Why learn to code when you can use an LLM and pay a subscription fee for the rest of your life.

I wrote a few words last night. nvie.com/posts/15-yea...

Got pitched yesterday on a “research platform” that has a lot of AI in it, to the level of “it can do synthesis”. Me: I don’t trust that. LLMs only do form, not meaning Salesperson: for normal LLMs I agree that’s true, but ours is specially trained for qualitative research Me: yeah, ok

Put your hand up if you received the ELIZA vaccine at a young age and are now immune to chatbot spiraling

“The Trump administration “is telling American manufacturers, ‘You guys go build gasoline cars again,’” he said. “The Chinese government is telling its manufacturers, ‘You go build the advanced vehicles that are going take over the world.’”

Mazda - just coming in to the peak of their bubble-era power. FC RX-7 and HC Cosmo/Luce. Capella/626/MX-6 turbo with 4WS. Familia/323 (GT-X!) *and* MX-5!. I'd argue a more complete and interesting lineup than 80s BMW.

Context:

It’s always a good day to be reminded to always be punching nazis.

brass solidarity band performing “stand by me” in the streets of whittier next to alex pretti’s memorial. the crowd started chanting “the people united will never be defeated” so they incorporated it into the song. i love minneapolis

AS A: Employee I WANT TO: Not use this software but I have to SO THAT: I don't get fired ---------------- The enterprise SaaS user story

Because Australia, I just had to age-verify myself for (checks notes) Substack (?!).

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.