Twitteretter

I grew up in a poor corner of Western Europe, especially then, the Santiago de Compostela of the 1970s. I remember, as a child, watching with wide eyed fascination Wimbledon, the Tour de France, the World Cup, the Olympics, the ATP Masters, the V Nations, the chess World Champs or Vienna’s New Year’s concert. Events I grew up in love with, which, from my provincial perspective, seemed out of reach, confined to the realm of distant television voyeurism. Today, half a life later, I have been, in person, to all of them, at locations all over the World, except the last. Some, several times. And I just bought the tickets for the New Year’s concert. This got me musing about how much smaller the World has become, certainly for me, throughout my life. What seemed impossible in the 70s is now real life. Completely unbeknown to me, of course, this was already reality then for Spanish elites, those of ‘high breeding’, who will, I guess, never experience quite the wonderment that 1970s child does ...

This is apparently a new phenomenon, caused by the increase in the use of web meeting tools, brought about by the coronavirus pandemic. It appears that the plastic surgery and aesthetic enhancement industries have seen a rise in their activity as a result. The rationale (it is hard to use this word in this context, but I use it in its explanation, rather than rationality, meaning) of this phenomenon goes as follows: Many people are having regular web meetings, in which they spend a lot of time staring at their own faces on screen. And many are, apparently, unhappy with their looks, which is driving them to resort to interventions in an attempt, in many cases ill fated, to improve them. This is something fascinating about modern humans. We may have good reason to improve our body and mind, which we can do ourselves with a bit of effort and determination, but many choose to, instead, have someone try to improve their face, forgetting it is, according to St Jerome, the mirror of their sou...

I may have, with this headline, pulled the trick of compelling many to read this article. An unfortunate 81 year old died of a heart attack in Seville, Spain, whilst queueing to receive the Pfizer vaccine. It is always sad to hear of anyone’s death. In this case, however, I think we all, as a species, need to be grateful to the gentleman in question for his promptness. Just imagine the potential consequences, had he suffered his heart attack a few minutes later, just after receiving his vaccination. Global headlines, vaccine rollout pauses, Medical Agency investigations, new conspiracy theories, thriving antivax groups, collapsing stockmarkets… 81 year olds will of course occasionally die of heart attacks, in all kinds of circumstances, but given humans’ capacity to confuse coincidence with causality, this poor chap’s timeliness has saved us a huge amount of trouble, even if depriving news outlets of a much juicier news item and millions of the hankered for clicks. Requiescat in pace L...

Since starting Twitteretter I’ve realised that my freedom of expression, a fundamental human right, is restricted. As, in my real job, I run businesses, before I publish every Twitteretter I have to consider whether its content may be detrimental to the prospects of my companies or my position in them, should it be disliked by my audience or, in fact, by anyone who happens to come across the content. Will my opinion upset my customers or shareholders? If so, better keep it to myself. I’ve published a number of Twitteretters which I knew would have just that effect, although moderated or toned down to minimise it. This is a sad reflection of a society in which many have difficulty accepting opinions and world views which don’t agree with their own and where condemnation of different ideas, well beyond moderate disagreement, is prevalent. As one of my companies approaches an IPO, I realise that I either lead it, post IPO, or continue Twitteretter, but probably cannot do both. Easy choice...

This is a latin expression, attributed to a I Century Roman poet, Juvenal, referring to how easily the crowds were appeased by ensuring that they had enough to eat and could go to the circus. Marx made the same observation about religion, another means of appeasement, when he coined the phrase, ‘Religion, the opium of the people’. Today, these have been replaced by sports and social media, still fulfilling the same purpose. Can you imagine the power our citizens would have to improve society if they deployed the same passion to say, fixing climate change, or homelessness, than they do to a Real Madrid – Barcelona or a Liverpool – Man United derby? Or if great social reformers like Rutger Bregman, Noam Chomsky or Freada Kapor Klein had the same number of followers on Instagram as Cristiano Ronaldo, Ariana Grande or The Rock? Alas, we are still more passionate about entertainment and distraction than about improving our lot, and I am afraid our lot will not improve whilst this is the cas...

