iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Granny Weatherwax @esmeweatherwax.bsky.social · 3h

I’m glad you found it useful. I wonder if you were already open to learning these things. Would it have been as useful for someone mandated to take it while not believing power dynamics are potentially problematic?

120

Granny Weatherwax @esmeweatherwax.bsky.social · 7h

This is what happens when everyone thinks they have investigatory skills from listening to true crime podcasts. "I had a vague feeling it might be possible this happened" --> "This definitely happened, no need to check, what else could it be?" You just know he thought he had Smith dead to rights

000

Granny Weatherwax @esmeweatherwax.bsky.social · 8h

We have made photo calendars of our dogs every year for the last decade and they really are a gift that keeps on giving People we are not related to now ask for copies of the calendar

020

Granny Weatherwax @esmeweatherwax.bsky.social · 11h

If all employers instituted mandatory training, it would be like all HR mandated training: useless except to protect the employer from lawsuits when they don't follow their own principles, because you can then blame the failures on individuals and not the culture. Training doesn't change culture.

100

Granny Weatherwax @esmeweatherwax.bsky.social · 15h

Same with how cutting regulations is supposed to create jobs. It does not. It increases profits, and the benefits flow to the rich. We should be able to say "If GOP policies were going to help you, you should be living your best life right now. They've done what they wanted to do. How's it going?"

1706

Granny Weatherwax @esmeweatherwax.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

I was cleaning out my office this week and found some swag from a JREF/skeptics convention in 2014. Turns out I had that dumb HP rationality fanfic book all this time. Trying to bring my spouse up to speed starting from “have you ever heard of Eliezer Yudkowski” through the basilisk and Zizians…wow

080

Granny Weatherwax @esmeweatherwax.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Now that I'm aware that the song exists, because discourse, I feel no need to listen to it because from the title I assume it's the sequel to God Bless the USA or similar I might be wrong, but also I don't care

020

Granny Weatherwax @esmeweatherwax.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

It’s amazing how often we unintentionally punish behaviors we want to see more of

090

Granny Weatherwax @esmeweatherwax.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

My daughter worked as an animal trainer for years and she heartily endorses this book The techniques (basically operant conditioning) also work well on humans

1110

Granny Weatherwax @esmeweatherwax.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

"In recent months" doing some heavy lifting there

0130

Granny Weatherwax @esmeweatherwax.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

How odd to think kids will be excited to learn from a fake Albert Einstein telling them school is boring, or will get important historical insights from "Professor" Genghis Khan Could they not even come up with a two-minute hype video that pretended there might be plausible educational content?

010

Granny Weatherwax @esmeweatherwax.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

The way Bluesky collapses threads leads to some really interesting contrasts

A screenshot of Bluesky threads that read 1) Current work view. Doesn't suck. 2) YOU CANNOT KILL ME IN A WAY THAT MATTERS 3)TELL ME THE SECRET NAME OF GOD

1213

Granny Weatherwax @esmeweatherwax.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Yes, the whole site is a work of art. Such thoughtful analyses. I wonder what became of the author.

010

Granny Weatherwax @esmeweatherwax.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Nora Roberts has to be on the list though she's better known as a romance writer. Under the name JD Robb she's published 60+ books in her "In Death" series, police procedurals set in future New York City

000

Granny Weatherwax @esmeweatherwax.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Also notoriously not a welcoming environment for women Yes, some women put up with the slurs and harassment. That doesn't mean it was a great place for everyone.

1170

Granny Weatherwax @esmeweatherwax.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

I imagine that's exactly why he doesn't care about eliminating it. He plans to be among the feudal lords. He doesn't care what happens to the masses.

010

Reposted by Granny Weatherwax

Matt Ford @mford.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Ezra Klein asked Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang about AI making kids worse at math and reading. Huang’s reply: “Does it matter?” Then he said he doesn’t know his own address or phone number. “We’re going to lose some fine intellectual dexterity.” www.nytimes.com/2026/09/23/o...

