-
Mindfulness
Improve your perspective by seeing yourself in the third person
Wednesday May 15, 2024Each of us is the hero of our own story. And anyone who slights us is a villain. But what if it’s not so simple?
After all, the person who slights us is the hero in their own story. And they’re just trying to get what they want or need. When we see ourselves only as the hero of our own story, it’s easy to take slights personally.
When someone slights me, they’re slighting Jake LaCaze. Don’t they know who I am? Sometimes, this view is fair. Such as if you’re slighted by a spouse or a family member, someone who has deep rapport with you and knows who you are.
But what about when someone slights you during a job offer, and the salary is lower than you feel you deserve? They’re not slighting you. They’re slighting a job applicant. You’re in a negotiation. And a negotiation is a game. In the same vein as tug-of-war.
If you take it personally, you’re more likely to react emotionally. But if you’ve made a habit of viewing yourself in the third person as much as possible, then you’re ready for this. And you’ve prepared a better response. You’ve prepared the reason why your higher counter offer is actually beneficial to both parties.
Instead of yelling, ‘I deserve more, I’m well qualified!’, maybe you say something more like: ‘In the interviews, you mentioned that you want someone who’s going to stick around for the long term. I’ll be better able to do that if I’m fairly compensated from the beginning. There’s a lot of work to do in improving this operation. Promotions will be hard to come by. I need to have that security from the very start. Because my starting salary affects future raises–which may be little more than cost-of-living raises while we’re creating our better vision–it’s really important that we get this right, now.’
There’s no guarantee this approach will work. (Is there ever such guarantee?) Maybe the person offering the job is set on slighting you in the name of keeping more money. But I think this approach of telling the employer to put their money where their mouth is, is more likely to work than reacting emotionally because you, not a job applicant, were slighted.
A similar view applies when someone cuts you off in traffic. They don’t cut off you–Firstname Lastname–they cut off the car in front of them that just happened to be you. Don’t take it personally, because it wasn’t personal for the reckless driver who’ll be living rent-free in your mind for the rest of the day.
These days, I’m working on seeing myself in the third person, which is, literally, impossible. I can see the world only from my own eyes. In a literal sense, I can almost see myself in the third person by looking at pictures or video of myself. But still, I’m viewing from my own eyes. So everything starts in the first person.
But that doesn’t mean that there’s no benefit in trying to see myself in the third person. Sometimes, when bad things happen to us, we get too caught up in the parties involved. I can’t believe Joe slighted me, after all I’ve done for him. Joe did THAT to ME?
But what if you see the situation from a third-person perspective? How would you advise your friend in a similar situation? You’d be more likely to forget names and focus instead on roles. We can be more easily objective when we’re advising other people through their problems. Yet we so often ignore our own best advice when we find ourselves in similar situations.
Why?
Because we see the problem in the first person. We can’t remove ourselves from our view of the situation. Our personal attachment taints our judgment, which taints our advice to ourselves, which taints the actions we take.
This concept of seeing ourselves in the third person isn’t as crazy as it may sound. We often talk about seeing things from the other party’s perspective. Putting ourselves in their shoes. The same logic applies here. The major difference is that while putting ourselves in their shoes may open the door for empathy, we’re not stopping there. We’re not giving in to make peace. We’re still moving forward to get what we want. The goal is the same. The strategy and tactics are a bit different. By seeing their perspective and understanding their goals, we’re better prepared to find an answer that serves us both.
As I’ve already said, this approach isn’t guaranteed to work. Maybe you can’t find a working solution. Or maybe the other person just isn’t willing to compromise, in which case you weren’t likely to reach agreement anyway; and maybe you shouldn’t do business with someone who seeks to win only by ensuring you lose. (That’s not a great business relationship, and you’re bound to lose worse in the end.)
But by seeing yourself in the third person, you’re better able to give yourself the best chance of success. And the truth is, that’s as good as it ever gets in life.
Songspiration
‘I’m a Cult Hero’ by The Cure/The Glove/Cult Hero/whoever -
Marketing
Friends don't let friends become monopolies
Tuesday May 14, 2024In the autobiography The Life of Frederick Douglass, the author takes an interesting view on slavery when he argues that when otherwise good people become slaveowners, they can’t help becoming monsters. Douglass takes a compassionate view of the villains. It’s not always that bad people become slaveowners–but slaveowners become bad people.
