“10:46 — Fell into an internet blackhole again. Back to work.”
Something honest in that line. Not a confession: a sighting. The kind of thing you’d never write in an end-of-day journal because by then the story has been tidied up. You worked hard. You made progress. A few distractions, sure, but nothing worth dwelling on.
The interstitial journal catches you before the rationalisation kicks in.
Tony Stubblebine named the practice. The idea is simple: every time you take a break, write a few lines and timestamp them. That’s it.
10:04 Going to finish the first draft. 10:46 Fell into a internet blackhole again. Back to work. 11:45 Good progress. Need to prep for the Charlie meeting. 11:49 Feeling a bit anxious, but it’ll be fine.
Look at what’s in there. Goals, self-awareness, self-review, action items, and emotional honesty all tangled together the way they actually are in the flow of the day. There’s no need to categorise or edit it into something coherent or brilliant.
Most productivity systems capture what you planned and what you did. They skip the inner weather. The forty-two minutes that vanished. The low-grade anxiety you didn’t name until you were forced to write something down.
This does the opposite. It catches the texture of the day while it’s still happening.
There’s a quiet self-accountability built in too. Once you’ve trained yourself to timestamp every break, you become slightly less willing to drift. You don’t want to write “fell into a Twitter blackhole again” for the third time before noon. The log witnesses you, and that is enough.
I use the Obsidian daily note with timestamps. I can keep a running thread of my thoughts alongside my task list. I like using Obsidian because it captures something true about how thinking and working actually happen. What it tracks is not really your productivity. It’s more like your actual self, moving space and time.
A Wisdom Walk from Marston Doles to Napton-on-the-Hill
There’s something about the rhythm of the feet on a towpath that unlocks the mind. Today’s wisdom walk wasn’t just about getting my steps in after a morning glued to the screen. It was about working through the soul of what I’m building here.
The afternoon sun was warm on my back as I followed the canal from Marston Doles toward Napton-on-the-Hill. My phone buzzed with notifications, and my watch reminded me I was still shy of my daily movement goals, but none of that mattered. What mattered was the conversation happening between my walking self and my thinking self.
The Brand Revelation
I’d been wrestling with four different bio options for the Barefoot Philosopher rebrand. You know how it is; you can stare at words on a screen until they lose all meaning. But put one foot in front of the other, let the mind wander while the ducks paddle alongside, and suddenly clarity emerges.
“Barefoot philosopher helping contemplative rebels find wisdom in everyday moments.”
That’s it. That’s the line.
Not “intelligent misfits”; I feel like that’s too exclusive, too academic. I also don’t want to limit myself to “ancient wisdom”; that’s too narrow, despite my love for Marcus Aurelius and Seneca. The magic happens in those everyday moments. Like right now, walking this towpath, working through the very essence of what wisdom means in motion.
Ancient Philosophy Meets Morning Coffee
The second line came easier after that: “I blend ancient wisdom with modern insights for a soul-led life.”
But here’s where it gets interesting: that phrase I’d been playing with, “ancient philosophy meets morning coffee,” suddenly revealed itself not as a bio line but as something bigger. It felt like a podcast waiting to be born. Can you picture it? Recording from actual coffee houses, maybe finding a co-host who shares the vision, and bringing those contemplative moments to life in real conversation.
The Barefoot Wisdom Cafe isn’t just a concept; it’s a practice. It’s the morning coffee contemplations, those stolen moments of reflection between the chaos. You don’t need to carve out massive chunks of time for wisdom. Sometimes it’s just grabbing a coffee and having a think.
The Mobile Warrior’s Epiphany
Somewhere between the duck family (mama with nine little ones—what a sight) and the impromptu concert from a fellow traveller, it hit me: this is how real work gets done. Not chained to a desk, but moving through the world, processing ideas in motion.
The irony wasn’t lost on me that I was solving my bio problem while literally embodying the solution of walking slow enough for the soul to catch up.
The beauty of this mobile approach isn’t just the thinking space; it’s the human connections that happen when you’re present in the world. A canal boat crew six hours into their journey from Hayford to Cosgrove. A quick exchange about the lovely weather, about needing fresh air after screen time. Real conversation with strangers instead of just text messages with strangers.
That’s the difference between living behind screens and living in the world. Both have their place, but the balance matters.
The Wisdom in Walking
As I found my way back through overgrown trails and boundary markers, dodging hungry mosquitoes and losing my lens cap to curious brambles, the third line crystallised: “Walking slow enough for the soul to catch up.”
