I bought an ebook from Gumroad yesterday after seeing a recommendation on Twitter.
It was garbage. Short and written badly. I would have been embarrassed to publish it and charge what the author did.
Who’s doing this *well*? Which indie ebooks are high quality?
Every media organization needs to own its own website, distribution, and revenue model.
Every independent journalist needs to own their own website, distribution, and revenue model.
Use the platforms - but do it on your terms.
Don't let them own you.
I really want a laptop with a working keyboard. It's getting nuts. Should I:
1. Wait for the new M1 MBPs later this year
2. Get an existing M1 Mac
3. Go back to Windows with a Surface / Lenovo
4. Get a rugged Linux laptop with great battery life
5. Something else?
I get people asking to place articles on my blog for money all the time. I always ignore because I figure they're automated messages. But what if I said "yes"? What would it take for a public blog to support a modest full-time income?
Snippets in Superhuman are great but I almost just sent a Ruby on Rails takehome project to someone who wanted me to invest in his startup.
I had a few days off last week to pack up some stuff; this weekend was my mother's birthday, which we celebrated well; last night I managed a rare eight hours of sleep.
Hello, new week. Bring it on.
Happy Easter to everyone who celebrates. As a godless heathen, someone had to remind me it was a thing this morning, and now I plan to find some chocolate eggs.
Still out here for the open, counter-cultural web. Figuring out how I can be most helpful.
They weren’t sure if my immunosuppressed mother would develop antibodies after receiving the vaccine, so they’ve been testing her. Today they found out she did. Such great news for her, for us, and for everyone with a suppressed immune system.
Overall, my career has involved a lot less flat food and Lego than Douglas Coupland led me to believe.
Happy first day of spring to everyone who northern hemispheres
The pandemic brings a new meaning to “March madness” amirite
I’m not at all against the discussion of writers finding an audience and making money - it’s wonderful - but it’s worth saying that not all writing is for promotion or profit. Some is just about discussing an idea, getting feedback, research, or reflection. We need those too.
Cushy startup benefits or just the legal minimum in Germany?
Full healthcare
4 weeks vacation + holidays
14 weeks maternity & paternity
Enforced maximum 40 hour workweek
Kombucha on tap
OK, you got me, the kombucha is startups
I'm really excited about tools that help people share and make money from their work on their own terms, from their own websites. I always have been - from the very beginning of the commercial web - but I'm *particularly* excited that more people are seeing value in this now.
Pitch: a discussion community you can add to any website with one line of code, or embed in any app. Advanced analytics, customization, SSO. Compatible with micropub. Full export. Abuse prevention and moderation. Optionally charge for entry to all or part.
Pretty upset about what’s happening over in the UK. Women have the right to feel safe, and the right to peaceful protest. I’d expect to see this kind of thing in parts of America, to be honest, but not so much there. It’s really sad.
Making pie. My first bourbon crust - intrigued to see how it turns out.
It gets easier and easier to be cynical about new technologies, but that doesn’t get us anywhere. We’ve got to be informed and diligent, but building the future requires us to embrace and try new stuff, all the time.
A little bit in the edge of falling apart tonight. Just want to sleep, tbqh.
Artificial scarcity is just another kind of skeuomorphism.
So much more on the web becomes possible if we just add the idea of decentralized identity to the browser.
Werd I/O © Ben Werdmuller. The text (without images) of this site is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0.
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