All too often, we contemplate how we want to succeed.

What would you do if you knew you were destined to succeed?

Go do that.

So the wisdom goes.

But sometimes it pays to look at the other end of the spectrum. What if your venture is doomed to fail? For this thought exercise, assume there’s no way to salvage things. You’re going to fail, no matter what. The question is how you’re going to fail. What will that failure look like?

What do you need to do to ensure you can be proud of your failure? When do you need to speak up? When can you take control?

Even if you have control of only 1% of the situation, that 1% is everything. So own it. And do so in a way that lets you hold your head up high when the whole operation blows up around you.

This line of thinking is more useful than daydreaming about immense success, leading to great disappointment when the success doesn’t materialize. A pessimist might say my proposal dooms people to failure, because they’re expecting things to go badly. But I disagree. The point of my thought experiment is to accept the possibility of failure so that you can focus on the process and conduct yourself in a way that makes you proud.

Failure is far more common than we like to admit. The vast majority of new businesses fail within only a few short years. Those who succeed do so because they’ve stopped doing the things they were failing at. The beautiful thing about the failure-first mindset is that it ensures you’ll be pleasantly surprised if you’re wrong. Compare that to the feelings associated with being wrong when you lean into a success-first mindset.

As I recently heard paraphrased on an episode of The Tim Ferris Show featuring Morgan Housel¹:

Happiness equals reality minus expectations.

Some people claim failure is never an option. But I argue failure is often the default option. Perfectionism is a fool’s errand. Working to become comfortable with failure is a far better use of time.

So, now I ask you:

What would you do if you knew you were destined to fail?

Go do that.

Jake LaCaze is highly successful at failing.

In so many ways, the internet sucks.

Social media engagement algorithms have made it even harder to find quality content worthy of our attention¹. These algorithms don’t push stories you care about. They instead push stories other people care about in the hopes that you’ll fit into the same bucket as other consumers. They provide access to an abundance of content, but the content is often, quite frankly, crap. (Feel free to substitute a stronger word if you like.)

Unfortunately, the only answer I’ve found for these algorithms requires some work. We must take ownership of our own digital experience and curate the content we want to see. We can’t afford to rely on the machines to inform or entertain us.

Lately, I’ve started using my MobiScribe Wave² as my own digital newspaper. Though the Wave is firstly an e-ink writing tablet, I appreciate that I can read and annotate interesting articles directly on a device I often keep at my side.

The rest of this post will give some insight into the tools and setup that help me curate my own digital newspaper. This post is intended as an overview, not as a comprehensive step-by-step guide, but I will do my best to include helpful links for anyone who wants to replicate my system.

The tools

Below is a list of the tools I use to help me pay attention to the written digital content that matters to me:

• NewsBlur³ (RSS service)
• Syncthing⁴ (Free, open source syncing service)
• MobiScribe Wave (The actual e-ink device, powered by Android)
• Raspberry Pi (This device works as a syncing hub and is optional to this workflow.)

Now, let’s take a look at how each device fits in.

NewsBlur

NewsBlur, my RSS service of choice, is the most labor-intensive part of this process. Creating an account and signing up for the service are simple. But finding and adding feeds worth following takes time and effort.

Anyone familiar with an RSS reader will expect NewsBlur to routinely update articles for any added RSS feeds. But NewsBlur has another feature that doesn’t get enough attention: A dedicated email address for turning email newsletters into RSS articles⁵.

If you’re familiar with the wisdom of the statement Crap in, crap out, then you understand the importance of NewsBlur. If I put crap into NewsBlur, then I should expect to get crap out. Finding and curating content worth finding is the most difficult–but also most crucial–part of this process.

Syncthing

Syncthing is your personal free and open source alternative to Dropbox.

I use Syncthing to sync PDF copies of interesting articles from my NewsBlur feeds into my MobiScribe Wave. Early on, I used Dropbox for this purpose, but I ran into some issues.

For one, the free tier of Dropbox didn’t let me automatically save articles to my device, a crucial detail if I want to mark up and annotate the articles I read (which I sometimes do). This limitation meant I had to manually go into Dropbox and then save the articles to my device. This extra step led to managing two libraries: The files saved to my Wave, as well as those saved on Dropbox. No bueno.

Without Syncthing, managing my digital articles was a nightmare, until the day I realized the MobiScribe Wave is an Android device, meaning it should work with Syncthing’s Android app.

And so far, it has worked brilliantly.

MobiScribe Wave

At this point, there’s little to add about the MobiScribe Wave. For the most part, I use the device as usual with the caveat that I must make sure the device is connected to the internet and that Syncthing is working to sync my articles.

I set up Sycthing on the Wave as I would any other device, allowing me to manage only one library instead of two, as I had to do when I was using Dropbox. For simplicity, I’m syncing the Books folder on my Wave. Inside that folder I have subfolders for content types or statuses, including:

• Articles
• Crosswords
• Ebooks
• Reading
• Finished

Raspberry Pi

As I said earlier, the Raspberry Pi is optional in this workflow. I already had a Raspberry Pi and I’ve found it valuable considering how I use it in this process. But I don’t recommend you go out and buy a Raspberry Pi (or comparable device) if you don’t already have one.

So how am I using it?

In my current set up, my laptop syncs with the Raspberry Pi. And the Raspberry Pi syncs with the Wave. But the my laptop and the Wave do not sync to each other.

Below is a simple illustration to show how my devices sync with each other.

My laptop and Wave could sync directly with each other. But I rarely have both devices online at the same time, so there’s always a good chance they’ll be out of sync.

I was already using a Raspberry Pi as a home file server. So I just took the minor extra step of setting it up as an intermediary between my laptop and the Wave. Now, I can save interesting articles into my synced folder on my laptop, whichh updates on my Pi. When I later use my Wave and connect it to the internet, the Pi then updates the articles on my Wave. And if I edit or delete a file on my Wave, my Wave then updates my Pi, which later updates my laptop. It’s a thing of beauty.

Take back control of your online experience

It would be nice if I didn’t feel a need to go through so much work to make sure my time spent online isn’t a complete waste. But recent history has shown that we can’t rely on social media engagement algorithms to determine our experience.

Instead, we have to take charge. Yes, doing so takes some work. But setups like this can make it take just a little less.

Jake LaCaze was recently told in jest that he reads too much. But this article has him thinking that maybe there’s some truth to the joke.

Why should we create in the age of AI? How can we compete?

This post from LMNT puts a different perspective on things:

I take a little comfort in knowing that it will be impossible for “AI” tools—here on out—to differentiate between human-made and machine-generated content, thereby inevitably feeding on their own regurgitations. It’s already happening, of course.

Over the next few years, while these “AI” companies try to sort that out (and fail), and search engines try to index only the sites that are what any reasonable person would consider genuine (and fail), the best thing we can all do is just create what we want while ignoring their problems, because they’re not our problems.

We have limited time and energy. Why spend it lacing our art with poison for AI scrapers? Why spend it focusing on how to stand out on platforms that can’t differentiate human-made from AI-generated? Why spend it publishing our new creations alongside AI-generated content? Don’t spend time on these things. These are all just busywork tasks that slow us down from doing what we really want to do: create.

Depending on what you’re creating, rather than worrying about AI, you might be better off asking, So what?

So what if AI is trained on my creations? Sure, I don’t like the idea of it, but what’s the real point of creating? On one hand, the act of creation is for me. For an example of what I mean, look no further than the audio I’ve started adding to my recent blog posts. The point is not to start a ‘podcast’. The point is to make myself read my posts. When you read your posts, sometimes you realize your writing sounds strange. Also, I like to think that it’s a way to dip my toes into public speaking, a skill I want to improve on.

Sure, AI can copy my voice and my writing and steal some of my fire online. But that doesn’t affect me as a person offline.

Online is a part of my life. But it’s not my whole life.

And I agree with Louie Mantia (LMNT) that AI will soon start cannibalizing its own content, greatly hurting future quality. This is a concern I addressed on another version of my blog. It seems that generative AI is destined to best itself. So let’s stop worrying about it and instead focus on creating.

Jake LaCaze wonders if generative AI might actually put a premium on human experience and creation in the end.

Today’s target for artificial intelligence (AI) seems to be artificial general intelligence (AGI), a technology that is competent in many areas, like humans. AI is most often highly-specialized, focusing on one area with a narrow set of tasks. This sort of AI is best-suited for specialized audiences needing specialized tasks. But with AGI, the prophets of AI can achieve their dream: AI for everyone, everywhere.

