal.

Source - 7 Essential Elements to a Good Photo →