Best of the week ending 10 August 2024

Un P’tit Truc En plus

Watched Un P’tit Truc En plus. Seen in the Filmhuis Alkmaar. It is a very funny and sensitive movie by Artus about a group of people with disabilities with two bank robbers hiding amongst them.

We are planning our holiday to Uzbekistan, and this amazing documentary on YouTube is better than many travel books.

Enjoyed Robert Rodriguez – Ten Minute Film School

Liked this documentary about Cindy Sherman.

More weeks here (now newsletters).

The World Don’t Need No More Images

I have my photo-movie, The World Don’t Need No More Images (full of pictures), just about finished. The first episodes are on YouTube. Is it any good? Probably not. Does it raise a ripple? Unlikely. Is it fun to mix images and sound? Absolutely. Besides, it feels like it has to get out. In this form, this had to be tried and done because I have not seen anything similar done before.

And now: bye. Next.

Failure narrative

From Seth Godin’s The Practice, this creator’s failure narrative:

  • There is more supply than demand; therefore, most of the feedback is rejection. From the market, from the gatekeepers.
  • The work is created with generally available tools. The group that believes they can do the same job or better is large.
  • The fan base is transient, and the churn is significant.
  • Negative criticism spreads easier than positive feedback.
  • We work in novelty. There is always more novelty for our customers to turn to.
  • We and our customers chase creative magic. By that standard, almost all of our efforts fail.

Then, successful creators have in their favor the benefit of the doubt and tribal cognitive dissonance.

EU state of tech and tech legislation

David Heinemeier Hansson writes about the EU law on technology legislation. He is right that the cookie banner laws have led to this awful way where we must wrestle through consent forms while browsing the web. And yes, he is right:

Europe is in desperate need for a radical rethink on how it legislates tech. The amount of squandered potential from smart, capable entrepreneurs on the old continent is tragic. It needn’t be like this. But if you want different outcomes, you have to start doing different things.

He goes on

So little of the core tech innovation that’s driving the future, in AI or otherwise, is happening in Europe. And when it does happen there, it’s usually just incubation, which then heads for America or elsewhere as soon as its ready to make a real impact on the world.

I’m not sure where elsewhere would be. More importantly, there is more nuance to this state of affairs.

America is leading in technology but also in creating technological waste or the enshittification of technology. At least there is a body on this planet that puts boundaries on what monopolistic tech companies can do to citizens. That body is not the US government; it is the EU government. Yes, there is a lot to say about it, but you can state that the EU is protecting its citizens.

Furthermore, DHH could adopt a more critical stance towards the IT industry. While IT became a consumer product, companies like Microsoft, Google, Amazon and Facebook have shown that they do not always act in the best interests of their customers, to say the least. Legislation is not just a socialist or communist necessity, but a fundamental requirement for the proper functioning of capitalism. This is particularly true in the US, where the excessive focus on stockholder value has led to a decline in company ethics.

PS Just this morning, I read that US antitrust laws are working against Google’s anticompetitive behavior.