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The culture of modernity has a curious flatness to it – social media posts shaped by the same invisible templates, creative work driven mostly by algorithmic preferences, websites so similar they blur into a single, conversion-optimised canvas.
Yes, we can blame crowd consensus and algorithmic curation for this monotony, but we rarely pause to consider a more fundamental question: how do our digital tools shape not just our output, but our very thought processes?
This is what Tara McMullin explores in her recent piece on the invisible influence of software in our lives. She argues that we’ve become so accustomed to our digital tools that we’ve stopped seeing them for what they are – not neutral instruments of productivity, but powerful forces that mould our behaviour and thinking.
“Now that software has eaten the world, many of us don’t know where to direct our ire or even why we might feel frustrated in the first place. Software mediates our experience of the work we do – quite often in ways that improve efficiency while also making work less satisfying.”
“We don’t see the software, so we don’t see how it alters how we work, what we perceive as productive, or how doing things differently becomes increasingly difficult to imagine.”
The deeper irony is how these tools present themselves as enablers of creativity and productivity while subtly enforcing conformity:
“These apps are tools of power that masquerade as tools of agency… Design tools like Canva and Figma are tools of power that masquerade as tools of expression. Meeting tools like Zoom or Google Meet are tools of power that masquerade as communication tools.”
The problem isn’t just that we’re using these tools – it’s that we’ve stopped questioning how they’re using us. As McMullin observes: “Software had already insinuated itself into the way people thought so that they had a hard time thinking about what they wanted done or how they wanted it done outside the software paradigm. They were much more comfortable starting with one set of features and comparing it to another – in other words, evaluating software on its own terms.”
Every piece of software we use arrives with embedded assumptions about how we should work, think and create. These assumptions, of course, aren’t neutral – they’re designed to shape our behaviour in specific ways. It’s too late to argue that we shouldn’t use these tools, but rather we ought to try harder to see them clearly for what they are and choose them more intentionally:
“If we want to experience the positive impacts of software more often and resist its harmful ones, then we need to see it. We must be consciously aware of what it enables and what it disables. We must be intentional about the norms we establish with its use.”
– Kai
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The Evolution of Spreadsheets SPONSOR
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AirTable alternative for serious spreadsheeters
You love spreadsheets, but you know that structured data is king. Existing app builders lose the magic of spreadsheets. What if you could keep the convenience of a spreadsheet but gain the structure of a real database? Throw in dashboard building and granular user permissions, and you’ve got yourself Peak Spreadsheet.
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Apps & Sites
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Open source password manager for teams
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Passbolt is an open-source password manager designed for team collaboration, allowing secure storage and sharing of passwords, credentials and other sensitive information. The basic, self-hosted version is free with paid hosted options. Reasonably priced, too. (I use and love Bitwarden, which also has a team version.)
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Instagram travel bookmarks
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I’m in two minds about this app that lets you save Instagram travel posts which are then displayed on a map/itinerary. It’s useful for saving travel inspiration but risks instagrammifying travel even more – which is kinda the opposite of ‘wandering’.
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Sustainability in the computing age
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A wonderful project by Thibaud Clement that visualises the environmental impact of our digital lives. “Last week, I streamed 20 hours of videos on Netflix, YouTube, and Canvas. I asked 50 questions to ChatGPT and made 532 Google searches. I sent 25 emails and 325 WhatsApp messages. From behind my screens, it did not feel like I was contributing to greenhouse gas emissions. Yet, the environmental impact of my online activity was real – it amounted to 1,447 grams of CO₂ equivalents.” Lots of interactive elements that lets you adjust the numbers to your own usage patterns.
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Terms of Service summarised & rated
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An interesting idea: use AI to summarise and rate the terms of service of various websites and services to make it more digestible for humans. The terms are scraped daily, then rated: “We score all companies from 1 to 7, with 1 being the lowest and 7 being the highest. The higher the score, the better the company’s contracts for users.”
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Favourite Films: Celia Mattison
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Ten film recommendations by film critic and amateur scuba diver, Celia Mattison
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by Mike Leigh
Marianne Jean-Baptiste gives one of the best performances of the year as a miserable, angry, and unbearably funny woman who seems unable to express anything but rage. It’s a blistering, kitchen-sink drama about how and why we hold people close, even when they push us away.
by Jane Schoenbrun
An existential horror about the allure of media and the pain of stifled identity. As a teenager who also grew up on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, this one was impossible for me to resist. But there’s much more to this film than reference-checking; it’s an ambient portrait of adolescence told through Schoenbrun’s unique aesthetic interests.
by Julio Torres
The odd-couple pairing between a wide-eyed Julio Torres and a dragonish Tilda Swinton is just one reason to fall in love with this comedy about a New York that has long since moved past the American Dream. For anyone who has ever worked in customer service or had an impossible boss… and anyone who has also resisted the urge to yell at a support hotline.
by Jesse Eisenberg
A raucous comedy-drama about two cousins who go on a guided tour of Poland to explore their Jewish heritage. Kieran Culkin has rightfully been praised for his spiky portrayal of the charismatic Benji, but it’s Will Sharpe’s sensitive, nuanced arc as the goyish tour guide who Benji forces out of his routine that has stayed with me.
by India Donaldson
Well-acted, beautifully shot, and wryly clever, *Good One* is an unforgettable first feature about a young girl who goes on a camping trip with her father and her father’s best friend. It’s a startling, subtle portrayal of gender and innocence set in a landscape bursting with green.
by Andrea Arnold
Andrea Arnold’s most hopeful film yet sees a young girl coming of age in a derelict squat with her unpredictable single father and half-brother. Her relationship with a newcomer to the neighbourhood has a magical tenderness that my friend Maddie astutely described as Miyazaki-esque.
