There’s a movie going around that’s getting some major press. It presents an anti-trafficking group as the saviours of children caught in the child sex trade.

The only problem?

It’s a fantasy.

Sure, there’s elements of a real story — organisation, people, even rescue missions — but the truly effective work of anti-trafficking is less glamourous. Instead of sting operations, it’s more about policy changes and resources for local groups to provide effective assistance.

Heroes need not apply

By seeking to be heroes some groups are harming efforts more than helping.

Conducting a sting on a human trafficking group might help arrest some low level members, but if there isn’t a support system in place, the kids freed won’t go back to their families. And even if they do, they need help to recover from their trauma and protection from the people who sold them in the first place.

You see while there are gangs who snatch children, most people end up in trafficking situations due to a person they, or their family knows.

So why aren’t we doing more for anti-trafficking support?

Anti-trafficking is tough.

It involves many parts to make sure we can catch the perpetrators, help the abused recover, and ensure they aren’t trafficked again. That typically means

• intelligence and surveillance to identify networks
• educating communities to spot the signs of traffickers and trafficked people
• policy which allows trafficked people safe haven
• support structures for their long-term recovery.

That costs a lot more than taking down a few local crooks and patting yourself on the back saying job well done. It also doesn’t help that safe haven policies are anathema for right of centre parties (and some left of centre ones too).

And finally, it’s a global challenge.

To prevent trafficking of people from developing to developed countries we need the right structures in place in both countries and coordination between each. With budgets stretched and a lack of political appetites for cooperation, that makes it extremely challenging.

It’s far easier for a group to claim they are the heroes doing what governments won’t, all the while merely putting people back into the same situations that lead to them being trafficked in the first place.

How to actually take a stand against human trafficking.

There are many long standing human trafficking groups such as Stop the Traffik who are making meaningful, long-term changes to help end human slavery.

Look for groups such as these rather than wannabe soldiers.

I used to be a massive defender of the Oxford comma, now I think most examples where it adds clarity are usually the result of poor writing.

For example, “He met with his parents, the Pope and Barak Obama.” Is this a list of three people or are the Pope and Obama his parents?

All that needs to be done is to put his parents at the end. “He met with the Pope, Barak Obama and his parents.”

There are perhaps a few situations where it can add more clarity (a list of groups) but it’s hardly the saviour of English grammar some writers make it to be.

For the last few years I’ve felt like tech companies and tech journalists are all trying to tell me I shouldn’t be happy with the “amazing revolutions” that came out only a year ago (but of course these new ones will all fix my problems). It’s things like the iPad which was finally a pro device when the iPad pro came out, or maybe when it got the m1 chip, or perhaps stage manager? No, sorry. It was when final cut pro and logic came out last month.

There’s nothing wrong with improvement (and sometimes “improvements” are steps backwards.) but maybe we could drop the technology gaslighting where we’re told that we’re not happy with the things we loved and they are clearly terrible now.

I’ve noticed (and I feel the temptation too) to think of task management/PKM/bullet journaling/jorunaling/whatever as a binary thing — either you have some incredible complicated system which you use everyday the way the gurus on YouTube use theirs, or your “not doing it right”.

Rubbish.

Task management is about managing your task. If a post-it works for you, that’s great! You have a system that works.

PKM is about storing and retrieving ideas - if a pocket notebook works for you, great! You have a system that works.

Journaling is about getting thoughts out of your head and on paper. If you do that every now and then and find it useful, great! You have a system that works.

Maybe you would benefit from adopting some practices or ideas (or more consistency) but you shouldn’t do that out of some sense of envy or guilt. You can always try things out and stick with what works for you.

Give yourself grace to experiment.

Writing what you’re grateful for is a common journaling activity and for good reason.

Practicing gratitude is one of the most effective ways to increase your happiness. If you aren’t doing it, I highly recommend you start.

But it’s easy to stop there. To feel better about ourselves and what we have but not respond out of that. There can be knock on effects such as a more positive and warm outlook to those around us, but what if there was a journaling prompt that encouraged us to be more generous too?

Here’s one I’m trying today.

What am I grateful for today? How can I help others share this gratitude?

It might seem like a small addition, but I’m hoping it will lead me to take action.

