One foot in front of the other, and repeat
Yeah, I know. It has been a while. The Olympics in France, with all its drama, has come and gone since I last shared anything here. And I don’t even have the excuse of being busy with client work. Just been a bit unmotivated and listless. It has been dragging on for a couple of months and, rather than beat myself up about it, I decided to focus on work that keeps food on the table and the children in school. In the time in between work, I have been chilling, watching sport, reading and watching my daughter play hockey.
The list of personal projects continues to grow and the same things are transferred from one week’s to-do list to the next week’s and then the next and then the next …. which I am learning how to make peace with. They’ll happen when they are supposed to happen and forcing it just makes me feel worse.
I am not sure whether I am fully through the dip but I have been trying to ensure that I get one thing done a day that has been languishing and, today, it is this newsletter.
The AI conversation continues and will probably continue to for a while, both out in the world and internally. I did finally finish Mo Gawdat’s Scary Smart: The Future of Artificial Intelligence and How You Can Save The World. I also often still get asked whether I am worried about AI replacing me as a writer. This is a long, but really good, essay by Celine Nguyen in which she focuses on the impact of AI in art. She starts off at a place too many of us overlook, namely, “what art is (and isn’t)…” and proposes “crude distinctions between two kinds of art”, which are: “Art consumed as a commodity” and “Art that isn’t consumed but experienced aesthetically.”
She ends the essay with “13 propositions for what AI, as an art form, can offer in art, music, and literature”. Still processing a lot of these but there have been interesting seeds planted.
The Listen To Your Footsteps podcast has a producer. Ayob Vania is an old friend, who I met on the poetry scene. With Ayob driving things, the podcast has been coming out consistently, despite my extended lethargy. And so, in the time that I have been neglecting Substack, we have actually published three episodes with guests Zoe Modiga, Sylvester Chauke and dillion s. phiri.
I started the podcast because I always wanted to create one. It has been an up and down journey since the first episode in 2021. And, all of a sudden, we are 52 episodes in. Interesting times ahead.
So far, it has been a good reading year. Ahead of my reading target and, as long as I keep it up, I should surpass the 55 books I want to read for the first time in a couple of years. I tend to mix up the books, between fiction and non-fiction, often reading one of each at the same time.
When the non-fiction has me too deep in my head, and sometimes my feelings, I like to escape into the make-believe world of fiction. I am still working my way through Terry Pratchett’s Discworld and just finished reading book #15 Men At Arms. Also just finished Deepak Chopra’s Metahuman.
I’m currently reading Tara Swart’s The Source: The Secrets of the Universe, The Science of the Brain, and will working my way through The Pan-African Pantheon (which is taking ages simply because I probably only pick it up once a month). Plus sitting with at least 7 books in the pipeline (on my Kindle or bedside table), including Tremor by Teju Cole, Bjork’s Homogenic by Emily MacKay, Lives of the Stoics by Ryan Holiday, Homo Deus by Yuval Noah Harari, De La Soul by Dave Heaton and Patient 12A by Lesedi Molefi.
A friend of mine recently put me onto the British band OMA who have been building a tidy following from their hip hop instrumental posts. The same friend has created a playlist #45 OMA + Originals which has each instrumental from their album Bread n Butter followed by the original track. That’s the soundtrack to the putting together of this particular newsletter/post.
After trying a multitude of to-do/reminder/task management apps, I reverted back to a notebook and pen. At the beginning of the week, I write all the things I have to do, numbering them and bringing over what wasn’t done the previous week and adding new tasks. Everything goes on this list … business, personal, podcast, clients, etc. To differentiate, I label the task first with the category, ie. if it is personal, I write Personal - xxxx. Most weeks, there are a minimum of 40 items of my list. During the course of the day, I am constantly referring to the list and completing tasks as I go, but not necessarily in order. It seems complicated but makes sense (kinda) in my head. And I am under no pressure to get everything done in a day, which is probably why Cal Newport’s post What would it mean to be done for the day? resonated.
I recently watched and absolutely enjoyed Wim Wenders’ film Perfect Days. To describe how it made me feel and why would require giving too much away about it but it took me to a calm and balanced place. It doesn’t feel like there is much going on but there is so much going on.
Another friend regularly puts me onto interesting design and creativity related stuff. After introducing me to Marketing Examples and Harry’s Newsletter, he sent me a link to an interview that Harry Dry did, which I ended up watching in one sitting, it was that good.
That’s it for today. Please share, subscribe and/or comment. I’ll be back. Soon(ish).
Easy
Kojo
I still don't know how I feel.abouy Ai. I know for fact that it won't replace me as an artist. it cpies What I created and the mimics the out come not the experience of creating the art. Art for me is a spiritual practice. In terms of productivity apps, I am done. Pen and paper it is for me. I can't separate, business, personal. They all go on the page. The decision filter on what I should do first is based on two things. Which one is bringing the money in and how long will it take me to do. It's always best for me to do the task that take the least amount of time. Like sending the invoice, so I can get paid. T
I share Dapo's view about Al. Humans created the technology. We can use it any way we want. We can even replace it when we want. I don't share the view that it can have the intelligence one day to overcome humanity, despite the movies showing it can.