Might as well

I'm writing more now that I don't work full-time. Turns out not having to constantly tread the waters of unaffordability creates room for exploring thoughts, and exploring thoughts creates room for learning, and learning makes me want to talk and share.

The perspective I hope to add to the conversation is one developed through the lens of communications – that is, decades of working with flows of information has allowed me to see narratives and contextualize trends within the online sphere a bit differently than others might. I don't have my fingers on the pulse of every trend, but I've followed the overarching patterns in engagement tactics, enshittification, algorithmic evolutions, surveillance, and some stuff that's still a bit too dark for the average user to confront. Happily there are some wonderful journalists and news outlets in tech bringing those issues to light, so I finally have some legitimate sources to back me up. I feel strongly that online literacy is critical at this point in time, so it's a theme I'll return to often on this blog. When I write I imagine I'm speaking to my contemporaries in the field, my family and friends, and curious thought seekers.

And I understand not everyone can do the thing where you sell your house and move your family to a more affordable part of the country to live out the second half of your life as a gardener writer hobbit. Though if I'm being honest I really don't understand why more people who could make that choice aren't, but that's just me. I'll share the mechanics of that path here too, just in case anyone has dreams of building a similar life (it's really nice, though not without its challenges). But what I'm saying is, I get that a lot of people are too busy to think about big heavy things and make sense of them. Now that I have the time, I hope I can contribute to that process of sense-making with you.

I'm largely nonpartisan but I do have biases that I try to recognize. I'm still detangling myself from modes of neoliberalism and binary political thinking. I will do my very best not to assert authority over subjects I have no business fucking with.

I welcome questions and comments relevant to my writing and am eager to both "find my people" and help get others up to speed. Oh and I never use genAI to write and I resent it with my entire soul.