• If I feel grateful for someone helping me, how can I be helpful?
• If I’m grateful for learning something, can I share what I learned?
• If I feel grateful for some part of nature, can I share it by taking someone else to the spot?

Sometime it might be trite, but just perhaps a small act of generosity will make someone else grateful too.

I’ve been less patience recently.

It’s been a growing issue since my daughter learned the word “why” and now her brother is “stealing attention” from her, at least from her perspective.

Blaming my situation is the easy and half-true option.

While I certain have some extra pressures, these are an opportunity for me to demonstrate greater patience. Plus I can always choose my response to even the worse situation. And that’s where my journaling experiment comes in.

A journaling prompt for patience

“What are some situations that typically trigger impatience in you? How can you prepare and respond more calmly in these situations?”

I stumbled upon this journal prompt yesterday and started to write out my answers.

As soon as I did, I saw some common trends in my triggers. But more importantly I noticed that the solutions had even more in common.

Accepting the situation as it is

Mentally preparing for the situations

Taking actions to prevent those situations from arising.

I still need to see how I actually live these ideas out and I’m journaling every day to track what happens, but I’m hopeful. I’ll let you know how it goes.

Today I came across a writer with a boring site.

He has a single profile picture at the top along with links to navigate to his various writings and podcastings.

It was wonderful. I was soon on a wikipedia-like spelunking trip through his various article.

His site feels like such a breath of fresh air in an age of full page cover images with email popup forms. Admittedly, the depth of articles he has written helps a lot. And I’m publishing this on Micro.blog where this kind of design is the norm.

While there is a place for the website with landing page, I’m grateful that some people still publishing on boring blogs.

I am not a consistent journaler.

Over the last 8 years, I’ve tried lots of different system with varying degrees of success, but every time I keep the habit going, I gain a lot from it.

In my experiments, I’ve found three prompts which have helped me more than any others. So I thought I’d share them with you.

What’s on your mind? - answer this often reveals a hidden fear.

What are you grateful for? - this shifts my perspective to one of gratitude.

What would make today great? - it often does take much, but this prompt helps me improve my days.

There you have it, 3 quick prompts that you may find valuable.

I’d love to hear any prompts you’ve found beneficial.

UPDATE: I’ve realised that even these thoughts aren’t completely correct. I’ve noticed exceptions to my main issue. My new working theory is that I just wished we were all a little self obsessed, and when someone is less obvious with it, it make me realise the issue in myself.

I’m finally preparing the latest edition of my newsletter to send and got caught on the invitation for suggested content.* I always assumed people would refer someone else’s content which has happened but I have one reader who sends their own content every time I open the invitation.

At first I thought it was my cultural background that makes me view that so negatively. Then I wondered if it was the implicit, if not explicit, request for other people’s content. But as I really thought about it I realised the strongest reason for my reaction.

I don’t trust someone’s opinion of their own creation.

People generally have good taste when it comes to other people’s work and certainly don’t share everything they like with everyone. But that instinct frequently get’s turned off by the kind of person who promotes their stuff all the time.

While I was selfishly asking people to act as a filter and finder of quality instead of taking that responsibility myself, this reader redistributes that work back to me again. So I suppose it serves me right really!

*In the end I cut it. I couldn’t be bothered to work out a good way to phrase it. At least not today.

I’ve been thinking about minimalism again. My main prompt is reading “The Life We’re Looking For” by Andy Crouch. He lays out how “devices” can take as well as give and advocates for technology that makes us more engaged with our whole being rather than passive. As is common, I’ve started to see patterns everywhere. Suddenly stoicism seams very minimalist, I started to look at some of Patrick Rhone’s old essays and I’m wondering about how Christian “simplicity” is similar and different to minimalism. Oh and I’ve coincidentally decided to clear out my desk and draws at the same time.

In the past I commented that my big issue with minimalism is that it provides a diagnosis without a prognosis. I still believe there’s truth to that critique, but it doesn’t make the diagnosis less true.

Now excuse me while I go back to holding some old T-shirts and asking “does this spark joy?” Over and over again.

I’ve got the week off work (but my daughter is still going to pre-school) so I’ve drawn up a list of things to do that I would normally struggle to do due to lack of time or her presence! There’s a lot of big topic conversations with my wife plus making sure I’m fully present and engaged with her in the evening.