Or so the prophecy claims.

We very well may achieve AGI, but I’m skeptical we’ll get there in the next decade (which, compared to the estimates from the prophets of AI, is an eternity). The simple truth is that we still know so little about how the human brain works. Regardless of how some may feel about humans, our brains are complex machines, calculating far more than given credit.

The developers of AGI seem hellbent on replicating and/or replacing humans. But can you replicate or replace what you don’t fully understand? Supplementing and improving upon human intelligence seems a far better goal. This is why I prefer the concept of augmented intelligence over AGI¹.

Anyone familiar with SMART goals knows that goals should be attainable—that’s the ‘A’ in ‘SMART’, after all. And I’m not convinced that replicating or replacing human thought and processing will be attainable in the near future.

If Gary Marcus is right—if the hype seems to be dying and the return on investment just isn’t there²—then it feels as if AGI will be attainable much, much later than the prophets of AI would have us believe.

Jake LaCaze still believes in the potential of humans.

Some people want to be left alone to do their own work and go home and call it a day. There’s nothing wrong with that—I support your right to curate your own experience. But by working in such fashion, there’s only so much you can do.

There are only so many hours in a day, you have only so much energy, there are only so many tasks you can give your attention to.

At some point, you as an individual hit a wall. You’ve largely gotten as good as you’re going to get. Any improvements will likely be incremental and lower in impact than previous improvements.

If you find yourself in this position, maybe it’s time to start looking beyond yourself. Maybe it’s time to see if you can help others within your team—however you define that term—improve in the areas that hold them back.

Maybe it’s time to mentor. To scale your impact and elevate those around you.

Maybe it’s time to lead.

Jake LaCaze sometimes likes to change things up with shorter essays.

Only a few days ago, Manton Reece dropped a bomb on the micro.blog community: Subscribers of micro.blog Premium would continue to enjoy the perks they’ve come to know and love for not just one blog—and not two or three or four blogs—but for five blogs¹.

This pricing change is a rare example of a top-tier service getting better and offering even more value to its customers.

Let’s dig a bit more into the value of micro.blog Premium, both in what it offers and what it doesn’t offer.

The value is what micro.blog offers

micro.blog Premium was a great deal before the change. But now we can argue it’s one of the best values on the whole of the internet.

micro.blog Premium features include but are not limited to:

• Blog hosting.
• Podcast feed.
• Email newsletters.
• Cross-posting to select social networks.
• A built-in network of other bloggers.

Now multiply that times five.

But not the price. The price stays the same at $10 a month². Pretty awesome.

The value in what micro.blog does NOT offer

micro.blog is a unique platform in that what it doesn’t offer may be just as valuable as what it does offer.

Below are some things intentionally missing from micro.blog:

• Social media engagement algorithms
• Likes
• Follower counts

Social media engagement algorithms have made it hard to keep up with content and sources we really care about. Likes and follower counts have skewed our perception of what’s worth sharing.

But you won’t find these features (or bugs?) on micro.blog. You can follow other users, but they won’t really know unless you tell them. The same goes for any of their posts you like—you’ll have to actually tell them you like their posts, in your own words. The act takes a little bit of work, but it really goes a long way.

micro.blog is an awesome slice of the internet

With micro.blog, your personal domain is your home on the internet. And with generous pricing, they’re giving users more reason to upgrade to Premium.

Jake LaCaze loves praising tech companies for doing things right. Unfortunately, the opportunities to do seem to be so few these days.

I could try to tell you what exactly Douglas Rushkoff’s Survival of the Richest: Escape Fantasies of the Tech Billionaires ¹ is about via a traditional book review, or I could hope that an inspired rant might give you a better idea. If you haven’t already figured it out, I’m choosing the latter route.

The tech billionaires have one simple goal: to shelter themselves from the world they’ve shaped with their outsized wealth, power, and influence. Undoing all they’ve done in the name of making true positive change via small incremental improvements that risk going unrecognised is beyond them. Simply having the option to escape this world via one avenue or another shows that the tech billionaires already live in a reality far different from the one most of us inhabit.

How many ways can one hope to escape?

Rushkoff starts by describing the struggles of those tech billionaires outfitting their doomsday bunkers for the coming apocalypse². A lot of thought goes into such preparation. Location, supplies, air filtration. The tech billionaires are also looking into how to motivate their security to protect them when the markets collapse and currency is worthless.

Others hope to one day leave the earth behind. They plan to colonize Mars and start over new, where they’ll stand to gain even more as the early adopters of a fresh society.

But what about those tech billionaires who can’t escape in these ways? What if they have no choice but to stay on this boring earth, and what if everything doesn’t go to absolute hell and they can’t justify running away to their bunkers in Hawaii or New Zealand?

That’s where digital escapes like the Metaverse come into play. Who needs Mars or a doomsday bunker when they can build a digital world to replace the physical. You can always buy digital real estate and rent it out to supplement any losses realised from your real estate in the unplugged world³. Some might call this strategy ‘diversification.’

One foot out the door

Can you be tied to the world around you if your mind is set on escaping? Are you invested in the slightest? If the answer is no, then why do we let these select few build a world we’ll be stuck with when they flee the first chance they get? If you already have one foot out the door because you’re convinced that to stay is hopeless, then at what point is reality a foreign concept? And if you’re so sure that a certain outcome is inevitable, when does everything begin to look like a prophecy? And when do you decide that resistance is futile? You might as well get what you can while you can. Just make sure you get enough to help you get away at a later date.

Perhaps we can’t blame the tech billionaires for looking forward to their own big exit, when their investors expect their own such exit, usually in the form of an IPO or flipping the company at some multiple of their original investment.

Many in tech have long adopted Mark Zuckerberg’s mantra to ‘Move fast and break things.’⁴ But tech’s secondary mantra appears inspired by Matthew Good⁵:

We’ll stick to the plan:

The fall of man

The tech billionaires aren’t worried though, because as man falls, they will rise, whether to Mars, the Metaverse, or to the safety of their underground bunkers.

No big deal though. I’m sure they’ll wave bye and give a heartfelt thanks for all we’ve done to enable them to get the hell out of Dodge as they leave us to our fates⁶.

Jake LaCaze really doesn’t like being so sour about tech. But he’s finding it hard not to be.

Yesterday I had an idea for a mock LinkedIn influencer. He’d be a tech bro dubbed the SaaShole, who would serve as a blueprint for how not to do tech marketing.

The character would be a mix of Dexter Guff, from the satirical podcast Dexter Guff is Smarter Than You (And You Can Be Too)¹, and Dom Mazzetti, from the BroScience YouTube channel².

Or, if someone wanted to take a more sincere approach, they could call the program Don’t Be a SaaShole and share examples of how not to be a SaaShole.

Unfortunately, a quick Google search killed my ambitions, as I discovered the SaaSholes podcast³.

What is a SaaShole anyway—and why shouldn’t I be one?

I would define a SaaShole as a tech bro (or sis) who talks only in tech jargon to make him-or-herself sound smart rather than focus on solving a customer’s problems.

The SaaShole wants to sell his solution to make a quick buck, not to make anyone else’s life easier. Whatever your industry, you’re in business to serve your customers or clients. If you’re not doing that, then why the hell should you expect to stay in business? Why should anyone continue to give you their money if they’re not really getting anything back in return?

The SaaShole is a mindset. Despite its specific name, the SaaShole mindset doesn’t apply only to those in SaaS. It applies to tech all the way up and down the industry.

Often, tech companies are selling tech solutions to non-tech people—people who don’t identify as working in the tech industry. So tech bros (and sisses) are often better off assuming their customers know little about tech beyond how to check their email on their smartphone, because these customers aren’t concerned about the tech—they’re concerned about solving an issue and completing a task that they don’t view through the lens of technology. If tech can help them, great—they’re all for the help.

But for them, tech is a means to an end, not the end itself. (The good news is that if you’re wrong in assuming that your customers know next to nothing about tech, you can always deepen the technical explanations to meet them where they are. Starting with the default assumption your customers don’t know much about tech and then ramping up seems a better strategy than bombarding them with more they can handle and then trying to bring it down to their level.)

I’ve previously written about how I think tech suffers from a lack of philosophy beyond ‘Move fast and break things’⁴. Consider this post an addendum.

And lastly, if you work in tech, please don't be a SaaShole. Actually help people.

Jake LaCaze often has great ideas that other people have already had.

