Made Up

It can be argued that AI hallucinations sometimes unintentionally reflect real customer needs. This Ars story talks about how this happened in the Soundslice case, ChatGPT described an ASCII tab importer that didn’t exist, but user interest in the feature revealed genuine demand. This suggests that AI, trained on broad public data and user queries, may surface ideas that align with what users actually want, even if it presents them as facts rather than suggestions.

However, the core issue is not just about AI’s ability to intuit customer needs, but about the ethical guardrails that govern its outputs. AI systems are designed to avoid generating false or misleading information, as this can erode trust, confuse users, and create legal or reputational risks for companies. The situation here is about generating false information which placed the product team in a quandary. So obviously some guardrails were lacking or deficient. 

The broader question is that while AI hallucinations can occasionally inspire useful innovations, should companies rely on them at al as a source of product ideas like many others. Its worth pondering what kinds of harm could come from relying on such a source. 

Feeling Doubt

Reading the latest on why AI will save or end the world is fun as always. The latest wave of AI skepticism is the hot new trend, with doubters and experts lining up to remind everyone that maybe, just maybe, throwing billions at artificial intelligence won’t solve all humanity’s problems overnight (that is such a revelation). Even Sam Altman, usually AI’s hype-man-in-chief, is joining the doubters’ party, drawing comparisons between today’s AI mania and the dot-com bubble of the late 1990s, in case anyone missed the memo that bubbles eventually burst. Unclear why any of this is news to those old enough to have been sentient in the dot com times. Apparently, investors are so high on AI's transformative promises that they're teetering on the edge of “overenthusiasm” because nothing says sound judgment like chasing the newest shiny algorithm with more money than sense. But these same investors have made plenty of unwise bets over the years and have not proven to the most astute bunch. They have a known propensity to run towards shiny objects.

Naturally, the skeptics aren’t stopping at market bubbles. No, they’re warning of an apocalyptic fraud crisis, brought to you courtesy of AI-powered identity theft, where even world leaders are getting prank-called by robot voice clones. To tackle these mounting threats, Altman is championing “proof of human” technologies and urging society to panic responsibly while Silicon Valley tries to convince Congress that sensible regulations are just a silly and meritless way to slow down American tech companies. Meanwhile, public trust in AI companies’ ethical standards is taking a swan dive, and nobody actually agrees what “AGI” (artificial general intelligence) means anymore because vague buzzwords are so much easier to sell when you might not deliver anything remotely useful. Each of us has a benchmark test of what AGI is I think, depending of what kind of process and operational pain makes your live particularly miserable.

While all this chaos unfolds, we are meant not to worry, because apparently nobody really knows what the future holds, and predictions about AI’s impact on the economy or jobs are just educated guesses dressed up a visionary statements. The debate: is AI about to revolutionize everything, or will it become another case study in overhyped disappointment, like self-driving cars and internet stocks circa 2001? In the meantime, Altman and his fellow tech titans are rushing to open fancy offices in Washington, D.C., while the rest of us brace for a world filled with increasingly dubious AI-generated phone calls and “groundbreaking” model upgrades that seem to always arrive ever so conveniently just in time to keep the hype cycle spinning

Feeling Outraged

I became friends with D a few years ago when we were working on the same team. She was quietly competent and had a lot of empathy for those struggling to get their part done in what was a monstrous undertaking. We got through the last hurdles and many left the company completely spent from the work that had taken up all the space in their lives for close to two years. D had it a lot easier than most given the nature of her work. The company in question has gotten a lot harder to survive in since that time and some of the folks we both knew from the time are still there and are hanging by a thread. The market conditions make a job change much harder now than a few years ago when that large exodus happen. D and I caught up after a long time recently and she is fortunately still shielded from the what most of our peers are going through.

Talking to her left me more than a little outraged. She is completely oblivious to the plight of the others who unlike her have option but to follow the rules from which she has been forever exempt. D's demeanor is that of someone living in a quaint bungalow surrounded by a lovely garden where everything grows in abundance. She has no concept of want or hunger because the garden is so giving. She also never has to be exposed to the elements because her home is perfectly comfortable. Everyone else though lives a few miles away from her, far enough that she never has to see them. Their homes have been mostly destroyed, they have no food and they have no better place to go. They are scavenging around to get what they can and rebuild their lives. Its been a a very long time since they lived in a functional home or had a garden that fed them. The irony is D and all these people in who are in a fight for their lives all work for the same company. 

Her lack of understanding of the majority's reality really bothered me. She is still the same person and it is not her fault that she has been isolated from the larger destruction. Those people are likely not sharing much about their lives with her because she is an outsider to their collective struggles. I am not in either side but my sympathies definitely lie with the figuratively dispossessed who are trying to make it work despite monumental struggles because there are no options out there. 

D remarked that I looked downcast toward the end of our conversation. She is still a good friend and I did not want to tell her that was me looking disappointed in her. I want to believe time will bring clarity to her and I both so that we see the situation in a different light.

Being First

Loved reading this story about a train and one girl. The rest of the world does not operate quite this way.

