I just finished recording myself reading Bill Watteson’s commencement speech to the 1990 graduating class of Kenyan College for my kids. I just did it in Voice Memos on my computer. I then put it into a collection of stuff for my kids. There are quotes, advice, links to things, lists and other stuff that I’m collecting for my kids as a reflection of me and my values. More parents should do this kind of thing.
Learning is not supposed to be fun. It doesn’t have to be actively not fun either, but the primary feeling should be that of effort. It should look a lot less like that “10 minute full body” workout from your local digital media creator and a lot more like a serious session at the gym. You want the mental equivalent of sweating. It’s not that the quickie doesn’t do anything, it’s just that it is wildly suboptimal if you actually care to learn.
I was on a jury for four weeks in Jan/Feb 2020. One of my fellow jurors worked at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL) and extended an open invitation to bring the kids for a special tour, not just the regular one that anyone can do. On June 15, 2023 I could finally take him up on the invitation. While we were there, we got to see the Europa Clipper spacecraft being built. I remember getting chills and even getting a little choked up. Today the spacecraft is being launched on a Space X mission to begin its 1.8 billion-mile (2.9 billion-km) journey to reach Jupiter sometime in April 2030. It will orbit Jupiter, and conduct 49 close flybys of Europa.
It is officially pomegranate season here in California. I just picked the most perfect and delicious pomegranate I’ve ever had. From our neighbor’s tree that had some branches hanging in our backyard.
Speaking of AI, we had a school coffee meeting with middle schoolers' parents (my daughter just started 6th grade), and the topic was AI. I was pretty impressed with how open they were about its usage. They’re taking a conservative approach, see it as a potential tool and will be helping kids explore it for things like structuring their writing, not writing for them and using its inevitable hallucinations to help teach media literacy and critical thinking, which I think is pretty cool. But man, a lot of parents are freaked out.
Also, I sat with my daughter and ChatGPT’s voice interface last week. I prompted it to help her study for a vocabulary test, on which she proceeded to get 100%, which is encouraging. I especially like that it removes some of the inevitable friction with parents helping kids with homework, which the school discourages anyway.
Easily the best thing I saw – or rather heard on the Internet today. Your weekly reminder that this is the “worst” it will ever be.
I’m still processing, but I finally got to see a screening of Eno, and with Gary (the filmmaker) no less! I cannot remember the last time I was so inspired by a film. I was already a massive Eno fan, but seeing this just took it to a whole new level. And what Gary is doing to enable a new kind of storytelling is absolutely incredible. If you haven’t seen the film, go see a screening or book one in your city.
Took my first Waymo ride today and it was pretty mind-blowing. I was with Ozzie (my son), my brother and my nephew. It took us from their hotel to The Broad in DTLA. So much nicer than having a driver, which I feel kinda awful saying, but there it is.
Kottke posted about Ian Polpo tracking down the full “What were the skies like when you were young” sample from The Orb’s Little Fluffy Clouds.
The song definitely felt like a moment. And ror whatever reason, be it timing or whatever, it is forever associated with the dot com bubble for me.
A few other interesting links for context – the story of how it was made and a Volkswagon commercial for when the new Beetle was released that used the track.
The Llama has been freed.
HuggingChat for macOS is now available for testing.
Great write-up from the designer of the 3D-printed iPhone doc that everyone was talking about recently.
I was annoyed that Ozzie’s soccer practice got moved to another park. He hopped out of the car. I parked and hung out for a few minutes in the care for a few minutes to bang out some emails. I noticed someone skateboarding in a different section of the parking lot and almost immediately knew who it was, but it couldn’t be…
“You’re Andy, right?”
“Yeah”
“Hey, I’m Brad. I’m a big fan of yours. Just wanted to say hey and shake your hand.”
“Cool. Wow, those are some clear glasses!”
He’s one of the greatest skaters of all time and is certainly my favorite skater under 50 🤣. It was so cool to get to watch him practicing, largely unnoticed, no one filming him for anything. Just an incredible athlete practicing over and over and over again.
It’s too easy to get caught up in AI doom and gloom. Doom sells, or at least garners attention. Increasingly it’s difficult to find voices of optimism, caution and imagination. As we continue to gather in online places that seek to capture and retain our attention, something is happening on the web that most people couldn’t possibly notice. And who can blame them when their online experiences are limited to what amounts to the walled gardens – the AOL’s of today. Of course, most people that read this post will know exactly what I’m talking about.
The Kragg Shoe by Arc’teryx is a nice-looking shoe. I’m not sure I could rock the orange tho.
Been spending more time with Romance by Fontaines D.C. and it’s easily one of the best albums of the year.
This Better Gift Shop x Vans collab is nice.
I can’t believe I wasn’t fast enough.
New Nala Sinephro is stunning.
Until today, I’d lived with a single phantom unread message in Apple Messages for so long that I don’t even remember not having it. It was on every Apple device I have, never showed up in the ‘Unread Messages’ filtered view and I had tried everything short of resetting my phone. Yes, I asked all the AI bots.
I decided to ask Perplexity again today and one of the suggestions, which I had not seen previously, was to ask Siri if I had any unread messages. It proceeded to read me several and when it was done, my phantom unread message was no longer there! Miraculously, Siri finally did something actually useful.
I spend almost no time on Bluesky. I just haven’t found my people there, whatever that means. But since Twitter was banned in Brazil, many are going to Bluesky. It’s been impressive to see the site handle such a heavy influx of new users. I’m rooting for Bluesky. We all should.
I have to admit that I kind of love the 2025 IONIQ 5 XRT, but how can Hyundai keep making cars with that awful logo?! Ugh!
HyperTextHero, Simon Griffee, created a beautifully legible keyboard chord diagram. Lovely!
Kids are FINALLY going back to school tomorrow. OMFGTY
McSweeney’s has a thing about drop-off and pick-up rules.