Digging for Fire

Ben Thompson's aggregation theory posits that the internet created an entirely new disruptive business paradigm, because for the first time in history, products could be distributed with zero marginal cost.

Now, large language models have triggered a second wave of disruption: while the internet eliminated distribution costs, AI is eliminating creation costs – making software essentially free at every stage.

Internet = zero marginal cost

A little housekeeping post, with a few updates to the website.

First of all, if you're reading this in your RSS reader, THANK YOU for keeping the dream alive.

You might like to click through for this post, because I've made some small changes to the website.

I was inspired by something I saw on Joshua Wold's blog a few days ago. He was reflecting on why we write.

When I sit down to put words to the page I have an idea of what I want to write. But I’ve purposely chosen not to plan it out.

The experience is much the same for me, except that sometimes I don't have an idea of what I want to write.

My method for practicing bass guitar is based on the Circle of Fifths, inspired by a method taught by Scott Devine.

The Circle of Fifths is a music theory concept which links each of the 12 notes in a sequence. Start with a note, and increment it by 5. Play that "fifth", and then increment another five. As a bit of code, it could be expressed like this:

Every so often you'll come up with an idea that you're pretty sure nobody has tried yet.

99% of the time you're wrong.

But I think our invention of the turn-based podcast falls into that 1% of truly unique ideas.

Joshua and I have been working asynchronously for nearly our whole careers. So when we started a podcast that required a scheduled calendar event every week, something didn't quite sit right for us. So we decided to try something really different.

The podcast is called Async, and you can find it on all the best podcast networks. It's a podcast about technology, app development, and remote work. The unique aspect is that each episode alternates between hosts, switching back and forth between Joshua and me. This allows our conversation to unfold gradually over multiple short episodes.

Since this episode-to-episode asynchronous exchange is a new idea, I thought it would be good to define the term "Turn-Based Podcasting" a little more, and talk about the pros and cons of this novel format.

On a drive with Talia yesterday, I wanted to tell her about some of the interesting things I discovered while writing my Input 2024 post. The conversation went something like…

Saadia

Talia

Saadia

Talia

Saadia

You might have heard about this "Indie Web" movement, also called the "Small Web", "Web 1.0", or "Geocities Web". It's a push to reclaim something about the internet that we lost along the way. I think that something was, specifically, RSS.

Since 2021, I've recorded every Book, Film, and Television series I've seen each year.

Usually, I'll write a round-up post at the end of the year with long lists of every title. For my 2024 roundup, I've decided to keep it a little more succinct.

Those who know me know that I think a lot about Input and Output. What creative information do I take in, and what creative acts do I undertake? I believe a healthy mind has a good balance between these two.

Here are the best and worst of my Inputs for 2024.

Growing up, we always showered using (what my Italian mother called) a straccio. It wasn't until I was old enough to shop for myself that I encountered the plastic "shower puff", known also as a loofah1.

That word – loofah – occupied a very singular place in my mind (synthetic shower accessory) until a few years ago, when I discovered a loofah growing in my garden.

The crazy part was… that cucumber-like fruit turned out to be exactly the same thing.

Twenty twenty-five is such a great number.

Check this out: (20 + 25)² = 2025!

And if that doesn't convince you: (0 + 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5 + 6 + 7 + 8 + 9)² = 2025.1

Clearly we're living squarely in auspicious times.2

In 2024, I led a series of Film & TV classes for a small group of homeschool students. The curriculum was designed to explore a variety of tasks and topics, offering the students insight into different career paths within the filmmaking industry.