2025
Too Much of Everything But Not Enough to Get Me Somewhere New — Thoughts on algorithms, gatekeeping and who to listen to
If we’re going to be monitored, modelled, manipulated and sold, the least we can do is be difficult. Confuse the system. Misbehave. Be just unprofitable enough to register as a rounding error.︎ Paris
Tabula Rasa (with caveats) — Still Life With Brain Fog
Torch everything and start over.︎ Paris
Photos of Photos— And Other Minor Crises
Arles reminded me that I still care—deeply—and that there’s room to be moved, to be surprised, and to be overwhelmed in a good way.︎ Simiane
The Right to Be Wrong: Authenticity™ in a Post-Apology, Post-Truth World — Living Honestly in a World That Won’t Forget
We get roasted for nuance. They get reelected for nonsense.︎ Paris
Meta, Mirror, Megaphone— Writing About Writing About Writing, Again
Austin Kleon posted on Notes that one of the most boring things you can do on a platform is use it to talk about the platform, which is funny, because what is using the platform to talk about using the platform to talk about the platform?︎ Paris
Less Is More— Not Everything Needs to Move, Talk, or Sing
I’m a still image person. That might be giving away my age, but so be it.︎ Paris
Authenticity™ in the Age of Performative Everything — Why Be Yourself When You Can Be a Brand?
The more we “perform,” the more disconnected we become from our true selves. We present ourselves, but we’re not really present anymore.︎ Paris
Trust the Process— A Theory of Effort, Loosely Applied
My usual disclaimer in advance: what works for me will most likely not work for you—or only bits and pieces of it, after you’ve taken a sledgehammer to them.︎ Paris
Why?— Some things I'd like to know
Why is it that when we meet someone, we go straight for the what?︎ Paris
So Good—A Different Take on Success
Art is about translating something about yourself into something outside yourself. And it’s about what the act of creating things—whatever it might be—does to and for you.︎ Paris
The Ethics of Stealing Nicely – How to steal like you mean it (but not enough to get sued)
Good stealing is deliberate. Bad stealing is lazy. And when I steal, I want to be sure I’m doing the former.︎ Paris
Identity Collage – On reinventing the self, or why personality is basically a mood board duct-taped to a cracked bathroom mirror
The thing about collage is that you always know it’s a composition. That’s its honesty. It doesn’t pretend to be seamless. It wears its edges on the outside.︎ Paris
The Sound of Appropriation
Recomposition, Reinvention, and Other Polite Ways of Saying “This Is Mine Now.”
Appropriation is a complicated word. It’s heavy with ethical and political weight — and rightly so. There are moral dimensions to it that range from cultural appropriation to copyright law, with more grey areas than anyone seems comfortable acknowledging.
︎ Paris
Jaws, Pop Culture Icons, And The Problem With Being Cool
Or: How I Learned
to Stop Worrying and Love the Shark
Now pop culture is the culture. Which makes things confusing. It must be hard to rebel when your rebellion is sponsored by Netflix.
︎ Paris
In Pieces — A Reintroduction
Back to long-form, unoptimized thought. A return to slowness. A refusal to shrink big, strange, contradictory ideas down to bite-sized captions or trend-chasing content.︎ Paris