Spinning Too Many Plates

Hi friends. It’s been a long couple of weeks and I’m not gonna lie: I’ve been pretty depressed. Between saying goodbye to my kids as they both head off to new cities, an unrealistic caseload, and a national crisis of democracy that is beyond shocking, it can be hard to feel inspired to write not one but three different newsletters. Speaking of, could you please take my survey? I would truly appreciate it.

The worse our political situation becomes, the more games you have to play. Try Timdle, which challenges you to sort historical events in chronological order. Or maybe you’d like Clues by Sam, which is a logic game that challenges you to figure out which figures are criminal and which are innocent. And Oaklandside has just launched a game called Keyword. I’m still trying to get the hang of it, which is a good sign for a new puzzle.

A few other distractions: I have watched a lot of movies lately. Old Guard 2 was not as good as the first one but it was entertaining. If you haven’t watched Old Guard, do so. I watched Rogue One after I finished Andor just to see if it lined up with the second season and it does a decent job. We watched Bourne Supremacy, which always bears up. We watched LA Confidential and La-La Land because one of the kids is moving to guess where.

TV: I have recently watched Four Seasons (pretty good), The Residence (also pretty good), Dept Q (very good), and Ultimatum: Queer Love (not very good but eminently watchable). And I’ve started watching the new season of Project Runway and so far hate everyone. The only book I’ve read lately is Your Art Will Save Your Life by Beth Pickens, which I bought for the other kid, who is heading off the art school in Chicago. Now seeking recommendations. What are you watching or reading these days?

My last post on democratic socialism triggered some interesting discussions. In particular, my friend Steve noted that American socialists in the 70s have taken some really awful foreign policy positions in support of socialist governments worldwide. For example, he notes, Noam Chomsky and others once supported the Khmer Rouge. “Chomsky has acknowledged his error,” Steve noted but highlighted the problem of uncritically supporting a movement, which was a distinguishing factor in socialism. To me, it’s ironic because I associate movements with organizing, and socialists don’t seem capable of organizing their way out of a paper bag.

Anyway, I think the answer is that I am not interested in the foreign policy positions of socialists. I am interested in the domestic economic policies of democratic socialism and think that any doctrine taken to its extremes is dangerous. Which seems quite obvious right now. (Imagine me waving my hands in the air)

One last thought. I have a new prediction. As you can imagine, I think AI is not only too good to be true, I actively hate it and won’t use it even when it might offer some benefit. I think that we are going to see more businesses leverage people’s dislike of AI and technology. Here’s a picture of two billboards I saw in downtown SF the other day. One ad is for eyeglasses that block surveillance systems from using face recognition and the other ad trumpets the “Actual Individuals” that serve their customers. Cloudflare offers free AI blocking to its users that prevents AI from harvesting data. YouTube charges its advertisers to show us ads and charges its users to watch ad-free. We will see more of this.

I hope to be back next week in a better mood with more interesting stuff to say. Have a good one!