Alex / is on Nostr

🏳️‍🌈 software copy editor, writer, podcaster, former content marketer

Last Notes

2024-11-17 17:58:06

“Twitter was a hellhole that predictably collapsed under a combination of an underwhelming business model, rage-inducing incentives, and a neurotic user base, and I for one am glad we finally have a successor to it” <- a lot of people right now

2024-08-02 17:05:54

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@npub1mdk…aptk If someone had written “Jews will not co-exist peacefully” at any age they wouldn’t be within a mile of a presidential ticket. Shapiro is not worth the risk.

2024-07-05 13:20:07

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@npub1mdk…aptk They’re still going on about that? No wonder the site has flatlined (possibly related, but I’ve seen a lot of one-time “catch me on Bluesky/Mastodon/Threads” accounts back on X these days)

2024-03-14 04:39:31

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People who otherwise don’t care about affordable housing (note: I don’t think a lot of YIMBYs really care about it either) then spin up an entire ideology that’s just whatever will rile self-styled YIMBYs, but it’s not NIMBYism per se.
People really lose their minds and then in turn YIMBYs themselves stake out positions like “left-NIMBYs are destroying civilization itself,” and that feeds another round of antiyimby polarization, etc. (2/2)

2024-02-05 17:47:20

I think the Vision Pro is Apple’s first right (as in politics) coded device. Witness all the “epic guy driving a cyber truck with one on” videos. The Mac and the Watch are left coded, the iPhone, iPad, and everything else are centrist/neutral.

2024-01-14 14:18:04

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@npub1mdk…aptk The prevailing wisdom on crypto always seemed backward to me: Many people said that yes Bitcoin et al. were silly but the “real” and “serious” applications were in the underlying blockchain tech. In reality, Bitcoin is as useful as the blockchain gets (not very lol), way more practical than using a blockchain for logistics or whatever. “AI” could be similar—maybe ChatGPT is as good as it gets.

2023-11-11 22:38:41

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@npub1mdk…aptk Bluesky feels like an attempt to replicate the pre-Elon Twitter hierarchy. But the really big celebrity and corporate accounts aren’t there and neither are the Not So Online people. So it’s mostly the old Twitter petite bourgeoisie who lost a chunk of their audiences and are now replying to random reply-guys a lot of the time. Feels sad, to be honest. I haven’t thought about Threads in a while. I’m skeptical any new social network can break through post-2016, for many reasons

2023-11-11 15:50:53

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@npub1mdk…aptk It’s a real “who’s you’re audience/who’s this for?” moment. The right-wing already hates higher ed. and yet universities are now trying hard as they can to alienate the left, too

2023-11-01 19:06:19

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@npub1mdk…aptk Has he made any serious moves toward running yet? Feels like it’s getting very late for him to jump in.
I figure RFK Jr. and West won’t be able to sustain these numbers, but Biden barreling ahead with his Israel policy seems custom-designed to test that proposition.
FWIW, I think most RFK “supporters” are simply unhappy with a rematch and for the most part lean right.

2023-08-28 04:36:28

Enshittification is a robust theory but I don’t know how applicable it is to social media providers in particular. Many of them were never good to begin with.
I mean, the enshittification narrative for Twitter is: “microblogging service run by crypto obsessed guy and known for toeing the impersonation line became microblogging service run by crypto obsessed guy and known for toeing the impersonation line.”

2023-08-13 23:32:24

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@npub1mdk…aptk I’m in a similar boat. I haven’t used one in a while and just haven’t gotten back to it. Maybe switching to #Kagi for search inadvertently solved a lot of my ad issues because now I never see any search ads. Most of my time on my Mac is also now within non-Safari apps 🤷 . But if you find one that works out let me know.

2023-08-11 15:22:22

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@npub1mdk…aptk I do think people are way too credulous toward “The Body Keeps the Score” in particular. But yeah Twitter absolutely ran these terms into the ground and so people get annoyed hearing them all the time, even if they’re somewhat useful.

2023-08-05 14:30:49

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@npub1mdk…aptk “This is the nature of technological progress,” lol, there’s a lot of weird assumptions and ideology there

2023-07-20 03:32:36

“Growth mindset” was inescapable in like 2014 as the proposed cure-all to learning new stuff. Turns out it doesn’t make any difference for students https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2023-14088-001

2023-07-05 18:24:51

#ChatGPT traffic fell last month:
(Full report: https://www.similarweb.com/blog/insights/ai-news/chatgpt-traffic-drops/)
People will say it’s seasonal, but seasonality is for old stuff, not allegedly world-changing tech.
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/110/662/876/530/931/361/original/127e30c78b8d603b.jpeg