Matt Ballantine
@ballantine70.bsky.social
📤 412
📥 266
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Sociologist. Musician. Technologist. Dad. Current side project: randomthebook.com
An uplifting week...
mmitii.mattballantine.com/2025/11/14/w...
#weeknotes
@weeknotes-bot.bsky.social
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Weeknote 756: all clear
This week I have learned: The family has been going through some medical investigations recently. It’s been hugely stressful, very frightening, and it’s now over. All clear (within the …
https://mmitii.mattballantine.com/2025/11/14/weeknote-756-all-clear/
about 16 hours ago
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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!
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Random the Book
Matt Ballantine and Nick Drage's experiment in serendipity and chance.
https://RandomTheBook.com
6 days ago
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An odd week, but at least there was cake.
hweeknotesitii.mattballantine.com/2025/11/07/weeknote-755-still-waiting/
#weeknotes
@weeknotes-bot.bsky.social
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Weeknote 755: still waiting
This week I have learned: the surprisingly life-affirming experience that was Jury Service. that spending a week with barristers gets you into a different mindset when it comes to assessing what pe…
https://mmitii.mattballantine.com/2025/11/07/weeknote-755-still-waiting/
8 days ago
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reposted by
Matt Ballantine
Trades Union Congress
9 days ago
Which one is more English?
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This is not normally what's involved in being detained at His Majesty's pleasure.
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...
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Andrew in line for six-figure payout and annual stipend from king, sources say
The former prince remains under scrutiny as Buckingham Palace finalises plans for his future as a commoner
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025/oct/31/andrew-in-line-for-six-figure-payment-and-annual-stipend-from-king-sources-say?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other
14 days ago
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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
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Weeknote 754: waiting
Things I have learned this week: I’ve been (separately) experiencing aspects of both the health system and the judicial system this week. Both involved extensive periods of waiting with littl…
https://mmitii.mattballantine.com/2025/10/31/weeknote-754-waiting/
15 days ago
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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...
15 days ago
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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
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Random the Book
Matt Ballantine and Nick Drage's experiment in serendipity and chance.
https://Randomthebook.com
19 days ago
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experiments.randomthebook.com/LinkedInWisd...
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LinkedIn Wisdom Generator
https://experiments.randomthebook.com/LinkedInWisdom/Index.html
20 days ago
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It’s
#weeknotes
time again…
mmitii.mattballantine.com/2025/10/24/w...
@weeknotes-bot.bsky.social
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Weeknote 753: counting down
This week I have learned: It’s a tricky thing when you go to the theatre and by the interval you know that the production isn’t very good. Out of politeness I stay. But is that me being…
https://mmitii.mattballantine.com/2025/10/24/weeknote-753-counting-down/
22 days ago
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#Weeknotes
time
mmitii.mattballantine.com/2025/10/17/w...
@weeknotes-bot.bsky.social
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Weeknote 752: exposure
This week I have learned: yet again, that putting work out there is terrifying. We have pushed out nearly 100 sample packs for the book out to friends and strangers to solicit feedback. It’s …
https://mmitii.mattballantine.com/2025/10/17/weeknote-752-exposure/
29 days ago
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I think sometimes it needs reiterating that the Neural Networks used by computers are metaphorical Neural Networks, and not actual biological ones.
29 days ago
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Are LLMs the first real moment of technonovelty for the digitally native generation?
mmitii.mattballantine.com/2025/10/17/t...
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Technonovelty
I am, however I look at it, getting quite old. I’m old enough to remember the 1970s and the Christmas present I received, a CBM Electronic Calculator. I was amazed by how I could enter number…
https://mmitii.mattballantine.com/2025/10/17/technonovelty/
29 days ago
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reposted by
Matt Ballantine
Sena Bryer
about 1 month ago
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!
add a skeleton here at some point
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"we're speaking to procurement"
add a skeleton here at some point
about 1 month ago
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"You've got backups, right?"
add a skeleton here at some point
about 1 month ago
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Ah, those poster children for AI and data Netflix...
about 1 month ago
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@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...
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Random the Book
Matt Ballantine and Nick Drage's experiment in serendipity and chance.
https://randomthebook.com
about 1 month ago
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#weeknotes
time...
mmitii.mattballantine.com/2025/10/10/w...
@weeknotes-bot.bsky.social
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Weeknote 751: Italia
This week I have learned: Venice really is bloody remarkable, isn’t it? My third visit and as spellbinding as ever. Sometimes, being involved in new business development work is like Whack-a-…
https://mmitii.mattballantine.com/2025/10/10/weeknote-751-italia/
about 1 month ago
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If only Farage understood that the metaphor of the bad apple is that it ruins the whole barrel...
add a skeleton here at some point
about 1 month ago
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The world's shittest ventriloquism act.
about 1 month ago
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750 weeks with
#weeknotes
attached. That's a distressingly large number of weeks.
mmitii.mattballantine.com/2025/10/03/w...
@weeknotes-bot.bsky.social
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Weeknote 750: which feels like a big number
This week I have learned: the reason we fly flags at half mast when mourning. Apparently, it comes from the naval tradition of when one country defeated another, the victor’s flag would be fl…
https://mmitii.mattballantine.com/2025/10/03/weeknote-750-which-feels-like-a-big-number/
about 1 month ago
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about 1 month ago
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Which, thinking about it, is the same strategy my teenagers use.
add a skeleton here at some point
about 1 month ago
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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...
add a skeleton here at some point
about 2 months ago
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If you see this, post a bridge...
add a skeleton here at some point
about 2 months ago
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reposted by
Matt Ballantine
Chris Thorpe
about 2 months ago
If you see this, post a bridge.
add a skeleton here at some point
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And there we have it. Another
#weeknotes
...
