Weeknote 46/2023

Mushrooms, tiny printing presses, the never ending shit barrage of the human experience, and mountain hikes.

“The quiet transition from autumn to winter is not a bad time at all. It’s a time for protecting and securing things and for making sure you’ve got in as many supplies as you can. It’s nice to gather together everything you possess as close to you as possible, to store up your warmth and your thoughts and burrow yourself into a deep hole inside, a core of safety where you can defend what is important and precious and your very own. Then the cold and the storms and the darkness can do their worst. They can grope their way up the walls looking for a way in, but they won’t find one, everything is shut, and you sit inside, laughing in your warmth and your solitude, for you have had foresight.” 

- Tove Jansson, Moomin Valley in November (1970)

Verbs

Celebrating: World Philosophy Day 2023

It always makes me happy to remember that UNESCO have an official World Philosophy Day on the third Thursday of November every year. In days gone by, I very often delivered an open lecture on World Philosophy Day and it was something I really loved doing. Past editions of that lecture are some of the talks on my website. Unfortunately I no longer have access to big rooms with seats and stages, and even less access to a captive audience but maybe it’s something worth reviving in some form for next year…?

Using: Komoot

Now that we finally have a car here in Serbia, I made the drive up into the Fruška Gora National Park this week and explored the forest on a day of incredible November weather. More about my incredible feats of mountaineering below, but what helped enormously was the Komoot app. It gave me a bunch of walks and hikes to pick from, as well as lots of information about the routes and full navigation from start to finish. It seems to have routes and locations across the globe, and I really found it a great way to explore the forest with (some) confidence that I wouldn’t die horribly.

(Still) Playing: The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

Yes, it came out in May. Yes, we’ve played lots of other things in the last few months. No, we’re not done yet. It’s just too good. My wife and I have been playing Zelda: TOTK since release day and we’ve been trying to make it last because it’s just such a surefire source of joy. I’ve also been thinking about what a masterclass the game is for anyone interested in design thinking, learning experience design, or innovation. I really think you could teach a whole course just through this one game.

Wanting: The Open Press Project

The open press project have designed and made available an open source, 3D printed, mini printing press and I am very much obsessed. It’s a brilliant project in spirit and ethos and you can print amazing, tiny, little, amazing things. My problem is I don’t have a 3D printer and, whilst they do sell them ready made, getting one to Serbia looks to be prohibitively expensive. That, though, is a problem I am definitely going to try and crack because I’m entirely in love with this thing.

Learning: Most Epic Fails, Jack Conte

Getting my own company off the ground feels a little bit like when you were a kid at school and you made a short film for something and you listed yourself in every role in a long, and entirely unnecessary, credits reel at the end. Right now I’m a web designer, graphic designer, copy writer, project manager, web master, marketing manager, social media manager, sales manager, accountant, CEO, COO, CFO and the guy doing the stuff the company actually does. There are lots and lots and lots of sources of advice and guidance out there on starting your own thing, whatever kind of thing it might be, but a great deal of it is aimed at tech startups, people with bags of seed money, or those in it entirely for the dollar$, or its saturated with hustle and grind-set attitudes. No thank you to all of that. There are some people, though, that I’ve enjoyed listening to and learnt a good deal from and Jack Conte is one. Conte started the band Pomplamoose with his wife, Nataly, and they become a huge hit - especially on YouTube. Conte was frustrated that his videos were scoring huge numbers of views but they were earning just a couple hundred dollars a month, so he came up with a platform that would allow creators to more directly work with their fanbase. That platform is the small, boutique website Patreon. What I love about much of Conte’s videos about business, creativity, and being someone wanting to make things in the world is that he’s funny, utterly honest, and seemingly with very little ego. Very rare things!

Words

The Freedom Monument on Iriški Venac, Furška Gora national park.

For those of you that have been avidly following along with my dental ministrations, you’ll be pleased to know that I have the stitches out post-wisdom teeth extraction and I’m back on food that has both texture and solidity. A huge milestone for everyone involved in m eating things.

My big focus this week has been getting my Substack up and running and hopefully some of you are even reading this very blog post via the medium of Substack. Do please share it far and wide to anyone and everyone that might have even a passing interest. I enjoy writing the blog on my personal website a huge amount and having an easy and impactful way to share that with others is a real plus. My plan, for now, is that my Weeknotes will always come out via Substack on a Friday and blog posts will go up on my site as and when. If there’s a particularly substantial, exciting, or otherwise alluring blog post that might also find its way down the tubes to those signed up to my Substack.

I also had a great time heading out into the Fruška Gora national park this week. The park is a 100 sq. mile nature reserve that sits just south of the Danube, on the opposite bank to Novi Sad, and is Serbia’s oldest reserve having been established in 1960. A lot of the park is dotted with vineyards, wineries, and monasteries (and inevitable connection…!) but there are also huge ranges of forest with about 90% of the park under tree cover. The weather was completely perfect - 10°C, bright sunshine, and pretty dry. It’s been a while since I had the chance to spend some time properly in nature and it always strikes me that, yes, of course it’s completely brilliant and I’m nothing short of a full-blown moron for not doing it at every available opportunity. What brought me particular joy this time was that it was amazing conditions for mushrooms and fungus and I took a lot of photos of the gorgeous different varieties I found along the way.

Inspiration