I was inspired by something I saw on Joshua Wold's blog a few days ago. He was reflecting on why we write.

When I sit down to put words to the page I have an idea of what I want to write. But I’ve purposely chosen not to plan it out.

The experience is much the same for me, except that sometimes I don't have an idea of what I want to write.

Sometimes you've got to just power through and write anyway. And there's a tension there– am I writing for myself or for an audience?

Because if I write for myself, then I'm likely to blather on, documenting uninteresting minutia. Getting words out for the sake of getting words out, because getting words out feels natural and cathartic. This blog's origin was an unfiltered journal with a voyeuristic audience.

But if I write for an audience, it's so easy to tell myself "it's naval gazing¹", or "it's not good enough", or "who cares?".

I'll hold that tension.

For me, a large motivating factor is recording a piece of myself for my children. The more I write, the better they'll know me. It's easy for kids to forget that their parents are actually real people, so one day, when they realise this fact, they might take an interest in learning about their Dad. And, more morbidly, someday (B"H many years from now) they'll have a little extra to remember me by.

My method for practicing bass guitar is based on the Circle of Fifths, inspired by a method taught by Scott Devine.

The Circle of Fifths is a music theory concept which links each of the 12 notes in a sequence. Start with a note, and increment it by 5. Play that "fifth", and then increment another five. As a bit of code, it could be expressed like this:

notes = ["C", "D♭", "D", "E♭", "E", "F", "G♭", "G", "A♭", "A", "B♭", "B"]
index = 0;

while playing {
    index = index + 5 // Move foward 5 notes in the sequence.
    index = index % count(notes) // Make sure our index is within range.
    play( notes[ index ] )
}

In other words, count forward 5 notes, looping back to the start as needed. This would result in the following repeating sequence: C / F / B♭ / E♭ / A♭ / D♭ / G♭ / B / E / A / D / G.

Which results in a rather beautiful star dodecagram.

Step 1: Learn the progression

This progression is helpful to practice, because it's very common in many varieties of music. Additionally, bassists often enumerate a triad while playing, which includes the fifth note in the key. Practicing fifths help you find interesting harmonic structures. If the guitarist is playing a C, consider an F.

Step 2: Practice major triad shapes

A triad is simply the first (or root) note, third note, and fifth note in a scale.

 ↓     ↓     ↓
 1  2  3  4  5  6  7
 C  D  E  F  G  A  B

There are essentially 3 patterns you could use to deconstruct a major triad on the bass guitar. Here's a C triad, in those three shapes (R for root note, 3 for the third, 5 for the fifth).

Shape 1:
G|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
D|---|---|---|---|-5-|---|---|
A|---|---|-R-|---|---|---|-3-|
E|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|

Shape 2:
G|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
D|---|-3-|---|---|-5-|---|---|
A|---|---|-R-|---|---|---|---|
E|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|

Shape 3:
G|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
D|---|---|---|---|-5-|---|---|---|
A|---|---|---|---|---|---|-3-|---|
E|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|-R-|

I practice these by playing through the Circle of Fifths using shape 1 first, then shape 2, and finally shape 3.

One thing I do to help me know when I've "got it under my fingers" is to throw a drum track on (I use my electric piano for this). When I'm comfortable playing through each sequence with a 110 bpm, that's when I know to move on.

Step 3: Practice inversions

When I first start practicing the major triads in their various shapes, I'll be playing the triad in order: R / 3 / 5. But as I'm feeling more confident with this, I'll invert the triad once (3 / 5 / R) or twice (5 / R / 3).

Keeping in the Circle of Fifths sequence, you get this:

• (C chord) E / G / C
• (F chord) A / C / F
• (B♭ chord) D / F / B♭
  … and so on.

Of course each of these inversions can be played in each of the shapes listed above! So go through each inversion using each shape. Again, a drum track helps a lot!

Step 4: Combining shapes

Okay with this next step I implement some limitations on myself in order to force brain and fingers into uncomfortable territory.

The task is: Play through the Circle of Fifths triads using only fret 1—5 (or fret 6 if necessary). No open notes.

Once I'm feeling comfortable here, I'll move the whole thing up the neck, playing frets 6—10, or 8—12. This usually takes some time to figure out – I'm still becoming familiar with the notes north of the fifth fret! But that's why it's good practice.

