Worth considering the number of grifters who swore blind that the metaverse would be a thing. Of course it wasn’t a thing. It was a fever dream embraced by people who have clearly never watched anyone actually use technology: a corporate boondoggle at best. # [Link]
The only reason to make immigration more difficult, particularly for people who are seeking asylum from terrible conditions, is because you hate immigrants and want to hurt them. As it turns out, these stupid rules don't even do what they claim to. #Democracy [Link]
A lovely, personal reflection on (in my opinion) the best TV show ever made. #Culture [Link]
I respect Bruce Schneier a great deal, but I hate this proposal. For one thing, what about people outside the US whose data was used? On the internet, the public is global. Wherever the tools are used, the rights infringed by AI tools are everyone's, from everywhere. Paying
Cam Pegg writes: I’m re-reading Michael Porter’s seminal article, The Five Competitive Forces That Shape Strategy, and just had an OMFG-I-need-to-get-this-tattooed-on-my-forehead-so-that-everyone-I-talk-to-gets-the-message moment: A narrow focus on growth is one of the major causes of bad strategy decisions. The thing about growth is that it leads to bad strategy
It's not really mentioned in this article, but lead sheathing isn't just used in old phone cabling. It's in some modern cabling too, including underground and undersea cables used to provide internet. And the health risks are real. #Health [Link]
The key word, of course, is “declared”. #Democracy [Link]
To put it another way: Meta doesn't want to have to worry about throwing an election. Meta wants us to focus on "sports, music, fashion, beauty, entertainment." Newsrooms, be advised. #Media [Link]
The other day I posted a surprisingly glowing first impression of Meta’s new Threads app. This is the counterpart to that. The site is brands, man. All of it. It’s like the glossy fashion magazine of social networks. And I get it. I really do. This is going
Nonfiction
The thing about this kind of grief is that nobody knows what it's like until it happens. The sadness becomes a permanent a part of you, lurking just under the surface, and nobody understands. The feeling of being seen is extraordinarily rare. This book made me feel seen,
Meta’s new social network is interesting: an obvious strategic shot at Twitter just as that network is running into trouble, as well as a way to iterate on its aging Facebook property. To that end, it makes sense that Meta would piggyback on the fediverse of independent social networks
A lot of people in the fediverse are rightly worried about what the arrival of Threads (which is Mastodon-compatible) will bring. I think it's probably a positive addition for most people, and Casey Newton's writeup here does a good job of explaining why. #Technology [Link]
