Sep 21, 2026, 5:27 PMeven if it were ethical and accurate, getting info from AI summary prevents the kind of peripheral information exposure that builds knowledge. (even if it could give a correct answer to "How many Nobel prize winners for literature are from Ireland?", I'm better served by glancing over a list, noticing other patterns of origin, names, etc.)
Sep 21, 2026, 5:29 PMmore and more, though, i can't get to quality sources via search in order to find the kind of thing that would answer my query and give useful peripheral info. (the AI summary's cited links seem to tend to be low-quality even when themselves citing high-quality data) i can see how people default to this tool use because of just how frustrating it is to sift through slop.
Sep 21, 2026, 5:30 PMi hear kagi helps with this. but i can't set kagi up as my search provider on my phone?
Sep 21, 2026, 5:34 PManyway, I'm trying to articulate these little thoughts because it does not feel helpful to have my understanding be only AAAAAAAAAA broadly about, uh, everything everywhere all at once... even if warranted
Sep 21, 2026, 6:38 PMwhat i am trying to do about this: paid for a year of kagi professional
(being able to pin mdn and downrank w3schools: feels good)
Sep 21, 2026, 6:45 PMalso feels good: was looking somebody up and accidentally found her speeding ticket from 20 years ago. THIS feels like the internet i used to be able to use
Sep 21, 2026, 11:29 PMthe academic filter: slaps
i want to figure out some combo of forums / academic / smallweb lol
Sep 22, 2026, 4:47 PMin some way, when i ask a person rather than Hitting The Stacks, i am gambling that they may choose to tell me things i didn't ask. the kind of person who would know also Cares, and thus finds things interesting, and therefore may wish to share some gem of oblique relation. (librarians have deeper theory than i do here; the querent's first query is not their true query; etc.)
Sep 21, 2026, 5:33 PM@maya I was able to set kagi up to work on the iPhone, via a kind of weird hack (you set the default search engine to something else, then use the kagi extension to automatically redirect searches from that engine to kagi)
Sep 21, 2026, 5:35 PM@jamesnvc ooh, thank you for this!!
Sep 21, 2026, 9:58 PM@maya Is the Kagi assistant feature easy enough to hide/disable? I was looking at their family plans recently, but it looked like everything came with it, and we're also trying to avoid gen AI/LLM stuff...
Sep 21, 2026, 11:22 PM@wcbdata looks like! i'm trying to keep things close to default while i'm still learning the ropes but yeah they have a Big Red Button (metaphorically)
Sep 21, 2026, 11:33 PM@maya Nice! Thx...
@maya !! so much this
i really appreciate that trying to look something up often involves bumping into lots of other pieces of context and maybe incidentally learning additional information
@maya Yes, each person builds their own network of curious connections between seemingly unrelated things. This is where the fun is!
Sep 22, 2026, 4:45 PM@maya yes! this is the partner concept to how writing outlines and bad first drafts helps me to remember, think, and develop an idea, so outsourcing that diminishes the end result
@maya
Tech bro "expertise" is largely built on the amount of potentially valuable information that gets filtered out, ignored, or denigrated as not mattering.
It's a way of ignoring potentially helpful or sometimes embarrassing information at the expense of creating a false sense of certainty.
Existence is multifaceted, inclusive, flexible, and generous.
The current tech-focused culture is exclusive, monocultural, rigid, and greedy.
But let's build us some more data centers -- consequences be damned.