Here's why Noise Reduction had to change

Failure was a feature not a bug. I just didn't realise I had designed it that way.

You might be wondering why I’ve been writing about completely non-Noise Reduction stuff in my other substack, A+. Stuff like this

What if, instead of the rectangular sensor we usually see, there was a square one? What if the various cameras of the iPhone could record in parallel and create separate video feeds?

It’s like another world, isn’t it? And that’s exactly the point.

You see, when I think about what I was trying to do with Noise Reduction in a trauma-informed way - which I have been doing more as I reflect upon my experiences over the last three years - I think I set myself up to fail.

Failure was a feature not a bug

Long story short: I really didn’t need to be exposing myself to so much media - that inevitably featured trauma experiences - to distill down what other people needed to hear in order not to overload themselves, but get a good steer on the key issues.

Because through reading all this stuff, I was taking the load on myself.

Not such a big deal - people read to synthesise information all the time, don’t they? This is true.

But then I thought about the context. Because hadn’t I been doing this for three years already? Through writing books, making videos, and providing advice to various Government agencies and private entities?

Because the key thing here is cumulative exposure. And at the back end of last year, and the start of this, I’d clearly had enough. And so had you, my dear readers.

The level of engagement with my Substack dropped dramatically. I think people didn't want to be exposed to more information from me. And it was interesting, because you know what got the highest level of engagement? Funny animal videos on Twitter. Which is great and everything, but it did make me wonder what I was doing and who it was for.

So, here’s what’s happening.

• I’m reducing my cumulative exposure to material that takes a huge amount of emotional labour to put together and process for others. This is why my tech-based Substack and YouTube channel is such a breezy refreshing change to write and put together.

• My focus on Noise Reduction is becoming more self-reflective and memoir-like. And this is in service of trying to reduce my own internal noise.

So far, you seem to like it. But I could be completely wrong. I’d love it if you could take a minute or two to let me know.

Thank you.