Scott Leibrand

Your use (with spaces before and after) is more “human” these days.

I don’t know why, but my iOS autocorrect routinely “corrects” my we’re to were (and just did so there before I changed it back). No amount of keyboard text replacement fixes it. Very strange.

ecobay-tech.com/blog/case-st...
After 12 months of operation, the results exceeded expectations:
92% reduction in respiratory infections compared to the previous year
78% decrease in antibiotic prescriptions for respiratory conditions
65% reduction in resident hospitalizations due to infections

Just read a terrific piece by Austin Vernon on AI and logistics.

It’s exactly the kind of grounded, systemic thinking we need more of—focused not on replacement, but reconfiguration.

It reminded me of something I’ve been writing about: the Power Loom Principle. 🧵

buff.ly/BcxiT2E

Via #MarginalRevolution, a claim that self-driving electric vehicles and drones will revolutionise delivery of goods, increase productivity and remake the economy: https://austinvernon.site/blog/ailogistics.html

#logistics #deliveries #productivity

Brain implants are letting people move, speak, and interact with machines using only their thoughts. The first FDA approvals may arrive within five years

worksinprogress.co/issue/brain-...

Great deep dive into latest on using electronic brain implants as treatments

Practically-A-Book Review: Byrnes on Trance ...

Practically-A-Book Review: Byrnes on Trance

Persona vectors: Monitoring and controlling character traits in language models A paper from Anthropic describing persona vectors and their applications to monitoring and controlling model behavior

This is neat research, providing a lot of ways for careful organizations to shape the personality and guardrails of AI in deeper ways than prompts, including measuring and reducing sycophancy.

Also the idea of an "evil vector" is interesting in and of itself. www.anthropic.com/research/per...

How do you propose to route the cars that come from the entrances at the back, find all the spots between them and the store are taken, and have to turn around to exit? Connect only adjacent aisles, maybe one-way? (That’s how SEA airport’s garage does it.)

The Bitter Lesson versus The Garbage Can Does process matter? We are about to find out.

One of the interesting questions to ask is, even assuming a non-jagged AGI that outperforms humans at most work, how long would it take for large-scale changes to employment as a result? It isn't obvious.

I wrote a bit about the general question here: www.oneusefulthing.org/p/the-bitter...

And quacks.

4-panel comic. (1) [Two people in front of tent. Person with short hair kneels, stacking sticks.] PERSON 1: Can you show me how to build a campfire? PERSON 2 with short hair: Sure! We’ll use the log cabin method. First, we build a square cabin out of sticks. (2) PERSON 2 [holding tiny table and chair]: Next, we’ll add interior walls, doors, and some cabin furniture made from twigs. PERSON 1: This is very elaborate. (3) [Person 2 runs wire to miniature cabin. Tiny lightning bolt symbols indicate the wire is energized.] PERSON 2: Now we’ll add some rudimentary plumbing and electrical wiring. 50 amps, nothing fancy. PERSON 1: It kind of seems like you’re just building a cabin. PERSON 2: I just— …Oops. (4) [The mini cabin is on fire.] PERSON 2: I think my wiring wasn’t up to code. PERSON 1 [leaning away and shielding face]: *AAAAA!* PERSON 2: …And that’s how you build a fire!

Building a Fire

xkcd.com/3114/

Revenge of the junior developer | Sourcegraph Blog The latest instalment from Steve Yegge on viiiiibe coding and what that means for developer jobs.

Good write up talking about the waves of AI enabled code dev.

traditional (2022),
completions-based (2023),
chat-based (2024),
coding agents (2025 H1),
agent clusters (2025 H2), and
agent fleets (2026)

#AI #code

sourcegraph.com/blog/revenge...

Reinforcement learning, explained with a minimum of math and jargon To create reliable agents, AI companies had to go beyond predicting the next token.

Reinforcement learning, explained with a minimum of math and jargon https://www.understandingai.org/p/reinforcement-learning-explained (excellent, clear explainer) #AI #RLHF #training

Congress has started taking AGI more seriously The AGI vibes, they are a-shiftin'

A Congressperson just asked a very important question: "Is it possible that a loss of control could give ris to an independent ASI actor that globally we will need to contend with?"