This isn’t just poetic flourish; it’s a methodology. It’s recognising that our best insights often come not when we’re pushing hard but when we’re moving at the pace of reflection. When we give our deeper selves permission to join the conversation.
The contemplative rebels I want to reach? They already know this. They’re the ones who’ve sensed that there’s more to life than the hustle, more to wisdom than the latest productivity hack. They’re ready for the ancient stuff, yes, but applied to right now, right here, in the everyday moments that actually make up a life.
Building Something Real
By the time I reached my car, I had covered 3.38 miles, solidified my bio decisions, and conceptualised an idea for a new podcast series. I realised I’d done something that couldn’t have happened at my desk. I’d thought with my whole self, not just my head.
The Barefoot Philosopher isn’t just a brand I’m building; it’s a way of being I’m remembering. One foot in the ancient wisdom traditions, one foot in the messy, beautiful reality of modern life. Walking the path between them, slow enough for the soul to catch up.
The X platform might be controversial these days, but it’s still solid for micro-blogging. That’s where this next phase launches. Short reflections, daily wisdom, and the kind of content that meets people in their everyday moments rather than demanding they carve out special time for enlightenment.
Because here’s the thing about contemplative rebels: we don’t need permission to think deeply. We just need reminders that it’s possible, practical, and actually more efficient than the alternatives.
The trail always leads home, but the walking changes everything.
This post was composed during and after a wisdom walk through the Warwickshire countryside. Sometimes the best way to write about walking is to actually walk first.
Those of you who are Billy Joel fans will recognize the reference in the title of this post. And for those of us who are diehard Twitter fans, we’ll be singing the chorus from this song before too long.
My day job centres around helping leaders lead high performing teams. What’s happening at Twitter right now is a classic example of what not to do as a leader. People are the most valuable asset of any company. A good leader treats their people with dignity and respect, and should make everyone they lead feel valued for their contribution to the company. When a leader shows total disregard for the people they lead, that for me, is a signal of the beginning of the end of a cohesive, high performing team.
I’ve been keeping my fingers crossed hoping things will settle down at Twitter so we can get on with enjoying the platform we love. But after Musk’s decision to issue an ultimatum to his employees on last Thursday, I seriously doubt the company can survive.
I’ve been on Twitter since May 2007. I have a lot of time and content invested in the platform. I probably should have done this sooner, but better late than never. Today, I’ve initiated the download sequence to get my Twitter archive. Hopefully it’s not too late. Hopefully the team that handles the archives haven’t all left Twitter. I’ll let you know in 24 hours, which is how long Twitter says the process could take.
If you haven’t downloaded your archive, I recommend you do and here’s how to do it.
How to download your Twitter archive
When you download your Twitter archive, you take a snapshot of all your Twitter information, starting with your very first tweet.
Click on the More icon in the navigation bar right above the blue draft new Tweet icon. Select “Settings and Support” from the menu options. Click “Settings and privacy.” Select “Your account” from the menu options.
Click “Download an archive of your data.” You’ll be asked to enter your password, do so and click “Confirm.”
Next you’ll have to verify your identity. Click “Send code” to your email and/or your phone number. You’ll be redirected to the “Account information” page where you’ll be able to enter the code that was sent to your email or phone.
Once your identity is verified, click “Request archive.”
When your download is finished, Twitter will send you an email where you can download a .zip file of your Twitter archive.
If you have the app downloaded, you’ll get a push notification letting you know your Twitter archive has finished downloading. Navigate back to “Settings” on the app where you can click the “Download data” button under the Download data section.
Note: This may take a while. Twitter says “it can take 24 hours or longer for your data to be ready.”
I can’t say that I’m a Lorde fan—not that there’s anything wrong with her music; it’s just not my usual thing. But I came across her blog, which she runs on Tumblr (I think people need to keep an eye on Tumblr; it’s poised for a comeback as a blogging platform). She was very open about the pressure to make a buck on concert tours, especially when all she and other musicians really want to do is play for the fans.
