The Friendly Anarchist

Good Reads, Posts You Might Have Missed-Edition

This edition of Good Reads is a bit peculiar, as it will only feature posts from The Friendly Anarchist, i.e. myself.

The reason is that Steve Marquez from The Spartan Penguin invited me to participate in this little game called “My 7 Links“. It’s like a digital chainletter going through the blogosphere, and while I generally don’t participate in these (sorry!), I found this one to be interesting, as it gives an excuse to shed light onto some of the hidden gems in the always overlooked archives!

(And at the end of this post, I’ll nominate 5 other bloggers to participate in this chain, shedding light on their archived gems!)

My 7 Links

1. Most beautiful post: Honestly, I don’t really feel this is for me to decide. But a post that was very important to me and that led to many beautiful reactions around the world (including WWFD 2011!) was Walk With Flowers.

2. Most popular post: How should I measure this? By views, tweets, comments, links? I would say it was How to Live an Interesting Life, that later on was featured on the wonderful blog of Penelope Trunk!

3. Most controversial post: This was certainly Towards Ethical Lifestyle Design. I still contemplate many of the issues raised in that post and in the ensuing comments discussion.

4. Most helpful post: Beyond Rules. It’s the post where I give away a free book, and – in all modesty – it’s not one of those lame free books that marketers use to sell stuff. While Beyond Rules has its flaws (a second edition will be coming!), it’s without doubt the most helpful thing I ever wrote.

5. A post whose success surprised me: Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish. It’s a long post and it says some things many people don’t like to read, so it was a pleasant surprise to get a lot of feedback for it – most of it positive!

6. A post I feel didn’t get the attention it deserved: Very recently, Towards Data Sovereignty. I know the post isn’t the holy grail, but the issue is way too important to be ignored. I would love to see more data sovereignty – not just among geeks, but among everybody else, too.

7. The post I am most proud of: Apart from the aforementioned Beyond Rules, it’s hard for me to say. I am very happy to see that I can still stand behind the stuff I wrote over the past 20 months or so, but proudness just isn’t a feeling I have too much. One post I feel that’s well-crafted (and was published in print, too) was the one about Time Independence. Time is such a tricky matter to write about… so yeah, maybe this is a good fit!

My 5 Nominees

Raam from raamdev.com
Joel from The Blog of Impossible Things
Lisa from Zen At Play
Lynn from Upcycled Love
David from Raptitude

I’d love to see your seven links! (Of course I know that this format isn’t a good fit for everybody, so no stress about it!)

Most of my nominees publish at a comparatively slow pace, but this leads to some very thought-provoking and well-crafted writings, which is why they are nominated!

Their archives are real treasures, with many (many!) goldmines to uncover, both of inspiration and of practical information. Be sure to check them out!

For now, thanks a lot Steve, for inviting me to participate!

Two Kinds of Freedom

Here’s the kind of freedom I’m not interested in: It’s the freedom to choose between other people’s options.

Some examples:

The freedom to buy one brand of shampoo or another.
The freedom of flextime, choosing to enter a job either at 8am or 9am.
The freedom of fashion, showing good taste by choosing Apple over Android, or Chanel over Lacoste.

Having these options certainly isn’t a bad thing. But it’s too superficial to be the kind of freedom that really matters to me.

Thinkers like Guy Debord knew this already back in the 1960s: As long as our choice is limited by what the market offers, it may not really be a choice at all.

And yet this is how things look nowadays: Just like our forefathers attended church, we are attending the supermarkets.

Isn’t that a little boring?

I mean, convenience and all, but: Isn’t a crazy funky farmer’s market about a hundred times more interesting than Wal-Mart? And wouldn’t growing our own food be even more interesting? Or decorating our house with self-made pictures instead of buying yet another Golden Gate Bridge poster? Or working at the time we are most productive, and working on stuff that actually matters to us, opposed to simply complying with senseless office policies?

Freedom No. 2

Thankfully, there’s a second kind of freedom. It’s much broader, much smarter, much more interesting… and it’s also much more difficult to achieve, because it requires permanent effort.

It’s the freedom to be the sovereign of our sphere.

