Thinking Out Loud
I was listening to a podcast recently in which comedian Stewart Lee talked about the comedy, music and local arts scene in London during the eighties. He highlighted how you could make a living out of music journalism at the times, albeit not an especially good one. He also talked about bands and comedians that lived from “hand to mouth” in shared properties and squats. Essentially it was still possible to pursue a career in the arts due to its standing within British culture which meant there was still some local funding as well as the revenue generated by those working in it and adjacent to it. The UK economy was such that is could “accommodate” working in the arts. Sadly, the internet and commodification culture has effectively killed such career avenues. You now need a regular job to fund your artistic ventures, which puts pay to such dreams for many people. You also have use social media to promote your work, which comes with its own set of full-time problems. The world changes but not all changes are for the better.
This post endeavours to curate a variety of random thoughts, diverse ideas and musings, then convey them clearly and concisely for your edification. Here are a few points on various topics that have occupied my mind lately. These may include talking points arising from the relentless news cycle or even those obscure ideas and musings that come to you while lying awake in bed. Many of which I feel do not warrant a comprehensive blog post or extensive analysis. Instead the idea is to provide a paragraph or two for your consideration and then see if any develop into a wider discussion. All of this is brought together under the title “Thinking Out Loud”, which has become a recurring feature on this blog. Please feel free to share your thoughts and insights on any of the topic included in this post, that may have piqued your interest.
Arts and the Economy
I was listening to a podcast recently in which comedian Stewart Lee talked about the comedy, music and local arts scene in London during the eighties. He highlighted how you could make a living out of music journalism at the times, albeit not an especially good one. He also talked about bands and comedians that lived from “hand to mouth” in shared properties and squats. Essentially it was still possible to pursue a career in the arts due to its standing within British culture which meant there was still some local funding as well as the revenue generated by those working in it and adjacent to it. The UK economy was such that is could “accommodate” working in the arts. Sadly, the internet and commodification culture has effectively killed such career avenues. You now need a regular job to fund your artistic ventures, which puts pay to such dreams for many people. You also have use social media to promote your work, which comes with its own set of full-time problems. The world changes but not all changes are for the better.
Family
I recently went to my Aunt’s funeral. She reached the grand age of 98. It was a very celebratory affair, rather than being excessively sad and possibly one of the most positive funerals I’ve attended. It was pleasant to catch up with my cousins and we all noted that we mainly just see each other at funerals, these days. On the journey home I reflected upon the fact that both my parents families, IE their immediate siblings, are now all deceased. Hardly surprising as all were born between 1925 and 1930. Listening to the service for my Aunt, it also struck me how she lived through times and experienced historical events that would strike many young people as utterly alien. Living abroad in a country that was part of the British Empire. Returning to the UK during WWII. Her devotion to the local church that she served for over 50 years. To coin a phrase it’s like something out of a (period) novel. I wonder if my personal history would be similarly considered abstract?
Projects
I started the year with several online projects approaching fruition. These included live streaming, posting regular YouTube videos and a new film review website. All were complete and ready to be launched upon an unsuspecting internet. However, upon reflection it struck me that none of them would yield the results that I wanted, within the time frame I wished. All of them would have to compete for an audience and take time and effort to grow. They would require promotion and marketing which are jobs in themselves. Furthermore, all these projects would eat into the finite amount of leisure time that I have available and have a financial cost. Simply put, I should have done all these things a decade ago when I was more disposed to “playing the game” required to be successful online. Hence the projects all got canned. The overall experience has not been a total right off. I’ve learned a lot. If there’s moral to this story it is don’t put off to tomorrow what you can do today.
Nick Clegg
Having recently read Nick Clegg’s book How to Save the Internet about his time working at Meta and his thoughts on the future of the internet, I decided to see what critics and other readers thought. Like myself, opinions were mixed on the overall content with many feeling him being a little too lenient and deferential to his former employer. However, many thought his arguments for maintaining a global, open internet were well made. Sadly, what I found all too often when reading reviews and readers thoughts, were the same, tedious, partisan criticisms from people who seem incapable of separating their own party politics from their analysis of the book. IE “I won’t engage any of the points raised in the book because I think Nick Clegg was a poor Deputy Prime Minister”. A classic example of “playing the man and not the ball”. Clegg seems to attract this more than some other ex-politicians, due to his liberal, centrist credentials. It saddens me how so many people are uninformed and incapable of critical thinking.
