Do you love your systems?
”Man is a tool-using animal. Without tools he is nothing, with tools he is everything. Unless the tools are rubbish.” Thomas Carlyle, paraphrased
Previously at the Volcano Base I’d been exploring beautiful traps. Since then I’ve been automating the hell out of an entire business, while unicycling, in the dark. Love it!
Mission Briefing
Do you love your systems?
The short answer, I suspect, is “No.” The long answer is also “No,” but with more swearing and the occasional threat to throw a printer out of a window.
Take, for instance, my recent adventure with anti-virus registration on my daughter’s PC. The software, an otherwise inoffensive program whose sole job is to prevent digital miscreants from rifling through our files, apparently decided to moonlight as a Kafka novel.
Step one: open browser. Step two: find account login. Step three: be told my account doesn’t exist. Step four: create a new account using the same email address, which somehow does exist after all. Step five: log in to be told my subscription has expired. Step six: enter activation code. Step seven: be told the activation code has already been used. Step eight: question the nature of reality.
This is, I think, most people’s relationship with their systems. We tolerate them. We sigh at them. Occasionally, we plot their downfall. In work environments, the experience is worse, an unholy symphony of forgotten passwords, file formats from the Bronze Age, and the eternal mystery of “Final FINAL.ppt”
And yet… my own systems? I actually like them. Not love (let’s not get creepy), but there’s a sort of mutual respect. I’ve set them up so they don’t nag, sulk, or vanish mid-task. They know their role, and I know mine. When I ask them to do something, they do it without making me feel like I’m negotiating with a petulant Victorian child.
It’s not magic. It’s just systems that serve me instead of the other way round. Which, in our current software climate, feels like witchcraft.
So, do you love your systems? Or at least like them enough that you might make them a cup of tea without being asked?
Classified Intel
Some interesting stuff I discovered on my adventures.
The Lost Weirdness of the Internet
Sean Illing and Douglas Rushkoff wander through the internet’s timeline, from freewheeling utopia to fenced-off corporate suburb. They talk about the dangers of scale, why capitalism hates weirdness, and whether we can still use tech to build something communal instead of something that just mines our attention.
Why care: If you have ever wondered why the internet feels like a mall food court instead of a cosmic bazaar, this might explain it and maybe even offer a route back.
Mathematics, Creativity, and Cats Named After Arsenal Players
In an upcoming Call to Action episode, Marcus du Sautoy links numbers to creativity, moving from stone circles to Radiohead, Shakespeare’s secret numerology to Dada randomness, and possibly to his cat, Freddie Ljungberg.
Why care: A reminder that maths is not just for accountants and tax inspectors, it is also the secret scaffolding behind beauty, music, and occasionally football-themed pets.
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