Jameson Lopp was the chief technology officer of the crypto startup casa. He is most notable for his decision to live off-the-grid, which has been written about in The New York Times by Nathaniel Popper and reprinted in the Toronto Star on April 27, 2019.

Apparently “You can disappear in 15 steps, but it won’t be easy”.

Mr. Lopp's strategy highlights are as follows:

1. create a new corporate identity,
2. set up new bank accounts and payment cards,
3. carry cash,
4. get a new phone number,
5. stop using your (cell) phone for directions,
6. move,
7. make up a fake name for casual interactions,
8. create a VPN for home internet use,
9. buy a boring car,
10. buy a decoy house,
11. set up a private mailbox and re-mailing service,
12. master the art of disguise,
13. work remotely,
14. encrypt devices when traveling remotely, and
15. hire a private investigator to “check your work”.  

Bye-bye now.

This is the back of a cookie bag from Subway IP Inc., telling me in 35 languages that my cookie may contain peanuts.

This page is from a typical IKEA furniture assembly brochure.

While there are five pages, also in 35 languages, warning of a possible tipping hazard, the other 30 pages get the assembly instructions across without any words at all.

IKEA is the conservation conscious global flat-pack furniture design + distribution leader. Had IKEA not made a serious, long-term commitment to illustration-driven-assembly-instructions over 50 years ago, they would probably be one of the world’s largest publishers + polluters today. 

I love to read. I also love looking for and discovering new authors whose work takes me down new planes of thinking.

I also love meeting and surrounding myself with people, places and things that are different. They nudge me out of my habitual thought-ruts and encourage me to entertain and embrace lots of different perspectives.

While I can see why this landing page from bookbub.com might be attractive to some, I see another flight feather being pulled from the wings of independent thought and free will. 

It tells “readers” that their editorial team will find great books for you at very low prices. A classic “appeal to the head and the heart” copy-writing tactic. 

It tells “readers” that “Book lovers have now become practically obsessed with this concept. In many cases, they’ve downloaded hundreds of books and saved hundreds of dollars. 

Translation:

• Booklovers, like others, are obsessed with “cheap”, not "good" goods.
• The more you buy the more you save.

Bing-book*-buying, reduces each book’s economic and intrinsic value. Each treasure becomes devalued to little more than cheap commodity status.

Over time this commoditization brings down the “value” of the entire book* category as well as the “book reading experience”.  

Sadly most of those books* will never be intensely read. Do the math. 

Of greatest concern is how this kind of social media content curating affects the choices groups and individuals make – including the value of free will and independent thought.   

*or anything else.

When I moved to Winnipeg about 10 years ago, a colleague asked me what kind of hours people are expected to work in Toronto. I told him that as a senior ad agency team manager I typically worked 50-60 hours a week, but that for him to catch up to and lap his peers, 60-70 hours would likely be required.

“Fuck That!” was his uncharacteristically brief response.

Since then I’ve discovered that his response is not uncommon for millennials in Winnipeg + elsewhere. Both then + now.

This picture of a Huawei employee napping at his desk at lunch-time should be a galvanizing example of why those with a false sense of entitlement (the right to live well on a 35 hr. wage) will always loose to those who, like this kid, are hungrier than you are.

Whether they're around the corner or around the globe.

For years I looked for and hoped to find a mentor to smarten me up and help me find "my path". For years I thought my prayers were unanswered because I never met him or her . . . per se. One day I realized that the Universe had sent me a little black dog. 

Let this sign remind you that the sign you need or want may be right in front of you – but that it might not look like you thought it would.

P.S. Charlie’s on the other side now but you can see a picture of us together on my About page.