Congress finally gets it.

AGI isn't sci-fi anymore.

peterwildeford.substack.com/p/congress-h...

Steve Yegge's latest: Adapt to agentic coding or get replaced.

- IDEs are dying
- Agentic coding is addictive
- Productivity gap is brutal
- Token burn as a KPI
- Society is not ready
- Learn to Vibe Code or Learn a Trade

sourcegraph.com/blog/the-br...

Endometriosis is an incredibly interesting disease 5k words, 23 minutes reading time

Fascinating essay by ‘Owl Posting’ describing the biology, epidemiology, mysteries, challenges, and medical importance of endometriosis. www.owlposting.com/p/endometrio...

Why Are Homes in Western States So Expensive? Earlier this month I came across the following graphic, originally posted on Reddit in 2022, showing the state of housing affordability in the US.

Why Are Homes in Western States So Expensive?

Continuous AI is a label we've identified for all uses of automated AI to support software collaboration on any platform.

Top folks in the "Who made it"

githubnext.com/projects/co...

Gemini CLI: your open-source AI agent Free and open source, Gemini CLI brings Gemini directly into developers’ terminals — with unmatched access for individuals.

🚀 Huge for devs! Gemini CLI drops, putting AI in your terminal. Get coding help & fresh web info via Google Search! 🤔

The free quota with personal accounts is wild: 60/min, 1000/day. 🤯 That's insane value!

Terminal workflow just got an AI upgrade. I think this will be a game-changer! 🤩

…blockers have been practical and regulatory: overhead wires intrude into FAA Part 77 air-space surfaces, complicate gate re-configurations, and create new certification headaches… incremental fixes already harvest ~½ the attainable savings without any concrete or steel.

chatgpt.com/share/6859b7...

Grounding to Avoid Airplane Delays I recently flew through CLT and spent more time delayed than in the air. There were summer thunderstorms, and with the lightning it wasn't safe for workers to be out. This meant no loading, unloading,...

Lightning causes delays costing ~$50M annually at busy airports in stormy regions. Seems like you ought to be able to build a lightning-proof faraday cage of towers and cables for that much money. What am I missing?

I just published an explainer on aerosols and their role in the climate that I've been working on for the past few months! It includes both how aerosols work, how emissions have changed, and how thats driven recent warming: www.carbonbrief.org/...

I mean, if your only objective is to avoid rotting and wastage, turning cherries into childcare and eventually goose food isn’t the worst thing you can do with them… 😜

If It's Worth Your Time To Lie, It's Worth My Time To Correct It ...

Next time someone accuses you of nitpicking, remember what Scott Alexander says: "If It's Worth Your Time To Lie, It's Worth My Time To Correct It."

www.astralcodexten.com/p/if-its-wor...

I loved it! simonwillison.net/2025/Jun/10/...

The Fordow Paradox: Where do Iran and Israel go from here? How one stubborn mountain shows nuclear non-proliferation is on life support

Israel just struck Iran's nuclear facilities with 200 aircraft and 330+ munitions. But they haven't stopped Iran's nuclear program yet. What's going on? And what happens next? peterwildeford.substack.com/p/the-fordow...

My AI Skeptic Friends Are All Nuts My smartest friends have bananas arguments about LLM coding.

OK I read it. It's clearly provocative but sounds like written in good faith. It's sense of humor is probably not for everybody (I enjoyed it 😛) but if you ignore it, and extract the essence, then it's just the truth.

fly.io/blog/youre-a...

Google’s Taara Hopes to Usher in a New Era of Internet Powered by Light The Alphabet “moonshot” project is launching a new chip to deliver high-speed internet with light instead of radio waves.

Taara, the Alphabet X project that's internet fiber without the cable (it's a laser beam) has now developed a chip that could make the technology cheaper and maybe ubiquitous. Taara will soon spin out of Alphabet with outside funding. My exclusive. www.wired.com/story/plaint...

Scientific Publishing: Enough is Enough Why we're no longer funding journal publications

Journals are the Problem

"I often hear scientists say they can’t abandon journals because they will lose their funding. As a funder, I’m letting you know that we’re not just comfortable with new publishing strategies, we require it."

asterainstitute.substack.com/p/scientific...