GOOGLE AI WEAPONS ARE THE RIGHT THING, APPARENTLY

Google changed it’s motto from “Don’t be evil” to “Do the right thing” in 2015. And now a decade later the “right thing” has taken quite a turn.

“Google on Tuesday updated its ethical guidelines around artificial intelligence, removing commitments not to apply the technology to weapons or surveillance.”

I’m so glad to be moving away from all Google Products this year.

(From the Washington Post, via Hacker News)

DON’T CONFUSE YOUR CUSTOMERS

Today I got two packages in the mail.

One was from someone I spoke with recently, and they said they’d send me something. It came in a sturdy, colorful envelope, it had their name on it, and the shipping label said “delicious ideas inside.”

The other was an item I ordered from someone I’ve followed on Instagram years ago. I paid $40 for this item. It showed up in a plain box, with a USPS shipping label, with no mention of the senders name or brand. It was sent from MERCH COMPANY, basically.

I realize this person has probably outsourced their order fulfillment to a third party. I get that.

But when you pay for-real money for something, the first thought upon picking up the package shouldn’t be “who is this from?”

When I got the package from the person I spoke with recently, there was no confusion, only delight.

Don’t confuse your customers.

RELY ON NOTHING YOU CAN’T TAKE WITH YOU

From One Thing’s ‘The new rules of media‘ from December:

“Rely on nothing you can’t take with you. For now, Substack email lists and Stripe charges are still portable. If they weren’t, I would move to Ghost, because Substack’s incentive is to get you as locked in as possible. (Patreon still keeps your Stripe info, therefore fuck Patreon.) The same goes for audiences: Direct traffic, through homepages or email inboxes, is the most reliable because no one can take it from you, but it’s the hardest to cultivate.”

Discoverability is a myth propped up on social media’s legion of bots and active users. Yes, some people won, but that had to happen, so other people could see the lottery winners and believe they could win, too.

FRAIL CONNECTIONS

Our connections are only as strong as the technology in place that allows it. This is why I warn against using Facebook to stay in touch with friends and family – if that connection is cut, you account is suspended, the company implodes – you are no longer connected with friends and family.

All this talk now of new social media networks, as if the only way forward is based on the idea of setting up new accounts and importing our address books, when in fact we already have our address book from which we can communicate with friends and family.

Seems we like to stay in touch from afar, though, which is weird to me. I don’t need to know the breakfast choices of the kid who sat behind me in 10th grade science class. I don’t need to know every career move of people 1,000 miles away who can only be troubled to drop a “happy birthday!” text when prompted by a algorithm to encourage engagement.

Our brains are only capable of so many connections. There are a few people in our life, right now, nearly in arms reach, who we could grow closer to and go deeper with. Instead we keep seeking these lite-connections with people who only think of us when an algorithm deems it so.

IT’S EMBARRASSING TO POST THINGS ON THE INTERNET NOW

From Noah Kalina:

I was out taking pictures and I made a picture that I really like. I was working on it and I was like, “This is so good.” And I was like, “What am I going to do with this?”

My natural inclination is to want to post it on the internet, but why? I almost feel like it’s embarrassing to post things on the internet now.

More thoughts here.

HOW TO WRITE ONLINE

Solid advice for writing online, from Sean Goedecke:

  • Try and find opinions you have that lots of people disagree with. Those are the interesting opinions others might want to read about
  • Ideas should come naturally from doing actual work, not from sitting and reflecting on what a good blog post would be
  • It’s OK to write multiple posts about the same thing
  • I deliberately don’t include every caveat – good readers will know I’m only writing about my old experience; bad ones won’t care anyway
  • I try to be upfront about my experience so readers can judge how seriously to take what I’m saying
  • Set up a RSS feed and some kind of analytics

Read more at ‘Writing a tech blog people want to read‘ (via Hacker News).