Exshitification

De-algorithmification and self hosting.

March 23, 2026

I started an attempt to de-algorithm my life in mid-2025 after realizing that the recommendations on my YouTube music account had been getting worse and worse over time.

I'd seen a similar pattern on Spotify over several years and that was why I'd switched providers.

In the end, I started looking around and asking friends for recommendations on how to find music and that was the single most impactful move I'd made in music discovery for years.

Six months on, I've found and bought multiple albums that are among my favourites in a decade or more.

Everyone's aware of general enshitification, but I wasn't aware of how much life I was missing by handing over decision making to various big tech algorithms.

I've moved on with a general push away from Google and Microsoft who were my two preferred providers. And towards second hand tech and open source tools. I'm also prefering Europen providers where I can, to benefit from stronger data privacy laws by default.

Steps taken:

Making my phone an intentional tool:

  • Removed YouTube and all social media
  • Removed music, podcasts and audiobooks (see below)
  • Turned off lock screen
  • Turned off all notifications other than calls from partner or childcare
  • Running Olauncher

Gaming on Linux

  • Running Bazzite on a Minis Forum mini PC from 2023. It runs my Steam games better than any PC I've owned. Mostly indies and older tripple-A titles.

Owning my media

  • Using a Hiby Digital M300 mp3 player
  • Buying FLAC albums on Bandcamp
  • Running PocketCasts and Audible on there too.

Owning my notes

  • Exported my Notion notes to Markdown files and using QOwnNotes on desktop and Zetel Notes on mobile.
  • Keeping notes by hand using Muji's 0.38 black pens and Moleskine A6 softback pocket notebooks.

Self-hosting on Linux

  • Running an Umbrel Home (they used to be cheaper) with the following apps and two gigs of storage
  • Immich (replacing Google Photos)
  • Nextcloud (replacing Google Docs)
  • Jellyfin (with a suite of RR apps)

Photos

  • Bought a second hand Sony Cyber-shot RX100 from 2014.

Programs

  • Zorin (replacing Windows) [Ireland]
  • Proton (replacing Gmail) [Switzerland]
  • Vivaldi (replacing Chrome/Arc) [Norway]
  • Occasional photo editing on Raw Therapy [Hungary].
  • Occasional video editing on DaVinci Resolve [US].

Apps I no longer use

  • Spotify
  • Goodreads
  • Notion
  • Shortwave
  • Edge
  • Google Photos
  • Google Chrome