I don’t know how much you’ve been following the live music industry conversation, but lemme hit you with a five minute explainer, cause I think it’s interesting, and good to know about if you’re going to concerts at the moment. Basically, for artists, promoters and crews, things are at an almost unprecedented level of difficulty. It’s a storm of factors. Let’s start with three years’ worth of shows happening in one. Add global economic downturn, and then add the totally understandable wariness for concertgoers around health risks. On the logistical side there’s things like immense crew shortages (here’s an article from last week about this in New Zealand), extremely overbooked trucks and tour buses and venues, inflated flight and accommodation costs, ongoing general COVID costs, and truly. mindboggling. freight costs. To freight a stage set across the world can cost up to three times the pre-pandemic price right now. I don’t know shit about money, but I know enough to understand that no industry has a profit margin that high. Ticket prices would have to increase to start accommodating even a little of this, but absolutely no one wants to charge their harried and extremely-compassionate-and-flexible audience any more fucking money. Nearly every tour has been besieged with cancellations and postponements and promises and letdowns, and audiences have shown such understanding and such faith, that between that and the post-COVID wariness about getting out there at all, scaring people away by charging the true cost ain’t an option. All we want to do is play for you.
I know you’re probably sick to death of hearing about the fate of Twitter. I am too, but because it’s a platform I love, I can’t resist reading every article about its demise that comes through my feed. It’s like rubbernecking on the highway. When you see an accident off to the side, you feel compelled to look, which in turn causes you to slow down, which, through the ripple effect, turns into a mile-long traffic jam.
Stop rubbernecking!
Sorry, I can’t help myself.
This article in The Verge feels like the scene where the villain hits the self-destruct button, lets out an evil laugh, and then heads to the roof to escape in his helicopter. When your CISO, Chief Privacy Officer and Chief Compliance Officer ALL resign at the same time, you know the ship is going down!
Sources say:
Over the last two weeks. Elon has shown that he cares only about recouping the losses he’s incurring as a result of failing to get out of his binding obligation to buy Twitter. He chose to enter into that agreement! All of us are being put through this as a result of the choices he made.
Elon has shown that his only priority with Twitter users is how to monetize them.
I don’t often mark TV shows down in my calendar, but for The English, I did. The Guardian called it a rare, sensational masterpiece, with Lucy Mangan giving it 5-stars! How could I not watch it?! As a kid, I was a huge Western fan. I picked up my love of cowboys from my dad. He was a huge fan of Louis L’ Amor. He had all the books, like The Sacketts, among others. And whenever a western was on TV, we were there to watch it. Some of my favorites:
I was curious to know if The English would live up to my expectations of a Western. The basic story line follows a revenge narrative.
The English takes place in the mythical mid-American landscape in the year 1890. It is about Cornelia Locke, an Englishwoman who comes to the new and wild West to get revenge on the man she thinks killed her son. When she meets Eli Whipp, a former cavalry scout who was born into the Pawnee Nation, they work together and find out that they have a common past that they must defeat at all costs if they want to live.
I am 3 episodes in and I am not disappointed. Chaske and Blunt are awesome together. The dialogue is superb. The action is graphic and dark. And the cinematography is stunning. I’m looking forward to seeing how the story plays out. It’s on BBC iPlayer in the UK. I think it might be on Prime in the US.
I gotta another wild hair
Well, it’s on. I’m embarking on a 30 day blogging challenge with my Twitter friends, @SMWGeek and @MrFresh who, like me, are OG bloggers from back in the day when blogging was cool and everybody had a Blogger or a Livejournal account, and we blogged everyday about everything and nothing. We shared our thoughts, our hobbies, our frustrations, our passions. Our blogs were an extension of ourselves. They were personal blogs back then. You were doing it for the love. Then blogs got popular and somebody figured out how to make money from them. That was the beginning of the end of personal blogging. The snake oil salespeople could smell the blood of the innocent. They promised to show us how we could make money blogging in our underwear. The marketeers could see the gold rush coming, and they moved in with their banner ads and Macromedia Flash videos. The personal blog was dead. Blogs became like the suburbs of the 1950s uniformed and bland, with every blog looking the same. No more Geocities. Myspace tried to keep the gig alive, but Zuckerberg had other plans. Now it’s all about the niche blog and content marketing, if you’re blogging at all and not doomscrolling or suffering anxiety from all the FOMO induced posts on Instagram.
So every now and then I get a wild hair on my butt and decide it’s time to do another 30 day blogging challenge to get myself back in the habit of OG blogging with the hope that maybe it might rekindle the fire of personal blogging.
If you’ve made it this far, then go ahead and make a nostalgic old man feel good by leaving a comment below. I will be cross-posting the 30 day challenge posts to Twitter and Mastodon, but if you want to be guaranteed to get my posts, then go ahead and subscribe to the blog or add it to your RSS feed reader.
