Tommy George Email Experiment / Episode 2
Episode 2: Christmas week!
Merry Christmas! I hope your week has been great! It seems like everyone acknowledges -- and I will, too -- that this time of year can be extremely hard for many folks. Whatever your situation is, I'm hoping it's good, and that you are finding continual hope and peace.
Technically this should have gone out last Sunday, so I'm a couple days behind on the info. That should explain the lack of obvious holiday theme in this email. But the draft was still so relevant, I'm sending this tonight (the 25th!) instead of delaying it.
Baby
I'm writing this while I watch my 10-week-old daughter play. I've already stopped twice to interact with her, or record video! The last couple months have gone by so fast. She's already outgrowing clothes that we're planning to pass along. Thanks to so many generous friends and family, we'll probably be giving away clothes she hasn't even worn yet!
We like to say that "we're blessed to be a blessing". I think that definitely applies here.
I used to think that I'd start some kind of daddy-blog the moment I found out Laura was pregnant. I did not. Either I'm finding much more value and ability to focus and be present, or I'm just lazy in that "side-hustle" regard. Whatever the case, I'm definitely trying to keep track of the things that nobody told us, and ways our perspectives have changed, having waited more than 11 years before having a child. Stay tuned, I guess? Haha!
Tech news that applies to you
My absolute favorite thing to talk about since it came out is probably this article from the New York Times: "Twelve Million Phones, One Dataset, Zero Privacy" (also easily shareable as https://nytimes.com/tracked ).
If you read just one thing this week, I kinda hope it's that. I'd love to talk to you more about the details.
It's part of a series of articles being released that show the extent of "tracking" that is happening currently, completely passively, and without most folks being aware. You and I are two of those folks.
I've had several opportunities to talk about this and similar topics recently, and I love answering questions about this!
A friend pointed out that the first article was "Nothing overwhelmingly new... given the entanglement of lifestyle and technology, it really is hard to feel like there's anything meaningful to do."
My call-to-action/take-away is this: I and my industry peers have been too lazy about what's "obvious" to us. It's on us to find more and better ways of explaining these things and educating our friends and families. So... welcome to one of those ways! (I said a tiny bit more in the twitter reply).
I'd loooove for you to take a few minutes, read that article, and reply here with your thoughts, questions, etc. What questions do you have?
Speaking of security...
It seems like TikTok is being banned from some government-issued devices. If you haven't heard about this yet, it's probably not for the reasons you think.
Also, more info has come out since, but a recent Reset Podcast episode is a good intro to why you've been hearing about Ring doorbell and cameras in your news and timelines lately. The episode is called "Maybe don't put a Ring on it?". You can find it all over the place, from their main podcast page, or several services. Here's a link to the Apple Podcasts page for that episode.
Verse
'In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.'
What about you?
How was your Christmas? Any funny stories?
Have you been reading or watching anything particularly interesting lately?
See you next week!