Limiting the frets in this way forces you to choose a different shaped triad for each note in the circle.

Repeat with each inversion. Or sometimes I just throw in a random inversion while I'm playing through.

Step 5: Minor triads

Rinse and repeat steps 2—4, but using minor triads instead. Figure out your shapes, and proceed from there.

 ↓     ↓     ↓
 1  2  3  4  5  6  7
 C  D  E♭ F  G  A♭ B♭

You could even do the same for diminished or augmented chords, but I haven't bothered to learn these yet.

---

Many of these concepts have helped me on other instruments, too. Inversions on piano, and chord progressions on guitar. I'm not sure if bass is the best lens with which to approach a new instrument, but it's one that's worked for me so far.

Every so often you'll come up with an idea that you're pretty sure nobody has tried yet.

99% of the time you're wrong.

But I think our invention of the turn-based podcast falls into that 1% of truly unique ideas.

Joshua and I have been working asynchronously for nearly our whole careers. So when we started a podcast that required a scheduled calendar event every week, something didn't quite sit right for us. So we decided to try something really different.

The podcast is called Async, and you can find it on all the best podcast networks. It's a podcast about technology, app development, and remote work. The unique aspect is that each episode alternates between hosts, switching back and forth between Joshua and me. This allows our conversation to unfold gradually over multiple short episodes.

Since this episode-to-episode asynchronous exchange is a new idea, I thought it would be good to define the term "Turn-Based Podcasting" a little more, and talk about the pros and cons of this novel format.

What is turn-based podcasting

I never liked the game Age of Empires. Some people will tell you that it's all about strategy, but they're wrong. It's all about speed. How fast you move your cursor, how well you know the shortcuts, how quickly you can react. This type of game is called "real-time strategy", because you're thinking and reacting synchronously with other players.

I've always preferred games like Chess, or Polytopia. In these games, play progresses in turns, each player receiving all the time they need to decide on the best course of action. These are "turn-based strategy" games.

Most podcasts are real time conversations. Sure, they're often heavily edited, and the end product may not be chronological, but the production requires collaborators operating concurrently.

Turn-based podcasts allow each host the time they need to think through a response, responding whenever is most suitable. Joshua will record an episode, which will appear in my podcast feed. Once I've had a chance to listen, I will record my response – often including a new topic or idea for Joshua to react to – and publish it. Each episode passes from one to the other, like a relay race passing on the baton¹.

Turn-based podcasting is not limited to two hosts, nor does it require hosts to participate in a particular turn-order. The key distinction is that each episode contains a single speaker.

How is this different from asynchronous podcasting?

Asynchronous podcasting involves recording audio asynchronously, then stitching the segments together to form a single episode. Often, the interviewer records all of their questions all at once, and later, the interviewee answers them. The two audio clips are merged, and voila! You have an episode that was recorded asynchronously, but sounds synchronous (although, these types of shows often seem to be lacking a certain je ne sais quoi).

Turn-based podcasting, on the other hand, leans in to its asynchronous nature, rather than trying to hide it in post.

What are the advantages of turn-based podcasting?

The primary advantage is flexibility. Joshua and I are both busy working Dads, and our weeks are constantly in flux. We love podcasting, but between work, kids, family holidays, and religious events, we can't realistically dedicate a calendar slot every week.

Turn-based podcasting gives us the flexibility we need to make the conversation happen.

Another huge advantage is the time-to-publish. Since the listener (and responding host) needs to keep track of various topics and threads across episodes, we recommend keeping each episode short. Five to fifteen minutes works best for us. I listen to Joshua in my own time (driving, cooking, washing up) so the time I spend sitting at the microphone is limited only to my response.

Joshua and I pair our turn-based podcast with a live-to-tape policy. Without an edit, it takes me 15 minutes to record an episode, 5 minutes to upload and write a title, and another 5 minutes to add AI transcription and chapter markers. I consistently get an episode out in less than half an hour.

Lastly, our release frequency changes the game. Since our episodes are short, we tend to release 3 or 4 back-to-back episodes every week. This keeps us in regular rotation for our listeners, and top of mind.

What about the disadvantages?

If you look at any poll asking people what they like about podcasts, it's inevitably the conversational flow and the chemistry between the hosts that draws listeners.

