Weeknote 730 – Fifteen Years

Remarkably, this Wednesday saw the 15th Anniversary of my very first weeknote.

Remarkable because I picked up on the technique by reading about it in a paper copy of Wired magazine (for younger readers, a magazine was like a blog printed on paper. For even younger readers, a blog is like a really overly wordy version of TikTok).

Remarkable because it’s a habit that I have (with exceptions once in a while for things like holidays) have kept up for a decade and a half.

Remarkable because that’s almost half of my entire working life. (I’ll try not to dwell on the fact that it’s not quite the whole half of my working life).

The format has changed over the years. I’ve had five employers over the years. I’ve been on the client side and the consulting side. There have been highs and lows.

The really scary thing is that there are now fewer than 15 years left before, technically, I could require. I’m not going to dwell on that either.

Things I have learned this week:

How much easier it’s getting to write code using ChatGPT.
That we’ve now “come out” about the format of Random the Book I feel a lot happier about the project.
Watching the preview of Emiliana Torrini’s The Extraordinary Miss Flower last week at the NFT was a huge creativity inspiration.
Two questions I have to ponder about GenAI – firstly, what existing technologies is it likely to replace.
Secondly, are we likely to see two layers of AI intervening between humans, and root cause issues not only being ignored but made even more complicated to resolve properly in the future? (That’s a leading question.)
Everyone, every so often, should set up a Linux PC to remind themselves how easy most consumer computers are to use these days.

The week in media:

Listened

my monthly new album stock consists of latest releases from Katy J Pearson, Miki Berenyi Trio, Sean Kuti and Billie Nomates
a couple of songs live from Emiliana at the film preview.

Read

a history of children’s literature, The Haunted Garden. This quote from the early chapters has been sticking in my brain –

“To be a child is to know that you have to grow up. To be an adult is to know that you have to die. And to be a parent is to be in a permanent state of mourning: as you watch your son or daughter grow up, you are saying an irreversible farewell to the child that they were, day by day, month by month, year by year.”

Watched