First item on my list - cleaning up my desk, notes and old clothes that need to be thrown out.

I had to renew my phone contract and had a chance to upgrade my four year old phone. In the end I decided against it. The offer sounded good but I wouldn’t have wanted to upgrade this year anyway so it was just spending money I didn’t want to spend.

As I reached the conclusion that I should declining the offer, I felt an uncomfortable pain. I knew it was a good offer, I knew I wanted the new shiny thing, but I also knew it wasn’t a good use of money and I’d be getting a phone and deal I wouldn’t have chosen otherwise.

I knew the decision was right, but I didn’t want it to be the right decision.

The end of the year is in sight.

And while there’s still time for me to purchase a new piece of tech, I think it’s safe for me to create this roundup list (especially with my current financial situation).

I haven’t bought too many items this year, but these three stand out above the rest.

AirPods Pro

My wife is the best.
I had resisted replacing my old AirPods with news ones but my wife convinced me.
She was right. They’ve helped me with countless video calls, blocking out noisy neighbours (and kids) not to mention hours of podcast listening.

And It sounds like the second gen are even better.

Samsung M7

There’s no perfect cheap monitor for Apple computers, but this is close.

It’s a

• 32"
• 4k
• USB-C connection monitor.

Back when I was deep in spreadsheets, reports and editing every day, this screen was invaluable. Now it is amazing for editing videos, recording screen casts (I can record a limited space on the screen and have notes in the rest) and for opening a ton of resources from Logos.

Caldigit ts3+

The two ports on the Macbook Air just aren’t enough.

Well, not when I make a video and have my camera, microphone, streamdeck, iPad, monitor and external hard drive all hooked up. This handy little device has made it all a dream.

Previously, I had a dongle that required some careful planning to get everything connected. Now I hook one thunderbolt 3 cable into my Macbook, and away I go.

**What about you? **What have been your favourite hardware tech purchases of the year.

6 years ago I started making some simple videos for students of English as a foreign language because it was a more valuable “proof of work” as a freelance teacher than the alternatives.

Today, I’m using those skills (and more I’ve learned since) for the onboarding videos project at work.

Plus I got a review copy of Logos 10 for the video review I published earlier this week.

You never know where a little decision might lead you in the future. Or how a fun little skill project might open other doors.

But also, don’t feel ashamed about having a hobby which is just a hobby.

As I read CJ Chilver’s recent post on the lazy billionaire, I was reminded of Patrick Rhone’s approach of using the Apple default apps as much as possible.

• Notes in Notes
• Tasks in Reminders
• Events in Calendar
• Podcasts in Apple podcasts and so on.

Some of these feel more controversial than others. Could I really give up my beloved obsidian? Would I be prepared to give up smart skip in a podcast player? How will I GTD if I don’t have a full armed and operational battle station, I mean task manager.

And I do notice that Patrick does make a couple of exceptions such as using a markdown writing app instead of the notes app (unless that has changed since his minimal mac days which it may well have).

In truth, there are some apps (like Snipd my current podcast app) where I don’t really use their functionality. I do capture clips from podcasts, but I don’t tend to review them. And it’s even rare that I use those snippets when they are automatically imported into my obsidian vault from readwise.

So I’m reviewing all my fancy third party apps. Maybe they’ll go and maybe they’ll stay.

Carrot weather is definitely staying.

Metaphors create new worlds.

They focus our attention, open our imaginations and help us to see connections.

But no metaphor is perfect. If there weren’t any limits or exceptions to a metaphor, it wouldn’t be a metaphor. (this is an extension of the ideas “the map is not the territory")

So it’s no surprise that our choice of metaphor can be important.

An example: consider these two metaphors for a journey.

Depending on the one you select, you will have a very different perception of the journey you will undertake.

• One might help you prepare better, the other might help you enjoy it more.
• One might focus you on the destination, the other might help you take in the scenery.

Rushing for the first and most obvious idea can trap us in typical ways of thinking.

So what are the implications

Three easy ideas to help explore more metaphors

1. Think of a metaphor for ideas or strategies
2. Consider the limits of the metaphor
3. Generate more metaphors and reflect on their strengths, weaknesses and differences.

I’d love to hear your thoughts.