A beach trip for a job turned into an opportunity to get a lovely picture of fun bikes on a sunny day. I love this one because it feels like an embodiment of youthful summers. This made the trip out to Malibu, CA more than worth it. 📷
With Amazon on my mind now, I’m reminded of a discussion I had with my wife about the inhumanity of Jeff Bezos, currently the richest man in the world. He’s now valued at nearly $200 billion.
Two hundred billion dollars! He makes around $5,790 a second. More money than any person could ever spend in a lifetime.
Does he engage in philanthropic efforts? Yeah, and those are worthy of note and respect. Could he do a lot more with his gobsmacking, immense wealth? Of course. Does he also devalue the lives of his employees to the point where his philanthropic efforts lose a lot of their luster? Fuck yes.
To be worth that much money, and to hoard it as he does, in a time when so many people in the world are struggling daily in poverty, makes him a greedy dragon inside a gloomy mountain. Indeed, it makes him a villain.
Likewise, anyone worth over a billion dollars could easily be considered villainous.
Give this fascinating and horrifying data visualization a look to consider just how insane this sort of personal wealth really is. As your fingers tire of scrolling, understand that having this much money isn’t worthy of envy. It’s hostile. It’s hateful. That wealth is grown on the backs of all the people, like you and me, that Bezos, and others like him, gleefully stepped on to get to where he is now.
Want to borrow that e-book from the library? Sorry, Amazon won’t let you. ↗
I was led to this story by a Dan Moren post on Six Colors and it was just so remarkable that I had to place it here. I’ll also use Dan’s chosen pullquote:
Turns out, the tech giant has also become a publishing powerhouse — and it won’t sell downloadable versions of its more than 10,000 e-books or tens of thousands of audiobooks to libraries. That’s right, for a decade, the company that killed bookstores has been starving the reading institution that cares for kids, the needy and the curious. And that’s turned into a mission-critical problem during a pandemic that cut off physical access to libraries and left a lot of people unable to afford books on their own.
The reasoning behind this is likely to be something to do with capitalism, competition, and yadda yadda yadda. “We can’t let people have access to our product for free. They wouldn’t be compelled to purchase from us then! Why would we let someone else dabble in our product? How crazy would that be?”
Except the competition in this case are the libraries. They are young people. They are people who can’t afford to buy a brand new book whenever they want or have to read something. They are people who have lost work because of COVID (or any other reason) and are looking to develop skills that could make them hireable in another field.
How could any of that send a shiver down Amazon’s spine? What’s the harm in selling their books to libraries?1
Selling their product to a separate entity they couldn’t fully control would cost them some of their power through that dispersion. It would muddy their clear waters. Once they have that power, why would they ever let go of it? Keeping control over their published materials only benefits Amazon, and they’re more than happy to ensure it stays that way. They will not hesitate to employ their considerable wealth and popularity to maintain their monopolistic position.
At this point, I’m ready to follow in the footsteps of @Burk and escape the Amazon myself. This sort of heavyhanded restriction to stories and knowledge is greedy and harmful. I’m not saying I’m surprised by Amazon’s actions here, but I continue to be disappointed in them. They probably believe that they’re making the world better, or at least more convenient to live in, but when that’s done in the name of profit and under the guise of simplicity and affordability, the world just becomes worse. 📚
-
Rest assured, Amazon would not be providing their books to libraries for free. ↩︎
Twitter introducing Clubhouse features happened a lot sooner than I anticipated.
As Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr said, “the more things change, the more they stay the same."1
-
Except he said it in French with a cool French accent. ↩︎
Central Park was just renewed for a third season on Apple TV+, which is great. It’s a fine show.
Makes me wonder what the first show to be cancelled by them will be. Will that be a thing with Apple, or will it be a place where creators can work without fear of being removed? 📺
Seems that certain establishments in L.A. and Orange Counties could be able to start opening up as soon as this weekend. People are getting vaccinated, but hey, it’s not like we’ve got this thing beat yet! Here’s hoping there won’t be another (possibly inevitable) spike in cases.
I’ll be spending the next couple weeks adding all of my outdated blog posts from my old website to Medium. It’s not an ideal platform, but I do think it can be a good repository for that stuff. More importantly, it’ll create a portfolio of past work for job hunting pursposes.
The Tracking Pixels Are Coming from Inside the Emails!
It’s become damn hard to find services online that respect both its direct and indirect users.
We all know about the well-documented practitioners of invading your personal privacy—Facebook, Google, and the like. Their actions are so blatant and widespread that it’s almost become commonplace.1 They’re not going to start respecting their users until, probably, a collection of large world governments forces them to do so.
