Author: Seth Werkheiser

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)

“That’s the purpose of my link blog: it’s an ongoing log of things I’ve found—effectively a combination of public bookmarks and my own thoughts and commentary on why those things are interesting.”

Simon Willison

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.

If you ever think self promotion is cheesy just listen to truck commercials. They’re the absolute worst.

So go on and talk about your cool prints and photo books and limited edition hand numbered cassettes, cuz those are a LOT cooler.

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.

Saw Groundhog Day tonight in our local theater, the night before Groundhog Day. I live about four hours east of Punxsutawney, PA, but I’ve thought about getting up at like 4am and making the drive (but actually there’s no way I’ll be doing that).

“I understand that Gmail is trying to make the product more user friendly, but I think it’s making some questionable decisions without the user’s knowledge. And unlike some email clients that allow users to choose whether to include contact names when sending, Gmail enforces this behavior with no setting to disable it.”

Maybe you wanna check your CONTACT NAMES in Gmail. Yikes. Read more here.