Hi All!

Here is your weekly round up of what I’m pondering and exploring. Feel free to forward along to a friend if you think they might enjoy.

Off the Rails, The Art Exhibit

It’s official, I’m throwing an art exhibit with my longtime creative partner Max Dona. The event will be both the official in-person release of my book ‘Off the Rails’ along with the premiere of a secret documentary Max has been working on over the past year called, ‘These City Circles.’

The exhibit will be on for one night only and it will feature photography, video, interactive art and even a panel discussion between Max and I. Our intention with both of our work releasing is to shine a light on an unseen Sydney that not many people know about, or even understand.

And although this is a private, invite only event, everyone on my newsletter is invited, even you. If you’d like to come an are in Sydney on the 14th of December, I’d love for you to join Max and I. You’re also welcome to bring a couple plus ones, if you trust them.

RSVP for a free ticket here. (limited space available on the night)

Subscription Hell

Welcome to Subscription Hell.

Here you will be greeted with open arms and offered nothing but a humble, free trial.

You’re curious and think this might help you with work so you sign up for another tool, use it for a few days and then completely forget about it.

You’ve lost track of how many subscriptions you’ve signed up to by now and you can’t be bothered to cancel them because, “It’s only a $10 charge.”

So, you forget and go on with your life, until eventually, you begin to wonder where all your money is disappearing to each month.

You try being a responsible adult and look through your bank statements and as expected, you find a mountain of charges.

None of these companies have reminded you about your subscriptions and have happily, very quietly must I say, collected your cheque without any reminder prompting you to consider whether or not you still need their services—because what company in their right mind would ever do that?

Right?

Anyway, you decide you want to make a change, so you start trying to cancel all the subscriptions you no longer need and requesting refunds. However, as soon as you start this long and treacherous journey, you’re met with AI chat bots who guide you to their help page that’s been littered with dozens of FAQs that won’t get you any closer to your refund or cancellation.

Finally, after what seems like an eternity of chatting to the bot, you’re connected to someone name Gurpeet who is probably somewhere out in India, or maybe the Philippines because, cheap labour, of course.

Gurpeet takes five minutes to write ten-word response and it feels like it’s his first time using a keyboard. He drills you with dozens of stupid questions, until you finally make it clear YOU DO NOT WANT THEIR SERVICE.

It makes you happy to feel like you’re finally making progress, so you quickly run off to the kitchen to grab a drink. However, on your return you realise your hotspot connected to your computer has disconnected.

You frantically reconnect hoping you didn’t lose Gurpeet. When your finally back online you see a new message.

“Looks like you may have stepped away and no longer need our help.”

Chat ended.

You’re frustrated, but you don’t give up.

It takes another thirty minutes to take down the bot and get another chance at the boss level against Gurpeet. This time you win, and your first refund begins processing.

You’re exhausted but you realise this is just the start. You look ahead and you can see offers to extend your subscription the moment you try cancel, cancel buttons hidden in the deepest parts of the site known to man, and every other dark pattern imaginable.

They haven’t made it easy down here, but you know you’ve got this, so you continue on your journey to reclaiming your dignity from these corporate leaches and take your $40 refund to buy some Satoshi’s.

It all adds up.

Creating a container

Although my first book is right around the corner, I’m already thinking about what’s next. I don’t want to say too much, especially on the second book, however, I am beginning to feel a desire to shine a spotlight not only on myself but on others.

If you have any writing, stories, poems, essays, or something you’d like to share, please email it to me at contact@jetwilliams.com. I may or may not, use it in a future magazine. Don’t hold me to this though, as I said this is an early idea.

All I’m thinking is that I’d like to begin to build a container that can not only hold my stories but the stories of others, and have it be able to become independent of me. You see, as much as I love sharing personal anecdotes and stories with you here in my personal newsletter, I think it could be very interesting to start bringing in the voices of others. Plus, I’d love to build a community that I resonate with.

Just a thought… please do email me though if you have anything, even if it’s a seed of an idea.

Leave your Airpods at home

Some days I purposefully leave my Airpods at home and instead of riding the bus or metro glued to my phone, I sit there, silently.

I watch everyone else with their heads down and ears stuffed. Most commuters are listening or watching something. Which is what I also normally do but as I said, some days I don’t.

During this time I can hear and see it all. The sounds of footsteps of people walking through the train station are louder. I can see the details on people faces. I wonder why one stranger is reading some sort of handwritten letter. Was it from an ex-lover? I don’t know.

Cutting the constant stimulus from my phone also lets me finally sift through my mental backlog I’ve been neglecting.

I think for most of the time I wear my Airpods or instinctively reach for my phone, I’m really just self-soothing. I don’t know what else to do with myself so I pull out my digital dummy and start sucking at the tit of big tech.

When I revolt from this cope, I often notice a small number of other people in public silently existing in their own space. This makes me wonder who they are and why they’re checked out? Or perhaps the better way to describe them is checked in. Two sides of the same screen I guess.

It’s scary when you realize how valuable our attention is an how easily we can give it away. Even when I’m out and about, walking, browsing stores, or doing any kind of task, I often find myself blasting music or a podcast into my ears. It’s almost too easy to just put in your headphones and not have to think, or better yet, interact with someone.

Existing in my own bubble is much easier. Perhaps that’s why the algorithms have become so addictive, because they serve me exactly what it knows I will likely engage with.

Hence why I need to do things like purposefully leave my Airpods at home, even if it means learning to embrace a little boredom on the bus.

Ironically though, I wore my Airpods on the way to work this morning.

Calisthenics

A close friend recently put me on to Calisthenics and the art of working out with little to no equipment, using only your body weight.

My first impressions of this new workout routine is that I love it. I really appreciate not having to rely on a gym to get a workout in.

Also, not to sound like a fucking wanker, but this way of exercising feels like it aligns with me on both a philosophical and spiritual level. What I mean by this is I like the idea of being self sufficient with being able to take care of my body.

This is because there’s been times in my life where I’ve been traveling overseas, had no access to a gym and just let my routine slip and lose all my momentum before I went away, all because it wasn’t my fault. To me this isn’t good. Hence why I really think being able to have no excuses to train is a great thing that’s actually quite empowering.

I’ll probably share more on this later but for now, I will stick with this new routine paired with both swimming laps in the ocean and running.

Hope everyone enjoys their week.

Love,

Jet Williams

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