@weeknotes-bot.bsky.social
mmitii.mattballantine.com/2025/09/26/w...
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Weeknote 749: a shift
This week I have learned: if you raise concerns constructively, they might get heard. over the coming weeks, there’s going to be a bit of a focus switch. I’m in need of it. I’m lo…
https://mmitii.mattballantine.com/2025/09/26/weeknote-749-a-shift/
about 2 months ago
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If you see this, post a bridge
add a skeleton here at some point
about 2 months ago
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One of Trump and Khan is in the pocket of extreme religious fundamentalists, and it's not Sadiq.
add a skeleton here at some point
about 2 months ago
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Has the world ended yet?
about 2 months ago
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It’ll be quite embarrassing when Farage deports his Frinton-on-Sea landlady…
about 2 months ago
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I tried to make an LLM a little less self-assured using an old management consulting model…
mmitii.mattballantine.com/2025/09/22/s...
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Situational AI
Back in my mid-thirties, as you may already know, I spent a couple of years employed in the world of management and leadership development. I spent my days working with managers from across all sor…
https://mmitii.mattballantine.com/2025/09/22/situational-ai/
about 2 months ago
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A drive today down the A12 and back to visit family in Suffolk. One bridge in Essex over the motorway was adorned with five flags. The union jack, the St George cross, the Saltire, a Welsh dragon... ...and an Irish tricolour. 1/2
about 2 months ago
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I have no memory of this song at all.
#totp
about 2 months ago
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Weeknotes time!
mmitii.mattballantine.com/2025/09/19/w...
@weeknotes-bot.bsky.social
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Weeknote 748: at capacity
This week I have learned: I’ve got to capacity. Actually, I probably was a few weeks ago, but this week I was able to articulate it to people. So I’m watching out now to make sure I don…
https://mmitii.mattballantine.com/2025/09/19/weeknote-748-at-capacity/
about 2 months ago
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So let me get this right. We are going to let a rogue fascist state build (checks notes) *nuclear reactors* in the UK?
2 months ago
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At some point I do think it would be a good idea if we better understood why a certain sort of man feels compelled to go out every so often to kick shit out of other men.
2 months ago
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Every so often an album seeps deep into my bones. Anushka's Ancestry is one of them. I am listening to it endlessly. Big thanks to
@gillespeterson.bsky.social
for having them on his site recently!
open.spotify.com/album/68P5ce...
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Ancestry
https://open.spotify.com/album/68P5ceGbVZJTX0D24GUmqH?si=K5xuXp8XTDu9bhEhw_CyTw
2 months ago
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Farage has had one major piece of policy implemented, and it's been, by almost all objective measures, a total car crash. It doesn't seem to have had any impact on his popularity.
add a skeleton here at some point
2 months ago
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Why do we tax dead people? Wouldn't it make more sense just to treat inheritance as another source of income to the living people who receive it?
add a skeleton here at some point
2 months ago
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reposted by
Matt Ballantine
Erin Reed
2 months ago
The Nation pulls NO punches, from
@espiers.bsky.social
"There's no requirement to take part in this whitewashing campaign. Refusing to join in doesn’t make anyone a bad person. It’s a choice to write an obituary that begins “Joseph Goebbels was a gifted marketer and loving father to six children.”
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Charlie Kirk’s Legacy Deserves No Mourning
The white Christian nationalist provocateur wasn’t a promoter of civil discourse. He preached hate, bigotry, and division
https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/charlie-kirk-assassination-maga/
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The 747th episode of my
#weeknotes
…
mmitii.mattballantine.com/2025/09/12/w...
@weeknotes-bot.bsky.social
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Weeknote 747: nostalgia
This week I have learned: the power of time travel (again). In a chain of coincidence, I was able to meet up with a former colleague and his partner on Tuesday evening, and an old friend at work on…
https://mmitii.mattballantine.com/2025/09/12/weeknote-747-nostalgia/
2 months ago
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I simply don't want to give feedback on every bloody interaction I have...
2 months ago
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What is it with ad UI design at the moment? This wonky button from Microsoft's Copilot ad...
2 months ago
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TIL If you ask Photoshop to GenAI a picture of a coin, almost always it will generate a picture of a bitcoin. Interesting questions about training data...
2 months ago
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reposted by
Matt Ballantine
Lucy Lapinska / LD Lapinski 💛🤍💜🖤
2 months ago
This is going to seem very random but I miss how the old bird app would have worked brilliantly for this: I’m looking for someone who can help me find information about how, and in what - if any - capacity, the Salvation Army might have been involved in adoption processes in London in the 1910s.
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My shortest ever week note
mmitii.mattballantine.com/2025/09/05/w...
@weeknotes-bot.bsky.social
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Weeknote 746: flu
This week I have had flu. That is literally all.
https://mmitii.mattballantine.com/2025/09/05/weeknote-746-flu/
2 months ago
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Is that a patriotic flag on his lapel? Hell no! It's a tawdry advert for the tawdry TV channel that pays him 100s of 1000s of pounds!
add a skeleton here at some point
2 months ago
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I thought leaving the EU was supposed to free us from this straight banana nonsense?
2 months ago
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