There's no getting around the fact that verbal backchannel cues and even interruptions make for a more dynamic conversation. Turn-based podcasting misses out on that. Even so, over the course of a few episodes, listeners discover a flow between hosts. There are in-jokes, references, sledging, and snide remarks. The chemistry can be a little more subtle, a little more long-form, but it's there.

Won't listeners get confused?

Maybe? I mean, you've got to give listeners a little more credit than that, right? If you explain the situation up front, I'm sure the audience can figure it out. Here's how I introduce the Async podcast:

Saadia

Hi, welcome to Async! This is Saadia. Async is a back and forth conversation between Joshua and myself about technology, app development, and remote work.

Additionally, we recommend prepending each episode title with the name of the host in square brackets, like so: [Joshua] Pausing infinity wells.

---

I love podcasting. Talking through my thoughts and experiences helps me process them in a way not dissimilar to journalling or blogging. It helps me think. Finding a format that fits my lifestyle has really opened that up for me, and most importantly, made it sustainable.

Turn-based podcasting may not have the conversational dynamism of traditional formats, but it brings something unique to the table: flexibility, thoughtful exchanges, and a unique rhythm.

On a drive with Talia yesterday, I wanted to tell her about some of the interesting things I discovered while writing my Input 2024 post. The conversation went something like…

Saadia

Let me tell you about something I wrote, since I know you don't read my blog.

Talia

How do you know I don't read it?

Saadia

Because you don't use an RSS reader! Do you?

Talia

No, you're right, I don't.

Saadia

So how would you know when I've posted something new? You're not going to go check it everyday. It's fine! You don't need to. Let me just tell you about it.

You might have heard about this "Indie Web" movement, also called the "Small Web", "Web 1.0", or "Geocities Web". It's a push to reclaim something about the internet that we lost along the way. I think that something was, specifically, RSS.

The best web died on July 1, 2013.

In the days following it's closure, Marco Arment suggested that the shutdown of Google Reader was a strategic move to push users toward sharing content on Google+. While the plan didn’t fully succeed, the overarching trend became clear: RSS feeds were on the way out, and social networks were taking their place.

Ever since then we've been on a free-fall into short-form, high-speed, hyper-stimulating, outrage-inducing, brain-rotting, algorithm-pleasing "content".

RSS lives on in podcasting. It's a remnant of the Indie-Web which persisted, and is thriving. Could long-form textual content ever see that same sort of popularity? Or are those days behind us?

Here's an app idea: Imagine a mashup of Apple Podcasts and Apple News. Your feeds are arranged in beautiful bento layouts, and a Discovery tab helps you find more blogs to follow. There's a section called "Recommended based on my Feeds", and another called "New Perspectives to Explore".

The truth is that the audience for this blog is limited to those who have a habit of using an RSS reeder, and that's a pretty small demographic. I'd love to see an initiative that included RSS education, promotion, and discovery. What could we do to bring back RSS?

---

Update: As though to further confirm the idea that RSS is dead, I was having coffee with Rob yesterday. He's a marketing manager for a big tech company. He's worked in tech his whole career. I asked him whether he uses an RSS reader and he laughed at the idea.

Today, another friend came around – Jeremy. He's an avid gardener, and started an amazing substack related to gardening and caring for the planet. I told him that he should write a new post, and that I'd add his substack to my RSS feeds. He replied, "What's that?".

Since 2021, I've recorded every Book, Film, and Television series I've seen each year.

Usually, I'll write a round-up post at the end of the year with long lists of every title. For my 2024 roundup, I've decided to keep it a little more succinct.

Those who know me know that I think a lot about Input and Output. What creative information do I take in, and what creative acts do I undertake? I believe a healthy mind has a good balance between these two.

Here are the best and worst of my Inputs for 2024.

Books

In 2024 I read 25 books – roughly one every two weeks. Of these, 36% were graphic novels, 32% were audiobooks, 20% were ebooks, 1 paperback, 1 hardcover, and 1 printed screenplay.

There was a conscious effort on my behalf to try new mediums. In 2023, my reading was about 80% audiobooks, so the inclusion of ebooks, a screenplay, and a bunch of graphic novels was, well… novel. In 2025, I think I'll hunker down with a few more physical books.

