Okay, so this is creepy, but perhaps not all that shocking:

What artist Dries Depoorter has done is the following:

• He recorded videos from open cameras located in cities around the world (the one in the embedded tweet above is from Temple Bar in Dublin)

• He scraped all Instagram photos tagged with the same general location

• And then he used AI software to help compare the Instagram photos against behind-the-scenes footage of the photos actually being taken

I don't have a problem with people posing and making numerous attempts to capture the right photo. You should see me before every meal and when I go to the gym. I think the creepy part is that many, or perhaps most, probably don't realize just how ubiquitous video surveillance is within our cities. But the reality is that there are cameras everywhere.

I guess I'll never be able to run for Prime Minister.

Today is the 4 year anniversary of this daily blog.

Sure, I’ve missed a few days over the years (my estimate is 4-5 days), but for the most part I have shown up here every day and written something. 

Sometimes that something is very short and/or bad. I’ve had a few people say to me: “I can tell when you’re super busy. Your posts are shorter.” I’m okay with that. Part of this exercise for me is simply about the discipline. 80% of success is showing up, right?

In some ways, what I do here is an anachronism. Here is a good vintage article (2011) that talks about two different schools of thought when it comes to blogging.

The reality is that it’s painfully slow and difficult to build an online audience via a personal blog using your own domain. It takes years, unless you’re a celebrity, which I am most certainly not. That’s why many people give up.

Instead, many people/influencers choose to build their audience on top of an existing network, such as YouTube, Instagram