Should we have a similar view with John Deere and other monopolies?
Once you become a monopoly, you become a villain. You stand alone. A walled garden looks great at first. But when you have a snafu like the one John Deere recently experienced when a solar flare knocked out farmers' tractor GPS systems during peak planting season, that walled garden leaves you isolated. Now there’s no buffer between you and the angry customers trapped with you. You’ve made it so that they can’t leave, so you shouldn’t be surprised when they throw humanity out the window and want nothing more than your head on the wall. (Also, if people can’t leave, you don’t have customers; you have captives).
I don’t imagine many people are crying for Deere as a lawsuit against the company’s repair practices is moving forward.
When I was a kid, John Deere was a brand to be proud of. If you owned a John Deere, you signaled to others that you cared about doing quality work with quality equipment.
Nothing runs like a Deere. That used to mean something.
But now John Deere is a villain.
We don’t like characters that we’ve always seen as villains. But nothing’s worse than a hero turned villain. A brand that never cared about you is a jerk. But a brand that made us feel they cared and then turned their backs on us–well, that’s a term I’m better off not putting in writing. When someone we thought was a jerk turns out to be a jerk, there’s most often little lost. But when someone we trusted leaves us feeling stabbed in the back, we feel lied to. Duped. Stupid.
Now John Deere stands alone, with little choice but to reap what it’s sown. On one hand, it’s hard–if not impossible–to feel bad for John Deere. But at the same time, it shouldn’t be this way, during the good and the bad.
Only stakeholders love monopolies. Everyone outside the monopoly sees it as pure evil. And once you’re branded a monopoly, your brand is no longer one people love, but one they feel they can’t escape. See Microsoft, Meta, Amazon, Google . . .
When we talk about breaking up monopolies, maybe we shouldn’t talk only about the consumers, who undoubtedly deserve to be protected and deserve the benefits of fair competition. But maybe we should take a page from Frederick Douglass' book (literally) and remember to have compassion for the monopolistic companies we’re looking to break up.
Sometimes being a good parent means doing things that piss your kids off in the short term but benefit them in the long term. Sure, the monopolies may kick and scream now. They may claim we’re being unfair. But if we don’t do what needs to be done now, maybe we’re setting them up for failure later down the road when the world at large shows up with their pitchforks.
Jake LaCaze once worried that his views were becoming more Socialist. He now realizes he simply wants a truer form of capitalism for all, especially corporations.
Songspiration
‘The Small Print’ by Muse - A band who I once saw as a hero, only to turn villain. -
Mindfulness
She’s just a mother—Celebrate the hell out of her
Saturday May 11, 2024I can’t help associating Mother’s Day with another holiday: Thanksgiving. That’s because, in 2011, my mother passed away on the Monday after Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is the last holiday I spent with her.
I owe my mother far more than I can ever properly credit. For 10 years in my early childhood, she raised me as a single mother. When she passed away, my mother had worked at a garment factory in southeast Arkansas for 23 years. Her peak wage was $10 an hour. Thanks to the sacrifices of my mother (and my stepfather), I’ve never made as little as $10 an hour since I graduated college.
As a tired single mother, she prepared me for the future the best way she knew how. She made sure I understood early on that education was my key to getting out of the hometown I couldn’t wait to leave behind. She taught me how to study for tests. She made sure I went to school every day unless I was sick. I didn’t need a prestigious education. (Louisiana public schools have served me just fine.) I just needed an education. And she gave me the stability I needed to focus on being just one tier above mediocre so that I could take on the opportunities waiting for me outside of northeast Louisiana.
I shouldn’t be here, where I am, a humble boy from Middle of Nowhere, Louisiana, making a good life in the middle of the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex.
I wouldn’t be where I am today if it weren’t for my mother. She is still the rock upon which I stand.
I was 26 years old when my mother passed away. I wasn’t ready to say goodbye. Even in my mid-20s, I still needed my mommy. And I still do, as I approach middle age.
