Euan Semple's Blog, page 21

Two cracking blogs

I am particularly enjoying reading two blogs at the moment and they couldn’t be more different.

The first is Dave Winer’s Scripting News. Dave pretty much kick started blogging with his invention of RSS and I’ve followed his blog for more than twenty years. I love the way he combines short posts that share thoughts off the top of his head with longer, more considered posts.

The second is John Naughton’s Memex 1.1. John is a journalist and his blog combines images, sections of longer articles that he has enjoyed, and thoughtful comment from himself.

Both very much worth subscribing to if you aren’t already.

Trusting ourselves

A couple of recent stories raised again my concerns about control and the internet. One was about a father seeking medical support for his son who triggered Google’s AI controls put in place to protect children from paedophiles, and the other was the right wing conspiracy theorist who has been banned from several of the main platforms.

Both are well intentioned, both protect people from harm, but both raise questions about what is wrong, what is right, and who gets to decide. An algorithm? An algorithm based on the values of a commercial company? Or worse, based on the cultural norms of America which is veering all over the place in terms of moral judgements at the moment?

As I said in my book we all have a volume control on mob rule. We get to decide what we pay attention to, what we share, and what the collective impact of our online actions is. We need to be ever more aware of this as we have more power than we know and our actions, or inactions, have consequences increasingly amplified by algorothmic systems.

We need to trust ourselves to make the right decisions or they will be made for us.

How time flies

As we drove down The Westway last night we commented, negatively, on the new Imperial College building on Wood Lane.

I pointed out that I had delivered steel piping for Shawston to that very building and spookily when I got home my journal app reminded me that it was exactly two years ago to the day!

Resistance

You can see when Dad’s ego is in charge. “Things shouldn’t be like this” kicks in.

This includes not only little things that I have got wrong in my attempts to replicate his routines, but also frustration at himself and the confusion that his increased loss of short term memory is causing.

But when that voice isn’t there, when he just accepts things as they are, he is relaxed and happy.

I would do well to learn from watching him.

Crying on a beach

Yesterday, while I was enjoying the sunshine lying on a beach, my daughter texted to ask if I knew a bass player called Danny Thompson because he often swims in the pool at which she is a lifeguard and is a really nice guy.

Danny Thompson! One of the best bass players in the world who played with John Martyn my favourite musician! Danny Thompson whose bass lines were so much of the incredible power of songs like those on the album One World!

Listening to the song One World I started weeping lying on that beach.

Imagine having that ability to move people.

What’s in a name

Walking along the lane next to my father’s house, I was enjoying all the wild flowers at the side of the road. This brought back memories of when I first got into walking and bought Collin’s Book Of Wild Flowers in an attempt to learn their names.

I never managed this and have always felt a bit of a failure as a result.

But who cares what they are called? Just enjoy them. Perhaps all the more for not having slapped a label on them!

The power of routine

At 92 my Dad is beginning to struggle. His short term memory is failing. On good days he’s bright as a button but some days life gets hard.

Every morning he and Mum had a very specific routine for breakfast. Things were placed in exactly the same place, things were done in exactly the same order. Since Mum passed away two years ago Dad has rigorously followed that same routine.

On good days this is what gets him through the process. On bad days, when the chain is broken, the train come off the rails and “What do I do next?” is the heartbreaking question that gets repeated at each step.

Each small step has become a giant leap for mankind.

Things they don’t prepare you for.

I’m not quite sure who “they” are but I remember when our first daughter, Mollie was born coming away from the hospital thinking how ridiculous it was that no one had checked in any way that we were responsible enough to look after this little thing. “They” make you do a test for driving a car, why not for having children?

I’m beginning to feel the same way about my father.

Although he is still living on his own, he is increasingly confused.

He called me at 5 am this morning. He wasn’t distressed, there was nothing wrong, he was just a bit wandered and not even sure why he had called me.

“They” don’t prepare you for this either. All you can really do is stay calm, be kind, and deal with the next situation as it arises.

Probably good advice for life generally.

The myth of being in charge

Nearly twenty years ago, when we introduced our social network inside The BBC it was clear that we were all nodes in the network and that a healthy network made up of healthy nodes led to a healthy organisation.

The unhealthy, cancerous, nodes were those that thought they were different for whatever reason, most commonly that they were superior to other nodes, that they needed to be in charge.

Helen Blunden has a great post today about Microsoft’s announcement about Viva Engage from which the following quote makes clear that our fundamental misunderstanding persists...

Viva Engage gives leaders new tools to shape culture and align their workforce by unlocking communication and engagement opportunities for everyone. And for employees, it provides new ways to build a sense of community, strengthen relationships with coworkers, share their work and perspective, and find answers to their questions.

The long tail

It fascinates me when people pick up on a tweet from the far distant past, in this case twelve years ago.