Book of the Year: The Swallowed Man by Edward Carey

An unforgettably woeful tale of Geppetto, the father of The Wooden Boy, Pinocchio. The audiobook was great – and if you can, I'd recommend listening this way. It's read by the author, who, despite not having a particularly charming radio voice, must surely have some background in theatre. Touching and poignant are such overused words, so I'll simply say that this story burrows – no, dives – deep, lodging itself, and lighting up in the dark corners of your inner self.

Runner Up: The Great Undoing by Sharlene Allsopp

A thought-provoking and character-focused hard sci-fi, set in a near future apocalypse where Australia has become the dominant world power.

Wooden Spoon: Rebel by Bernard Cornwell

What a letdown! After thoroughly enjoying Cornwell's Sharpe series (my favourite book series ever written), I was desperately hoping that his ability to bring the Napoleonic wars to life would translate to the American Civil War. Alas, it did not. Despite a brief appearance by Sharpe's son and allusions to Sharpe's armaments, I found myself thoroughly bored.

Film

In 2024 I saw 41 movies. Of these, 34% were seen in a cinema, 29% on my television, 2 on my MacBook, 2 on my iPhone, and 1 on a plane.

Film of the Year: Monkey Man, directed by Dev Patel

I'm a sucker for a good, stupid, action film. Give me Fast & Furious, give me Taken, give me John Wick. And Monkey Man does. It's been described as an Indian John Wick – a fair comparison, but it's a lot more than that too. This film has a lot more heart than your typical shoot-em-up fare, plus the beautifully gritty backdrop of subcontinent slums. Hiding underneath it all are themes of poverty, the caste system, and Hindu nationalism. It's become my favourite action film, and my go to recommendation for anyone who enjoys the genre. This was Dev Patel's directorial debut, and I cannot wait to see what he creates next.

Runner Up: Napoleon, directed by Ridley Scott

I'm not quite sure why critics mostly panned this film. I enjoyed it quite a lot! Going into the film, I already had a strong interest in Napoleonic France (having read the entire Sharpe series, I feel like a minor expert!), so perhaps that helped. There were a few historical inaccuracies that bothered me (charging in line rather than column, as Napoleon was famous for). Aside from that, I found the settings and performances captivating, and the storytelling quite exciting.

Wooden Spoon: Madame Web

Enough has already been said about this terrible picture. I mean, I hate to speak ill of a film – there's such a huge amount of work that goes into every single one. But a dud is a dud.

Television

In 2024 I watched 30 season of television, across 23 different shows, comprising of 283 episodes. That's 5.5 episodes of television each week. Of these episodes, 22% were Outlander! An additional 12% were Marvel shows, and 11% were Star Trek.

Television Season of the Year: The Penguin (Season 1)

I know a lot of people skipped this because it's a DC show, and you know, Batman. It's set in the same universe as Matt Reaves' The Batman, but it doesn't feature the character in any important ways, and doesn't require that you've seen the film. The important thing to stress about The Penguin is that it is not a super hero show. There are no super heroes. The Penguin is a mafia drama, and a good one, holding its own right alongside Scorsese's GoodFellas. Frantic, fast-paced, never sure who to root for. It left me, let's say, staggering.

Runner Up: For All Mankind (Season 4)

Possibly the greatest show on Apple TV+, save perhaps Severance. And consistent. Every season has built on the last and taken the show new places. Season 4 is no different. The thing I'd say about this show is that it's a great "watch it with the wife" kind of show. It's been my experience with most couples that one prefers character drama while the other would rather gunfights and spaceships (or spaceships having gunfights). This show has it all.

Wooden Spoon: Monarch: Legacy of Monsters (Season 1)

After having enjoyed most of the previous films in the "MonsterVerse" franchise, and knowing the high calibre quality of Apple TV+ shows, I had high hopes for this series. Unfortunately, it was terrible.

---

This post should give you some indication of the types of Inputs I enjoy! If you have any recommendations, especially if they relate to one of the items above, please reach out and let me know! My favourite recommendations sound like "I saw you enjoyed X – you should try Y, it's like X but with a touch of Z".

Growing up, we always showered using (what my Italian mother called) a straccio. It wasn't until I was old enough to shop for myself that I encountered the plastic "shower puff", known also as a loofah¹.

