Rising Waters
August 7, 2024
3-Item Status
Current location: Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA
Reading: The Algebraist by Ian M. Banks
Listening: Crimes of the Heart by Waxahatchee
Quick Notes
Bookshelf Sale: I’ve set up a new online store where I’m selling my ebooks and audiobooks directly, and you can get 20% off whatever you like for the next week if you use code NEWSHELF when checking out (the store is called Colin’s Bookshelf). Peruse the bookshelf here, and thanks in advance if you pick something up :)
New Editions: The books on Colin’s Bookshelf are all the newest editions, by the way, and all of them are available on other shops as well. I make a little bit more money if you buy directly from me, but sales numbers and reviews at those other places help juice the algorithm in my favor—so there are benefits to both, and you should use whichever option is most ideal for your purposes/preferences.
Poll: For this week’s poll, I ask how you feel life is going, at the moment.
(If you have a moment, reply with your own 3-Item Status and/or Quick Notes about what’s happening in your life.)
Rising Waters
It’s an interesting time to be alive.
I think that’s true both in the curse (“may you live in interesting times”) sense of the phrase, but also in the sense that there’s plenty to be interested in and excited about, alongside the grim and worrying stuff.
There’s a metaphor I’ve been leaning on, internally, to help me parse, sort, and work through my responses to some of what’s been happening in the world: that of rising waters, slowly but inevitably creeping upward toward where I’m standing.
This is representative of the literal sense in which waters are rising in coastal areas, and it points at the opportunities we have to address the accompanying erosion, storm surges, and other impacts of this ascension (by building sponge-cities and flood walls, and by reinforcing infrastructure and evolving our emergency safety systems, for instance).
We can (and should) address the literal realities connected to this metaphor, then, but in my mind it also applies to other aspects of life in which firm footing is giving way to soggy soil.
Many of us (myself very much included) are seeing the industries in which we work—the jobs we do to pay our bills and buy food—rapidly realigning to adopt cost-saving AI-based tools, almost always as part of a larger effort to cut payroll expenses.
That means firing people and replacing them with far cheaper (if, currently at least, usually inferior in many ways) digital replacements that automate much of the work those humans used to do.
Setting aside any moral or ethical positions we might take on the matter, this is a reality that—while not inevitable—is impacting more and more people, many of whom are finding themselves (out of nowhere!) with portfolios of skills and knowledge that are no longer as valuable as they once were, and prospects that may only get worse as this sub-in-able tech gets better.
Rising waters; we can (and often do) ignore them for a time, but if we wait until our shoes are soaked and all we can see is water from horizon to horizon, it’s a lot trickier to find someplace dry and solid to stand from which we can safely plot our next steps.
When faced with rising waters (of whatever kind), I typically try to nudge myself toward boat-building rather than succumbing to helplessness, complacency, or denial.
In this context, that means looking for opportunities even as I try my best to salvage the best aspects of the existing paradigm.
What aspects of what I do now might be convertible (in a form I still value and enjoy) so that they flourish in a different world, shaped by different variables?
What components can be rethought, refurbished, or reborn into new, more relevant shapes?
How might I augment what I’ve already got (and what I’m already doing) with new powers granted by this developing (and impending) reality?
And how might I rethink all of these things so that they’re not just resilient in the face of what’s coming tomorrow, but what arrives the day after that, and after that, and so on?
This sort of thinking underpins everything I’m doing and planning and investing in at the moment, at that’s true of the literal rising waters (and other planet-scale changes we’re seeing), but also in the sense that the spaces we occupy—the physical and cultural environments we’ve come to take for granted—are changing in myriad, difficult-to-predict ways.
This process is an accelerating constant that, by its very nature, will still catch us by surprise sometimes, even if we prepare for it.
It’s my sincere hope that we’ll all figure out ways to stay afloat, and will flourish under whatever soggy circumstances we find ourselves in.
But I’m also reminding myself that this will probably be a damp, uncomfortable process, and that collective decisions about what we do next will likely determine how successful (or not) my personal boat-building efforts turn out to be.
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Interesting Links
Swear Words and Profanities From Around the World
A collection of impolite language from around the world, sortable by subject (insults, exclamations, etc) and rudeness (very crude to childishly funny).
“Canada has no shortage of lyrics that pay tribute to the places people call home, with songs like Alberta Bound, Runnin’ Back to Saskatoon, Sudbury Saturday Night, Farewell to Nova Scotia, and Bobcaygeon to name an obvious few.
Whether it’s rock, pop, folk, or blues there are countless artists of all genres, traditions, and communities with songs that tell the stories about the places we live.
The Great Canadian Song Cycle is an unsupported (no van following along) bicycle trip across Canada with a focus on collecting songs about places. The end goal is to provide a song map of Canada populated by artists and their fans, and random interviews en route.”
Seven Ways to Spot a Bad Argument
“False dichotomy: Presenting a complex scenario as if there are only two either-or, often opposing options, rather than multiple options. Think of that famous, often-recycled and even ancient phrase, famously used by President George W Bush shortly after 9/11: "You're either with us or against us." It implied to the international community that they had only two options—back the United States completely, including in its invasion of Afghanistan, or consider themselves enemies. In reality, of course, there were a spectrum of other options nations could take, and kinds of allies (or enemies) they could be.”
If you like this sort of thing, you might also enjoy my publication/podcast about the things that distort the way we see the world, ourselves, and each other, Brain Lenses.
(If you want more links to interesting things, consider subscribing to Aspiring Generalist.)
Poll
The dominant position in last week’s poll suggests that discounts can be a decent motivator (this resonates with me and how I manage my budget), so I’m trying that with my books this week, and I’ll probably slap a discount on an annual subscription to one of my projects next week—thanks for your insights on this (and double-thanks to those of you who emailed to give me some additional context with your answer)!
This week, I’m curious about how you feel like you’re doing in a general sense; how life is going, how you’re feeling physically and psychologically; an amalgamation of all those things (this is something I’ve been asking people in real life, too, with interesting results).
So! On a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being really not very good and 10 being “I can’t imagine a better life than the one I’m living,” how do you feel about your life right now? (Please feel free to shoot me an email or leave a comment explaining your answer.)
Outro
A light case of plantar fasciitis, which I managed to fix with rest, painkillers, and ice-packs, has now become a sprained ankle that may have been there all along (concealed by the more intense pain from the bottom of my foot), but which may have emerged from all the hobbling I was doing while trying not to put pressure on anything too (temporarily) flimsy. So that’s fun.
Also! My girlfriend is back in town after several weeks out on the East Coast, visiting family. It’ll be nice having her back—I missed her!—though of course it’s always jarring to suddenly shift from an abundance of space and a completely self-centering schedule to versions of both that accomodate the needs and whims of another person.
Balance. Trade-offs. Etc.
Life!
What’s going on in your neck of the woods? Any weird weather stuff happening? Big (or small but meaningful) life changes? Drop me a message and tell me what’s been going on, and/or take a moment to introduce yourself—I respond to every message I receive and would love to hear from you :)