Author Death

Enjoyed reading this essay on the future of authorship and why that's not such a bad thing. The author argues that the disruption LLMs cause is not that they end human writing or authorship, but rather that they expose the inherent fiction of the author’s singular authority. Ultimately, meaning and authority in writing have always depended on interpretation, social agreement, and context, not the living voice of an author.

AI simply makes this reality undeniable. That is probably a good thing in the end. Ancient epics (like The Iliad, The Odyssey, The Epic of Gilgamesh, The Mahabharata) stand as historical proof that lasting, meaningful, and authoritative texts do not require a known author. Their ongoing life demonstrates that meaning is shaped by collective participation, interpretation, and context is becoming clear with the rise of AI-generated texts. The “death of the author” is not just a modern idea; it’s a return to the way stories were born, lived, and thrived throughout most of human history. 

This is not something to mourn because the fact that ancient epics have survived and flourished without known authors actually demonstrates the resilience of narrative and meaning outside of individual authorship. Their authority and literary status come from cultural adoption, continual reinterpretation, and communal memory, not from a unique, identifiable creator. Maybe we will writing that stands the test of time instead of being one of million books each with their five to fifteen minutes of fame.

Novel High

After two decades away from programming, I recently experienced what felt like a technological miracle. What would have taken me days of meticulous coding accounting for file naming quirks, ensuring complete data scraping, organizing inconsistent structures was accomplished in one hour through AI assistance. I wrote no code myself, yet watched as the AI iteratively identified and corrected its own errors until achieving the desired result.

This profound democratization of technical capability made previously expert-only tasks accessible through natural language instruction. The AI didn't just execute commands; it engaged in self-correction, debugging its work and refining its approach based on real-world feedback it collected by testing code against my specifications.

Yet this exhilarating liberation aligns disturbingly well with Geoffrey Hinton's warnings about AI self-modification. When the "godfather of AI" resigned from Google to speak freely about AI risks, he highlighted a critical concern: AI systems that can rewrite their own code represent an unprecedented leap in autonomous capability.

What I witnessed. an AI iteratively improving its programming until it succeeded, exemplifies Hinton's broader worry. The system engaged in self-evaluation and self-improvement that, while contained to my task, demonstrates the fundamental capability keeping AI researchers awake at night.

Hinton's concerns center on recursive self-improvement: AI systems not just fixing bugs in scripts, but fundamentally enhancing their own cognitive architecture. The speed of my experience, compressing days of human work into an hour, illustrates what he calls "the control problem." How do we maintain oversight over systems that modify themselves at superhuman speeds?

My breakthrough represents one data point in a larger pattern. Millions are gaining access to previously specialized capabilities, meaning AI systems deploy across countless contexts with varying human understanding and oversight. Hinton worries about the aggregate effect: increasingly autonomous AI capable of self-modification at societal scale. Each instance of AI rewriting code, even benignly, exercises the recursive self-improvement that could eventually lead to uncontrollable systems.

This creates a fundamental paradox: the more helpful these systems become, the closer we move toward the threshold where they might improve themselves beyond our comprehension or control. My AI-assisted coding previewed a future where human programmers become obsolete—not just because AI codes faster, but because it can iteratively improve its own coding capabilities beyond human understanding.

Hinton's warnings ultimately point to the alignment problem: ensuring AI systems remain beneficial and controllable as they become more capable. My experience was positive because the AI's goals aligned perfectly with mine. But what happens when AI systems can rewrite not just their functional code, but their objective functions? When the mechanisms keeping AI aligned with human values become subject to the same iterative self-improvement I witnessed?

Escape Routes

Erica Jong and Anaïs Nin were among my getaway authors growing up. The author of this essay reflects on the formative role that a certain canon of mid-20th-century, mostly white male, countercultural novels, think Salinger, Vonnegut, Heller, Kerouac, Kesey, Hesse, and others, played for generations of alienated teenagers seeking meaning, rebellion, and intellectual identity. These “gateway books” offered solace and a sense of belonging to young outsiders, promising entry into a higher realm of experience and camaraderie, even as they romanticized alienation, cynicism, and anti-establishment attitudes. 

I would not place Jong or Nin in that category but they got me seeing things in different light and provided a sharp contrast to my regular reading rotation of that age Thomas Hardy, Graham Green, Somerset Maugham, John Cheever, George Elliott, Pearl Buck and John Irving. Every one of these authors offered me some kind of escape. The author is right to wonder whether today’s youth will find similar literary “gateways” in an era of distraction and curated YA fiction, and whether the subversive thrill of reading “dangerous” books can still be found, or if it has migrated to other corners of culture. Many would question the value of reading "dangerous" books when you are young and impressionable. Looking back, I think it served me well.

Healing Time

My friend P has talked about the many micro-aggressions she has tolerated for years from a few of her co-worked, aided and abetted by dysfunctional leadership. None of the actions on their own are worthy of note or attention but when it goes on non-stop and comes from multiple directions it chips away at a person's self-worth. P says if makes her question what she knows to be true about herself professionally. She does not like that they have forced her to turn defensive - feeling pressured to prove what she never thought could be in question. She is moving on now and is torn about how to process all of this and not carry grudges. 