I often wonder if my mother would be proud of me and where I am. Sometimes, I want nothing more than to hear that sentiment from her. That will never happen. So all I can do is hope.
If you know you owe any semblance of success to your mother–and you know you can never put that fact into proper words–just try. Make the effort. You won’t find the right words. But that’s not the point. The point is in letting her know what you know you can never articulate.
These days, some women lament the idea of being nothing more than just a mother. But there is no such thing as just a mother. A mother brings you into the world. And she is most often the first person to ever love you. We should not discount this simple gift of biology.
So even if your mother is just a mother, let her know you appreciate her. And celebrate the hell out of her while you still can.
Jake LaCaze wants you to say hi to your mother for him.
Songspiration
‘Green Eyes’ by Coldplay -
Mindfulness
Who's on your personal board of directors?
Friday May 10, 2024Ryan Leaf is a great redemption story, even if you’re not a sports fan.
The No. 2 pick of the 1998 NFL draft (second only to Peyton Manning) is widely known as being one of the biggest busts in NFL history.
FUN FACT: Leaf recently declared himself the greatest bust in NFL history so that fans could save their breath by no longer having to argue about the topic.
Leaf’s status as an NFL bust was worsened by drug addition, for which he served time in prison.
It’s hard to imagine someone hitting rock bottom harder than Ryan Leaf. It’s equally hard to imagine someone bouncing back as high as he has.
Leaf appears to have truly come to terms with his past. He doesn’t shy away from talking about his failures while he’s working for Westwood One or when he’s guest hosting for sports commentating legends like Dan Patrick and Rich Eisen.
Leaf’s redemption is inspiring. As is one crucial detail: He didn’t do it alone.
Leaf has in the past described himself as the CEO of his own life. Like any other CEO, he seeks guidance from his board of directors, comprised of five people he trusts in the sensitive matters of his life.
I love Leaf’s analogy because we’re all CEOs–CEOs of our own lives. And we all need the support of our own board of directors.
For the last few days I’ve been asking myself who’s on my own personal board of directors. The first slot is easy: It belongs to my wife. As the leading stockholder, she has the most to gain or lose from my decisions.
The next two spots were easy to fill. Those last two spots are a couple boogers, but I have some good candidates in mind.
Perhaps you’ve heard the line that you are the average of the five people you must hang out with. Ideally, these five people would make great board members. But if they don’t, maybe it’s time to reconsider whom you give your time.
So, I think it’s time to ask:
Who’s on your board of directors?
Jake LaCaze knows we all need hope to make it through hard times. What better source than those who’ve been there and done that?
Songspiration
‘Relatively Easy’ by Jason Isbell -
Mindfulness
Time is running out. So what are you gonna do about it?
Thursday May 9, 2024I just heard the news that Steve Albini died a couple days ago.
Excuse me while I get all up in my feels and repeat myself from my microblog:
Albini has always had a special place in my heart for producing Pixies' Surfer Rosa.
Surfer Rosa was one of those albums that blew my young mind. I later realized that one of my favorite parts of it was its simplicity. Albini didn’t typically allow overdubs. The drums were loud. The album was pretty much a live album.
Surfer Rosa challenged what I thought knew about music. It expanded my definitions and challenged assumptions I wasn’t aware I had.
The masses say that Pixies' Doolittle album is their masterpiece. But for me, it’s Surfer Rosa, which is a timeless piece of art. Sure, the band (one of my top five all-time) deserves much of the credit. But Albini’s production, by not getting in the way of or overshading the band, brought to life the essence of the band. The album is still so raw today. And it doesn’t sound dated at all.
Over the years, I’ve become more familiar with Albini’s other work with The Jesus Lizard, The Breeders, and, of course, Big Black. When you listen to an Albini-produced album, you know what you’re getting. And in that way, Albini was definitely an artist.
I told my cousin just last week that if I ever had a band, I’d want to record an album with Steve Albini just to know what my band was truly worth. This dream was never going to happen, but that was supposed to be because:
- I don’t and won’t have a band.
- Any band I did have wouldn’t be good enough to be on Albini’s radar anyway.
