Busy work; Podcasting is radio; Boring platforms
💡Think
Hello from San Francisco!
I'm visiting for a team offsite, where we're (I think) going to spend the week catching up, planning, strategising, and all the other business things you do in person.
I've slowly but surely come round to the idea that being in-person is way better than working remotely. Sure, I can be incredibly productive when at home, but work isn't all about...the work.
Judging tone, intent, and ability is just really difficult when your relationships are only digital, or on a Zoom call when one person has just woken up and the other been on a computer for 8 hours already.
A hybrid model is my bet for the future of work.
Have a great week 🕺
📷 Look
📖 Read
❶ Why are you so busy?
This one hits home for sure. We are all notification bashing like we work at the fairground. Slack! Email! Twitter! Zoom! All at once. It turns out that the tools we built to make us more efficient have only increased our distraction and busyness. It reminds me a bit of the decentralisation of TV so that we now have subscriptions to ten different services rather than one.
❷ Podcasting is just radio now
I honestly struggle to get through all the podcasts on my phone. If every one is an hour long, how are you supposed to? The always-on demand from the platform is basically turning it into either something we get sucked into forever, something that we will ignore and it'll phase out, or basically what it was supposed to replace – the radio.
❸ How platforms turn boring
Remember when you used to scroll Facebook endlessly, and then you just kind of stopped? And then maybe Instagram? And now you're scrolling through TikTok the same? Over time, these platforms go through a phase "this is cool" to then being addicted to it, and then being bored by it. Why is that?
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Bonus round
If you're a designer and struggling with your career ladder, this might help
🎧 Listen
I couldn't find a good one this week! Use this as an excuse to go outside for a walk 🚶