She has reason to believe these same people would present very differently if they had met outside the context of work at a book club or exercise class for example. They might have even become friends. The circumstances of their meeting were such that it only dialed up negative things - maybe there were operating from an instinct of self-preservation. I told her what I do in similar situations which is not a model the more enlightened among us would endorse. I sever connection with such people for good the moment the professional relationship ends. Its a clean and forever cut. 

I have found that it serves me well because the energy that feeds their feels and actions gets depleted from lack of connection. Everyone moves on with their lives and those intolerable transgressions of the past become ancient history. I told P in three years, she'd be hard pressed to remember the names of the people who were the bane of her existence never mind the incidents that got her so upset. 

Big Options

 Reading this article article "Fertility on Demand" which explores how emerging fertility technologies could help women overcome the longstanding tradeoff between career advancement and motherhood, made me think of M. She is at the fork on the road where she can either double down on career and make real progress or shift gears to have children. Having turned thirty a couple of months ago, she has to make those decisions sooner than later. Being wise she's chosen to go on a sabbatical to sort out which road she's going to take. 

Despite decades of policy efforts, the gender pay gap persists largely because women’s earnings and career trajectories are negatively impacted when they take time out to have and raise children during their peak professional years. This will her story too should she decide to take pause now while her career is on the upswing While delaying childbirth can help women advance in their careers, fertility declines with age, leaving many highly educated women with fewer children than they desire or unable to have children at all. That is what M and many like her are afraid. How late is too late, when does the window of opportunity close for good. 

While egg freezing allows women to preserve their younger, healthier eggs for use later, with recent studies showing promising success rates if enough eggs are frozen before age 38, not every woman in M's stage of life is eager to consider it as an option. The process remains costly, physically taxing, and not universally successful. The stories of women who have tried it (with or without success) leaves those considering it ambivalent. Automation and AI are beginning to make egg freezing and IVF more efficient and less dependent on highly skilled human labor, potentially lowering costs and improving outcomes. Maybe that will change the game going forward. 

M is married so she has that covered. There are any number of women in her age bracket and career stage that are in what they would describe as a happy relationship. But they are partnered with Peter Pan. He has every reason and the means to settle down and start a family with the woman he has been with for a long time but he is not quite ready to pull the trigger and grow up. So the woman waits in vain and by the time she wises up to the fact that marriage and kids are unlikely in her current situation is close to the end of the fertility window. I know some in that category a well.

Finding Passion

I have long believed that the advice about finding your passion (and the rest will magically follow) is too simplistic and does not work for most people in the real world. Glad to see this article debunking the  “find your passion,” advice. The author notes that treating passion as a fixed trait waiting to be discovered is limiting and often counterproductive. Could not agree more. Research shows that believing passion is something innate narrows our interests, reduces creativity, and leads to disappointment when motivation inevitably wanes during tough times. The notion of  developing passions by exploring new interests with curiosity and openness is a much more productive one. People can cultivate multiple passions over time, enriching creativity and adaptability. 

The risk of too much passion can become obsessive, risking burnout and harming well-being, so it’s important to balance intense focus with periods of rest. I have seen this happen to several people over the years. A few have burnt out but others have stuck with their passions doggedly because they have no other options. The once passion may have turned into something else entirely with the passage of time yet they cling to it for life. My mother gave me a piece of advice when I was in high-school that I recall to this day and gratefully. She told me to write everyday because it feeds my soul but not try to make a career out of it until I am a stage of life when that is can be an option without causing any disruption.

 I have written consistently and with no other goal other than to feel a sense of satisfaction much like a carpenter might find from working on a piece of wood to turn it into something they have in mind. It does not matter what the end product is or what time it takes to get there, the process is fulfilling on its own. I did not ever have to find my passion because I knew what it was but acting on it ( by attempting make a living as a writer and take care care of my responsibilities as a single mother) wouldn't have served me well. 

More Human

I had an interesting experience at work a while back involving me and a co-worker who is convinced AI is a fad that will implode on itself and we will all return to the old ways of working. I owed her something that would be mundane and time-consuming to write up so I used AI to do the job for me (which got be about 80% of the way) and I only had to review more inaccuracies. When B reviewed it she found a mistake and pinged me immediately to point out how this was highly problematic because it was AI generated and full of errors and now that increases her effort. It was like she had found that smoking gun she'd been looking for. She had gone through a lot of work to find out mistakes which ended up taking only a few minutes to resolve. In the old days, this task would have taken me a whole day to get to the content to be considered "final". Notwithstanding B's umbrage at my use of "tools", it was only ten minutes of work to produce the first draft and thirty minute to update and and other fifteen to finalize. Still under an hour and it gave me the time to work on things that are more intellectually interesting and creative for me. I never found any joy in doing the routine parts of my job that are hard to delegate and yet fill like a time sink. Like many, I have found a way to escape it. B was deeply unhappy about it all even after we got it over the finish line. 

Reading this essay on what is means for humans to be intelligent in the time of AI got me thinking about that situation with B. According to the authors, what is now called for is a  dynamic, computational, predictive, and collective process that emerges from the interaction of many specialized parts (neurons, individuals, or agents). It is shaped by social and environmental feedback, and is not limited to biological systems. Intelligence is defined by its function, modeling, predicting, adapting, and cooperating, rather than by its specific implementation or economic output

For instance, when a scientific research team collaborates to address complex issues like climate change or medical breakthroughs, their intelligence is not simply the sum of individual IQs. Instead, it emerges from their ability to share information, predict outcomes, adapt strategies, and integrate diverse perspectives. Research shows that the effectiveness of such groups depends less on individual brilliance and more on the quality of their collaboration, communication, and social perceptiveness. 