The story of a defunct train station in Hokkaido, Japan, that stayed open so that its sole patron—a teenage girl—could commute to school has come to a bittersweet end: Eighteen-year-old Kana Harada graduated from high school last Friday, March 25, and the Kyu-shirataki station—where she boarded a train every morning to travel to school, about 35 minutes away—has finally closed.

The Kyu-shirataki station story exemplifies a highly personalized, socially driven approach to rail service, prioritizing a single passenger’s needs over cost considerations. In contrast, Amtrak’s operating model, constrained by shared infrastructure and freight prioritization, focuses on serving larger populations but often at the expense of reliability and accessibility for smaller communities. 

Japan’s investment in both rural stations and high-speed rail reflects a holistic commitment to public welfare and economic development, while Amtrak’s challenges highlight systemic issues in U.S. rail infrastructure, where freight interests and underfunding limit customer-centric service. On Amtrak you consider yourself lucky if you reach your destination and don't need to get detrained along the way (which has happened to me). Bonus points for arriving only about three hours late on a one hour trip (this is routine in my experience).

The contrast underscores fundamentally different priorities: Japan’s focus on accessibility and social good versus Amtrak’s struggle to balance efficiency with customer needs in a freight-dominated system

Mutual Understanding

Found this essay very insightful being the parent of an adult child. Our relationship is evolving and it is yet to get to a point where we both derive joy and comfort from it. Why this has been such a long and arduous process has not always been clear to me, but there is merit to this idea from the essay:

“For most of history, family relationships were based on mutual obligations rather than on mutual understanding. Parents or children might reproach the other for failing to honor/acknowledge their duty, but the idea that a relative could be faulted for failing to honor/acknowledge one’s ‘identity’ would have been incomprehensible.”

I was very vocal and adamant that I did not want a relationship with J once she became an adult that was based on mutual obligation. It had to be much more than that to be real. This may have been a mirage that we are destined to chase to no end. I never considered estrangement as a way to facilitate personal growth, though I am somewhat estranged from a lot of my extended family 

Deciding which people to keep in or out of one’s life has become an important strategy to achieve that happiness. While there’s nothing especially modern about family conflict or a desire to feel insulated from it, conceptualizing the estrangement of a family member as an expression of personal growth as it is commonly done today is almost certainly new.

I like to imagine that being the parent of an adult child is like a second chance. If you got it mostly right the first time but made some notable mistakes, this is the time to get it right, use the wisdom of the years to help you get there. Time will tell this is true. 

Strange Permit

Heard this story from a friend who was recently at Carmel-by-the-Sea, California. Apparently there is an official municipal law that requires anyone wishing to wear high heels higher than two inches with a base of less than one square inch on public streets or sidewalks to obtain a free permit from City Hall. While it sounds like a practical joke locals might want to make with clueless visitors, there is in fact such a law. 

It wasn't enacted as a fashion restriction, but to protect the city from lawsuits due to tripping hazards caused by uneven sidewalks, often the result of large tree roots pushing up pavement. While the law is real and still on the books, it is virtually never enforced by local police. My friend like many visitors got the permit as a quirky souvenir. I've never been but the place looks lovely in the pictures. Since I don't wear any kind of high heels at all, should be all smooth sailing to visit sometime. Interestingly, Altas Obscura does not list the high-heel permit collection.

Old Wisdom

I watched Karate Kid for the first time a few weekends ago. It was always on my list but never made it till now. Much of Mr. Miyagi's wisdom, I had heard over the years so there was a sense of comfortable familiarity. This is a movie I should have watched with J when she was a kid. That was the first thought that crossed my mind but it was a wonderful experience anyway. When Mr. Miyagi cheers "Banzai!" as Daniel drives off in his car, I found myself remembering a guy from a few decades ago who came into my life for a few months during a difficult time. He was a clinical research physician and had a lot of interesting stories about life in drug discovery and startups in that space. This was a world I knew nothing about and enjoyed learning about from him. I was not able to recall any part of his name after all this time. But the movie brought back some memories. 

He owned a convertible which was polished to high gloss at all times. Taking care of that car was like his second job. He signed off emails with "Banzai!". Often he shared nuggets of wisdom with me in the style of Mr. Miyagi. Some of that was useful tactically because I needed to make decisions based on what was in front of me. He was a decade older than me and had a lot more life experience in those years. We were both single at the time but it became evident early on that we would not work out well in a relationship. He enjoyed being a coach and a mentor - something I needed at the time. I did not see a romantic partner in him and that made it easy to ask for advice. He got a job at his dream company and moved on about six months after we'd first met. We kept in touch occasionally and finally drifted apart. After the movie. I tried to recall any bit of enduring wisdom that I received from him. Nothing came to mind. 

Brick Road

Enjoyed reading this Atlantic article that explores the paradox of early parenthood: while the first years are often described as the most difficult, exhausting, and overwhelming, especially for parents of very young children, many older parents look back on this period with nostalgia and longing. That definitely describes me and I too have told parents of young kids to cherish every moment because its all gone in a blink. 

They stare at me in disbelief. Why they know there is truth in what I am saying because I came from where they are now, but it is impossible for them to act on that advise. And I am not the only one who's given it to them. The author, a parent of two young children, describes the relentless demands of early parenting, including sleepless nights, constant care, and little personal time. She points out how what we older parents advise newer ones like her, are impossible in the thick of daily struggles.

