Vlog 049: Reunited in Malaysia
12/5/18
Longform
“Taking your Conscience to Work”
11/6/18
“I believe it’s wrong to separate work and morality. [...] It means you should check whether the ethics and values of your employer align with your own. Especially in technology, where the impact of your work is felt by thousands or millions or even billions of people, it’s worth asking yourself more often: is the world I spend eight hours every day creating truly the world I want to live in myself?”
— @KaiBrach for @DenseDiscovery
⚽️ 🇲🇨 🇫🇷 💰
9/18/18
I’ve been a supporter of @AS_Monaco since I was 7 years old, for the past 20 years. But what Paris has been able to accomplish from a Branding and Marketing perspective is nothing but impressive!
If you’re interested in Football/Soccer Culture and want to learn more about what France’s #ParisStGermain has been able to accomplish, this is for you!
“Om’s Long Goodbye to Facebook”
9/2/18
Long-time and highly respected writer-turned-VC Om Malik is leaving Facebook.
“I don’t need [Facebook] and don’t miss it. (...) I left because it was making me someone I am not — someone who lives life through the eyes of others. There is a hard edge in Facebook life. People are always fronting — putting their best life forward. Just like startup life these days.”
I’ve been thinking about this for years, but while I wish I could go through with it, being an expat and living in an international relationship where both my partner’s family & friends, as well as my own, are thousands of miles away, it is near impossible to keep in touch with the Big Blue.
It’s not from lack of trying, using emails, or setting up a /now page. But the truth is that the family members and the ‘normals’ of this world (as opposed to tech-savvy or tech workers) are simply too unlikely to move away and too dependent on the platform and its services.
From the newsfeed, to Instagram, to WhatsApp and Messenger’s dominance, it’s very hard to change someone’s daily habit(s) when they’ve never given too much thought or consideration about the services and platforms that power their day-to-day.
The Verge comes in support of their colleagues and we need a lot more of this!
8/3/18
From cries about “ethics in journalism” to “fake news,” journalists have been increasingly targeted by people acting in bad faith who do not care about the work they do, the challenges they face, or the actual context of their statements. Online trolls and harassers want us, the Times, and other newsrooms to waste our time by debating their malicious agenda. They take tweets and other statements out of context because they want to disrupt us and harm individual reporters. The strategy is to divide and conquer by forcing newsrooms to disavow their colleagues one at a time. This is not a good-faith conversation; it’s intimidation
1998 FIFA World Cup
7/12/18
My dad found these photos from 20 years ago on the day, when France won the World Cup back in 1998! #WorldCup #FRA #AllezLesBleus #FiersDetreBleus
Vlog 048: Relaxing in Bali
6/22/18
Another good read regarding the Slow Web and our social media use!
6/13/18
@adders:
“I'd rather enjoy myself creating stuff for a smaller, more forgiving and more engaged audience, than exhaust myself competing for an ever-bigger audience. That, after all, was the idea behind working part time, and staying self-employed, rather than continuing to crawl my way up the corporate ladder”
[=]
“Tiny Luxuries”
6/7/18
We’re trained from an early age to associate the word “luxury” with the spending of money; with gilded extravagance and overconsumption. But the world, life, is full of tiny luxuries: indulgences of the sort that are easy to overlook if you’re not seeking them out and paying close attention.
Snap CEO Evan Spiegel interview at the 2018 Code Conference
5/31/18
Like Casey Newton mentioned in his amazing newsletter: “The Interface”, the interview of Snapchat’s CEO Evan Spiegel at this year’s Code Conference is well worth watching!
[Spiegel is] his company’s most effective salesman by far.
About John Wick 3
5/26/18
> “We are less than 365 days away from John Wick 3, the third installment of the Why the Fuck Did You Kill His Dog? franchise that’s revitalized the career of Keanu Reeves and introduced mainstream American audiences to the hyperkinetic brilliance of Hong Kong–style martial arts, plus dudes in bespoke suits wielding two pistols at once.”
GDPR Casualty: Instapaper
5/24/18
So Instapaper is temporarily shutting off access for European users due to GDPR…
But the comment of the day goes to:
Thankfully, a handful of privacy-minded fellow europeans came to the rescue in the comment section: 
Current Status
5/17/18
Within: A magazine about leadership for women in design/tech
5/16/18
If you’re in the US, you should really support and have a look at Within
Personally, I’d love to support these amazing women, but I can’t justify $30 shipping fees on top of a $40 project backing. However, I’m happy to share the word to support this amazing project!
[🎧🤖] ICYMI
5/15/18
ICYMI, the latest episode of The Verge’s Vergecast Podcast is incredibly thoughtful.
