{"id":"e15421f0-211b-41f1-b5c4-ace88b32b0a1","slug":"s20e03-yeah-its-the-future","subject":"s20e03: Yeah, it’s the future","title":"Yeah, it’s the future","publish_date":"2025-08-13T23:28:14+00:00","year":2025,"month":8,"season":20,"episode":3,"episode_label":"s20e03","canonical_url":"https://newsletter.danhon.com/archive/s20e03-yeah-its-the-future/","is_premium":0,"word_count":351,"body_html":"<h1>0.0 Context Setting</h1>\n<p>Tuesday, 13 August 2025 in Portland, Oregon where it’s still pretty hot but not <em>too hot</em>, you know?</p>\n<p>I have a half or maybe third-finished draft of the next episode sitting in iA Writer but not the brain space to finish it today. </p>\n<p>So I’m attempting to throw out my No, It Has To Be This Way rigid thinking in favour of “just do whatever”.</p>\n<p>Meanwhile, I mentioned a chat I had with Ted Han in the last episode and completely forgot to tell you that we have a... podcast? Or at least we talk to each other and occasionally have a guest on and you can watch us. It’s called <a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/@hantohoncombat/streams\" target=\"_blank\">Han to Hon Combat</a>, which means it has the best podcast name ever. </p>\n<hr />\n<h1>1.0 Some Things That Caught My Attention</h1>\n<p>Fair warning this episode <em>is</em> a short one.</p>\n<h2>1.1 Yeah, this is the future</h2>\n<p>I am watching the new FX/Hulu series Alien: Earth<sup id=\"fnref:alien\"><a class=\"footnote-ref\" href=\"#fn:alien\">1</a></sup>. The ads during the show are:</p>\n<ul>\n<li>for a smart ring body monitoring device, Oura, (which kind the current U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services has a plan for as many people to wear as possible);\n and</li>\n<li>for an online injection-based weight loss drug (“ro”, and the generic “GLP-1”)</li>\n</ul>\n<p>Meanwhile: </p>\n<ul>\n<li>Robots deliver packages in downtown Los Angeles. </li>\n</ul>\n<ul>\n<li>People regularly get in self-driving autonomous cars in San Francisco.</li>\n</ul>\n<ul>\n<li>People have relationships with computer programs. </li>\n</ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Ukraine fights a drone war with Russia.</li>\n</ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Doorbell cameras share surveillance footage with police.</li>\n</ul>\n<p>I don’t know about you, but it certainly feels like a cyberpunk future.</p>\n<hr />\n<h2>2.0 Sponsored Content: How People Work</h2>\n<p>Hello. It’s me again, sponsoring my own content. </p>\n<p>You and your team need to go on my workshop, <a href=\"https://www.verylittlegravitas.com/how-people-work\" target=\"_blank\">How People Work</a> because just <em>one</em> of the things it does is teach you how to stop writing business bullshit language, and then we practice doing that together.</p>\n<p>I don’t need to give you an example of what business bullshit language is, just go to the next email in your inbox or whatever.</p>\n<hr />\n<p>How are you?</p>\n<p>Best,</p>\n<p>Dan</p>\n<div class=\"footnote\">\n<hr />\n<ol>\n<li id=\"fn:alien\">\n<p><a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alien:_Earth\" target=\"_blank\">Alien: Earth - Wikipedia</a> (<a href=\"http://archive.is/latest/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alien:_Earth\" target=\"_blank\">archive.is</a>) <a class=\"footnote-backref\" href=\"#fnref:alien\" title=\"Jump back to footnote 1 in the text\">↩</a></p>\n</li>\n</ol>\n</div>","body_text":"0.0 Context Setting\n\nTuesday, 13 August 2025 in Portland, Oregon where it’s still pretty hot but not\ntoo hot\n, you know?\n\nI have a half or maybe third-finished draft of the next episode sitting in iA Writer but not the brain space to finish it today.\n\nSo I’m attempting to throw out my No, It Has To Be This Way rigid thinking in favour of “just do whatever”.\n\nMeanwhile, I mentioned a chat I had with Ted Han in the last episode and completely forgot to tell you that we have a... podcast? Or at least we talk to each other and occasionally have a guest on and you can watch us. It’s called\nHan to Hon Combat\n, which means it has the best podcast name ever.