Hi! My name is Josh and this is my blog. I used to share on social media but decided that my fragility was too valuable to subject to algorithims and assholes.

  • Real talk fam, are people really paying $50 or $75 a month for LinkedIn?

  • A little demo of Adobe Photoshop 2022’s Neural filter on one of my photos

  • Qantas: Yeah, look, there's been a slight delay with your flight, you're going to be four weeks late …

  • I hope one day I can look back on my life and say I was wrong more than I was right.

    That will mean I wasn’t on the sidelines, but I was on the field, fighting, having a go. I’ll not be proud of being wrong, but admitting it when I am.

  • That distinctive, earthy odour that is associated with rainfall is called petrichor. When raindrops land on a porous surface, air from the pores forms small bubbles, which float to the surface and release aerosols. Such aerosols carry a scent as well as bacteria and viruses from the soil. The scent is called petrichor.

    Via the very good Dense Discovery email.

  • “I heard that Warren Buffett addresses the early drafts of his shareholder letters to his sister, Dorothy. Once he finishes it, he replaces her name with "Shareholders."

    The lesson: Writing for a huge audience is a fast track to getting writer's block, so write for one person instead.”

    via Monday Musings

  • How I’m feeling through this season:

    “Each time you stopped, you would descend into a depression, believing that you had hit a wall and lost the ability to work, that you would never work again.”

    From: The life and the work are equally important - by Shaun Usher

  • Can you believe that we’ve turned Australia off and on again a few times, but we still have this silly Melbourne Cup virus running around our system.

    Surely after the last two years we could of learned how to get drunk and eat roast chicken without needlessly killing horses?

  • Boy, am I feeling this after the last two years of hell in my business.

    Tim Ferriss tells the crowd at South by Southwest in 2007 that:

    “their professional lives were unsustainable, and that they should consider doing something more interesting with their time.”

    I've never been more interested in quitting work and becoming that crazy man that lives in the bush.

  • Netflix says 142 million households have watched Squid Games. Wikipedia says there are 2,178 million “households” in the world. So, 6.5% of the households have seen the most popular Netflix show ever.

    You don't need to win everyone, you just need to win a few. Be unpopular. Be niche.

  • People across the liberated democracy of Australia celebrate as they are now liberated to visit other countries muted cheers as everyone realises they've got to go through LAX customs in a few hours

  • “I just want to fucking make it one more day.”

    Dave Grohl on Foo Fighters, His Memoir, Life After Nirvana in Vulture

  • Chinghee Creek on a Saturday Night for Travis & Christie

  • “Some people die at 25 and aren't buried until 75.”

    Benjamin Franklin

  • Happy 50th Sea World
  • Not in a million years could I of imagined Miley Cyrus, Elton John, WATT, Yo-Yo Ma, Metallica’s own Robert Trujillo on bass + Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Chad Smith on drums covering Nothing Else Matters - and that I’d love it.

  • Remember that time that the Black Eyed Peas hadn't hit the big time yet, but when they did they had to re-record one of their songs? I'm prepping for a wedding I’m DJing tonight and wondering how people would react if I pulled out the OG.

  • On @danilic's prompting I've installed DaVinci Resolve and am trying it for the first time this morning. I don't know what this does but I am frightened at how it could edit me.

  • My favourite macOS Monterey feature is the bug when you spread your four fingers to expose (Mission Control) the Desktop but the Desktop isn't usable to drag and drop onto, or into folders.

  • Luna’s learning the ancient story of Saint Vincent de Paul, the mysterious saint that roams the homes of naughty children taking their favourite toys to sell them for a gold coin.

  • Friday sunrise at Snapper Rocks

  • Corporate headshots don’t have to look like you were just dragged in front of a photographer to get a photo for the website.

    Created for Lightning Broadband.

  • One story out of many on how the Sydney Covid lockdown currently ending has cost me so much money
  • Zuckerberg chose Meta over Oasis?! That’s $100 to the bookies I’ll never get back.