This post is not a straight-up ‘MobiScribe Wave vs. Kindle Scribe’ kind of post because I can’t compare the devices themselves. As I said in my MobiScribe perspective post ¹, I’ve only demoed the Kindle Scribe at my local Best Buy. But, as someone who’s used numerous Kindle e-ink readers over the years, I can speak to the advantages of the MobiScribe Wave over the Kindle ecosystem.

And with that said, let’s get to it.

The limitations of the Kindle ecosystem

With the Kindle Scribe—like any other Kindle e-ink device—you are not buying a device that opens the door to other platforms; you are instead buying into a limited ecosystem.

Out of the box (and hacking solutions aside), you can’t download other apps for reading content outside of purchases made directly from Kindle.

Apple often gets flak for the walled garden aspects of its own ecosystem, especially on iPhone and iPad devices. But to Apple’s credit, at least they do let you download apps outside their ecosystem, though to be fair, those same apps may not be the easiest to use, as is the case with apps that can sync to Apple’s mobile devices only via iCloud. (Obsidian comes to mind². To sync Obsidian with mobile devices, you have only two options: iCloud and Obsidian Sync. At a cost of $8 per month, Obsidian Sync isn’t a great alternative for everyone.) The point is that Apple’s ecosystem has its issues, but it’s nothing compared to Kindle’s.

In terms of apps and functionality, if you go with the Kindle Scribe, you better be completely satisfied with the Kindle ecosystem because the Kindle e-ink devices are basically gateways only to Amazon content. By default—again assuming you haven’t hacked the device—all your content comes from the Kindle Store. You do have the option to transfer ebooks from your computer, which would most likely require stripping the DRM, unless you got the books already DRM-free. But most normies aren’t going to go that route.

Note: Fortunately, you can still save money on ebooks via the Kindle if your library offers access to the Libby app³.

The flexibility of the MobiScribe ecosystem—or lack thereof

Android tablets, including the MobiScribe Wave, give you plenty options for downloading other apps for reading various written content.

With the Wave, as is the case with other Android tablets, the Kindle Store is simply another option. The device comes with the option to easily download the Kindle app via the MobiStore. But you can also enable Google Play and download other apps, which may save you some money.

As a personal example, I recently figured out how to read current issues of The Economist via the Houston Public Library ⁴ and the PressReader⁵ app available from Google Play, saving me over $200 a year. With the Kindle, I can read ebooks and publications only if I can purchase or subscribe to them via the Kindle store. Because The Economist recently cut off access via the Kindle store, I have no option to read the magazine on the Kindle, no matter how much I’m willing to pay.

The Wave also lets me download RSS apps and read-it latter apps so that I can keep up with my digital sources, if I so choose. Kindle devices provide no such option, a limitation which keeps them from being the ultimate reading devices.

Is the Kindle ecosystem all you need?

Perhaps the Kindle Scribe is fine if you plan to use it only as it is often promoted: A device first for reading Kindle books and second for some basic writing capabilities. Even though the MobiScribe Wave is, for me, first and foremost an e-ink writing tablet, I still appreciate the reading options it gives me. Having the option to download and read from an app other than Kindle makes the MobiScribe Wave a more capable reading device.

When I’m ready to upgrade my e-ink writing tablet, I’ll likely look again to MobiScribe (maybe the soon-to-be-released MobiScribe Wave Color Kaleido 3⁶), or one of the many e-ink tablets offered by Boox⁷.

Jake LaCaze is totally an e-ink stan.

Companies want customers to be passionate about their products and services. And they want employees to give everything to their daily labor. Companies want everyone else around them to be inspired, yet so many companies follow the industrial model in a race to the bottom, doing as little as possible to actually inspire. But inspiration doesn’t just happen. It’s hard to come by. It often takes work.

Seth Godin has long been the voice against corporate conformity. And Godin continues his crusade in The Song of Significance, in which he reminds us that business doesn’t need to be only transactional. Good business goes beyond the simple exchange of cash for goods and services. Good business is an exchange you wouldn’t mind doing again—one you might even look forward to.

Good business inspires, much like art. For many of us, our day jobs—where we spend a great deal of our waking hours—is the best chance we have to be artists.

These points have long been part of Godin’s message. In many ways, the contents of The Song of Significance are nothing new. The book’s central message will be familiar to any fans of Godin’s previous work:

The race to the bottom is hard to win. And winning it rarely leads to positive outcomes.

Sometimes we need to be reminded of our values—that we’re not alone—especially when the rest of the business world seems to go in the other direction.

Throughout the book, Godin reminds us that humans are the entire focus of business:

Humans are not a resource. We are not a tool. Humans are the point.

Godin acknowledges that industrialism isn’t going away. But industrialism isn’t the only option. Workers and customers alike want something different. Something more. Something of significance. Businesses win big when they stop holding workers and customers hostage and instead create something both parties want to be part of:

In a field where skills are valuable and switching jobs is possible, the employees you need the most have options. That’s why creating a culture of fear and compliance is a dead end. Great work creates more value than compliant work.

. . .

A significant organization can please its customers and make a profit as well. But it begins by earning enrollment and then doing the work to make change happen.

Like Godin’s other books (and his blog posts¹), The Song of Significance is not a how-to guide. It is instead a call to action. A call to action for us to pick ourselves and do work that matters.

Jake LaCaze is sad to know there are still marketers out there who don't know about Seth Godin.

The best part about the internet is sharing. And sharing is caring.

If you enjoy this blog, maybe you’ll also enjoy the content that informs and influences it. You can obviously find such pieces in the sources I link to in the footnotes of my posts. But those links show only the most obvious influences. Sometimes something we read or watch or listen to plants a seed that germinates for a long time, meaning we forget where it all started.

The sharing of ideas and perspectives has always been my favourite part of the internet. I’ve always seen the Internet as my gateway to thinkers and thoughts I’d otherwise not have access to. And as long as I’ve been on the internet, I’ve enjoyed sharing the interesting things I find as well.

Unfortunately, social media is no longer an ideal place for sharing, as the platforms make it harder to share content that diverts eyeballs from their own domains, because they want to keep users glued to their services as long as possible.

Enter the linklog

This weekend I migrated my RSS feeds from Miniflux¹ to Newsblur².

(Note: At $15 a year, Miniflux is a great option if you want a barebones RSS feed manager. My migration back to Newsblur was more a product of my own restlessness than anything Miniflux did or did not do.)

Aside from managing RSS feeds as you’d expect, a premium subscription to Newsblur ($36 a year) gives you a ‘Blurblog’ (their version of a linklog³), a simple site where you can share posts from your RSS feeds.

I’ve thought about adding a microblog to my site, but adding new content via Hugo is annoying for that use case. I’d have to create a .md file for each entry and push to GitHub for every single microblog post.

Even though I’m trying to run lean these days by hosting my site on GitHub Pages, I feel the inclusion of the Blurblog/linklog helps justify the extra cost of Newsblur vs. Miniflux.

Enter my Blurblog linklog

If you’re interested in my Blurblog linklog, check out the options below:

• Blurblog linklog site
• Blurblog linklog RSS feed

Jake LaCaze thinks one of the most interesting parts of the internet is seeing just how far your small efforts can reach.

When all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.

The tech industry is sthe ultimate hammer in that it thinks tech is the best solution for every problem¹.

And many businesses buy into the tech industry’s thinking, as they scramble for that Holy Grail, that one SaaS solution to rule them all and bring order to the chaos. So they run out and sign a contract and spend months and years importing their data and working with their vendors to make templates and custom reports that fall short of what the nice salesman promised them. The luster wears off and the company concludes they adopted the wrong system, so they start the process over again.

Fast forward a couple years and they’re back at the beginning of the loop, resuming the search for that one perfect solution.

What if the problem lies not in the tech but in what the tech is being tasked with—AKA the processes?

How much of what the tech is doing actually needs to be done? How many of those tasks could be removed?

Tech can work only if your processes and workflows are in order. By getting a hold of your processes and workflows, maybe you’ll reduce the need for tech in the first place.

And by removing steps—by practicing addition by subtraction—maybe you strike a better balance.

In terms of productivity and efficiency, we’re often too easily tempted to do more. American hustle culture gravitates toward the logic that more activity is the ideal solution. But sometimes the secret to doing more starts with doing less, or at least being mindful about what we’re doing and should be doing.

And we can often practice such mindfulness no matter what’s in our tech stack.

I don’t know what’s ahead for tech in 2024. But that doesn’t mean I won’t be thinking about it.

