all ‘armless and friendly . a lifetime of algorithms

A critical discussion I would love you to join. How much is the algorithm, that we are feeding with every click, influencing our reading and our writing and our life choices and what to do about it.

Hit the LIKE button to boost this post for others! The algorithm likes Like apparently. And more people get to read my writing and your comments. Because your comments, your contribution and your words are a part of my writing.

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But what even is an algorithm.

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, an algorithm is “a process or set of rules to be followed in calculations or other problem-solving operations, especially by a computer.”

Let’s break that down into important words. Process. Rules. Problem solving. Operations.

I would add: Intention. Steps.

We all have algorithms running through our lives. Streams and tributaries feeding our needs. Answering out requests. Each request opening another stream and another tributary.

Are they insidious, malicious or simply out of control. And how much control do we have. I would like to offer that we have a lot of control over our personal algorithms as long as we train them ourselves and do not EVER blindly click about.

We have algorithms or rules of living floating about in our own heads all day. There are algorithms at work through our lives both online and in real life. If we are awake to them we can manage them. Maybe even turn them into positive actions. If we allow the algorithms, in our online time and in our real life time, to run unfettered we risk being overwhelmed and rendered all ‘armless and friendly. De-fanged.

Our devices are like bridges linking our online lives with our realtime lives. We MUST maintain control of the bridge.

We create our own set of algorithms when we set up our homes and our gardens. We apply the words fresh and nutritious to our gardens. We apply risks like cats and snails. We apply efficiency and speed and ease of cleaning when deciding the selection and placement of items in our kitchens. We apply comfort and support and colour and texture when shopping for a couch. We apply the number of people in the home plus a few friends plus the size of the room when deciding on a dining table. And so on.

We have - often times - applied a set of criteria to finding friends, employment or social groups.

The algorithm we apply to our day to day living is sometimes unconscious and sometimes an actual list. A list of preferences. It needs to be conscious. We need the online algorithm to be influenced by our real life real time algorithm - not the other way round. Make a list.

What would your list look like?

An online algorithms first step is a response to our own input. These algorithms are our own. I propose that we study our own algorithm. Our own filter. And double check that we are channeling the right stuff into our lives.

Algorithms can also be blinders.

When horses were pulling carriages through the streets the bridle (I am not sure that is the right word - harness?) held blinders (also called blinkers) two solid flaps standing out on either side of the horses eyes, to cut out her peripheral vision. This was to keep her calm. To stop her spooking and causing accidents. She could only see forwards. But not to the sides.

Are we applying our own blinders? By allowing online algorithms to channel information to us? Keeping us calm?

We need to be consciously creating algorithms online and in our daily lifestyle choices.

Once we go online with out mental list our personal algorithm collides with some highly sophisticated programming specifically written to influence our choices. Much of this is influenced by an algorithm with a marketing agenda devised by someone we would never consider a companion, who is working in the windowless box office of AI and follows our every move.

An online algorithm determines how content is ranked and displayed on social media, shaping its reach and visibility. These algorithms are complex systems that analyze various factors such as user engagement, relevance, and key words to personalize content for each user. Essentially it’s a set of steps that trigger actions. Every social media platform - and let’s be real, SubStack is one, albeit a welcoming one - uses algorithms that either push our writing into the spotlight or leave it lurking in the shadows.

It is no surprise that here on SubStack there are millions of creators and readers yet only 250 pages get the most views. How is a question I would love to have the answer to but I think the algorithm that responds to clicks and likes with more exposure is helpful.

Rumour is the SubStack algorithm is very simple and not particularly aggressive. We can choose to believe that - or not. But I cannot pretend to understand it.

But let’s look at these algorithms from the view point of a reader. I cannot find the exact ratio of readers to creators on SubStack for example but the platform’s growth suggests a large group of engaged readers supporting a small diverse group of creators.

For the record I am both. I write here but I also read here - a lot. Many of us do. Many of us have a small dedicated list of readers who follow our work and we read each others writing to stretch our understanding of the world around us.

We are systematically manipulated into finding similar writers, staying within our chosen niche. Something I find incredibly hard to do frankly. I want to read about sustainability and gardening and cooking and improving my writing and travel and more and more. But the algorithm wants me to stay in my corner and focus.

And my reading appears to be influenced by what I read yesterday. More of the same is placed on my plate. Some platforms have more aggressive filters and algorithms than others. Netflix does this. Spotify does this. Kindle does this. Your online news certainly does this.

Ok. We get that, right. We are not stupid. We all know this is happening. We all know the dangers of ignorance. We all know we should do something about this. We all know that reading in a circle is not going to INFORM us any further.