So the message of this research out of China, where you were seeing a lot of kids using A.I. to help them, was that when they were using the A.I., they were getting things done faster. But it turned out that the skills they were learning were not holding, that their actual personal performance, at least in the way we traditionally measure it, was degrading.

What do you think when you hear that?

The last part — I completely agree. Try to get a kid to do long division right now. The multiplication table is starting to be forgotten. Doing square roots, my goodness. Basic math is being forgotten. Does it matter?

That’s my question for you.

Yeah. I don’t think it does. I don’t think it does.

But there must be some set of skills that matter.

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. But maybe not those. We’re going to discover new ones. Just maybe not those.

There are a lot of skills that don’t matter. My first confession, I actually don’t know my address.

And I ——

I don’t really believe that to be true.

It’s completely true. Janine will tell you and Lori will tell you.

One day I had to pump gas — it was a few years ago. They needed my ZIP code, and I panicked. I didn’t know my ZIP code. I don’t know my telephone number. I forget these things. I can live with it.

But let me take the other side because I don’t want to fall into a thing where, because some skills can be safely offloaded ——

Yeah.

I also can’t get anywhere without a mapping system now. Never could, frankly. But I’m a big reader. And one of the skills I really value, one of the capacities I have that I really value is an attention span formed on physical books.

You’re a big reader. I’ve read about the kind of reading you do. And there is, prior to A.I., a lot of concern and noticing among college professors and others that the way people use the internet has probably shortened attention spans.
Some skills can be safely given away. Others are valuable. They are capacities that are needed for that flexibility, for that creative thinking, for that focus. It can’t be the case that everything can be traded off.

Some skills can be safely given away. Others are valuable. They are capacities that are needed for that flexibility, for that creative thinking, for that focus. It can’t be the case that everything can be traded off.

Yeah. Well, I think that we’re going to lose some finer intellectual dexterity, but we’re going to be better systems thinkers.

Today’s engineers are far better systems thinkers than I was when I graduated from school. But I was a much better transistor thinker.

What do you mean by systems thinker?

They think of large systems. Today’s computers have trillions, hundreds of trillions of transistors in them. When I first graduated from school, the first chip I worked on had 200 transistors. I knew every one of them by name. No engineer does that today. Most engineers now work well above the transistor, well above the functionality, and they’re cobbling things together to do things.

So you need to think much more about systems and interactions of systems. So some of the lower-level knowledge is gone.

58754651494

Granny Weatherwax @esmeweatherwax.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

They might be. Those assholes always seem to fail up

010

Granny Weatherwax @esmeweatherwax.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

So not just a myth then. Good to know. (We didn't rent a car.)

010

Granny Weatherwax @esmeweatherwax.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

I remember being told that if you rent a car, get the extra insurance because if you park facing the wrong way the wind can rip the door off the car I have no idea if this really happens but it certainly set the stage for wind outside my previous experience

190

Granny Weatherwax @esmeweatherwax.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Looking for the “I don’t want to date anybody” category

000

Granny Weatherwax @esmeweatherwax.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

It may be splitting hairs but to me there is a difference between being happy to hear something happened and supporting it

040

Granny Weatherwax @esmeweatherwax.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Pronouncing the dash was so on brand

160

Granny Weatherwax @esmeweatherwax.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

This is going to energize the left brain-right brain grifters. I am guessing a self help book about your “two brains” will hit the shelves in a month

010

Granny Weatherwax @esmeweatherwax.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

If this happens, the press should agree that if he dodges a question by insulting a reporter, every subsequent reporter asks the same question until he gives some semblance of an actual answer Then they can work their way up to challenging lies

010

Granny Weatherwax @esmeweatherwax.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

I don't know the context, but it sounds like you are volunteering to help a problem you care about, and nothing I've ever seen you post suggests you'd be a jerk while doing that. If people are interacting with you in a way that leads you to draw boundaries, that is on them. Return mess to sender.