Over the hour-long episode, it sums up a lot of my own interrogations, fears and doubt about Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, and the ethics behind these emerging technologies that haven’t matured and for which no one has a blueprint yet.
These are things that have been on my mind for the past few years, and especially this past week with the Google Duplex news (aka a Robot Assistant pretends to be human and schedules stuff for you.)
“Nobody wants to get rich slow”
5/15/18
”Today many crypto investors are drunk with greed. They believe the Big Lie that this is a democracy where they can now get rich like all the venture capitalists, because they hear it wherever they go to read about investing in crypto.”
Atlanta - Robbin’ Season
5/11/18
Holy Smokes, this new season of Atlanta was even better than the first: slower, realler, darker, and overall so much better!
I really hope FX renews it for another 2/3 seasons!
[Book Review] “Exit West” by Mohsin Hamid
5/10/18
(This book was recommended by a heavy-reading couple of friends — thanks a ton Daniel & Kim!)
Looking back in the past few years, the Syrian Crisis and related forced migrations might have been one of the biggest and most important stories of the decade.
This is the background for Mohsin Hamid’s book “Exit West”. Despite the several surrealistic elements, it is a book that looks at the present and tries to paint a difficult if optimistic snapshot of what the world is, and what it may turn out to be.
Through the perspective of two young lovers (and countless other migrants around the world), we are transported throughout the globe, left to reflect upon man-made crisis and how to deal with influx of migrants in the most humane way possible.
This book does a lot in terms of empathy towards people facing difficult conflicts, and although the plot tends to accelerate or jump ahead of time quite a bit towards the end, it does so as a way to push you deeper into its character’s’ story.
I really enjoyed this book and it’s been a while since something hit me in the feels the way “Exit West” did.
Road House Theater
5/9/18
With Shana being away this week, I’m treating myself by going to the movie. As it happens, our local indie cinema is showing Road-themed movies in their mobile cinema truck this week.
Tonight, it’s all about ”Drive”
Current Status
5/9/18
1 Second Everyday in April 2018
4/30/18
Portobello
4/28/18
Fun Saturday exploring the ‘Portobello’ part of Dublin!
And very excited for the 50th anniversary screening of the original Planet Of The Apes tonight at our little indie cinema!
Project Varanida on Forbes
4/23/18
Last week, I was in London for a client project — we were exhibiting at Blockchain Expo.
During the expo, we had the chance to explain our product to Forbes contributor Jason Bloomberg. He just published an article about a crop of startups disrupting industries using blockchain technology —including Varanida, my recent client.
Today’s digital advertising world centers on complex bidding processes...(…)
The current system, however, faces several challenges. Ad fraud in its various forms plagues the industry. Ad blockers challenge ads’ value proposition. And intermediaries take a large cut for their troubles. Varanida hopes to disrupt this status quo with its blockchain-based decentralized advertising marketplace.
There’s quite a lot of information on the original post, so have a read and get in touch with Varanida if you’d like to get involved with the company, the product, or the community.
Shoreditch Streetart
4/22/18
And now for something a little different: some of the impressive and amazing streetart I found walking around Shoreditch this weekend…
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A Week in London
4/22/18
It started like any other week, in our Dublin apartment. I coordinated with my clients, checked on the advancement of our different projects, and worked my way through a couple of things on Monday.
On Tuesday, early in the morning, Shana left to go on a business trip to the US. And just a couple of hours later, it was my turn to pack my bags and leave for the airport: after 14 months, I was going back to London for a little bit.
[gallery ids=“3757,3721,3715,3723,3714,3747” type=“rectangular”]
I’ve spent the past week in London, attending a conference where one of the teams I work with was exhibiting on the show floor. We’ve spent 72 long, exciting and tiring hours in networking events, meetups, and at the conference.
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And on Friday, while my colleagues were heading back to France, I was checking out of my hotel and crossing London to go from the rich Kensington area over to trendy Shoreditch neighbourhood.
It took a long tube ride on the Circle line to get me to the other side. I checked in to my room, and quickly left to pick up some lunch outside. After a quick look on Foursquare, I found a salad bar nearby, and ended up taking my lunch to go. I sat in the sun, surrounded by local tech workers discussing their projects, their days, listening to different accents and stories.
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It was a beautiful sunny day, with temperatures getting over 27 degrees. The British man next to me commented on how his neck was going to burn, which made me chuckle. A plane flew by, above, in the clear blue sky. And in the background, one could see the high shining skyscrapers reflecting the sunlight on our little plaza.
After lunch, I went back to the hotel room where I’d stay until the evening: lots of work to catch up on.