She notes that research on parenting and happiness is mixed, but studies suggest that raising children typically lowers well-being in the short term, with recovery only coming when children leave home. However, retrospective studies show that many people remember their early 30s, often the years when their children were born, as some of the happiest of their lives. The article suggests that as children grow, the relationship between parent and child changes; the intense physical intimacy of early childhood fades, replaced by more complex emotional challenges as children become independent.

As the author correctly notes it is only with time and distance that parents can appreciate the beauty and significance of the early years. While it is not realistic or necessary to “cherish every moment,” the author encourages parents to notice and remember the precious moments amid the chaos, so they can be treasured later in life.

Only after we find out where the path leads are we able to see the purpose each brick served in getting us there. People with grown children have a deeper appreciation for the initial years of parenthood, because they are observing it from a perspective that only time can grant.

Clean Break

Reading this story produced some truly conflicting emotions for me. It is about  a Microsoft employee who was laid off after 23 years with the company but continues to go into the office despite no longer being officially employed. The individual describes feeling a strong sense of responsibility toward their team and customers, highlighting the emotional and professional challenges that come with such a significant transition. 

Some things must have worked out right between this person and the company to drive this behavior. I would guess during his long tenure, he was most treated well and respected as a professional. It is fair to assume he worked with people he liked and cared about, whose success mattered to him. There is no question about his commitment to the work and integrity as a person. But that is not enough to get a someone to behave this way. A highly toxic workplace, will make a person just like him want to walk away and never look back. This brought to mind my friend M who left a company as well-known as Microsoft after fourteen years there. It had been a death by million cuts and an absolute miracle that she had survived as long as she did. 

M is not one to give up on people or circumstances easily. She will find something positive to hang on to and generate energy from. If the place is toxic enough and you allow sufficient time to pass, it will crush the spirit of even one such as M. So she got out and took a year long break to flush her system clean before starting her new chapter. I ran into her at the salad bar of a grocery store when I was visiting her town for work recently. She is only a few blocks away from her former place of employment and had stepped out for lunch. I almost did not recognize her. The year had been transformational for her and in the best way. The real M had emerged at last and she looked incredibly at peace. She told me she has made a clean break from it all and does not stay in touch with anyone who is still at the company. The guy in the story and M are not that different but context matters. 

Seeing Slow

The arguments in this HBR article are similar to what other like the author who work in large enterprises are saying about the impact of AI. Their perspective is informed by what they see around them and if they have been a product of that ecosystem long enough, it becomes easy to forget what the world outside looked like. More importantly, they are deeply disconnected from that world as it is today. While there is some truth to what he says but it is very far from the whole truth and this distinction is a cautionary one.

The argument that AI revolution will be slow and enterprise adoption will face significant friction goes contrary to consumer-driven adoption which is already happening at a rapid pace. Even my mother knows of ChatGPT and what it is good for. Tools like that and AI-powered copilots have quickly gained widespread use, influencing how people work and setting new expectations for productivity and capability across industries. Startups and smaller companies are leveraging AI to disrupt traditional markets and force larger enterprises to adapt more quickly than the article suggests, indicating that change may not be as sluggish as the author claims. He simply may not have observed it from his vantage point.

He highlights the commoditization and open-source models as reducing competitive advantage, but open-source AI can actually accelerate innovation by lowering barriers to entry and enabling a global ecosystem of developers to build and iterate on new applications. Rather than slowing the revolution, the availability of advanced AI tools at low or no cost may drive faster adoption and democratize access to cutting-edge technology. The cumulative effect of many incremental improvement, across processes, products, and customer experiences can be transformative, even if each individual change seems modest.

The focus on challenges of enterprise integration and downplays broader societal and ethical risks. Critics argue that the most pressing issues surrounding AI are not just about slow adoption or integration, but about the potential for job displacement, bias, misinformation, and loss of privacy. These concerns require urgent attention and could reshape the AI revolution in unexpected ways. The author underestimates both the risks and the potential for rapid, disruptive change, especially as AI continues to evolve outside traditional enterprise channels.

Faux Growth

I have to say some of us who had the misfortune of being part of A's organization way back in the day, have found vindication his "managed exit arc" as one of his peers called it. The company in question systematically reduced a his influence without resorting to a high-profile termination. It was not entirely clear why termination would be such a terrible choice given how easily they fire rank and file folk who objectively delivered better results than A did. This process started with an initial demotion or "containment", as this guy described. It brought to mind a team in hazmat suits. This was followed by a temporary reassignment that appeared to offer new opportunities but lacked real authority, budget, or growth potential. 

A marketed it as strategic and game-changing for him and his team. Ultimately, he was folded into a less influential, functional role after the "one-year watch period" following the role reset. He now reports to some random leader in an equally random part of the company. L, my former co-worker who has suffered endlessly under A's incompetent leadership called to share the "latest on A". She says there are signs that he may be soon sending out one of those cringe-worthy notes to say that he is stepping away for a bit to spend meaningful time with his family, Rumor has it that he is estranged from his adult kids and the wife is often traveling with her group of girl-friends. 

