Category Archives: Linkblogging

Coolness, how it’s defined and propagated

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”But there is one institution, so to speak, that Silicon Valley, and, specifically, many of AI’s biggest proponents, have become particularly obsessed with demolishing. To the point where I feel comfortable calling their premiere obsession. It even played a role in Musk’s acquisition of Twitter. It’s a refrain — or, really, prayer — we hear over and over again with every new AI release. The unwavering belief that this is the Shiny New Thing that will finally destroy it. And that institution, of course, is coolness. And, specifically, the kind of coolness that is determined by teenage girls.”

Great piece.

Ryan Broderick, “Silicon Valley vs. teenage girls”

Scott Kemp interview collaborative design

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This is mostly to provide links for myself.

Anyway… Dami Lee has a great interview with Scott Kemp, and his design process with First Nations throughout British Columbia. What’s notable, to me, is not only how this creates good buildings, but it appears to emulate processes recommended by Christopher Alexander. Just a really, really interesting interview all around.

The past isn’t what it used to be

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Here at Mission, one of my fellow residents is quite old — 99.

I thought about that a little bit. So he was born in 1922. That’s not right. Surely a 99-year-old was born in the 1800s. Horse-drawn carriages, not Duesenbergs and gin.

I think that way because for so much of life, it was true. But time advances, and now 99 years reaches back only to the Jazz Age, instead of the McKinley administration.

Jason Kottke has something he calls “The Great Span”: “(T)he link across large periods of history by individual humans.” The last surviving child of a Civil War veteran (and thus drawing an Army pension) died in 2020. Units of 99 years (sometimes called “Bettys,” after Betty White) definitely qualify, but it’s stunning how quickly that event horizon moves on.

At least to this 60-year-old.