But the dream wasn’t supposed to be impossible because Albini won’t be around to do his part.
It’s hard not to feel a bit like ‘the end of an era’ today.
Thanks for the tunes, Steve.
Beyond Albini
Albini’s death is another reminder that time is running out for us all. It’s inevitable.
At some point, the reaper collects his debt.
We know how the story ends.
So what do we do about it?
It’s not the destination, it’s the journey.
If you want to do something awesome with your time, today’s a great day to get started.
It’s time to get moving.
P.S. Nirvana’s In Utero > Nevermind–no contest. Don’t @ me.
-
Mindfulness
When productivity is no longer the goal
Tuesday May 7, 2024Would we need therapy if we knew how to slow down and unplug? How to stop distracting ourselves from ourselves?
Convenience has robbed us of these opportunities. As certain tasks have gotten easier, we can now more quickly move to something else. We can more easily switch contexts in the name of productivity.
But is productivity always the goal? Maybe if you’re a widgetmaker. But any widgetmaker who stumbled upon this post has likely clicked on to something else.
What do you do when you’ve been productive enough? Pushing alone can take you only so far.
At some point, you need something else to take you to the next level. A fresh insight. A dash of creativity. Brute force can’t be the only option in your toolbelt.
Insight and creativity aren’t easy to measure, like widgets produced. But insight and creativity are every bit as crucial as pure effort for sustained success.
So what do you need to slow down?
Maybe a comfy chair. Place matters.
What about time?
Sure, time can be hard to find, but it’s more doable if you’ve cut out doomscrolling and those streaming services that are becoming more and more like cable television, the very thing you sought to avoid when you cut the cord.
What if the thing you need to do to improve your life is nothing?
Could you do it?
Could you find the space?
Could you find the time?
If you can’t, fine.
But if you can . . .
-
Marketing
,AI
,Social media
,Writing
Kudos for micro.blog's use of AI
Monday May 6, 2024Since ChatGPT was released to the masses in late 2022, far too many companies have asked how they can integrate large language models (LLMs) into their core products.
Unfortunately, the ‘solutions’ often include having generative AI write for users. Most implementations of the idea are stupid because the last thing writers want is for AI to write for them. Any company that serves and understands writers will be unsurprised to find writers want to protect their own voices, no matter how hard putting things into their own words is.
That’s why companies like iA, the developers of the minimalist writing app writer, didn’t go the easy route of turning their app into a glorified ChatGPT prompt. They instead made it easy to differentiate between what you wrote and what you copied from an LLM (or any other source). The technical aspects (programming) don’t seem all that hard. But coming up with that answer to address the challenges created by generative AI took a lot of thought.
Manton Reece, the founder of micro.blog, has chosen to take a different route in regard to implementing generative AI: He’s instead tasked AI with handling the writerly tasks writers would rather not worry about.
Alt text for images
For one, AI can write alt text for uploaded images.
When I’m focused on writing a longform blog post, switching gears to write accurate alt text is way harder than you might expect. I understand alt text is crucial for digital citizens with accessibility needs, but I’m a horrible, selfish, lazy person. But thanks to AI, my readers can have better accessible images despite my worst qualities.
Podcast transcription
AI also shines on micro.blog by automatically transcribing podcast episodes.
Subscribers on the Premium plan can edit a transcript to create companion text for each episode. (See this post for an example.) It sure beats the hell out of typing it all out yourself.
Opt-in required
Perhaps most importantly, users must explicitly opt in to use AI on their micro.blog sites.
Manton Reece obviously finds value in AI. But he knows some of his customers don’t measure value the same way. But hopefully those customers find value in Manton’s leaving the choice their own.
-
Place matters
Monday May 6, 2024Back when I listened to his podcast regularly, Cal Newport often stressed the importance of place. Newport, not a supporter of working from home, recommended renting some cheap office space down the road rather than setting up shop in the corner of your bedroom. He’d often share stories of writers who secluded themselves in cabins or certain wings of their estates to focus on their craft. Newport’s point wasn’t that you must be able to afford these spaces to be productive. His point instead was this: Where you work matters. Place matters.