Postal Vote
There are local elections coming up in the UK on 7th May. Where I live we are voting for Councillors who run the Borough Council. When I was caring for my elderly parents, I changed to a postal ballot for practical reasons. Since their deaths, I have chosen not to change back to regular vote cast at a Polling Station. Hence, I have already voted early for these up and coming elections. One of the reasons I have retained a postal vote is because they are vilified by certain political parties, who spuriously claim that they are a means of widespread voter fraud. There is absolutely no data to support this, nor the notion of so called “family voting” and both are examples of deliberate political misinformation and dog whistle racism. Hence I maintain a postal ballot so if I am ever “doorstepped” by a politician or political market researcher, I can reference my means of voting and shutdown any ill conceived and pointless sound bites they choose to trot out.
Thinking Out Loud
When people think about large sums of money, especially in relation to their own salary and any future expectations of wealth, the phrase “a million pounds” (feel free to substitute that with your own currency of choice) will often be bandied about. Culturally it quickly conveys the concept of a large sum of money and as such, something that would transform your life. Although I am not in any way averse to the idea of winning “a million pounds” on the lottery or by some other means, I’m afraid it is no longer the gateway to wealth that it used to be. In fact a so-called cool million may not even last you a lifetime. UK property prices are grossly over inflated, so you could easily blow 50 to 75% of your money just buying a new house. Perhaps we now need to think in tens of millions instead of just a million with regard to life changing wealth.
Thinking Out Loud is a recurring post in which I present a selection of thoughts and ideas that have crossed my mind recently. As always, some of these could be developed into blog posts of their own but that really isn’t the point. Thinking Out Loud is a vehicle for brief, rhetorical musing rather than log form analysis. I just put a virtual pen to paper and get some of my thoughts written down for your consideration. As always, please feel free to leave a comment.
The Value of Money
When people think about large sums of money, especially in relation to their own salary and any future expectations of wealth, the phrase “a million pounds” (feel free to substitute that with your own currency of choice) will often be bandied about. Culturally it quickly conveys the concept of a large sum of money and as such, something that would transform your life. Although I am not in any way averse to the idea of winning “a million pounds” on the lottery or by some other means, I’m afraid it is no longer the gateway to wealth that it used to be. In fact a so-called cool million may not even last you a lifetime. UK property prices are grossly over inflated, so you could easily blow 50 to 75% of your money just buying a new house. Perhaps we now need to think in tens of millions instead of just a million with regard to life changing wealth.
Projects
The New Year is always a good idea for projects. The weather is often poor and the time of the year is generally quite dull. Hence it’s a useful period to channel all that positive energy (or hubristic bullshit if you prefer) into a new project. I was going to try and write a blog post everyday but that hasn’t quite gone to plan due to “life ™”. So rather than worry about it, I just write as and when I can. The main source of distraction has been a rather ill conceived idea to dust off my YouTube channel. When I first decided to do a podcast back in 2010, I effectively taught myself how to record and edit audio. I became adequately skilled in the process and could turn around a well edited, 60 minute podcast in about 6 to 8 hours. So I recently thought I could do the same again, with regard to editing video.
As my aims are straightforward, IE record some video game footage and then add a narration to it in post production, I decided to go with some basic video editing software. So I decided on Corel VideoStudio 2023 and it does exactly what I need, in an intuitive manner. The only drawback in posting videos to YouTube is the time investment required. It takes a fair amount of time to record, edit and then upload a video to one’s channel. If you then want people to actually see it, then there’s further work to do with regard to promoting it. If this is something I decide to do more often, I can see videos being added on a purely monthly basis. In some respects this project is merely an intellectual exercise, designed to see whether I can do what so many other people do. Personally I prefer podcasts as a medium and still have aspirations to resurrect my former show.
“Work you JAMF”
Learning When Older
According to Google, it becomes harder to learn when older, for the following reasons. “Learning can become harder as you get older primarily because of natural changes in the brain, including decreased neural plasticity, reduced blood flow to certain regions, and a decline in the efficiency of communication between neurons, which can lead to slower processing speeds and difficulty forming new memories, especially for complex information; this is further compounded by potential lifestyle factors like less dedicated learning time and increased distractions as people age”. I’m not going to argue with this explanation but I will add that another factor that makes things difficult is continuous interruptions. Why is it that people find a pressing need to appraise me of all the tedious irrelevancies of their lives when I’m trying to concentrate?
Sorting Your Life Out
When I say “sorting your life out” I don’t mean having a spiritual epiphany or anything philosophical. I just mean doing some rather straightforward administrative tasks that have a deferred benefit. I recently had a new will written which means that as and when I die, Mrs P doesn’t have to endure excessive legal complexities when administering my estate. I also took steps to ensure that I have paid sufficient National Insurance Contributions towards my UK state pension. I am not eligible for this until I’m 67 (in a decade’s time) but there are some major rule changes coming on 5th April this year and I didn’t want to be caught out at a later date. There’s an insidious culture in the UK of “putting off to tomorrow what you can do today” but it’s so difficult to overcome. I guess hitting 57 last December made it clear that I have more time behind me than I do ahead.
