wonders of springtime
flowers within the sunlight
birdsong fills the air
Tonight’s Haiku: April 27, 2025
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Tonight’s Haiku: April 24, 2025
with hints of purple
flowers changing through the spring
new wonders each day
Don’t depend on a single social media platform for your business
I came across this YouTube short today and it reminded me of a key digital strategy that I highly value: don’t become dependent upon someone else’s service (YouTube, TikTok, Twitch, etc).
Basically, YouTube demonetized this creator with no notice of the issue at hand (oddly, after 10 days, it was returned). She also had her Twitch channel suspended for spurious reasons (watch the video for details).
So, my advice: do NOT let your business become dependent on one platform. You become at risk from frivolus and spurious decisions. You also are dependent on the fiscal management of Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, YouTube, etc. TikTok’s recent troubles showcase this. Several businesses were left scrambling to respond.
I recommend pointing people to YOUR website, and to do so from the beginning. Additionally, start a newsletter and capture email addresses. Those are powerful for your current business (when your socials are functioning as planned) and mission critical when something goes wrong.
Remember to think long-term, anticipate challenges and be proactive in engaging them.
A Morning Haiku
cherry blossoms fall
as spring's skies begin to warm
free of all our fears
Tonight’s Haiku
sunlight descending
brightening western mountains
quiet witnesses
Seth Godin’s “The Use (And Design) Of Tools”
As I read Seth’s post today, I started wondering how tools like AI can be impacted by, or actually impact the attitude of “Too Busy To Learn”. I think one of AI’s key potentials is to make the need to understand the tool’s operation non-essential (think coding).
Mainly, I think the future will be dominated by those who understand the tools, not by the people who can simply operate them.
It’s Love Your SysAdmin Day
Well, it was a few days ago.
TLDR: This manager was forced to let the best sysadmin he’d ever worked with go (ah, economics!). So, he posted this post to Reddit, and got amazing results.
The community rose up and have kinda crowdsourced said admin a new job. This is so cool to see! This is the kind of person I strive to be, so it’s particularly nice to see that valued and rewarded.
Aspirations are a good thing to have, methinks.
AI Generated Island Vibes
I have a fondness for YouTube music videos and often play them in the background while I’m working. Lately, I’ve been feeling island vibes, so that’s what I’ve been choosing. Today, this one rolled into my algorythim and, well, AI is struggling.
The music is fine, pretty much spot on for my mood. But the video, though…oh my! We have cliffs that move into each other, and then fade away, boats just appearing in bays, a speed boat zipping across the sky, and my favorite: two party boats, one of which is speeding backwards with another boat, right off the stern, moving at the same speed but sideways. Ah, physics!
So, AI is pretty amazing and has a lot to offer, but it’s not quite ready to take over the world.
Tonight’s Haiku
another spring day
cherry blossoms scattering
fading memories
Wrote this one early this morning. Created this image in Canva.
Anyway, thanks for reading.
Some thoughts on cycling
Some of you may know that for a good chunk of my life, I was a rather militant cyclist. I lived downtown Seattle (properly, on Capitol Hill and First Hill) for the better part of a decade without owning a car. I really loved living life this way…mostly. After a few painful altercations with cars, though, I stepped away from this path. But bikes hold a dear place in my heart. So this cartoon resonates with me. I still ride, just not as much. And I’m a bit more humble of an environmentalist.
I hold some cycling aspirations. RAGBRAI, for instance, sounds like a blast! Part of me has long wanted to ride the STP (Seattle to Portland), but it seems, shall we say, antithetical to introverts. Of course, the same can be said for RAGBRAI.
This sentiment delights me (some people suppress their inner child; I got mine a bicycle). Are there any comics/graphics that speak loudly to you?
PS: here’s the link to the artist’s page. He doesn’t seem to have updated it since 2017, but there’s plenty of fun cycle-centric comics here.