To get my terms straight, a sphere is somewhat larger than just the space we move in: It includes the place where we’re at, but also the environment that’s around us, the people we interact with, the restaurants we visit and the food we eat. It also entails the work we do, the way we use our free time and leisure, and even the mindset we have.

Here’s the really good news: If we are not all that happy with what’s happening in our sphere, we can act on it. We might not be able to change it all and change it fast, but we can certainly do something.

Then, of course, here’s the drawback, and it’s true for personal sovereignty in any and all places: The second kind of freedom is do-it-yourself and it requires effort.

It demands us to get up from the couch and do something.

We cannot buy it, and it’s not able to hire someone else to achieve it for us.

Embracing this second kind of freedom won’t be as easy as choosing a new shampoo. Because our options are unlimited. Each and every one of us is unique, and each and every one of us has unique preferences: One more woo-woo, one more rational. One more salt, one more sugar. One more black and one more white.

Apart from that, it’s pretty straight forward: We choose and we act, and we do it embracing friendliness. That’s the beyond rules approach to freedom.

The How-to

Here’s the single most frequent question I get asked when talking to someone about my travels and working on the road:

How do you do it?

And my answer sometimes will take about half an hour just to get started. Because there are so many things to consider, and it’s hard to sum them all up.

There are so many great tools and supporters out there for the practicalities. It’s hard to even list them all: You can learn a new skill with a book or a mentor. You can attend a club or a bar in order to meet new people. You can learn to get paid to be you.

And those of you who wrote me about “how to do it” know a couple of my personal tips and tricks already. (Thanks for all your positive feedback! I’m currently creating something wonderful for you that will provide a unique look at this precise question. I’ll send some more details out early in August!)

BUT…

But here’s the thing with the second kind of freedom:
The real question isn’t just about how to do it.

You need to know the How, but that isn’t enough! It’s not just about buying a book or attending a course!

It’s about actually doing it. ((I really cannot repeat this often enough. I try, but I just can’t stop! At least until everybody knows.)) Sweating it and all.

It’s looking at your sphere and figuring out a way to transform it according to how you want it to be.

And if you need a good guidance for that, here it comes:

Whatever it is that you’re up to, please, please follow this piece of advice. It’s the “farmer-market-eats-Wal-Mart-for-breakfast” advice. It’s about interestingness. Here it is:

Don’t bore the Gods.

Really.

Don’t.

Don’t just sit there and watch TV. Or file some stupid document into a manila folder.

Just look outside for a little moment! The sun is shining, there’s cold beer somewhere, and even the most serious deity will be content to see you having a good time.

When it comes to the second kind of freedom and being the sovereign of your sphere, it’s time to become a little bit unserious. Seriously.

Last Man Walking

Every time I come back to the forests of my childhood town in Northern Germany, the scenery is a little different:

Old trees have been chopped, new trees have been planted; rivers and creeks have grown, or have run dry. Sometimes I will see rabbits and foxes, at other times deers, and on the rare occasion even a blazing fire salamander.

One of the most peculiar changes in recent years, though, are the people.

The other citizens that decide to visit the forest. Whenever I see them, I get the feeling that times are changing and that I am – despite my comparatively young age – totally antiquated: While everybody else is jogging, jumping, running, sprinting and racing, I simply walk.

The result? Even pensioners outrun me, dressed in neon-colored and breathable sportswear, pinching me with their fitness walking poles if I don’t watch out.

As it turns out, I seem to be the only person that still enjoys strolling through the forest. Apparently, I’m the last man walking.

The Idle Rebel

Sure, you can train for a marathon. That’s fine with me! ((If nothing else, the softer forest soil will probably prevent major injuries in your joints and ankles.)) But what strikes me as odd is that I’m virtually the only person left that is still walking around aimlessly, without a major action plan in mind: All I want to do is breathe some fresh air and enjoy the wonderful scenery. Is that really such a strange thing to do?

When I see the hordes of athletes in the forest, I believe there’s something more to it.

Could it be that idleness is so frowned upon today that many people feel they need some kind of excuse in order to go outside?

