Details are like salt
Details are like salt.
A dash adds flavor. But too much kills the dish.
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2025 is near – The questions and intentions for the year ahead
Ah, the end of the year. A time to reflect on the year that was, and to look ahead to the year that will be.
Below I'll share the 5 questions I expect to see answered in 2025, and 4 intentions for how I want to live in the new year.
Why not share 5 questions and 5 intentions for symmetry's sake? Dunno.
With that said, let's get to it.
5 Questions for 2025
Rather than make predictions about the year ahead, I want to look ahead at the stories that I'll be keeping an eye on as the new year unfolds.
1. Will the generative AI bubble burst?
It has to, right? To be fair, I likely thought the same thing heading into 2024.
But this year feels different. For one, more big names in AI are admitting that generative AI is hitting a wall.
When I say I'm hesitant to call the bursting of the bubble, it's not because I think generative AI will prove to be useful and profitable; it's because I worry the tech will continue to be propped up by an industry desperate for its next hypergrowth market, with no obvious alternative in sight.
To be clear: I won't celebrate if the bubble does burst, because I'm worried about the implications for the broader economy, as the tech sector has bolstered the S&P 500 for the last couple years or so. (I'm thinking about this scene from The Big Short.)
2. Will Google be broken up?
Like everyone else, I'm curious about the reality of what a second Trump presidency looks like. And I'm especially curious what it means in terms of regulating the tech industry, keeping in mind that the crypto industry donated a lot of money for Trump. And they're gonna be calling in some favors. But does that matter? How do the crypto bros feel about breaking up Google?
Subscribe to Big Tech on Trial to keep up with the antitrusts cases against Google and other Big Tech companies.
3. Can Bluesky keep winning?
In the last quarter of 2024, Bluesky appeared to cement itself as the Twitter alternative.
But how solid is its foundation? Growth brings more, new issues.
Is Bluesky up for the challenge? I expect we'll learn in 2025.
4. Will we see another crypto crash?
As I'm writing this, one Bitcoin costs just under $100,000.
Oh, how far we've come since the great crypto crash of late 2022.
Despite the epic rebound, I'm still not a believer in crypto and feel that the industry has to cool down again at some point. Is 2025 that year? How worried should we be if the generative AI and crypto bubbles burst in the same year?
5. Will MobiScribe shut its doors?
I wanted to love my MobiScribe Wave, the e-ink writing tablet I bought last year. And for a minute, I did love it, until the device's limitations became too much.
Back in the summer, the company promised to be more responsive via a post on Reddit. But customers have yet to see any improvement, and I doubt we will see any in the future. Oh well, at least the device was cheap.
4 Intentions for 2025
Below are the ways I plan on working on myself at the turn of the decade.
1. Live more artistically
I'm over reality. Reality sucks.
Gimme art, baby.
Reality is absurd. So give me absurd art.
I want to draw and write and paint. I want to create.
Give me fountain pens and ink and notebooks and colored pencils and brushes and get out of my way and let me work.
2. Live more on paper.
I have this nasty habit of living in my own head. I try to juggle and store everything up in that glorified hat rack above my neck. This is a horrible method for processing (information, emotions, etc.).
I've recently grown to greater appreciate a couple benefits that paper offers:
- Writing is for processing.
- Sketching is for meditation.
Sketching is about observing, while writing is about working your way through whatever's bothering you. I need more of both of these practices in 2025.
3. Start reading consistently again.
In the second half of 2024, I've had a hard time reading books. The old brain just ain't working too good in that regard.
But I won't give up. I'll keep throwing a book in my face until my reading muscles start flexing again.
4. Create a new webcomic.
I'm dusting off my old domain and reusing it for a webcomic I'm calling Flirting with Nihilism.
NOTE: Flirting with Nihilism was the name of my blog when I resumed blogging in 2018.
I want to make my own version of Hyperbole and a Half and Sarah's Scribbles—a space where I can express my frustrations about the absurdities of the world.
I have a loose idea for the style and theme, but I haven't released anything yet.
So, that said, it's time to wrap up this post and get to work.
Best wishes for 2025!
RSS | Email Jake | Bluesky
Sketching people with dignity—and a Thanksgiving message
Over the last few weeks, I've pivoted from writing to sketching.
Another casualty of the midlife crisis, I'm sure.
Is this Bluesky's time?
Time was on Twitter's side back in the network's early days.
Education's role in business communication dysfunction
Business communication is broken.
Creative vs generative
What qualifies as creativity?
That's the question I've been asking since seeing the below toot from Gary Marcus.
Killing more trees, faster
On this blog, I recently made the case for why writers should kill more trees.
Make art, not friends
We're on the fast track to THE END.
Or, so some people will tell you.
Uncertainty in the human path
When your kids show your their art work, you have two options:
- You can pick it apart.
- You can enjoy it for what it is.
Sam Bankman-Fried and the imperfect calculus of effective altruism
I recently finished listening to the audiobook version of Number Go Up: Inside Crypto's Wild Rise and Staggering Fall by Zeke Faux. The subtitle tells it all: The book is about the craziness that was the first crypto bubble. (As Bitcoin's price hovers around $70,000, another bubble appears raring to pop.)