I met A only once during my time there and found him to be faux charming and imperious at the same time. He made it appear as if he was giving me an audience and I should be grateful for it. I told L at the time that she should consider finding another job because this one would surely prove to be a dead end. At the time, she was on a fast track to promotion and wanted to make the final push. Needless to say that promotion never came about, she just had to pick up a ton more work in the process of trying to earn it. 

One Size

Most of the arguments that the author makes about the dangers of ubiquitous use of AI would hold true for other technologies that were fundamentally life-altering. The scale and nature of those innovations may have been different but the harms they could do were similar. Misinformation and lies have been propagating at decent clip long before AI became so accessible to everyone. We had good old-fashioned television and printed newspapers doing that quite effectively. 

"A car that accelerates instead of braking every once in a while is not ready for the road. A faucet that occasionally spits out boiling water instead of cold does not belong in your home. Working properly most of the time simply isn’t good enough for technologies that people are heavily reliant upon. And two and a half years after the launch of ChatGPT, generative AI is becoming such a technology."

The "heavily reliant" is the big question here. Is it okay to use the technology in a trust by verify mode? So if the said car is known to accelerate instead of brake on occasion but is otherwise quite the picture of perfection and way cheaper than any other car available in the market, maybe the customer might develop a workaround to make sure they are not taken by surprise when the brakes produce acceleration. It is a question of the perceived value notwithstanding the defects. There come a point when some degree of flaw even if a rather serious one comes to be acceptable. People have to decide for themselves where that point lies for different situations in which they use the AI. There is no one size fits all or one rule that fits all situations.

Elevating Taste

The article describes a new but unlovable kind of restaurant trend. It’s a clubby, influencer-magnet restaurant with a menu of nostalgic, photogenic comfort foods designed more for social media than genuine culinary innovation. They are exclusive, hard to access, and engineered to make diners feel privileged simply for getting in, while serving food critics describe as “adult cuisine as imagined by children.” 

The author argues is part of a broader, troubling shift: as the middle class and its traditional restaurants decline, high-end, Instagram-ready “clubstaurants” for the wealthy and image-conscious are taking over, fueled by economic inequality and a culture obsessed with exclusivity and spectacle. This turns the art of hospitality into a soulless, photogenic commodity for the elite naturally out of reach for the average person who already finds eating out much more than it used to be.

“When I test products against other products, I require an 80 percent result to justify any sort of change,” Fertitta writes. “For instance, if we’re testing a new salad dressing with ten participants, a minimum of eight out of ten of those folks need to say they prefer the new dressing for us to even consider a switch. That high level of approval gives greater certainty to any decision that’s made.” This is a safe governing principle if you’re trying to sell toilet paper rather than food and hospitality, which at least on the level Corner Store aspires to, has historically been the product of an individual, a chef and general manager with a specific palate, aesthetic, and philosophy. Taste, in other words.

Breathe Free

Comes a time when the place where you currently work turns so suffocating that you will do anything to breathe once again. It would doubtless be wise to start working on your way out until you reach that point of near asphyxiation. But that is easier said than done in current market conditions and if you are of a certain age. The issue of age cuts both ways - you are too young and inexperienced, it is hard to land in a market that is inundated with experienced competitors who are willing to take a pay cut. If you are too experienced, you have a problem too. Teams may see you not fit in because of your age and the vintage of your experience. Generally your options are few and far between. You could get a job if you didn't care about much else besides being gainfully employed but to find the right one at the right time is infinitely more complicated. 

From what I have heard from others who escaped from that feeling of being completely and utterly trapped, it takes upto six months to start breathing freely, to get used to the idea that the nightmare is over and you are now somewhere else. It does not feel entirely real up until then. Reality when it does set in can feel mixed. They start to miss some of the things from the old place. After having put some space and time between them and that company, objectivity increases and the emotional responses fade out. That is a fine time to recalibrate and learn from the past and see if there was anything you might have done differently in hindsight. 

I have been in a few of these phases over the course of my career and I was almost always able to see my part in the process. Generally things took a turn for the worst when I decided no matter what I do things would not change. In reality there rarely a situation so dire that such an assessment is true. There are things that a person could do to instrument change. It might take disproportionate effort but it is possible. People (including me) don't see the point for making that effort at some point - they are too far gone and disenchanted to bother. They are working on sprucing up their resume and narrative, working on earning the right to breathe free.

Birth Trauma

I recall my mother telling me when I was about twelve, that she had decided she would never have another child because giving birth to me had been so physically demanding for her. The way she said it did not ascribe any blame to me for her troubles but it helped clarify what motherhood can or cannot be for her. I know for a fact that my father always wanted a second child so I was not sure if she had ever shared her perspective on the topic with him. It appeared that she had not because she did not want to come across as "deficient" or somehow lacking the requisite level of maternal desire. So this was in essence a confession to me. 

This article highlights how birth trauma is a widespread but often unspoken issue among South Asian (Desi) women, affecting as many as one in four women globally. Despite its prevalence, birth trauma remains largely unrecognized and unaddressed within Desi communities due to cultural norms that encourage women to endure pain and hardship in silence. Expressing vulnerability or seeking help for mental health struggles is frequently stigmatized, leaving many women to suffer without support. Reading it, brought that long ago conversation with my mother to mind. She was most likely a victim of undiagnosed and therefore untreated birth trauma.