Those of you who know their family history will have heard stories of how our parents and grandparents, as post war children, were targeted by unregulated tobacco companies, as new consumers easy to get addicted to their products. This targeting, as we saw later on, had catastrophic consequences on public health. Tobacco corporations resisted, for years, attempts to regulate them, offering to self-regulate and casting doubt on the reported danger of their products, until they were eventually brought in line by society through extensive regulation. Today’s children are being targeted by social media companies, with ever more sophisticated Artificial Intelligence algorithms to compete for their attention at a time when they have not developed the tools to defend themselves. We are already starting to see the consequences, but they will only be fully clear, as happened with tobacco, years ahead. It is not your purse or your life, but rather your lungs or your time, but it is still crimina...

I read an interesting article about the warnings preceding series and films prior to broadcasting or streaming to our screen. Bridgerton, yet another costume drama, available in Netflix, warns viewers that it contains scenes of sex, nudity and sexual violence. This post is not about the value of having yet another inconsequential costume drama on our screen, nor about formulaic writing and filming, although both of these would be interesting themes for later. What this post is about is wondering what may be wrong with a society where nudity, which has nothing wrong with it, can make it into the same warning as sexual violence, both accompanied by sex which should be a more positive than negative experience when practised consensually. It seems that, to some people, a female breast and a rape are equally upsetting, or at least, Netflix thinks so. This is nonsensical, and I think it is high time we tackle real societal problems (sexual exploitation) and leave alone invented ones (nudity)...

I am watching Jeff Orlowski’s brilliant documentary about how the tech industry is using behavioural psychology and a deep understanding of our biochemistry to develop an addiction to their tools in our young people, driven by their aim to grow advertising revenue and improve behaviour predicting models and akin to pushing drugs at the school gate. I highly recommend it. An all out assault on the mental stability of our young is taking place in the face of indifference from our governments, and it can’t be permitted. It may seem difficult to solve, but it isn’t, if the political will is there. Solutions could be articulated around making the industry responsible for the welfare of their underage users. For example, a significant fine, shared between social media companies, every time someone under 20’s screen time on social media exceeds 1 and a half hours per day would soon put pay to this antisocial corporate behaviour. One thing is clear. This is a problem we must solve. And quickly...

I think it is time for me to come out. I have decided to, or more accurately been cajoled into, have two fitted wardrobes made for my apartment. It was pointed out to me that there are only so many clothes you can have lying around and, after some resistance born of stubbornness, I agree. We’ve run through the process, had the designers, toed and froed on shelf and drawer placing and finally settled on a design and a supplier. Multiple times during the process we were reminded the amazing discounts offered were only available should we order before tomorrow. This is tiresome and stupid. It is about closing a sale by using one of the oldest techniques in the closer handbook, fear of loss. It is also going through the motions, we all know that artificial deadline will just continue to move, always to… tomorrow. This is why my Skype handle is a Douglas Adams quote: ‘I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by…’ Live your life without fear of artificial deadlines ...

I was playing a quick online chess game this morning, against a random opponent. In fairness, I was not playing well, just passing time and having one of those dense, uninspired days. My opponent was playing better and was on top for most of the game. My not particularly strong moves and meek attempts at combinations were met, through the app’s chat, with several ‘Lol’, ‘Easy’ and finally the absolutely right, but downright rude, ‘Moving pieces randomly is not chess’. Turns out, in the end, I did develop a game winning combination, to which he smarted ‘Just luck’. I normally don’t engage, but, being dense this morning, I told him what I thought of him, risking banning from the app in these days of political correctness. He answered he did not mean to offend me. I was left nearly speechless, but managed to ask him what he meant to do. ‘Just having fun’, he said. Do some people lose their manners and empathy online, or do I just meet idiots online I have been lucky not to meet elsewhere?...