A career in the volatile oil and gas industry has cured me of any thoughts on making bold predictions. So instead I’ll look at what may happen (instead of what I think will happen) and what I’d like to happen for tech in 2024.

Will the generative AI bubble burst?

It’s too hard to say if the generative AI bubble will burst in 2024. But I certainly hope it will. My reasons have been well-documented on this site. For one, I fear the developers of generative AI are too busy trying to sell their non-human-focused solutions rather than solving problems that could help real people¹.

If a career in oil and gas has taught me one thing, it’s that ‘boom’ is often another word for ‘bubble.’ And bubbles burst eventually. 2023 brought a great boom for generative AI. Might 2024 bring the bust?

Fingers crossed.

Let’s say the bubble does burst. What follows?

What will the shakeout look like? What developments will stick around?

The internet didn’t go away when the dotcom bubble burst in the early 2000s. The internet itself wasn’t a total waste; there was just a lot of fat that needed to be trimmed so that we could focus on the useful parts.

The same logic applies to AI.

I’m sure many of us can get behind the thought of AI having an impact beyond the burst of the bubble. But as Chuck Klosterman pointed out in But What If We’re Wrong?², we run into problems when we try to get more specific with such prediction.

Is 2024 the year to regain control of your digital home?

With the rise of social media, personal homepages became less important.

But now with the chaos of Twitter/X, many people are re-thinking their stances on owning their digital home spaces. Many of those same people don’t want to trade one dumpster fire for another by leaning on Meta-owned platforms. So they’re looking for niche, sometimes indie, solutions.

Many are opting to invest in homepages again.

I spent the last quarter of 2023 setting up my own digital home at jakelacaze.com. 2024 is the year I’ll settle in and hopefully more consistently blog (and maybe include other types of content).

I don’t know if I’ll ever abandon social media. LinkedIn helps with finding new jobs. And experimenting with platforms like Bluesky adds variety to the online experience. But I know my own webpage should remain my digital focus and that I should use other tools only insofar as they don’t distract me from my own platform.

I hope more people will join along so that we can make the web weird–and therefore, fun–again.

Could Logseq be a useful personal knowledge management system?

I’ve given Obsidian many tries over the years, but for some reason, it never quite stuck for me.

In December I tried Logseq and am so far loving it³.

Logseq and Obsidian largely do the same thing: They both act as a ‘second brain’ where you can dump information so that you can use your limited brain power on the hard stuff.

While Obsidian is designed around individual pages, Logseq instead focuses on bullet points. Perhaps because I once tried the bullet journal method⁴, thinking and organising information in terms of bullet points makes sense to me.

I hope Logseq can prove to be a tool worth the time.

Here’s to hoping you find a way to make tech work for you in 2024

The tech industry has a habit of making us bend to the tech they build.

I urge you to instead look at how you can bend tech to work around you. Maybe that requires rethinking how you use tech. Maybe it requires simplifying usage. Or maybe you’ve already got everything perfectly figured out.

Either way, I see little harm in our being more thoughtful about the digital tools we use on a daily basis.

Jake LaCaze wishes you a happy near year in tech and beyond.

If you move fast and break things, do you ever come back to clean up your mess? Or do you just look for the next thing to smash?

The October 2023 cover of Wired magazine irked me the moment I saw it.

On one hand, the cover irked me because it seemed to be saying that we, the commoners, are at the mercy of the lords of AI (let’s just scratch out ‘overlords’ for the sake of accuracy). And it bothered me, on the other hand, because there seems to be truth in the sentiment.

Why shouldn’t the lords of AI mold our future, since the tech industry has had its way so far in the 21st century?

But don’t we have enough evidence of why it’s a bad idea to let tech call all the shots?

We’ve already seen what happens when AI has free rein. All we have to do is look at the algorithmic wasteland that is now social media. Tech moved fast and broke a lot as it formed social media. But tech has yet to go back and fix the mess it created along the way.

And why should they? What’s their incentive? Companies exist to make money. Tech companies are no different. Nor should they be. But when you consider the reach of the industry’s influence (empowered by a hands-off approach from regulators), is it wrong to ask tech to be a better steward?

Leaning on AI in the form of algorithms has seen the internet flooded with example after example of misinformation and disinformation, making respectable journalism even harder to find in the 21st century. And as a recent lawsuit from The New York Times brings to light, the tech industry is at risk of doubling down on its prior negligence¹. But, as is the case with social media, it’s not worth their time to go back and pick up the pieces. So, they never will.

Why should we trust these same companies to break more stuff with generative AI?

Tech needs a better guiding principle than ‘Move fast and break things’, one that recognizes the responsibility that comes with disruption.

Remember when your elders told you to leave things better than you found them? Why shouldn’t that wisdom apply to tech as well? Or when your mother said told you it’s not what you say, but how you say it?

The mantra ‘Move fast and break things’ has horrible implications. Why not focus on fixing things, a far more constructive act? Breaking for breaking’s sake doesn’t serve anyone, especially if we’re never coming back to build something better.

Tech needs better philosophy

So many of tech’s problems seem to come down to matters of philosophy, in that the tech industry doesn’t properly value people beyond their potential to become customers who buy tech’s ‘solutions’ that may or may not actually solve a problem².

It’s easy for tech to adopt the philosophy of moving fast and breaking things when the results will benefit them. The tech industry is like a toddler who runs around smashing vases and busting windows, with a parent trailing close behind to clean up and apologize for the mess. Who wouldn’t love to operate in such a fashion?

AI in particular could benefit from adopting the simple philosophy below:

Helping humans > replacing humans

When we talk about creating or improving company cultures, many of us will utter the phrase ‘It starts at the top,’ meaning it starts with the people in charge. But I’d argue that truly great companies go one step further and start with a company’s ideals, which have the potential to stick around longer than any human employee can. And everyone who joins that company should be expected to adopt those ideals, because the ideals themselves, not who’s in charge, are the focus.

Tech needs better philosophy. Stoicism is great, but it’s not enough.

I recently sold a couple laptops (Microsoft Surface Pro 4 and Lenovo ThinkPad X270), so I was looking for another laptop to take to the coffee shop or on those rare occasions I go out of town. I didn’t want to break the bank, and while I was looking into how cheap/old of a MacBook I could make do with, I impulsively bought a 2012 MacBook Air 5,2.

So now I’ll definitely get some hipster cred while I’m sipping my mocha at the local cafe. But how well will the laptop serve me?

Price

I’ve wanted an Apple laptop for a while, but I couldn’t justify the cost. Then I decided to take a chance with this old MacBook. Worst case scenario, I’d have a fun device for running Linux.

So I ended up with this MacBook Air from eBay for ~$106, after shipping and tax.

My purchase was a bit hasty, and I’m sure I could have found a better deal if I’d taken my time. But oh well, here we are, so let’s focus on what we’ve got and not what could have been.

I considered a Chromebook but wasn’t sure if I really wanted to move into that ecosystem, especially because I’m already partially in the Apple ecosystem. Chromebooks regularly come with only 4GB RAM and low-powered CPUs, and chances are they’ll still cost you at least $200.

I also considered getting an iPad, but the cheapest new iPad was ~$250 this holiday season. If I’d gone that route, I most likely would have bought a keyboard case to go with it, likely pushing me past $300 total.

I could have come up with the money for something I truly needed. But this was more of a toy purchase. I had some money burning a hole in my pocket after I sold my Nintendo 2DS, so I was happy to pull the trigger if I could basically break even. But I didn’t want to spend much more than what I’d made by letting go of a device I rarely used.

So let’s see what I got.

Loose specs

• MacBook Air 5,2 (2012 model)
• 4GB RAM
• 128 GB SSD
• 1.8GHz dual-core Intel Core i5 (Turbo Boost up to 2.8GHz)
• USB 3.0 (x2)
• MagSafe charger
• SD card reader
• Headphone jack

It ain’t got the shiniest features, but it’s got most (if not all) I need.

Many newer computers save space by abandoning USB 3.0 ports and using only USB-C ports. But I was surprised at just how sleek this pre-USB-C laptop still feels as we’re leaning into 2024.

Condition

You get what you pay for. So surely this thing must be falling apart, right? Not quite.

Cosmetics

I have a hard time believing this MacBook Air is over 10 years old. I have to look hard to find the scuffs and scratches on the outer shell.

I can see a dent with the lid closed.

But not bad for a laptop over a decade old that’s had a few miles put on it.

