Doug Turnbull

Obligatory discount link:

maven.com/softwaredoug...

Sorry my marketing has been such nightmare fuel

RAG Isn’t a Vector Search Problem Through market forces, embeddings became the singular framework we understood RAG. It’s the wrong lens to think about the problem

It's an entirely different kind of searching... all together

softwaredoug.com/blog/2025/12...

The very same :)

Alamo and a few other mid sized chains get it. Most other chains don’t.

As a frequent movie theater enjoyer, the current system is untenable. The theater market needs to be rethought. Theater chains need to stop living in a world where every movie has an exclusive theatrical window.

They need fewer locations, high end experience, focused on film lovers

The irony that today SCOTUS seems happy to strip FTC of their independence in oral arguments

One wonders if the Trump admin might use regulatory pressure to force institutional investors to accept the Ellisons bid

So the same day the Presidents son in law is in a bid to takeover a massive media company, the Supreme Court seems keen on removing political independence from the FTC

All while the Presidents son-in-laws team promises “faster regulatory scrutiny”

What is agentic search? (and why should I care!?) If an agent can reason and use tools, it can solve search! Why struggle against complex query understanding and reranking models when you have an agent? Learn how agents turn even the most basic searc...

Friday!

I'm giving a talk on the basic value proposition of agentic search

What is it? Why should you care?

Hope to see you there!

maven.com/p/e029a8/wha...

Humble Tech Book Bundle: Ultimate AI: Algorithms and LLMs by Manning Dive deep into the world of Artificial Intelligence with this essential book collection, your complete roadmap covering everything from core concepts to cutting-edge applications in generative AI, fin...

I'm in the Humble Bumble! Or Turnbull Burmble

www.humblebundle.com/books/ultima...

Sadly VRA Section 2 overturning will make this even worse. It'll be hard for Dems to control the House most years

If you ever wondered what GOP gerrymandering looks like in red states with blue cities, I present:

Every Sora AI video burns 1 Kilowatt hour and emits 466 grams of carbon. And for what, exactly? The Sora 2 platform alone emits nearly a quarter of the carbon of all Meta/Facebook

For context, ChatGPT convo generates 3-4 g of carbon

reclaimedsystems.substack.com/p/every-sora...

Feels like we're going to live in a world with a high degree of Federal illegitimacy to most of the population, with coalitions of states trying to fill in the gap

The Supreme Court Case That Could Hand the House to Republicans

The tit-for-tat mid-decade redistricting isn't the problem

The real problem is the Supreme Court defanging VRA Section 2. This will make the House have an R+5/6 structural advantage (R's control House even if Dems win by 5-6)

www.nytimes.com/2025/10/15/u...

So in Honduras, drug traffickers are good, get them in power? But in Venezuela drug traffickers bad, we need to do a regime change?

And btw America First?

We love the moving chains that new housing create

GOODS: international freedom of movement

CAPITAL: international freedom of movement

LABOR: not so fast pal

I see we're fast approaching the Trump overreaction stage of any national tragedy

I thought Dems were bad at messaging. But the second Trump Admin is another level of incoherence

America First! but attack Venezuala and help Argentina

Deport Mamdani, but "we're going to help him succeed"

Epsein files...

Its clearly like half a dozen competing incoherent agendas

AI-Powered Search: Modern Retrieval for Humans & Agents by Trey Grainger and Doug Turnbull on Maven Learn the latest AI Search skills with the authors of "AI-Powered Search"

AI Powered Search

A broad overview of AI search techniques from classic Learning to Rank to cross encoders to knowledge graphs

maven.com/search-schoo...

Cheat at Search with Agents by Doug Turnbull on Maven Rethink search to put tireless agents at work for human users

Cheat at Search with Agents. Focused entirely on agentic search:
maven.com/softwaredoug...

Maven has a FastTrack promotion this week 25% off the entire catalog

Of course there's the two courses between me + Trey Grainger, threaded below:

Early bird through Nov 30:

maven.com/softwaredoug...

A sneak peak at my reworked Maven course

On Youtube, I get served videos with intellectual arguments of how Putin is ultimately doomed in his war against Ukraine. The video makes good points, but gives a really unbalanced PoV.

Frustratingly, people don't actually plan for the downsides, and get surprised when bad things happen.

Just as we are blind to our confirmation bias. So are well-meaning content creators blind to their audience capture.

There's an explosion of political content is a kind of "plausible hopium". We get sucked into a rational confirmation bias rabbit hole that helps us get through our day. Content like from Heather Cox Richardson, etc.

It's not wrong--it's just skewed hopeful to appeal to an audience. I'm skeptical.

Charlottesville should have a small high wealth income tax as well