Started reading: Visualizing Nature by Stuart Kestenbaum 📚

Picked it up cheap in an Islington bookshop. Looking forward to it. https://micro.blog/books/9781648960376

Rebecca Solnit: How to Comment on Social Media:

"Also you have the right to check their papers, as in to demand they prove to you their commitments and beliefs, and their unwillingness to do so on demand is a sign of culpability too. Have they properly condemned the recent something or other? It is not your job to find proof; it is this complete stranger’s obligation to offer it up, and there is no reason they would not if they were not guilty as charged. Condemn them for insufficient condemnation issuance."

This is amazingly funny, but you’re a better person than I if you don’t wince, too. https://lithub.com/rebecca-solnit-how-to-comment-on-social-media

Manuel Moreale:

"I’ll start sounding like a broken record but, at this point, I don’t care: social media was and still is a mistake. Enough people all bunched together in the same space with the ability to quickly interact with each other will produce more harm than good." https://manuelmoreale.com/modern-discourse

I’m not saying AI is Apple’s achilles heel.

But… https://www.macrumors.com/2025/01/24/apple-siri-team-changes/

Nature:

"55% of respondents to the question ‘What do you use Bluesky for?’ said it was a mix of three research-related activities: to connect with other scientists, keep up to date with other research or researchers, and promote their own research" https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-00177-1?linkId=12635521

Bloomberg:

"Over the past two years, a set of massively popular podcasters and streamers cemented themselves as the new mainstream source of information for millions of young men, and, according to a new Bloomberg analysis, used their perch to rally these constituents in support of Trump and the political right."

There’s a new mainstream media and I don’t think journalism as a profession is anywhere near adjusting to this reality. https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2025-youtube-podcast-men-for-trump/?accessToken=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJzb3VyY2UiOiJTdWJzY3JpYmVyR2lmdGVkQXJ0aWNsZSIsImlhdCI6MTczNzU2MzY3MiwiZXhwIjoxNzM4MTY4NDcyLCJhcnRpY2xlSWQiOiJTUUhRVDFUMEcxS1cwMCIsImJjb25uZWN0SWQiOiJFOURENjUxQUFBN0Q0MEFFQUU2QzRGMTY2Q0JCRkJFNCJ9.EP-v5omaWQ1PazzjqxyX31wdu9AqnoiYSspezhPbuk8&leadSource=uverify%20wall

Community Management https://adders.blog/2025/01/24/community-management.html

I have written over 2,000 words inspired by, but addressing larger issues than, the current clash between micro.blog and omg.lol staff.

I’m not sure I’ll ever publish it. But I’m glad I wrote it, because it helps clarify my own thinking.

There’s a very good reason that witch hunts and lynch mobs are replaced with legal process, courts and standards of evidence and punishment in civilised societies.

It seems clear that we need to learn this lesson all over again online, if we’re to carry on forming meaningful communities there.

Benedict Evans:

"If I need something that does have answers that can be definitely wrong in important ways, and where I’m not an expert in the subject, or don’t have all the underlying data memorised and would have to repeat all the work myself to check it, then today, I can’t use an LLM for that at all."

We’re unprepared for computer that can be unpredictably wrong, because we that’s not our pre-existing experience. https://www.ben-evans.com/benedictevans/2025/1/the-problem-with-better-models

It’s fascinating watching the ban on links to X spread, virally, from subreddit to subreddit.

John Gruber:

"The better the Apple product, the more shamelessly it gets copied. Apple should make Clips into an iOS video editing app that everyone rips off shamelessly."

My daughter’s friends refer to videos as “CapCuts” or “edits” (hence the name of the new Instagram editing app). That an entire form of media is associated with a firm’s product is profoundly worrying. https://appleinsider.com/articles/25/01/20/metas-edits-is-an-alternative-to-capcut-as-apple-forgets-about-clips

Ezra Klein:

"Silicon Valley and crypto culture’s embrace of Trump has changed his cultural meaning more than Democrats have recognized. In 2016, Trump felt like an emissary of the past; in 2025, he’s being greeted as a harbinger of the future." https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/19/opinion/trump-mandate-zuckerberg-masculinity.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

Great analysis of why the current New Yorker cover is so powerful: [1000 words)(https://memex.naughtons.org/monday-20-january-2025/40344/).

Oh, flip, I’m out of coffee beans. 😱

Today is Blue Monday, which is a myth, invented by the marketing team for a travel company.

Have a great, productive day! 😉 https://apple.news/AnsYkCcpQR1uXBlZsxmwPlg

Watching the kids do HADO. https://www.hadoarsports.com

Started reading: The Year in the Countryside by Frances Pitt 📚 https://micro.blog/books/9781910787120

Journalism department Christmas lunch (delayed)

Just finished watching Skeleton Crew with the family.

Just the best Star Wars in years. Family-friendly but with enough of an edge of darkness to give it depth for the adults.

More please.