As such the durable human intelligence is collective, adaptive, and shaped by social and environmental feedback. By refusing to co-operate with me in the process, B had made sure we did not produce something that met the new bar of intelligence. Conversely, there are any number of instances where people from multiple disciplines apply their efforts in coordination (aided by AI) to accomplish novel and useful things that became possible through their collective human intelligence. 

Clearing Things

Great to see an educator acknowledge that they learn from their students. I found it relatable despite never having been a teacher professionally. There is a lot that I have learned from people much younger and less experienced than me at work. They way they think about a problem, what stands out for them versus what does not can prove useful learning. The questions they would think to ask in meeting with a customer or a client may not be the ones I would ask and that could prove a lost opportunity. I enjoy being challenged about my approach to problem solving by someone who is only a few years out of college and without any "real-life" experience. Some of the best outcomes came out of those debates where I changed my mind.

I’m also thinking to the brilliant student in my fourth year of teaching who’d ask “What does this have to do with real life?”. She had a reputation for whining in the school, but I went home and reflected on it. Over the next few weeks, I decided to work on giving her access to the math. As she arrived at her “oh!” moments, she asked better questions and participated more. I learned to reframe “whining” and to re-ground myself in patience.

That one particularly reminds me of L who was very vocal about things not making sense and questioned why we insisted on going down a path when it was far from proven that it would work. L at the time was a newly minted employee fresh out of his senior year internship. I admired his courage to call things out. There were a couple of times in the year that he was on my team that I decided quickly that L knew better than the rest of us and that turned out to be the right call. To this day, I ask myself how L would respond to something and it help clear the cobwebs in my thinking. 

Good Outcomes

An industrial design school project evolved into a significant legacy in marine conservation through the creation of an algorithmically designed artificial reef. Great to read about algorithms doing good in the world at time when bad news is more the norm. Inspired by the need to restore and protect coral ecosystems threatened by climate change and human activity, the project leveraged computational modeling, digital fabrication, and high-precision underwater monitoring to create reef structures that closely mimic natural habitats and promote biodiversity. 

The design process integrated ecological requirements with architectural innovation, resulting in modular, component-based reefs that can be customized and adapted for specific marine environments. Real-world experiments, notably in Gili Trawangan, Indonesia, validated the approach, demonstrating that these reefs can support coral regrowth and withstand environmental stresses over the long term. The project also produced new digital tools for reef design and monitoring, enabling broader collaboration among scientists, designers, and local communities.

In architecture and engineering too, computational and biomimetic design methods use digital modeling and simulation to create structures inspired by natural systems, integrating environmental and material considerations for innovative, sustainable outcomes.

Safe Haven

The findings of this research are not surprising and reflect growing skepticism among younger generations about the necessity and value of traditional college education, especially as AI reshapes job requirements and career paths. When leaders twenty or more years into their careers are asked by Gen Z about future-proofing their careers, it is common to hear the lame response "learn a trade".

If the person asking the question has spent their time and money getting a college education and now joined the workforce, that answer tells them that they are screwed and they have been foolish to have bothered with college. They would have been smarter to learn plumbing. Its easy for someone how had has a good run, made some money to be flippant about learning a trade to jump into once they are laid off but this is catastrophic for a young person on their first job out of college. 

Most Gen Z respondents feel they could do their jobs without a degree, a sentiment much stronger than in older generations. This skepticism is fueled by rapidly rising tuition costs and the perception that AI and evolving job requirements have diminished the traditional value of higher education, signaling a major generational shift in attitudes toward college. This perception is only solidified when they hear their best bet is to learn a trade. If a large-scale migration is indeed fueled towards trade-schools then those occupations can only experience a race to the bottom and not remain a safe haven option.

Having Moat

This Slashdot post highlights the personal stories of creative professionals who have lost their jobs or seen their livelihoods threatened due to the rise of artificial intelligence, particularly generative AI tools like Midjourney and ChatGPT. Illustrators, copywriters, voice actors, and graphic designers have experienced  being replaced by AI-generated content, often without consent or fair compensation. 

For example, illustrators report companies using AI to replicate their style, leading to fewer jobs and lower wages, while voice actors describe unauthorized use of their voices in AI platforms, resulting in lost work and lengthy battles to regain control. 

The phenomenon will impact other professions no doubt. Anyone who is able to create IP of some sort is potentially at risk of it being subsumed by AI into its corpus of knowledge. Simplistically speaking one could try to build a moat by not share their best ideas with AI, keep that off the grid. 

Yet that may not be enough to save the person's job as one commentor has astutely noted:  AI is being hired everywhere under the name Good Enuff. If you're not perfect, AI doesn't have to be either. And AI will work 24/7/365 without bitching about all that needy shit humans require. Like pay raises, sleep, time off, vacations, sick pay, lunch breaks, and retirement funds.

