Recognition is not the same as attention...

let me explain...

My inbox is inundated with offers to «checks notes» provide input for free about some latest software blah blah blah, build a podcast (in order to be a world-class speaker apparently), be on a podcast as part of a line-up for fantastic networking opportunities, create a Speaker Demo Reel, have my personal brand “crafted”, something about cutting-edge technologies, how to get more paid speaking gigs, lots of vague offers for potential collaborations (red flag), invitations to manifest my next level of income, again with a ton of “how to get more paid speaking gigs”, multiple people asking for me to tell them about what I do — ummm—do a little due diligence? , I can get Expert Status if only I pay and join a strategy session… and I could go on and on.

These folks are frantically trying to sell attention. I often brand it as tragedy of the commons especially for these influencer strategies paving the way to being a paid speaker. Why not degrade the whole endeavor as long as there is money to be had?

Malthusian-Randesque philosophies rise and fall depending on what side of the pendulum you plant yourself. I still remember a professor I had in grad school that signed his emails, “Malthus was right!” Hard not to think of the battles over AI as a re-imagination of resource scarcity vs. capitalist frameworks

Well then what exactly is recognition and how does that appear in the world of geospatial? You won’t find it embedded in the pocket feuds between the terms GIS vs geospatial or who has what credentials. It doesn’t even exist in the land of ESRI vs. QGIS. The one interesting find from my free month with Linkedin Premium was the volume of profile looks from ESRI folks. Insights like that are not worth the deluge of uninvited and uninformed sales tactics landing in my messages every day.

I think of recognition as what you might receive if you continue to do the right things for the right reasons. Is it slower? Yes. Definitely yes. We all have our favorite tools. But if your focus is only on the tool and not how it might serve as a maquette to build something interesting for a narrative, story or world problem you are exploring — what is the point?

I started including this section from time to time and honestly get the most messages about them. When I need to launch a project I walk the galleries to seek inspiration and maybe find a place to start. Arriving home last night, the Whitten exhibit at the MOMA is where I am beginning.

What I am reading*:

The End of Everything Astrophysically Speaking by Katie Mack* Amazon associates get a small portion of proceeds

Book Building by Dayanita Singh

Jack Whitten the Messenger

What I am listening to…

Carbon by Paul Hawken (Audible)

What I am watching…

I started creating little books to host details closer to where I might need them. At first, that was the point in writing little blogs like this one. I find something that interests me and now it can live in an archive built for not only my discovery and exploration — but yours too!

The twist that I love started when I was asked to not only speak about geospatial in narrative storytelling, but reveal how I did it. No idea that compendiums existed — I figured if you need to learn something — write it down.

I have several compendiums. Cosmology, urban planning and morphometrics, spatial data science and art history. There are more in development but I need to build the index first — video below shows you how.