It’s a massive hurdle, and one that should be leapt over sooner rather than later.
What feels like a more manageable feat at this time is turning our attention toward smaller entities. I’m thinking of email marketing services. There’s no shortage of options available to someone who wants to blast out an email to one person or a million people. You’re likely familiar with Mailchimp, Campaign Monitor, Constant Contact, and ConvertKit. That’s just a small drop in the email marketing bucket; there are many other options to choose from.
What’s remarkable about all of them is the sneaky way they turn the use of invasive tracking pixels into a feature. Tracking pixels, spy pixels, tracking images, or whatever you want to call them are bits of code placed inside an email. They tend to be small images created by that code, usually the size of a single pixel, that run when a recipient opens a message and loads the content within. They can track numerous aspects of the email you just received:
- Did you open the message?
- How many times did you open it?
- What links did you click or tap on in the email?
- What device were you using when you viewed it?
- Where were you when you opened the email?
All of them offer this ability, and they all describe this feature with jazzy language about its immense benefits. From Mailchimp:
You can easily find out who has interacted with your marketing, and whether they’ve clicked, bought, or downloaded, so you can create more content that resonates with them.
From Campaign Monitor:
Campaign Monitor drives you through the [actionable insights] process with a complete set of reports, giving you the data you need to revise your strategy and exceed your goals.
From ConvertKit:
Understanding how your audience interacts with your emails helps you make better decisions in the future.
What all that boils down to is “we’ve placed invisible code into your email that runs whenever your recipients open them, and all without your or their express consent, because marketing!”
At this point, I should mention that there is at least one email list service that offers the option, and now enables it by default, to turn off its tracking pixels. Buttondown is a service created and “run by a human” named Justin Duke. I’ve enjoyed using it for a while now, and I’ll probably stick with until the end of my days.
I’ve used ConvertKit in the past for Dandy Cat’s email list service. It’s okay. They’re all just… okay. About a year ago, after learning what these tracking pixels are and what they can do, I asked them if it was possible to turn off their pixels. Their official support message was a friendly, but unsurprising “we’re perfectly fine with how our tracking pixels work and will continue making this a feature of our service.”
None of these larger companies have any interest in changing this default behavior, or even giving users an option to turn it off. Why would they? This analytics information is their bread and butter, which is why they’ll never stop using them if they can help it.
In a Daring Fireball post made on September 3, 2020, John Gruber writes:
Just because there is now a multi-billion-dollar industry based on the abject betrayal of our privacy doesn’t mean the sociopaths who built it have any right whatsoever to continue getting away with it. They talk in circles but their argument boils down to entitlement: they think our privacy is theirs for the taking because they’ve been getting away with taking it without our knowledge, and it is valuable.
This was written specifically about ad industries balking at Apple’s use of permission dialogs informing their users that apps may be tracking them. However, I think it also applies perfectly in the case of email marketing services. There’s money to be made from the tracking of their emails, so why wouldn’t they try to grab as much as they can? Nobody’s stopping them. Heck, most people don’t even know they’re doing this!2
They package these tracking features with a neat, clandestine bow and reap the rewards. They sell them as a sorely needed benefit to their users, but it’s really an insidious method of making money. Not only that, but they can get away with it because they include language in their respective privacy policies stating that they collect this information. That in itself is frustrating—“we’re allowed to collect personal and sensitive information about you because we tell you that we’re collecting this information.” Talking in circles is right. You can see this in action in Mailchimp’s privacy policy. Marvel at how dense and filled with legal-ese that thing is.
I can guarantee you that if this technology gets taken from them—the email marketing services, the ad agencies, the social networks—they will collectively cry foul. They would insist that their earning potential, hell, their entire existence, would be in jeopardy because they’re not able to sell our stolen personal information. In fact, Mark Zuckerberg was one of those people that balked at Apple’s decision to implement those tracking permission dialogs in their software. Business Insider reports:
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg took aim at Apple on Thursday over its plans to limit advertisers’ ability to track iPhone users, suggesting the proposed changes could hurt small businesses and, by extension, the broader economy.
During Facebook’s quarterly earnings call, Zuckerberg told investors that “actions planned by platform companies like Apple could have a meaningful negative effect on small businesses and economic recovery in 2021 and beyond.”
I feel we can agree that Zuckerberg’s motivations in this matter are less about the health of small businesses and much more about obscuring Facebook’s boundless tracking of its users. Tracking that has a significant influence on Facebook’s bottom line.
