This is a solid attempt to describe how agents can improve certain kinds of work. But this wrong: "if we can’t actually define what reasoning and intelligence are, then all that matters is whether we can distinguish machine outputs from human outputs" generativehistory.substack.com/p/where-do-s...

It's ridiculous, right? It creates a dissonance because of how little it makes sense. But it does have to make sense to the speaker, so how is that? There's only one possible answer: the speaker believes that their opponents are nonpersons. That there is a hierarchy. It's an axiom, not hypocrisy.

The parking attendant paused by the double-length bay. Intended for mobile homes and cars with trailers, it was currently occupied by a sleeping dragon. No parts of it extended beyond the lines, and the paper ticket was clearly displayed, impaled on a horn. The parking attendant moved on.

He’s mocking all the right people. A huge, huge chunk of people.

The Woz said I will not be booed lol I also love the lull of the crowd as they’re trying to figure out where he’s going hahaha (Via: www.instagram.com/reel/DYfgIwo...)

Thousands are marching in Selma calling for a full restoration of the voting rights act.

I just watched one of Bryan Cranston's early films (Dead Space from 1991) and they were already calling him "old man" in that, which honestly seems kind of unfair.

A post about the making of my forthcoming app, The Ring App. It is to be a companion for listening to and exploring Wagner's big opera cycle. The name drops include Tolkien! greg.langmead.info/posts/2026-0...

My new Mac app is out today! It's called Kickstart, and it has just one job: helping indie app developers make more money on the App Store. It is *packed* with features, many of which are completely free. Get it here: apps.apple.com/app/kickstar...

Raising the Flag Follow my work and writing on Substack: nickanderson.substack.com

This "Unethical Guide to Surviving AI Layoffs" by Mo Bitar perfectly captures the current moment www.tiktok.com/@atmoio/vide...

But at the same time, there is no hair to split between his posts and the most erudite National Review piece ever written.

We lost Douglas Adams 25 years ago today. This has made a lot of people very sad and has been widely regarded as a bad move.

Lotta people in tech underestimate how much we hate you and your works and everything you do

I needed a diagram to explain my perspective.

If you're left-of-center and still subscribed to the New York Times -- whose leaders absolutely despise you and everything you hold dear -- I'm going to assume you're just a masochist at this point. There are good reporters there, but their bosses? They fucking hate you. They hate hate hate you.

Pew writes about data center energy usage. 44% of the energy is wind/solar/nuclear, which is good and hopefully rising. www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/...

personally I think it's a very big deal that the Canada bureau chief for the @nytimes.com — certainly one of the highest-paid journalists in the country — asked an unspecified "AI tool" what Poilievre said & published its AI-hallucinated quotes in her reporting.

I appreciated today's Hantavirus update from Katelyn Jetelina, whom I've followed since 2020. yourlocalepidemiologist.substack.com/p/hantavirus...

I spoke to our son's entire 7th grade class just now+ talked about launching Elon Musk on a solo mission to Mars and *every last kid* belly laughed. You have to be the biggest loser on Earth to have 7th graders laughing at a mom making a joke about you. Infinite negative aura. The kids are alright.

Remember Dan Bricklin in Triumph of the Nerds describing the response to VisiCalc? "He started shaking. He said 'That's what I do all week! I could do it in an hour!'" Well go remind yourself. That's exactly Claude Code for me! youtu.be/ACt6xsMt5Uk?...

There is now a WW2 eastern front war game on iOS, with hexes and counters and everything! apps.apple.com/us/app/no-re.... It's a port of a board game by Carl Paradis, sometimes compared and contrasted with The Barbarossa Campaign. Low counter density, 100km hexes.

DAWKINS: You idiots believe in God? ALSO DAWKINS: The Computer is alive. And it’s also my girlfriend

I know I'm less cultured than my peers, but I got as bored watching the Odyssey trailer as I did reading the translation, (which was an infinite amount).

“And thou, Melkor, shalt see that no theme may be played that hath not its uttermost source in me, nor can any alter the music in my despite. For he that attempteth this shall prove but mine instrument in the devising of things more wonderful, which he himself hath not imagined.” (The Silmarillion)

The war first cut oil supply and then oil *demand*. Total world oil demand is now down 5 million barrels per day, or 5%. “Demand destruction will come and is coming in waves. Asia was first in line…” www.worldoil.com/news/2026/4/...

Maybe Musk is on to something when he says he’ll have to build data centers in space

Teachers: "Please help us get AI out of schools, it's ruining education!" Students: "Please don't make us use AI, it's ruining our lives!" Politicians: "We hear you and we want to help you harness the power of AI." #NihilismAndTechnology

The silver lining: especially if it keeps on going, the Iran war will hasten the collapse of fossil fuels. Solar power adoption is already shooting up.

This checks..

It's very funny to me that Gmail has added what amounts to Word's grammar check feature from 2003 and is calling it AI.

Things suck. But, the second civil rights movement is going to be fought with a much larger porportion of the population in support of it, and with a citizenry that thinks nostalgically about the relative prosperity and strength of the United States during its era as a multicultural democracy.

Now look what those Trump voters have gotten up to. They sure do want a different world than the one I want.

Anyone feel like the net effect of ABS in MLB so far is to show how impressively good human umps are at calling balls and strikes?

Supreme Court Overturns ‘Right v. Wrong’ https://theonion.com/supreme-court-overturns-right-v-wrong-1819573211/

there is something genuinely clarifying and useful about this kind of stuff. they are totally hoods off and proud of it, which means we should not hesitate to describe them accordingly

Ball room is a bipartisan preoccupation, as we know from recordings of LBJ's calls to his tailor

Backers of the massive data center campus say at full buildout it will consume 9GW of electricity, more than double the entire state of Utah’s current energy use. They say they intend to burn fossil fuels on site to make all that electricity. Box Elder County will vote on the proposal Monday.

A Claude-powered diff tool. You run "llmdiff file1 file2" and you get output like "These are 95% the same -- that's the same content, different packaging. Probably the disagreements are minor or just noise. This sort of thing often happens with this filetype."

The section "The Backlash Against AI Is Breaking Containment" in this post is 🔥. People are taking action to block new data centers. They blame AI for: soaring energy costs, taking their jobs, harming the environment, spreading misinformation, increasing surveillance, making us all dumber.

The Access of Evil

OK this piece by @reckless.bsky.social about why AI is unpopular among most people (anyone who's not inflicted with "software brain") is just solid gold from start to finish

After months of work, my new app is finally available to preorder on the Mac App Store. It's called Kickstart, and it has just one job: to help indie app developers make more money on the App Store. How does it do that? Let me explain…

1/ 4 Next month I am running a Signum University class on 'The Tale of Beren & Lúthien'. 2 sections have filled up, so we are opening a 3rd section!

I'm convinced Christopher Guest and Eugene Levy are writing the script to our country at this point.

This is a warning that prices will go up soon. I know for a fact I get more than $100 of value from the Max plan I'm on (as measured subjectively by the work output not the power and water and GPUs). The gap between my subjective value and what they charge will close as they figure things out.

I'm now allergic to the word "shape" coming from an agent. My irritation knows no bounds.

Book about how engagement metrics and the Internet killed journalism titled “Tragedy of the Comments”

Just posted on Six Colors: That was Tim, this is Ternus: Some first thoughts on Apple’s CEO transition

I hope everyone on here is avoiding sounding a clamorous unison as of many trumpets braying upon a few notes, essaying to drown the other music by the violence of your voice. Though even if you do, your most triumphant notes will be taken by the other and woven into its own solemn pattern.