It could be that the kids have to play. ((Parents with their children busy playing seem to be the only relaxed people out there. As the young ones are distracted, they find some time to simply enjoy the sun.))
It could be that they’ve got some errands to do.
It could be their marathon training.

But taking one or two hours just to walk around and do nothing?
Unthinkable!

In times where work is worshipped as the only Goddess, idleness becomes an act of rebellion.

Good for us it’s so enjoyable.

So… I’ll just continue to walk and see what happens.

I won’t bring any protest signs to the forest either. ((Though I might bring some flowers.))

Maybe you’ll join me, so we can confuse some more people about what we are up to, walking slowly, smiling at the world.

Idleness for the rescue.

Towards Data Sovereignty

As our lives extend into the digital realm, personal sovereignty becomes a question of more than just our minds and bodies.

It becomes a question of data and the web, and a question of how to control it.

Considering the current Google+ hype, I would like to start a discussion about self-ownership and personal sovereignty in the age of the digital self.

Of course, most web evangelists (and especially the marketers among them!) are happy to see a new social network emerging. I agree with them in so far as having a decent competitor to Facebook isn’t a bad thing. I have my doubts about what we should actually do with these networks, though: If we use them solely for marketing, they are boring. But if we use them to post all our thoughts and digital creations, they might turn out to be perilous.

Why? Because they reduce our sovereignty by taking over our data! Because the stuff we post on Google+ and Facebook and Twitter might end up not being our stuff anymore. To a certain degree, it becomes the stuff of corporate blogging silos.

Why Should You Care?

If you’re okay with sharing your personal interests and preferences with any advertiser who’s willing to pay, you will probably care less than those of us who aren’t. ((Here’s how this whole market might get centralized. A German Google spokesperson is suggesting there will be one all-embracing opt-out, what certainly would be a nice thing.))

If you’re also okay with being vulnerable to ‘broad and wide’ hacking attacks and security issues, there’s probably even less reason to care. For example, all (!) Dropbox accounts were open to anybody who entered any (!) password during several hours, after a programming change introduced a bug into their software back in June. Good for you if you encrypt your data on your own computer rather than on the Dropbox servers. ((Of course, hacks and security issues are very real for any cautious end user, too. Plus, it’s harder for an individual to keep up with security issues than it is for a professional team. The difference is that your personal server probably won’t become a target of any ‘wide and broad’ hacking attack, as for example the Playstation Network.))

Stay with me, though: Even if you don’t care about advertising and hackers, there’s still another thing to consider:

Do you want to be able to take your data with you once ________ (Enter your favorite web company here) ceases to exist (or simply ceases to interest you)? If so, can you?

Depending on the company and application, this may be easier, harder, or totally impossible!

It’s certainly something to consider: Even huge companies can crash – giants like Google and Facebook included! So you might want to make sure your data is yours to take along. ((Google offers this in a transparent and also very comfortable way here. Twitter will only let you access your last 3200 tweets through external applications. Facebook, as far as I know, has some kind of “export your data” feature, but apparently it’s not as usable as it should be. In practice, anyway, just exporting your contacts can be harder than expected, because companies of course have an interest to keep you locked in!))

A Question of Sovereignty

Corporate blogging silos are not necessarily evil just because they are corporate. They just aren’t under your control.

If you’re not in control, you’re not the sovereign. And if you’re not the sovereign, someone else is.

Consider this:

Here is your data.
And there is some corporation – good or evil, big or small, cool or lame – who thinks it owns it.
And, maybe, there’s someone else: A government interested to take a sneak peek.

Dave Winer writes:

We’ll do much better if there are a million personal blogging silos instead of one or two huge corporate blogging silos. The corporate ones are too easy for governments to control without the people knowing they’re being controlled.

True words: Facebook may just hand your data over to the government if someone requests it. If you have your own server, though, broad access becomes much more difficult, because they have to deal with every single user individually.

Do you remember when Amazon remotely erased a couple of Orwell books from the Kindles of their clients – just because they were worried about some copyright bullshit?

