Author: Dave VR

Navigating without Sat Nav

I was loaned a courtesy car recently. It had no sat nav. In fact you couldn’t even connect your phone to it. It was slow and well-used, and basic.

It was great.

No one could reach me and I had to navigate old school, by looking at signs and landmarks. It took me back to when I first learned to drive. My first car didn’t even have a working radio. The thrill and freedom of owning a car, being able to go wherever you wanted when you wanted was enough. You didn’t need tech to keep you entertained, to keep in touch with people when driving, or to navigate.

Just you and the car.

It was nice.

Treacle vodka

I saw someone drinking a treacle-coloured alcoholic drink recently and it immediately took me back to my University days and a drink some Scottish friends of mine would drink: Treacle vodka.

They would place a bottle of vodka in the freezer and leave it there. It would never freeze but it got very cold. Later they would place ice in a glass with Irn Bru and pour the cold vodka over it. Voila! Treacle vodka. A lethal drink but great for late night coding or gaming.

I wonder if anyone still drinks it?

That’s the price

I hate it when you know that people are price gouging, or that you can buy something cheaper elsewhere, or online. But I want it now. Convenience buying, and pricing.

I’ve come to realise something: That’s the price.

It comes down to supply and demand. People are free to set the price of something to whatever they want, no matter how you feel about it. You don’t have to buy it, but if you do you have to pay the price stated.

Either pay it or move on. What’s the option? There’s no point moaning about how someone is ripping people off. So what, it’s called commerce. If people are willing to pay it then there is sufficient demand for it at that price. Otherwise they’d lower the price.

That’s the price.

Technology of the past

I walked by a public payphone. One of those old red boxes you hardly see anymore. There was a phone inside. Also rare. Not a collection of second hand books or a defibrillator. An actual phone.

It took me back to my University days. I practically lived in those phone boxes. I knew where every one was within walking distance of campus. I didn’t have a mobile phone, yet. I used calling cards to phone friends all over the world. We used messaging services and mailboxes.

I started thinking about all the technology I used to use that my children will never use, or possibly see, outside of a technology museum. My Grandma’s rotary dial telephone. The kitchen phone with its long curled cable so you can hand the phone to someone in the dining room. The VHS player, or VCR. Cassette players, record players, mini disc players, even CD players. Full fat TVs, walkmans, pagers, PDAs, and tiny flip phones. All gone, replaced with the latest technology and digital streams.

There’s still a few public payphones around though. For now.

Bad associations

It’s interesting how the brain, or memory, can associate bad things that happened, with objects. For example I see a Skoda Fabia and I instantly think of the time a kid out for a joy ride tried to run me off the road in one. I have a bad memory associated with that particular model of car. So when I was loaned one recently my brain immediately went oh no. Yet there was nothing wrong with the car itself, only a bad association.

Objects can trigger memories, good and bad. Having bad associations can affect your decision making. You may be less likely to make use of something if you have a bad memory associated with it, even if the memory is not of that object itself being bad in any way. And that can be a bad thing in itself. Especially if the object in question could be good for you, or is the best option in the current situation.

One thing you could do is to rewrite the narrative. Try and find some good to associate with the object, to counteract the bad, or cancel it out entirely. With the Skoda, my friend had one for years and loved it to bits. It was her favourite car. It served her well and even I had a few lifts in it. It wasn’t the car that was bad in my association, it was the driver. So switch the narrative to them, not the car.

The car is just one example. We all develop these bad associations over time. We link them to foods, drink, vehicles, people, places, and just about anything.

It’s worth looking at the memory as a whole and working out where the actual bad lies.

Career Vs just getting paid

Life is just a game. Careers are just a part of that game. Some people take it way too seriously. Optimising their chances to get to the top of some perceived career ladder, with each rung a goal that they have set for themselves. Reaching each rung, achieving each goal, the top of the ladder ever closer. Yet everyone is playing a different game with every game both separate and overlapping. Beating the competition to obtain a job role that will help you get nearer to your end goal.

Look at LinkedIn. It’s a forum for those who play the game. Making contacts that can help you achieve your goals. Promoting yourself, talking game theory, planning, techniques. Hours spent playing the game.

Go back a generation or two and everything was different. It wasn’t all about having a career it was just about working, earning a wage in order to pay the bills, to live. True, there were some who wanted to rise to the top of their field. Probably banking or government. The rest were just happy to be earning. Work was something you did to get paid.

Finding the right angle

The trick with guest speakers is finding the right angle. Working out what makes them tick. Where their true passions lie. Then work out if there is a talk there, something worth speaking about.

I’ve sat through some dull talks in my time. Delivered in a dry monotonous voice where even the speaker is at risk of falling asleep, reading from a well rehearsed script with overloaded dull slides. Nothing to grip you or to keep you in the present and out of the land of nod.

I’ve had to source speakers for events. Suggestions from friends and colleagues and the internet are useful. Most of the good speakers either cost too much or they just repeat talks they’re given many times before, and to be honest, you can probably watch for free on YouTube.

The trick is to find a new angle, a variation of the subject they are experts in. Maybe you heard about an experience they had or how they solved a particular problem. Maybe you heard about their hobbies and interests and how a particular subject complements them. Talk to them, research them, find out what makes them tick, what makes the fire behind their eyes light up. What are they passionate about? Now see if there’s a talk there, even a small one.

You want to entertain your audience, inform them, and stimulate those neurons. Find the right angle and help your speakers deliver amazing talks.

Refining RSS feeds

I’ve written my own RSS feeds, by hand. A long time ago now. I still like the idea of not having to visit a website to look for articles of interest, to have everything from your favourite sites all in one place, updated in near real time fed straight into my phone.

There can be too much noise though. I find myself refining often, like an OCD minimalist. Sorting, organising, refining. Ensuring that there is less noise and more signal. Until nothing gets through and you miss stuff. So you add it all in again and start refining once again. Repetitive.

Interests change, so you have to cull what was once interesting but is now dull. You add new content. Browse today’s trending topics. Anything worth adding? Adding and refining.

RSS. Refining Signal Streams.

Big expenses

Whenever I’m faced with big expenses they always seem to arrive at inappropriate times, where you really need whatever needs fixing to continue to work right now. You are presented with a quote and it’s big, like really big, like I can buy a cheap car with that sort of money big.

You have to make a decision quickly. What are your options? Just pay it, find an alternative, try something else time allowing? I try to buy time to find a more financially pleasing option, but there never is one. So you have to make a decision quickly with whatever info you have at hand and hope it was the right one.

New boilers, house repairs, car repairs, medical bills, you name it. Big expenses are everywhere. Just waiting to strike at the most annoying moment when they can cause the most annoyance. Hitting your wallet where it hurts the most.

ChatGPT vs Google

It used to be just Google it. You want an answer to something? Type it into a search engine, most probably Google. Easy.

These days people are turning to AI for answers rather than search engines. You want to know how to do something? Ask ChatGPT. Need a complex calculation done? Just ask the nearest AI. Simple.

ChatGPT Vs Google.

Of course Google now features AI. So not only is that heavily SEO’d internet content competing for your attention with sponsored links, it has AI to contend with too. Type your query into Google and the first response to any question is usually AI.