That word – loofah – occupied a very singular place in my mind (synthetic shower accessory) until a few years ago, when I discovered a loofah growing in my garden.

The crazy part was… that cucumber-like fruit turned out to be exactly the same thing.

In our garden we think a lot about beneficial plants. Harvesting food is amazing, and particularly rewarding, but many plants have uses beyond sustenance. We love weeds with medicinal properties, we plant flowers for pest control and pollinating, or we might grow a specific plant to improve the soil. Loofah's are beneficial too! They make great washers and scrubbing brushes.

Many folks I've talked to about loofahs don't realise that the plastic thing you buy in the supermarket is modelled on the real thing – a plant with a spongy texture that works great for scrubbing in the shower.

The loofah plant grows like a weed in our garden. It's a climbing vine, not dissimilar to cucumber or pumpkin. The fruit pictured above is just growing on the ground, but usually we'll grow them vertically.

I've read that it's best to harvest after the skin of the fruit turns brown (it becomes brittle and easy to peel), but personally I find that it's more effective to harvest them early and let them mature in a cool, dry place. Otherwise the rain and humidity can cause the sponge to rot. Additionally, harvesting early results in a paler and harder sponge, which is my preference.

After the skin has gone brown, you peel it off, and shake out all the seeds! This usually takes me about 10 minutes, if I want to get all those stubborn hiding ones. We keep the seeds, and will plant them again. Here on the Sunshine Coast, they'll grow just about anywhere.

Some people prefer to bleach their loofah's before using them. I suppose this is to get rid of any unwanted dirt or plant matter. Others like to slice off the top and bottom with a bread knife for a more uniform cylinder shape. I prefer to keep things au naturel.

Showering with a home-grown loofah is amazing. It's hands-down the best body scrubber I've used. The sponge is exfoliating, but not too abrasive, and the length allows me to reach right down my back for a good scratch. Each loofah lasts about 3 weeks before it starts to rot.

I've read that some folks make a soap using sliced discs of loofah, resulting in a sort of all-in-one body scrubber. I'm keen to give that a go using coconut oil, sunflower oil, and some caustic soda (or maybe I'll try my hand at home-made lye!).

Inspired by Tobias Horvath (and a whole bunch of other bloggers), here are my App Defaults.

📨 Mail Client: Apple Mail
📮 Mail Server: iCloud
📝 Notes: Apple Notes

✅ To-Do: Physical notebook
📷 Photo Shooting: Apple Camera
🟦 Photo Management: Apple Photos
📸 Photo Editing: Apple Photos
📆 Calendar: Apple Calendar
📁 Cloud File Storage: iCloud Drive
📖 RSS: Reeder
📇 Contacts: Apple Contacts
🌐 Browser: Apple Safari
💬 Chat: Apple Messages and WhatsApp
🔖 Bookmarks: Safari Bookmarks
📑 Read It Later: Reeder
📺 Watch It Later: Play
📜 Word Processing: Apple Pages
📈 Spreadsheets: Apple Numbers
📊 Presentations: Apple Keynote
✍🏻 Writing Books: Highland 2
🛒 Shopping Lists: Apple Reminders / Apple Notes
🍴 Meal Planning: Physical notebook
💰 Budgeting and Personal Finance: Apple Numbers
📰 News: WhatsApp, Apple News
🎵 Music: Apple Music
🎤 Podcasts: Apple Podcasts
📚 Books: Apple Books / Libby / BookPlayer
🔐 Password Management: Apple Passwords
🔍 Search Engine: Kagi
🍿 Movie Tracking: Apple Notes / Callsheet
📝 Blogging Platform: Hugo
🧑🏻‍💻 Code: PHPStorm for WordPress, Nova for everything else

Twenty twenty-five is such a great number.

Check this out: (20 + 25)² = 2025!

And if that doesn't convince you: (0 + 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5 + 6 + 7 + 8 + 9)² = 2025.¹

Clearly we're living squarely in auspicious times.²

I've had a New Years Resolution strategy for the past few years that has worked really well. It started with a question: Why January 1st? It seems so arbitrary. If there's something you want to achieve or a habit you want to start, why wait?

So that's what I've been doing. Reflecting on the year past, planning for the year ahead, and starting on my "resolutions" mid-December. It's nice to be a little ahead of the game once everybody else joins come January.

