Coffee; Paranoia; Hypergrowth

I wrote an article (included below) in 30 minutes today. This is normally how I work, because I get either bored or distracted on things that take a long time.

So I thought I’d share something about my process for producing, well anything, so try and explain how that is even possible.

I’ve had a sticky note on my desk for the article idea for about 6 months, which is normally how things work. This means that it’s not simply a case of sitting down, opening a blank document, and writing at speed to finish the idea.

It’s something I usually describe as “breathing through your work”, which to me means letting ideas sit in my head for a while and then when I come to work on it, it kind of just flows out onto the page.

This is also a pretty neat method for getting over creative block too, because we can let our brains work out the answer without realising. I guess what I’m saying is it’s okay to slow down and come back to things later on.

This newsletter is generally a great read, but this post felt like something you’d all enjoy. It loops around the idea that we are all judging places, and therefore ourselves by how much it costs to buy a cup of coffee, expanding out to what gentrification does to the concept of “value”. It’s good.

Do you own a Ring (or other) security camera? The rise in at-home surveillance is about to enter new ground, with the idea expanded to vehicles. Ford are releasing a system for just this, and we should pause to think about it. We’re entering a realm where our property is treated like something that requires a “safety zone”, because everyone is a suspect and we need to protect our territory – the author intentionally uses war terminology in this piece, and I don’t think it’s an exaggeration.

This is a useful article if you’re either interested to know what hypergrowth is, or are experiencing it yourself at work. It’s a bizarre rollercoaster of a ride, and the word “hyper” certainly sums it up well. This piece was written by someone who worked at Dropbox throughout their hyper stage, and spells out their top lessons for this interested in what it meant there.

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If you’re not familiar with Adam Curtis, I highly recommend watching his documentaries. They are a cynical look at global structures, the media, and how we’re kind of all puppets. This podcast is an interview with him, where he eloquently riffs on the idea that our generational obsession with ourselves is preventing people from moving forward, causing the political crisis we witnessed in the past half decade. This is from 2017 (woah!), but I listened to it this week and might give it a few more listens because of how impactful it was on me.

Listen to this podcast (1 hour 21 minutes)

Spotify – Apple Podcasts