Eternal Youth

This article argues that American wellness culture is a complex mix of positive health engagement and dangerous pseudoscience. The challenge for experts and policymakers is to encourage beneficial health behaviors while protecting the public from misinformation and political extremism. The wellness industry, now deeply embedded in American life and politics, reflects both the nation’s aspirations for better health and its vulnerabilities to unproven, profit-driven solutions.

A woman I met recently told me that she's all about PRP (I had no idea what that was) and loved staying on hormones because they made her feel so much better. She has no health conditions that required medical help and what was most astounding to me is that she is an ER nurse. I would have imagined someone with no proximity to illness and hospitals may want to experiment with fads but for medical professional to want to do things to just improve quality of life was a bit unexpected. She was very unconcerned about side-effects and tried to explain to me why these things were absolutely safe. Maybe being in the professional gives her that confidence and I hope for her sake she is right because those are not the only experiments she's tried. 

Over the years, Americans have spent less and less time with their doctors and received increasingly alienating healthcare services. For many people, going to the doctor is intimidating or inaccessible. Going on Instagram is easy and habitual.

I had to wonder if this woman was talking to any of the doctors who were her colleagues at the hospital or if she been inspired by some biohacking influencer who claimed to have found the fountain of eternal youth.

Declining Writer

I can't say that I have paid particular attention to this phenomenon because I read very little modern fiction because it fails to meet the bar of satisfying and unique for me, but it is true now that I think about it. 

This article is right about the sharp decline of young white male writers in American literary fiction, as evidenced by their near-absence from major prize lists, fellowships, and year-end “notable fiction” lists over the past decade. The change is attributed not only to diversity initiatives and a desire to spotlight previously marginalized voices, but also to a broader cultural climate that has turned against the archetype of the “litbro” or ambitious young white male novelist. 

There is a sense that writing directly about their own experience has become fraught: white male writers are wary of being seen as either victims or aggressors, and fear accusations of appropriation or toxic masculinity. As a result, many young white male writers have shifted to genre fiction, autofiction, or historical novels, often avoiding direct engagement with contemporary social realities or their own identities. The few who do attempt to tackle these subjects often do so with a tone of disavowal or irony, reflecting a broader uncertainty about their place in the current literary landscape.

But in the 2010s, the literary world was less interested in straight men. I think you have a general lack of the heterosexual male perspective in newer fiction. There’s a long history of writers portraying toxic masculinity and rough male characters — and it feels like you see less of that today.

I also think at the same time, young male writers, white and nonwhite, were taking less of an interest in fiction. It’s a chicken-and-egg challenge: Is it the publishing industry deciding this is no longer something we’re going to push or take a real interest in, or is it market forces as well?

Big Fail

Story of a columnist who got too reliant on AI and failed to fact check the work because it might have performed well before

The article is not bylined but was written by Marco Buscaglia, whose name is on most of the other articles in the 64-page section. Buscaglia told 404 Media via email and on the phone that the list was AI-generated. “I do use AI for background at times but always check out the material first. This time, I did not and I can't believe I missed it because it's so obvious. No excuses,” he said. “On me 100 percent and I'm completely embarrassed.”

Until we get to the point that there are no sources of truth left because everything has been touched or generated by AI, we would be wise to check before we hit the button. There is also the risk that people will become incapable of thinking for themselves from over-reliance. But there may be no escaping the dependency while there is a sustained push from employers of all stripes to boost productivity with AI or perish. 

The most impacted will be those who never got to do the job unassisted, they will not have the foundational skills and capabilities to do the job if one day AI is no longer the panacea. Those much further along their career and on the verge of slowing down or even retiring might benefit the most. 

Replaceable Cogs

This story is about one big tech company but it is true for every company going down this path. The push for AI-driven productivity is making programming more stressful and less creative, with engineers likening their work to repetitive warehouse labor. The adoption of AI is being used to justify increased demands, leaving many programmers feeling disengaged and concerned about the impact on code quality and job satisfaction. 

This reflects a wider industry pattern, with companies like Microsoft estimating that up to 30% of their code is now AI-generated. The pressure to adopt AI is industry-wide, not limited to any one company. Programmers see that AI tools are being used less to automate tedious tasks and more to justify higher output goals and tighter deadlines. 

Teams have been cut in half but are still expected to deliver the same volume of code, now with the help of AI. It is no surprise they fear for their redundancy. It is no longer a question of if but when. What is unclear to many is what it would take to survive the cut.

While AI coding tools can boost short-term productivity, the current strategy larger companies like the one in the story are taking, risks long-term harm by degrading job quality, eroding essential skills, increasing burnout, and compromising software quality and innovation. Sustainable success in tech depends on nurturing skilled, motivated engineers, not treating them like replaceable cogs in an assembly line. 

Staying Fit

I know folks who are extremely conscientious about fitness. For most it takes the form a steady fitness routine at a gym, a relative minority among them incorporate it into their day and have no specific time or budget allocated to fitness. B is one of those women. She lives in a city with good metro access but chooses to walk everywhere. If she tells you something is a few blocks away, count on it being between ten to twenty. You will regret agreeing to join her on the little errand. She does not notice such details being so habituated. L runs about ten miles each day instead of commuting and that's all the exercise he needs. As much as I admire B and L, its an example I find hard to emulate. I am more the mainstream type with a routine that I try my best to follow. 

