Stream
A selection of articles and links I've read recently with quick thoughts and reflections
You don’t have to if you don’t want to. § Scott Smitelli
"If you do knowledge work, your brain is your livelihood. Don’t rent your brain from some third party, especially a third party that may not have your best interests at heart."
https://www.scottsmitelli.com/articles/you-dont-have-to/
Most Large Organisations are Hostile to Truth — Entropic
"Do not pretend to manage systems you cannot understand." Complex systems are the most interesting things humans have ever built. The fact that they go wrong so often should be a warning, not a challenge.
https://entropic.mataroa.blog/blog/work-at-the-coalface/#fnref:gtn
Altoids by the Fistful § Scott Smitelli
The best kind of long form writing; captivating, intriguing, introspective, and not slapping you about the face with the point. Instead it's worth a read and a re-read, then some contemplation on what it means. Craft and care and cat turds, what a way to sum up modern life and work.
https://www.scottsmitelli.com/articles/altoids-by-the-fistful/
I'm a sucker for a good map, especially one built on what I know is a pretty hard to work with dataset.
https://www.map.signalbox.io/?train=202607066729957&location=@51.16929,-0.73735,7.629Z
Another thing to add to my self-hosting experiment list.
https://kendal.codeberg.page/inkwell/
Please stop the AI Confidence Theater
I think this is a pretty reasonable take, though I think they could have been harsher about LinkedIn. The other thing I’d add is if you want AI benefits, you need to take the data and infrastructure seriously and invest in the before running off to do “AI Use Cases”.
https://www.elenaverna.com/p/please-stop-the-ai-confidence-theater
On Picky Bits and National Decline
I’m not so sure I completely buy the ‘how this relates to management’ angle, but the infantilism of language is one of my pet hates. At least ‘winningest’ hasn’t crossed the pond yet.
https://martinrobbins.substack.com/p/on-picky-bits-and-national-decline
Mechanical Watch – Bartosz Ciechanowski
The quantity of work that went into this is phenomenal, a real step by step through a working mechanical watch.
https://ciechanow.ski/mechanical-watch/
Starmer, the Under-16s Are Smarter Than You — fireborn
Sharing for the final section that sets out concrete steps that could be taken that aren't crab-walking into authoritarianism.
https://fireborn.mataroa.blog/blog/starmer-the-under-16s-are-smarter-than-you/
This happens in any industry where value/status are at a premium. Finance, Law, ... | Hacker News
Another Hacker News comment that landed particularly well. Read the article and come back to read this comment.
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48538851