In my semi-regular series of posts in appreciation of Ross Gittins' role in reporting Australian economics, here is my latest.
This article by Gittins, If bulldusting about productivity was productive, we’d all be rich provides insight into the recent Fair Work Commission ruling to raise award rates by 3.5%. Award workers are typically some of the lowest paid workers in our economy, and industry groups are ‘concerned’ that this is a whole 1.1% above inflation. Oh no! Clutch your pearls!
Whereas keeping the lid on wages may seem profit-increasing for the individual firm, when all of them do it at the same time, itās profit-reducing. Why? Because the economy is circular. Because wages are by far the greatest source of household income. So the more successful employers are in holding down their wage costs, the less their customers have to spend on whatever businesses are selling. If economic growth is weak ā as it is ā the first place to look for a reason is the strength of wages growth.
Money we earn is money we spend. More so for lower income earners, because a greater proportion of their income is spent, rather than saved, by virtue of the scale of fixed costs relative to their income levels. So let the people have some more money so that they can spend it.
the commission points out a little-recognised inaccuracy in the conventional way of measuring real wages. It says that, if you take into account that prices rise continuously but wages rise only once a year, award wage workersā overall loss of earnings since July 2021 has been 14.4 per cent.
14.4%! So all those people who feel like the economy is more difficult now, that everything costs more, and there is little if nothing left over by the time the next payday rolls around… you are absolutely right.
What the lobbyist witch doctors have been doing is concealing the truth that the best explanation for our weak productivity performance is that employers have been seeking to increase their profits by holding down wage costs, rather than by investing in labour-saving technology.
This was a designed strategy by the previous Federal Liberal government and it’s in industry’s individualised (but not collective) self-interest to maintain this approach as long as they can. And they are trying to do exactly that.
Jan-Lukas Else brought to my attention that Komoot, a cycling (and other sports) app I had been trialling recently after seeing good reviews, has been acquired and many staff have been laid off.
today, March 20th, the company has announced that itās been acquired by Bending Spoons, which bills itself as a technology company (rather than a private equity or other investment apparatus). Though, in reality, history shows otherwise.
As soon as I saw Bending Spoons mentioned, I knew I was out. They have a history of buying and hollowing out companies; most notably Evernote.
Komoot is now deleted. Plenty of other app options out there. Sad though that such a good team was shown the door after doing all the hard work building a good app.
The biggest (only?) issue with using a non-Apple mouse on macOS is losing that smooth scrolling, also known as kinetic scrolling.
It might seem like a silly detail, but itās such a nice feature that I really miss when itās not there.
A few years back, when I swapped out my MacBookās trackpad for a cheap mouse, I found a solution in this quirky, free, open-source app called MOS.
I’m a user of SteerMouse to provide full functionality to my Logitech MX Master mouse, but it doesn’t help with smooth scrolling. MOS does it! Game changer!
This is the only “guys having a chat” podcast in my feed. I really enjoy the dynamic of these guys and the community they’ve built around them. Recommend: The Battle of the Defaults and the App Defaults craze it created is a great place to start.
interviews with star athletes saying the same predictable bullshit after being asked how it felt to do whatever heroic thing they just did. All of TV and news is like that, none of it is news, all of it is predictable bullshit.
News is no longer news, itās just another form of disposable content.
Lucky not only removes the clutter from the Google search results but also removes tracking, lets you block spammy domains, and fixes some of the annoyances with Google search.
Another cool Safari extension from And a Dinosaur.
So, what is everyone playing for? Fame, bragging rights, LinkedIn endorsements? Sure, all of those, but if they are honest, itās for the COVETED bespoke yearly Arcadia June Trophy! Obviously.
Jason has taken Hemispheric Views Arcadia June trophies to a new level.
And, let me reiterate that I understand this was irrational, driven wholly by anxiety. These were inside thoughts, and inside thoughts are better left alone
Keenan has the best lines. I often listen to my inside thoughts even when I shouldnāt.
I’ve completed the first Chapter of the Johnny Decimal Workshop. This is a pre-recorded video training course that has excellent production values. If you want to get organised, I highly recommend it.
Itās a real bummer to feel like Iāve been ripped off by a much bigger company, seeing them pitch something Iāve worked hard on as a free feature in their app.
I find it fitting that douchebag DHH is promoting his actions on X, a site owned by another douchebag.
The latest feature was added today when I was inspired by something said on episode 098 but as of this moment I cannot remember what it was that was said. Regardless, I wanted to visualise the links between all the blog posts to get a sense of how the “trend” spread between people so I created the Network Graph page.
Robb has done an incredible job compiling all these Default Lists. My sincere thanks to him for doing it.
But what sets Bridges apart from the rest of the pack is its focus on making it really easy to get links back out once youāve saved them. It isnāt a vault for locking links away forever; itās a funnel for storing links and then putting them to good use.
Iām looking forward to putting Bridges through its paces. This is a great analogy from Devon to describe its value.
This shortcut provides a quick and easy way to publish a quote from a Safari webpage (or in-app Safari web view), with or without a comment, to Micro.blog. Just select the text you want to quote, hit the share button in the toolbar, and run this shortcut. Youāre given the option to add a comment and review the text before publishing.