Cultural expectations and generational attitudes play a significant role in perpetuating this silence. Many South Asian women are taught to simply "get on with it" after childbirth, with little emphasis on emotional or psychological recovery. Historical lack of antenatal and postpartum care, combined with language barriers and mistrust in healthcare systems, further isolate women, making it difficult for them to access the help they need. Additionally, restrictive traditions and superstitions can heighten anxiety and feelings of isolation for expectant and new mothers.

Tasting Tea

I am running low on one of my favorites teas. It was an unplanned purchase from a farmer's market in Livorno a couple of years ago. Among many other wonderful teas, this one stood out its perfection - the fine balance of fruity and floral. P, who owns a quaint tea-store in my town told me to bring the tea so she could reproduce the blend by smell. That was almost a year ago. It just so happens that when I am walking by her store, I have forgotten to bring the tea or when I have remembered she's not at the store. The other folks who work there by their own admission don't have P's nose for smell and can't make me the blend. My thus far failed attempts to replenish that tea, remind me of mastery and artistry. 

When someone creates a thing of beauty and perfection, it might take another person with equal or better ability to reproduce it. Chances are they will even improve it. I have no doubt that P's version of this tea whenever it is that the stars align for her to make it for me will be amazing. While this may not be true of every kind of reproduction, a blended tea seems to be one of those things. There was the guy in the tea shop in my hometown where I grew up who made the best Darjeeling tea blend to my taste. Every season his assortment of teas would be a bit different from what he had previously and yet somehow, magically he would put a blend together that would be just right for my family's taste. 

While I did not drink tea regularly at that age, my parents encouraged me to taste the blend once he had brewed it. It helped me understand the flavor profile they wanted. That became my baseline taste in Darjeeling tea. Like P, this guy was a master too. He knew exactly what his customer would love and made it happen, no matter what kind of tea the season brought. 

Red Line

My friend M shared this hysterical back and forth she had with ChatGPT in hopes of finding a solution to her life's current most pressing problem. We had a good laugh over this but had to acknowledge it was a worthy effort just that it missed that bright red line of condescension. To be fair she was asking for it. 

Prompt:

My boss at work majored in English in college and is highly nontechnical. He is afraid that by aggregating and transporting data our department will own this data with adverse consequences for us. I spent most of my career working for data management product companies who's business is precisely carrying other organization's data and dealing with data governance. If they owned said data they would not exist as would be sued by other organizations based on such ownership. Please help me explain this to him using analogies and allegories from the world of literature Shakespeare if possible but not necessarily.

Response:

"We are not the owners of the cargo; we are merely the ship."

Imagine, if you will, The Merchant of Venice. When Antonio sends his ships to sea, the ships carry goods belonging to merchants. If the cargo is lost or damaged, it’s the merchants who bear the loss—not the shipbuilder or the crew unless there was negligence. Similarly, our systems transport and transform data, but we do not own the data any more than a stagecoach owns the letters it carries.

In Shakespearean terms:

We are like Puck in A Midsummer Night’s Dream—a facilitator of action, but not the author of the will behind it. Just as Puck carries out Oberon’s bidding without owning the consequences of the king’s orders, our team executes technical tasks on behalf of the data’s rightful owners.

The legal and technical principle here is clear:

Just as a librarian does not own the books, nor the postman the letters, we are custodians, not proprietors. Companies like Informatica thrive precisely because they handle others' data without taking ownership—if they did, as you rightly worry, lawsuits would end them. Their survival proves that custody and care are different from possession and control.

One last analogy—drawn from Hamlet:

"Neither a borrower nor a lender be..." is advice about responsibility in relationships. In our case, we are neither borrowing nor lending the data—we are merely the stagehands setting the scene, ensuring that the right props are in the right place, on time, for the real players to act.

Being Happy

I must have confronted the facts of my adulthood only after I became J's mother. This describes how I felt after that. The degree of seeking and needing control ebbed and flowed over time but it never went away:

“What happens, as you get older, is you start to exert control, or at least influence, or try to get into control of things. And then people get a lot of anxiety when they realize the limits to their control. People are very aware of their vulnerabilities, yet still want to exert control. There’s this anxiety that comes from realizing you’re fragile and finite, yet you keep trying to manage or control that fragility.”

With J now an independent woman with a life of her own, my need and desire to control my environment have significantly diminished. I don't things as seriously as once used to. They matter much less if at all at this stage of my life. That is extremely liberating, but by this operating definition of what it means to be happy, I still have a ways to go:

..what a happy life means. It’s one that lives in the joyful space between control and passivity. It’s one that recognizes limits and lives with them. It’s jumping into the boxed walls of the sandpit to make castles and cities. Happiness is a monk dancing at a wedding.

Good List

Great reflection on educating children in the present world and things that have enduring value. There is a lot in this list for any generation just not school-age kids

Planning and carrying out projects - I have found it very satisfying to plan and execute on simple projects around the house, see the improvements. 

Non-academic writing - this blog which has been around for over twenty years.

Relating to humans: friendship, handling conflict, understanding others’ viewpoints, public speaking - the last one is not my favorite but when on occasion I have pushed myself to do it, its been rewarding. The rest are all the things one must work on and get better at continuously, it is being human.