030

Granny Weatherwax @esmeweatherwax.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

It's niche knowledge but gets pretty funny when some historical character is, for instance, feeling teary or sentimental and says to the person making him feel that way "you've unmanned me"

000

Granny Weatherwax @esmeweatherwax.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Sorry to hear that. You brought me joy and I thank you for that.

030

Granny Weatherwax @esmeweatherwax.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

See also the many books that think “unmanned” in this historical setting means “make someone feel not manly” rather than “ejaculate”

200

Granny Weatherwax @esmeweatherwax.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

I do not want to spoil your fun! I suspect it’s good for what it aims to be, imagining a familiar background character through a modern lens

110

Granny Weatherwax @esmeweatherwax.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Did he evolve? Or did he double down on his original position but indicate he's sad about the consequences to himself? If he eventually evolves, that would be good indeed, but I'm not seeing what gives you hope that is happening here

1110

Granny Weatherwax @esmeweatherwax.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Yeah I assume his 59 cities are various sites in ancient Rome plus a few from his dictator heroes

Triumphal arches have continued to be built into the modern era, often as statements of power and self-aggrandizement by dictators. Adolf Hitler planned to build the world's largest triumphal arch in Berlin. The arch would have been vastly larger than any previously built, standing 550 feet (170 m) wide, 92 feet (28 m) deep and 392 feet (119 m) high – big enough for the Arc de Triomphe to fit into it 49 times. It was intended to be carved with the names of Germany's 1.8 million dead in the First World War. However, construction was never begun. North Korea's dictator Kim Il Sung built the world's largest triumphal arch in Pyongyang in 1982. It was designed to be substantially bigger than the Arc de Triomphe in Paris and was erected on the site where, on October 14, 1945, Kim Il Sung gave his first public speech to the North Korean people. It is decorated with sculptures and reliefs depicting "the triumphal returning of the victorious Great Leader to the country".

000

Granny Weatherwax @esmeweatherwax.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

I started to read a relatively popular Regency novel where the author used period language but didn't check definitions, so early on referred to the FMC learning to "cast up her accounts" (which means to vomit) in the belief it meant bookkeeping. Had to nope out after about the 5th similar error.

711412

Granny Weatherwax @esmeweatherwax.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

I think you need to work "Crunchwrap" in there somewhere

020

Granny Weatherwax @esmeweatherwax.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

My first 30 years of driving was with manual transmissions and I had to just about sit on my foot when driving my first automatic to keep from stepping on an imaginary clutch. My left foot came very close to hitting the brake more than once when my brain thought it was time to shift gears.

020

Granny Weatherwax @esmeweatherwax.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

It did--or at least she herself said it did, in her memoir

030

Granny Weatherwax @esmeweatherwax.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Human trafficker surprised that being in a jail cell is punitive There is a lot he doesn’t seem to understand

020

Granny Weatherwax @esmeweatherwax.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Do I remember correctly that she is an attorney? Everyone should know better than this, but is she someone who should REALLY know better?

1210

Granny Weatherwax @esmeweatherwax.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

After providing all these clues to his identity he ran real fast with the stolen package so he's obviously a mastermind

010

Granny Weatherwax @esmeweatherwax.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Wow that's going to save me so much time compared to looking at the p value and seeing whether it is bigger or smaller than .01, good thing we dried up a lake to make it possible

0130

Granny Weatherwax @esmeweatherwax.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

"We have all the power possible and have done everything exactly the way we wanted to do it and it sucks for you but it's great for us (did you see how rich we are now?) so please just let us keep doing it for a few more years" quite a pitch

010

Granny Weatherwax @esmeweatherwax.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Pollution! Of the shades! It is not to be borne! Lady CdB just quivering in with misplaced righteous fury

020

Granny Weatherwax @esmeweatherwax.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Important life lesson in that scene: you can just nope out of being insulted, even if the insulter is very important. Know your worth.

160