Here's a fucking idiot.

Back into the swing of it - here are the first #weeknotes of 2026... mmitii.mattballantine.com/2026/01/09/w... @weeknotes-bot.bsky.social

Actually, @theguardian.com, no thanks. This is so grim. Snuff news.

3 Es is an accurate summary of half of my A-level results.

I have a general rule that any presentation based on words starting with the same letter is bollocks. I once asked a famous CEO who gave a presentation on the "10 Cs of business" what the chances were of the ten most important things all starting with a C. He wasn't pleased.

Just about to watch the last episode of Stranger Things. But hey, that's enough about US Foreign Policy...

I thought the Orange One wasn't in favour of illegal immigration?

The US is terrifying.

Pre-orders for Random the Book are now open: securityblendbooks.com/products/ran...

Random the Book pre-sales go live tomorrow morning...

Penultimate #weeknotes of the year... mmitii.mattballantine.com/2025/12/19/w... @weeknotes-bot.bsky.social

Some #weeknotes at the end of a very sociable week... mmitii.mattballantine.com/2025/12/12/w... @weeknotes-bot.bsky.social

Friday’s World Cup draw saw randomness in action. Or did it? randomthebook.com/2025/12/07/h...

Another window opens on Random the Advent Calendar experiments.randomthebook.com/adventcalend... Today's window is number 2, and it comes with a free snowflake simulator!

Here's a thing that @sonofsuntzu.bsky.social and I made. Pre-orders open soon. More details at randomthebook.com

A very fun week. Here are the #weeknotes mmitii.mattballantine.com/2025/12/05/w... @weeknotes-bot.bsky.social

Day 2 of Random the Advent Calendar, and we open window 11... experiments.randomthebook.com/adventcalend... If you squint, 11 is 2 in Roman numerals. These kinds of coincidences are what happens when you really get into randomness. Anyway, today we explore why we stick cash into Christmas Puds!

From Monday the windows of Random the Advent Calendar will be opening in, obviously, a random order. Get ready for tales of chance and serendipity that happen at Christmas... experiments.randomthebook.com/adventcalend...

My 758th set of #weeknotes: mmitii.mattballantine.com/2025/11/28/w... @weeknotes-bot.bsky.social

@cbgb72.bsky.social NOTE:

Another week passes... mmitii.mattballantine.com/2025/11/21/w... #weeknotes @weeknotes-bot.bsky.social

Blaming increased racism on migration is itself racist. It places the blame on some of the victims.

Interesting observation from one of my dinner guests last night: how baby British people can accurately draw the British flag? It's not like it's got complicated animals on it. Yet I'd bet most people can't. We are a very strange nation. All these ideas of patriotism, and yet...

Is Labour trying to follow the Conservatives into oblivion by right-winging itself? I cannot think of a way that this strategy makes sense electorally.

An uplifting week... mmitii.mattballantine.com/2025/11/14/w... #weeknotes @weeknotes-bot.bsky.social

Well the first version of RandomTheBook.com is now with our proofreader... Given our deadline is still 3 weeks away, I think this amounts to "ahead of schedule". Well done to @sonofsuntzu.bsky.social and me!

An odd week, but at least there was cake. hweeknotesitii.mattballantine.com/2025/11/07/weeknote-755-still-waiting/ #weeknotes @weeknotes-bot.bsky.social

Which one is more English?

This is not normally what's involved in being detained at His Majesty's pleasure. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

A week in which, for one reason or another, there's been lots of waiting. #weeknotes mmitii.mattballantine.com/2025/10/31/w... @weeknotes-bot.bsky.social

Tell you what. That Andy Windsor bloke seems to be losing an awful lot of stuff given he maintains he didn't do anything wrong...

The format of the book about Randomness that @sonofsuntzu.bsky.social and I are writing forces readers to do some work. It's slightly depressing how many people are mildly horrified by that idea. That somehow books should be frictionless insight devices. Randomthebook.com

It’s #weeknotes time again… mmitii.mattballantine.com/2025/10/24/w... @weeknotes-bot.bsky.social

#Weeknotes time mmitii.mattballantine.com/2025/10/17/w... @weeknotes-bot.bsky.social

I think sometimes it needs reiterating that the Neural Networks used by computers are metaphorical Neural Networks, and not actual biological ones.

Are LLMs the first real moment of technonovelty for the digitally native generation? mmitii.mattballantine.com/2025/10/17/t...

Still looking for someone, haven't found a single person so far (that I can contact). I have a 46-episode script that I need translated. This would be a paid job!

"we're speaking to procurement"

"You've got backups, right?"

Ah, those poster children for AI and data Netflix...

@sonofsuntzu.bsky.social and I are at the stage where we are looking for beta testers for randomthebook.com Sign up here and you'll get to peruse 5 stories from the book about serendipity, chance, fate and other random things. docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

#weeknotes time... mmitii.mattballantine.com/2025/10/10/w... @weeknotes-bot.bsky.social

If only Farage understood that the metaphor of the bad apple is that it ruins the whole barrel...

The world's shittest ventriloquism act.

750 weeks with #weeknotes attached. That's a distressingly large number of weeks. mmitii.mattballantine.com/2025/10/03/w... @weeknotes-bot.bsky.social

Which, thinking about it, is the same strategy my teenagers use.

I mean he's utterly uninspirational, but he's hardly that dreadful narcissist Johnson or the car crash that was Truss. But brought to you by the people who gave you Boaty McBoatface I suppose...

If you see this, post a bridge...