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Brandon Paddock

@brandonlive.com
662 followers 261 following 2.1K posts

Software Engineer/Architect specializing in AI/ML. Upstate NY’er turned Seattleite. New dad. brandonpaddock.substack.com

PostsRepliesMedia
Brandon Paddock @brandonlive.com · 15/09/2026
I have some news! TL;DR: After ten years since rejoining Microsoft, I recently decided to leave to pursue my own startup venture. Enormous thanks to everyone who’s supported me and worked alongside me there over the years. As for what I'm doing next, watch this space - I'll have more to share soon!
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Brandon Paddock @brandonlive.com · 04/09/2026
Someone on here recently argued with me by saying that Ed Zitron said something so it must be true. Please, please do not take grifters like Ed Zitron seriously. Great review of his constant wrongness:
danluu.com
How accurate have Ed Zitron's AI skeptic predictions been?
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Brandon Paddock @brandonlive.com · 04/09/2026
Great article. “The left is missing out on AI”
transformernews.ai
The left is missing out on AI
As a movement, it has largely refused to engage seriously with AI, ceding debate about a threat and opportunity to the right
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Brandon Paddock @brandonlive.com · 03/09/2026
This piece in The Verge on “Data Center Alley” in Virginia is great. Everyone arguing about data centers should read it. Data centers are not the enemy. They’re one of the best land uses for communities in a whole bunch of ways. But we need a *regulated* buildout. www.theverge.com/cs/features/...
theverge.com
Your future is in Virginia
If you want to know what the data center occupation looks like, there’s one place where it already arrived — 20 years ago.
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Brandon Paddock @brandonlive.com · 27/08/2026
This is a really great idea and now I want to know why every social media app doesn’t have this. They should all add it. (Also wouldn’t mind having this on a per-post basis instead of just account level)
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Brandon Paddock @brandonlive.com · 22/08/2026
Optimist: The cup is half full Pessimist: The cup is half empty Software Architect: The cup’s capacity is loosely coupled with the volume of its content.
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Brandon Paddock @brandonlive.com · 14/08/2026
This has been making the rounds but is BS. This screenshot from Similarweb looks to be showing traffic, not unique users, and is showing only traffic to the Threads website, not the mobile app. The Threads half a billion number is primarily users of the mobile app, not the website.
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Brandon Paddock @brandonlive.com · 11/08/2026
This is very good.
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Brandon Paddock @brandonlive.com · 29/07/2026
The media is just terribly equipped to cover AI topics. And for the love of god, using “lab leak” here is journalistic malpractice. All our mainstream media have become the worst kind of clickbait ragebait engagement farming nonsense.
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Elizabeth Lopatto @lopatto.bsky.social · 27/07/2026
you don’t need to even read the IR literature to figure this out. every halfway decent middle manager is aware that their highest performers are also their least obedient workers, bc when said manager gives a bad instruction, the high performer simply ignores it
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Brandon Paddock @brandonlive.com · 23/07/2026
Republicans: “Here’s a bill to take all your money and give it to billionaires, we call it the Awesomeness For Everybody Act” Democrats: “Here’s a modest policy initiative to protect vulnerable people from fraud, we call it Let Strangers Kick Your Dog”
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Brandon Paddock @brandonlive.com · 20/07/2026
I reported and blocked this person, but this is not even the first time I’ve been threatened on this platform out of the blue by some sicko. This place is cursed and worse than anything I ever experienced on any other social media site. This is not okay @bsky.app.
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Brandon Paddock @brandonlive.com · 19/07/2026
😂
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Brandon Paddock @brandonlive.com · 08/07/2026
I guess naming my last car “Sparky” wasn’t very original. This also made me realize I haven’t actually given my new car a name. Thinking about InfoSecTaycanSwift.
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Brandon Paddock @brandonlive.com · 13/04/2026
Yeah pretty much this.
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Brandon Paddock @brandonlive.com · 16/02/2026
Why are messages limited to such a small size on Bluesky? It’s a lot more difficult to make reasonably sized posts/replies/threads here than Threads.
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Brandon Paddock @brandonlive.com · 16/02/2026
100% this.
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Brandon Paddock @brandonlive.com · 16/02/2026
This is not in any way what OpenAI’s research says. The quote here is just a lie, plain and simple.
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Technology Connections @techconnectify.bsky.social · 30/01/2026
Let's do this. www.youtube.com/watch?v=KtQ9...
youtube.com
You are being misled about renewable energy technology.
YouTube video by Technology Connections
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Brandon Paddock @brandonlive.com · 21/01/2026
Claude Code really is bonkers. Last night I was trying to figure out a way to make it easier to play PC games on my big home theater screen. I couldn’t find a good tool or way to set up Windows to do what I wanted…
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Brandon Paddock @brandonlive.com · 15/01/2026
People like Musk believe that free speech is like money. He and his friends should have it, you should not.
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Brandon Paddock @brandonlive.com · 09/01/2026
I think a big part of the problem is that Democratic politicians don’t try to convince voters of anything. Their approach is to do polls to try and figure out what people already think, and then align what they say with that. And when their base is split, they equivocate. That’s not leadership.
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Brandon Paddock @brandonlive.com · 22/12/2025
Here’s the 60 Minutes segment that Trump and Bari Weiss don’t want you to see. Don’t look away.
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The Washington Post @washingtonpost.com · 22/12/2025
