Read: Cal Newport: AI and Work (Some Predictions)

One of the main topics of this newsletter is the quest to cultivate sustainable and meaningful work in a digital age. Given this objective, it’s hard to avoid confronting the furiously disruptive potentials of AI.

I’ve been spending a lot time in recent years, in my roles as a digital theorist and technology journalist, researching and writing about this topic, so it occurred to me that it might be useful to capture in one place all of my current thoughts about the intersection of AI and work.

The obvious caveat applies: these predictions will shift — perhaps even substantially — as this inherently unpredictable sector continues to evolve. But here’s my current best stab at what’s going on now, what’s coming soon, and what’s likely just hype.

Read: Apple Turnover

Siracusa is right about Apple.

As far as I’m concerned, the only truly mortal sin for Apple’s leadership is losing sight of the proper relationship between product virtue and financial success—and not just momentarily, but constitutionally, intransigently, for years. Sadly, I believe this has happened.

The preponderance of the evidence is undeniable. Too many times, in too many ways, over too many years, Apple has made decisions that do not make its products better, all in service of control, leverage, protection, profits—all in service of money.

Some Rob You with a Six-Gun/ Some With a Fountain Pen: On Civil War By Other Means

Because major parts of the US government are being destroyed through economic and administrative means, as well as reckless hacking and deleting, the violence and destruction are being underestimated, downplayed and normalized, or described piece by piece but not as a whole. But it is tremendously destructive in both intent and consequences, and it is a war against the government of the United States and the land and people of this country.

It’s been more than 5 years since I played a show with my Yamaha Maple Absolute Custom drums, but I think it’s time to get them back on stages.

Recording a new album at Southern Grooves Studio in Memphis with Kolton Moore & the Clever Few and Matt Ross-Spang.

All photos by Lone Pine Media except for the last one of my new van tattoo.

First of all, a deep gratitude that I got to be a part of this band and the five days we spent in Southern Grooves with Matt. Time moves slow in the moment while you’re working on the songs but then all of a sudden most of the work was done and we were packing up to head home to Texas.

You never know exactly how things are going to unfold when you go somewhere new to work on an album, but I knew we all wanted to make a record of songs we love and are proud of, and I think we’ve done just that.

Some of my favorite memories for this album will always be:

1. The first-listens where Kolton would grab his acoustic guitar and play a song for everyone and we’d all listen and feel the song and then talk about our ideas for it together. This happened a few times at the house we rented for the week, and also in the studio, and each time was significant and meaningful for the evolution of the songs.
2. The moments in the studio where we’d collectively get a great take of a song, or when someone individually would get a great take adding a new layer to a song, and we’d all look at each other with huge shit-eating grins and whoop and holler, knowing that we’d made and captured something magical for the song. That collective celebration and the high fives that we’d share reminded us that we are all trying to make the best music we can, for ourselves and for everyone who loves listening to us play our music.
3. The first time we heard the rough mixes of the songs after a few focused days in the studio and just how good they already sounded. To know all the time and effort and care that we put into the songs had all been worth it was like seeing a beautiful sunrise after a long cold night struggling to climb a steep mountain. Relief, joy, wonder, the pride of knowing we worked and made something special together.
4. Sam and I getting Van tattoos at Bluff City Tattoos after we finished all our work for the album. Van life forever!

We were fortunate enough to find a new member of the band just in time to make this record: Matt Gumley. A bright spirit with a lifetime of experience with performing and acting, Matt has brought some much-welcomed fresh energy to the band, contributing not just bass parts and vocal harmonies, but also a raw creative spirit that elevated everyone.

Matt Ross-Spang has also been a dream to work with. He has a focused but laid-back style that meshes well with how our band works, and has a fine-tuned sense of when to provide feedback and guidance, and when to let the band members work through a part or bring their own sound to the song. I’d love to work with Matt again in the future.

A huge thank you from the bottom of my heart to Matt and all the guys in the band and everyone who listens and supports us. I hope you all know how much I appreciate you and how excited I am for what comes next.

Finally got around to uploading my favorite photos from my trip to Portugal in October 2023. I took most of these with my Sony A7C and a Sony Sonnar 2.8 35mm lens.

Looking for a photographer in DFW? Get in touch.

I made a new short teaser video for our upcoming acoustic album, Bare-Bones:

Kolton wanted a old-school video look for videos for this project, so I added the VHS effect in post using the Rarevision app.

I shot most of the recording session with multiple cameras, the angle in this video was from a disposable 35mm lens on a Sony A7C.

The disposable lens does provide a cool “film camera” look that I find appealing, but it has several limitations, mainly it’s terrible in low light settings and also looks “low-resolution” straight out of the camera.