Otherwise, I can’t complain about the cosmetics of this laptop.

Battery

I should have asked the seller about the condition of the battery. (And I wish the seller had disclosed that it needed replacing.) But I found a replacement battery for ~$30 on eBay. Replacing the battery was a breeze and probably took about 15 minutes. So all in all, not too shabby.

I seem to be getting around three hours of battery life between charges. That sounds weak when compared to newer laptops that routinely get well over 10 hours of battery life. But it’s way better than what I was getting with the old battery (I might have been lucky to have gotten an hour).

But I’m rarely in a situation in which I absolutely must go more than three hours without charging. And if I’m in such a situation, keeping my computer running is probably not high on my list of priorities.

Keyboard

When people talk about old MacBooks, they often want to know whether the keyboard features butterfly switches or scissor switches. But when it comes to this keyboard, I instead find myself thinking about how I overlooked the fact that this keyboard doesn’t feature the standard American layout.

I bought some keyboard stickers for ~$6 on Amazon to help me out. And I’m adjusting to the small, oddly-shaped Enter key.

It’s not perfect, but it’s nothing I can’t adapt to.

What about that outdated MacOS?

This MacBook Air is officially supported only up to MacOS 10.15.7 (Catalina), which received its last update back in July 2022.

For a while, I experimented with a few flavours of Linux. Solus OS was beautiful and smooth. But I got tired of dealing with the usual Linux issues. Certain apps aren’t available. I thought I could overcome the lack of iCloud support with the help of Syncthing, but every file change seemed to bring a wave of sync conflicts. I don’t want to put a ton of work into making Linux work for me on my personal desktop. I instead want to focus on writing and creating.

So I settled on MacOS. Thanks to OpenCore Legacy Patcher, I was able to update to MacOS 12.7.2 (Monterey)¹. I could have tried upgrading to Sonoma, but I decided to hold back to the oldest officially updated MacOS because this laptop has only 4GB RAM.

I’m quite impressed with the ease of installing an unsupported OS with OpenCore Legacy. So far, I have no issues to report. And it’s breathing new life into a perfectly capable device that Apple deems no longer worth updating.

How usable will this MacBook Air be in 2024 and beyond?

This laptop has some limitations, perhaps most notably the 4GB RAM.

4GB RAM may be fine for a Chromebook, but for most other computers, you really want at least 8GB. But if I’m honest about my needs, I could likely get by on 4GB RAM for a while yet.

The duo-core CPU is also a bit of a concern.

Unfortunately, the RAM is soldered, so I can’t replace it. And replacing a CPU on a laptop is often equally hopeless. So I’m stuck with these limitations as long as I keep the laptop.

The good news is that I’d wager I spend 80% of my computer time:

• Reading RSS feeds.
• Checking email.
• Watching YouTube videos.
• Writing.
• Basic photo editing (resizing and cropping).
• Updating my website.

So it’s not as if I need a beast of a machine for my daily use. Sure, it’d be nice to have more power. But I think I’ll get by just fine. If I do need a more capable computer, I’m lucky to have a newer Mac mini available.

I expect this laptop to serve me well as a secondary mobile machine for at least a couple extra years, at which point maybe I’ll replace it with a machine from 2015. Maybe 2016 if I really feel like splurging.

Jake LaCaze really likes the idea of thrifting as he gets older.

There’s no such thing as the average person, or so the wisdom goes.

The logic says that if you were to create a profile of the average man or woman through a variety of factors—height, weight, income, weight, tolerance for Taylor Swift, etc.—you wouldn’t be able to find the real-live version of that person. (So, the next time your friend says they just wanna be average, let them know that they’re chasing one of the least attainable goals of all time.)

If the average human ideal doesn’t exist in flesh, might it exist digitally? This idea has stuck with me since I heard Dennis Yi Tenen make the following point about generative AI—more specifically, large language models (LLMs)—on episode 265 of Douglas Ruskhoff’s Team Human podcast¹:

In a way, you’re having a conversation with an average . . . Imagine having a conversation with a thousand—or a hundred thousand—people, and I’m going to kind of average out the answer.

AI is math. A lot of math done really fast. But it’s math. While LLMs appear to be capable of thinking, they’re in fact just guessing with math. When answering a prompt, LLMs try to predict the best answer based on the most probable outcomes based on its training data.

So it appears that the developers of generative AI and LLMs have made average more accessible and more affordable, more quickly. And companies investing heavily into incorporating this technology into their everyday business may very well be investing a lot of time and money, and taking a lot of risk, for average.

Average is not smart. Average doesn’t stand out. So, average is bad business. Might that same money be better spent on something that makes the business special and more competitive?

With the help of LLMs, we’re one step closer to codifying average. In a matter of seconds after prompting, we can see what the average answer looks like for anything we’re curious about. If you need help just getting by, then average may be fine. But innovation and insight don’t emerge from average. Any Seth Godin² fan knows that average is death for a business. Average means you can be easily swapped for another business.

Maybe average is fine for certain tasks that people are using LLMs for. But businesses should be sure that using generative AI helps them add real value elsewhere. Or, when all these businesses are using the same generative AI from the same small handful of vendors, they’ll most likely sound like every business in their niche.

With the help of generative AI, it’s becoming easier to bring average to the masses. And if that’s all the AI community is doing, then how long until the bubble bursts and the industry falls back down to a healthier average in terms of valuation?

Jake LaCaze is embarrassed to admit he's a middle-aged man who finds himself bouncing to Olivia Rodrigo tunes. 'vampire' is a banger, as the kids these days say. But it's also quite human.

Integrating LLMs into your business may not be a quick fix.

Large language models (LLMs) seem to be expensive, energy-hogging toys at this point. Some companies—most notably Microsoft—think integrating LLMs like ChatGPT into everyday business is a great idea. But I’m not so sure.

Below are some concerns I have for businesses going all in on LLMs.

Hallucinations

It’s well known that LLMs make stuff up (AKA they hallucinate).

What’s the root of these hallucinations? Will an LLM hallucinate with your business' proprietary data? Does the amount of data processed by the LLM affect its likelihood to hallucinate? If so, what is that threshold? How much time do you expect employees to spend validating the LLMs claims? Is that cheaper than having a human do the work in the first place? Who, outside of AI developers, wants to babysit an LLM all day?

LLMs are terrible at math

Most business reports are math heavy. People use Micorosft Excel almost exclusively for calculations. But LLMs struggle with basic math. (I shared a simple example on LinkedIn recently.(¹)

How can anyone trust an LLM to create crucial reports that may heavily rely on math? How can we know that the LLM understands these numbers?

How can you train an LLM to your company’s style?

LLMs are kind of like supercharged search engines. You put in a prompt (kind of like a search term) and you get a well-written answer. But what you get isn’t perfect, even if it’s 100% accurate.

LLMs tend to be verbiose and give way more information than needed (which also makes their claims harder to validate).

Every industry has its jargon, and individual companies may even have unique jargon.

How do these non-AI companies train LLMs for their needs and wants? How expensive is this training? How much time will it take?

Jake LaCaze doesn't hate the idea of using AI where it works and is appropriate. But a career in oil and gas with a brief stint in marketing has made him wary of any hype.

The internet isn’t fun anymore. That’s the claim made in a recent New Yorker article¹. A claim with which I agree.

So why isn’t the internet fun anymore? Let’s answer that by first looking at why the internet was fun in the first place.

In the early days, people were on the internet because they wanted to be. These early adopters were curious and adventurous, at least in a digital sense, so they experimented to see what the internet was, what it could be, and how they could help shape it. No one yet knew what would work. For better and for worse, there were no best practices. So people took chances and made strange sites that appealed to certain niches, thereby creating digital communities. And if you stuck around, you’d accepted that everyone you knew wouldn’t be on the World Wide Web. More than that, you embraced this fact. The uncertainty that accompanied not knowing what you’d find was a feature, not a bug.

Compare those early days to the current state of the internet. People aren’t on the internet because they want to be, but because they feel they need to be. For many of us, an internet presence is self promotional. We put the time in because we hope to get something tangible in return–something that shows our time ‘invested’ was worth it. (For the record, this applies at times to your author. Otherwise, I wouldn’t still have a LinkedIn profile.)

On today’s internet, most people don’t want to spend time in unfamiliar places with unfamiliar faces. Most of us don’t want to start over with new social networks and new communities, in part because pursuing something new means taking time away from something you’ve built elsewhere. A couple decades ago, trying something new on the internet was a great example of having nothing to lose and everything to gain. Now, for many of us, the opposite is true.