Unfortunately I had planned to meetup with an acquaintance in town, but things fell through. I was on my own and when dinner-time came, I decided to walk over to Boxpark, the container park I already went to last year. I found myself eating a lovely vegan Indian curry, surrounded by hip Londoners getting ready for an exciting warm Friday night.
On my way out, I walked back and tried to take in the scenery, the evening lights, and the sheer joy of people enjoying drinks outside of pubs, giving the whole atmosphere a very summery atmosphere.
[gallery ids=“3731,3777,3776,3720,3772,3762,3746,3771,3754,3732,3724,3718,3711” type=“rectangular”]
On Saturday, my friends Daniel and Kim invited me over for brunch with some of their friends, further north in the Shoreditch area. I met Daniel last year when he was kind enough to give me a tour of the Monocle office and studios.
I left the hotel early and, knowing that I had about 30mn to walk, I took my time to enjoy the great sunny day ahead of me. I discovered new areas, walking from Brick Lane over to the northern side, where I found a beautiful canal that I didn’t know existed.
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I walked around different markets, places that I can’t wait to show to Shana. I also found plenty of cute and quirky shops, restaurants, bars and a surprising amount of Vietnamese Phó spots — I suspect that it’s trending in London, considering there a few of them in a row.
The hour-long walk was a great opportunity to catch up on my never ending list of podcasts.
I arrived at my friends apartment and discovered a lovely and well decorated place, in a friendly residential neighborhood, overlooking a nice park. Looking down, we could see that a lot of families and groups of friends were outside, making the most of the heatwave.
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For brunch, Kim and Dani started us with some salmon & avocado toasts with wasabi mayonnaise - a truly delicious treat. We then enjoyed an egg served alongside potatoes, mushrooms and potatoes with some fresh herbs and spices. We had some prosecco alongside our meal, and better yet, a really fun vibe filled with interesting conversations. Over several hours that felt like minutes, we talked about Europe, Asia, the US, culture, traveling, our family stories about immigration, modern multicultural relationships, and shared recommendations of books/movies/tv shows for the others to discover.
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I ended up coming back around 7pm back at the hotel, getting ready to hop on the plane tomorrow morning. I’m not going to like this 6am wake up call to go to the airport, but it’s been a great couple of days in the city and I already can’t wait to go back — hopefully later this year, with Shana.
Have you heard about GAFAs?
4/11/18
In France, business-related publishers refer to Google-Apple-Facebook-Amazon as a single group. And because the french love acronyms, they called it 'GAFA's.
Beyond the sheer horror of the acronym, I don't think it's fair to associate these companies together.
- Apple makes money off products
- Facebook makes money off ads (i.e. off the user)
- Amazon harvests a lot of data but offers products/services (B2C/B2B)
- Google (similarly to both FB and Amazon) has B2B/B2C components in addition to the ads.
Out of all of these, Apple is the only one I can think of with Privacy at heart. This was recently reiterated last week when Tim Cook was interviewed by Kara Swisher on MSNBC/Recode:
The truth is we could make a ton of money if we monetized our customer. If our customer was our product, we could make a ton of money. We’ve elected not to do that. Because we don’t ... our products are iPhones and iPads and Macs and HomePods and the Watch, etc., and if we can convince you to buy one, we’ll make a little bit of money, right? But you are not our product.
I really don’t like this acronym. These companies couldn’t be more different.
How is it already April?!
4/9/18
It’s April. Looking back on the beginning of the year, I’ve been going non stop, moving from the French Riviera over to Dublin, finding ourselves a flat, working on two new fast-paced projects, and planning the rest of the year.
Tonight’s therapy comes from well… the Therapy EP by the always soothing Vancouver Sleep Clinic!
How is it already April?!
4/9/18
It’s April. Looking back on the beginning of the year, I’ve been going non stop, moving from the French Riviera over to Dublin, finding ourselves a flat, working on two new fast-paced projects, and planning the rest of the year.
Tonight’s therapy comes from well… the Therapy EP by the always soothing Vancouver Sleep Clinic!
Liam launched a Newsletter!
4/9/18
My friend @LiamBoogar recently launched a newsletter where he tackles Branding, France, Technology, and a lot more — all through his personal and opinionated point of view.
The latest issue is really solid, and talks about Labor Laws in France and the labour market in the US. Here’s a solid gem that struck me:
”Even in the Silicon Valley, where great benefits, remote work & “unlimited vacation” are advertised on every /careers page, the reality is that “unlimited vacation” doesn’t work in a culture where taking any time off is seen as lazy.”
March 2018, in 1 Second Everyday
4/1/18