Inside the Luddite festival harnessing Gen Z’s rage against Big Tech

New York City’s Summer of Ludd festival is teaching people how to live offline.
https://arstechnica.com/culture/2026/07/inside-the-luddite-festival-harnessing-gen-zs-rage-against-big-tech/?utm_brand=arstechnica&utm_social-type=owned&utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social

The reason there are no more good ideas in tech is that every office has these "low odor" whiteboard markers. Ten years ago, every Design Thinking session participant was way more creative because they were strung out on marker fumes.

#UX #tech

The inscription on this monument built by the Ancients was damaged, but we were still able to translate it. Looks like we will find many valuable relics and treasure if we dig here!

Execs are confused: we forced you to use all these powerful AI tools and yet our profits aren't 10x! What gives?

Individual productivity is always downstream of strategy. And the same "more, faster!" attitude that creates incremental improvements in delivery speed means that leaders rush through strategy formation.

If the tasks don't add up to anything meaningful, no amount of model improvements will help you.

https://productpicnic.beehiiv.com/p/even-with-a-silver-bullet-you-still-have-to-aim

#LLM #AI #tech #softwaredevelopment #UX #Agile

Happy pride to the super bisexuals

#goose

“a goose chooses, an egg obeys” I scream like it’s a good point I made as the golf club hits my skull

Due to a need for budget austerity, we are now means-testing the benefit of the doubt

“but like it or not some people have a surprisingly high threshold for creepy and weird (after all, there’s a market for Ring doorbells and Meta glasses)”

https://buttondown.com/justenoughinternet/archive/the-sports-car-theory-of-llm-adoption/

This jasmine rice jacket is making me remember how I used to travel around on Indian railways with a jasmine rice bag to line my sleeping berth (my dad’s idea), so very often I woke up with ‘Thai hom mali rice’ imprinted on my body

Who called it "Q Branch" and not 007-Eleven

SpaceX dropped over 16% today. Watch for it to approach but never quite hit the original IPO price, $135.

That's because once it drops, the underwriters will have to buy more stock to keep it afloat (and not completely screw their major clients). Like, they're obligated to, for the first month. After that, it's sink or swim.

If you have a broker and they have an "amazing offer" to buy SPCX, laugh at them, hang up and change your phone number.

"sure it doesn't work TODAY but the technology is getting better every day!!" was a more compelling argument when you were actually allowed to use the better technology

“Amazon, Walmart, Cisco, Uber and Meta are among early adopters that have introduced caps, discouraged wasteful use or pushed employees to cheaper models in a bid to keep AI spending under control.”

https://www.ft.com/content/1d37cc08-e0aa-45a4-a45d-4ad282529314

#ai #llm

@tante the Rolling Stone piece from earlier this year(?) was a very revealing case: a town saw a dramatic rise in cancer and birth defects because two things collided: one company was releasing industrial pollutants, and the nearby amazon data center was cycling the water through the earth much faster than before. the health impacts only really started when the latter did. so "gallons of water used" is never the full story, the environment is a complex and fragile system.

Minion: Impossible

Making one loaf with blueberries and one with black olives for a delightful Mystery Purple experience.

"but after people take one slice they will know which is which" - do you think I was born yesterday? I have already shuffled the slices.

Oh alright, I'll do it. (Put the info up here on mastodon/fedi so folk learn about it, that is. It's not advertising unless it comes from the dead heart of bigco region.)

In-person workshop in Philly at the end of July:

"Influence by Design is a full-day intensive with @PavelASamsonov and Sara Wachter-Boettcher designed for experienced UXers who want to stop being sidelined and start building leverage in their orgs."

Info/enroll:
https://www.throughlineconf.com/events/philadelphia-2026

Patient trying to get a diagnosis for their chest pains: TELL ME WHY

Doctor gaslighting them: Ain't nothing but a heartache

Patient: TELL ME WHY

Doctor: Ain't nothing but a mistake

Doctor: *doesn't want to run tests the patient is asking for* I never wanna hear you say "I want it that way"

No one hates the #UX of an app more than the person who designed it - because they are the only ones who know the difference between what was designed and what shipped

The Sega Genesis implies the existence of a Sega Revelations:

And I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seals, and I heard as the noise of thunder, one of the four beasts saying, Come and see.

And I saw, and behold a blue hedgehog; and golden rings were given unto him: and he went forth conquering, and to conquer.

And when he had opened the second seal, the beast that came out was red: and power was given to him to take peace from the earth: and there was given unto him great knuckles.