All of us who watched the ABC News presidential debate this week shared an experience: a whole bunch of “What the fuck?” moments. These were statements made by the candidates that seemed, not just odd, but completely incendiary, implausible, and out of left field. So let’s evaluate what they said and just as important, was…
Newsletter 57: Is rewarding heroics making your workplace better? Plus, Project 2025 book delayed, AI’s marketing value is less than zero, Scottish WorldCon triumph, three people to follow and three books to read. Every heroic workplace act is a sign of failure I worked in companies for 33 years. I was often the hero, and…
We learned this morning that vice president and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris has selected Minnesota governor Tim Walz as her vice-presidential candidate. Trump has selected Ohio senator JD Vance as his running mate. Of course, former FDR vice president John Nance “Cactus Jack” Garner once described the vice-presidency as “not worth a bucket of…
Newsletter 55: Why paying people by the hour is the most pervasive and perverse trend in business. Plus the Hugos reject automated entries, JD Vance gets rich off his VP nod, Ingram bans a book about AI in publishing, three people to follow and three books to read. Nobody smart or skilled should work by…
Honestly, you’re going to have vote for president in about 100 days. So stop credulously sharing crap that doesn’t matter. There’s an account circulating about the masturbatory practices of Trump’s vice presidential candidate JD Vance, supposedly documented in his book Hillbilly Elegy. There are two problems with that. It’s false. It’s not in the book….
A new Louisiana law demands that school classrooms and state-funded universities display the biblical Ten Commandments on a poster-sized display in a “large, easily readable font” in every classroom by next year. Is this a violation of the Constitution? And more interestingly, do the Ten Commandments reflect values we want to uphold as Americans? Of course…
Social media is addictive and harmful to children. There’s plenty of evidence for that. As a result, surgeon general Vivek Murthy has recommended that Congress require a warning label on social media. Let’s be real. A warning label would do little. The problem’s in the algorithms. And that’s where the solutions, if any should come…
You already know what you think today. There’s no point in my attempting to share some witty insight. And there’s no point in competing with news this pervasive. Talk amongst yourselves. See you Monday.
A new politics arises from the ashes of the American disaster, AI proponents and doomsayers wrestle, books as chatbots, plus three people to follow, three books to read, and a chance to see me debate at Berkeley. The inspirational rise of the muscular middle I’ve freakin’ had it with the American political system. It’s time…