Plus, you free yourself from the low success-rate commonly associated with New Years Resolutions. Nobody is measuring the viability of mid-December commitments – for all I know it's 99%!

A mid-December commitment might be closer to one supposed medieval origin of the New Years Resolution. According to legend (popularised by Les Voeux du paon), knights would take "The Vow of the Peacock" during the week leading up to Christmas, by placing their hand on a roasted peacock and making a commitment to chivalry.

I found this 1954 thesis on Les Voeux du paon written by Brother Camillus Casey, which summarises the vow.

On his way to Babylon, Alexander comes to the assistance of Cassamus and his nephews and niece, whose city of Epheson is being besieged by Clarus. Porrus, one of Clarus' sons who has been taken prisoner, shoots down a peacock. The peacock is roasted and served at a banquet at which all the guests vow to perform some noble deed.

So, here are my Peacock Resolutions, inspired by the square nature of 2,025.

---

Practice 4 instruments, 4 times a week.

I'm a mediocre musician at best, but I love to play. I'm trying to practice piano, guitar, bass guitar, drums, and clarinet. I've already got courses and books, and I'm hoping to start in-person piano lessons when the school term begins. When it comes to music, I'd like to call myself a jack-of-all-instruments, master-of-none. But even that takes practice.

Publish 1,024 words every week.

My children love writing, especially Eli. It's inspired me to be a more active writer. Most of those words will be on this blog, but some might be written for other publications.

Reach a 1,024 day Italian learning streak on Duolingo.

As of this writing, my streak is 896, so this shouldn't be too hard. More difficult will be my secondary goal of completing the Italian course.

Read 25 books.

This is way down on the 52 books I read in 2022, but that was pretty intense. I read 25 books in 2024, so this will be challenging but achievable.

---

Those are my goals. Some people prefer themes for the year.

I had a few scotches and a game of chess last night with a close friend of mine. One of the many things our conversation included was how people best learn. We decided that learning should be approached with curiosity, respect, and a little touch of ambivalence. Those are my themes for the year.

• Curiosity as an anti-aging remedy; it's like stretching every morning but for your mind.
• Respect for the time and effort of your teachers, peers, and students.
• Ambivalence, remaining open to multiple valences, a willingness not-to-know, embracing uncertainty. Maybe even a little indifference.

I wonder if that's chivalrous enough for those fourteenth century knights!

In 2024, I led a series of Film & TV classes for a small group of homeschool students. The curriculum was designed to explore a variety of tasks and topics, offering the students insight into different career paths within the filmmaking industry.

Here's the curriculum outline.

Term 1. Story to Script: We started the year learning about Screenplays – we read a whole bunch of them and wrote our own; a short film about an ex-monster hunter who leaves retirement to face the one that got away.

1. Anatomy of a story
2. Story jam
3. Character
4. Plot
5. Thinking in scenes
6. The screenplay
7. Rough draft
8. First draft
9. Final draft
10. Review

Term 2. The Shot-list: We explored cinematography concepts. This culminated in a full storyboarded shotlist (complete with shot size, camera angles, composition, and movement).

1. Shot Size
2. Composition
3. Angle
4. Movement
5. Storyboarding
6. Storyboarding
7. Storyboarding
8. Marking elements
9. Concept shots
10. Review

Term 3. On Location: This term was about pre-production and production. We had a blast location scouting, and learning about what it was like to be on set. We even got to have coffee with a professional actor, and learned first-hand what it’s like to work in the industry.

1. Crew roles
2. Scheduling, Planning, Budgeting
3. Casting
4. Auditions
5. Location scouting
6. Prop hunting
7. On set: Day 1
8. On set: Day 2
9. On set: Day 3
10. Review

Term 4. Final Cut: Unfortunately, we didn’t end up making it this far. A few students had to drop out, and we decided it was best to pick things up again at a later date. But here’s what we planned.

1. Meet Final Cut Pro
2. Logging
3. Assembly
4. Rough cut
5. Music and sound
6. Fine cut
7. Colour grading
8. Final Cut
9. Screening
10. Review

In the process of putting together these lessons, I came to realise that a deep understanding of media is incredibly important. In fact, I’d go so far as to say that “Film & TV”, also known as Media Class, is the most useful class a student can take.

Here’s why.