Our private information is currently theirs for the taking, and they sell it off to advertising agencies who use it to display personalized ads on the websites and apps we visit. It’s often said that if you’re not paying for a product, then you are the product. The way the internet has evolved, this saying should be amended to be “if you’re online in any way, then you’re the product.”
It’s all bullshit, none of it should be allowed, and our personal information should be respected far more than it is. I don’t see that happening without powerful intervention, much in the way that GDPR was created intending to protecting citizens of the European Union and the European Economic Area. If that’s what it takes, then I welcome it. Our personal information should be ours alone.
I just wrote about 1,400 words for a future post and I’m feeling great now. The feeling of accomplishment that comes with finishing up the first draft of something can hardly be matched. I think this was a great way to cap off a Monday.
I hope you’re doing well, too. ❤️
Right-wing Idaho activists burn masks, claiming COVID restrictions infringe on liberties ↗
I guess the last year and change doesn’t mean anything to them. “The health of other people? What’s that?”
On the plus side, I think I found my new favorite Los Angeles Times writer. Richard Read reports:
The protesters appear to inhabit an alternate reality, one in which they claim that the coronavirus is no more dangerous than the flu and that public health directives based on science are dictatorial.
That’s some top-notch truth and shade this man is throwing.
I’d ask these people what they think of their fellow citizens’ right not to become infected by the callous actions of these dumb crusaders, but that sort of thing would mean they’d have to think of someone other than themselves.
Dr. Francisco Velázquez, Spokane Regional Health District interim health officer, in an interview for this article:
I don’t think the intent is to violate anyone’s rights, the intent is mainly to protect all of us. I do respect their opinion, but the facts are the facts.
The facts are the facts, but their opinion isn’t respectable. It’s harmful.
This video by Pogo, called Scrumdiddlyumptious, is a great way to start your day. Heck, it’s great at any time of the day. It’s been around for ages, but it’s still delightful. The music, editing, and imagination of it continue to astonish me.
Enjoy the sweetness! 🎵
Paramount+ is now a thing. Best that I can tell, except for swapping out a logo and adding some SpongeBob SquarePants stuff, it’s the exact same thing as CBS All Access.
It still doesn’t even have a watch list! Isn’t that kind of table stakes for a streaming service these days? 📺
Ruby’s been great company for me today, so I wanted to recognize how cute, fun, and delightful she is, even while sleeping. She’s got the stinkiest toots in all the land, but I won’t hold that against her. She’s been a wonderful part of my life for going on eleven years. 🐶
I took my dog to the vet today for a much-needed allergy shot and it turns out she’s about seven pounds lighter than the last time I was there to see her get weighed. She’s still healthy, and is in fact kicking my butt in the weight loss department. 🐶
I’ve been thinking a lot about what I believe is a tendency for men to feel compelled to give their opinion on a topic just because it’s there. How instead can I bring value to discourse? I worry that my pendulum is swinging too far in the opposite direction: complete silence.
Spending time perusing my liked videos on Vimeo feels like visiting old friends. I happened on an old one showing Milton Glaser drawing and talking. It’s a fascinating watch.
I’m unable to draw like him, but it’s still always nice to hear an expert talk about what they love.
My Year of Understanding
i.
Over the years, I’ve tried my hand at the Theme System. It was conceived by CGP Grey of YouTube fame and Myke Hurley of Relay FM fame. I first heard about it while listening to their Cortex podcast. The goal is to throw off the high-pressure, low-results shackles of annual resolutions and instead embrace, as they say, “an idea of how we would like to approach each year or season.”
I think it can be a stellar system if it’s done the right way. In fact, it’s quite hard to do the wrong way, which is nice. Instead of deciding on a single make-or-break goal to complete before the end of the year, you give yourself a guiding principle, or theme, to live by throughout the year. There are no other objectives than to do right by yourself, however that means to you.
Want to live a year of less? Then feel good about cleaning out your closet, buying fewer things, or decreasing the amount of stress you have in your life.
Think a year of gratitude is more up your alley? Be mindful of the things you appreciate and the people in your life.
Or maybe it’s even something like a year of elevation. Raise the needy people around you, or heck, climb a few mountains.
Whatever the case may be, try to adhere to these suggestions:
- Make it meaningful and personal.
- Keep it open-ended—you shouldn’t have a year of only learning a new language.
- Keep track of your progress, however you’d like to do that.
- Use your tracked progress to encourage you through the tough times.
ii.
