iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Daniel Gear @dangear.bsky.social · 31/05/2026

Another Sunday morning, another (short) essay. This one is about being on the receiving end of small acts of generosity, and the instinct to pay them back. I've also added voiceovers to all my articles now, so you can listen if you prefer. Thanks pals! 🙌

open.substack.com

Never pay it back

Pass it on, but don't pay it back

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Daniel Gear @dangear.bsky.social · 24/05/2026

"This place is not a place of honor. No highly esteemed deed is commemorated here." This week's Lightsome piece is about deep-time lightsomeness and one of the strangest pieces of writing of the 20th century. Subscriptions mean the world while I try to build this thing, thanks Bluesky pals 🙌🌳

lightsomeness.substack.com

12,000 years of lightsomeness

Planting trees, building brochs and cathedrals, and burying nuclear waste in the desert

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Daniel Gear @dangear.bsky.social · 17/05/2026

For five years, I've been running every decision of our business through a single question: "is this the lightsome thing to do?" One of the things that has given us is "the fine day policy." At 60° north, the work can often wait, but the fine weather never does.

open.substack.com

The one lightsome filter

Five years of running a business through a single question

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Daniel Gear @dangear.bsky.social · 12/05/2026

Politics breeding cruelty, algorithms breeding outrage, most of us tired. So fuck it; new Substack, all about lightsomeness. Free, one piece every Sunday. I'm a small account, so reposts by my mighty pals on here to like-minded humans would mean a lot 🙌 lightsomeness.substack.com/p/there-are-...

lightsomeness.substack.com

There are no lightsome arseholes

Picture a crofthouse, 200 years ago.

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Daniel Gear @dangear.bsky.social · 19/07/2025

Wilbert is the meat-eating crofter, who is making his inaugural diary entry. He presumably feels guilty about fiercely shooting his pal, the pig.

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Daniel Gear @dangear.bsky.social · 19/07/2025

Had to share this memory from last year - I had been away with work, and when I arrived home, my youngest daughter (5 at the time) couldn't wait to tell me that her story had been chosen for publication in a kids book of short stories. This was her story... 😂🙈

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Daniel Gear @dangear.bsky.social · 11/07/2025

The current direction of energy market reform risks reinforcing a trajectory for Scotland where the majority of the benefits are extracted while the burdens are localised. This short viewpoint covers the REMA announcement, and some broader ideas on community ownership.

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Reposted by Daniel Gear

CarolineJMolloy @carolinejmolloy.bsky.social · 24/11/2024

Anyone who thinks our benefit system is too generous, has clearly had their common sense surgically extracted by the Daily Mail. Losing your job is financially catastrophic (esp for mortgage payers, who drop to just 12% of an average wage overnight). And our sickness benefits bill is similarly mean.

Daily Mail front page “Starmer declares war on benefits Britain”

Chart showing Britain’s benefits are just a third of the OECD average, and the lowest in Europe

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Daniel Gear @dangear.bsky.social · 24/11/2024

I'm all for progressive taxation, but this isn't that. Farming can be an extremely marginal business, even on land that is valued highly on paper. I know farms that have been passed down for 300+ years from one generation to the next. Tax levied at the point of land sale feels less destructive.

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Daniel Gear @dangear.bsky.social · 24/11/2024

If you're advocating for a workaround to the inheritor paying, surely the best workaround would be not levy the tax in the first place? My view is that it would be fairer if the tax was levied at the point a farm is sold (i.e. a tax on the proceeds of a sale), rather than when it is passed down.

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Daniel Gear @dangear.bsky.social · 23/11/2024

We'll increasingly see this kind of thing, particularly if the prevailing doctrine continues to be that the transition must be fast, but not necessarily fair. It's also linked to why we're seeing more and more people (voters) in Europe and the US moving away from climate issues.

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Daniel Gear @dangear.bsky.social · 23/11/2024

This article is vital reading re. the principles of a 'just' transition. "Wind and solar only require massive natural and human sacrifice if you fail to regulate the corporations that build them". Couldn't agree more. 🙌

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Daniel Gear @dangear.bsky.social · 21/11/2024

Love the sunrise on this kind of day

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Daniel Gear @dangear.bsky.social · 18/11/2024

Love deep menacing blues, which gradually blacken as snow showers get closer and night draws in.

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Daniel Gear @dangear.bsky.social · 17/11/2024

"If nothing is true then no one can criticise power, because there is no basis on which to do so" -Timothy Snyder

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Daniel Gear @dangear.bsky.social · 17/11/2024

"To abandon facts is to abandon freedom" #BookSky

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Daniel Gear @dangear.bsky.social · 16/11/2024

Continuing the theme of things I love: spindrift. When, on days like today, the wind picks up spray from the surface of the sea.

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Daniel Gear @dangear.bsky.social · 16/11/2024

Community Compensation ≠ Community Benefits ≠ Community Wealth

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Daniel Gear @dangear.bsky.social · 15/11/2024

I get that this is the weeds of a global catastrophe, but this is what your average voter sees. Repeat this scenario ad nauseum across the globe, mix in some powerful lobbying interests on the other side, and you have a recipe for the kind of political back turning we're seeing.

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Daniel Gear @dangear.bsky.social · 15/11/2024

The Viking windfarm in Shetland represents nearly 10% of SSER's generating portfolio. Of the £326m profit that SSER made in the past 6 months, 0.3% was allocated to an SSE controlled "community benefit fund" in Shetland.

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Daniel Gear @dangear.bsky.social · 15/11/2024

This further pushes people away from the issue. In Shetland, we host the UK's highest output windfarm, whilst suffering the highest rate of fuel poverty in the country, and over 40% of households living below the minimum income standard. This doesn't make sense to people.

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Daniel Gear @dangear.bsky.social · 15/11/2024

More and more people are moving away from the issue as evidenced in recent European and US elections. Policymakers argue the trade-off between fast action and known downsides. Renewable energy developers are making record profits here in the UK, at the expense of host communities and the consumer.

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Daniel Gear @dangear.bsky.social · 14/11/2024

When it comes to creating community wealth from energy developments, Shetland has a singular experience of the good, the bad, and the downright disastrous. Last month Voar launched a report on this; there are lessons for the whole country in here: www.justtransition.scot/publication/...

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Daniel Gear @dangear.bsky.social · 14/11/2024

I've just signed up, and it says "invalid handle" on my profile no matter which handle I choose - hoping it's a glitch that will resolve!

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