TV Quiz Shows
This is actually a picture from the fictional quiz show “Numberwang”
I have watched a couple of daytime UK TV quiz shows recently and was perturbed by the contestants’ low levels of general knowledge. Especially as some had professional jobs. I suspect that the internet is to blame, along with an educational system that is designed so people can pass exams but no more. There is no longer a pressing requirement to retain data anymore, as it can just be “Googled”. People tend not to know anything outside of their career, or see the merit in just knowing stuff. The concept of the “well read” person also seems to be in decline. Which begs the question, who will be tomorrow's renaissance men raconteurs?
Projects
Roundabout this time last year, I started a couple of new website projects. The idea was to do something different to Contains Moderate Peril and write about other subjects. One was about UK politics and the other was about a Panda watching films and TV and making wry comments. I like to cast a wide net. I also wanted to take the opportunity to develop some new skills. It was certainly interesting creating two websites from scratch, using such diverse tools as Wix and Blot. The former provides the means to construct a very modern website with all the latest features. The latter is quite the opposite, providing a lean and minimalist service. Twelve months later, both projects have proven very useful and I have a better understanding of what is required to maintain an online presence in 2024. As they have now served their purpose, both sites are now offline.
Roundabout this time last year, I started a couple of new website projects. The idea was to do something different to Contains Moderate Peril and write about other subjects. One was about UK politics and the other was about a Panda watching films and TV and making wry comments. I like to cast a wide net. I also wanted to take the opportunity to develop some new skills. It was certainly interesting creating two websites from scratch, using such diverse tools as Wix and Blot. The former provides the means to construct a very modern website with all the latest features. The latter is quite the opposite, providing a lean and minimalist service. Twelve months later, both projects have proven very useful and I have a better understanding of what is required to maintain an online presence in 2024. As they have now served their purpose, both sites are now offline.
I like to learn new skills. In the last two decades, several that were previously considered niche markets and specialised, have become far more accessible and commonplace. Audio and video production is something that millions of people do on a daily basis on social media, be it on their phones or via a desktop PC. It’s a spectrum of complexity with simple montage videos on Instagram at one end and professional quality edited documentaries on YouTube at the other. These skills are no longer gated behind formal studies or “closed shop” institutions. Anyone can learn them. I have some experience in producing a podcast and have recently decided to explore video production. I have set myself the goal of learning to film, edit and produce a video of acceptable quality. If that can be achieved efficiently and without bloodshed, then I may consider its broader application.
Over the years, I have learned some simple and practical rules that I follow when embarking on a new project. Some of which I found out the hard way. They can be applied to relatively simple undertakings such as starting a blog, to more complex and expensive endeavours such as establishing a YouTube channel.
Set realistic expectations: It will take time to learn a new skill and be able to apply it. Don’t expect to be instantly good at it. It’s something you’d explain to a child but so many adults still make this mistake.
Do your research: The internet makes researching a subject a lot easier than it used to be. Guides and FAQs are abundant. However, don’t allow yourself to be sidetracked by excessive research and don’t allow yourself to be paralysed by choice.
Don’t spend any money until you need to: Don’t buy the tools for a job until you’re sure that you want to do it. If, for example, you want to try blogging, then use a free account and see if it is a viable hobby before buying a domain.
Stand on the shoulders of giants: There are numerous guides available online that can help you achieve your goal. You don’t always need a complex bespoke solution. Follow an established methodology if it produces the results you want.
Don’t let perfect be the enemy of good: It is okay to have a few rough edges. Sometimes the quirks and foibles add character. Slavishly seeking perfection means you’ll never complete your project.
Projects are a learning process. It is therefore important to remember that if it doesn’t yield the results that you are anticipating, then it is fine to end it. It is also realistic to acknowledge that some skills may elude you. You may not be able to learn them for a wealth of reasons and if that is the case, it is wise to strategically withdraw rather than torment yourself by beating your head on a brick wall. Another thing to consider when embarking upon a personal project is that you get to set the deadline and all relevant metrics. Rome wasn’t built in a day. Don’t set yourself up to fail by impractical criteria. I intend to enjoy my latest project and am therefore approaching it in a leisurely fashion. If I work within the parameters I’ve set and follow my five rules, I think I should quickly determine whether or not I will succeed or not. That being said, I am optimistic of a favourable outcome.
