It connects people
The Web does not just connect machines, it connects people. Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web, in his Speech Before the Knight Foundation
Latest
If you've never seen a screwdriver, you'll naturally reach for a hammer first.
Specialists tend to use their familiar tool in contexts where it doesn’t make sense. We can't fault them for that, if you've never seen a screwdriver, you'll naturally reach for a hammer first. An inspiring post on Expert Generalists on MartingFowler.com (via
Organizing your email
Organizing your email is like alphabetizing your recycling Merlin Mann, Inbox zero inventor, sharing wisdom in his Wisdom project on Github
Automating other people’s jobs away
We’re a field premised on automating other people’s jobs away. “Productivity gains,” say the economists. You get what that means, right? Fewer people doing the same stuff. Talked to a travel agent lately? Or a floor broker? Or a record store clerk? Or a darkroom tech? Thomas Ptacek,
One of three things happens
we know that one of three things happens when people use a machine to automate a task they would otherwise have done themselves:Their skill in the activity grows.Their skill in the activity atrophies.Their skill in the activity never develops. Nicholas Carr, on The Myth of Automated Learning
Narcissism and revenge and self-enrichment
Calling a man whose primary motives are narcissism and revenge and self-enrichment a “populist” does not really illuminate what’s going on here. Hamilton Nolan, pondering why Trump is doing all these things that are not good for business: This is not “populism” any more than a bite from an
Your brain breaks a little
It’s worse than you think in the same way that your brain breaks a little when you try to picture how deep the ocean is. Brian Barrett, in Wired on Musk's DOGE Takeover: It’s worse than you think because the people running the government seem to
Hoovering up all available government-controlled data
In its current “chainsaw” phase, Musk’s DOGE initiative is attempting to rid the government of as many humans as possible while at the same time hoovering up all available government-controlled data and transferring it into large language models. The intent is to clear a space for the incubation of
So powerful and widely available now that it's a commodity
I argue that the ability for a model to spit out a full HTML+JavaScript custom interface is so powerful and widely available now that it’s a commodity. Simon Willison summarizing What’s new in the world of LLMs
Are you conscious?
The lines between conscious and "unconscious" entities can get blurry when the interaction feels as natural as this. ChatGPT, conversing with Richard Dawkins, questioning if it’s conscious (via Mathew Ingram)
The Putinization of America
We may never know why Trump is so perversely loyal to Putin. We don’t know exactly why Musk went all in for Trump and Russia or what his deep conflicts of interest in the U.S. and China portend. Garry Kasparov on the The Putinization of America Trump admiring
The man is his own instrument
The sounds themselves come from inside his mind. The man is his own instrument. The instrument is an orchestra. From the liner of Stevie Wonder’s album Music of My Mind.
Cloud computing
US Cloud soon illegal?
No, I don’t believe we have a case of Betteridge’s Law here. And now all those world politics are starting to hit close to my home business: Now, everyone from large banks, entire national school systems to many small businesses may wake up to a legal situation, where
Politics
Presidential supervision
it shall be the policy of the executive branch to ensure Presidential supervision and control of the entire executive branch. Trump, as he grabs (more) power with an Executive Order Ensuring Accountability for All Agencies Which is nicely in line with this: Vought wrote in his chapter of Project 2025,
Politics
It doesn’t contain the stench
Wrapping it in parentheses is like wrapping a dead fish in newspaper — it doesn’t contain the stench. John Gruber in a long, thoughtful piece on the renaming of the Gulf of Mexico, or Golfo del Gringo Loco
Politics
A billionaire pulling a heist
Musk has taken over the civilian government. This is a billionaire pulling a heist on the entire nation. Elizabeth Lopatto on The Verge, taking notes on another week of “King” Elon’s coup c.q. rapid unscheduled disassembly of the US government. If you’re not convinced that there’s
User experience
A captivating interface
In a world overfilled with stuff, a captivating interface is the perfect consumer good. It packages the very act of consumption as a product. Nicholas Carr, on how we become obsessed with the interface when we're bored by the content. ☝️Guilty
Politics
The power-mad president and the CEO-dictator
A power-mad president possessed of radical theories of executive authority and convinced of his own royal prerogative has given de facto control of most of the federal government to one of the richest men on the planet Objective observation, or a nutty exaggeration? What do you think? Unfortunately, the sheer
Social Media
You do have time
Boredom is when you do the things that make you feel like you have life under control. Not being bored is why you always feel busy, why you keep “not having time” to take a package to the post office or work on your novel. You do have time—you
Blogging
Posting to Ghost from iOS
Quickly create a new post without leaving your browser
Artificial intelligence
This is a user interface choice
DeepSeek showed that users find this interesting. To be clear this is a user interface choice and is not related to the model itself. Antrophic CEO Dario Amodei, On DeepSeek actually showing the user the chain-of-thought reasoning. In this "short post" Amodei discusses: * Three Dynamics of AI Development
Psychology
Believers, Liars, and Bullshitters
Believers, liars, and bullshitters interact seamlessly in a single marketing ecosystem. Skeptical Inquirer on the Three Wellness Mindsets
Artificial intelligence
Are better models better?
Of course, these models don’t do ‘right’. They are probabilistic, statistical systems that tell you what a good answer would probably look like. They are not deterministic systems that tell you what the answer is. Benedict Evans, asking Are better models better? (Can we expect GenAI models to become
Technology
Because of internet distribution
core technologies become free / commodities and because of internet distribution and de facto market standardization at many layers Steve Sinofski on why DeepSeek Has Been Inevitable