Also, digital communities are harder to come by. Twitter/X, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube–these aren’t communities. They’re instead mega aggregators. People don’t use these services because of a shared interest. They’re on these services simply because they are. Because they’re online. And now, thanks to the abundance of broadband Wi-Fi and smart phones, simply being online isn’t the gatekeeper it once was.

Is it any wonder no one seems happy when the internet feels like a ubiquitous obligation? We’re no longer online to have fun. Instead, we’re like Marshawn Lynch–‘I’m just here so I won’t get fined’².

But Lynch, an NFL running back, was contractually obligated to attend interviews. So he made light of the obligation wherever he could. Most of us don’t have to be online. But we feel as if we must, so we don’t contribute to the community.

And then there are the issues of the look and feel of the internet.

The internet is now highly centralized, dominated by four of five major players. Any new platform that gains attention risks being acquired by one of the majors and maybe abandoned or shut down. And most sites sites not owned by the big players are plastered in ads and popups and autoplay videos, making the content you came for inaccessible, particularly on mobile.

The modern internet has been optimized–not for users, but for corporations. And as the great poet Cyndi Lauper warned us four decades ago, money changes everything.³

Anything that gains a major following online and sticks around will most likely be monetized at some point, as it deserves to be. Maintaining these sites and services isn’t free. So, is this just the fate of the internet for the most part? Was the era of fun a brief window in the late ’90s and early 2000s? Is it gone forever?

Jake LaCaze wants the internet to be fun again.

Nietzsche shocked the world when he declared God is dead. (Kids in the Hall, not so much¹)

Now, digital philosophers hope to do the same when they declare the death of Twitter.

On one hand, Twitter will live on through X, whatever the hell that becomes. On other other hand, the essence of Twitter was gone long before Elon Musk bought the platform.

So what’s next? Most people are trying to answer this question by finding a comparable replacement. How can we fill that bird-shaped void in our souls? Mastodon is too confusing for normies. Bluesky isn’t open to the public and is still available only via an invite code. People seem to be over Threads, as usage has recently dropped over 80%.².

Why do we need a one-to-one trade? Why do we need to replace one platform with another? What if we instead replace Twitter with something else completely?

Cal Newport recently quoted the author Neil Gaiman as admitting his own blogging, an activity he once enjoyed, had suffered due to microblogging via Twitter³. Gaiman doesn’t think any current platform will replace Twitter. If he’s right, then that means something unlike Twitter must replace it. What will that something be?

So many of us keep waiting for something to recreate the early vibes of Twitter. But what if Twitter was little more than a moment on the internet? What if that moment is simply gone, lightning that won’t strike twice no matter the platform?

The essence of Twitter was killed by the pressures of profit. Can any platform serve on the same scale while resisting those same pressures? Someone has to pay for these services, one way or the other. Servers and development ain’t free.

Maybe Twitter should serve as a warning sign of what’s most likely ahead for most platforms like it. And maybe we shouldn’t seek to replace Twitter but to find better, more niche alternatives.

Maybe Small is the New Big isn’t just the title of a marketing book by Seth Godin⁴. Maybe it’s also the future of the web.

Jake LaCaze knows it's time to let the Twitter dream die. Yet he's still on Bluesky.

My son and I were walking the dogs recently when somehow the topic of AI came up.

When you’re preparing to become a parent, so many fears enter your thoughts. How am I going to keep from screwing this little person up, and help him or her become a fully-functioning adult? How do I prepare this child for all the evils and threats of the world? How am I going to have THE TALK when the time comes?

Parents don’t typically wonder how they’re going to teach their kids about AI. Yet I found myself needing an answer for this concern as my son and I were trying to figure out if our little pooch Rio was just peeing, or if I was going to be on poop cleanup duty. Life comes at you in strange ways.

My first instinct told me to warn my son of the risks of blindly trusting generative AI, particularly large language models. So, I told him about the attorney who got caught referencing bogus court cases thanks to hallucinations from ChatGPT¹.

I also told him about my own experiences with ChatGPT’s hallucinations. I once asked ChatGPT some questions about a then current employer. ChatGPT claimed the company had two offices in Europe, neither of which existed. This misinformation isn’t the worst part. The more concerning fact is that ChatGPT went on to say that one office focused on marketing while the other focused on research and development. ChatGPT made up an elaborate story for something it knew nothing about.

Perhaps inspired by iA’s approach to generative AI², I knew I’d be doing my son a disservice if I simply told him not to use AI. Our children don’t grow up in a bubble. Unfortunately, the outside world determines the norms they must navigate through. So, to some degree, we must teach our children to assimilate. Whether I like it or not, AI will be a big part of my son’s future, so he must learn how to navigate the AI waters.

For parents, there are many fears for our children growing up in the age of AI. But there are also opportunities. Time is on children’s side, as they can prepare for living in a world with AI and be ready to hit the ground running come time to enter the workforce.

We parents must instead find our footing in the quicksand. The least we can do is make sure our children don’t have to do the same.

Jake LaCaze thinks that being a parent may be the scariest thing one can do.

Like it or not, generative AI is here to stay. But writers don’t have to lose their voices to technology.

iA writer has long been the writing app for writers. The company gets writers, as they’re constantly thinking of ways to remove distractions and make writing (and thinking) as simple as possible.

As you’re likely well aware, generative AI has been all the rage since OpenAI released ChatGPT just over a year ago. Too many apps are looking at ways to integrate with tools like ChatGPT, ignoring the fact they’re making their apps indistinguishable from others while letting their future success hinge on the decisions of another company.

As the company detailed recently on its blog¹, iA put a lot of thought into how to integrate with generative AI. They didn’t want to just pipe in ChatGPT and make their customers’ words obsolete, while also undoing all they’ve worked for and accomplished over the last 15 years. But the company also accepted that putting its head in the sand and refusing to acknowledge generative AI wasn’t an option. Many writers will choose to use generative AI in the future. And some will feel the pressure to use generative AI to keep up with those churning out content at the speed of a ChatGPT prompt.

iA chose to stand out from the crowd by making it easier for writers to distinguish their words from the words borrowed from generative AI tools such as ChatGPT.

Basically, iA writer has made it easy to compare what you’ve pasted (which will be greyed out) vs. what you’ve written (which will still be shown in the normal font color).

See the video below for a quick explanation of the major feature of iA’s latest release, writer 7.

I’m sure the implementation of this solution was simple. No complex algorithms. It’s nothing academics will write papers about.

But iA was able to find this solution only by doing the hard work of keeping their customers and their customers’ needs front of mind, while also remaining true to the brand they’ve worked so hard to build.

This simple feature is a masterclass in great tech marketing. iA clearly knows its audience–people who identify as writers–and the company has taken a novel approach to serving the true needs of their customers, not what iA wants customers to need.

Is iA’s approach to generative AI the right one? I hope and think so. But only time will tell. If nothing else, they deserve credit for the thought and effort they’ve put into dealing with the challenges presented by generative AI.

Jake LaCaze is proud to call iA writer his writing app of choice.

The MobiScribe Wave isn’t the best e-ink device out there. But it might be all you need.

Over the last few weeks, I’ve fallen in love with the MobiScribe Wave. Because the device is an interesting mix of value and compromises, you should do your research before you buy.

This post is less technical than you’ll find on most other reviews. I hope to instead give practical perspective to inform your buying decision. The MobiScribe Wave is not a premium device in the same class as the Remarkable 2, Kindle Scribe, or Ratta Supernote. But depending on your usage, the Wave may be all you need.

While using the Wave as my main writing and reading device for the last month or so, I’ve become well-acquainted with its limitations. But I still love the device despite its flaws.

Why I bought the MobiScribe Wave

I’d had my eye on an e-ink writing tablet for a while now. But at times I couldn’t help feeling I wanted one only because I wanted a new toy, and that buying such a device would be a waste of money.

Comparable e-ink writing tablets from MobiScribe’s competitors are significantly more expensive than the Wave–some over twice as much, depending on what specs and accessories you get.

Later in this post you’ll find a brief comparisons of the Wave and its competitors; hopefully then you’ll understand why I was reluctant to splurge on a device I wasn’t sure was truly for me. I was tempted to stick with old fashioned pen and paper. But the old ways weren’t working out great on my morning and evening train commutes.

With physical notebooks, I struggle with keeping different types of writing separate in their own notebooks. But it’s often more convenient to carry only one notebook. With the MobiScribe Wave, I can now have the best of both scenarios, at a great price.