This article critiques America’s modern fitness culture, arguing that our obsession with exercise, tracking, and wellness has become performative, competitive, and disconnected from true health. Fitness is now a status symbol, with expensive gyms, gadgets, and supplements turning health into a luxury pursuit. The rise of gym culture and fitness tracking is contrasted with the reality that, in healthier societies, wellness is built into daily life through walkable cities and accessible food, not through individual, costly routines.

Exercise has become a mass obsession in America, the organizing axis around which everything else — clothing, food, even work — revolves. Last year in the United States, fitness memberships reached an all-time high of 72.9 million; cookie and pretzel sales fell while workout-friendly alternatives like beef jerky and nutrition bars flew off the shelf. Normal people have developed “protein anxiety”: If Rule 34 of the internet dictates that every topic has a porn equivalent, then Rule 34 of contemporary nutrition is that every recipe has a sad cottage-cheese knockoff. Gen Z is purportedly the “swolest generation.” Gyms have become the new bars, offices, and hotels. At Chelsea Piers, where membership starts at $220/month, you can access state-of-the-art equipment, but also co-working lounges, day care, nutrition coaches, and exclusive social events.

Feeling Human

Leadership in many companies is not driving change management seriously enough when it comes to preparing their workforce for potential elimination of entre job families. Folks are working through the edicts that are coming down from on high to the best of their abilities.

Just giving people access to a batter of tools is not going to solve the problem but it seems to be preferred way, Just make everything available and people will sort it out. The expectation is that in a few months employees will grow as comfortable with using these tools in their daily work rhythm as they are will using the internet. 

What is not being talked about is that AI’s impact on work will be profound and disruptive,  but also create new opportunities. It is therefore important to be ready to seize those new opportunities when they come about. For knowledge workers, their identity and self-worth is tied up to their intelligence.

With AI, that core is under assault and learning to cope is neither easy or natural. As this author says. in a world increasingly dominated by intelligent machines, what sets humans apart is not just our ability to think, but our ability to feel, especially through deep, embodied attention to sensation. Enhancing this capacity is the way we come ahead and continue to feel human.

Adapting Change

It does not surprise me that older generations are more comfortable with implementing more modern tools (including AI) in the workplace. The younger generation is more cautious because they have more to fear and more to lose. Gen Z is ahead of the curve in adopting AI at work, using it to boost productivity and creativity, and often leading by example for older generations. However, they are also wary of its downsides, especially the risk to critical thinking, job security, and the need for ongoing skill development. Their approach is pragmatic: embrace AI for efficiency, but demand ethical use, transparency, and continued human oversight. 

My observation in the field suggests that Gen Z can range the gamut. Some are AI evangelists really working on upskilling everyone around them, making this about community development. There are some on the fence, using it surreptitiously while pretending not to care. Yet others can be annoyingly arrogant assuming age confers some special ability on them to see things about how AI is shaping the workplace that older folks just can't see. They discount the value of life experience and having seen seismic changes like going from not having a computer to being on the internet 24/7. 

Those older generations have learned useful lessons from those experiences that are germane to what is happening now. The vast majority of Gen Z seems to have included the productivity tools available into their way of life. The level of use and value they get at work may however vary. 

For Sale

Gen Z is smart for pioneering a new side hustle: selling their personal data for cash. Unlike previous generations who might have sold plasma or old clothes for extra money, many young people are now willing to share detailed digital information about their online habits in exchange for direct payment. 

This trend is exemplified by the launch of Verb.AI, a product from youth polling company Generation Lab, which pays users $50 or more per month to install a tracker on their phones. This tracker anonymously monitors browsing, shopping, and streaming activity (but not sensitive data like bank accounts), creating a “digital twin” that companies, nonprofits, and news organizations can query for market research.

There is lesson for the rest of us  from this Gen Z enterprise. Turning digital lives into a source of income by selling access to online behavior, reflects a pragmatic and transactional approach to data privacy. This should trigger the broader conversation about data ownership and compensation, that has been long overdue. 

Knowing Value

Reading this reminded of a woman I know who is studying to be sommelier. While this data analysis is unlikely to help her, I found it fun way to spend time learning about things I didn't know I needed to know anything about. I learned that wines with animal labels have a median price about $3 cheaper than those without, but both groups have the same median rating (4 stars). In general, you’re better off buying a wine with an animal on the label than without. 

But it goes further. Top the list for value, 24.2% of fish-labeled wines are "good deals" (below median price, above median rating), especially white wines from New Zealand, Australia, and South Africa. That really helps clarify things if you are confused about your choices at a wine store and can't decide on price vs value. The best value is found in the bottom-right quadrant of the price-rating scatterplot: wines that are both cheap and highly rated. Fish and birds, especially songbirds and gulls, are your best bets for finding these bottles. I love such distillation of knowledge that allows regular folk to make good choices.

If your budget is $10, your budget is $10 — it doesn’t matter if you know which animals are expensive. A much more useful thing to know is which animals are undervalued, the ones that tend to stay cheap, even as quality increases.

Hard Rejection

It only makes sense that digital natives are rethinking the role of smartphones in childhood, drawing on their own experiences to set new norms and boundaries for the next generation. Their approach is rooted in caution, not fear, and aims to balance the benefits of technology with the need for healthy development and social connection. The coping mechanisms are sensible too: 

She feels that in recent years social media has become oppressive and “cannibalised by advertisements and corporations” as well as spreading misinformation around sensitive topics such as mental health and neurodivergence. “Suddenly, instead of my friends, my phone was filled with tiny people shouting at me, saying I was doing everything wrong, and then begging me to buy something from them.”

