iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Simon Watkins @simonywaking.bsky.social · 23h

Just got to get a vote in for this. A french comedy, and therefore a mix of Hollywood car chase and Jacques Tati absurdity.

youtube.com

PAS DE PROBLEME ! (1975)

YouTube video by Movie Car Chases

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Simon Watkins @simonywaking.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Me: There’s no food for the cat’s breakfast. Do we have any tucked away? Spouse: There some packets under the stairs, but they are part of our store in case of global crisis and civilisational collapse. Me: There is no food for the cat’s breakfast.

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Simon Watkins @simonywaking.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

History exam question from 2100: ‘After the end of the Cold War the USSR and the USA seemed to evolve in very distinct ways. But in truth only the details and the pace of change were different; in essence both eventually collapsed into chaos and unashamed kleptocracy.’ Discuss.

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Simon Watkins @simonywaking.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

GenX: ‘I need a hip replacement.’ Dr: ‘I’m sorry your hipness has degenerated too far and is beyond medical help. Have you considered assisted dying?’

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Simon Watkins @simonywaking.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

Roughly the same as the number of divisions he has?

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Simon Watkins @simonywaking.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

Some might be thinking that a global financial crisis could be the real circuit breaker that allows a profound change in policy. This depend on the government convincing people the crisis is a global event and not the government’s fault. And recent history suggests this is actually quite difficult…

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Simon Watkins @simonywaking.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

I was City and Business Editor at the MoS at the time. The Editor came to me in spring 2016 and said: ‘I am pro-remain and that is what we will be campaigning for.’ This was a huge relief to me, because I had been writing pro-remain opinion pieces in the City pages for the previous six months.

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Simon Watkins @simonywaking.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Techbro: I am a billionaire effective philanthropist. I aim to maximise the effecttivenes of my actions by ruthless analysis of the net good I create. Me: Kill yourself and leave all your assets to public healthcare.

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Simon Watkins @simonywaking.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

This is indeed an appalling joke and should not be given the oxygène of publicity.

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Simon Watkins @simonywaking.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

The problem you face here is that while your book on Kindle may be edifying, Braverman’s will make better kindling.

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Simon Watkins @simonywaking.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Thank you for adding the reference. I couldn’t fit it into the word count and then forgot to add a second post. Roszak’s book is both a window on a moment, but also rather good at identifying deeper themes of cultural disquiet, which is why much of it still resonates.

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Simon Watkins @simonywaking.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Well obviously Punk’s dead. 3..2..1…

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Simon Watkins @simonywaking.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

I am so behind the times. I didn’t get in plainchant until the 2000s.

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Simon Watkins @simonywaking.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

I referred to it that way to a French colleague the other day. And then had to go into a long explanation about obsolete British ham packaging.

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Simon Watkins @simonywaking.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

“The man who thinks creativity might yet become a technology is the man who stands no chance of ever understanding what creativity is. But we can be sure the technicians will eventual find us a bad mechanised substitute and persuade themselves it is the real thing.” Theodore Roszak, 1969.

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Simon Watkins @simonywaking.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

I am thinking of buying these shares, but I wary of the risks. Is there some kind of hedging instrument I can use that would put a put a floor under my losses in the event of the extinction of humanity?

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Simon Watkins @simonywaking.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

This makes me feel way behind in the discourse. Is there a starter pack?

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Simon Watkins @simonywaking.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

On second viewing, though, I realised that the very first scene of episode 1 of the Wire - maybe 5 minutes long - actually captures some of the enduring ideas and themes of the entire set of series.

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Simon Watkins @simonywaking.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Compromise. Buy the pictures, but never get round to putting hooks in the wall, so they just sit in stacks around the skirting board. That’s what we do.

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Simon Watkins @simonywaking.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Sort of agree, though I might want to make a distinction between the popular cultural phenomenon of postmodernism and the schools of thinking often simply conflated with it. Some of which I think very much kept the door open to the idea that certain ‘resolved issues’ were in fact no such thing.

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Simon Watkins @simonywaking.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

The AI rows are revealing that certain fractures in thinking and culture that we long thought resolved or relegated centuries ago, have merely been repressed and dormant. And that where some of us stand is not necessarily as straightforward as we thought. (I absolutely include myself in that.)