Dealing with your own emotions - extremely valuable. Specially for a stressed-out parent who needs to find outlets for their emotions that bypass the children in their care. This is easier said than done and needs ongoing effort. 

Distinguishing between reliable and unreliable information - an essential, non-negotiable life skill

Creative projects like music, writing, art, game design - for me is writing and art. It's not about level of skill or natural talent. Just keeping at it and honing whatever I have to become a better version of me over time is plenty of satisfaction

Using your body: exercise, dance, sports - exercising in group is very therapeutic for me. For that period of time, I am in the zone with everyone else. My unique problems and issues have no room to breathe there and they die out for a bit, clearing space for new ideas, path to resolution.

Making physical stuff: cooking, building things - I love both and there is almost never a time when I am not in a mood to cook.

Outdoor projects: gardening, exploring - I am a very poor gardener and yet I am able to take pride in what little I have to show for my efforts. The facts that my plants have all survived is an accomplishment.

Keeping Up

My friend C was joking that her company has finally embraced Teams to "keep up with the times". They were using some antiquated software before that I had never heard of. That reminded me of this piece of news I had read a while back about a state in Germany dumping MS for good. 

Schleswig-Holstein’s decision to transition its public administration from Microsoft products to open-source software is a major step toward digital sovereignty and greater control over government data. They obviously had been ahead of the times for a long time judging by the move made by C's employer recently. By replacing Word, Excel, Outlook, and eventually Windows with alternatives like LibreOffice, Open-Xchange, and Linux, the state aims to reduce dependence on foreign tech giants, avoid unexpected costs, and keep sensitive information on German-run cloud systems. This move is driven by geopolitical concerns, cost considerations, and a desire to strengthen data security, reflecting a growing awareness of the risks posed by over-reliance on external vendors.

While the shift promises significant benefits in terms of cost savings and digital independence, it is not without challenges but the initiative sets a precedent for other governments, especially as new EU regulations encourage open-source adoption. This approach could inspire a broader movement toward more resilient, innovative, and collaborative digital ecosystems in public administration. Would love to see more of this happen in the private sector. I find it particularly aggravating that MS embeds copilot everywhere and adds close to no value anywhere. Maybe there are programming use cases it does better than it does for me on the occasions I have tried it and been disappointed. 

Making Whole

I found this story about the MIT-developed method for restoring classic paintings using AI very heart-warming. It is a striking example of how technology can serve both art and history. By dramatically reducing the time and cost required for restoration, from months or years to just hours, his innovation opens new possibilities for galleries and museums to preserve and display works that might otherwise remain hidden due to damage or limited resources.

There is something deeply moving about the idea that cutting-edge technology can help us reconnect with the past. The ability to digitally model a painting’s original appearance and then apply a reversible, protective mask means that restorers can experiment and correct mistakes without fear of harming the original. This respect for the artwork’s integrity is crucial, especially as we consider how future generations will interact with our cultural heritage. This part of the solution is truly amazing. If mistakes are not irreversible, it is easier to take chances. 

The world’s most visited art museums alone hold millions of artworks, and many more exist in smaller and regional institutions. It is safe to assume that a non-trivial number of these, potentially thousands, may be in need of restoration due to age, accidents, vandalism, or environmental factors. Now there could be path for these distressed paintings and a chance for the world to see the art so far hidden from view.

Surviving Business

This Economist story touts the cleverness of Duolingo as a business that is under direct assault from ChatGPT and the like but are still coming ahead. Apparently, that is the model to follow for others who haven't been quite as lucky:

Duolingo, a language-learning app. ChatGPT can imitate a half-decent French tutor and the cost to users of an AI-induced error is low. Nevertheless, shareholders are starting to think of Duolingo as an AI winner. In September it unveiled a video-chat feature that lets customers practise their language skills with an AI-generated character called Lily. On November 6th this sarcastic, purple-haired avatar joined the firm’s earnings call and presented its results. Analysts and investors swooned; the firm’s share price rose by 6% over the next few days. As AI upends more industries, clever innovation is the best way for would-be victims to escape their fate

Goes to show that if your product is indistinguishable from free AI offerings, your business model is vulnerable. However, if you can differentiate through unique features, superior user experience, privacy, or human expertise, you can still build a viable business, even in an AI-dominated landscape. The challenge is to deliver enough additional value to justify the price, not just to match what free tools can do.

Kicking Tires

 A few weekends ago Lovable was available for free to everyone to build anything they wanted. I tested it with the concept I am am developing as part of next year's product roadmap. To get a user interface design to the point where its good enough to get feedback traditionally takes weeks and months. The process is tiring and friction-prone. There are too many opinions and not enough data that leads to sub-optimal outcomes, even with rather mundane features. This is a complex multi-feature thing with a lot of UI components.

