When you want to sell something, you can buy attention from the Big Tech platforms.

Attention is the currency of the Internet, and it is not even that expensive.

I know that because my brother and his wife run a side business. They buy ads from some of those companies (ehem ... Facebook ... ehem), and sells occur almost automagically. It amazes me how effective, efficient and targeted it is.

Sadly, many “users” of those platforms believe they are the users. No, the ad buyers are the actual users, the rest are the product. More specifically, their attention is being sold there, for peanuts.

So, since I don't have anything to sell, I'm not interested in buying eyeballs. But if I would need to draw attention to something I have to offer (something even as abstract as ideas), I'm not fully convinced buying attention this way is the best strategy in the long run.

#Daily #Technology

That's an accurate description of this blog.

And I like it that way.

Having hundreds (or thousands, or hundreds of thousands) of eyeballs reading what I write here would make me slightly uncomfortable.

Perhaps if I have something useful for a wider audience, I would bear the discomfort of the excessive attention, but not now, no.

I like to keep this as an obscure and quiet corner on the Interweb.

#Daily

It is correlated to my ability to relax.

Some days I lay down and relax profoundly by following my breath, falling asleep almost immediately.

Other days, I have troubles relaxing, and even when I fall asleep quickly, the quality of my sleep is poor.

What do I need to relax?

If I have to name only one thing, I would say the ability to let things go, particularly those which are clearly outside my control, or not worth the effort.

#Daily

After a hiatus that lasted three weeks or so, I cycled again during the weekend.

I moved one of my old bikes from strategic point A to strategic point B. Then, picked up the ebike from C's place.

On my way back to my friend's place, it was raining, a lot. Even hail for 2 km. or so. It sucked.

Arrive to a cold and empty flat completely soaked is suboptimal.

#Daily

I had this long list of draft posts here in write.as, they are all gone now.

Sometimes it is useful to write down your ideas and let them sit there for a while. You don't want to rush it, you can't undo words.

However, after a certain point, one must accept those ideas are not going anywhere anymore, the drafts become a burden.

If the ideas and feelings in those erased bytes remain in you, you should be able to rewrite them from scratch.

Or so my reasoning goes.

#Daily

Contracts need to be unambiguous. Writing something unambiguously is not easy. However, I feel all contracts are purposefully written in such a convoluted way to make them harder to understand. I wonder why.

Paradoxically, the convoluted language obscures the message it is trying to convey. Thus, multiple interpretations are possible.

If there is a disagreement between the parties, lawyers need to be hired to fight over the different interpretations of such contract. I have never been in such a situation, and I hope I never will.

Perhaps, if contracts were written in plain English, we wouldn't need so many (high-paid) lawyers. I don't know. Since contracts are mostly written by lawyers, it is not crazy to think they do it in a way that benefits the guild.

Things get more complicated when a contract is written in a language that you don't speak. You need to rely on shitty Google translations or your friend's help.

Why am I thinking about all this? Well, it seems that I'll spend a good deal of my weekend carefully reading a contract in Dutch.

#Daily

I woke up tired.

That usually means I'm stressed and the quality of my sleep takes a hit. When I lay down at night, it takes me a while to fall asleep.

I dream, a lot. Most of the time I don't remember the details, but I am sure I've dreamt a lot.

Today, I recall something, though. I was in front of my computer, reading a post with one picture and a single text line below that picture.

I woke up, it was 4:35 a.m. and I was puzzled by that scene.

Then, I fell asleep again, and I was there, in front of the monitor screen, reading the exact same post (same picture, same line).

Does that mean something? Maybe.

#Daily

#Daily #Log

Done (inverse order of importance): – Things for tomorrow's trip to Amsterdam ready. – PoC at work sent for review. – A long (delayed) letter for a dear friend delivered.

To Do: – Cleaning kitchen.

Final remarks: – Tired

The End.