It’s easy to fake that grainy film look for footage and photos from a good lens, but it doesn’t work the other way (you can’t make footage from a Dispo lens look “good”).

I’m fond of the look of the disposable lens, although after reviewing the footage, I plan to stick to using my good 35mm lenses (Sony 1.4 GM and Sony Sonnar 2.8) moving forward.

It’s been a few weeks since I had a full time job, and I have to tell you: This freedom is doing wondering for my energy and my creativity. I’m thankful to have enough savings to pay bills for awhile while I figure out what I want to do next (besides everything I’m doing for my band, which I’ll keep doing).

After spending a couple weeks considering my options, I’ve decided that I want to get back to offering lessons for Logic Pro, podcasting, and marketing/storytelling. I have so much experience that others could benefit from, it seems a waste to keep it all in my head.

Learn More

Started with a 6:15am Crossfit class, shoulders and core work. Morning workouts are essential.

Spent some time yesterday cancelling subscriptions and non-essential services—going to extend my runway as far as possible by eliminating all extra spending.

Finished uploading the 12 tracks for our new acoustic album to Tunecore. There’s some interesting stuff related to account management happening over there, might write about it in the future.

Kolton sent over audio tracks for 5 songs from a video project they recorded in the Baker Hotel in Mineral Wells, TX last week. Hell yeah, I love mixing and mastering. Will probably work on that tomorrow.

We have show rehearsal at our studio this afternoon, I’m going to bring my cameras and record some interview style video content for a teaser video for that acoustic album, and take some headshots of the guys too.

I need to write an email to send out to the email list reminding them to buy tickets for the upcoming shows, and also a few text messages to the people near those cities who signed up for text updates.

Speaking of upcoming shows, if you’re in or near one of these cities, would love to see you there! More info and ticket links here: www.koltonmoore.com/tickets

Also thinking about what I want to put on my personal website on the “work with me” page, if I should set up an LLC for freelance work, what billing system to use, etc.

Big week! Lots to do. I should probably clean up this desk at some point.

My time at Spotify has come to an end! It’s been a fun ride but I’m excited to get to spend more time on video production & audience growth for my band, and developing as a drummer and live performer.

I want to give a huge thanks all my friends from the OG Chartable crew: Dave Zohrob, Harish Agarwal, Jake Shelley, Christian Buckler, Brittany Hall, Joey Milewski, Rae Knopf, Lhanzi Giambrone, Jarred Trost, Karo Chakhlasyan, and everyone else that was part of the team over the years. My life is significantly better because of our time working together, and I appreciate you all so so much. 💙

Big shoutout to my colleagues from Megaphone: John Bennett, Kyle Perron, Becca DiCenso, and the rest: Y’all were great teammates and I wish you the best of luck with your future work at Spotify.

And to all the podcast publishers I worked with over the years: It was a pleasure to work with you and I hope we get to work together again sometime.

Whew. What a ride that was! On to the next one. 🫡 ✌️

I’ll have somewhere between 10-20 hours a week available if you have any projects you’d like help with, just reach out with the details and I’d be happy to chat.

The documentation problem in development

The Simplest Guide to Writing Great Documentation

Writing documentation has never been easy, not even for developers who love sharing their knowledge. It’s one thing to build a software tool, but explaining it to others in a way that’s simple and clear is a whole different challenge. One common mistake in writing documentation is approaching it from a position of expertise. This means the person writing forgets how it feels to know nothing about the topic and ends up skipping essential details that new users actually need.

Let’s focus on the main challenges people face when making great documentation and how to solve them step by step.

I 💙 good documentation.

Work in progress

Note to self: What would you do if you knew you would be wildly successful at it in a decade?

While my internet handle is no longer “The Podcast Dude”, I will still answer podcast related questions to the best to my ability.

Here’s the studio these days.

Currently reading: Get More Fans: The DIY Guide to the New Music Business by Jesse Cannon 📚

Man I miss working on podcasts

Just a little snow here in Texas.

Working on the new acoustic album.

Hit a deadlift personal record: 315lbs x 3 reps.

Ordered new hoodies for the band.

Spending a lot of time improving my technique and posture on the drums, thanks to Brandon at DrumMechanics.com.

Mixed our live set from Red Rocks. Listen here.

We’re heading back on tour soon, would love to see you at a show www.koltonmoore.com/tickets

Selfies in the Red Rocks green room before our first show there. I liked the Sony A7C so much I bought a second one and now I use them to record our shows. 35mm lenses are my favorite but it’s helpful to have the 20mm and the 85mm lenses in the bag as well.

It’s Saturday, January 11, 2025, and I am working on switching my personal website to micro.blog.