With an e-ink notebook, I can switch between reading and writing in a snap, within the same device. And reading my writing partner’s stories on my Wave is way easier than reading them on my tiny phone screen (iPhone SE). Also, on my phone, it’s too easy to find something else to do with so many apps at my fingertips. So, for a while, I was printing my writing partner’s stories out. Making notes on an 8.5" x 11" piece of paper is inconvenient at the best of times on the train, but even more so on those days where it’s standing room only.

Having everything I need on one device cuts down on the number of items I carry in my laptop bag. Each book, notebook, pen, pencil, eraser, etc., adds weight and bulk. Maybe I’d feel differently if I got to call my own shots and could work when and where I wanted. But I instead sold my soul to The Man, so the MobiScribe Wave is a great device for me.

I resisted the urge to buy an e-ink writing tablet for a while. But when Cal Newport kept singing the praises of his Remarkable 2 on the Deep Questions Podcast¹, I could no longer resist. And a certain YouTube video from Voja of My Deep Guide² convinced me the Wave was worth taking a chance on.

What you get

Below is what you receive when you buy the MobiScribe Wave:

• The MobiScribe Wave e-ink notebook.
• MobiScribe’s standard Stylus.
• Cover for the device.
• USB-C cable for charging and file transfer (wall plug not included).

The primary device

The primary device feels solid.

The back has indentions on the side which make it easy to hold.

I wasn’t sure I’d like having a recessed screen, especially because I’d gotten used to a flush screen on my Kindle Oasis (before my wife decided she wanted to start reading again and basically stole my Oasis, thereby justifying my purchase of the Wave). But I’m happy to report the recessed screen hasn’t been an issue. In fact, I’ve forgotten it’s even an aspect of the device.

64GB of storage is very generous at this price point. More expensive devices come with much less storage.

The front light is one of those features that most e-reader fans likely take for granted. But, when you consider that no versions of the Remarkable 2 include a front light, you realize what a luxury it is.

Stylus

The stylus is fine.

From what I’ve read online, the stylus doesn’t give as much feedback as the Remarkable 2’s stylus, which may be an issue for some users. The good news is that the Wave is compatiable with most styluses that use Wacom EMR technology, so you can switch out for a better stylus if you like.

Having an eraser on the end of the stylus is nice. But I can’t help wanting to rub when I erase–like you’d expect to do with a pencil eraser–and I’m pretty sure that’s how I scratched my screen. The scratches aren’t bad and I don’t find them distracting. But it’s disappointing that I’m already seeing cosmetic wear and tear after only a month of ownership.

I replaced the nib after three weeks of usage. I haven’t had the device long enough to know if this will be the average lifespan for my nibs. Also, your mileage may vary.

After owning the Wave for a month, I bought the Staedtler Noris Jumbo stylus³, which is much better at a great price (~$35). The stock stylus had stopped working as expected. For some reason, it would only erase, no matter what tool was selected. My research prior to buying the Wave did not lead me to believe it’s common for the stock stylus to crap out so quickly. So I can’t say you should factor the cost of another stylus into the budget/risk factor. I appear to have just run into a bit of bad luck.

Case

The case is simple, light, and functional.

The front cover folds around with no hitches, making the device is easy to hold with one hand. The pen loop ensures you never lose your stylus. Cutouts along the top and bottom edges give access to the charging port and buttons for power and the front light.

But how well does it protect the Wave? I haven’t dropped it yet, so I can’t really say. But the device isn’t as fragile as an iPad, which uses a glasses screen, so I imagine the case works just fine.

The MobiScribe Wave vs. similar devices

The complete package of the MobiScribe Wave can be tough to gauge. For $230, you get a complete bundle including the MobiScribe Wave, case, stylus, and USB-C cable.

Now, let’s glance at how the MobiScribe Wave compares to its peers in terms of price and value:

• $450 for the cheapest bundle (device, stylus, cover) from Remarkable
• $275 for a refurbished Remarkable (device only); $299 for new (device only)
• Nearly $400 for a comparable Kindle Scribe bundle (with only 16GB of storage)
• ~$550 for a similar bundle for the Supernote Ratta A5X (a comparable device to the Remarkable 2 and Kindle Scribe)
• ~$420 for a similar bundle for the Supernote Ratta A6X (comparable in size to the MobiScribe Wave

Please note: The prices listed here are normal MSRP and do not account for potential sales. Also, you may save money if you don’t buy a full bundle.

The Wave comes with 64GB of storage. The Kindle Scribe bundles start at 16GB. The Remarkable 2 has only 8GB of storage, with no expansion options.

The Wave includes a front light, which is not available on any of the Remarkable 2 devices at any price point.

None of the Wave’s competitors claim to offer waterproof devices. (Is the Wave really waterproof? No idea, as I don’t plan on testing that feature any time soon.)

The Wave lets you download other apps via the Google Play Store. This feature helps to make the Wave a more nearly complete reading device by making it easier to check in on your RSS feeds and saved articles. As far as I know, the Remarkable 2 doesn’t let you download any extra apps. And Kindle wants to limit you to their store and ecosystem. With the Wave, you can read ebooks via apps including Kindle, Kobo, Libby, and Hoopla to name a few. If you care about other apps and doing things beyond reading and writing, then a full-fledged e-ink tablet from Onyx’s Boox line may be more up your alley. But keep in mind the Boox devices are much more expensive than the MobiScribe Wave (and most of the other devices mentioned in this post).

Initial setup

After connecting to WiFi, I downloaded the tolino app for ebooks and the Adobe PDF app. You can download these apps from the MobiStore app–no account required.

Then I transferred my ebooks via USB-C and I was ready to go. (NOTE: If you’re using a Mac, you’ll have to download the Android File Transfer app. Sometimes I have to connect the device multiple times before the app works. I don’t know if this issue is unique to the Wave, or if it’s typical with most Android devices and Macs.

UPDATE: Since the original post, I have since transferred books via USB-C on Fedora Onyx, which was a much smoother experience, so Linux users may have better luck.)

I’ve also enabled the Google Play Store on the device and have downloaded apps including Firefox and wallabag.

How I’ve been using the MobiScribe Wave

As a writing device

Since I got the Wave, I’ve used it for every version of writing I can think of:

• Journal entries.
• Short stories.
• Blog posts.
• Doodles.
• Meeting notes.

I’ve yet to find a reason to go back to physical notebooks and pens.

E-reader

When it comes to reading, the Wave feels like a Kindle on steroids.

As you would expect, I can read ebooks on it. Most of the ebooks I read tend to be EPUB files. But I do read PDFs on the device as well. Being able to directly markup both EPUB and PDF files with my stylus makes it feel as if I’m reading an old fashioned printed work, but with the benefits of technology.

As I’ve already mentioned, downloading a couple extra apps on the Wave lets me keep up with my favorite blogs. With Firefox, I can access miniflux (my RSS service provider) and with wallabag, I can catch up on my read-it-later articles.

Who the MobiScribe Wave is for

The Wave might be a great option for you if you’re:

• Cost conscious, whether generally or because you’re not sure if you’ll like this type of device and so don’t want to spend too much.
• Someone who’s never used a premium alternative such as the Remarkable 2 or Kindle Scribe. (I haven’t used any Remarkable or Scribe tablets aside from demoing them in the store, but in general, it’s hard to take a step down if you’ve had something perceived as being in a higher product class.)
• Someone who commutes or travels and you’re tired of carrying multiple books, notebooks, pens, etc.

Who the MobiScribe Wave is NOT for

You may want to pass on the Wave if you’re:

• Someone who expects a premium experience or has already gotten used to a premium device.
• Someone who doesn’t understand the value of e-ink and may be better served by an iPad or similar full-feature tablet.

Pros

Below are some features that make the MobiScribe Wave a great value purchase:

• Cost - For $230, you get a writing tablet, stylus, cover, 64 GB storage, and more.
• Great writing experience.
• Access to apps like Kindle and Libby that extend your reading options.
• Unlimited paper (and the flexibility of deleting, copying, inserting, and rearranging pages however you want or need).

I’ve already covered why I think the Wave is a great value at $230.

I usually prefer more feedback when writing. The Wave doesn’t give as much feedback as I get from certain fountain pens, but the writing experience is much better than writing on an iPad without a paperlike screen protector, which feels far too slick.

