Links
YouTube as a Productivity App
David Pierce: The odd appeal of absurdly long YouTube videos that play nothing on purpose
In a way, I’ve come to see “24 hours + of pure black screen in HD!” as a perfect microcosm of YouTube. YouTube is part entertainment platform, part information library… and part tools repository. It can soundtrack your day, teach
Links
Generative AI Podcasts Suck
Kate Knibbs: Generative AI Podcasts Are Here. Prepare to Be Bored
It’s unclear whether the audience will hang around, or if they simply wanted to check out something unusual and new; Hugo has released four episodes, and each subsequent installment has pulled a smaller audience than the last.
Of course views/listens are going
Links
17% of Twitter Usage Came from Third Party Apps
Andrew Logan: Two Texas Indie Developers Made It Big on Twitter a Decade Ago. Now They’re Fighting It.
about 17 percent of engagement on Twitter, historically, was through third-party apps
17% is actually much higher than I expected, especially after years of seeing many people dismiss third party apps as effectively just something
Links
No One Will Ever Write Again
iA: AI and the End of Writing
Soon, you won’t need to write much anymore. Artificial Intelligence will do it for you. With all the free time we will have, we could try to rethink how we learn, work, and how we communicate.
And:
As an employee, your job will be reduced to barking
Links
Tomorrow Will Be Different Than Today
Marco Witzmann: The "Three-Hills" Model for Evaluating GPT Startups
The first challenge that any Level I application of GPT will face is the Tug-of-War Valley. If the application does only create value in a pre-GPT world but will be counter-acted in a post-GPT world through opposing GPT
Links
Smash Hits Usually Start Slow
John Gruber: Do Wall Street Journal Reporters Read The Wall Street Journal?
Neither Apple Watch nor iPhone “quickly became consumer must-haves”. Here’s a report from Daisuke Wakabayashi in ... checks notes ... The Wall Street Fucking Journal itself in April 2016, a year after Apple Watch shipped, that says, in the opening paragraph, “Yet the
Links
I Truly Cherish All Those “Rich Advertising Experiences”
Emma Roth: This free TV comes with two screens
While ads shouldn’t interrupt whatever you’re watching on the main display, Telly’s chief strategy officer, Dallas Lawrence, tells The Verge that ads might utilize both displays when you’re not using the TV. “When the Theatre display (top screen) is not in use,
Links
Life Expectancy in the US is All Over the Place
Michael Hiltzik: Column: America’s Decline in Life Expectancy Speaks Volumes About Our Problems
Most developed countries have begun to recover the longevity losses they experienced during the pandemic; thus far, there’s scant evidence that the U.S. is following the trend. The U.S. suffered a greater rise in mortality and premature deaths
Links
Wikipedia, One of the Most Valuable Tools on the Internet, was the Villain of Truth Decades Before ChatGPT
Geoffrey Moore: Understanding ChatGPT: A Triumph of Rhetoric
[W]e need to stop thinking of ChatGPT as artificial intelligence. It creates the illusion of intelligence, but it has no semantic component. It is all form and no content. It is a like a spider that can spin an amazing web, but it has no knowledge
Links
Baby. Bathwater. Toss?
New York Times: Good Morning. A.I. Does Not Have to Be Perfect or Have Human-Level Intelligence to Be Useful.
But this bot also might not care about some qualities that humans value. Perhaps it will spin out falsehoods that some writers won’t catch before publishing online. Or bad actors could use A.
Links
Access to Pro Video Editors Should Not Require You Have $300 to Burn in Your Bank Account
Zac Hall: Let’s Talk About Subscription Pricing for Logic and Final Cut Pro for iPad
Mac users have had years of free updates to Logic and Final Cut Pro after paying once for each app. In fact, Logic Pro X will be a decade old in July, and Final Cut Pro X turns 12
Links
OmniFocus 4 was Announced 2 Years Ago Today
May 10, 2021:
The OmniFocus team has been hard at work on OmniFocus 4, a major new version of OmniFocus for all supported platforms. Today, we are excited to provide a first look at the update currently in development for iPad and iPhone, and invite you to share feedback with us via the OmniFocus 4
Links
G.O.A.T. Watch: Miami
AP NEWS: F1 Star Lewis Hamilton Blasts Florida’s Anti-LBGTQ Measures
“It’s not good at all,” Hamilton said ahead of F1’s highly anticipated race in suburban Miami this weekend. “I stand by those within the community here. I hope they continue to stand firm and push back. I’ll have the rainbow
Links
Find the Documentation on Discord!
Luke Plunkett: Stop. Closing. Forums. For. Discord.
Discord excels as a means of real-time communication, for people talking in
Links
Over-Optimizing
I found this thread on Hacker News that was mildly depressing for reasons I can only describe as The Unbearable Cringe of Hacker News Commenters, as they discussed this tool that lets you summarize any YouTube video using GPT.
The king, though is this comment, which I am quoting here for posterity:
A few months
Links
The New Tactic Sweeping the Nation
Li Zhou: Montana Republicans Are Punishing a Trans Lawmaker for Criticizing Their Anti-Trans Bill
“I think what we’re seeing is that when marginalized communities, communities who are impacted the most by legislation, rise up and speak to the harm, whether it’s me speaking on trans issues, whether it’s young Black men
Links
Mostly Correct is Still Useful
Steve Yegge: Cheating Is All You Need (via Michael Tsai)
All you crazy MFs are completely overlooking the fact that software engineering exists as a discipline because you cannot EVER under any circumstances TRUST CODE. That’s why we have reviewers. And linters. And debuggers. And unit tests. And integration tests. And staging environments. And
Links
Florida Students Plan to Stand Up Against Institutionalized Bigotry
Emily Bloch: Florida Students Say They’re Walking Out and Teaching Themselves Banned History Lessons to Protest Censorship and Anti-LGBTQ Laws in Education
Hundreds of high school and college students across the Sunshine State are walking out of classrooms as part of a protest organizers say is against the state government’s censorship and