  • Dreading the day that I see in VR a friend commit real-life suicide in the middle of a metaverse flame-war because they’re antivax or think pineapple on pizza is important.

  • It’s super cute when people talk about national debt like it’s not a completely made up concept, not a scientific force of nature like gravity.

  • Sunrise elopement at The Calile Hotel this morning

  • Sorry sir, I am all out of way

  • It’s hot, damn hot. If you're getting married when it's hot: 1) Bring cold water, so much flipping water, 2) Get married as late in the day as your venue and photographer will let you, 3) find the shade, for the love of god put us in the shade.

  • All of my Apple devices are upgraded and now there's a openthread.thread.home.arpa on my network. Nest Smoke Alarms, or HomePod Minis?

  • FCKGW-RHQQ2-YXRKT-8TG6W-2B7Q8. 20 years of Windows XP #neverforget

  • Monday afternoon in Burleigh Heads

  • Luna’s birthday week comes to a close. Now we have 51 weeks of mourning until her fourth birthday celebrations can begin.

  • When Apple started using the phrase “there’s an app for that” in 2009, they were definitely not thinking of an app that simulates a cat purring on your lap being released today.

  • Uh, oh, watch out petrol cars, the Chief Health Officer is coming for ya!

  • Two iPods are some of my favourite computers of all time
  • Panic’s Cabel Sasser shares a prototype original iPod on the iPod’s 20th birthday.

  • Steve Jobs’s resume:

    “I’m looking for a fixer-upper with a solid foundation. Am willing to tear down walls, build bridges, and light fires. I have great experience, lots of energy, a bit of that ‘vision thing’ and I’m not afraid to start from the beginning.”

  • My Kindle Oasis is starting to get a bit long in the tooth, almost four years old and it’s battery barely lasts a day or two.

    Is there a new Oasis on the cards or do I just replace it, considering the battery is non-replaceable?

  • “I’ve long thought that the destruction of time in which to think – and do nothing else – is a much more massive problem than anyone cares to think about, nor has time to.”

    M.G. Siegler in his email today, and then links to his 2015 piece: The Death of Thought.

  • Just some personal news, I’ve decided that I know about the same amount about epidemiology, public health policy, firearms, the movie industry, bushfires, human rights, sexuality, religion, climate, and nuclear submarines.

    But if you want any ideas on which MacBook to buy 🤙🏼

  • Facebook’s algorithm automatically sent a bot “full-on Qanon” within 48 hours.

    One day I’ll write an essay about how the Facebook algorithm’s tendency to send people this way has made my life rather painful.

  • Life status: my three year old lives on my shoulders.

  • I’ve got 99 problems and they could all be solved with a new MacBook Pro, a DJI Mavic 3, and maybe a new 35mm lens I think.

  • Seeing as though my social media influence is waning on the daily I have some personal news, I’m starting a Withers Media & Technology Group. You’re going to love it.

  • How do you know things?

    I think all day every day about the world I want to leave Luna and Goldie in.

    I spend so much time wondering how to teach them how to know things. What they know will forever by growing and changing, but how they know things. How they learn, and how they research, and experiment, that’s so important to me.

    So I’ve decided to create email accounts for them and to start writing to them. Because my words matter to them.

    Your words matter.

    Share them, with anyone, everyone, with me.

    I don’t really care about fitting in with cool buzzwords and virtue signalling. But tell me how you lived in a tense moment today and how it was weird or awkward, but we learned more about each other.

    Tell me about how you didn’t know something and you said you didn’t know.

    Tell me about how you were scared and you said you were scared.

    Life’s too short for platitudes and fitting in. Let’s be scared, daft, vulnerable, and authentic together. I don’t care what you know, but I’d love to know how you know it.

  • “The committee recommends that the Australian Government establish a new Decentralised Autonomous Organisation company structure.”

    In the Australian Financial Review: Senate report proposes model to regulate the crypto economy

  • Every day I wonder when the day will arrive when it’s the last time I ever pick Luna up. What I mean is that when she’s 35 I’m probably not going to pick her up and throw her on my shoulders. So when, between three and thirty five will that day be?