I tried to live a Year of Growth in 2020. When I came up with the idea, I had my business in mind. I wanted to grow Dandy Cat, garner some attention, and start earning some money. In this way, I did not succeed at living a growth year. The business stagnated,1 and I didn’t grow its audience any larger than it already had been. That was a real disappointment.
It’s taken me a while to understand that a lack of growth in my business doesn’t mean I didn’t live a year of growth. That’s sort of the beautiful thing about the Theme System. It can be vague. Maybe not too vague—there should be some measurable success—but pretty vague. My then-fiancée/now-wife and I moved in together. I learned a lot about my country’s government.2 I started podcasting with a great friend of mine. If that’s not growth, then I don’t know what is.
Getting over the feeling that I didn’t live up to my hopes for the year is a hard thing to accomplish, though. I did a lot of great stuff, but I didn’t achieve what I was hoping for. Did I fail, though? Ultimately, no, I don’t think so—I did a lot of growing!
Maybe I can consider coming to that realization a moment of growth. Hey, extra theme points coming in out of nowhere. Score!
I’m planning on making this year a different story.
iii.
2021 is my Year of Understanding.
Last year was rough on just about everybody. I wish it could have been a lot better, but that just wasn’t in the cards for us. Instead, we’ve gotten a rampaging virus, shaky governments, and insane unemployment rates. We’ve all had to face many tough truths about the world and the people in it. It was a banner year for getting smacked in the face by the cold, indifferent hand of the universe.
2020 also gave us all the opportunity for self-reflection, and I hope you took the time to ask yourself some tough questions. Reflecting on the answers you give can allow you to learn more about yourself.
I tried to take advantage of that tumultuous year to ask myself a few questions. These have been on my mind because they’re the most important ones I need to answer at this point of my life. They’re also damn tough to crack, but I’m going to give them a go. I want to answer those questions because I want to gain a greater understanding of the world and my place in it.
To feel accomplished with my Year of Understanding, I’m going to tackle at least four topics:
- I want to understand what I want from my life more than I currently do. Who do I want to be in the future? What sort of work do I really want to do?
- I want to understand my wife better. I think a relationship is a long voyage of understanding, but it still takes day-to-day effort. I want to be the best person I can be for her, so how do I do that?
- I want to understand how to be a better, more patient son for my mom. I’ve noticed that our relationship has gotten more combative over the years. I don’t like that, and I want it to improve.
- How can I become more kind, understanding, and patient?
There’s a lot I don’t understand about my life and the world. Usually, I’ll just feel upset that I don’t have any answers. I’ll also feel upset that I let my lack of understanding get to me. It’s a pretty unpleasant cycle.
Instead of just feeling frustrated about my ignorance, it’s important to do the harder work of learning about these issues. Gaining understanding without trying to earn it is a rare thing. It’s not worth counting on. Instead, understanding is something that needs to be built, maintained, and allowed to flower.
iv.
My Year of Understanding may end up being a difficult one. Asking yourself tough questions and giving yourself tough answers is a hard thing to do. Most of the time, we don’t ever want to broach these subjects. They’re painful. There’s a fair chance they’ll take the shine off the images we hold of ourselves.
But what good is living in this world, and surrounding yourself with other people, if you don’t try to be better than you were before?
I want to be a better person, and the first step I need to take is understanding myself more than I do now.