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Simon Watkins @simonywaking.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Fleeting perceptual distortions lingering on from yesterday’s acid.

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Simon Watkins @simonywaking.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

I loved it at the time. But would agree. They did have the sense to eventually close the narrative arc, probably a bit too late, but at least they did. The spawn of this form are the endless series now available that pose as drama but are in fact just soap operas.

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Simon Watkins @simonywaking.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

That is such a simple and brilliant idea.

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Simon Watkins @simonywaking.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

The only way the rest of the world will ever trust the US again is if Trump (and others associated with him) are prosecuted by the US courts. TBH even that might not be enough.

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Simon Watkins @simonywaking.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Some boomers really were utterly spoiled cunts. I belong to a different generation. But I am not going to say which because we’re trying to keep a low profile.

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Simon Watkins @simonywaking.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Meanwhile, a person of good humour who can take an easy joke at their expense restores my faith in humanity.

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Simon Watkins @simonywaking.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

I think the idea is that they make the named person seem human and personable. But like most of that marketing bullshit it does not always work.

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Simon Watkins @simonywaking.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Psychology trumps economics. Financially it’s fucked. So the narcissism requires another rationale. ‘In business terms we’re worried this is bullshit, but we still matter because this is existential’.

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Simon Watkins @simonywaking.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

When I was younger I used to see everything right wing as fascist or the thin end of a fascist wedge. Now I am much older and the political trends and policies I hated back then have come to fruition - I realise I was quite right.

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Simon Watkins @simonywaking.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

The most notable is the one that says: ‘It made me feel like I had never read a novel before… like I was brand new to the English language’. I think: ‘Wow! That’s what really good books do!’ And then they only give it 2 stars.

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Simon Watkins @simonywaking.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Anyone else remember this TV ad? Possible aired only in UK/Europe. It’s from back in the days when people had to smuggle western cars into China.

robinbrown.studio

AUDI 'CHINA' - Robin Brown

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Simon Watkins @simonywaking.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Me too. I prefer to err on the liberal side of law and order. So if some burly individuals in the maritime industry who hold seafaring ethics to be sacred were to meet Tommo in a dark alley…. I hope the courts would take their feelings into account and treat them leniently.

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Simon Watkins @simonywaking.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

…with intent to endanger life. Maximum sentence: life imprisonment.

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Simon Watkins @simonywaking.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

I had assumed British. And it’s great.

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Simon Watkins @simonywaking.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Consulting Dr Google is never a good idea, but for me it just got even worse. Increasingly when I put in my symptoms it’s says the most likely cause is ‘ageing’.

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Simon Watkins @simonywaking.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

The crisis of enlightenment and modernity as it is manifested in popular thinking. Reject anything transcendent, embrace materialism. But ignore questions about how transcendence has long been key to explaining ‘humanness’. Result: a population of ‘modern thinking people’ who are closet dualists.

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Simon Watkins @simonywaking.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

Actually it would be amusing to also put Dead Mountaineer on a list of top detective novels.

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Simon Watkins @simonywaking.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

Agree it would be a contender on my list. But also Definitely Maybe (aka A Billion Years to the End of the World) and also Dead Mountaineers Hotel. Strugatakys are at their best when at their most slyly comic.

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Simon Watkins @simonywaking.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Shouldn’t there be a distinction between the plural for ‘Tracy’ (ie Tracys) and the plural for ‘Tracie’ (ie Tracies). Finally I conclude that my life is too short and I probably need to get out more.

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Simon Watkins @simonywaking.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

I am a ‘Treasuries’ person, but then I wonder whether ‘Treasury’, in the sense of US sovereign bond, is in some way a proper noun, like ‘Tracy’. Would I say I have met a few ‘Tracies’? Maybe. But then I think that actually there are people whose name is spelt ‘Tracie’ 1/2.

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Simon Watkins @simonywaking.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

No need to innovate when there’s a tried and tested process for dealing with territories that attempt to secede from British hegemony. 1. Send gunboats to patrol the border ditches. 2. Smuggle weapons to UK-loyalist groups inside the village. 3. Work with CIA to assassinate Parish Council.

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Simon Watkins @simonywaking.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

The British Museum is a selling new Bazzy Tap plate. It’s made by Rye Pottery, who have been making Bazzy Tap-themed ceramics for decades.

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