This week: feeling sick at the elite telling employees to work harder; Apple’s weak response to their fake headlines; an update on my writing; The Spike-related links; and learning a lesson from Rage Against The Machine.
slave_to_the_wage
By the time I’d had lunch on Monday 6th January, the average FTSE 100 CEO had already “earnt” more in 2025 than I will earn all year. That’s just two and a half working days.
Their average is £4.2million per year. Nobody needs that much money. I don’t know how anyone can see that figure and think it’s fair that, to pick a genuine example, a teacher will go hungry so that his nurse wife and two kids can eat, unable to afford enough food for all of them.
Wealth inequality has long been out of control, but it’s only getting worse.
By 2023, the richest 50 families in the UK held more wealth than half of the UK population.
For anyone answering “work harder”, BZZZ. That is incorrect.
We do not live in a meritocratic society. Force of will cannot propel you into the upper echelons of society. Very few exceptions make that leap up from the working classes to the elite, and they are held up as some kind of shining example of how it’s possible for anyone if you’re super talented and/or work harder.
No. No it isn’t. Social mobility is a myth they use to keep the poor under control.
Anyone who’s worked for any length of time will have met people who were either really good at what they did, put in more hours than was sensible/healthy, or both. How many of them went on to become millionaires?
So, it’s not plausible to move up the ladder. But that’s also missing the point. The disparity between the high- and low-earners should not be so massive. The justification is “that’s the way the free market works”. Only because we let it. Only because the people in charge want the money from the rich, or are already rich, so won’t legislate to even the balance.
As Placebo once sang in their song “Slave to the Wage”:
It’s a race
A race for rats
A race for rats to die
I can’t see any solution, not as long as around 50% of voters believe the billionaires’ lies that they’re fighting for them. People like Trump and Musk have trodden on workers all their lives to get where they are. Why do you think they’d have a change of heart when it’s giving them what they want?
apple_intelligence_still_lies
Three weeks ago, I wrote about Apple’s so-called AI making up headlines and their ostrich-like response.
A brief catch-up: Apple uses an AI algorithm to take multiple news headlines and collate them into one message. Unfortunately, the AI is incorrectly adapting the headlines.
For more examples, see the BBC story here.
There have been many calls for Apple to take the software offline until they can get it working properly.
After weeks of pressure, Apple have now responded. Kind of. Their solution is to flag when their software has collated headlines. This doesn’t resolve the issue, it puts the onus on the user to factcheck, which they’re unlikely to do because why would they expect it to be wrong?
Even this non-fix will take several weeks, and in the meantime, the system is still very much live and capable of spewing out complete nonsense.
progress_report
I’d expected this month to be tough on the writing front because of my day job, and already that’s proving to be the case. It’s not easy to get in the right frame of mind when struggling to shed the build-up of irritation upon frustration upon annoyance.
I’ve begun work on a new series of blogs I intend to post in addition to this weekly update. More on that at a later date.
Before I publish Volume 2 of The Spike, I’m going to publish a second edition of Volume 1 with a new cover. I’ve been bouncing ideas around for a long time, but am starting to narrow it down to a concept I like and am mocking up some layouts.
A bit of art can be a nice change of pace when words are a struggle.
status.vol2
The Spike Volume 2 will contain three separate books from the perspective of seven characters.
Part 1 – draft 2 complete; further chapters to add.
Part 2 – draft 2 complete!
Part 3 – draft 2 written up to chapter 18; forty-eight chapters to go.
The intention is to complete draft 2 for part 3 by the end of February.
Part 1 is currently much shorter than the others, and I want them to be closer in length, so I will need to decide how to tighten parts 2 and 3 slightly, and add more to part 1 – I have some exciting ideas to expand it.
Then a readthrough of all parts will determine how much revision is required.
The ultimate aim is to have Volume 2 finished by the end of 2025 for publication early 2026.
connecting_links
The Spike is set in our world, incorporating real events; the links below are relevant to the themes and overarching storyline, and may or may not provide clues to the direction of the series.
I do not necessarily agree with or endorse any of the views within.
‘Smart’ home devices used as weapons in website attack
Men Stall Waymo Driverless Car to Catcall Female Passenger Inside
US Treasury says Chinese hackers led a ‘major cybersecurity’ breach
More people in late 20s still living with parents
World’s richest use up their fair share of 2025 carbon budget in 10 days
weekly_inspiration
Every week I share something that’s inspired my creativity.
This week, as is so often the case when I’m feeling angry, I turned to Rage Against The Machine.
Legend has it that Zack de la Rocha, the vocalist of the band, is every bit as vociferous in his delivery during practice as he is in concert.
It’s a useful reminder there’s no half-arsing creation.
It’s all in, all the time.
What’s inspired you this week? Please share in the comments.
See you next week.
Arrowmaker Books 