There was no writing and public storytelling this week. Well, any writing that I published to API Evangelist, Kin Lane, or elsewhere. The only thing I did manage to publish was an announcement about how I am joining my friend Jerome Louvel in building a new startup called Naftiko. I’ve been engaged in a lot of conversations with folks about what to possibly do next with the next chapter of my API career, and Jerome presented me with an interesting approach to APIs that really spoke to me—leaving me responding with a quick “hell yes” when he asked if I’d join as his Chief Community Officer (CCO).
I read a story this week that Audrey shared with me about the Donner party. For me, it provides another look at a very old story that we have heard many times—especially if you are from the west coast. The story overlays the existing historical tale with an indigenous narrative that stated the party was not alone in the mountains, and a local tribe even tried helping them. But, the party responded with shooting and other hostilities. Which sounds about “white” to me, and is something that reveals how history gets reinforced over the years, becoming something that echoes what is rotten at the core in our culture in the United States—greed and stupidity.
I had my friend Bryan Mathers produce a logo for a new site I am working on for Poppy. I absolutely love it, and I am going to get some stickers produced of it, while also using it as part of her new site. I will be publishing images and videos from our rides to the website to compliment her Instagram feed. I am still working on the website, but now that I have a logo I can move it forward a little bit more, and document all the fun we are having around NYC.
We have been roaming the city more and getting to know bike paths that take us downtown through the heart of the city. We went all the way around from 57th on the west side down to Battery Park and up to the Brooklyn bridge—which we’ve done before, but this time we went further into the East Village and made our way up the east side. The bike paths are less than desirable in this part of town, but I eventually pushed myself to find a new section of path and playground they’ve finished along the East River. From there we headed up 1st Avenue all the way up to Harlem at 106th—then back down through Central Park to find our way home.
In other digital reading this week I learned about the oldest living apple tree in the United States. It is up in Maine. I love that these heirloom things can still exist. They are such a tangible living representation of our history on this continent, and (some of ours) journey across the ocean to get here. A couple years back Audrey and I visited the oldest cherry tree up on the Russian River, which was bought by the Russians settling in the area from the Spanish mission in San Francisco—they even have the receipt. I also started reading a story (but haven’t finished) this week about indigenous agricultural techniques around the Great Lakes this week. So, I am guessing I will continue down this rabbit hole, going further back in time to learn more about the agriculture of those who have been here for thousands of years.
Audrey and I watched Sinners on Saturday night. WOW. Just WOW. Such a good movie, and something I’ll be unpacking and thinking about for a long time. Right now I have the music scene spinning around in my head, and how they explored the past, present, and future of black, indigenous, African, and Asian music. I loved the portrayal of white people as vampires, and their overwhelming desire to have what was being experienced inside that juke joint that night. It reflects my belief around our need for land back and reparations in this country. If we are going to have a future, we have to address our past. There is no escaping it. The music scene reveals for me just how lost we as white people are, and how desperately we want to have “that”, but can’t actually produce it ourselves. We have to pursue and steal it from others, rather than heal and fix ourselves so we can actually get our own souls back.
I spent this last week changing the direction in which my brain is heading. It is still all about APIs. It is still rooted in our history and how we got here. But I am building a business now focused on our collective consumption of the digital bits we all seem to have a massive appetite for each day. I get that most of us just see social doomscrolling, messaging, and videos, but I see a dangerous version of digital consumption which has a much greater impact than just the bubble we individually live in.
Naftiko is focused on helping businesses manage their API consumption, but with an open-source and observable approach which I am confident can help pull back the curtain on the theater production that we are all cast in each day. I am hoping to reveal there isn’t some magic AI powering all of this, and continue to drive a greater understanding where our digital bits are going, and how they are being used to shape our lives at scale. I am determined to keep helping ensure our digital worlds are visible and something we can interact with and possess some agency and control over, helping us avoid being part of this digital casino that is consuming politics and our personal and professional lives in this moment.
“We live in capitalism. Its power seems inescapable. So did the divine right of kings. Any human power can be resisted and changed by human beings. Resistance and change often begin in art, and very often in our art, the art of words.” ― Ursula K. Le Guin