I really like this Shortcut that Jarrod Blundy has created.
That, along with this being my very first time on the speaking side of a podcast rather than the listening side, made me quite nervous, but it paradoxically felt both exhilarating and completely comfortable to just chat with an internet friend. All those hours listening to RSS and another of Martinās shows, the also great Hemispheric Views made it easy to jump into our conversation.
I enjoyed hearing from Jarrod just as much as I did other Internet luminaries such as John Siracusa, John Gruber and Jason Burk.
Wages have risen in response to the higher cost of living, but have failed to rise by anything like the rise in prices. Why? Because, seemingly unnoticed by the econocrats, workersā bargaining power against employers has declined hugely since the 1970s.
This is so key. When I was in university, the Phillips Curve was being boosted as the saviour solution. I’ve changed, and economic thinking needs to change as well.
Unions have been neutered. Individualised long-term contracts have nobbled any opportunity for people to achieve meaningful wage growth; unless you’re a CEO in which case your performance bonuses alone will see your income skyrocket year-on-year.
Our major economic problems are that trickle-down economics didn’t trickleārather it locked in wage growth benefits to the eliteāand that the value of capital has been overvalued at the expense of labour. Which benefits the elite, who are the continued proponents of neoliberalism. Wow, who would have thought?
During the episode recording I referenced the spreadsheet as I was describing my decision to buy an iPhone 15 Pro. I rattled off some statistics, but Martin (appropriately) suggested I write a blog post that provides the necessary detail. Fun fact: the description of number series are not great content for an audio show.
040 I am furious Andrew doesnāt use āGrand Canionā as a username everywhere because that is so fucking good
Let’s face it, I probably should use that username everywhere.
This is just one of the many things I’ve rediscovered about myself and Hemispheric Views after reading this epic blog recap by @rknightuk. I am incredibly appreciative of the work Robb invested through his committed listening project of reviewing the entire back catalogue of our podcast.
I think Hemispheric Views is a special podcast and I’m glad others think that too.
Thatās why I love my website. Itās apolitical. It canāt be bought by a billionaire (maybe). It doesnāt care when I last logged in. It doesnāt push me to gain an audience and could care less if I have a one or not. And the feed is spot-free of algorithms and sponsored content.
But itās always ready for me to say something if I need to. Itās all signal and no noise, and gives me the peace of mind to write without abandon.
I pulled up my old (now lost) blog, twosittingducks.com, on the internet archive the other day. There were posts there from 2004. While I don’t think of myself as a blogger, I’ve run a blog site for a long time now.
Like Geoff, I love that my blog is always here for me.
This time on Really Specific Stories, Iām joined by @ismh, who delves into the history of Relay FM and explains his shift to podcasting and running a businessāall the while balancing the needs of advertisers, co-hosts, members and of course, family.
Wanneroo MLA Sabine Winton and South West MLC Jackie Jarvis will be sworn in as Cabinet Ministers tomorrow, along with new Parliamentary Secretaries Jodie Hanns, Dr Jagadish (Jags) Krishnan, Meredith Hammat, Pierre Yang and Hannah Beazley.
The Premier will announce the allocation of portfolios tomorrow, with Ministers and Parliamentary Secretaries to be officially sworn in by the Governor of Western Australia at a ceremony at Government House.
I’m extremely proud of the work my wife Hannah has done for the community as the Member for Victoria Park, and I know she will continue to do that while also fulfilling the role of Parliamentary Secretary with skill and diligence, irrespective of the Portfolio provided to her by the Premier.
On this episode, Martin and I walked through my path into podcasting, starting all the way ā and Iām not kidding ā from when I was a toddler. It was a fun discussion, and Iām honored that Martin asked me to be a part of the project.
Of course, I can’t help but mention my own appearance on Really Specific Stories, but I encourage you to binge the whole run.
There are now three blogging services that I admire, all of which are run by humans - not corporations. Humans making websites was what made 1.0, back in the Netscape Navigator days, great. Blink tags, under construction logos, and multi-colour Times New Roman font. It was joyous because it was the web at human level.
Jared White mounts a solid argument as to where we have gone wrong with big tech celebrity, and talks about how me might be able to do better in the future.
with this maturity has to come broader awareness that Big Tech canāt simply act like 21st century echoes of the robber barons. Either the tech sector must demonstrate its ability to police itself and show good corporate governance and a willingness to let bottom-up creativity and entrepreneurship flourish in the marketplace of ideas, or we must call for increased regulatory scrutiny on all fronts.
ā¦
And for the love of all that is holy, we must rid ourselves of this absurd myth that a single person just shows up one day with a skip in their step and a spark of genius in their brain to change everything overnight. Never again should we fall for an Elizabeth Holmes. Never again should we fall for an Adam Neumann. Never again should we fall for aĀ Sam Bankman-Fried. Never again should we fall for a Mark Zuckerberg.
Doing the same thing again, with a different company, a different founder offering a story of salvation, a different VC backerā¦ any of that will only take us to the same place we’ve been, and has been proven to fail.
The steps I have gone to to get blank calendars in the past. Now I can simply run your script.