Bring back Prose tbh
Anything and everything, but probably not that—a blog by endeavorance
Bring back Prose tbh
(Originally posted as a Mastodon thread)
There needs to be a change in the winds of the tech industry. I'm exhausted. Everyone I have worked with in the past 10 or so years is exhausted.
I know a lot of this is just “normal corporate stuff” but we have less and less agency within this industry while facing more demands for infinite growth.
Although I know people are trying—really trying—to make good products, ultimately the goal is “have more monthly active users”. Always. That's top priority. Its exhausting. It means that for any product, the end result is a diluted buggy mess, as the company cycles through heads of product who all think they have “the answer” to make the company turn around.
Somehow, that answer is never “Do the thing that we do, but do it really well“
I often see people bemoaning “needless changes” to products they like. I used to roll my eyes at that and say that's just progress! But increasingly, its really, very much not. Everything is just flatter now. And probably has a custom font. Always has a custom font, really. Because BRAND AWARENESS. Because top of funnel. Because monthly active users.
And then we have an all-hands. And oh! Wonderful! The executive staff takes live questions! Someone will ask a question along the lines of “how do we plan to execute on our new growth strategy without ruining the product?” and the answer will always be a sidestepping placation; because we do not matter. Their numbers and promotions matter.
I'm tired of wrestling with random people's pet projects that they did to score a promotion and brings no actual value to anything. I'm tired of pretending to be excited about upcoming “product strategies” that will win us big this year. And I'm extremely tired of seeing that we fell short of our projected goals, only to learn that we did jaw-droppingly huge numbers, and our goals were just that much more. But triple digit millions is not enough.
Again, I know this is not totally blanket. But it is how it goes at the vast majority of the most known firms. Because its a self-fulfilling prophecy. And individual choice doesn't make much of a difference here, because this isn't a problem with the workers in this industry, its a problem with what is rewarded by our economic system.
But infinite growth is totally a good idea and totally doable. I mean its just the internet, right? It's digital; there's no limits, so its the perfect place to grow infinitely! Right??
Hello world
I wanted to write up a quick post to formalize a few things. Recently, I've been leaning into a more structured (if you can call it that) content cycle; posting a mid-morning news recap show alongside a blog with similar content. I've been really enjoying this format, and I've been getting a lot of positive feedback about it. My intent is to continue to improve and grow this format while still posting a bit more laid back content like gaming and random skits.
However, I have recently found myself stretched far too thin. I definitely have over-committed, and it has been taking a toll. It's honestly disappointing and irritating more than anything else. All I want to do is make fun stuff for y'all, but I have many other obligations at this time. I've mentioned before that this is not my full time gig, and while my north star currently is to move towards a world where that is possible, I still need to keep the lights on.
So in the immediate term, I plan to make a few changes to help make my content schedule more manageable in the long term.
I've been really enjoying having some great discussions with folks on Podcast from a Desk in the Astral Realm, and I am overjoyed with the number of folks who have reached out to come on the show. It's truly humbling. However, managing scheduling and setting aside time to conduct the interviews themselves has proven to be just a bit too much for my schedule at this time.
So for the time being, I will be hitting pause on the podcast. My hope is to keep meeting up with interesting folks here and there—in which case I will post our discussions to the podcast—but I can not commit to a release schedule for the time being.
Though I plan to hit pause on one podcast, I am in the early stages of “launching” another. As I have been working on this new daily update format, I have noted that it could be additionally released as its own podcast. This would take relatively minimal effort, as I would likey be posting the audio from the daily video posts with a few alterations. So if you're more of a listener type, perhaps that would be the best way to get your morning hysteria- I mean uh, news.
No formal date or announcement there yet though. But will alert when I do.
I have mentioned this elsewhere, but I have moved over to Ko-fi back from Patreon. Patreon is just too poor of an experience these days, and the company is uh… not super wonderful to begin with. Ko-fi is far more flexible and enjoyable to use, and I'm hoping to post new and interesting content there. If you want to help me on my journey to becoming independent and making great stuff for folks, that is the most direct way to support me! And thank you!
