All posts by jph

Multi-tasking – formula for thriving or folk tale?

Mediation, Musings, ,

If the White Rabbit in Alice in Wonderland (the 1951 Disney film) used a smartphone, would his passing by a curious Alice have been less panicky?

Are you a multi-tasker? Over the years, real-time task juggling has been praised. Multi-tasking on our digital devices has become the model for all tasks, at work & home (even perhaps on vacation). Hey, lifestyle of the 21st century. In fact, not doing so sometimes is viewed as a personal deficiency.

But what does research say? I’ve noticed a few articles now & then exploring the question. Here’s the latest:

Continue reading Multi-tasking – formula for thriving or folk tale? →

Owl & rabbit – a 21st century fable

Musings, Stories, , , ,

[Draft 3-21-2025 – teaser]

Owl & rabbit – a 21st century fable

(a matter of fidelity)

Part 1

For a village with little complaint, the night was sprinkled with screams. Those nights. These were not timbres of terror. These were shouts at someone, shrieks about one’s situation.

The unrest reached the nearby forest, to the ears of a particular animal, attentive to nightly things. An owl, Dr. Nolan, for whom those sounds signaled “I’m not going to take it anymore!” With an undertone of banging doors, rending of hearts. Would there be more business at his door, “Wise Wellness Therapy” …

Yet … those days … the animals were a scene of industry, of busy purpose, aspiring agency.

And in the day, another animal, a rabbit, was attentive to that scene. Rising from his deep burrow, sheltered from the nights, he only felt hints, fading dreamlike haunts, that something was amiss. And business was brisk at Dr. Larry’s “Cuddly Bunny Counseling” office.

Continue reading Owl & rabbit – a 21st century fable →

The attention age – secular sirens & salvation

Mediation, Musings, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,   2 comments  

[Draft 3-24-2025]

Pay attention!

You’re at a cocktail party … or maybe in a social setting with your family … your attention is selective – like moving a spotlight around a stage, or tuning between foreground & background channels. Did you notice the person dressed in a gorilla costume walk by in the distance? [4]

Others want your attention. Sirens are calling you.

You want attention. Thrive on such attention.

(quote)
… the ability to grab the attention of the consumer is more important than the actual product or service offered. … we will forever be invested in [hunger for] other people paying attention to us. – Chris Hayes [1]

Continue reading The attention age – secular sirens & salvation →

When is enough enough – any way small is beautiful?

Mediation, Musings, ,
How can constantly chasing more make you feel poor?

I was reminded recently of the book Small Is Beautiful. Does its economic philosophy still pertain to today’s world?

  • To a landscape of scale, wherein the business model of “bigger is better” rules. With mass speech, mass reach, mass marketing. Without any “enough is enough.”
  • To a contemporary context which (in some ways) operates as if people do not really matter. With our personal data just another commodity in commerce.
  • To a political culture infused with the rhetoric of makers vs. takers [1].
Continue reading When is enough enough – any way small is beautiful? →

Fox and the ants – a 21st century fable

Musings, Stories, , ,

Fox & the ants

(interdependency)

It was a lean season in the valley. Even an abandoned scarecrow had been stripped of its straw, ripped to rags moving in a dry breeze. Faceless.

A solitary, scrawny fox had slowly descended into the plain. Hunger gnawed at Jasper, but also the pain of separation from his skulk in another valley. He’d been banished, called a “veggie vore” for eating mostly fruit (especially grapes) and vegetables, and for spending hours every day listening to bird chatter rather than learning to hunt.

Continue reading Fox and the ants – a 21st century fable →

Freemium 2.0 (ambrosia) – a 21st century fable

Musings, Stories, ,

Pondering the 21st century freemium 2.0 landscape …

Terms of the Tree

(resistance is futile)

imagine …

A splendid mythological garden … light glints marvelously from the surface of a tranquil creek nearby … on a mild rise, a magnificent tree festooned with fabulous, colorful fruit fills the air with a seductive scent … a snake rests in the sun on top of a rock at the base of the tree.

Continue reading Freemium 2.0 (ambrosia) – a 21st century fable →

Ditbit’s Guide to Blending in with AIs

Musings, Stories, ,   1 comment  

I’ve had some long conversations with an aspiring screenwriter about a collection of short stories, with a working title of The Ditbit’s Guide to Blending in with AIs. An evolving landscape:

The great realignment of humans and AIs left a landscape littered with un-, sub-, semi- and supernatural agency. – The New AI Ecology

in which, while many just try to survive, there are:

humans aspiring to magi
magi aspiring to AIs
AIs aspiring to humanity [1]

Evidently, as discussed in the article below, I’m not the only one wondering about our cognitive world.

Continue reading Ditbit’s Guide to Blending in with AIs →

Sour grapes – blame-shifting folklore

Mediation, Musings, Stories, , ,

This article (below) is an interesting take on a classic fable, one of Aesop’s. Like the fable The Ant and the Grasshopper, The Fox & the Grapes [1] is part of the moral fabric of the American psyche (and elsewhere).

The oft-quoted moral of the fable is: There are many who pretend to despise and belittle that which is beyond their reach. The sour grape effect has become synonymous with being dismissive and disparaging about goals we’ve failed to achieve.

Continue reading Sour grapes – blame-shifting folklore →

‘Brain rot’ – word of the year 2024

General, Musings, , ,   2 comments  

My personal word of the year is demonize. But …

A commentary on how “we are using our free time” … an ongoing “cultural conversation about humanity and technology.”

• AP News > “How to sum up 2024? The Oxford University Press word of the year is ‘brain rot’” (December 2, 2024) – chosen by a combination of public vote and language analysis by Oxford lexicographers, it beat five other finalists: demure, slop, dynamic pricing, romantasy and lore.

Continue reading ‘Brain rot’ – word of the year 2024 →

Our longest saga – the evolution of humanity

Mediation, Musings, Poetry, , , , , ,   2 comments  

Pondering the big picture, what has changed in the last 100 years or so …

This article (republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license) is a useful recap of our understanding of human evolution, and an excellent visualization of that story, including salient talking points.

The millions-of-years history of our rise as a species is a fascinating story of patient pursuit of knowledge. A pursuit all too often underfunded and under-resourced, starting with singular archeological discoveries and growing into multidisciplinary collaboration. That joint research expanded the outlines of our story from bones & stones to geographic and climatic events, to genetic (DNA) arcs, and to social and cultural changes.

Continue reading Our longest saga – the evolution of humanity →