Being able to download extra apps extends the usefulness of the device, but I don’t think you have to worry about it becoming as distracting as a smart phone or backlit full-color tablet.

And knowing you can rearrange your writing later gives lets you focus on getting your words down now.

Cons

• Battery life.
• Laggy at times.
• Pen doesn’t attach magentically, so the cover is pretty much required. (On the plus side, the cover is light and thin.)
• Glitchy (sometimes opens previous notebook or PDF rather than the file I most recently chose).

The battery is by far the device’s greatest disappointment. With heavy usage, the battery lasts over a day. But I’m not sure it can make two days. We’ve come to expect e-ink devices to last weeks between charges, so the shorter battery life feels like a major step back. If you plan on taking the MobiScribe Wave on a multiple-day trip in the wilderness, you might want to take a power bank with you–maybe one that can be recharged by the sun.

The Wave does lag sometimes. This usually results in me pushing a certain button twice and messing up what I was trying to do. In a perfect world, a device would never lag. But such a device will cost you much more than $230.

Sometimes I try to load a notebook or PDF, but a previously opened file pops up rather than the one I selected. Yes, it’s annoying when it happens. But it can be fixed by closing out the app and then opening the desired file again. I’ve never seen this bug repeat twice in a row. Hopefully the developers can fix it in the future.

A note (concern) about customer service

I mentioned earlier that the stock stylus stopped working as expected about a month after purchase.

Before I bought the replacement stylus, I emailed MobiScribe support to see if they had any troubleshooting tips for me. As of the time of this post, I have not received a response after a day and a half. Now that I know the stock stylus is the root of the problem, I’ve followed up to see how I can make a warranty claim. I’ll try to update this post with a more complete picture of the customer service experience when/if this issue is resolved.

UPDATE: MobiScribe customer service got in touch with me. After a little back-and-forth via email and sharing a video of the problem, MobiScribe sent me a replacement stylus free of charge. Thank you to MobiScribe for the handling of this issue.

Jake LaCaze is constantly in search for the simple ways in which technology can improve our lives.

As we rely more on AI, aren’t we at risk of sounding just like everyone else?

The prophets of AI continue to promise their favored tech will make our lives easier. Thanks to AI, more of the things we want are only a click or a prompt away. You can now inject AI wherever you want, as AI can help you with writing, creating music, and editing images, as just a few examples.

I don’t fault anyone for using these offerings, especially because I have used them in my own way and will continue to do so at different points in my life. But I still have concerns. At what point does technology rob us of originality–and when is that scenario okay, and when is it not?

Should we be concerned about the loss of originality in terms of cold hard facts? We likely don’t care about originality when it comes to complex math–think balance sheets and revenue forecasting. In those cases, the work to get those numbers isn’t the point–deciding what to do with information is the point.

But what about fields we’ve traditionally considered more artistic? Fields like writing, music, and graphic design. In such fields, there’s not so much separation between the process and the end result. So, the process is more largely the point. What you choose to include or exclude may be subjective. These decisions are part of your style, one of the more crucial aspects of art. Number crunching doesn’t leave much room for style. But the arts are all about style.

As we remove ourselves from the creative process and forfeit agency to AI and algorithms, at what point are we enabling the erosion of style?

The prophets of AI will say that AI tools can unlock creativity previously unrealized. Maybe that’s true for a small segment of people. Call me cynical, but I imagine few will put in the time to learn how to improve results from prompts. Most will put in minimum effort and take whatever AI gives them, leading to an ever-more homogeneous internet. The future is more likely to be less original. The tools meant to empower us will instead make us all the same.

People probably don’t expect numbers to have personality and quirks. But we expect these personal touches from artistic projects.

Art goes beyond having the right answer. Art is also about the habits of the artist–AKA style. Style is the artist’s most-cherished asset. Style is what makes the audience relate to the art and the artist.

As we further integrate AI into art, are we at risk of losing those stamps of authenticity we unknowingly put in our work? Those little hints that remind our audiences that we’re the authors of our own works? And if style is the most valuable thing we have, are we smart to risk losing it?

Jake LaCaze has been been using images generated by DALL-E 2 as cover images on this blog as a joke, but he thinks this one is actually damn good.

Building your own website isn’t quite as easy as 1, 2, 3. But it ain’t that much harder.

This post is now updated, as I've moved my site back to micro.blog. But I'm leaving the post up in case it can help someone else in the future.

This weekend I got the itch to customize my personal website again.

(Just FYI, if creating your own website sounds like a horrible idea, then check out mataroa.blog¹. You get a simple, distration-free blog with email newsletters for $9 a year. But if you instead find yourself itching for more control, then keep on reading.)

I’d made plenty short-lived personal websites with GitHub Pages and Jekyll in the past. This time I wanted to try something different, so I decided to give Hugo a shot. The only previous experience I’d had with Hugo came from my micro.blog² days. Before this weekend, I’d never built a Hugo site from scratch.

I mostly followed a tutorial I found on someone else’s blog, so this post won’t be a step-by-step repeat of that wonderful resource. In the hope of saving you time and sparing you some headache, I’ll instead focus on some issues left unmentioned in most tutorials for making your own site with Hugo and GitHub Pages.

The theme

I chose the PaperMod theme because I fell in love with a fork of the Paper theme³ on micro.blog. The theme is simple and elegant.

A few things I love about the PaperMod theme:

• Social icons
• Dark/light theme toggle
• Post navigation at the bottom of each post
• Search page included
• Tags pages automatically generated

The tutorial

I mostly relied on a tutorial by Chris J. Hart⁴.

As I’ve already said, I won’t be repeating his great tutorial. But I had some problems not addressed in his tutorial, so I’ll cover those issues below in the addendums.

Addendums

Let’s take a look at some extra information I would include to any tutorial about building your own site with Hugo and GitHub Pages.

Put a CNAME file in the static folder

Updates caused my site to forget the custom domain (jakelacaze.com), so after an update, I had to re-enter my domain in the Settings panel of the repository for my site.

The fix ended up being to create a CNAME file (with my custom domain as its contents) inside the static folder.

Putting a CNAME file in the root directory didn’t fix the issue. I can’t say why putting the CNAME in the static folder works; I can only report the facts as far as I understand them.

Fork the theme for your submodule

The tutorial–and most others like it–recommends using your desired theme as a submodule.

I instead ended up forking the theme so that I could easily edit it.

I ran into a problem when I tried to change the theme’s RSS feed to show full content rather than just a summary. I needed to change only one word, but to do so appeared to require a change from the original theme repository and developer. By forking the theme, you can make all the changes your heart desires, directly in your main branch⁵.

Maybe there’s a workaround if you don’t fork the theme, but I couldn’t find one. So, unless you already know the solution, I’d recommend forking the theme in case you want to change something later.

Confusion about the the config file name

The tutorial references config.toml as your config file. The convention now appears to be to use hugo.toml instead⁶.

You’ll have a basic hugo.toml file when you create your site. I changed mine to hugo.yaml because I was already familiar with the YAML syntax. Just something to keep in mind . . .

See my repo for more

Feel free to check out the repository for my personal site⁷ if you want to dig deeper into my customizations, or if you’re interested in something I forgot to mention here.

Jake LaCaze loves the way Gary Marcus rewrites his bio at the end of each blog post, and he's considering stealing that idea for himself.

A quick video in which I question the approach of the prophets of AI, and what it means for us

Back in June, I recorded this quick video I posted on LinkedIn, in which I asked if AI developers are putting the cart before the horse.

So now I want to share that same video with you.

Thanks for watching.

Or, if you prefer to read–no worries, just check out the transcript below.

Transcript

(edited for clarity)

Is AI the ultimate example of a solution looking for a problem? Or, to use another analogy: Is AI the ultimate hammer to which everything appears a nail?

When you solve most problems, you usually start with the problem itself. You identify what’s wrong and you have an idea of how you want it to be better. You then work your way through the problem and escalate as needed.

In so many situations with AI, it seems like we’re going backwards, as if we’re saying, Here’s a powerful tool–what are some major problems it can solve?

It seems we’re having these great advancements in AI, but we’re not adopting or using the technology as quickly as the developers would like. It kinda feels like they’re forcing it, like they’re trying to squeeze it in wherever they can. In so many situations, there identifying real problems–and technology can likely help–but I’m not sure AI is needed in all these situations.

So I’m worried that we’re going too extreme.

I’m not afraid that AI is capable of replacing humans. I’m afraid that it’s incapable of replacing humans but that certain people will try to make it replace us anyway.