2 minutes estimated reading time
I had completely forgotten that I had written my contribution to Whats in my NOW right at the end of August. Autumn is now well and truly here in London with rainy nights and a carpet of fallen leaves of various hues; we don’t really get spectacular fall colours a la upstate New York or Vermont. London is actually quite dry compared to much of the UK which is why I can get away with an unlined Carhartt chore coat, rather than the more common blanket lined coat. You may have better luck finding the unlined version in US vintage clothing and thrift stores.
Influences
Prior to starting this blog, I have been an avid reader of Wired magazine and Kevin Kelly’s Cool Tools. The underlying theme of ‘renaissance thinking’ and careful consumption decisions inspired me in this blog’s curation. So it seemed like a natural fit to contribute to Whats in my NOW, when the opportunity arose.
Choices
Writing the post (typos and all) for Whats in my NOW forced me to make some tough choices. My Mystery Ranch pack was a no brainer, it is constantly within eyesight of my desk, but to leave out recommending other items were more difficult. Saying ‘no’ became an active creative decision. Do I focus my digital recommendations purely on the basis of utility or do I mix in entertainment? For instance, I missed out the invaluable social bookmarking site Pinboard, so I could include the very underrated 1979 version of Salem’s Lot.
Writing here
I write an eclectic range of stuff, some of the focus comes from life experience and the rest from my job as a brand planner. A brand planner in an advertising agency synthesises business problems to something that creative teams can ideate around, it exists in ambiguity which I hope will keep me in a role that won’t be imminently replaced by machine learning technology of some sort. This also means that I am a constant student of my environment.
Keeping in touch
A good deal of my wider learning has come from using RSS. If you would like to follow this blog, its RSS can be found here and it would be an ideal opportunity to try out Newsblur.
My contribution can be found here.
(My contribution was originally on the email newsletter platform Revue, but owners Twitter closed it down on January 18, 2023, thankfully my post was saved on the Cool Tools blog instead. So I replaced the above link with something that works.)