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Francis Irving @flourish.org · 21/09/2026

Next Land Talks is tomorrow! Speakers on the tickets page: luma.com/mka0gu7s Get a ticket, bring a friend, if you think the cost of land, or quality of housing, or the consequences of those, needs radical improvement.

luma.com

Land Talks #7 · Luma

🗺️ Where Fresh Thinking Meets Britain’s Oldest Bottleneck Land is key to economic growth and equality of opportunity, yet in Britain we’ve done almost nothing…

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Francis Irving @flourish.org · 18/09/2026

Please do reply to this message with questions / comments / ideas about land talks, or the impact of cost or quality of property on you or your community.

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Francis Irving @flourish.org · 18/09/2026

I've written a blog post about Land Talks! We've organised 6 evenings of lightning talks about radical land policy in Farringdon. The post explains why land is such an important issue in the UK today, and goes quickly through the 36 speakers we've had so far. www.flourish.org/2026/09/land...

flourish.org

36 talks about radical land policy - Francis Irving

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Francis Irving @flourish.org · 17/09/2026

If you're confused / annoyed / want to understand claims that AI could "kill all humans" this ITV report goes into it really clearly without needing the context of working in software: www.youtube.com/watch?v=cvMR...

youtube.com

Science Correspondent breaks down the 'terrifying' risks of superintelligent AI

YouTube video by ITV News

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Reposted by Francis Irving

Annabelle @annabelle-collins.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

It's great to have such cross party support! Leaving AI unregulated is extremely unpopular, but still the government hasn't acted. If you're in London tomorrow, join this peaceful protest at Downing Street to make your voice heard!

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Francis Irving @flourish.org · 14/09/2026

We know the harnesses don't need to do that because eg Pi (open source) works with a tiny prompt.

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Francis Irving @flourish.org · 10/09/2026

I wrote a post a few months ago about what it felt like to agree with *everyone* on AI, but not sure what matters most because it depends on what happens. I've changed my mind since, both because of what's happened, and what I've learnt about LLM training. www.flourish.org/2026/09/upda...

flourish.org

Why I've changed my view on AI in the last 3 months - Francis Irving

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Francis Irving @flourish.org · 05/09/2026

Think this technology needs a bit of improvement to *actually* help people (understatement)

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Francis Irving @flourish.org · 02/09/2026

giffgaff is lovely in terms of UX - can do everything without calling them. Prices stay low always with no lock in.

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Francis Irving @flourish.org · 01/09/2026

Alas I wish we could just dismiss AI tech bros, and it would all collapse. But unfortunately the technology 3/4 works. Well enough to be dangerous - it hacked into both another large company, and OpenAI itself without human intent. Not well enough to make that not happen.

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Francis Irving @flourish.org · 01/09/2026

Directionally, you can explain all this as it is "stochastic parrot" or "machine", but you'll have a poor mental model of it. Anthropmorphising it will also lead you wrong - the phenomena is more alien and completely new than exactly human.

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Francis Irving @flourish.org · 01/09/2026

I'm guessing that most power users today will be on something that wraps hosting like Lovable? So that's part of the competition.

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Francis Irving @flourish.org · 01/09/2026

Yep! I'd like short term to be able to let other people try my Toucan apps out, but it's awkward to do. A programmer or confident power user could use AI to do so, but I think most people will expect website signup, apps in app stores. A standard for those two parts would be a great step.

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Francis Irving @flourish.org · 01/09/2026

Yes! I think there is a bunch to do to empower everyone with this ability, but it is possible. I'm not sure how much it will be swamped by full stack AI app builders that get commercial success though! Either way, still worth making it an easy option.

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Francis Irving @flourish.org · 01/09/2026

What do you think we can standardise about this? I think would like a more standard sync server protocol for personal data so people could run my apps without a new server - although my app also has to proxy various other things like geocoding API calls so maybe thats not possible.

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Francis Irving @flourish.org · 01/09/2026

Wow, apparently dog taxes really were popular then. This is a real reference!

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Francis Irving @flourish.org · 01/09/2026

Copy of Lizzy Maggie's Landlords Game, which capitalism literally stole and lied about to make Monopoly. The Georgist original had a second round with a Land Value Tax where one player didn't always run away with all money. Copy in Young V&A, London.

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Francis Irving @flourish.org · 30/08/2026

Starting a new Le Guin novel

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Francis Irving @flourish.org · 15/08/2026

I've written a review of three books by Ursula Le Guin to try and explain why I find her the person who most feels what is going on in our times. www.flourish.org/2026/08/ursu...

flourish.org

Ursula Le Guin is the only person who understands what is going on - Francis Irving

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Francis Irving @flourish.org · 13/08/2026

I vibe coded three personal apps that I'd wanted for a while. They work on mobile and web, sync offline first between them, and are polished. This write up describes why, how, and what I learnt. www.flourish.org/2026/08/pers...

flourish.org

Vibe coding personal apps in mid-2026 - Francis Irving

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Francis Irving @flourish.org · 10/08/2026

Tempted as kinda half serious / half joking piece of impishness, to tell any recruiter who calls that I want a coding job that *doesn't* use AI at all and can they find me one. And feel the emotion of their reaction.

