Weeknote 15/2025

Although perhaps not deserving of a separate post, over the past couple of weeks I’ve been more intentional in a particular online behaviour. I’m not entirely sure what prompted it, other than just being sick of the atomisation of society and the templated self.

It comes to something when intentionally engaging with people online by actually commenting on stuff feels like a revolutionary act. But, because we live in a broadcast culture mediated by software with shareholders, the default is for users to ‘react’ to content. Of the three social networks I use, LinkedIn is the most egregious in this respect, with the following panel apparently summing-up the kind of reactions it is appropriate to have:

Given that many things on LinkedIn make me go 🙄 or 🤔 I do not feel represented by these reactions. So I’ve decided that, if something is worth a ‘reaction’ then it’s also worth a comment — and not just on LinkedIn, on Bluesky and Mastodon as well. In fact, over the last few days, I’ve found myself going even further: jettisoning the blunt ‘like’ or ‘reaction’ entirely in lieu of adding the commenting only.

As I’ve mentioned over on Thought Shrapnel, now is not a time to hide one’s political opinions. Here’s mine:

Given the absolute destruction of the world and dismantling of civil society that’s happening at the moment, I’m a little bit less reticent to state that I’m an anarchist. Not like the ridiculous caricature of anarchists as terrorists and in books like The Man Who Was Thursday by G.K. Chesterton (which is otherwise an enjoyable novel). Nor am I out there actively fermenting trouble. But that broadly libertarian socialist angle is my starting position for understanding how the world should be.

Talking of Thought Shrapnel, I somehow ended up recording a solo podcast episode on Friday night? Not sure how that happened. Perhaps I’ll record another one, maybe I won’t.

Anyway, on the work front, I’ve enjoyed getting into the regular routine of working on the Amnesty and BBC projects. No massive insights to share at the moment, other than to say that I agree with James O’Hagan that AI Literacy without power analysis is just compliance training. I published the seventh and final post of the series pulling out insights from our NDLN report on microcredentialing.

Along with interviews as part of that BBC AI Literacy research, I had virtual coffees with Clint Lalonde and Hannah Underwood, and attended both a STEPS Collective monthly meeting on the topic of ‘money’, and a Digital Badging Commission webinar. I’d intended to go to the DigComp 3.0 stakeholder consultation but was too busy on Friday with other stuff.

On Wednesday afternoon, I went for an echocardiogram, which is basically an ultrasound for the heart. I was viewing what the technician was seeing which looked very weird — my aortic valve (which is operating normally) looked almost like an alien! I’ve got an MRI scan coming up at the start of May, and then hopefully the consultant will be able to diagnose what’s wrong.

The beta blockers I’m on (Angitil) continue to work wonders, and I’ve done 323 intensity minutes this week according to my Garmin watch. I also managed to increase the speed slightly on the treadmill, and run outside for the first time since January.

This weekend, I watched my son, Ben, play excellently for his basketball team where they won narrowly and employed some game management. I watched my daughter play a friendly against a boys team after the opponents for their regular game forfeited. The game against the boys was close, with them losing 3-2. It’s helped us realise that the physical size difference at 14 years old plays a significant role: some of those boys were taller than me!

We’re in the run-up to Easter, which sits in the middle of the school holidays for our two teenagers. Ben’s got his A-Level exams coming up and some coursework to hand in, so he’s got his work cut out. My daughter can take it a bit easier. Given Good Friday and Easter Monday, I’ll have a couple of four-day weeks, but given how quiet January and February were, I’ll probably try and work the same number of hours overall.

Photo: taken by me in Morpeth, England.