Recently my wife and I rearranged our living room. It started with storing the TV in the garage, something we’d been talking about for weeks. Then we moved the couches and the rug and finally, the used IKEA chair my wife got for $25 from Facebook Marketplace, which we moved into our bedroom. (I teased her so much for buying this useless chair; and then I fell in love with it.)
Only a couple hours after the move, I told my wife I’d found my reading and writing nook, centered around that same useless chair. Shortly afterward, I set on starting those habits in a new place. (This very blog post was started in that same chair, in that same spot.)
A picture of the IKEA chair now in my bedroom, only a few feet away from my bedroom office. Shhh, don’t tell Cal.There’s something about having a certain place reserved for a certain task. You don’t have to think about why you’re there, or what you’re there to do. Once a habit is built, the appropriate neurons start firing once you arrive and your task becomes easier. You create a context, and context informs your thinking and your actions.
Place matters.
This realization is also why I recently created a site dedicated to my microposts (I also must acknowledge that the decision was made easier when Manton Reece gave all micro.blog Premium subscribers five blogs for the price of one).
I’ve largely walked away from social media, except for LinkedIn, which, despite its many annoyances, still feels like a professional necessity. From time to time, I find myself wanting to share a weird photo or silly quip. But my main blog isn’t the place for that. So now my microblog is. Because, as you know, place matters.
One last bit to bring the point home . . .
I’m going to paraphrase and bastardize a post you may have seen on LinkedIn. (This is one of those aforementioned many annoyances. Of course, now that I want to quote the post, I can’t find it.)
The post makes the point that a soda costs one thing at a grocery story, another at a convenience store, another at an airport, etc.
And if you’re not happy with your worth, maybe it’s time to look for a job somewhere else. Maybe the only thing holding you back from getting more money is your location, whether that’s by geography or just within the walls you call your workplace.
Sure, the post is a little cheesy. And so many people just copy and paste it and you get tired of seeing it.
But that doesn’t mean there isn’t some wisdom in the post.
Because, yet again, place matters.
-
AI
Using generative AI in a job search
Wednesday May 1, 2024‘Jake, you’re a big critic of generative AI. So you must hate it, right?’
Not so fast.
I don’t hate technology. I hate the overhype and overselling. I want tech to stay in its lane.
I am the driver, not technology—even generative AI.
Yesterday I used Anthropic’s Claude to help me prepare for a phone interview.
I didn’t ask Claude to fabricate a resume. (I’d already submitted my resume anyway.)
I simply asked it to help me tighten some things up.
Want more details for how you can responsibly use LLMs to help in a job search?
Check out the video.
P.S. This video is an example of how the best uses for tech are sometimes the least sexy and exciting uses for tech.
-
Reviewish
,Linux
You can Linux your own way
Sunday April 28, 2024I’ve recently fallen in love with Manjaro Sway.
While things started great, my experiment using a 2012 MacBook Air in 2024 hit a bit of a snag. 4GB RAM can take you only so far these days. So I started looking at Linux distros to replace an unsupported version of MacOS I was able to install thanks to the OpenCore Legacy Patcher.
I started with Linux Mint, which was great until it wasn’t. And then I tried Debian XFCE, which resulted in the same. On both distros, the desktop would freeze at certain points, and the quickest fix I knew was to hold the power button until the laptop shut off, and then start the machine back up.
NOTE: This issue very well may have been due to user error and no fault of Linux Mint or Debian. Maybe I could have found a solution if I were a little bit more of a nerd (something like using SWAP at installation).
Before I gave up on Debian, I had also installed i3 so that I could give tiling window managers another chance. This brief revisit led to my wanting to again try Sway, which is basically i3 with Wayland support.
NOTE: Don’t worry if you don’t know what all this means. I understand only in the most superficial terms. These technical terms are not the point of this post.
Eventually, I settled on Manajaro Sway because I like how it’s set up out of the box.
My (for now) settling on Manjaro Sway is noteworthy only if you go looking for opinions about Manjaro Linux in general. Because you’ll find plenty people saying not to use Manjaro. That it’s stupid to do so. That there are much better options out there.
And there might be much better options out there–much better options for them.
But, at least for now, Manjaro Sway has been the easiest option for me. That very well may change. But so far, so good.
