Summer break, year(ish)-to-date
Not so obvious will go on summer hiatus for four weeks. Before that, a quick recap of some highlights, full of fine links to click.
Just shy of nine months ago, I finally went for it and committed myself to writing and posting an essay every week, on a range of topics broadly clustered around the idea of making critical understandings of technology into something comprehensible for a generalist (or at least a non-academic) audience. That’s been going pretty well so far. Since the first essay, back at the end of October 2025 (on municipal approaches to bottle collectors), that first essay has been joined by 37 more. After a week or so of posting, I pushed the boat out – introducing shorter and more personal posts on Fridays (about what I’m reading, or tactics for staying creative and focused in an often-overwhelming world). And that’s going strong, with a post almost every Friday since November – and some of them have even landed in useful ways with other people, for which I’m very grateful. All told, it’s slightly mind-blowing for me that, since starting Not so obvious less than a year ago, I’ve managed to crank out north of 78,000 words. While quantity isn’t the best way to judge the success of a project, for me it matters that I’ve managed to build a structure which gives me the motivation and discipline to write every week.
My motivation for all this writing has been essentially two-fold: to remind myself that I can write non-academic texts (and to re-sharpen that skill); and to honour a point made by a close colleague (and writing collaborator), that there are many concepts I take for granted which, in the eyes of others, aren’t so obvious. I think I’ve been hitting both of those goals to my own satisfaction so far, and I hope that for those who are reading, there’s some use in what’s appearing here.
From this week, I’m taking a summer hiatus – you’ll see a new essay from me on August 24th. Because I’m very bad at taking actual holidays, I won’t be spending all that time idly. In effect, you could call this tactic “Coping 14: Work in-private sometimes.” I’m planning to do some more planning and prep to keep my editorial calendar in order, as well as writing ahead a little, so that I can put my best texts forward, even when life gets in the way. While this is a passion project in the free time I have outside a full-time job, my aim is still to make these texts as good and useful as possible, to have them earn their place in the world, and in your reading queue.
And speaking of your reading queue, if your summer (or winter, as applicable, depending on your hemisphere) allows some catch-up time, allow me to present you some things you may not have had a chance to look at yet.
Since I started Not so obvious, there have been
Two entries in my “Reading” series, in which I break down a seminal academic text. So far, I cover work by Susan Leigh Star and Langdon Winner.
Twelve “Bookpile” posts on Fridays, in which I write very briefly about what I’m currently reading.
Friday posts get rolled into a Monday digest for newsletter subscribers on the paid tiers. This is a small, but shameless gambit to encourage a modicum of paid subscribers. But even if that's not for you, all is not lost! You can get Friday posts the old-fashioned way by just looking at the website, by subscribing to the RSS feed, or by following Not so obvious on Mastodon (look for @main@not-so-obvious.net in your favourite Mastodon client).
A two-part series on the history, concept, and politics of work.
Innumerable posts on “AI” hype and the various concerns I have about it.
Two posts about sea freight.
And a whole lot more. All told, it’s somehow been more than seventy posts already. Which seems a little surreal, but I’m looking forward to more (and yes, better – growth in my writing is, after all, one of my purposes here) after the break.