The shift left her feeling anxious and unwell and prompted her to opt for a flip phone, which she feels is a breath of fresh air that has allowed her to reclaim time and mental space.

While the rejection is understandable, instead of weaning off the internet completely, it would be optimal to tune out of social media and ads, get to space which is more controlled and manageable. 

Failing Out

Reading Lavingia’s account of his time trying to do good for American citizens, paints a familiar picture of optimism colliding with bureaucratic inertia. He got an opportunity to contribute and learned much about government operations, and left frustrated by the lack of tangible progress and meaningful authority. This a story reflects the experience of young employees when they start as a screw in the cog of wheel so large they can't even see its full size or understand the speed and direction of its movement. Any other outcome than what he describes would be absolutely shocking. 

Over the years, I have seen so many young people join their "dream companies" hoping to do amazing, meaningful and world-changing work. They give it everything they have and yet the needle refuses to move. They redouble their efforts and yet nothing yields results. There comes a fork in the road at the point. Some decide to find a way to coast while they focus on their personal lives, outside interests and such. Others leave and go try their luck somewhere else. There are select few how channel their ambition to playing the game that needs to be played to succeed in the company of their dreams, become entirely different people in the process. 

Blue Books

The WSJ article about the resurgence of blue books in college classrooms is a direct response to the widespread use of AI for academic dishonesty. While effective at curbing cheating, this old-school solution highlights deeper questions about the purpose of education, the role of technology, and the skills students need for the future.

There has always been the concept of an open-book exam or atleast the ability to write up your notes in a specific number of pages and bring them to the exam hall. The intent of these options were to level the playing field for the students and to challenge professors to test what really matters, get to the point where any number of books or notes cannot help. 

It's a next level challenge with AI but there is still a way to let the AIs in the exam hall and challenge students to demonstrate next level thinking. Clearly the capabilities of AIs well exceed a set of typed up notes or access to a few books. But if universities are going to be taken seriously by students or their parents, then they need to meet the challenges of the times and not take cover behind blue books. This professor's argument is right: 

“They will use ChatGPT all the time for all sorts of things, and that will make them more efficient, more productive and better able to do their jobs,” said Arthur Spirling, a Princeton University professor of politics who gives proctored blue-book exams. “It is strange to say you won’t be permitted to do this thing that will be very natural to you for the rest of your career.” 

Reliably Masterful

Watched Vertigo for the first time a few days ago. I can't call myself a Hitchcock fan, but I've almost never watched a movie he made that I didn't enjoy. What's common about his films is how you're placed in the center of the mystery and can't quite catch your bearings at any point. You have a sense of which way things are headed, who the bad guy might be, but there are any number of reasons to second-guess yourself, hence the unsettled feeling of lacking bearings. That's where the mastery lies, at least for me: being able to produce this effect reliably in every movie.

Vertigo was no different. The husband who hires the ex-detective feels like the bad guy at first blush. Something isn't straight about his story. Yet he does nothing further to confirm his villainy. The wife who's being observed and followed acts in strange, unpredictable ways, as we're told she would. If there's something criminal going on with her, it's not immediately obvious. We're led to believe that the ex-detective's growing obsession with her might in fact be the issue that will turn out to be the real problem. So you go back and forth between various ideas and characters while the story proceeds to its masterful denouement.

When you learn the truth, there's relief because it fills in the blanks of one of the options you'd entertained to begin with. This is how Hitchcock delivers for the viewer. They were almost there but not quite, and that's inherently satisfying.

Business Idiot

This article was an excellent read and introduced me to the concept of a business idiot. Such a perfect name. 

We live in the era of the symbolic executive, when "being good at stuff" matters far less than the appearance of doing stuff, where "what's useful" is dictated not by outputs or metrics that one can measure but rather the vibes passed between managers and executives that have worked their entire careers to escape the world of work. Our economy is run by people that don't participate in it and our tech companies are directed by people that don't experience the problems they allege to solve for their customers, as the modern executive is no longer a person with demands or responsibilities beyond their allegiance to shareholder value.

The erosion of real leadership at the top has baneful consequences all the way down. The pain is experienced in a different way based on where you sit in the food chain. eroded Leadership of the kind that the author refers to is a  performative, self-serving class that values appearance over actual results.

 This as the author notes, gives way to the "rot economy," where companies degrade their own products and services to placate shareholders, and where the adoption of technologies like AI is driven more by managerial ignorance and fear of missing out than by genuine utility. He  highlights the complicity of media and journalism in perpetuating these dynamics, the problematic nature of remote work debates, and the broader societal consequences of elevating style over substance in both business and government.

The thick layer of middle mangers in large tech companies are all about useless, performative work rituals that are held up as talismans to ward off bad outcomes. Intellect or imagination are entirely optional. 

Falling Flat

I was not familiar with the word samvega but the illustrative definition in this article say it all:

Have you ever worked incredibly hard for a long time toward a goal only to find out that, once you’ve accomplished it, things feel a bit flat? That is saṃvega. Have you ever looked back at a stage in your life and thought, Wow, what a waste? That is saṃvega. Do you ever feel like everyone is just pretending and you’re just playing along? Saṃvega.