If nothing else, I appreciate the option to overlay useful keyboard shortcuts that new users may forget, right on your desktop wallpaper.
‘Look at that subtle coloring. The tasteful thickness. Oh my god. It even has a watermark’ - A sceenshot of the Manjaro Sway Linux desktop wallpaper with overlay of keyboard shortcuts, courtesy of the project’s GitHub repo.And this brings us to an often-overlooked point about Linux. What’s good about it is what’s bad about it: Choice.
Linux offers a nearly limitless number of choices. You have countless options just within the Ubuntu family tree of distros. And when you consider most distros give the option to install multiple dekstop environments, your options grow exponentially.
When you have so many options, it’s impossible to say which option any one person should or should not use, unless you are intimately familiar with that person’s use case and comfort with new technology.
But online–and especially in the Linux world–you can easily find people shouting from the rooftops about why their opinion is the only right opinion, with only limited context and with no understanding of when their preferred distro may not work for someone else.
My advice is to keep trying different setups until you find the one that works for you. Yes, setting up multiple distros is annoying and time consuming. But you can reduce some of the pain of switching by learning how to back up and restore your
Homefolder using rsync.In life in general, the loudest voices are often the ones you should listen to least. The wisest voices are often harder to find. The Linux world is no different. In fact, perhaps the Linux world is the worst example of this universal truth.
Fortunately, cooler heads can be found, even in the Linux world:
As I’ve already said, what’s great about Linux is what’s bad about it. But let’s focus on the positive side. Linux offers an abundance of choice. That means how I Linux is not how you have to Linux.
You can Linux your own way.
Jake LaCaze is on a quest to remind the world that things are far more grey than we are led to believe.
Songspiration
The song that, at least in part, influenced this post:
Other news
In my constant quest to expand my skill set, I’m looking at how I can position myself for jobs in the oil and gas/energy technology sectors.
Please don’t hesitate to contact me if you have any ideas.
Namaste.
-
Gadgets
,Reviewish
,E-ink
,MobiScribe Wave
MobiScribe Wave - The e-ink writing tablet I want to recommend but can't
Sunday April 21, 2024I’ll always appreciate the MobiScribe Wave as being the device that proved an e-ink tablet has a place in my life, but after nearly five months of use, I’ve realized I can’t recommend the Wave to others. Or, perhaps more accurately, I can recommend it only with specific caveats and to a specific type of person with a specific mindset and specific expectations (basically anyone who’s looking for an affordable e-ink writing tablet, and who doesn’t mind dealing with some tradeoffs).
Let’s take a look at the issues that make this device all but impossible to recommend.
My problems with the MobiScribe Wave
Most, if not all, of my issues with the Wave relate to the software.
Settings
Some settings randomly turn off, including:
- WiFi
- Google Play Store
I could understand if the WiFi reset every time the device was restarted, though even that behavior would be unexpected. But I can’t tell you how many times I’ve gone to do something requiring the internet (such as downloading an app from the Google Play Store or F-Droid1), only to realize the WiFi had, for some unknown reason, turned itself off.
Speaking of the Google Play Store, the app often disappears from my app listing. Fixing this issue requires opening the settings, selecting the Play Store category, and then clicking a button titled Google Play Store.
A screenshot of the Google Play Store settings on the MobiScribe WaveRe-enabling the Google Play Store is especially annoying if you do it right after re-enabling the WiFi.
PDF reader
In the Cons section of my original post on the MobiScribe Wave2, I mentioned that the PDF app often opens a previously opened PDF file instead of the PDF file you selected. Fixing this issue requires closing the PDF app and then re-loading the file you wanted to read. While the fix is easy, it’s annoying, especially considering the issue appears to have become more common throughout my usage.
Another issue with PDFs concerns disappearing annotations.
Sometimes annotations may reappear; but more often than not, they appear to be gone forever.
I know I’m not the only one who’s had this issue. See the video below for proof, and a visual explanation of the issue.