This blog has been running since February 2004. Long may it continue.
My favourite social network seems to be under threat now that Elon Musk is the new boss. On the one hand, Musk is seen as the person who will restore freedom of speech. On the other hand, he’s seen as the person who will let Twitter become a free for all for bad actors to spread hate and lies.
There’s talk of a great Twitter migration of people who don’t want to be associated with the platform with Musk at the helm. One of the places people are heading is Mastodon.
For anyone wondering, Mastodon got over 70K sign-ups yesterday alone. Let's keep the momentum going! The "public square" of the web must not belong to any one person or corporation!
I’ve had an account on Mastodon for a few years now, left over from my experiments with the IndieWeb movement. I like the platform. It’s much the same as Twitter. But as a decentralised platform, it can be confusing because there are so many instances of Mastodon, which is its strength because you can join an instance that caters to your interests. If you have the server space, you can even start your own instance and invite only the people you want on it.
The most popular instance is mastodon.social which is maintained by the founder and CEO of Mastodon. I’m there at @soulcruzer@mastodon.social
I’m currently hedging my bets between the two platforms. I’m using moa to link my Twitter and Mastodon accounts. With this link, I can crosspost from one to the other. So I can either Toot or Tweet and the post will appear on both platforms. Moa can be a little slow at crossposting, though.
I was looking for a way I could just use my WordPress powered blog as the central point of all of my documentation. While I can syndicate out from my blog to Twitter and Mastodon, I don’t want to use my main blog as a microblog. WordPress isn’t really designed to function as a microblogging platform.
My other option would be to go back to micro.blog and syndicate out from there to WordPress, Twitter, and Mastodon. Or even to switch back to Tumblr and syndicate out from there.
For now, I’ll continue using my WordPress blog for longer posts and syndicate them out to Twitter, Mastodon, and Tumblr. And I’ll continue to use Twitter as my main microblogging platform.
Some people might ask why I don’t just return to blogging full-time and forget about the social networks. And as cool as that would be, the reality is that if you want to reach more people and make connections with others who share your interests, you need to use platforms where there are lots of people.
I don’t think blogging will ever return to its former glory. The social networks are too pervasive. And let’s face it, they are super convenient. You don’t have to worry about keeping the software updated or your plugins updated. You don’t have to pay hosting fees and domain name fees etc.
Of course, you give up a lot in return for this convenience like your data, and ownership and control of your content. Your audience belongs to the platform, not you. This doesn’t really matter if all you really want to do is share a few status updates to your family and friends and you’re not really looking to expand your network beyond the one you already have with the people you already know.
I’m a big fan of social networks as opposed to social media. The key word for me is social. I like socialising with diverse groups of people from all walks of life and interests. The media bit gets in the way. Really I should say using social media as marketing tool gets in the way. It’s get tiresome when every other post you read is someone or some business clearly trying to sell you something or get you to buy something (that you probably don’t need).
A cool place to get away from all of that is Neocities. You’ll find proper old-school blogging there. Dead Journal is another place you can go if just want to blog and not be bothered with coding.
As you can probably guess, I find that WordPress best suits my needs. To my mind, it provides the most leeway. It is simple to customise the look and feel of your site, whether you know how to code or not. I can blog from anywhere thanks to its mobile feature. There is also a built-in community of other WordPress bloggers to interact with.
With all of this turmoil going on in the social space, I’m definitely consolidating my efforts more around my own space, with this blog and potentially a newsletter.
OK, let’s end this with a cute cat video. We recently added a new member to our cat family. Her name is Rosa.
I didn’t know you could use your WordPress blog to write Twitter threads or convert your existing blog posts into threads.
I’ve been dabbling with threads recently, mostly using Hypefury or Typefully to compose them. I want to write more micro-essays and turn them into threads without overwhelming my Twitter feed.
I do sometimes find threads hard to follow. I know you can read them through a thread reader like Readwise, but that just adds another layer of complexity to the process.
Anyway, I also understand WordPress will pull your images and videos through with the thread. So let me test that out. Here is a photo I took on my walk in the fields today:
OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA
Last thing, you can work the other way away around and import and unroll threads into WordPress and turn them into blog posts.
I’m curious to know what you think about threads and also, what do you think about the new Twitter Notes function for long-form writing that’s being rolled out?
While we’re at it, what do you think of the other Twitter tools like Spaces, Live video, and Twitter audio?
