Notes for February 16th 2024
Song of the week:
- When people note that "RSS is dead," what is actually being said is that Google, and very few afterwards, could figure out how to monetise the technology en-masse.
- Two friends of mine and myself have decided to take on a monthly challenge to create a song each. Our approaches are likely to be wildly different because we've different tastes, different equipment and varying levels of expertise. For my first iteration, I'm trying to mould chiptune videogame samples into something slow, progressive and EDM-ish between some Pocket Operators and my OP-1. I'll layer a lot on it. Including some simple guitar (C to A power chord stuff) through my Chase Bliss Generation Loss pedal, which emulates the sound of old VHS/cassette audio.
- One mate is likely to go full-on 1980s/90s heavy riff industrial. While the other, god knows. He has good equipment but his taste in music is atrocious (hair metal, Kiss, etc.).
- This was the first week in ages that I managed to cycle to work consistently. Both because I was on home soil and going to the office, but also because the weather wasn't absolute garbage so I could physically cycle somewhere. It was great. Especially today (Friday 16th) because the weather was so pleasant. And schools were on midterm so there were more cyclists than cars on most roads I was on. It's so nice to casually cycle around. If it wasn't for meetings or kid collection schedules, I would be in a nice position to go a weird route and find a nice spot to chill for a bit before continuing on. One can dream!
- At work we're going through our annual talent review window. As a leader this means sitting down with each individual contributor on my team and reading out how they performed last year, benchmarked against peers. For some, this means getting bonus, promos or just adjustments. For others, it isn't, but I have to level-set for the following year. It can be a tough conversation to have but so, so valuable. I've yet to run through a cycle like this (in about a decade of doing it as a leader) with it being super easy. But I've yet to see poor results follow suit. Still, it's hard.
- Tesla. I'm a customer. Up to last year I was a shareholder. And I'm still a happy driver of their Model Y. Musk aside, they make great cars. But they're a weird company with very odd practises. And one of them came to a head this week as I renewed my tax on my car. It turns out that the front license plate on my car is the wrong one. The rear is fine. Which is obviously how I logged into the tax system last year to renew. But this year, I was using a photo of the front of my car to get the plate so I could login. Cue an email to the tax office, a phone call later and some confusion cleared while I was standing in my driveway. Now, I can't get a hold of Tesla Dublin to get them to replace the plate, which is their responsibility. Imbecilic levels of unprofessionalism there.
- This week I hosted a delegation of top startups from Africa. Primarily Nigeria, who's population alone is set to blaze past the entirety of the EU over the coming years. Do not sleep on Africa. The market is there, the population is growing enormously and a middle class is developing. And based on the room of 15 folks I spoke to today, a healthy mix of gender and background, there are some incredible local/global ideas coming to the fore. I left that room feeling excited and inspired.