One last note about the PDF reader: After the most recent firmware update, the erase button on my Lamy AL-Star stylus no longer works. I now have to select the erase option in the PDF toolbar, which is especially annoying if I’m viewing a PDF file in fullscreen mode (meaning the toolbar is hidden). I then have to exit fullscreen to the reveal the toolbar, select the erase option, and so on and so on . . .
Before the update, I could cut these extra steps by simply pressing the erase button on the side of the stylus. But the removal of this option now makes reduces the value of additional features some styluses may offer.
Lock screen
When I had a security PIN activated, the device would randomly lock, sometimes while writing or annotating. And sometimes it would lock mere seconds after unlocking the device.
To solve this issue, I decided to disable the lock screen and not write anything too secretive. This ‘solution’ makes the device less useful.
Battery
The battery life on the MobiScribe Wave is not great. I don’t know if this is due to a hardware limitation (the capacity of the battery) or if the software isn’t properly optimized for the device. Either way, the battery life is underwhelming.
The good news is that I’ve yet to have the device fully discharge in a single day. An iPad, on the other hand, would likely die after only a few hours of heavy use.
But I wouldn’t expect the MobiScribe Wave to make it through two days of heavy use without a recharge. (One bit of good news: In my experience, the device can easily remain charged for multiple days if idle and unused).
Consumers have come to expect more from e-ink devices in general. It’s not crazy to expect e-ink devices that can go weeks between charges. And all the Wave’s peers–such as the Kindle Scribe, Remarkable 2, and devices from Supernote–appear to offer devices that knock the Wave out of the water in terms of battery life.
It’s gonna be a ‘no’ from me, dawg
All the issues above (and maybe even some others I forgot to mention) make the MobiScribe Wave nearly impossible to recommend. I can’t ask anyone else to part with his or her money for this device.
I’ll continue to make do with mine. But this is an example of someone being only as faithful as his options allow.
Jake LaCaze now knows that an e-ink writing tablet has a place in his daily life. But he thinks his next will be something other than a device from MobiScribe.
-
MobiScribe Wave B&W - More perspective than review on jakelacaze.com ↩︎
-
Technocriticism
When real life does not compute
Saturday April 20, 2024What series of events–what algorithm–led to this bird in my tree?
I often ask this question any time I’m entering or leaving my driveway.
A tiny owl of some sort has decided to make its home in a small tree in my front yard. The tree is really close to the driveway. I could probably jump up and touch the owl if I wanted to, though I wouldn’t, because he very well may chomp off a finger. And I’m quite fond of my fingers.
📝NOTE: My family has taken to calling this bird Hootie. We’ve also defaulted to referring to the owl as a he. We do not know the bird’s gender and all inquiries into the matter have resulted in blank stares. Because the other members of my family value their fingers as much as I value mine, none of us has attempted a physical examination.
Video proof of HootieI simply cannot justify why this owl has made his home in the tree in our front yard. There must be far better trees he could have chosen. Trees with higher branches. With better coverage. And these far better trees aren’t far away. Hell, he’d need to look no further than the other side of our front yard.
Yet here he is.
For some strange reason, I feel honored that he’s chosen our tree as his home.
Every morning and evening when I go to and from my car, I look up to see if Hootie is in the tree. And I can’t explain the excitement I felt when one morning I looked into the tree and saw his eyes were open and staring back at me. Up until that point, I’d only seen him with eyes closed as he snored away in broad daylight. Only a few mornings ago, my son who’ll start middle school next year was excited to finally see Hootie’s eyes open.
This whole situation makes zero sense for a couple reasons:
-
Why is this bird here?
-
Why does my family care so much?
But we do. It’s something out of the ordinary. It’s a simple pleasure we’ve learned to enjoy.
Yet when I think about this bird-brained situation, I can’t help hearing in my head:
This does not compute. This does not make sense.
If you had told me before this bird showed up that I could be excited about having an owl in my front yard, I would have laughed and said no way.
But the reality is there’s no way I could have optimized for this experience. This experience was not on my radar. Yet it’s something I look forward. It is, in its own way, inspiring.
This situation doesn’t feel like optimization. It feels like serendipity.
But AI in the forms of social media engagement algorithms1 have removed serendipity from our lives and have instead replaced it with the likes of the masses. These algorithms don’t cater to your specific tastes. They offer the most mainstream versions of the content they think you’re interested in, leading to a more-often-than-not generic experience.
