softwaredoug

Interesting, but there’s a big caveat

> Anthropic said it found no evidence that the group succeeded in fielding an operational weapon.

I'm not sure I'd say it's "opt-in"

It's presented as a series of checkboxes when you're using their native WebOS. As if to use Netflix you have to agree to ToS. One of the checkboxes says "ACR" without defining what that is.

The default is "Select All" and submit. There's no "Select Minimal" or somesuch.

I personally think the root cause is losing hand coding skills

You can be much more token efficient if you code 5-10% and let the LLM replicate those patterns. You can also maintain an understanding of the system. Avoid needless AI layered complexity. And ship less slop.

I’m simultaneously bullish on human and AI coding.

Texas had a lawsuit against LG that settled in the spring. Sadly with a default of you’re opted in, and you’re presented the option to opt out[1].

As others have pointed out, you’re presented this at the same time as normal ToS. So it’s very confusing to even me what to opt in to use basic TV functionality.

It absolutely feels like a dark pattern.

1 - https://www.texasattorneygeneral.gov/news/releases/attorney-...

It reads like “AI is dangerous, only we should be allowed to make money from it”

Well roughly now would be when you’d time a huge shock

OTOH midterm generic ballots are much more stable than top line presidential horse race polling. So it might only matter at the margins.

My understanding is we haven’t gotten to full Hormuz apocalypse mode because the Chinese have a ton of stockpiles. And the Red Sea has been an option.

Those conditions seem to be changing.

Yes its a rule in hell situation. Some folks are getting a larger share of a shrinking pie.

I am unsure its by design or just idiocy. (Probably a mix of both).

Certainly the population of people that need to know how something works is much smaller.

But even still, cognitive debt is a real, documented phenomenon where we lose our ability to change projects.[1]

We also know coding agents tend to accumulate slop in projects over time without some human intervention[2]

There's also the concern of whether its a good idea to be dependent on an addictive slot machine run by a trillion dollar company to do your work.

1 - https://simonwillison.net/2026/Feb/15/cognitive-debt/

2 - https://www.scbench.ai/

I don't doubt that. But humans still need to be responsible for understanding what they're shipping. And IMO you get your best understanding by actually writing some code. Even if you don't actually ship what you wrote.

Coding might be "solved" but coding still is the best way to build your own mental model of the solution space.

Which is more important to you: Velocity to a solution? Or velocity to understanding?

It seems one way Iran fights the US asymmetrically is by harming the Federal financial picture with endlessly higher rates + borrowing costs. If this keeps happening month-after-month, year-after-year, we're really going to feel the squeeze.

Treasury has already tried to reassure markets and failed

Add to this other trade war nonsense...

They probably imagine the guy from Silicon Valley that shows them where their box is going.

The difference is how credit and attribution works. And whether we feel it’s being laundered through models.

And also whether the AI moon laser pointed at your problem is just going to be the thing that writes the final conclusion on ten years of your work.

A sample of cases, their judges, and who appointed them

v. Wisconsin Elections Commission — federal district court, Brett Ludwig, Donald Trump

Same case — 7th Circuit appeal, Michael Scudder, Donald Trump

7th Circuit panel, Joel Flaum, Ronald Reagan

7th Circuit panel, Ilana Rovner, George H. W. Bush

Pennsylvania appeal, Trump v. Boockvar, Stephanos Bibas, Donald Trump

Pennsylvania district court, Trump v. Boockvar, Matthew Brann, Barack Obama

Michigan “Kraken” case, King v. Whitmer, Linda Parker, Barack Obama

Georgia “Kraken” case, Timothy Batten, George W. Bush

Arizona challenge, Diane Humetewa, Barack Obama

Georgia election challenge, Steven Grimberg, Donald Trump

I sometimes comment on the actual facts of an issue on threads about an alarmist, clickbait headline. Not to minimize the issue, but to help people calibrate how freaked out they should be.

But people get really offended with the idea of calibrating their freak out. I think there’s just a group of people addicted to outrage. Nuance and critical thinking get in the way of that.

You don’t need to go to 11 on every issue you can calibrate. Trust me it’s good for your sanity.

Some things that help me.

1. Be vulnerable and share your mistakes. Avoid a triumphalist “everything works” PoV

2. Write about your actual lived personal experiences.

3. Try to have a sense of humor

4. Have an informed opinion or PoV - strong opinions held weakly.

5. Be casual. Don’t treat a blog like it’s a research paper.

I’m not at all defending this, but before you freak out, it’s a $14 fee per solar panel. Not like 25% tax on utilities that produce solar or somesuch.

In case you want to appropriately calibrate your anger.

It’s never been easier to differentiate yourself as a writer. You just write with some personality. People don’t want writing that doesn’t look average, but looks novel.

I despair much less for human writers than a did maybe a year ago.

I’m not as sure. It feels that way. But society was also smaller in its footprint.

Keep in mind the US government pre watergate did a lot of spying on political opponents (MLK, Malcolm X, etc). Presidents impounded funds pre Watergate at alarming rates.

We put US citizens in camps during WW2 for being of Japanese descent. See also native Americans and the Federal govts enforcement of slavery.

You might say the govt has just grown in proportion to the container it’s held in.

It may more accurately be pre-Watergate.

But yes, a lengthy period with a unifying adversary that felt like an existential threat did a lot to unify the US

The US is returning to its pre WW2 norm. The postwar era was the exception. US democracy has long been tenuous or for the “right people”.

There basically is no election fraud

In 2020 Trump admin tried very hard to find some and there attempts were thrown out in court 59/60 cases

The only thing they won on involved a Pennsylvania judge extending mail in ballot deadline beyond their authority. Not a case of fraud.

Aren’t humans just “next motor action predictors”?

Drawing these random unrecorded lives makes me think a lot of Train Dreams a movie/book about a kind of unremarkable, random guy in the Northwest who sits witnessing history, dying with nobody remembering him.

My person was “orphaned at 34”

Great idea but it needs more testing.

You might enjoy reading the Hyperion Cantos which delves into this idea :)

I'm seeing reporting it gets 98.6% on ARC-AGI3[1] (previously like 30% with Fable)

https://venturebeat.com/technology/welcome-to-the-agi-era-op...

That’s possible

Though in this case the kid was walking all in a gated community.

FWIW - Virginia has a free range kid law. And does not have a minimum age for supervision.

They charged the mom with delinquency of a minor to get around this. Usually reserved for teenagers that commit crimes.

We don't really know all the facts, and we only get one side of the story here. So we all need to keep that in mind too.