After delaying the rollout for years, Google has finally abandoned their PR stunt to get rid of 3rd party cookies. This is not about “user choice”, it’s about Google protecting its primary source of revenue. I’m sure a bunch of Google engineers have tried for years to come up with clever solutions to anonymize people while still allowing for targeting advertising. In the end Google needs to protect the status quo and allow people to be tracked across the internet so they can be served targeted advertising.
My suggestion? Uninstall Chrome from your devices. Use a browser like Safari or Firefox, both of which block 3rd party cookies by default.
I think having a competitive hobby is worthwhile, especially if you are a naturally competitive person. It allows you to have goals you can control, and gives you something to do with more consistency and predictability than you will find on the corporate career ladder. Conversely, making your career your only competitive outlet will change you, and likely not in ways you will enjoy. So find something you enjoy that facilitates goal setting and do it. It will give you an outlet for your intrinsic motivation that cannot be ruined by some executive’s need to shuffle the org chart.
I’m unsure how to avoid the news right now. I like reading the daily news, I think it’s important to be well informed. Right now the news sucks. The upcoming election has sucked all the oxygen out of the room. I do not enjoy be presented daily with the repeated reminder of the bad and worse choice I’m facing in November.
Even the technology sites I frequent get sucked into this. At some point I’ll just have to do the healthy thing and follow the mandate for less screen time that I impose on my kids. I should likely just play outside more.