\n\n1.0 Some Things That Caught My Attention\n\nFair warning this episode\nis\na short one.\n\n1.1 Yeah, this is the future\n\nI am watching the new FX/Hulu series Alien: Earth\n1\n. The ads during the show are:\n\nfor a smart ring body monitoring device, Oura, (which kind the current U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services has a plan for as many people to wear as possible);\nand\n\nfor an online injection-based weight loss drug (“ro”, and the generic “GLP-1”)\n\nMeanwhile:\n\nRobots deliver packages in downtown Los Angeles.\n\nPeople regularly get in self-driving autonomous cars in San Francisco.\n\nPeople have relationships with computer programs.\n\nUkraine fights a drone war with Russia.\n\nDoorbell cameras share surveillance footage with police.\n\nI don’t know about you, but it certainly feels like a cyberpunk future.\n\n2.0 Sponsored Content: How People Work\n\nHello. It’s me again, sponsoring my own content.\n\nYou and your team need to go on my workshop,\nHow People Work\nbecause just\none\nof the things it does is teach you how to stop writing business bullshit language, and then we practice doing that together.\n\nI don’t need to give you an example of what business bullshit language is, just go to the next email in your inbox or whatever.\n\nHow are you?\n\nBest,\n\nDan\n\nAlien: Earth - Wikipedia\n(\narchive.is\n)\n↩","raw_format":"html","source":"rss","summary":"This short issue captures the surreal present moment by juxtaposing the mundane (Portland summer heat, incomplete drafts) with the increasingly sci-fi reality surrounding us: biometric monitoring devices, weight-loss drugs, autonomous vehicles, and drone warfare all happening now while we watch fictional dystopias on TV. The throughline is a wry observation that we're already living in the cyberpunk future we used to imagine, complete with surveillance infrastructure and AI relationships, except it's banal and commercialized rather than dramatically dystopian. There's also a meta-thread about communication—from the author's struggle with perfectionism in writing to his plug for a workshop about cutting through corporate jargon and saying what you actually mean.","reading_minutes":2,"links":[{"url":"https://www.youtube.com/@hantohoncombat/streams","normalized_url":"https://youtube.com/@hantohoncombat/streams","domain":"youtube.com","anchor_text":"Han to Hon Combat","is_archive":0,"archive_url":null,"archive_service":null,"category":"external"},{"url":"https://www.verylittlegravitas.com/how-people-work","normalized_url":"https://verylittlegravitas.com/how-people-work","domain":"verylittlegravitas.com","anchor_text":"How People Work","is_archive":0,"archive_url":null,"archive_service":null,"category":"self"},{"url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alien:_Earth","normalized_url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alien:_Earth","domain":"wikipedia.org","anchor_text":"Alien: Earth - Wikipedia","is_archive":0,"archive_url":null,"archive_service":null,"category":"external"},{"url":"http://archive.is/latest/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alien:_Earth","normalized_url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alien:_Earth","domain":"wikipedia.org","anchor_text":"archive.is","is_archive":1,"archive_url":"http://archive.is/latest/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alien:_Earth","archive_service":"archive.is","category":"external"}],"sections":[{"id":3384,"ord":0,"number":"0.0","heading":"Context Setting","level":1,"word_count":128},{"id":3385,"ord":1,"number":"1.0","heading":"Some Things That Caught My Attention","level":1,"word_count":14},{"id":3386,"ord":2,"number":"1.1","heading":"Yeah, this is the future","level":2,"word_count":116},{"id":3387,"ord":3,"number":"2.0","heading":"Sponsored Content: How People Work","level":2,"word_count":89}]}