This week I have learned: Scuba masks are an instrument of psychological and physical torture The week in media: Read: Completed The Dice Man and also Shirley Jackson's The Lottery. Just finishing Karen Hao's Empire of AI. All chilling in their own ways. Watched: The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare. Listened: Continued the 500... Next week: … Continue reading Weeknote 744: Tioman and Singapore
This week I have learned: Singapore is a very expensive city. The week in media: Read The Dice Man (for book research) Listened The Rolling Stone 500 continues... Up to my 390th now. Next week: PADI The week in photos:
This week I have learned: That (according to a taxi driver) the people of Penang greet one another not with "how are you?" But "have you eaten?" The week in media: Read: Completed Craig Brown's book about The Beatles, One, Two, Three, Four. It is excellent. Now reading Small Pleasures by Clare Chambers. It's very … Continue reading Weeknote 742: KL and Penang
This week I have learned: about the amazing work of Jean-Jaques Perrey. Possibly the godfather of sampling. Another incredible discovery in the WB-40 Album Club. Thanks to Susi O'Neill for the introduction, and also the fascinating back stories. it's quite odd meeting someone for the first time in 21 years. We hadn't changed. WE'VE ONLY … Continue reading Weeknote 741: 787
This week I have learned: the continuing power of connecting people. There have been a few opportunities in recent weeks where I've been able to make introductions to people from strangely diverse parts of my network. It's a powerful thing to be able to do. how much I value the community that has built up … Continue reading Weeknote 740: new models
This week I have learned: what the heck deep research actually is in the LLM tools. It's been useful already. how nice it was to catch up with former colleagues from Microsoft earlier in the week. Microsoft was a pretty torrid period in my career. I was in the wrong place at the wrong time. … Continue reading Weeknote 739: deep research
I've observed something over the years that I've started calling "regression to form". It's the depressing inevitability that if you give people something that looks even vaguely like a form, they will treat it as a form. As a result, the objective shifts from thinking to form-filling. From conversation to completion. From understanding to box-ticking.Take … Continue reading Regression to form
In last week’s WB-40, guest Rufus Evison drew an interesting analogy between how LLMs work and Daniel Kahneman’s Fast and Slow thinking model. Rufus described how LLM responses are “fast”, almost instinctive based on past experiences and pattern matching, and the problem with them is that they need to be more “slow”, deliberative and logical. … Continue reading The Messy Truth About “Thinking” Machines
This week I have learned: how much of my cognitive capacity went into preparing and delivering a pitch presentation this week. That's not a moan, it's just a reflection on how much brain power and emotional energy goes into bringing together a team and a script to delivery something compelling to clients. that for all … Continue reading Weeknote 738: post performance
I've been thinking lately about how we're rather good at solving problems, but surprisingly bad at identifying what the problems actually are. Take the double diamond process that every design consultant worth their salt will draw on a whiteboard: diverge to explore numerous solutions, converge to select the best one, diverge again to prototype, and … Continue reading The problem with problems
mmitII 