iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Matt Ballantine @ballantine70.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Currently in a limbo state as I stare at the smoke alarm in our room as I'm sure it's just made the "my battery is dying" chirp.

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Matt Ballantine @ballantine70.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

I'm unreasonably excited that Watford might yet win the 2019 FA Cup.

Watford fans at Wembley stadium, a sea of yellow.

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Matt Ballantine @ballantine70.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

Imagine being as rich as Jim Ratcliffe and still being that miserable. Although I just found out he was born in a place called Failsworth so maybe there's some sort of nominative determinism going on... share.google/eJWsiqBiopAu...

share.google

Billionaire Manchester United owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe says he has lost confidence in UK

Ineos founder Sir Jim Ratcliffe tells the BBC he thinks the country is "on the slide" and calls for more investment in the North Sea.

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Matt Ballantine @ballantine70.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

The world around us is a series of random events of varying predictability. You can either deny that or embrace it... youtube.com/shorts/8iVlP...

youtube.com

Random Pics - Oblique Strategies

YouTube video by Matt Ballantine

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Matt Ballantine @ballantine70.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Your online safety depends on random numbers. Here's why... youtube.com/shorts/VgUs8...

youtube.com

Random Pics - Encryption

YouTube video by Matt Ballantine

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Matt Ballantine @ballantine70.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

Or just acknowledge that monthly GDP is just a random number? Someone should write a book about this stuff... Randomthebook.com

randomthebook.com

Random the Book

Random the Book: Matt Ballantine and Nick Drage's experiment in serendipity and chance.

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Matt Ballantine @ballantine70.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

Why on earth is this buried in Hampshire local news? Can I have legitimate concerns about the rise of fascists in the UK? www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

bbc.co.uk

Group entered hotel of Pakistan cricketers mistaken for migrants

Protesters congregated at a Portsmouth hotel after false rumours that a coach of migrants had arrived.

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Matt Ballantine @ballantine70.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

Games sit on a spectrum of skill vs luck. So does life. But it's probably more about luck than we like to believe. Another story from Random the Book youtube.com/shorts/hdiUN...

youtube.com

Random Pics - Games

YouTube video by Matt Ballantine

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Matt Ballantine @ballantine70.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

When is someone going to break it to Trump that America was named after an Italian?

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Matt Ballantine @ballantine70.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

The two questions you should ask of anyone who is claiming to predict the future... youtube.com/shorts/gYRKW...

youtube.com

Random Pics - Crystal Ball

YouTube video by Matt Ballantine

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Matt Ballantine @ballantine70.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

When people who don't wear glasses design bathroom mirrors...

Lights on the aforementioned mirror playing reflective havoc on my glasses.

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Matt Ballantine @ballantine70.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

More randomness... today on the hardwiring in the human brain to spot patterns. And penguins. youtube.com/shorts/elOv_...

youtube.com

Random Pics - Apophenia

YouTube video by Matt Ballantine

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Matt Ballantine @ballantine70.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

Hello @timharford.ft.com following your article on the FT today... @sonofsuntzu.bsky.social and I have recently published a curious book about randomness. Would you like to see a copy? Randomthebook.com

randomthebook.com

Random the Book

Random the Book: Matt Ballantine and Nick Drage's experiment in serendipity and chance.

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Matt Ballantine @ballantine70.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

LLM code writing adds another layer of social complexity to software. mattballantine.substack.com/p/software-a...

mattballantine.substack.com

Software as applied social science

And it’s about to get more complicated...

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Reposted by Matt Ballantine

Otto English @ottoenglish.bsky.social · 22/08/2026

This is a thing of splendid apophenic wonder. A very welcome and weird distraction from the other bits of life and thank you @ballantine70.bsky.social for sharing it with me.

The pages arrive unbound, ready to be shuffled, dealt,
traded, argued over. Each one starts with a question
and ends somewhere unexpected: in the stock market,
your immune system, the bestseller list, a dice tower,
a jury room.

Tom Whitwell, Founder Music Thing Modular

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Matt Ballantine @ballantine70.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

When you think about evolution, what images spring to mind? youtube.com/shorts/cdMt2...

youtube.com

Random Pics - March of Progress

YouTube video by Matt Ballantine

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Matt Ballantine @ballantine70.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

More randomness for you - do you feel lucky? youtube.com/shorts/e7OUI...

youtube.com

Maneki Neko

YouTube video by Matt Ballantine

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Matt Ballantine @ballantine70.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

Some more randomness... Lavender, photocopiers, and a new picture frame... youtube.com/shorts/gpM65...

youtube.com

Random Input

YouTube video by Matt Ballantine

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Matt Ballantine @ballantine70.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

But at what point do we say "Yeah, but what do exam results actually tell us?" The answer is, of course, that someone is good or bad at doing exams. At some point we do need to ask if education needs to be something more than an exam factory.

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Matt Ballantine @ballantine70.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

I know this is really pedantic, but there are 1,000s of postcodes that don't have a place associated. There are also loads that don't have people living or working. Getting growth in every area of the country is important, but defining it as postcodes will lead to daft things happening.

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Matt Ballantine @ballantine70.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

I've tried three times and I'm unable to find words to express how utterly batshit the stuff the US president posts in public is.

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Matt Ballantine @ballantine70.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

www.theguardian.com/business/202... Classic Silly Season story + our inability to understand big numbers and random market fluctuations. "Asking prices dip 6% in quiet summer months" not quite the same headline but just as valid.

theguardian.com

Asking prices for newly listed homes in UK’s richest borough fall by £100k in one month

Fierce competition in some areas of London means landlord purchasers are making successful lowball offers

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Matt Ballantine @ballantine70.bsky.social · 16/08/2026

I'm looking for testers for Random the Audiobook. It's like an audio book, but a bit more random. Message me if you're interested in giving it a go.

An audiobook player interface on a black background, playing a track titled "How do you plan for the unpredictable?". The cover art features a stylized, bright red transmission tower (electricity pylon) against a grey gradient background. Below the artwork, text shows "12 / 52," followed by the track title, an audio progress bar at 00:00, and standard playback controls with a yellow circular play button.

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Matt Ballantine @ballantine70.bsky.social · 16/08/2026

Sky Sports seems to have implemented social distancing again...

The sky sports studio where the 4 presenters are all standing a long way away from each other. On the screen, Watford are celebrating scoring a goal.

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Matt Ballantine @ballantine70.bsky.social · 11/08/2026

Alongside the occasional bit of time poetry, my hacked Poem/1 clock tells me random things every minute of the day. Thanks/sorry @genmon.fyi

My hacked Poem/1 clock telling me it's 86 days until Bonfire Night.

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Matt Ballantine @ballantine70.bsky.social · 10/08/2026

A few months ago someone asked me if writing a book about randomness had changed my view on religion. I'm no more religious than I ever have been (ie I'm not at all). But I can now see how human inability to perceive the effects of randomness could cause people to believe. Vance is a case in point

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Matt Ballantine @ballantine70.bsky.social · 09/08/2026

We've reached this stage of the parent/teenager experience.

An Artefact card in blue with the handwritten words "in the dishwasher not on the dishwasher unless the dishwasher is full in which case empty the dishwasher"

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Matt Ballantine @ballantine70.bsky.social · 14/07/2026

Best door knocker I've seen in a while...

A door knocker which bashes a bronze head.

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