You can find the source code and builds for Windows, Mac, and Linux here.

I really enjoy twisting my mind constantly with new ideas (I don’t know, I just find intellectual/creative stagnation quite boring), and the genre of “philosophy” is a great tool for it. So, I tend to read as much as I can about whatever topic I’m into at the moment. I do prefer physical books, but it’s not always possible to find a copy other than the digital version, so my research becomes digital as well (meaning, the possibilities of a machine to expand/limit how I can do research).

Enter Are.na

For me, Are.na is a beautiful software exemplary of how technology can be genuinely useful without predatory tactics of dominance and profit. It lets you “collect” digital entities, such as images, links, videos, text, etc., and “link” them inside channels—kind of like a Pinterest, but with a really different culture.

I have never used Pinterest in my life, but when I enter for some reason, I always see boards/categories about mundane stuff like “fashion tips” or “cute cats,” which are completely okay, of course. In Are.na, you can find similar stuff, but also quite interesting boards/categories, or how they are known in Are.na, channels, with topics as broad as (annoying) Nike motion designs to complex philosophy up to really introspective stream-of-consciousness journals.

I tend to believe that the innate substrate of a platform facilitates the emergence of “specific” topics or “events.” It seems Are.na started as an “art project,” so of course, it would attract people in that vibe, hence, the quite distinct style it has, similar to those like Tumblr or Metroflog.

So, I don’t believe that people simply dump what they think they “are” into whatever platform, but instead, they enter a plane that actively shapes their supposedly “free will,” playing the make-believe of sense and direction.

In brief, Are.na is full of creative, intelligent, and genuine people, and I like that kind too, so I like to deposit my seeds inside a ground that I know will grow healthy and organically without unnecessary profit-making algorithms.

Incessant research, but the interruption of flow

While reading, I used to copy interesting quotes from a PDF file and paste them into a channel in my Are.na profile, to collect ideas that I like and would like to make handy. The problem was that constantly changing windows interrupted the “flow,” and since this digital world is, sadly, designed to conquer attention at all costs, one is easily manipulated out of useful behavior.

So I thought, what if I bypass the act of “pasting” since it is the obvious consequence of “copying”? Hence Ctrl+C 2 Are.na was born.

https://github.com/animanoir/CtrlC_2_Are.na

A pretext to learn Go

Lately, I’ve been increasingly annoyed by the current state of front-end development, particularly React and its completely unnecessary dominance (of course sponsored by Facebook). For me, it’s just an overengineered, overabstracted framework which, despite working flawlessly, makes development itself many times too complex, not excluding how horrible JavaScript by itself is.

That’s why I started wandering around exploring new worlds, such as the scary and dark back-end lands. I tend to think that a “professional” programmer is one that understands how machines/systems/software work in essence, so there’s no need to “fear” languages as an actual “creative” barrier for production. Hence, learning languages becomes easy, instead of something to suffer about.

While exploring options, I’ve found in Go a trusty tool to keep enhancing my computing skills: Its simplicity is in itself an aesthetic experience that keeps you in a constant creative flux.

Final thoughts

Returning a bit to Are.na, I really like to post stuff there as seeds, as “possibilities.” I honestly believe that what this world needs is fucking rest, but also new perspectives, new literal narratives from where to operate—new rules of the game, new affordances, so spreading creativity and knowledge, for me, is an ethical act of a useful make-believe reality construction.