September Recap: 🔧 Readjustments
September Recap: 🔧 Readjustments
Personal note and recent items
Hello friends of the Libre Solutions Network
I hope you’ve all had an excellent September and enjoy a relaxing autumn up ahead. As the weather gets cooler, it’s always a great time to invite some friends and family over before Winter starts. I hope you’re getting as much sunshine as you can!
New Posts 📰
The idea that “Private Web Search” can’t exist in hostile cyberspace, is something I’ve been meaning to express for while now. It’s worth asking the question of how much public search engines can be trusted these days, especially as major platforms rot the web away.
It’s become clear to me that the biggest obstacles to a better technological future are definitely apathy and defeatism. I routinely see arguments that essentially boil down to the idea that a better future is impossible. This entire project is aimed at turning people away from digital despair and towards a more pragmatic and optimistic view of digital tools. This requires both reasonable expectations and a real desire to innovate. These are the attributes I would love to see better represented in cyber rebels.
New Podcast 🎙️
I appreciated having the chance to join
again on his podcast. Last time, I had the enviable opportunity to be the 2nd guest on Down the Rabbit Hole.Dan made these two sharable “Rabbit Shorts” that you might find enticing:
Cyber Fix
ICYMI
Personal Note: Fears and Doubts
I’ve been working on some longer-term projects that will hopefully yield more results in time. I have begun work on a compelling resource that I believe will be a good place to end things if that’s where this is headed. I want to continue doing this, but currently it’s been a costly labor of love.
I have some ambitious plans, especially for 2025. Sadly the truth is so much is uncertain on my end. I wish I could say that this project is self-sustaining, but I can’t. I am very grateful for the support I’ve received from the very generous few, but for whatever reason, I have failed to bring in enough interested supporters.
Last year, a family tragedy had me spiraling far deeper into despair than I had thought possible. Much of 2024 has been a blur of trying to stay above water in very dark times. Effectively it broke me. It pushed my negative coping mechanisms so far I backed myself into a very difficult corner. I am incredibly grateful for many close friends who were there for me. Only recently have I began to recover from the ordeal, but I am beginning to permit myself to feel optimistic about my future.
I want to keep doing this. I have learned a lot and made significant progress in mapping out what needs to be understood to build a better technological future. I started this project in response to how the Covid Crisis directly impacted me, but I’ve very much thrown in everything I can spare. I’m not good at asking people to support this project. Which is why I wrote Why Support the Libre Solutions Network?
My hope is that I can find ways to make this work. I am afraid that I’m not quite cut out for this business and have often wished I could be just one voice in a larger chorus. When I started this project, I really underestimated what it would take to give it staying power.
One of my primary motivations is that I want to play the long game. It has always been clear to me that our problems in tech, like my health journey, require more than simple “quick fixes”. The greatest challenge I see ahead of me is figuring out how to stay in the game long enough to play the long game.
Part of this, is that I have to place a majority of my time and effort on neglected practical realities. I’ve begun to actually make progress reversing my dire health situation. While it consumes a great deal of my time, it does have to take priority. It has been frustrating and disheartening how many options it has closed off for me.
With all that said, fear not! Little is changing in the short term. I plan to continue Cyber Fix to encourage more support. As well as publishing anything that I believe is missing from the larger discussion. My hope has always been to buy enough time to make this mission sustainable.
As such, I want to prioritize my time on impact over interaction. So you’ll be hearing from me slightly less over the next few months, but I’ll be still working very diligently, just less visibly.
A slight slow-down
My goal for October is to continue progress on my new side-project instead of focusing on posting updates. I’ve been disappointed in not being able to spend as much time on it as I had hoped, so I will be prioritizing that over some initiatives in the short term. As such, I won’t be putting together a Substack/Insights roundup, and I’ll also be leaving out Flashback Friday. My plan is to continue Cyber Fix but it very much depends on further support.
In short, the goal over the short term is to try to say less and deliver more. I’ll certainly have ideas for new articles, but I will be putting them off until I make serious progress on my new project. I wholeheartedly believe that it has some serious potential, but I need to put the work in to make it actual. I appreciate your patience and hope to not disappoint.
The most important thing I need from you is patience. For all I know, there are great things ahead that I can't forsee. I want to do the best for this project because I believe the world sorely needs genuine and serious cyber rebels. We will never win the important fights as long as we allow hostile cyberspace to dictate the game.
I’ve always understood my axe to grind as being part of a larger whole. I just hope that there’s room for it in the wider discussion.
Thank you,
Gabriel
I agree with Liam. I find your work invaluable and I wish I had the means to support you more. I do agree that your health has to be the biggest priority, even if it takes away from livelihood. I used to say to my theatre ensemble whenever someone had a personal plight that affected the sh: “life before art!” In your case: “life before tech!” Big hugs downloading.
Thanks for sharing Gabe, and for opening up on the personal front. The amount of work you put in despite slower-than-expected growth in financial support is extraordinary, and will pay dividends.