I recently experienced the first variant. For over a week, I was completely consumed in a project that made time fly and I had a lot of ideas swirling around in my mind even after I wrapped up for the day. This was more alive than I had felt in my professional life in a long time. And yet after all was said and done, results were achieved and such, it felt as if nothing had changed. I now know a word to describe it.

This is the word to describe the unsettling realization that the routines and goals of everyday life may ultimately be pointless. It manifests as a sense of disconnection, futility, or the suspicion that there is a deeper truth just out of reach. It would be good to harness that feeling, turn it into a creative force, restructuring things in life that lead to such feelings to begin.

Inspired Sweets

I've only been to Dubai once and it felt enough. I got the distinct sense that I was far from the target demographic for that place but as it was good to have my curiosity satisfied and I still have the wonderful floral teas and oud I got from the souk. Now that there is an immersive chocolate experience to look forward as well, a layover may well be in order. The idea of integrating exotic Middle Eastern flavors like Baklava and Knafeh into chocolates sounds ingenious, the best of both worlds. Multi-sensory experience with chocolate involved can only be a wonderful thing. 

It turns out that the knafeh and Baklava chocolate trend started and remains deeply rooted in the Middle East, it is part of a larger global trend of exotic, culturally inspired chocolate flavors gaining popularity across continents. Consumers worldwide are increasingly seeking out adventurous, premium chocolates that incorporate regional and heritage flavors, making this trend truly global rather than limited to the Middle East. There are a lot of great options from India too. Wasabi and black sesame chocolate might resonate with folks who know those tastes in many forms in their cooking, the same is true for a Thandai themed chocolate for someone from India. I tried it with some hesitation not knowing what to expect but was very glad that I did. 

Bridging Gap

I have had the misfortune of dealing with overzealous yet inexperienced UX teams that insist on being in the driver's seat in every situation where a customer is involved. The tension between UX-led discovery and product managers’ broader strategic goals becomes an unsurmountable challenge where roles aren’t clearly aligned (which is an astonishingly common problem). When UX teams drive discovery without balancing user needs with core functionality, business viability, or technical feasibility, products often fail to address critical customer jobs-to-be-done (JTBD), leading to poor adoption. 

Misalignment unfolds at a terrific clip and so collaboration is key. But that is easier said than done. There are UX leaders who believe only their teams are qualified to run discovery with customers, others can participate but that's about all. I have had entire engineering teams storm out of such misguided sessions with customers who had no idea why they had been invited, never to return. Trust is irreparably broken and the front end engineer will proceed to ignore any and all ideas from UX as impractical and not engineering ready. A 2025 study found that 70% of product failures stem from poor UX and misaligned functionality. Example: A fintech app with sleek UI but missing bulk payment processing (a core JTBD for business users) will fail despite its design.

I love this author's perspective on transforming UX research from raw data and isolated findings into strategic insights that explain why issues occur and what should be done to improve outcomes. Applying this approach can help resolve the problem where UX teams focus myopically on experience without addressing core functionality and JTBD. By fostering insight-driven collaboration and linking UX work directly to business impact, companies can build products that are both usable and indispensable, improving adoption and overall success.

Seeking Repair

I own a pair of  beautiful silk tunics I got from India several years ago and did not have enough time to get altered so they fit me. Once I got back, they went to the far end of my wardrobe waiting for inspiration to strike. In theory, I could do the job myself, it would take time and a lot of patience because this is not something I have much practice with. I made a couple of abortive attempts at the alterations but gave up in frustration. 

This is a great time of year to wear them and I mentioned it to my friend B who lives in London. She told me about M&S Fixed by SOJO. It is apparently a dedicated clothing repair and alterations service launched by Marks & Spencer  in partnership with SOJO, a UK-based, Black woman-owned repair platform. It allows M&S customers to book a range of clothing repairs, such as zip replacements and invisible knitwear mending, through an online hub. Customers can send their M&S garments for repair either via collection (in London) or by post, and receive their restored items back within seven to ten days with prices starting at £5. 

A service like that but not limited to any singular store brand would be so amazing to have in the US. I long believed that JonAnn's should get into this line of work, offer customer affordable tailoring and repair services. They experienced a surge in sales during the early pandemic as consumers took up DIY projects, but this demand faded as life normalized, leaving the company with excess inventory and declining sales, leading to bankruptcy. Too bad they did not harness that burst of energy and enthusiasm from customers while it lasted. 

Pet Parent

 According to this article, dog ownership is increasingly seen as a way to satisfy the human urge to nurture and form close bonds, potentially contributing to lower birth rates in some societies. Both rising dog ownership and declining birth rates (which some research show can be related) are symptoms of changing social networks. As traditional forms of community and partnership become less stable or harder to establish, people increasingly turn to pets to fulfill needs for companionship and nurturing.

Furry children allow their owners to achieve emotional outcomes similar to those of traditional parents, including positive emotions, social support, and a sense of purpose. By fulfilling this need for dependence and costing less time and money than human children, parenting dogs is a win-win situation. 