I wasn't sure what I was expecting when I started, giving Lovable a summary of my concept. In a couple of hours in which I also finished cooking dinner while the AI worked per my instructions, I had a fully clickable prototype that was good enough review with users. There are no novel elements in what I had asked for. Just putting things together a certain way to solve a specific problem. Nothing others have not done million times before. The fact that I got from start to a logical point this fast and this painlessly left me in awe. Getting from here to building something that will be enterprise grade is still a distance but the time saved from concept to a visual representation of that concept that users can react and respond to is absolutely fantastic

Tragic Hero

Farewell My Concubine was on my bucket list since it was released and caused such a stir. I watched it a few weeks ago and found myself thinking about it for days after. The details of the story and what it means in a very different time and place from where it is set. There was the obvious killing of a child's spirit to the point they no longer have an anchoring sense of who they are. The movie shows this unfold in ways that are specific to the era and the characters but there is a certain universality to the idea. If you want guarantees of performance and compliance then no better way than to subsume the child's mind into whatever those objectives are until they are no longer able to separate what they want and what is wanted of them. As parents, we are all likely guilty of this to some extent. We pass on our hopes and dreams to our kids. Sometimes, with that comes a tactic obligation to fulfill them and guilt is a natural byproduct of failing to do so. 

The loss of agency of the protagonist Cheng Dieyi is depicted in a raw, unvarnished manner. He simply cannot escape his fate because even resolving to escape requires agency he does not have. You wonder who or what he might been in other circumstances. Those are infact the questions anyone could ask about themselves. While not in nearly as tragic or barbaric conditions as he had to be grow up in, most people are victims of the hand they were dealt as children. The movie is visually gorgeous, every scene a work of art. It is long but flows at a pace that keeps the viewer engaged and interested. I found it hard to decide wish character I empathized with most - all three were tragic in their own way, even if Cheng Dieyi's sufferings were the worst. 

Sick Dog

This article about the mixed attitude towards street dogs in India brought to mind the one that was fixture for ever in the stairwell of my uncle's home. 

While working-class people and warriors often admired and depended on them, elite Brahmins and ritual specialists sometimes regarded dogs as impure or associated them with lower castes. This duality persisted into medieval times, with literature often looking down on dogs even as they remained essential in society. The article also notes that Indian dogs were exported and admired abroad for their strength and hunting skills. Today, while some elite Indians seek to remove street dogs from public spaces, many ordinary people view them with affection, reflecting a long and complicated shared history

The dog in question was jet black but his coat was dusty from neglect. He was skinny, sickly and depended on scraps of food from people in the neighborhood. My uncle's family did not feed him but the stairwell was the dog's shelter from the elements. No one tried to evict him from there. Then he started to get sick and smelt really bad. You could tell the dog was there from afar and it filled you with trepidation as that foul smell intensified as you got closer. We avoided contact with him and went into the house. Even in those days, no one felt compelled to get the dog out of the way. At some point he died. 

In my uncle's home no one ever talked about the dog when he was alive or after he passed. It was understood that he was sick and there was nothing anyone could do about it. I guess we respected his right to be as he was, where he was.

Low Bar

How this story unfolds will be interesting to watch. Apparently, a lawsuit was filed by Nan Zhong and his son, Stanley Zhong, a Palo Alto teen who was rejected by 16 top colleges, including MIT, Stanford, and multiple University of California campuses, despite having a 4.42 GPA, a near-perfect SAT score, and founding a startup. Stanley’s story, and his subsequent hiring by Google as a software engineer, became a focal point in the national debate over college admissions. He seems to have most of the checklist completed except he did not end poverty in Sub-Saharan Africa and/or find a cure for cancer. Just those two things could have put him above the line. The level of ridiculousness in the process has well exceed the bar though. 

If this kid makes over three hundred thousand (give or take) without having had to step into college, it begs the question what purpose would college serve anyway if the only intent was to land the job similar to the one he already has. Most of what he learned in college would prove irrelevant anyway. I have an intern right now who is graduating from one of the colleges that rejected Stanley Zhong. He is bright and well-intentioned but he is hardly performing at a level that inspires any awe. He was given a pretty well-defined problem to solve and he decided in a couple of weeks he would not be able to get it over the finish line and have something good to show at his end of internship demo. So he will do what is possible to demo well. Not the outcome I was expecting but that's how it turned out.

I have also had interns in prior years that came from colleges way down in the pecking order that would have done just as well and kids from community colleges that would have gone above and beyond to solve the problem because they are motivated to prove their value. Based on personal experience, I am more inclined to pick my interns from unknown, unremarkable colleges if they have the burning desire to excel and can show me evidence of it. 

Bird Lessons

Loved this story about warbling baby finches and how they sing for no other reward that to sing better:

In the study, the scientists found that the more mature the bird’s rendition of the song relative to their age, the more dopamine was released in the basal ganglia, a cluster of nuclei in the neocortex involved in control of movement as well as reward and cognition. When the birds performed less well relative to their age, dopamine levels dropped. And when the scientists blocked dopamine release, the birds’ performance relative to their age also declined. Dopamine was always elevated above baseline levels when the birds sang, regardless of song quality, the scientists found, which suggests it may help to reward spontaneous warbling.

Parents of young children could learn some lessons from the fathers of baby zebra finches who drive this self-directed learning. Encouraging children to explore and practice skills on their own, without relying solely on external rewards, can help them grow intrinsic motivation and long-term mastery. While we know this to be true, it is not always easy. The answer seems to be that they could lead by example and show kids that repeated practice is essential, even when there is no immediate payoff, much like the finches who rehearse their song thousands of times. This active engagement model (similar to the father finch singing to his hatchlings), seems to be worth emulating for humans too.