Media Literacy

We’re living in the Information Age. Everyone knows it. But what’s under-appreciated is the nature of the information that surrounds us: it’s overwhelmingly multi-modal. Text, images, video, audio – information now comes at us from every conceivable angle, often all at once.

Media class teaches an expansive form of literacy that goes beyond just reading and writing. It’s about understanding and creating across multiple modes of communication. Learning how to read, write, listen, watch, question, and converse is an essential part of a modern education.

Active Literacy

In a world where the cost of creating and distributing new content is effectively zero, critical thinking has become the ultimate survival skill. Media teaches students to:

• Discern fact from fiction
• Detect biases in storytelling
• Understand subtext and intention

This isn’t the passive consumption that traditional ”3 Rs” literacy might train you for. Media literacy is active. It’s about wrestling with the information you’re given, questioning its motives, and deciding what to do with it. It’s learning not just how to absorb information, but how to interrogate it.

Emotional Literacy

Ever been baited into an argument online? Fallen for an emotionally manipulative ad? Been blindsided by a tweet that seemed innocuous but wasn’t? Emotional literacy is the antidote to the modern internet’s arsenal of tone, context, baiting, trolling, and rhetoric.

Media class doesn’t just show students what to look out for; it helps them understand why people communicate the way they do. No other subject dives as deeply into the nuances of communication, delivering emotional intelligence outcomes that are critical for navigating digital spaces.

Inter-Disciplinary Literacy

While many school subjects serve specific purposes, Media Class is an outlier: it’s broadly applicable to nearly every aspect of life. From advertising to politics, from entertainment to religion, Media helps us decode and analyse the forces shaping our world.

Even within the school setting, Media crosses boundaries. Media literacy amplifies understanding in nearly every other subject. Take Film & TV, and you’ve gained a toolkit for analysing everything else you’ll encounter.

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Media matters more than ever. Every year, the volume of data grows, its delivery becomes more sophisticated, and the consequences of misunderstanding escalate. Without a foundation in Media literacy, students are left vulnerable to misinformation and manipulation. With it, they’re equipped to engage with the world critically, creatively, and empathetically.

Media isn’t just a class; it’s a survival guide for the 21st century. If you’re lucky enough to take it, pay attention. It might just be the most important class you’ll ever take.

As the year draws to a close, I’ve been reflecting on the lasting impact of my career. Heady stuff – you know – real “leave a dent in the universe” sort of thing.

So, the big idea my whole career was really about promoting the Open Web. Idealistic? You bet. Naïve? Certainly. Successful? Well, it’s not looking good.

Here’s how I define it:

The Open Web is a network of websites, accessible from any browser over http. The word “Open” is redundant; it serves only to distinguish The Web from other closed systems, such as private networks or proprietary app stores.

So here we are, at the end of 2024, and it appears as though the Open Web is in decline. Taking its place are private social networks (TikTok, Instagram), and private messaging (WhatsApp, Messages, Telegram). Some websites have switched focus away from the browser and into a mobile app interface, like YouTube and Facebook.

The Open Web, as we knew it in the “good old days” of Web 2.0, is quickly disappearing. There are a few holdouts, like ecommerce and wikipedia, but people just don’t seem need websites the way they used to.

Nowhere has the impact been more obvious than in blogging. Gone are the days of “the blogosphere” and “blogrolls”. The internet’s long-form content writers have up and moved to Instagram and YouTube to become “creators” and “influencers”. Short-form “reels” content is the norm, and let’s face it, it’s mostly brain rot.

What about business websites? Modern businesses shrug off the idea of a custom website. Who needs the trouble when you’ve got Facebook and a Google Maps listing? It’s easier, cheaper, and gets information to customers faster.

And just in case you still harboured any hope at all that the Open Web might yet make a comeback, AI enshittification is coming for us all.

BUT

There is a trend which I find kind of exciting.

At some point, you realise that you’re addicted to dopamine. You find yourself opening Instagram without meaning to. So, you remove all social media apps and infinity wells, and you LOVE it. You discover an incredible mental clarity and wellness. You’re calm. You’re relaxed.

But there’s some detachment there. A disconnect. Other people seem to be “in” on a conversation which you’re not invited to. Naturally, you start to crave that connection.

