I was gonna say don’t let the fascists claim Tolkien, they’re wrong, but then you see something like this and realize, no, they do understand it, they get that they’re the baddies

Naming your startup Sauron has real “are we the baddies” energy.

Just tilt your fruit buns 45°. They’re Scot Cross Buns now and you can eat them all year.

And Tiny Tim, who did NOT die, lived in the interstice, yes, in both the city and the city.

And Tiny Tim, who did NOT die, still dreamed of cyberspace, hope fading nightly. All the speed he took, all the turns he'd taken and the corners he cut in Night City, and he'd still see the matrix in his dreams, bright lattices of logic unfolding across that colourless void...

Extra special shout out to the organising team for a workshop in early March (which we are doing for free) who emailed today asking for slides by the end of the first working week in January and a review meeting at mid Jan. I will be declining. By scheduled send for 11 minutes before COB tomorrow.

I don't believe in technological determinism but I do believe that affordances, marketing, and propaganda are powerfully real.

Introduce yourself with 5 cars you’ve owned 1969 MGB roadster 1982 Mazda RX-7 1994 Peugeot 405 mi16 1967 Mazda 1500 1976 Renault 16TS

If you have been sharing that Malwarebytes article on the Gmail thing, you should note the giant correction up top. www.malwarebytes.com/blog/news/20...

It occurs to me that the gmail “turn off AI” thing is worse than you think, because if you turn it off and your correspondent hasn’t, then Google gets access anyway.

Here's a rule of thumb: If "AI" seems like a good solution, you are probably both misjudging what the "AI" can do and misframing the problem. >>

Take it from me: super weird is where it’s at.

D is objectively the correct answer.

I keep saying that "improving productivity in front of a bottleneck cannot increase output, although it may decrease it". A hard won insight from manufacturing which people for some reason resist applying to service and administrative jobs.

Almost every time I teach interview data analysis, someone asks if they can use software to automate it. The point is to understand the data, not to produce a report. Learning takes time and messiness.

So the LLM synthesizes a result from various sources (that may be made up or misquoted) and then you "double-check" the sources? Sounds like the LLM is using you as research assistant.

I'll just read these open tabs and that way I will have less tabs open, he said. Oh, no.

programming computers is socio-anthropology actually

Alternatively, we could spend a lot more time with 80-yr-olds of to see what their lives are like. Empathy is a humanity problem, not a tech problem. You don't have to simulate what you can ask, especially when the challenges a demographic faces are varied and complicated by lived experience.

“A billion dollars… are not necessary for [a] lavish lifestyle. The only thing that that amount of wealth is necessary for is the domination of others. [At] a certain point, wealth shifts from being smthg that enables freedom to smthg that can only be used to take freedom away from the public.”

I don't get how people don't realize that a technology that replaces junior and entry level positions in a field destroys that field. There's no skipping steps. You have to be a junior before you can be a senior, and if you don't have senior people, you don't have a field.

Ok, hear me out. A Lord of the Rings remake, but with these two taking the One Ring to Modor:

In “the Double Diamond is meaningless” news, I just found a bunch of our proposal collateral that has the first two stages reversed.

the most useful thing LLMs can is force us to do is to reconsider the way we use linguistic dexterity as a proxy for intelligence

Half the designers on LinkedIn, who want to use swastikas the way your Uncle Charlie uses the n-word, are thrilled that “design finally has a seat at the table.” Nevermind that the table is in a Nazi restaurant. Thankfully, @danhon.com lays out the truth: newsletter.danhon.com/archive/s20e...

Anyone who wants slightly more coherent thoughts on the appointment of America's Chief Design Officer, congratulations: you can now read them in the latest episode of my newsletter: s20e06: Not About How it Looks newsletter.danhon.com/archive/s20e...

Beware the Normelbaum!

My algorithmic playlist just went from Taylor Swift’s “Ready for it” to “Blood of the past” by The Comet is Coming. Chef’s kiss. No notes.

Recently, at a meetup: - The guest speaker: “you should consider the wider impact of your design work” - a question from the audience: “what’s the ROI on that?”

Wait til they hear about how YouTube still works if you don’t have an account. And is creating a “shadow” account for you even if you don’t have one.

What is common knowledge in your field, but shocks outsiders? - Asking people what they want is a very bad way of learning about that they actually want. - Most product, service, and policy decisions made in the world do not understand this.

You have been kidnapped and a character from the last tv show you watched is coming to rescue you who is coming to save you

I am begging the TV app UI designers to design better focus indicators so every single different component of your app I don't have to guess what element my remote is focusing.

Listening to a non-tech podcast and one of the hosts, a mainstream journalist, was going down an “AI is already everywhere” path but their example was cashless payments at a stadium in their home town.

Just misread “far-right politics” as “light tar” politics. No, I don’t know either.

Today’s hill to die on is that method and methodology are different.

New client consistently replies to requests for information to clarify their requirements with “this was previously provided”. 1. No it wasn’t, because we’re asking about an exception or for clarification of something ambiguous 2. Even if it was, what does it hurt you to say it again?

Won the Melbourne taxi lottery today with a Caprice. Did someone say legroom? @loflyt.bsky.social @drewpasmith.com

Launched a survey for a client two weeks ago, using their opted-in contact list. 9% response rate and 67% completion! Regardless of the survey results, that’s amazing engagement.

Some of the ramen places on Russell are pretty decent. And there are plenty of other noodle places in Chinatown. Good Indonesian on Elizabeth north of La Trobe (and a cheap and cheerful Malaysian place there too). There’s also a Chinese BBQ place that’s a hit with the construction workers.

Get thee to Heartbaker Bun Mee, in a little alley off Flinders Lane between Swanston and Degraves. You will know you’re close when you see the queue.

Sushi Land near 101 Collins is my go-to. The $15 bento boxes go hard.

People of Melbourne! Where can I eat lunch in the cbd that isn’t just cafe sandwiches but also isn’t a sit-down restaurant? Where are the, for example, salad bars? Vegan curry joints? Bento places?

People of Melbourne! Where can I eat lunch in the cbd that isn’t just cafe sandwiches but also isn’t a sit-down restaurant? Where are the, for example, salad bars? Vegan curry joints? Bento places?

Clients: it’s really important that all voices are included in this work My team: reports what was said Also clients: ew, take that out, that’s (a) not how things work around here (b) against policy (c) not in scope for this project

shit like this is what makes me widely distrust "design" and its impact on the world. most obvious and well-evidenced findings, completely known, and deployed in a situation with the highest stakes for human life, AND PEOPLE EVEN HATE IT, and y'all still made us suffer through this

If you see this, post your getaway vehicle

The best assignment I ever did in my comp sci degree was to black-box test three different optional-preferential vote counting algorithms. Ok, that’s civics not politics, but you can’t have one without the other.

Shingles vaccine: achievement unlocked.