Boat Theft

Reading about the boat theft theory immediate brought to mind the dynamics of a dysfunctional team, the inverse of what the theory is all about, but there are common threads that are worth considering.

The dysfunctional team dynamic and the Boat Theft Theory of Consciousness both revolve around the strategic management of information in ambiguous social environments. In the Boat Theory, consciousness is proposed to enable tacit coordination through omission, such as avoiding direct questions about theft to maintain plausible deniability among group members. 

Similarly, in teams with unclear responsibilities, individuals exploit ambiguity to avoid blame or seize opportunities, using back-channeling and covert communication much like the Yanomamö’s unspoken agreement not to incriminate each other. In each case, the lack of clear rules or roles creates a space where people rely on subtle, often unspoken, strategies to navigate the situation.

However, while the Boat Theory focuses on cooperative deception for mutual benefit, like group members tacitly agreeing to break a rule together, dysfunctional teams often shift toward zero-sum competition. In such teams, conflicting incentives and the absence of shared goals mean that back-channeling and back-stabbing become tools for personal gain rather than collective advantage. This difference highlights that, although both scenarios depend on the ability to separate actions from explicit social labeling, the team context often turns these mechanisms into sources of division and mistrust rather than cooperation.

Greed Price

In this article, “How McKinsey Destroyed the Middle Class,” the author, argues that management consulting, led by firms like McKinsey, has played a central role in reshaping American business and widening economic inequality. In the mid-20th century, American corporations featured extensive middle management, robust internal training, and clear pathways for workers to rise from entry-level to executive roles. This structure empowered a broad swath of employees and helped build a strong middle class by distributing management responsibilities and income more evenly. There were success stories of the mailroom clerk moving up the ranks to become VP or even CEO. Loyalty was a two-way street. 

However, beginning in the 1960s and accelerating in the 1980s and 1990s, management consultants promoted a new business model focused on shareholder value and cost-cutting. They encouraged companies to eliminate middle management and reduce permanent, full-time jobs, often replacing them with part-time or subcontracted labor. This shift concentrated planning and coordination in a small group of elite executives and consultants, stripping most workers of opportunities for advancement and stable employment. 

As a result, the pay gap between executives and ordinary workers exploded, unions weakened, and much of the workforce became more precarious. It is no longer in the realm of possibility for employees to think of their job at any company to last their lifetime. If they had a five year run that would be an accomplishment. Making it over a decade nothing short of a miracle. If an employee sticks around that long, often it because of circumstances beyond their control. If the employer hasn't gotten rid of them yet, they should just count themselves lucky not not hold their breath on that luck not running out. 

The article concludes that while management consulting is seen as a meritocratic and prestigious field, attracting elite graduates and offering high pay, its practices have contributed to structural inequality, undermining the American middle class and creating a system where a narrow elite controls most of the wealth and power. I am not sure that the blame is fully attributable to management consulting companies. They doubtless played a key role but could only succeed in due to limitless corporate greed.

Rotten Top

This essay resonated with me at many levels. The author is spot-on about the fate of many director level folks in tech companies. They make good money but the job is unrelentingly awful for all reasons that the author cites. He is right that the real crisis facing the tech industry isn’t AI replacing jobs, it’s a crisis of management and leadership. Burnout is rampant, especially among middle managers, and poor leadership is driving top talent away. The companies that will thrive are those that invest in effective management, not just flashy technology or rigid return-to-office (RTO) policies. 

When executive leaders set poor examples, lack clear vision, or fail to support and communicate effectively, these flaws cascade down the hierarchy. Middle managers, especially directors, are squeezed between unrealistic executive expectations and the needs of their teams, often without adequate support or authority. This leads to increased burnout, confusion, and disengagement among lower-level managers and their direct reports. Shit flows downhill from there until the whole class of people managers in a company with a bad executive leadership turns toxic. In that environment absolutely no one can thrive - manager or individual contributor. Each lives in their own kind of hell. Everyone is disengaged, burning out, and trying to escape what grows increasingly intolerable. 

Story Telling

Reading this tribute to Frederick Forsyth, took me back to the time when I read Day of The Jackal. The author's experience reading the books mirrors my own:

I gobbled up the book and thought it was fantastic – fast, pacy, exciting, suspenseful and laced with detail and intrigue. Then I thought, wait, what? How was this book working? It was a twin-track thriller – an assassin hunts his target while law enforcement hunts the assassin. But the intended victim was Charles de Gaulle, a real person, the president of France, who had been in the news almost daily until his death in 1970, from an aneurysm. Therefore we all knew the assassin had failed. How did that not short-circuit the will-he-won’t-he suspense that thrillers seemed to require?

Back then, I was too young and unsophisticated as a reader to understand what Forsyth had done was genre-defying and should not have worked logically. It was completely hooked on the story and it stayed with forever. When I watched the movie recently, I was able to tell exactly what will happen in the next scene just recalling the story. And that did not in any way diminish my enjoyment of the movie. By then I knew how things end in real life and in the book. So there was absolutely no mystery anywhere and yet it was an edge of the seat experience. If that is not wizardry of story-telling, I don't know what is.