by Bertrand Bonello
Léa Seydoux visits past incarnations of herself with a new technology that allows users to cleanse themselves of the trauma of past lives. A brilliantly performed piece of science fiction with a mesmerising final act.
by Jia Zhangke
There’s an unexpected grooviness in the latest from Jia Zhangke, which compiles twenty years of footage into a loose narrative of love and aspiration. I imagine this will be simply too slow for many audiences but lovers of slow cinema will be hypnotised.
by David Cronenberg
A dark, bizarre testimony to the strange depths of human grief; The Shrouds imagines a tech company that allows customers to watch their loved ones deteriorate in their graves. It has a sliver of comic edge that really tickled me, an off-kilter oddness that felt infused with the dry, stilted sensibilities of a television procedural.
by RaMell Ross
I hope this film transforms how we make novel adaptations: Ross’s humane treatment of Colson Whitehead’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel looks at two young Black men sent to an abusive reform school in the 1960s. Told exclusively through a point-of-view camera, it’s an audacious and dizzying film with an inventive cinematic language that complicates what might otherwise feel like an (unfortunately) familiar story.
(Did you know? Friends of DD can respond to and engage with guest contributors like Celia Mattison in one click.)
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Books & Accessories
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On borders and belonging
A book that explores the intersecting crises of climate change, migration and human displacement. Blending journalism with lyrical storytelling, Lauren Markham traces the fragile connections between people and the landscapes they inhabit, revealing how the scars of environmental collapse shape our collective future. “A mesmerizing, trailblazing synthesis of reporting, history, memoir, and essay, A Map of Future Ruins helps us see that the stories we tell about migration don’t just explain what happened. They are oracles: they predict the future.”
”
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The new science of aging & the quest for immortality
Molecular biologist Venki Ramakrishnan delves into the biology and philosophy of mortality, unravelling the mechanisms of aging and humanity’s pursuit of eternal life. With a balance of cutting-edge research and ethical inquiry, the book examines the promises and pitfalls of extending our lifespan in a world shaped by impermanence. “Covering the recent breakthroughs in scientific research, Ramakrishnan examines the cutting edge of efforts to extend lifespan by altering our physiology. But might death serve a necessary biological purpose? What are the social and ethical costs of attempting to live forever?”
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Overheard on Mastodon
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Thou shalt not deny gender is a spectrum while claiming to be manlier. If you can rank it, it’s not a binary.
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Food for Thought
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The wonderful Tara McMullin argues here that project management software (well, most software for that matter) forces users into a rigid way of working. She highlights the many ways software influences our input and output, and why we should be more aware of the impact it has on our thinking. “Now that software has eaten the world, many of us don’t know where to direct our ire or even why we might feel frustrated in the first place. Software mediates our experience of the work we do – quite often in ways that improve efficiency while also making work less satisfying.”
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Another wonderful piece by writer Rosie Spinks on building a supportive local community that is essential for overcoming feelings of isolation. It’s a curated collection of experiences and ideas her readers sent in. So much practical wisdom about connecting with others and creating a sense of belonging. E.g. “You don’t need friends, you need people. Kurt Vonnegut wrote that most marriages fail because they don’t have enough people in them: ‘You should know that when a husband or wife fight, it may seem to be about money or sex or power. But what they’re really yelling to each other about is loneliness. What they’re really saying is, “you’re not enough people.”’”
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Human creativity is essential because it connects us through art and literature, which reflect our unique experiences and emotions. AI can generate text and art, but it still lacks the human essence that makes these creations meaningful. James Marriott argues that in a future with more machine-produced content, we may come to value human art even more for its authenticity and emotional depth. “We may justly wonder: how interesting is intelligence to human beings? Interesting enough, certainly, but rarely the most fascinating thing. It is the same with art. Indeed, few people are as intriguing to us as famous singers, actors and writers. Newspapers are filled with gossip, sex scandals and speculation about the private lives of celebrities. Our fascination with art is deeply connected to our fascination with the human personality.” (via)
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Aesthetically Pleasing
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Japanese artist Shinrashinge makes anime art using complex paper-based mechanisms that brings them to life.
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Under Nature’s Pace, Australian designer and illustrator Jake Foreman produces psychedelic-inspired artwork that blends surreal compositions with mindful messages – perfect for some inspiring wall art. Friends of DD enjoy a 10% discount store wide.
Become a Friend to access specials like this.
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British photographer Joseph Ford has a really fun portfolio. In his Knitted Camouflage series, a collaboration with knitter Nina Dodd, subjects wear custom-made knitwear that blends them into various backgrounds, creating visual illusions without digital manipulation.
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The beautiful Sablé is a dynamic slab serif typeface that embraces a rebellious and unconventional spirit. “The distinctive aspect of Sablé lies in its bolder style, where the serifs defiantly touch and the glyphs are intentionally almost closed, creating a raw and edgy aesthetic.”
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Notable Numbers
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By 2030, Paris will have removed 60,000 parking spaces and replaced them with trees. That’s one of the goals outlined in the French capital’s new 2024-2030 Climate Plan.
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Music fans in the UK spent more on recorded music in 2024 than ever before, new figures show. Subscriptions to services like Spotify, Amazon Music and Apple Music accounted for almost 85% of the money spent.
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In 2023, people in the Netherlands cycled a collective total of 19.1 billion kilometres, an average of 1,065 km per person – a new record. The rise in kilometres travelled is linked to the growing use of electric bicycles, which allow people to cover greater distances. Of the 804,101 new bicycles purchased in that year, 56% were e-bikes.
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$16,000 – this is how much it costs to work with a designer who can code for a month, full‑time. There is a half-time option available as well. Interesting.
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The Week in a GIF
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Reply with your favourite GIF and it might get featured here in a future issue.
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