7 Comments
User's avatar
Lynn M Valeri's avatar

You did well at what I presume was dictating this substack!!

susan fitzpatrick's avatar

John... Merry Christmas. So sad to see your arm in that contraption! Wishing you a full recovery. Thank you for the reading recommendations ... interesting the theme that emerged - ' the no free lunch' cliche never goes away. In our race for technologies that are supposedly going to give us more time to be artistic, knowledgeable, creative and connected many find themselves making cat videos and hunched over screens - friendless and obsessing over the the most shallow aspects of human life. I know to state these things make me a curmudgeonly luddite but the reality that has been created can no longer handwave concerns away. Go for a walk, dance, read a book, sing... make technology use a choice not a default.

Nobody Makes It Alone's avatar

John! That must have been a painful moment. Is it a tendon? Ugh. My son is in one of those neat braces for a knee injury. Not.Fun. Great recommendations on the books and Substack (I subscribed). I appreciate not only the recommendation but also the commentary on why. Happy 2026. Constraints breed innovation. ;-)

Joseph Fuller's avatar

John,

I fell on the evening before thanksgiving and had surgery on my right(dominant) wrist on thanksgiving day in Mexico City where my oldest son is posted at the US embassy. Thankfully I had an excellent surgeon whose English was better than my Spanish. It is amazing how much we need our right hand and both hands for doing so many things. At least I’m retired and don’t have to go to work anymore.

Praying for your speedy and complete recovery. Thanks for all you do.

Peter C. Meilaender's avatar

John, thank you for the recommendations, all of which look valuable. I will take a gander at Fleisher's Substack.

Sorry to hear about the arm injury and surgery, but I hope you will recover quickly. A blessed Christmas season to you.

Rainbow Roxy's avatar

Hey, this was a great read as always, your insights into tech trends are absolutely briliant even with that arm situation! Do you think these systems are creating new kinds of 'shallows' in our digital discourse?

John Inazu's avatar

Or maybe making the already shallow even more shallow with the appearance of depth?