It's a funny thing, but displaying information using multiple channels of information for folks with particular accessibility needs also helps everyone else, because it gives them more signals that their brain can decode in the background, even if they're not paying perfect attention (because who, in this age of devices, is ever paying perfect attention??)
Pro AI, Anti-hype
The AI Hype industry wants us to believe that megascale LLMs developed and operated unethically and unsustainably are the only possible path to the future, but that's nonsense. Smaller systems designed to do one thing really, really well can be game changing. We can choose the direction we want AI to take.
Benefit Model
It would be easy to define our 2025 by those wounding moments. By the cuts still open, the stitches applied, real and metaphorical, the bruises, both faded and fresh. You only need to look around you, at the landscape, the climate, the nation, and the world, to see reasons why this focus makes sense. The wounds shape us. They instruct our immune systems, and define our responses to subsequent events, whether those future events are actually traumatic or not. They mark our skin, scar our brains, label us as having struggled. I could easily define myself by those wounds.
Things we can say no to
Banning kids under 16 from social media might make great headlines, and give the government the appearance of doing something meaningful, but it's tokenistic at best, harmful at worst. We could have an internet that doesn't consume us for fun and profit. We're choosing not to.
The Art of Being Difficult
I want to talk about change, about people, about systems, what it takes to make progress, and why being difficult is so important. From fire alarms to hospital beds. From music apps to cars. From climate change to education. Our systems are not serving us well, and it's time to push back.