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People who are certain
I see this quite a bit in the industry I work in. People come along and talk with great certainty. Great certainly about their ability. Great certainty about how you should run your business. Great certainty that they have some magic insight which makes their opinion more valid than others. These people of great certainty also seem to thrive upon the humiliation of anyone who does not agree with them. They claim they’re ill informed, they’re not clever enough. Sometimes they’re just idiots (replace that with a multitude of words filled with more venom). I find that, given enough time,…
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The algorithm of intolerance
Most people will encounter a breadth of opinions and viewpoints about almost every issue. You think one thing, and it turns out that many of the people you know think differently. Over time, I think that this exposure to alternative points of view causes you to question the certainty you have about your own thoughts. You may still believe things, but you’re inclined to realise that other people differ from you, and that that’s okay. It’s not perfect and it certainly does not work all the time, or for everyone, or for every issue. People will disagree, but you get…
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Being important
It’s nice to be important, but it’s more important to be nice. No idea who said this first, but follow it, and I suspect that you’ll have a jolly fine life.
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Empires
I’m sure that if you were a citizen of any of the following empires at the height of their power, you’d have had no idea that it was possible that the empire would one day come to an end. “We are too powerful”. “There’s no adversary in sight which can match us”. “We’re too important to fall”. You can imagine dozens more proclamations like that, I’m sure. However, they all do fall. Slowly at first, and then suddenly, all at once. Historians do the job of joining up the dots and fitting the whole jigsaw together, because the people in…
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Dear Capitalism
Dear Capitalism. I think that it’s time that you sat down and had a long hard think about your actions. Sincerely, 95% of the population of Earth.
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Being nice
Can you find anything wrong with this sentiment: I like it when people are nice to me. I doubt that you can. If people are nice to you, it makes you happy. By extension, if you are nice to other people, you will make them more happy. In the year 2025 we seem to have forgotten this bedrock principle of life. Do I need to say more?
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I’m profoundly lucky
It’s the time of the year in which I find that I have more time to reflect upon life. Apart from the normal gratitude for my health, family, security and normality / predictability of my life, the thing that I’m most grateful for is WordPress. The ability for me to express my (mostly banal) thoughts and reach much of the world (should they wish to engage), is something precious and remarkable. This point bears further pondering. I have an idea, I log in, type, upload images and hit publish. It’s there for those able to browse the internet, all in…
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Podcast no-show
You might not know, but I make podcasts in the WordPress space for a living. I talk to people about their products, services and their involvement in the WordPress community. One of the things that I do to make life easier for myself, and the guests that I have on the podcast, is to provide an online calendar booking system. People go to my booking page, book an appointment for a podcast recording. It’s really easy to do. This does however present me with the problem that I’m allowing an online booking system to control my calendar. If someone books…
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I hate Ikea, usually
One of the least enjoyable things I can imagine doing is going to Ikea. The fact that millions of people go there “for fun” is quite beyond by comprehension. There’s almost nothing I’d rather do less. So yesterday, when we embarked upon our annual trip to Ikea, for the pre-xmas purchases, I knew I was in for a rough time. Here’s my problem with the whole Ikea thing: Having said all of that, I went yesterday, and enjoyed it. I have no idea what’s wrong with me. Perhaps it’s my age. A bump on the head that I don’t remember?…
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Wireless headphones
I recently bought a fairly inexpensive, but pretty good (to my ears), wireless headphones. They’re the over-the-head type, not the in-ear ones. The noise cancellation is remarkable and it’s a complete revelation! They sound great. I’m not really all that sure how headphones could be x5 the cost. Can they really sound x5 better?!? I bought the TOZO HT2 Hybrid Active Noise Cancelling Wireless Headphones. One really nice thing that I had not considered was that it can connect to the TV. I like to work with other family members about, but I’m useless if there’s lots of noise, or…
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I love where I live
If you know me, you know that I love the place where I live. However, it’s easy to forget just why you love it. I went down to the coast today with my camera and watch Santa sail in on a fishing trawler, to the delight of countless young children gathered there. It was a real moment of re-remembering why I love where I live. The people, the coast, the sea, the architecture.
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I love stumbling upon things, like this church
Today I decided to go for a walk. I picked a random place on the map, drove for 20 minutes and got out the car and started to walk. I stumbled upon a church, walked up the path and pushed the door, expecting it to be locked. To my surprise, it was open, and in I went. It was a beautiful church and I got enormous pleasure wandering around, knowing that I had no intention of visiting it.
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I’m not that house proud
I’m not normally house proud. I can cope with a fairly high level of mess and chaos. However, today, I decided that I was going to do a huge tidy up. Root and branch. Top to bottom. You know what, it feels good. Today I’m feeling house proud. I should do this every decade or so. P.S. I cannot cope with untidy cables. I’m cable proud to a ridiculous degree.
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Modern life is technologically remarkable
I’m sitting here, writing on a laptop. The innards of this machine are utterly remarkable. The things going on in there as I type, and the miracle of the manufacturing of it, are mind-numbing. I’m going to hit publish in a moment and these words will fly over a breathtakingly complex (TCP/IP) stack of technologies. The bits will fly at close to the speed of light though countless routers and computers. They’ll end up on an equally breathtaking set of technologies that I rent by typing some numbers into a screen, which then magically links to my bank. Over to…