Friday’s Finds

On the last Friday of each month I curate some of the observations and insights that were shared on social media. I call these Friday’s Finds.

“Look, I know AI is controversial, but just for a moment, let’s set aside our preconceived notions, our biases, the environmental impact, the massive cost to train and run models, the labor exploitation, the intellectual property theft, the inaccuracies, the mania it causes in users, the destruction of search, the deskilling of professionals, the devaluation of creative work, job losses, and lack of economic value from enterprise implementations.

Wait, what were we talking about?”
—Max Leibman

Read more

On the last Friday of each month I curate some of the observations and insights that were shared on social media. I call these Friday’s Finds.

“they called it trickle-down economics because ‘financial waterboarding’ didn’t poll well with focus groups” —JA Westenberg

“If you aren’t using AI, you run a very real risk of falling behind in the race to produce voluminous mediocrity while slowly forgetting how to do your own job.” —Max Leibman

Read more

On the last Friday of each month I curate some of the observations and insights that were shared on social media. I call these Friday’s Finds.

“The internet didn’t make us stupid. It made stupidity scalable.” —J.A. Westenberg

“Everything faded into mist. The past was erased, the erasure was forgotten, the lie became truth.” —George Orwell, ‘1984’

“you can give someone a fish and then teach them to fish. It’s a lot easier to learn how to fish when you’re not starving.” —ebel aurora

“Employers: Everyone must return to the office, because we work best when people collaborate face-to-face.
Also: We’re going to replace everyone with AI.”
—Jeff Johnson

Read more

On the last Friday of each month I curate some of the observations and insights that were shared on social media. I call these Friday’s Finds.

“Secret Canada is a freedom of information project from The Globe and Mail.
Information is the bedrock of democracy. Freedom of information laws give you the right to obtain records held by public institutions. This project helps you navigate Canada’s access system.”

Kids keep getting sicker as evidence for COVID immune damage builds

If we were to see immune damage manifesting at a population level, it would look like what we’re seeing today: big waves of common illnesses. Unusual spikes of uncommon illnesses. Course reversal for previously declining and eliminated illnesses. An unexplained, global wave of sickness.

“I spent 5+ years as a billionaire’s wordsmith, which meant knowing him intimately enough to write in his voice.

I think the thread running through most of them is not a belief in their own basic goodness but rather contempt for everyone else, including and especially their peers. Expressing that contempt with plausible deniability was part of my (usually) unspoken mandate.

Contempt and duper’s delight. Those were the last thrills once $$ reached a point of diminishing returns.” —@kims

The life of a bicyclist is worth $1150…. apparently.

“Christopher Shawn Basque of Chilliwack, B.C., pleaded guilty in North Vancouver Provincial Court to one count of driving without due care and attention on Friday. The court ordered him to pay a $1,000 fine and a $150 victim surcharge.”
RIP to this poor woman who was just riding a bike.”

Dump truck driver pleads guilty in fatal cyclist collision in North Vancouver

Read more

On the last Friday of each month I curate some of the observations and insights that were shared on social media. I call these Friday’s Finds.

“If you are staying on a corporate social media platform because the people you follow are still there, consider others are also staying there because you are still there. Someone needs to start the move. Be that person.
Leave X for good.
Leave Facebook forever.
Remember blue skies eventually turn grey.
Embrace the social media that cannot get sold to a billionaire. Embrace the Fediverse“
—@Em

“Fascism begins the moment a ruling class, fearing the people may use their political democracy to gain economic democracy, begins to destroy political democracy in order to retain its power of exploitation and special privilege.” —Tommy Douglas

“Remember when you were a kid and adults used to ask you what you would do if everyone else you knew was jumping off a cliff? Would you jump too? Now you know.” —@JeremyMallin

Read more

On the last Friday of each month I curate some of the observations and insights that were shared on social media. I call these Friday’s Finds.

“You cannot buy the revolution. You cannot make the revolution. You can only be the revolution. It is in your spirit, or it is nowhere.” —Ursula K. Le Guin, The Dispossessed: An Ambiguous Utopia, via @Susan Kaye Quinn

“To those who can hear me, I say do not despair. The misery that is now upon us is but the passing of greed — the bitterness of men who fear the way of human progress. The hate of men will pass, and dictators die, and the power they took from the people will return to the people. And so long as men die, liberty will never perish.” —Charlie Chaplin The Final Speech from The Great Dictator, 1940

George Orwell’s 1940 Review of Mein Kampf

Nevertheless, simply on the internal evidence of Mein Kampf, it is difficult to believe that any real change has taken place in Hitler’s aims and opinions. When one compares his utterances of a year or so ago with those made fifteen years earlier, a thing that strikes one is the rigidity of his mind, the way in which his world-view doesn’t develop. It is the fixed vision of a monomaniac and not likely to be much affected by the temporary manoeuvres of power politics.

Read more

On the last Friday of each month I curate some of the observations and insights that were shared on social media. I call these Friday’s Finds.

“Capitalism is what happens when you believe glorified fishmongers should chart the course for humanity.” —@aral

“11 yrs ago I found this funny: ‘How many Microsoft designers does it take to change a light bulb? None. They just define darkness as ‘industry standard’. But now I can’t unsee this: ‘How many huge companies does it take to fix the climate? None. They just define global warming as ‘industry standard’.” —@HelenCzerski

“it’s easy to propose a solution if you only understand 10% of the problem” —@tef

Read more

On the last Friday of each month I curate some of the observations and insights that were shared on social media. I call these Friday’s Finds.

“I am well in body although considerably rumpled up in spirit” — Anne Shirley, Anne of Green Gables, via @FelicityShoulders

“Maybe one of the Hall of Fame-level cons of all time was economists dressing up their discipline as an exact science, fake Nobel and all.”—@brunoc

Read more

On the last Friday of each month I curate some of the observations and insights that were shared on social media. I call these Friday’s Finds.

“Grand Theft Autocomplete is my new favourite term for LLMs.” —@ben

Marvin Minsky, a pioneer in the field of AI, was quoted in Life magazine — in 1970, “In from three to eight years we will have a machine with the general intelligence of an average human being.” —AIWS.net

Read more

On the last Friday of each month I curate some of the observations and insights that were shared on social media. I call these Friday’s Finds.

“Listen, generative LLMs and art imaging tools will get better and better over time. If your opposition is based on crappy outputs, that problem will get solved.

Problems such as unsustainable resource consumption, unfair labour practices, accelerating wealth inequity and the absolute death of joyful creativity, however, will not be fixed.” —@barsoomcore

Read more