Oh great, another personal update

Ever since I started writing online, one kind of post I always tried to avoid publishing on my site is the Sorry for the lack of updates post. As the excellent CM Harrington reminded me a few months back on Mastodon, Remember you don’t owe anyone anything. I think in this era of social media, there’s a pressure to ‘engage’ — but that’s a false pressure. We’re human beings, being social. We’re not entertainment to be consumed and monetised, so don’t ever feel like you’re not keeping up, or not holding up your end. It’s not a job, it’s a conversation.

This is very true, and in fact one of the core principles behind my online writing — as I’ve often said — is that I publish something when I have something to say. That’s why I never liked those Sorry for the lack of updates posts.

But hiatuses happen. Often they’re ‘time-outs’ a writer or creator decides to take. Sometimes they’re caused by stuff behind the scenes that’s a bit out of our control. What happened here is the latter. And I feel that certain hiatuses warrant an explanation. Especially if you’re a new reader here and have decided to add my blog to your feeds after discovering me through the interview for Manuel Moreale’s People & Blogs series. As this was almost two months ago, you might have been wondering why I haven’t posted anything since.

In a previous personal update back in February I mentioned that my wife and I were apartment hunting because our landlord and her brothers weren’t interested in renewing the renting contract, wanting to sell the apartment instead. After a couple of stressful months we finally found and purchased a new apartment at the end of April. At that point we entered the subsequent stage: moving our personal stuff to the new place. Given our poor experiences with removal firms we contacted in the past, we decided to move 95% of what we own ourselves, then leave only the most cumbersome furniture to a removal firm. If this method guarantees nobody breaks any of our items, on the other hand it makes the whole process longer and more fatiguing. In fact, it took us two months, May and June, to bring our many belongings to the new apartment, making daily car trips.

Having to go through everything we have, putting it in boxes, bags, backpacks and suitcases, loading the car, making the trip, unloading the car, rinse and repeat, was of course exhausting and time-consuming. And since I also had to keep working during all this, I really had no time left to follow tech topics (or any topic, for that matter) and therefore no time left to write anything here.

And to be perfectly honest with you, what little I was able to follow about the tech world did not particularly excite me. Here are a few quick notes I shared on social media about Apple’s recent stuff, for instance:

About the M4 iPad Pros — So, new iPad Pros. Better than the old iPad Pros. It’s the same song since 2012. Better specs hardly solve the conceptual and identity problems of this device, which remain unchanged iteration after iteration. I’m sure there are people ‘delighted’ with an M4 iPad Pro. I’m sure there are people who see it as a ‘worthwhile update’ if they’re coming from an M1 iPad Pro. I’m just tired of this carousel.

About the ‘AI’ stuff Apple introduced at WWDC24 — I haven’t seen the WWDC24 keynote yet. The only two things I’ve learnt for now by skimming my timeline are Apple embracing AI in some form, and the name Mac OS Sequoia. I used to proudly display my loyalty and support of Apple, but this company is losing me, event after event. Apple went from Think Different to being just another big tech company. I used to recognise myself in that “intersection between technology and the liberal arts”. Apple’s intersection, today, is between tech and profit. No thanks.

I only had time to watch one video recapping “Apple Intelligence” (LOL), and it was by the always excellent Dave 2D. Now that I know a bit better about it, my reaction is even more visceral. I don’t need and I don’t want that crap on my devices. But also: what a colossal waste of resources just to stay in the game (and we’ll see how long this game will actually last…). But also: all this ‘AI assistance’ regarding text is a depressing and all-too-modern way of treating the written word as throwaway shit we shouldn’t bother wasting brain cells on. By relying on AI tools to change, summarise, manipulate the written word, we end up being even more inept at creative thinking/ideation and communicating. “Siri, just send Frank an auto-generated birthday message with an AI-generated image, because I can’t be arsed to do that / I’m too busy.” It’s maybe a silly example, but that’s bleak all the same. That’s not the help I need or want from technology. Technology is supposed to help with soul-crushing, repetitive tasks, so that we humans can — among other things — do better what makes us human: being creative and contemplative. ‘AI’ today is treating creativity, reflection, contemplation as the ‘boring stuff’ that should be automated, so that… what? So that we can be better at being idiots with one another?

That Apple is willing to jump on the AI bandwagon is as disappointing as it was predictable. I’m fed up with this “Us too!” attitude. Apple is too big to fail, and yet suffers from Fear Of Missing Out like a startup. Apple should use its success and resources to continue being a trailblazer, not the company that gives you an AI chatbot and more emoji. And don’t even reply to me with “But Vision Pro…”.

Now the move is over, and the next and final stage has begun: settling in the new place, unboxing everything, reconfiguring spaces and so on. I should have more time to update this blog, but first I’ll need to catch up with roughly six months’ worth of tech news and unread feeds. I hope to be able to write more (and more thoroughly) about what Apple has introduced so far this year, what the company is doing, and ultimately why I feel increasingly let down by them. Now I need to get back to work. Thank you for your patience and understanding. And if you’ve been showing me support on social media and on private channels through this stressful period of time, know that it is very appreciated.