Archive of posts from January 2026

When Adobe charges a monthly subscription for its creative apps, the world cries afoul, cursing the company and the subscription model.

When Apple releases a monthly subscription for creative apps, the world cheers in relief.

Herein lies a good reminder: brand loyalty is emotional, not logical.

We can invest in our skills by spending $20/month on reading books about them.

We can divest in our skills by spending $20/month on letting AI do them for us.

Where is your $20/month going?

Today, I saw developers online arguing about which LLMs should be allowed to use their open source contributions.

I also saw developers online arguing about vibecoders ‘stealing’ their code for their own vibecoded works.

One crowd trying to restrict AI from passing their work around without attribution…

The other claiming code as their own just because they’re the ones who clicked ‘generate’.

If you like generating code from the ingested works of others, can you hate when people people generate code ingested from yours?

If you didn’t write that piece of code, can you claim it as your writing?

TikTok is Chinese.

But China’s TikTok (Douyin) is apparently quite different.

Same company. Same product. Different features.

Douyin apparently has mandatory Youth Mode (max 40min/day).
TikTok is banned in Australia for being brainrot.

Douyin apparently emphasizes educational content.
TikTokNot emphasizes empty calorie trends/challenges.

If we’re going to view media that countries ban for brainrot, and their homeland won’t use…

…We should probably tread carefully.

One of the most popular cameras of 2025 cost about £1200.

One of the other most popular cameras of 2025 cost about £80.

The expensive one is fun because of its high quality images, snap-focus feature, and delightful 40mm-equivilent field of view in a 35mm format.

The cheaper one is fun because of it’s retro photo vibes, begging you to be stuff it into your pocket and let loose, in contrast with the calculated use of the other one.

They’re both very different cameras. Opposites, in many ways.

Yet they’re both the most popular.

“Popular” is not a scale.

When you practice a skill, you get better at it.

When you don’t practice a skill, you get worse at it.

Remember that next time you ask AI to do tasks on your behalf.

There’s comfort in fitting into market categories.

In seeing how the others do things, so you can do it too.

In knowing how the others conduct themselves, so you can too.

In marketing how the others market themselves, so you can too.

In going to the same events, saying the same things, using the same tools, as the others.

There’s just one problem:

It doesn’t work.

There have never been more brands than there are today.

Competition in every field. Noise everywhere.

If you’re the same as the others, they’ll pick the market leaders.

If you’re slightly better than the others, they’ll pick the market leaders.

If you’re slightly different sounding than the others, they’ll pick the market leaders.

If you try to win on having a few more features, they’ll still pick the market leaders anyway.

So why try to be slightly better, slightly different, and have more features, looking mostly the same as the others in your space?

If you’re Microsoft and you want users to use OneDrive, you have two choices:

Option 1: Offer it to people. When they say no, just start uploading their things to it anyway, dark-pattern away the ability to opt-out, and start deleting their local files. There, now they’re using OneDrive.

Option 2: Make it be something they want. Actually, rephrase the entire question, don’t make it about OneDrive at all, just make it all about making things that people want and giving it to them.

The choice is up to you?

Whether we like it or not, people use social networks for… a lot.

Whether we like it or not, it’s one of the primary ways people discover anything and anyone anymore.

Whether we like it or not, extensive use has been proven to increase the odds of anxiety and misery.

I like the idea of ‘Slocial networking’ instead.

Social, but slow. Slocial.

Slow, as in speaking to a few people, as people, not a lot of people as a crowd.

Slow, as in taking the time to actually see people, and get to know them, rather than merely secure their ‘likes’.

Slow, as in build relationships, giving and receiving support because of who you are, not because of what you want.

When enough people do that, we get to tell the others about the things we’ve seen.

Our sphere of interest can remain small, because everyone has a different sphere based on the relationships they’re nurturing.

Our work can spread through good will, rather than because we’re louder than other people who are also trying to be loud.

It’s not for everyone, I’m sure. But I’m about the slocial networking. Loving on people, bringing gifts, and letting them pass them on if they like what they see.

Isn’t that better?

What if you thought of your craft as a product, for just a moment?

If it were a product, you might…

Figure out who it’s for, and how to make it better for them?

Give it a special name, distinguishing it from the others?

Work out what makes it unique, and lean into that?

Work on making it better, and work on distributing it better?

Think of fun ways to make experiencing the work enjoyable?

There are lots of things you might consider, if you thought of your craft as a product.

Perhaps it’s a thought experiment worth doing from time to time.

Go back twenty years, in your mind.

No AI. No M5 chips. No 4k screen tablets. No video streaming. No spotify. Social media didn’t rule everyone’s time.

We’d draw on paper, thinking in the future maybe that wouldn’t be the case anymore.

We’d go to the store and buy our movies, wondering how cool it’d be to not have to.

We’d see fledgling web 2.0 sites promise greater connection, and the future looked bright.

But today?

Great artists still use paper. Great writers still use paper. They could generate a novel in a minute, yet they use paper.

Streaming is everywhere, and many of us long to have our physical media back. We have everything, but not what we want.

Social became toxic, AI made spam insufferable, and we’re withdrawing into smaller communities again, just like before.

For all the promise of “new and improved”, or “adapt or be left behind”?

Here we are, right where we were.

January first isn’t for looking back on the year we’ve had.

I mean, you can. If you want to. But my preference is this:

Take the opportunity to make what comes next, a habit.

Want to write more? Write a little bit every day. Every day.

Starting today. Just a little bit.

Little bits add up.

Once you get into the habit of doing a little bit every day, some days you might find you do quite a lot.

And on it goes.

What new little habit will you be picking up?

(They’re free, y’know. What do you have to lose?)