The real reason all the tech bros are falling all over themselves for AI: groupthink and social signaling. You don’t get to be part of the fascist in-group if you are not parroting the latest hype. “The latest fad amongst tech CEOs is no longer "founder mode", or taking drugs that they would fire you for taking, or telling everybody to return to the office — it's demanding that all work be AI-first! This is a great idea if you think nobody at your company is great at what they do.” “There's an orthodoxy in tech tycoon circles that's increasingly referred to, ironically, as "tech optimism". I say "ironically", because there's nothing optimistic about it. The culture is one of deep insecurity, reacting defensively, or even lashing out aggressively, when faced with any critical conversation about new technology.” Dash goes on to say that smart workers know which technologies to use and when and how and don’t need memos or midnight merges of vibe code to do their job. https://www.anildash.com/2025/04/19/ai-first-is-the-new-return-to-office/

Wanted to give a shoutout to a tool that doesn’t get much ❤️ here but is one of the most stable and functional Nostr tools. https://relay.tools allows anyone to create their own relay - even non-technical folks. There are multiple configuration options for public and private relays. If you’ve been thinking about setting up your own relay - check it out!

Worth a read from someone who built on Nostr and talked to customers/ end users. There are findings in here that aligned with what I saw as well. View quoted note →

Check out @Ainsley Costello latest single! View quoted note →

Can someone Explain to me how Bitcoin will not be the digital currency in this scenario. “Their real interest lies in replacing the dollar with a digital currency that they can control and linking our rights and freedom to it through mass digital surveillance.”

🤣 “definitely not 37.” View quoted note →

If you follow any sport Global Sports Central is a must follow! See highlights from games you missed, catch lineups for upcoming matches, and so much more. We talk a lot about zaps here and GSC definitely delivers the value. Show them some ⚡️! View quoted note →

This piece speaks to both the power of collective action to bring about innovation and the grift inherent in the current innovation economy. We’ve figured out how to support cutting edge research but then the products resulting from the collective support are privatized - limiting access while enriching a few. It is not enough to simply raise money.

ProPublica

What a $2 Million Per Dose Gene Therapy Reveals About Drug Pricing

Taxpayers and charities helped develop Zolgensma. Then it debuted at a record price, ushering in a new class of wildly expensive drugs. Its story u...

We will not survive this without some sort of information dissemination network. However, the current one has been failing for awhile and this week it seems the shitty breaks are finally giving way.

Garbage Day

Yeah, it's probably time to panic

Read to the end for a baby potato

Tunde Adebimpe has a new album! The 2 early release tracks are 🔥!

Tunde Adebimpe

Thee Black Boltz, by Tunde Adebimpe

11 track album

🎯 View quoted note →

This is the one of the best post-election deep dives. “The problem is that the consultant class has led every politician to believe that if they just have the right formula, they can put in any candidate, churn them through the machine, and people will vote for that candidate. And that’s not true,” she said. “The Democrats have shown that they don’t have any principles, that they will follow the polls, that if they just talk about the economy and kitchen-table issues in such a way that they don’t actually have to promise anything, then they’ll win next time. But they will lose.”

the Guardian

Democrats in denial over Trump defeat, voters say: ‘Haven’t learned the lessons’

Voters in swing-state Michigan unimpressed with party’s election critique and say fundamental shift is needed

❤️ View quoted note →

From this morning’s frozen pond “slide” walk. #photography #wildlife

Nos has a news relay that anyone can subscribe to. We recently added more news outlets to it. You can add the relay to your list: news.nos.social If anyone has suggestions of other outlets to add let me know if the replies below. We can spin up a bitcoin news relay pretty easily as well, so if you have ideas for that one include them below. The apps I’m aware of that make it easy to view relay content are Nos and Damus. You can the Nos version below. View quoted note →

The platform pay rates for content creation are wildly low…. “she explained that the same educational videos she shares on YouTube make more money per million views on Pornhub because Pornhub offers better rates—$1,000 per million views on Pornhub versus YouTube’s $340 per million views.”

404 Media

Why This OnlyFans Model Posts Machine Learning Explainers to Pornhub

Justice Alito should watch this Pornhub video about calculus.

At least the fiction is fun to read… https://sebastiancarlos.com/fired-from-meta-after-1-week-heres-all-the-dirt-i-got-855e4e5a0d65

If you are building privacy technology this video is worth watching. This first part about prioritizing love and intimacy is something we instinctually understand here. The second part dives into how we do or don’t bring regular people along with us on this technological journey.

Feelings are Facts: Love, Privacy, and the Politics of Intellectual Shame

A debut of new research and analysis, focused on emotions and the affective register—love! shame! intimacy! What happens when we put lov...

This is a great summary of positive things that happened this year intertwined with stats on efforts that started years ago. The latter is a good reminder that sometimes efforts to make a positive impact in the world take a bit to show results.

86 Stories Of Progress From 2024

Not everything that happened this year was terrible.