And with all that is going on in the world today and at the speed that things are moving and changing we MUST ensure that we are reading a wide range of news and information. If we read online - and hands up who does; yup, me too - we are training our own personal algorithm. Let’s call our personal algorithm Bob. We are teaching Bob, our own personal news manager, music manager, video manager, etc, to only bring in something similar to the views we chose yesterday and the day before that. Bob does not mean to be a bully but they have a habit of narrowing our focus. Pulling us down into a small self perpetuating circle.

Keeping us controlled? No. Surely not. (Snorts like a pig).

The smaller our pond the easier we are to manage. Diversify.

Bob will bring us the same tired old dishes for the table with the same wine and the same guests. Over and over again. And yes this leads to a weird nebulous re-run feeling. A feeding of our preconceptions. Stagnation. We are all clever - we all have active agile brains and when we reduce our exposure to uncomfortable truths we begin to doubt our own ability to digest new stuff. We become off kilter. We are walking on one leg.

Take some time every now and then to retrain Bob. Teach them something new. So your table of reading and music and news gets more interesting.

Here are some suggestions with the help of Perplexity. Be conscious of what YOU want. Have your own creed in mind. But don’t be afraid to branch out and learn new stuff.

Engage Actively: Interact with content by liking, commenting, and sharing. This helps algorithms understand your preferences and tailor recommendations accordingly.

Provide Feedback: On platforms like Netflix or YouTube or Spotify, rate content to help algorithms learn your tastes and improve suggestions.

Use Platform Features: Utilize features like “Not Interested” or “Dislike” to signal what you don’t want to see, refining your feed.

Diversify Your Interactions: Engage with diverse content to avoid echo chambers and broaden your algorithmic exposure.

Adjust Settings: Customise your account settings to control data collection and algorithmic influence, enhancing personalisation. Do not allow your phone to ‘listen in’. Shut this off in your privacy settings.

I write about gardening and feeding ourselves from your patio or pots in the yard or your little garden. I write recipes from my experiments in the kitchen. I narrate books as grown up bedtime stories. I intend to write more about bringing up children in a world vastly different from my last journey of bringing up kids. Literally generations of change. I write stories of memories I have spent a lifetime collecting. I use myself as an example so you can learn from my mistakes. But like you I also love other stuff. Lots of other stuff. I love pushing my body and mind to its limits. I write about and talk about all this stuff. I double dare an algorithm to keep up!

And I refuse to allow Bob free rein to decide in which direction my mind is drawn.

Think about it. What DO you want. How do you train your online algorithm and how are you managing your real-time real-life algorithm.

And are they really separate?

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Notes from Nanny Granny

I have landed in a country where I have no history. No support network. No friends. One daughter. This is interesting. How do I manage this?

This is a real question by the way.

After years of smug declarations that I land wherever I am and am happy wherever I land - I am finding myself struggling a little here without my own network while preparing a home for a new baby. Accompanying my daughter on her journey to becoming a mother is a pleasure and exciting.

But I am feeling a little loss of identity and I need to attend to this. I must get to work on an algorithm of my own that will lead me to people. I’ll create the steps to lead me to real life people. Also I have decided not to buy a car (too expensive and bad for the environment) plus I can borrow a car any time I need one. So my reach is within walking distance (which is quite far to be fair). For the first time in my life I am going to learn to use buses. I am fine with trains and there is a bus stop literally two houses down.

There is a train station within walking distance too.

Once more I am an immigrant. Finding my way.

Which is a good thing by the way. A little pressure did no-one any harm.

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The Compact Kitchen’s Garden

We had rain this week in the city. Many of my seeds are sprouting. There is nothing quite like the joy of sprouting seeds.

Up today are as many greens as I can jam in one pot. I sow thickly and pick the leaves with nail scissors so the plants keep growing.

TIP: I roll all the washed bigger greens into a tight cigar shape and cut them as fine as the finest shredded paper, then top salads, soups, stews, other veges with this confetti of bright greens.

Gardening with light and shadows. This is an early morning reflection spot lighting where an important plant will be planted. Maybe a weeping cherry? Gardens have points of view and as a person walks down the corridor to the kitchen this is the focal point of the garden - through the kitchen sliding doors. An empty wall.

Cats were my biggest problem last week. Then in the last few days the dog has decided to jump INTO the big garden bed and DIG a big hole. Loose new soil flying everywhere in cartoon fashion. Hmm. Not a huge problem in the scheme of things but a wee bit annoying.

I found a snail in with my greens! We don’t get snails in central Illinois (though they do serve them regularly in some rural restaurants which I always found interesting) - I thought about how to dispose of a snail sustainably. Mill it a d dig it into the garden to rot is one answer.

Can I feed a snail to my worms in the worm farm?