Letterboxd Diaries—February 2021
-
Onward: This one’s probably thought of as a “lesser” Pixar film, but I thought it was heartfelt and a lot of fun. They’re able to do that like no one else. (★★★★)
-
The Good Liar: A heist-drama for the older crowd (of which I count myself amongst). I could watch Helene Mirren and Ian McKellen play off each other all day. (★★★½)
-
Avengers: Endgame: This one is as thrilling, engaging, and affecting as it was the first time I saw it. This time I got to enjoy it with my wife, and even she enjoyed it nearly as much as I did. (★★★★★)
-
In & of Itself: I fell into the hype around this one and I’m glad I did. I had no idea what it was going to be going into it, and I think that’s the best way to watch this magical (in many ways) performance. (★★★★½)
-
A Hidden Life: This should really just be required viewing for everybody. I didn’t know the story of Franz Jägerstätter and his family before watching it, but my life has improved in great ways since. (★★★★★)
-
An American Pickle: I think I appreciate the technical accomplishment of this film more than I do the story. It was okay—not that funny, but not painful to watch. (★★★)
-
The Little Things: This might have been Jared Leto’s most appropriate role. Did he even have to act at all? (★★★)
-
WALL•E: I don’t think WALL•E will ever get old for me. It’s an evergreen film that never fails to move and delight me. (★★★★★)
-
What If: Or The F Word, I guess? Can’t make the MPAA blush, so I guess the original had to go. I wish I had seen this one when it came out. Mid-20s me would have loved it. (★★★½)
-
Heavy Metal: This film was certainly of its time and clearly made by a bunch of guys. It was more entertaining than I thought it would be, but I doubt I’ll be remembering it too fondly. (★★½)
-
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse: I can’t say enough great things about this, the best animated film of the last decade. It breathes fresh life into the character of Spider-Man, and shows that another adaptation doesn’t have to be tiresome or stale. (★★★★★)
-
The Girl with All the Gifts: I’d call this a halfway decent adaptation of a halfway decent novel, although the novel had a slightly better ending. The entire concept is fascinating and has echoes of Richard Matheson’s I Am Legend. (★★★½)
-
By the Sea: Aside from this one being far longer than it needed to be, I don’t understand why it was received so poorly. My best guess is that it felt like an old French film, appropriate considering its setting, and people just aren’t used to that anymore. (★★★★)
-
6 Underground: I had more fun watching this movie than I had any right to, and I place that honor squarely on Ryan Reynolds’s shoulders. Was the story and the editing great? Nah, but that’s what you should expect when you start a Michael Bay film. This was just a fun way to spend some time. (★★★½)
-
Loving Vincent: A relatively simple story makes way for a truly astonishing work of art. The entire dang thing is done in oil paintings. I was invested and wowed in this film the entire time I was watching it. (★★★★½)
Total movies watched this month: 15.
I really like Letterboxd, and I think you might enjoy it, too. You should sign up for it if you haven’t already. It’s a great and friendly, movie-based social site. If you’re new or old to it, you should definitely give me a follow on there. 🎥
I’ve just spent a good hour and a half cleaning up my website’s CSS (but I still have a long way to go with that endeavor). I also removed a sneaky bit of HTML font code in my site’s theme that was communicating with Google Analytics. Now it’s all tracker free!
Time for bed. 😴
I’ve been a fan of the podcast, Reply All, for a long time, having started listening to the show since nearly their first episode. The quality has always been excellent and many of their stories have stuck with me since listening to them.
But that appreciation was shaken a couple of years ago when Gimlet, the company that produces Reply All, responded to its staff’s unionization efforts by, essentially, giving them the middle finger. At the time, I didn’t stop listening to the show because I felt that the union would eventually be recognized. This feels like a mistake now, especially since they’re still fighting for recognition. I could and should have supported the Gimlet Union in ways other than continuing to subscribe to a Gimlet show. My presence in their podcast analytics would suggest that Gimlet’s actions are acceptable.
Then this episode popped up into my podcast feed this morning:
Given Gimlet’s actions, it wasn’t a surprise. Is it much of an apology? Eh, kind of. I appreciate that they’re taking time to evaluate themselves, but it also sounds like hosts/producers P.J. Vogt and Sruthi Pinnamaneni are just being allowed to lie low until the heat of this story wears off.
I wanted to investigate this further, so I followed the story, being led to a Twitter thread by former Gimlet employee, Eric Eddings. I encourage you to click through and read it all.
Last week I got an email from Sruthi about Reply All’s Test Kitchen series. I had been avoiding listening but once I did I felt gaslit. The truth is RA and specifically PJ and Sruthi contributed to a near identical toxic dynamic at Gimlet. This will be a longer thread, apologies.
— Eric Eddings (@eeddings) February 16, 2021
This is a moving and frustrating story by someone who was ignored, passed over, and insulted by Gimlet and some members of its staff. It’s sad to know that Eric wasn’t the only one who had to deal with this institutional bullshit at Gimlet.
I’ve since unsubscribed to Reply All. It’s the most meager action I can take, but it is something. If playing a part in hitting them where it hurts—their subscriber numbers—is what I can do, then I’ll happily do it. There’s also this post, which I hope will encourage others to look into the wild power imbalance at Gimlet, understand how their people of color and pro-union employees are treated, and hold Gimlet and its founders, Alex Blumberg and Matthew Lieber, accountable for their abhorrent actions. Throw in Gimlet’s parent company, Spotify, as well. They certainly don’t appear to be doing anything to help the Gimlet Union. I also encourage you to follow the Gimlet Union on Twitter. They’re doing good work.
I enjoyed Reply All, but I can’t continue to support it when its success was built off the backs of the unrecognized and spurned. What I will continue doing is try to learn more about that of which I’m ignorant, such as I was about the toxic culture at Gimlet. And I’ll always appreciate help with that endeavor from people who know more than I do.