Adam Newbold, writing about using URL as a sentence:
URLs convey valuable information, and good URL design ensures that they provide the right level of context and set proper expectations. Incidentally, good URL design is something that is still lacking all over the internet,
I can’t remember where I saw Adam’s post linked to, nut it had the exact pull quote highlighted and I saved the post for reading later, thinking this was a fascinating idea. Something I could get behind. But the more I thought about it, the more I think it doesn’t really matter — which I think by the end Adam also agrees with.
I understand the idea. Maximising the amount of information in the URL, but on the modern web I don’t think it matters. I mean hey, it matters to Adam and that’s really cool, but in general. When was the last time you paid attention to a URL?
I link to loads of them, both on my blog and in my day job, and there are only two instances they matter. Both of which are every niche and only matter to me in my day job — SEO and direction.
In every other instance, you’d be hard pushed if you even see the URL on the modern web (and perhaps that is another point worth talking about at a later post). Most browsers hide them and only show you the top-level domain. When it comes to sharing on the web, even platform either obscures them with their own linking and/or shows you a rich preview with an image.
Perhaps I am wrong and they really matter to people. I understand it’s essential to own them, and not change them, but as for what they look like — who cares. Well, Adam does clearly, do you?
Can I quote post, a quote post? Well, tough, I am. Matt Birchler talking about dunking on people being a sport:
…a surefire way for you to generate engagement this week is to talk shit about…
The first thing that comes to mind reading Matt’s post is the outline of all the performative behaviour that happens on social media. Big brands and users alike farming the rage of other people for attention. There’s nothing that seems to get people going than when they hate something you like, or like something you hate.
As I’ve written about before, of course hate what you hate, and embrace it, but there becomes a line when, as Matt writes about, your personality is outlined more by the things you hate than what you enjoy. You are more concerned about the external things that you should hate, than the internal, there becomes a little too much you in f^%k you.
Derren Brown talks about exactly this in the first part of his excellent book Happy. If you base your personality on doing the opposite of something, anything, you are giving up control. He uses the example of walking on the right side of the road, simply because everyone else uses the left. It might seem anti-establishment until everyone walks on the right now. Do you then cross the road?
Arcing back to Matt’s post, he have all been teenagers and disliking the right things was “cool”. It’s an important part of growing up, but why look at other people so much? Why let others dictate what you like and don’t like? Even if the reason they like it, you hate it — other people are making your decisions for you. Certainly, you can have a f^!k you personality, but you might find you are only screwing yourself.
Ali Abdaal writing The Optimisation Paradox edition of his newsletter:
There’s nothing wrong with optimising something for growth, and “treating it like a business”. But it comes with the trade-off that, usually, the thing becomes a little less fun.
It doesn’t matter what you like doing, the moment you get reasonably good at it someone will say “I bet you could make some money doing that”. Should you choose to, it is at that point the fun will be sucked out of it.
Perhaps not straight away. It might take a few weeks or months. Perhaps longer. At some point, whilst trying to streamline it or maximise profits, you will realise you don’t enjoy doing this thing any more. You will realise that not everything needs to be monetised, and you will miss the old days of doing it for fun.
Like a sponge, if given free rein, our actions will suck all the fun out of everything. Ali quotes a ‘game designer’ from a video he has watched. What video and what game designer we don’t know, he said, “Left unchecked, players will optimise the fun out of the game they’re playing”.
Which, as Ali says, is an interesting quote (just not quite enough to write down who said it) because it cuts right to the heart of our unhealthy trait to ruin everything we enjoy by doing too much of it. My tendency, as Ali has found out, is to do this with podcasts. Start spending too much time on audio editing, recording too much, and lose sight of what really matters — the conversation.
I also say this fairly often about writing because I have seen it happen to friends of mine that now need to pay the bills by publishing. All the writing they did because they enjoyed it and moulded their craft, grinds to a holt. I guess, who on earth wants to do things for free, when they can get paid for it. Well, we all should.
For far too many years of my life, I was seeking ideas to boost the things I could get done. At first, it was tips for better conversion rates, better management styles and more recently it’s pure productivity “getting things done” advice. When you digest this kind of thing for even a short period of time, you begin to realise there is no hack for hard work.
In the least few years, self-help advice has exploded to become a multi-billion pound industry. What was once an occasional presentation and a few books in a store has ballooned to everything from podcasts, seminars and month long courses. There’s nothing wrong with this, of course, self-improvement is one of the most important things to do. However, most of the content being produced is not to make you better, it is solely to convince you there is a hack to ‘success’ and to attain it you just need to do this one thing.
That one thing is usually buying their course (at just £1995), but that’s not the point of this post. The fact that people believe there is a hack to everything is really the issue. Everyone wants a quick, easy fix. 5 minute abs, diet pills, a stupid morning routine — whatever it is you are trying to achieve, all these ‘hacks’ are a waste of time.
Everyone who is successful has worked hard (and perhaps had a few leg ups) and there is no replacement for it. I had a long conversation around this topic with my son once, when he was asking about shortcuts to wherever it was we were driving. I explained to him that there is no such thing as a shortcut, at all. There might be ways that appear shorter, or might shave some time off sometimes in very specific circumstances, but they simply don’t exist. They can’t exist. Otherwise, they would just be ‘the way’.
Much like trying to look for backstreets or quiet roads when you are driving, there are no hacks to get to places faster. You can pick up tips, learn different ways, but ultimately, you need to do the work and get to wherever it is you want to go, yourself.
There are some mornings you get up, feel so under the weather from illness that you can’t face the world. Not to mention, you shouldn’t be spreading your infliction around to the rest of the workforce — so you ring in ill. Spending the day resting and recuperating instead. What if the opposite were true and you could pull a healthy?
I stumbled on this idea as a meme reel on Instagram, but I think they are on to something. I might be the only one here, but I get these days when I feel well rested and ready to do something, but instead I have to deal with the daily grind of 8 (at least) hours of work. I wish I could call in and just say, “I feel too good today and don’t want to waste it. I’m pulling a healthy”.
I could then do whatever it is that makes me happy and enjoy the feeling. Instead of having to deal with the enjoyment sponges that every work place has. Or waste my energy on tasks that make other people money instead of going for a run and soaking in some sunshine.
The world would be a much better place if we could pull a healthy. Go on. You know you want to.