This is my occasional newsletter published on July 31, 2022.
Hello everyone,
Since it has been a minute, I thought it would be good to send you a quick update.
You have not heard from me because I didn’t have much to say. When I was not working, I spent my time visiting family, reading books, and occasionally watching an occasional television show. I recommend Chelsea Detective on Acorn TV.
I have been reading about everything these days. Whether NFTs, Metaverse, Dall-E, or new kinds of chips, I have started to dig into new areas of interest. As is usually the case, I need to start to see patterns before I start connecting the dots. And that’s when I feel comfortable sharing my thoughts for public consumption.
I shared some of what I have been thinking about with investor and friend Howard Lindzon on his Panic with friends podcast. I later summed up my piece, The Future of tech as I see it. Here are key takeaways:
• The new chips and direction shown by Apple Silicon are very exciting and portend a new kind of computing environment. The chip-centric approach allows you to think beyond the limiting labels of virtual or augmented realities.
• In a world driven by fake news, deep fakes, and algorithmic disambiguation of reality, never before have authentication and authorization more needed.
• We are not living in an America-first world, which will significantly impact the long-term direction of technology.
If you want to read it, click here.
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My creative energy has been channeled into photography. I traveled near and far but mostly spent time around San Francisco Bay Area to experiment with new photography techniques. So don’t be surprised if you see more photography-related content on the blog. Here are three recent pieces, in case you missed them:
• Instagram’s transformation into QVC is now complete and absolute. Instagram is dead — or at least the Instagram I knew and loved is dead. It is no longer part of my photographic journey. Read.
• If you are trying to make sense of this Kylie Jenner vs. Instagram psychodrama, relax; I already did it for you. It is about lost revenues, and it is about the loss of importance of photos. And it is about TikTok & finiteness of attention. Instagram chief Adam Mosseri (repeating his boss, Mark Zuckerberg’s wishes) is saying as much. My analysis.
• No matter what, I think Facebook is a shit company with shit ethics and embodies the lack of empathy of its leadership.
• The weight of cameras and even heavier camera backpacks impede creativity. To overcome this challenge, I have devised a unique way of lessening the load. Read part 1 of my adventure.
As you know, I love to share my photos on my blog – and here are some of my recent works. They showcase the power of the new Leica M11 camera.
You can follow my work on om.co/photos, and if you like what you see, there is an email newsletter that you can subscribe to, which would allow you to get my photos directly in your inbox.
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And since it is summer, I can recommend Mark Vanhoenacker’s new book, Imagine a city. I just finished reading it, and it is sublime. Mark is the author of another favorite of mine, Skyfaring.
I will be writing more often about a multitude of things — I will share “technology” related writing via a weekend-only email newsletter.
The rest of my writing, such as personal updates, travelogues, and recommendations, will be posted on the blog — you can subscribe to my RSS feed or visit the website.
Have a great rest of the summer, everyone!
OM
July 31, 2022. San Francisco