I had a business meeting today which mainly revolved around Star Wars, featuring my not very good Darth Vader impression and some espresso machine jokes. This may seem unusual, or even incredible, to you, especially if you are not involved in business or if you are, but have not properly understood it. Business, you see, is part of life, for those involved in it. It does not exist to serve money, an inert object which needs no servicing, but rather to serve people, its participants. If you understand this, and many don’t, you then also understand it must be fun and not taken overly seriously. A willing, cooperating, organised group of highly prepared, motivated humans, can achieve a lot. The real trick is to achieve it whilst, at the same time, enjoying it, contributing to creating a virtuous circle around willingness, cooperation and motivation, a self-feeding success. This obvious fact is often missed by those in business who, lacking the perspective of distance, miss its real purpos...

A few days ago I started a Youtube channel designed to offer Twitteretter to its thus far limited audience in a new format, video, cognisant of the fact that many do not read these days, and of the importance of trying to reach those, maybe even more than reading audiences. As I marketed the channel, something curious happened. Curious, but I think significant. I received many comments on the appearance and set up of the channel and suggestions as to how to enhance it, gadgets I should invest in to improve my lighting and delivery, additional elements I may consider for better visuals, etc. No comments, however, on the content which, in my mind, is what matters, maybe not in many other channels, but certainly on Twitteretter. This seems to be what we have come to, a society concerned only with the wrapping, not with the content, superficially surfing reality on a sensorial wave, without a rational rudder to keep us away from the rocks. I will focus on the content, to the horror of many...

I’ve read a lot over the years. I’m always reading at least a book, often several in parallel. As a result, I know a lot of facts and have been exposed to many opinions and thoughts. I speak several languages. I don’t rely on technology for arithmetic, as my body comes crowned, factory settings, by a computer for this purpose, which needs using to develop full powers. In the past, all these would have been significant advantages, in the workplace, in travelling, in conversation, in writing. But today, anyone equipped with the right technology can not only compete with my capabilities, but downright demolish them. These are the early days of technology enhanced humans. Does this mean my efforts and education are wasted? This remains to be seen, but I think not. I think abilities and capacities are still important, not so much in the result, replaceable nowadays, but in the process, which shapes the mind, giving you tools to take better advantage of the technology enhancements on offer L...

A few days ago I found myself in the unfortunate position of reading an interview I gave to a regional newspaper. Misfortune, not because my interviews are necessarily boring or uninteresting. Rather, because its execution reflected with fidelity the most salient characteristic of the journalist that interviewed me. His millennialism. Sentences were literally abandoned halfway, the chore of writing them disturbed by more interesting stimuli arriving through my reporter’s smart phone. The effort required to keep the piece coherent, the grammar honest and the reporting accurate soon overwhelmed him to the point of surrender and the abandon that follows it. I can only surmise that the editor was either non-existent, a result of a cost saving effort by the paper, or also a millennial who found equal difficulty in reading a piece stretching to several paragraphs as the reporter found in writing it. Not that it matters. The mediocrity thus produced fits snuggly with the rest of the journal L...

Interesting, and concerning, to realise, when reading on geopolitics and business, two fields with a huge bearing on our quality of life and prospects, that the main references practitioners of these disciplines seem to have are, respectively, Thucydides, the V Century BC Greek general, and Sun Tzu, the VI Century BC Chinese general. The rivalry between the current superpower, the US, and the new upstart, China, is understood by geopolitical planners, in both countries, in the light of Thucydides’ work. According to it, as China’s economic might and political influence grows, the ultimate, inevitable consequence will be a hegemony war. Of course, as a planner, if you prepare for this, you’ll most likely bring it about, a perverse self-fulfilling prophecy. The Art of War, by Sun Tzu, is compulsory bedside reading for many businessmen. No wonder humanity’s future appears fraught with insurmountable problems, if our go to references ignore all we might have learnt in the last 2,500 years ...

