Rebelle = Love In Action

My kind of 5am! Quiet cup of chai + Derek Sivers’ brand new book.

Here’s why.

If your entire thought stream can be boiled down to a sentence or two, why don’t you make like Derek Sivers, or Seth Godin, and just write a sentence or two? Save us all the trouble, lighten up some server loads, and relieve Mother Earth the burden of cost to support the rest of the junk?

Or be like Mr. Money Mustache, or Colin, who correctly place their short thoughts where they belong: on Twitter. And save their best essays for their blogs. If I came for a Tex Mex smorgasbord and margarita fest, why are you handing me a Fresco bean burrito and pushing me out the door?

If your entire thought stream can’t be boiled down to a line or two, then I ask this: why are you directing the intelligent human being, who is engaged in reading your writing, straight to the cliff notes section? What presumptions did you make about them? And about your own content?

If those presumptions are true, do we even need to be here right now?

Most importantly: what human behaviors are you encouraging, by this choice?

Are you shooting for lowest common denominator? Or the highest caliber minds?

#goingmeta I would guess it’s a semiotic tribalism key for techie types: used subconsciously by the coders, no-coders, and general geeks.

#goingki On the other hand, it is rather delightful to encounter the semi-colon. Which is a rare species these days in the wilderness of the current internet.

Perhaps that alone explains the popularity of TL;DR!

That is all.

*Thoughts do not apply to technical reviews, which is the only place I believe TL;DR belongs.

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In our morning coffee today, my partner shared with me this gutpunching wisdom bomb from Nina Turner’s grandmother. (For those who don’t know, Nina Turner is the burning soul fire of the Bernie campaign.)

#1: The Wish Bone. Holding the vision. “The Dream is the Driver.”

#2: The Jaw Bone. “The courage to Speak Truth to Power.”

#3: Back Bone. None of it matters, unless you have the strength and willpower to stand up for your values.

Watch her 1:11 minute video. Gives me chills.

Two black men were lynched this week in California.

Robert Fuller and Malcolm Harsch - #SayTheirNames. Countless more have been murdered by the police.

To quote Nina Turner, do we have “the Courage enough, the Hope enough, the Fight enough, the Love enough to do what is necessary?”

Do we, as a country, have The Three Bones?

Thank you, Grandma Turner.

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Shortlink to Markdown on Micro.blog: help.micro.blog/2017/mark…

(aka How to Make Decisions When it Comes to Tech)

The Internet is exploding, the doors have busted wide open. Thanks to the Makers, the Thinkers, the Creators, and good ol’ Donald Trump, people are awakening to the New Internet. Which resembles greatly, for those of us who were lucky enough to witness the early days, the Old Internet.

If a friend called me last year and asked, “How do I make a website for my sewing/band/freelance writing career, as quickly and cheaply as possible?” I would have replied with the canned response: “Weebly or Wix. Squarespace if you have a little cash to spare, and more time.”

Fast forward to 2020, and those 3 services don’t even come up anymore. People who mention Wordpress to me? I have to hold back the laughter. (I have nothing but respect for the people who developed Wordpress, but nothing but frustration for the plugins, processes… the un-user-friendliness of it all.) But for those of you who don’t live in tech world, do you remember Netscape? AOL? Wordpress is quickly becoming that… a dinosaur. For some perspective, just remember how Tumblr was the hot new thing –x– years ago. Anyone remember Pinterest?

The truth is, technology has moved light years ahead in the past few years. Very quietly, very lightly, without fanfare. Big Media doesn’t want you to know about it.

The Maker generation is coming. And it will be a tidal wave.

But, I digress! This post is a note-to-self.

How do you choose, between Landen / Universe / Webflow / Micro.Blog / Substack /etc etc? By the time you read this, some of these platforms may have swept away already. These are FAST MOVING WATERS.

My answers:

1) Go with your gut. In my experience, it’s rarely wrong. And your gut-brain is smarter than we think. (If you don’t know how to tap into your gut, I can show you how to do that here: –z– .)

2) Go with your ethics. Who do you want to support? What aligns best, with your beliefs? And most importantly, who aligns best, with your beliefs?

I myself have been caught in the decision quicksand of “which platform??” for months, perhaps years. It’s like the blue jean shopping experience described by –x– . The truth is, almost every solution will cost you between $5 and $20 a month. The truth is, almost every solution can work. The truth is, I probably don’t need the diamond-studded embroidery down the seams and the hidden tag. Or the 10 hours of “storytelling” marketing campaigns about how cool the company is, or how the founders met.

I just need a good pair of blue jeans. Or in this case, a simple, low-noise platform to get my ideas out.

For me? I’m going with Micro.blog. Because of its ethics. Because of how it came to be. And most importantly, because in this rapidly expanding universe of the interwebs, I keep coming back to Manton Reece, who is a real human being, trying to solve his own problems, and generous enough to share his solutions. I’m choosing to stand in his corner. Can’t wait for his new book to come out!