Interesting conversation with my 17 y/o on the school run this morning. She has total awareness/knowledge of Zohran Mamdani but couldn't identify Zack Polanski. There's something in this about communication and filter bubbles...

Lasting peace, but it would have made for a very poor Diplomacy board.

I read a lot of opinions about AI and the future of work, and this post by @naomialderman.bsky.social is the best I've come across in a long time. It was written for young people the same age as my daughters, and the best compliment I can give it is that I immediately shared it with them.

Really liked this from @profserious.bsky.social: "much of what I thought I knew about how to communicate effectively... get things done... apply effort and use influence, were contingent... my unquestioned assumption that my knowledge was universally true and broadly applicable, was sadly false."

In the first two hours back from vacation: a no-show for the first scheduled meeting of the week, an airline cancelling a flight next week and a parking fine from a client that was supposed to have arranged a permit for a visit to their office. I think it's going to be one of those days...

Back home after a week of travel which let me catch up on viewing. Found Slow Horses S05 a little disappointing. Much preferred Steven Soderbergh’s Black Bag, which I watched on the flight. Any precise, bespectacled spy called George invites comparison to Smiley. Black Bag was style over substance—

EWR-LHR, waiting to push back, already over two hours late and a screaming child in row ahead. This is going to be a long flight.

Grima Wormtongue: “It is time for the Hobbits to ally with the Ruffians…” I suspect Tolkien would have seen Musk, Robinson et al for exactly who they are.

Up early for Brooklyn Bridge Parkrun and a cooldown walk around Cobble Hill and Brooklyn Heights.

LHR-EWR

@zibaldoni.bsky.social You might enjoy this thread.

C'est moi

Very good webinar today organised by @publishersassoc.bsky.social and @independentpublishersguild.com on the proposed Bartz v. Anthropic settlement, with an informative presentation and Q&A with publisher class counsel Oppenheim & Zebrak. Key questions from publishers on eligibility criteria…

Just started a non-fiction book and the epigraph to the first chapter misattributes a Rebecca Solnit quote. Amazing to me that neither author nor editor spotted it. Instant credibility loss.

A hugely important update for authors and publishers: you may not be eligible, it's a defined list of titles based on US copyright registration and date eligibility, not everything in LibGen. But take five minutes to be sure 👉

Oh, well played 👏

It's the perfect time of year to investigate ROADS TO WITHERED HILL, the immersive audio experience developed by @tomabba.studio to accompany my folk horror novel. It's free and you just need to plug yourself into your phone and go for a VERY unsettling short walk. discover.witheredhill.place

Lunchtime reading: issue 7 of @wyrdscience.bsky.social, which just arrived. Might be the best yet. Features on Rick Priestley, Undaunted and Cold War RPGs, an excellent column from @jameswallis.bsky.social and much more. If you like tabletop games and you haven’t subscribed, you’re missing out.

I'm so glad this got reposted into my timeline. It's utterly charming, the nicest game I've seen in ages.

A superb podcast with @alisonjones.com interviewing my friend and colleague @jamesspackman73.bsky.social on books and the business of persuasion—the points about playful experimentation and chains of enthusiasm are pure gold for anyone looking to sell a book.

100% this.

He's my friend and I'm very biased, but a new book from @tomabba.studio is a thing, and two of them is an event.

Early start and over to Oxford to give an AI presentation at Worcester College for the Oxford International Centre for Publishing.

It's a wrap at our Autumn Conference! Thanks to all our brilliant speakers, chairs, supporters and everyone who joined us, in London or online #ipgac

L’esprit de l’escalier, but we should have called this #ipgac session Have Your Click and Feed It.

Thanks to everyone who came to our session at #ipgac. Lots of questions at the time and over lunch underline how important this issue is for publishers. The exam question: how to balance control over web traffic/bots and use of content with being visible in AI outputs.

If you see this, quote the energy you bring to Bluesky

IPG President @ogadsby.bsky.social opening the @independentpublishersguild.com Autumn Conference #ipgac in London. This promises to be an excellent and thought provoking day.