Eternal thanks for the support so far. As I settle in to my new content schedule, I am hoping that things will normalize a bit. For now, I am getting a handle on things, and hope to continue to improve.
Thanks, and be well. Endeavorance
Kris Holt writes on Engadget...
Google is working on ways to make it easier for folks to switch audio playback to another device when they listen to music or podcasts via Android. The company says it's collaborating with Spotify to let you swiftly move what you're listening to from one Spotify Connect-supported device to another, all from the Android media player.
I mean cool, I guess? But we need industry-wide standards driven by policy to allow for dynamic handoff and cross compatibility between all devices.
AirPods offer an incredible experience when compared to standard Bluetooth headphones. The handoff feature, ease of pairing and general approach to “you just kinda put them on and unlock your phone and it does the thing.” But AirPods pull that off by being incredibly proprietary. Imagine a world where we actually have policy in place to ensure that level of user convenience and enabled actual competition?
Its frustrating. I spent a while trying to help my mother get set up with some generic bluetooth headphones with her iPhone and iPad, and the difference in finnickiness is just staggering.
Sarah Perez writes on TechCrunch...
Want to get a “text” from your dog when he’s hungry, wants to go outside, or wants to play? The dream of being able to communicate with your dog is coming closer to reality with the launch of FluentPet’s new app-connected talking button system.
OKAY I mean, bluetooth connected dogs was not on my 2023 bingo list but it makes sense.
Unfortunately, my dog would likely just smash this button nonstop asking to go outside, then would just stand at the door and stare at me instead of actually going outside.
Pretty wild concept huh. The virtual equivalent of like... dropping pamphlets in your area and then I guess people get really excited about your pamphlet and they make copies and hand those copies out to their friends, and also I guess sometimes you have a pamphlet mailing list.
My metaphor fell apart very, very quickly.
But my point remains: The fact that just the concept of “posting” is a thing. And we can just... do that.
We just do that now, I guess.
aaaannd post!
Monday mornings are rough and made worse by getting spun back up on everything I was doing last week and getting out of the whole “weekend context” or mindset or whatever you wanna call it.
In an attempt to lessen the impact of the first day of the work week, I'm trying to take a big of a slower approach to getting set up in the morning. Quite literally taking things one step at a time: just opening one application or website, catching up on that stuff, taking a sip of coffee and looking out the window for a moment, then moving on to the next.
Doing this instead of opening up everything and diving into the barrage of missed messages and whatnot has made for a much nicer way to get started in the morning.
Anyway, good morning. This was a stop along my way.
Time for a sip of coffee.
Also, abolish the 40 hour workweek.
They don't all have to be thoughtful, massive posts.
Sometimes, they can just be a thought.
Like this one.
I started taking medication for depression and anxiety this year. I'm in a really great place now, but it got pretty bad for a minute there. I didn't realize just how far I had fallen, and I had spent months telling myself that it was just “passing sadness” or “minor burnout” and that I didn't have the right to call it “depression.”
It was a strange place to be in. It wasn't that I didn't believe mental health disorders existed. Quite the opposite—I knew they were real and sympathized with folks who were struggling, but never even considered I could be suffering, too.
I like that name for a blog title. I have never been very good at actually coming up with a particular theme for a blog. I don't really know why I have to. I used to blog all the time when I was younger, and it really didn't matter if I had a theme or not.
So here I am, taking the same approach I've been trying to use with note-taking: write first, worry about the logistics later.
I think since I am an engineer, I want to make sure that whatever I do is future-proof, rigid, thoughtful, organized, etc. That just ends up keeping me in a stasis where instead of actually doing the thing I wanna do—write—I do anything else.
Anyway, a couple month ago I set up a tumblr and used the name “memorandom” for the blog. Well I like it too much for it to not be the name of my actual main blog, which is my intention for this space. So, I've renamed the tumblr and now this is the cool zone.
So hello! Welcome to memorandom. I'll be posting about everything in particular.
Be well 🕊️