Would AI have ever thought to put a bird in my front yard to make me happy?
Maybe, if you ask those who think human beings are just a bunch of data we’re unaware of–and little more. Maybe the data was already there to pick through and make the call. But what if it wasn’t?
This does not compute.
Yet it is.
And I’m so glad.
With each passing day, Jake LaCaze is learning to embrace the joys uncertainty sometimes brings.
-
Social media engagement algorithms and the illusion of choice on jakelacaze.com ↩︎
-
-
Managing expectations with a failure-first mindset
Thursday April 4, 2024All 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.
-
Morgan Housel on The Tim Ferris Show ↩︎
-
-
Tutorials-ish
,E-ink
,MobiScribe Wave
Curating my own digital newspaper, with Syncthing and the MobiScribe Wave
Friday March 29, 2024In 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.
-
Social media engagement algorithms and the illusion of choice on jakelacaze.com ↩︎
-
MobiScribe Wave B&W - More perspective than review on jakelacaze.com ↩︎
-
Technocriticism
,AI
Creating in the time of AI
Saturday March 16, 2024Why 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.
-
Technocriticism
,AI
Is artificial general intelligence the real benchmark for AI?
Friday March 15, 2024Today’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.
-
AI Should Augment Human Intelligence, Not Replace It from Harvard Business Review ↩︎
-
The ROI on GenAI might not be so great, after all by Gary Marcus
-
-
Leadership means scaling impact
Saturday March 9, 2024Some 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.
-
micro.blog Premium is a crazy value
Sunday February 25, 2024Only 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 in 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 month3. 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 algorithms2.
- 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.
-
Technocriticism
,Reviewish
Douglas Rushkoff’s ‘Survival of the Richest’ shows how delusional the tech billionaires really are
Thursday February 15, 2024I 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.
-
Survival of the Richest: Escape Fantasies of the Tech Billionaires on Bookshop.org (Affiliate link) ↩︎
-
‘Why is Mark Zuckerberg building a private apocalypse bunker in Hawaii?’ on The Guardian ↩︎
-
‘Inside the lucrative business of a metaverse landlord, where monthly rent can hit $60,000 per property’ on Fast Company ↩︎
-
‘The problem with “Move fast and break things”—Tech needs a better guiding principle’ on jakelacaze.com ↩︎
-
‘The Fall of Man’ by Matthew Good Band on YouTube ↩︎
-
‘Jeff Bezos thanks Amazon customers and employees who “paid for all this”’ on CNN ↩︎
-
-
Technocriticism
Don’t be a SaaShole
Friday February 2, 2024Yesterday 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.
-
Gadgets
,Reviewish
,E-ink
,MobiScribe Wave
E-ink writing tablet ecosystems: MobiScribe Wave vs Kindle Scribe
Saturday January 20, 2024This 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.
-
MobiScribe Wave B&W - More perspective than review on jakelacaze.com ↩︎
-
Sync your notes across devices on Obsidian Help ↩︎
-
All Texas residents are eligible for a Houston Public Library digital card. Non-Texas residents may purchase a one-year membership. Sign up for a Houston Public Library card. ↩︎
-
-
Marketing
,Reviewish
'The Song of Signficance'—Singing the praises of Seth Godin's tireless wisdom
Thursday January 11, 2024Companies 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.
-
Introducing my linklog, powered by Newsblur's Blurblog
Monday January 8, 2024The 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–thanks in part to social media engagement algorithms1–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 Miniflux2 to Newsblur3.
(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 linklog4), 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:
Jake LaCaze thinks one of the most interesting parts of the internet is seeing just how far your small efforts can reach.
-
Technocriticism
Processes and workflows before tech stack
Thursday January 4, 2024When 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.
-
Tech in 2024: Musings
Sunday December 31, 2023I 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.
-
Is AI just a solution looking for a problem? on jakelacaze.com ↩︎
-
But What If We're Wrong? by Chuck Klosterman on Bookshop.org (Affiliate link) ↩︎
-
How to Bullet Journal on YouTube ↩︎
-