In eastern Congo, where rape is widespread, the cancellation of USAID funding for life-changing — sometimes lifesaving — post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) kits has left many victims vulnerable, according to nearly 50 interviews.
wapo.st
Congolese rape survivors search in vain for medicine after USAID cuts
In eastern Congo, where rape is widespread, the cancellation of USAID funding for PEP kits has left many victims vulnerable, according to nearly 50 interviews.
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Popehat @kenwhite.bsky.social · 22/12/2025
As is the case with Musk, and even Trump, the most grotesque part is not their existence — awful people have always been around and always will be. The most grotesque part is nominally smart or honest or decent people taken in by them. Or, at least, pretending to be taken in, for advantage.
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Brandon Paddock @brandonlive.com · 22/12/2025
It’s hard to count the number of horrible things this administration has done, but this one, led by Elon Musk, is particularly unforgivable.
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Brandon Paddock @brandonlive.com · 22/12/2025
Timely, and accurate. Also, a shame.
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Brandon Paddock @brandonlive.com · 13/12/2025
Every time I read about OpenAI saying the 5.1 and 5.2 chat models (the ones they basically say not to use) can do “light reasoning” I think of this:
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Brandon Paddock @brandonlive.com · 10/12/2025
This is the kind of shit you hear about Russia doing. This isn’t who we should be.
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Brandon Paddock @brandonlive.com · 10/12/2025
You will be visited by three spirits.
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Brandon Paddock @brandonlive.com · 05/12/2025
This is just overt racism *and* fascism on display for all to see.
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Brandon Paddock @brandonlive.com · 05/12/2025
Our president staged a Mr. Universe pageant for himself where he was the only contestant. We are truly in the stupidest of all timelines.
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Brandon Paddock @brandonlive.com · 09/11/2025
Every time I launch Bluesky I’m reminded of the Windows NT 4 box art.
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Brandon Paddock @brandonlive.com · 27/10/2025
Just your regular reminder that the “exam” he is referring to is not an IQ test, but rather a test designed to detect cognitive impairment. Passing it does not mean you are smart. Indeed, gloating about passing it demonstrates you are not.
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Brandon Paddock @brandonlive.com · 29/09/2025
Well, I am officially a former Tesla owner.
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Andrew Lawrence @ndrew.bsky.social · 28/09/2025
someone on here the other day said it feels like we’re watching a baseball game where one team decides every inning to not take their turn at bat
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Brandon Paddock @brandonlive.com · 28/09/2025
Apropos of nothing, I am starting to think the Democratic Party is a lost cause and we just need to start over.
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Brandon Paddock @brandonlive.com · 27/09/2025
Someone should copy Tesla’s software + ADAS playbook and sell it as a platform to legacy automakers. I don’t really know how this hasn’t happened yet.
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Brandon Paddock @brandonlive.com · 27/09/2025
The blue iPhone 17 Pro is growing on me. Coming from a Max it feels so… wieldy.
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Brandon Paddock @brandonlive.com · 27/09/2025
It’s really frustrating that Tesla’s driver assistance is so exceptional. I want to get away from the association with Musk, but it’s so hard to give up FSD even for an otherwise fantastic car. This is the Achilles’ heel keeping me from pulling the trigger on the Taycan.
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Brandon Paddock @brandonlive.com · 06/08/2025
This is insane. I had no idea this was even a thing!
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Brandon Paddock @brandonlive.com · 13/07/2025
💯
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Faine Greenwood @faineg.com · 13/07/2025
People didn’t “used to be fine” without air conditioning during heat waves in the U.S. - a lot more people *just died*. According to this study, air conditioning has cut heat deaths in the U.S. by around 80% since 1960. papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
papers.ssrn.com
Adapting to Climate Change: The Remarkable Decline in the U.S. Temperature-Mortality Relationship Over the 20th Century
This paper examines the temperature-mortality relationship over the course of the 20th century US both for its own interest and to identify potentially useful a
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Brandon Paddock @brandonlive.com · 12/07/2025
Bluesky has a lot of popular misinformation accounts, like this one who repeatedly spreads falsehoods about Waymo for some reason (sock puppet for a competitor?). Waymo does not do this. They respond appropriately to lawful warrants for video footage, but that’s it.
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Brandon Paddock @brandonlive.com · 27/05/2025
I popped onto this app again today and safe to say I regret it. This place has fostered an alarmingly unhealthy, toxic community.
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Why @why.bsky.world · 26/05/2025
The “lets tell anyone we dont like to kill themselves” crowd are not welcome here sorry
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Brandon Paddock @brandonlive.com · 05/01/2025
I don’t yet know what I think we should do about this, but the data here seems important.
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Brandon Paddock @brandonlive.com · 05/01/2025
This is a good but depressing read. First, why did it take so long for this funding to be put to work? Second, why wasn’t this all front and center in the 2024 campaign? politi.co/3PnSOwJ
politi.co
What has Biden wrought?
He had just a single term to try to transform the nation's approach to energy, climate change, technology and jobs. What does he leave behind?
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Simon Willison @simonwillison.net · 03/01/2025
1,400 reposts and 3,800 likes on this quote of the most inflammatory paragraph from the Ars Technica article, which was an irresponsible reframing of an unproven claim bsky.app/profile/karl...
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Brandon Paddock @brandonlive.com · 04/01/2025
I can’t believe it took this long for someone to actually look into this. I was always skeptical of the Musk == Dittmann claims. Now it seems pretty clear that Dittmann is in fact a different person.
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