I have started producing a video channel, on YouTube, with Twitteretter posts, read by myself in English and subtitled in Spanish. This is a bit of an experiment. I am interested in whether this initiative will drive any views and following. My expectation is not many. I know that I would get many more should I start a channel on start up and running business, an area where I have significant expertise and where I have built a reputation over the years, but which I regard as much less interesting than Twitteretter. We seem to be more and more focused on consuming information for its practical usefulness, rather than its intrinsic interest. And in our utilitarian and consumeristic universe, usefulness is defined exclusively in economic terms. Alas, Twitteretter does not aspire to teach you how to make a living, but to get you to think about how to live a life. And for this, I fear, the audience is much smaller. Still, let’s not pre-empt the experiment, only running it will tell Length: ...

I’m concerned by the disappearance of normality. Not the actual quality. That is, indeed, disappearing. If you need convincing, take a look at the range of characters in costumes that assaulted the Capitol the other day, or review, say, the video of a rampant, clumsy Boris Johnson aggressively running through five year olds in what was meant to be a mock rugby game. But today’s post is concerned with the disappearance of normality, the word. A perfectly good word, in perfectly common, dare I say, normal, use. And then, a few months ago, it disappeared from American reporting, suddenly and unexpectedly replaced, everywhere, by the much less common ‘normalcy’. Those of us who have been speaking English with normality for years, suddenly had to guess what we might be returning to when returning to normalcy as promised after the coronavirus pandemic or Trump’s presidency, and checking dictionaries to confirm the word is not the figment of a febrile, COVID afflicted, journalist’s imaginatio...

Spain is seeing record snowfalls this week, which combine with the coronavirus pandemic to create chaos. They have resulted in, amongst many other things, many drivers who ignored travel alerts being stranded all over the national geography. It is simultaneously amusing and depressing to hear them angrily calling national media to denounce that, after hours stranded, nobody has come to their rescue. We inhabit a society in which many want to exercise their personal freedoms to act ignoring all advice, pay little taxes and, convergently, have the state immediately get them out of the messes they wilfully walk into. They denounce the curbs the ‘nanny state’ imposes on their personal freedoms, but cry for their nanny as soon as their ill advised exercise of those freedoms in defiance of the state lands them in trouble. This incoherent attitude is not unusual in small children who have not learnt the meaning of responsibility yet. Freud would have a field day studying these so called adult...

As Donald Trump was finally permanently banned by Twitter, after four years of testing the boundaries with the gusto of a rebellious teenager with over-permissive parents, a parody profile appeared with his photo on the handle, tweeting what the owner of the profile, in satiric tone, imagined an out of work Trump may be tweeting. Within one hour, the profile had over 7,000 followers and 66,000 retweets. Comedy is good, it can even be a tool for sanity and survival in these crazy times, but the fact that all it took was this imaginative impersonation to gain more followers than those accumulated over years of effort by people and organisations with serious, worthwhile messages and stories of import to tell reminds us of the opportunities we are losing with social media. They could be a forum for real debate, democratic engagement, information or even education, but the substance is completely lost in the cacophony of inconsequential nonsense that many, in their escapism, seem to prefer...

I have a very apologetic piano learner at home at present. Truth is, she is pretty good, just rusty after years of oblivion following a long time spent at the Kaunas Conservatory in the somewhat distant past. I find the apologies unnecessary, and certainly less warranted than when, a few years ago, I had an unapologetic drums learner at home. Granted, the learning is not always tuneful or harmonious, in fact, it probably is not most of the time right now. We all like to witness accomplished performance, but we are typically not aware of the painstaking, long drawn process leading to it. For me, the process is as interesting, as fascinating, as the performance. The latter cannot exist without the former. Understanding how the performance is achieved, reached, adds to the experience of witnessing it. That is often missing from spectating and it can easily lead to the wrong conclusion, to the myth of talent over work. The very talented would often tell you their talent is built, not given...