What does it mean to be creative now? How many people are genuinely making something new, and not just a derivation of something that came before? So much design in the early 2000s, from the likes of of Designers Republic, was just taken from Japan. Apple products look like Braun products.
A lot of street photographers are trying to recreate that mood pioneered by the likes of Ernst Haas, except now it's easier than ever to capture that perfect photograph.
I think I might draw the line at using AI to create images, though. I can't deny that there is some skill in crafting a prompt that steers things in the right direction, but is this now too far removed from whatever creativity means?
Frequency illusion, also known as the Baader Meinhof phenomenon, is the phenomenon where something you've just noticed, experienced or been told about suddenly crops up constantly. It gives the illusion that it's come out of nowhere, but it's actually always been there. It's just that you've never noticed it before.
Has Carharrt been everywhere all this time, or did I buy a jacket at the very moment that its popularity came around again? Has learning what frequency illusion is compounded this even further?
In 2011 I decided to move to Nottingham, which meant leaving London and my job. While I believe that doing so enabled me to be where I am now, for better or worse, what if I hadn't moved?
- I would have remained in my job with HMV, but I almost certainly would have been made redundant
- I would have had to have moved into some kind of house share, as the 2012 olympics made the rental market in east London even more insane than before
- I think the friends I had would have been lost even if I'd stayed. We just drifted apart
- I may have struggled to find a job in web engineering; I didn't have demonstrable experience and I was able to get my foot in the door as someone was willing to take a chance (to save money, let's be honest)
- I actually believe I may have left the city anyway. It can be a hard and lonely place to live, especially as you get older and the instant access to nice bars becomes much less important
When I was very young, like most little boys, I wanted to be a train driver.
As I got older, I didn't really know what I wanted to do but I was sure I didn't want to work at a desk.
I now work at a desk.
X. Formerly Twitter. And formerly useable.
I ventured back to see how much content was being added by some more notable people in my field, as in it's heyday it was excellent. It's now been ruined by a few changes since the dumbest billionaire in the world took it on:
- People can post massive walls of text. Ok, but that's not really what made it special
- Porn. So much porn. So many women pushing their onlyfans accounts under any post that is close to viral
- People now getting money for engagement means viral posts that would have previously had interesting discussion below is propping up a sea of blue ticks posting unrelated content to get their engagement up
Twitter was never perfect, but we really never know how good things were until they're gone.
It's probably true that on any day spent in a fairly populated area you'll see people you gave never seen before and will never see again.
I don't think there is anything particularly profound about that, but I'd prefer it if I didn't see that person for the first and last time while they're staring at their phone in the middle of a doorway.
For a pointless website like this one, where no vital information is being shared and no one visiting is to be converted into a customer, why does the front page even have to have anything on it?
Book and album covers are reserved for some kind of art or design that hopefully represents what's inside, but not a summary of the contents.
The front page of this site is dreadful. It serves no purpose and was made in a hurry. But I also don't want to have the boilerplate intro to who I am and what I do, only to then need to repeat that on a more complete 'about' page. Maybe it's time to recycle some bullshit I have made in codepen, meaningless shapes made with CSS, and put them front and centre. Hopefully that will be enough to make people leave.