Did I ever tell you about our worm smashing gumboots? When we were kids used to visit an old established sheep farm up in the hills in the Christmas holidays (we swapped houses so the farmers stayed in our beach house for a couple of weeks) - we were instructed to go out every evening in gumboots (every self respecting farmer had old grown-out-of gumboots in assorted sizes stored on their back verandahs ready for visitors) and stamp on all the snails on the garden paths. It was a massacre. Imagine the squeals of delight from us beach kids. Little savages.

They say getting into nature is good for reducing stress. I say getting outside into your patio garden, balcony, backyard wherever you can get your hands in the soil is greater for reducing stress. Snail extermination is also very good for stress.

I found a source of jute coffee sacks yesterday - for growing potatoes next summer.

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Meanwhile back on the farm

Cats will be cats.

Both my properties are at that curious time of year when our temperatures are very similar; my farm in Illinois and my city garden in Melbourne - they are both temperate in their seasonal change. The equinox has passed. We are sliding into autumn and the farm is sliding into spring.

I am told that my big bed of garlic is growing green, which is great!

In Illinois I plant garlic at the end of Fall. Here in Melbourne I will plant the garlic in mid winter. On the shortest day. Working in two hemispheres is interestng.

They seem to be doing ok out in the country. Lots of trouble due to the freeze in federal funding. We are trying to work it out but the funding freeze combined with the firings means it is hard to get someone on the phone to explain things.

Short tempers are following the threats to Social Security which is the main source of income for our oldies.

FreeBee the big old rescue pig has worked out that with his weight and sheer bloody determination he can take down any fence he wants to, to get into the field where they will soon be planting wheat. This is a problem I might not be able to solve. We are afraid of injuries and him letting the cows out. Not to mention a huge hog way out in the fields.

Presently he is spending nights in the barn and roaming free all day. All delightful 400 pounds of hog. I bet the delivery people are shocked! This is not a long term solution.

I am consulting with other interested parties. To see where else he can live.

Farming from afar with short tempered partners is a tough one.

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That Sustainable lifestyle

We cannot be distracted from our big work of protecting the environment.

Use solar to dry your clothes as much as possible.

Continue our work of reducing plastic in our homes.

Think about how you are going to dispose of stuff before you buy it. I call this - And Then What.

Reduce with elegance.

I know much of this feels secondary at present with this really scary situation devolving in the USA. But even though travel to the USA is off the table for the present time, especially for us travellers who have publicly decried the work of Trump and Musk, specifically in the arenas of agriculture, forestry, immigration and culture. Pick your battles.

The department of education is hopefully safe (it would take an act of congress to eliminate a whole department) but what about our museums.

This from Heather Cox Richardson:

“ Today, members of the “Department of Government Efficiency” team showed up at the Institute of Museum and Library Services, which helps to fund libraries and museums across the country and whose elimination Trump called for in an executive order last week. They sent employees home, swore in a new acting director in the lobby, and proceeded to cancel contracts and grants”.

Stay informed. Broaden your algorithm to include discussion from all spectrums so there are no surprises. I say to myself: Get your head up out of the sand before somone bites your arse’. I might put that on a T shirt.

Even as this dismantling proceeds and we keep our eyes open to see where we can help, we need to keep striving to feed our families, protect our own corners of the world, shore up a robust local network of food and goods not reliant on big box stores and convenient delivery monopoly’s.

Still we must keep up the work of protecting our corners of the world - no matter how small. Keeping our air clean and our waterways clear. This is a life’s work. A lifetimes work. Developing a self sufficient, sustainable, low waste chemical free lifestyle.

Life. Living. Loving. Caring. Eating. Drinking. Gardening. Gathering. Talking. Planting trees. Sharing. Cutting down on consumption. All this is within our control. All this needs to be built into our own personal algorithm.

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BedTime Stories

I have a niggly cough this morning so if it comes through in today’s BedTime narration believe me when I say the cough will be in character. I did not spend years in the world of theatre and film without being able to cough (or sneeze) or God help us SNIFF in character.

CLICK BELOW ↓ to go to The Blue Castle page.

Going forward, instead of embedding our BedTime stories willy-nilly (love that word) in the body of a current post - I am giving each book a page of its own, right from the start. Each reading within that page is separate and around 30 minutes long.

Just long enough for you to relax and listen or listen while you walk, or do your yoga, or wash the dishes.

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And DO keep in touch. I mean this. Here is the LINK to my chat thread.

The chat is open 24 hours a day. The joys of the internet. We are an international community so you can pop in anytime. I pop in often and will usually start a new chat on the weekend.

If you have time feel free to chat amongst yourselves. Answer each others comments. Be kind. Be friendly. Be uplifting. This chat thread is not about me. It is about US. You are not alone in your work - there is too much loneliness - we need to do everything we can to be actively Inclusive.

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Have a lovely day. And a lovely evening. Find glimmers of loveliness today and fold them into your own personal well managed algorithm.

Love Celi.

PS - what were you doing a year ago?

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