That’s when you might discover the Cozy Web¹. The Cozy Web is a bit more of an idea than it is an actual place you can go. It can be found in a small private Discord. Or maybe you get together with friends in a group message. You could connect with a few podcast communities, follow an email newsletter, start a Substack, and rediscover RSS.

In his essay “The Extended Internet Universe”, Venkatesh Rao describes the Cozy Web like this:

Unlike the main public internet, which runs on the (human) protocol of “users” clicking on links on public pages/apps maintained by “publishers,” the cozyweb works on the (human) protocol of everybody cutting-and-past-ing bits of text, images, URLs, and screenshots across livestreams. Much of this content is poorly addressable, poorly searchable, and very vulnerable to bitrot. It lives in a high-gatekeeping slum-like space comprising slacks, messaging apps, private groups, storage services like Dropbox, and of course, email.

Rao makes an interesting observation, which I want to build on. He suggests that the internet boils down to a pick-2-of-3 constraint triangle. You can choose from Quality, Free, or Public. It’s a great starting place, but I don’t think it’s quite right.

Here’s a taxonomy that better represents the internet in 2024, which will help me to better define the Cozy Web.

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1. Free vs. Ad-Tech vs. Paid

Many things online are still genuinely free. Altruistically so. Think of open source projects like WordPress and Node, or public benefit resources like Wikipedia and OpenStreetMap.

Ad supported sites aren’t necessarily evil – especially when the ads are hand-picked and delivered without any Ad-Tech middlemen. Many blogs and podcasts fall under this category. For the purpose of defining the Cozy Web, I’m counting these as Free.

Ad-Tech is a different beast entirely. YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, Google Search. These types of ads use sophisticated technology to become hyper targeted, delivering exactly the right ad at exactly the right time to exactly the right person. It’s insidious and dehumanising.

In contrast to ad supported models, many sites and content producers are turning to a simpler alternative: paid content, like Substacks, The New York Times, or Stratechery.

2. Known vs. Attributed Unknown vs. Anonymous

Private chats, small Slack spaces, Minecraft Realms – these are places where the participants are known to each other by name, often IRL. This is different from spaces like X or Facebook, where a user’s identity is verified, but the network operates in such a way that it becomes rare to encounter people you actually know (and, importantly, who know you in turn). Anonymity is becoming rarer for social media, but still exists in Reddit, 4Chan, gaming, and many other places online.

3. Not Optimised vs. Optimised for Engagement vs. Optimised for Insight

Private shitposting among friends is not “optimised content” in the way YouTube videos are optimised for views, or Reddit posts for karma. Unoptimised content is often private, free, and unapologetically low-quality. Of course, all communication aims to carry some sort of meaning, but the purpose isn’t to deliver insight.

That’s where news, blogs, and podcasts come in – the highest quality of which are paid. This content is optimised for audience insight, trading in opinion, synthesis, and aggregation.

Of course, then you get “Engagement Optimised” content. This is inevitably Ad-Tech supported (more views = more ads = more money), and often veers toward short-form content.

4. Private Distribution vs. Closed Distribution vs. Broad Distribution

Private messaging forms a large part of many social groups. These spaces are usually invite-only, and limited to a small number of people. Closed Distribution spaces, such as subscribed Substacks, Patreons, or email newsletters, can have larger audiences, but the content isn’t publicly accessible or searchable, and is often vulnerable to bitrot.

Broad distribution aims to capture as large an audience as possible, often including algorithmic feeds to deliver content to the perfect cohort of interested parties.

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Using these classifications, I can extend my own definitions of Cozy Web concepts.

Clear Net

At least 3 of:

• Ad-Supported
• Attributed Unknown
• Optimised for Engagement
• Broad Distribution

Cozy Web

At least 3 of:

• Free
• Known
• Not-Optimised
• Private

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It turns out that Open Web idealism might have been no more than a fast-track to an ad-based internet. Information wants to be free, but people want to be paid. The Cozy Web is an answer to that. It creates safe, intimate spaces to interact online, making the web feel smaller and more personal—reminiscent of the early days of bulletin boards and local online communities, where connection was valued over scale.

The internet has changed, but the good news is that it’s still changing. Not everyone is going adjust their daily dopamine diet, but there’s a growing group of troublemakers conscientious objectors who are building a better, cosier, web.