This week I have learned:
- the importance of play (part one): fascinated by the work Jude Pullen and Max Park’s latest experiment, the AI Divergence Engine.
- It’s made me realise that, unlike say in the world of digital music, there is next to no experimentation with physical user interface design when it comes to looking at tools with which to interact with LLMs.
- the importance of play (part 2). A conversation that started with an observation that a piece of modern art looked like a board game ended up with a musical board game played in Claude.
- We had a lot of getting together this week. It was good.
- I’m not convinced by the changes coming up in social value for government contracts. I completely understand the objective to create jobs and skills in the UK. But it feels like that if that were important to government then they should either just create jobs and stop outsourcing, or they should invest in building skills. This all feels like an elaborate way to keep stuff off the books, and that doesn’t usually end well (PPP, shifting housing and schools into HAs and Trusts, student loans and more). Ultimately if you are paying a supplier to do things, anything they do is reflected in the fees they charge.
- it’s sometimes hard to assert what my needs are. I think I managed it this week.
The week in media:
Saw
70 Up. Was in tears by the end. Incredible, generational-spanning television.
Read
Continuing Ed Conway’s Trade World.
Listened
Particularly taken by the Nubyan Twist album. Especially now I’ve got my speakers back from speaker hospital.
Next week:
Some sort of reality returns after weeks of Statement of Work wrangling.
The week in photos:
