Trust - Week Notes

“Never trust anything that can think for itself, if you can’t tell where it keeps its brain.” - Arthur Weasley¹

In the age of AI this quote pops into my head unbidden, but before it was so directly applicable, I started using a reworded version: Never trust anything if you can’t tell where it gets its funding.

This is a different way of thinking of the warning “you’re not the customer, you’re the product.”² Both versions make me think carefully whenever I get something, a product or service, for free.

I know where the library gets its funding. I know where the post office gets its funding. I don’t really know where Google gets its funding. Advertising funding is one layer removed, possibly knowable, but not always obvious. Analytics and data sales is further removed, unknowable, where did the money come from to buy it? What are they using the data for once they have it? Investment funding is even harder - what are the investors hoping to get in return? When are they expecting that payoff? Where did they get the money they’re using?

I generally prefer to pay for things, whether indirectly through taxes or directly, but the ability to do that is a privilege. The next best thing is to engage with products and services where the funding is clear, but the time and energy to do that well is also quite difficult.

A little research and thought will make it even harder to do this. Sure the library gets its funding from taxes, but who is paying those taxes and what are they doing that is earning them money? How is the government beholden to the highest tax payers and how does that effect the decisions they make? How much of your favorite linux distro’s funding comes from one shady company that is manipulating people? How are the top contributors earning enough to eat?

I don’t really have a conclusion here, but this train of thought keeps coming back.

Reading

I picked up The Lost Story by Meg Shaffer from my library’s e-reader app and it was excellent! A kind of modern fairy tale, which is not a genre I usually gravitate toward.

I’m in the middle of reading another book on the same app and it is terrible. I don’t think I would have picked it up if it wasn’t available to borrow and right there on the screen.

I guess having a library worth of books a click away is a mixed bag.

Anime

Hally and I finished Eden of the East with the final movie. The ending is a bit ambiguous. Hally wasn’t happy lol I thought it was good though!

We also watched all of Bibliophile Princess after picking it up in a sale. It was good! The animation is very low budget, but the story was good. The beginning felt like we missed something, or like they expected you to already know the story? But it worked out in the end.

Games

I played the demo for easy delivery co. It was fun, but I didn’t really get it. I wonder if there’s a deeper story coming or something?

I played part of the Until Then demo. It’s a visual novel ish game but with a bit of walking around. The first few minutes were excruciatingly slow and it took me a couple of different sessions across multiple weeks before I had the patience to sit through it to get to the main game. Once I did though, the game seemed great! I kind of decided that I didn’t want to continue with the demo. It looks like your choices matter, and I don’t really want to have to start over after a bunch of progress. I’m a little tired of school-age stories (I’m old now), but I might give this full game a try at some point.

Sports

I’ve been following the NBA playoffs via the official YouTube highlights. I have not, historically, liked basketball. I didn’t really enjoy playing it in elementary school (I was really bad). As a viewer, I have had trouble investing because the path to score is so short. After a few years of the occasional explainer video, I think I’ve successfully learned how to watch Basketball.

The Monaco GP also happened this weekend. The Williams blocking strategy was pretty funny. It sounds like most people hated it. Sure passing is difficult, but it just means that the strategy, the playing of the game, happened in other areas, which I think is fine. I honestly think qualifying is more interesting than the race itself most of the time anyway. I find time trialing fascinating in any racing sport.

The Journey Continues

I was only able to write this because of Memorial Day. Feeling really overwhelmed right now. Hopefully I can reset over the short week. Until then stay chill and enjoy the ride