These days, cloud computing is getting bigger and bigger. What if suddenly all of your music is gone, just because some robot found a pirated album in your MP3 collection? Or, worse, all your documents get deleted? Just because Steve Jobs decides to wipe your iCloud, faster than you can say “Boom“?

Sure, this might seem like a crazy dystopia – but I’m afraid it’s not.
I’m not saying this will happen – but it certainly could. I simply like to be in control, and I like to be prepared.

How to Own Your Data: 3 Modest Proposals

Here are three first steps every internet user can take to maintain her data under control.

1. Own Your Mails

Do you really want a Gmail address? Like, forever? If you think Google is cool and fast and convenient, and it always will be, just think about what happened to Yahoo, or how outdated AOL addresses look nowadays.

Here’s a simple solution:

Register a domain. (Cost: $10 per year or so)
Get a hosting plan. (Cost: Depends. $10 a month will certainly do the job, but if you only care about mail, there are cheaper options.)
Create an address that is under your control and will be yours for as long as you want.

The good thing about this set-up is that you can always switch providers and the hosting later, while still maintaining the same address. If Gmail gets closed one day, in contrast, it’ll be gone for good.

As for recommended companies, I am a customer of Macbay and Dreamhost. They both do a decent job, and they allow me to create as many email addresses for my domains as I want. They even provide practically unlimited storage. Plus, I can download all my mails to my own computer, while still being able to access them through their respective web interfaces.

If the server rooms of these companies burn down tomorrow, I’ll have my mails right here on my computer.

If my computer dies, I’ll have my mails on their servers.

And for the improbable case that my computer dies while their server rooms burn down, I’ll still have my personal backups.

((You might also want to consider signing up with a paid mail provider like Fastmail. Marco Arment did that, and he seems to be quite happy. I bet he gets more mail than you and me and our mums together.))

2. Own Your Creations

Do you publish anything online? If so, do you publish your stuff exclusively on Facebook, Flickr, Google+ or Twitter?

Then please consider getting a “real” blog. You don’t necessarily have to host it on your own. ((Admittedly, that’s quite a pain in the ass. I mean, it’s great as long as everything works. But once it doesn’t anymore, at least I will be doomed up for a learning experience.))

Even if you just sign up on WordPress.com, you still have more control than in most of these social networks: You can download your stuff and use it as you please. You can import, export, reimport, design, redesign everything, according to your taste. You can publish whatever you want, and you maintain all your rights. If you want, you can take your creations to another provider or platform, delete them, or even print them to make them part of your 10-volume autobiography. Cool stuff.

3. Own Your Bookmarks

Most popular bookmarking sites let you export your data. One that goes a step further is Pinboard: If you pay a small fee, it will archive all sites you ever bookmark, including images, PDFs and other elements – and it also allows you to take all that data with you, by downloading it to your computer.

With this service, you basically get a personalized and searchable archive of your entire web history, ready to take along. No more “Sorry, this page doesn’t exist” anymore. If I really start to work on my PhD thesis, this is definitely an upgrade I will get!

What Else?

This article was inspired by this post by Dave Winer. ((And by this. And by this by Marco Arment, too.)) Of course, the three steps I propose aren’t a solution for everything or everybody. They are merely a starting point, together with my older thoughts on how to fix the web. When it comes to what else to do, I am as much a dilettante as you might probably be.

If you believe data sovereignty matters, though, please share your thoughts, ideas, and questions in the comments, and I’ll be happy to follow up on this!

Pieces of Berlin

Time is flying! I already left Berlin after five weeks or so – but wanted to share a couple of visual bits and pieces with you from my stay there.

In other news, I am mostly writing on two things these days:

Weird stuff that might become a proposal for a PhD thesis one day. I got seriously inspired after attending an international seminar on political theory here in Cologne, so these thoughts need to be processed. If nothing else, it should at least turn out to be useful for TFA in the long run!
My first electronic guide! It’ll be all about getting things done in a smart and gentle way, while seeing the world. If you’re wondering about how to work on the road without missing out on your destinations, this will probably be your thing! More on this project soon – if you want to be the first to know be sure to sign up for Mails Beyond Rules!

Have a happy weekend, everybody!