What I will write about from now on
... and WHY, and how, and YOUR part in it.
I still believe that YOUR rights and quality of life depend every year more on how software in all its forms, including robots, cryptcurrencies and AI, is used AROUND you.
From now on, however, I will also write here about all the other, many faces of the current crisis. That is, in more or less random order: climate change, families and parenting, overconsumption of natural resources, inequality, mental health, pollution, education, and other major obstacles to a fairer society.
This multi-faced look at things will be very likely bad for finding and retaining “followers”, because many people seem to prefer very specialized, single-topic “sources” these days.
But on one hand, I find it necessary, because a recurring topic here will be that those crises are all related, and cannot be solved independently. For example, I do think that climate change is real and man-made. But I also see it is only a symptom of something bigger and deeper inside us, which must be fixed first.
On the other hand, I just don’t care anymore about extending my audience with all the usual tricks.
I’ve stopped caring about any form of Search Engine “Optimization” because, in an age when search engines use one’s SEO efforts to find which sources to leech first with “AI”, but keep them hidden from people, it just doesn’t make sense anymore.
I’ve stopped caring about social media optimization too. I do try to remain and advertise my work on social media, because I accept that if I want people to hear my message I need to go where they already hang out... but I refuse to play by their rules:
unless it’s some really throw-away thingy, I will always POSSE, that is “Publish (on your) Own Site (1), Syndicate Elsewhere”
when I’ll post on social media, I may sometimes add a picture to each post even when it wouldn’t be necessary, and (usually) surrender to the totally idiotic practice of putting “link in the first comment”, but nothing more
and I will try to post as little as possible, not whenever the algorithm says I should do it
Ditto for Substack, of course. I’ll try to post here once a week, but sometimes it will be more, sometimes (as lately) much less. Without AI generated images.
What you can do / your part in all this:
I have stuff to say that several competent people agree it’s worth knowing. But I don’t want everybody to agree with me. I want everybody to know the issues I write about, instead of ignoring their existence and interconnections, so they have no excuse to not make their own informed decisions about them.
This, plus my dislike for the subscription economy (see “unusual request” here for details) is why none of my writing is paywalled, and will remain such (1). But of course, the more concrete support I get, the more I can write. So, thanks for helping with any combination of:
comment my posts and recommend this blog (NOT “substack” (1)!) here on Substack
share my posts outside Substack, as you can
send one time donations for any amount you want, via PayPal (mfioretti@nexaima.net) or LiberaPay (for other means, just email mfioretti@nexaima.net)
connect me with any organization or community who may need a researcher, speaker, teacher or popularizer
giving advice about the next paragraph
and then yes, why not, even becoming Substack paying subscribers
Other media?
Much more often than not, on the Web a thousand words is worth more than an image or video. Text is hugely easier to reuse, share and preserve, and more respectful of users’ time too: skimming text to get its gist is way faster than doing the same with its audio or video versions.
Besides, while I have spoken around the world many times, I am good at writing. I was definitely not born a video or podcast person. Should I ever set up a podcast or YouTube channel, it could never be much more than me repeating my written posts vocally. If you think that doing so would still be enough to significantly increase my reach and are willing to share detailed advice, by all means please do it, and thanks in advance!
(1) Very IMPORTANT Reminder: this is not a newsletter, or “a Substack”!
This is just a newsletter-based temporary interface to my blog that’s been online since 2007 and will surely outlive Substack.
I was forced to adopt a newsletter interface by bad Web habits, but over time (remember POSSE?) I will copy all the posts here on the blog, and replace their content here with links to the new locations.