Daily writing has a way of losing focus. I dive down metaphorical rabbit holes all the time, and yet I’d be the first to tell you that such things are not just okay, but a kind of magical side effect of creativity. A perk.
As I collect topics and ideas to fill these pages I have gone down one particular hole multiple times and at times have risked turning this writing project into something else entirely.
The bad part of that is losing focus on something I care about—creative pursuits—and is not (strategically speaking) the direction in which I want to take this project.
The good part of that diversion is I that I do in fact have the time, resources and inclination to pursue those topics in another place.
All this is to say that as of this month I’m going to be (trying to)maintain two daily writing projects—yikes!—and write on two different topics.
Here, on “Dispatches from Nowhere” I will keep on track with my ramblings related to creative motivation, insights into building skills and habits to make stuff, and write about the interesting (at least to me) hobbies that clutter my life.
Over on “on poets & processors” I am building a new site around the topic of the dehumanization of art and creativity by algorithmic competition: how AI is invading the creative spaces and simultaneously stealing work while probably, maybe, sort of creating interesting new opportunities… and what’s the deal?
Advance warning: there may be some cross posting, but as they veer off down different paths I suspect it may turn into more of a cross-site conversation. Or, whatever: what do I know, I’m not a machine here.
Check it out.
Terms FROm this POSt
- algorithm
- The modern internet in all its forms is far too large for people to fully manage anymore without the help of automated systems. Any time an unseen calculation weighing our public profiles against what an app, website, or service chooses to show us, one of these automated systems is at work behind the scenes recommending product, ideas, politics, and friends. The invisible hand of fate has turned into a digital calculation so big we can’t understand it, and so complex it is often hauntingly accurate. If you are not afraid of the algorithm and what it has done to our society, you are probably not paying enough attention.
- metaphorical
- Some of us are literal, and many of us think in metaphor and analogy. I often drift into the latter category and I will fully admit it shades my writing and how I try to explain things. Sometimes I catch a glimpse of this and call it out. Oh, how meta.
