hole in my sock
letting spring
in

~ Raymond Roseliep, as quoted in The Christian Century’s January 2024 issue

When New Year comes I told myself, ah, I missed my chance of writing down some New Year resolutions - but never mind that, there’s still Lunar New Year, and after that, Nowruz, right?

Both have now passed too, but it’s still Lent - for almost two weeks, and daylight saving is about to kick in here in Europe this Sunday; while the European Parliament voted in favour of abolishing it in 2019 implementation is still lagging.

So I guess it’s not too late for Lenten / New Year hybrid resolutions …

And I promise I’ll tie it in with the haiku, even!

My Lenten discipline this year is to be less grumpy and to not sweat the small stuff - it’s a bit touch and go whether I’ve succeeded or not, there are good days and bad days. It certainly helps, though, given all the tumult going on, both in the workplace (AI! AI everywhere! A post about that is coming next) - and of course, in the world at large, triggered mostly by the leaders of the country we left last year.

The haiku above feels like a whimsical reminder to find the bright side of any situation, which … given that spring has begun, feels appropriately optimistic.

The world is in the worst energy crisis in a generation

    Perhaps we will finally be serious about the green transition (at least in Europe and Asia)

Big Tech companies are in bed with an alarmingly reckless, authoritarian government

    It is time to Go European. And speaking of which I highly recommend tuning in to The Europeans podcast - especially if you live here, but even if you don’t - for bringing in eclectic news from around Europe in a cheerful way, and for promoting European culture in general. And last but not least, for showing that the Fairphone is actually practical!

Some open source communities seem recklessly all in on using Generative AI

    Perhaps… wait, you have to wait for my next post for that!

Meanwhile, the market chaos has led us to divest of almost all our investments - although unlike FT’s Stuart Kirk we did not quite go 100% cash - but when it’s time to re-buy we’ll probably be way more intentional and invest mostly in ESGs, and companies that are making the EU more independent

Another post that I owe some people is my recommendations for a non-US, ideally free/libre/open source, tech stack. Hopefully I get round to writing that after the AI article.

This post is day 31 of my #100DaysToOffload challenge. Visit https://100daystooffload.com to get more info, or to get involved.

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