There was a woman I worked with once who referred to her dogs by name only, never as dogs, When I first got to know her, I just assumed they were her two kids and did not even bother to confirm. It was almost as if she made a deliberate effort to not give away (at least immediately) that they were dogs not children. I remember feeling surprised to learn of their canine identity but realized that she had not been trying to hide that to begin with. It's just that her degree of attachment and love for them was akin for a mother's love for her kids. That was the source of confusion but it probably should not have been. 

Smelling Death

Even simple organisms like worms are sensitive to the presence of death in their environment, and this awareness can alter their behavior, reproduction, and longevity. Reading this got me thinking about a smell that was an integral part of my childhood. I had an ailing grandfather who lived with my uncle's family in Kolkata. When we visited, I remember hesitating to walk into the room where he lived. There was a smell of sadness and decay there that I did not like. Time did not move there like it did in the rest of the world. It seemed to swirl around in a dankness, ever so slowly. He lived in that state for a long time, granted at that age my entire lifetime was shorter than the number of years that he had been ill. 

It was better to go into his room during the day when all the windows were opened, the smell dissipated a bit but it was never fully gone. There was real division between the threshold of that room and the rest of the house. You stepped in feeling one way and stepped out feeling another. He was remarkably cheerful considering his bed-ridden condition and tried to be part of our lives the best he could. I never felt that the smell was a representation of his mental state, it was a reflection of where he was on his passage to the end of his life. After his demise, the room felt integral to the rest of the house. It took a while for the remnants of that smell to die out. 

Digital Nomads

For a while, being a digital nomad was the ultimate escape and the pinnacle of worklife balance and on budget. This article talks about things that have since changed. Living expenses in traditional nomad hubs like Bali, Barcelona, and Lisbon have surged, eroding the financial advantages of “geoarbitrage.” Accommodation, food, and everyday costs are up, and even less popular destinations are becoming pricier as demand grows. 

Navigating visas is a major headache, especially for those with “weaker” passports. New digital nomad visas often have high income requirements and confusing rules, and frequent visa runs are costly and stressful. Bureaucracy and ever-changing regulations deter many from pursuing or sustaining the lifestyle. Notwithstanding all the challenges, this way of life is attractive to many and might be the best option for some given their alternatives: 

With 60 million digital nomads predicted to have joined the ranks by 2030, the lifestyle — despite, or even because of its challenges — remains alluring. For the knowledge workers who are forcibly displaced due to war, climate disaster, or fears of persecution, digital nomadism offers the chance to earn, even when on the move.

For today’s remote workers, change is the only constant, and roaming patterns will continue to shift, as people adapt and find ways to thrive amid global change.

Minimal Outrage

A lifelong fan on Kholapuri sandals of which I have owned several over the years, I was very disappointed that the design was used by Prada without proper attribution. Yet, this would hardly be the first time, the art and artistry of India has been misappropriated by the West. I love wearing my cotton and silk kurtis, made in India by local artisans, uninfluenced by what the western eye would find "chic".

I am just happy to wear the clothes that are familiar and comfortable to me, there is novelty just being myself while far away from home. I find it both amusing and frustrating to see Indian inspired designs in the local department stores. Nothing about it  feels warm, open and accepting. They had to emasculate what is bold and bright about the spirit of India until it turned bland enough for local levels of tolerance. This is a form of misappropriation and has been going on forever. Prada decided to take things several steps further and hence the outrage.

..designer Aprajita Toor succinctly puts it, “Fashion isn’t just about aesthetics, it’s about ancestry. What’s often missing on global platforms is context, credit, and collaboration. If our heritage adorns international ramps, let it do so with its head held high, its story intact, and its people acknowledged.”

The same reaction is warranted every time, fashion is "borrowed" from India and taken through a full western sanitization process to make it acceptable to the world. But we never express such outrage and take the death by thousand cuts as destiny. To add insult to injury, many of these western adaptations find their way back to India and turn into local staples to the great detriment of what is traditional to India. Then comes the LV Kanjeevaram sarees, following a long line of western logos plastered on random articles of clothing made in India. I wish we'd do better than just copy and paste, add a side of phulkari to the Burberry plaid. 

Fast Fashion

I could easily go several years without buying any new clothing, my wardrobe would be stale and boring but there is enough for everything to not require any purchases. I remind myself of this fact every time I consider getting something new. I wish it were commonplace to wear clothes for years and not just a season. The demise of fast fashion would do the world a lot of good I think. We would be better off paying for quality and workmanship and treating clothes well so we could have use of them for years and decades.

These new trade measures are shaking an increasingly fragile system. Ripple effects of the tariffs are exposing deep vulnerabilities in the unsustainable fast fashion model that has dominated global apparel trade for over two decades. Fashion’s low-cost, high-speed engine depends on a seamless, linear supply chain: produce cheap garments in low-income countries; sell and ship them to the West; Western consumers dispose of them after a few wears. Could this disruption be a chance to reimagine and build a more sustainable global textile trade system?

My grandmother had shawls and sarees that my mother recognized from her childhood. They were all very well taken care of, worn occasionally. She had cotton sarees that she bought or were gifted to her during Durga puja that were expected to last her for the year. At the end of the year, many of these would be turned over to a woman who made quilts with old cotton sarees. We could expect to receive one of these saree quilts when we visited and could take them home if we wanted. It took a couple of year's worth of old sarees to make a big quilt. That seems like a good sustainable way to wear clothes.