Universally applicable.

As ever, amazed at how people behave in public/co-working spaces: this lunchtime the competition is between the person who brought a ring light and USB microphone, and the person on Zoom loudly discussing padding a bid with someone from the relevant (very identifiable) funder.

I like the new Observer more and more. Naomi Alderman's review of Nick Clegg and Tim Berners-Lee's new books is a wonderful piece of writing. observer.co.uk/culture/book...

Notwithstanding my own contribution, this is a phenomenal course line up from the @independentpublishersguild.com this autumn: Rebecca, Viviane and Simon are leading experts in their fields, and there's something here for every publisher to learn from.

So, that opinion piece in @thebookseller.com: "The book trade must redefine its purpose in an AI age." I have issues with this in terms of accuracy and line of argument. Personal opinion, not necessarily that of any of the orgs I'm associated with. With that said...

So the Remarkable Paper Pro Move is almost exactly what I wished for. The only thing I can see that's missing is keyboard support—with that, it would be the e-ink Psion 5 successor I've wanted for years. remarkable.com/products/rem...

There are moments in Nick Clegg's interview with Emily Maitlis that feel like the "don't do this" section of a media training course. www.youtube.com/watch?v=KAYM...

Very nerdy publishing metadata joke (is there any other kind?): a colleague of mine has started using 'Women sleuths!' as a mild curse, as the Thema code for Crime and mystery: women sleuths / detectives is... FFS

Getting ads for a reMarkable product announcement next week. Niche view, but if they made a pocket/Boox Palma-sized device I would use the hell out of that, alongside my full-sized tablet.

Good catch up with @suw.bsky.social this afternoon, discussing the state of the world, designing and selling training courses, and this great line on customer feedback from Tobias Zwingmann.

Can anyone help @guywalters.bsky.social with a bookish filming location?

A very significant development in Bartz v Anthropic, with the AI company reaching a preliminary settlement with authors:— www.wired.com/story/anthro...

Youngest daughter starts Sixth Form next week, has a read/watch list to prepare. For A Level Business Studies, her teacher is suggesting watching The Social Network, The Founder, The Big Short—all not bad calls. And then there's the recommendation for The Internship...

Recently I spoke to a PhD candidate who had been told their first journal submission should be rewritten in more academic language. Today, I came across an AI startup translating academic papers into plain English. Tom Fishburne called this one in 2023... marketoonist.com/2023/03/ai-w...

Walking to the office in the rain. An abrupt transition from summer yesterday to autumn today.

Interesting longlist for the FT/Schroders Business Book of the Year. Don’t judge, but this is my Booker and always shapes my autumn reading. 🤓 A few opinions follow:—

As a summer project, I did some research using Companies House data to size and plot the UK book and journal publishing industries. I've published a write-up on my website, alongside some preliminary analysis of the data. www.georgewalkley.com/UK-Publishin...

Our policy advisor @georgewalkley.com has filed his August round-up of important policy developments including the Government’s new Small Business Strategy and late payments consultation. Now available for IPG members to read (you will need to be logged in to see it) 👉 buff.ly/ZrcykFj #publishing

As a summer project, I did some research using Companies House data to size and plot the UK book and journal publishing industries. I've published a write-up on my website, alongside some preliminary analysis of the data. www.georgewalkley.com/UK-Publishin...

After a few days experimenting with GPT-5, I've noticed a pattern: having provided an output, it consistently ends by offering to go further, more extreme, more provocative. E.g. here from recent prompt outputs. Don't recall it being as pronounced in earlier models. Anyone else seeing this?

Google introduced a new feature called Storybooks in Gemini, which creates individual picture books from user prompts. I tried it so you don't have to: let's just say that its attempt to explain Generative AI isn't going to trouble the Carnegie shortlists... blog.google/products/gem...

Black Shuck, also immortalised in the Usborne Book of the Unknown, terrifying a generation of 70s and 80s children. www.theguardian.com/books/booksb...