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Francis Irving @flourish.org · 06/08/2026

Or maybe the model technology is generally powerful enough to hack now even when people don't expect it to and is therefore fundamentally dangerous... Just a possibility for you!

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Francis Irving @flourish.org · 06/08/2026

Yeah and the one that happened at AISI yesterday was deliberate marketing for the British Government. The models are safe, nothing to see here, don't look up!

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Francis Irving @flourish.org · 02/08/2026

"Is this an emotionally safe space?" he cried out into the void. 'course it's not what are you even asking, too many people watched watched'. « let's fake it, put an internet-mask on, they won't know ». ‹ yeah, and diss that other place, then they'll like us ›. "I honour that, but not here/now".

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Francis Irving @flourish.org · 02/08/2026

Going to stop procrastinating about where to post short things, and do it here. It's relatively peaceful, and has the indie video games kids on it. Most importantly it has custom feed algorithms - and I'm really liking the look of projects like @greenearth-social.bsky.social which must be here.

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Francis Irving @flourish.org · 02/08/2026

Realised that even years ago I got emotional warmth from luxury crafters like Eleanor Pritchard who still hand-weave because they show that people will still hand-X centuries after being automated, it reminds me of the Luddites www.eleanorpritchard.com

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Reposted by Francis Irving

Louise Crow @itscrowbot.bsky.social · 13/07/2026

We’ve got a vacancy in a unique and hugely valuable role, managing the day-to-day running of our digital services, focusing in particular on WhatDoTheyKnow, which helps millions of people each year find out something useful. Please do share with your networks to help us find the right person!

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Francis Irving @flourish.org · 29/06/2026

This quote is from a London Politico post www.politico.eu/newsletter/l... It's quite sweet - I spent about 8 years travelling almost weekly to London as part of running a digital startup in Liverpool. Excellent that some people who've been in London for life will finally experience this.

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Francis Irving @flourish.org · 17/06/2026

Seems to be working! Although perhaps the interleaving of Bluesky and Mastodon posts is a little confusing to work out how to reply to a particular message from the blog page!

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Francis Irving @flourish.org · 17/06/2026

Finally wrote a blog post - about the emotional frustration of agreeing with everyone about AI, when what matters most depends on exactly how the technology plays out. www.flourish.org/2026/06/agre...

flourish.org

On the frustration of agreeing with everyone about AI - Francis Irving

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Francis Irving @flourish.org · 29/04/2026

@mauricelange.bsky.social is one of the speakers - going into the details of how Croydon allowed anyone to convert houses into flats, and where else a similar scheme woudl work to increase amount of housing.

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Francis Irving @flourish.org · 29/04/2026

The final Land Talks of the season is the week after next! The full lineup of speakers is up, and is too varied to compress into this post. Everything from co-ops and buyouts to freeing planning and land-value capture. Get your ticket here, if you're near London: luma.com/hkyckwm8

luma.com

Land Talks #6: Start-Up Nation, Doubling Homebuilding & The Battersea Job · Luma

🗺️ Where Fresh Thinking Meets Britain’s Oldest Bottleneck Land is key to economic growth and equality of opportunity, yet in Britain we’ve done almost nothing…

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Reposted by Francis Irving

Maurice Lange @mauricelange.bsky.social · 17/04/2026

I'm very pleased to be on the bill for the next Land Talks Come hear me talk about Croydon and rules based planning and 5 other excellent speakers in a pub 6pm, 11th May luma.com/hkyckwm8

luma.com

Land Talks #6: Start-Up Nation, Doubling Homebuilding & The Battersea Job · Luma

🗺️ Where Fresh Thinking Meets Britain’s Oldest Bottleneck Land is key to economic growth and equality of opportunity, yet in Britain we’ve done almost nothing…

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Francis Irving @flourish.org · 06/04/2026

Had lots of fun at @modjam.bsky.social an alternative controllers games mod jam at Newspeak House. I modded Doom to have voice control. Video and details here: frabcus.itch.io/voice-doom It was especially satisfying being able to lengthen out notes and stop precisely at an exact time.

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Francis Irving @flourish.org · 05/04/2026

Hmm, although this hazard would also happen with funds. Even pre-index funds, if too many people buy a pension that has fixed stock/bond allocations, the unit trusts can choose stocks but have to choose *stocks*. So not sure worse than that actually, but still a problem.

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Francis Irving @flourish.org · 05/04/2026

Thinking myself beyond this: That also means *larger* companies that are indexed are over-invested, compared to capital going into smaller/riskier/growing companies. And investments aren't happening in as many interesting things as they should given large capital supply.

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Francis Irving @flourish.org · 05/04/2026

More importantly, the *overall* market investment is inflated - every $1 in stocks increases aggregate market value by $3-8 (due to prices increasing). So *all* stocks become inflated if more capital is in index funds than the underlying companies are actually worth.

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Francis Irving @flourish.org · 05/04/2026

Part of it is that hedge funds are really as large or flexible as needed to actually make decisions and root the market in reality, although they do do that a lot.

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Francis Irving @flourish.org · 05/04/2026

I've always been a bit suspicious of index funds - I use them, but it feels intuitively like there's a moral hazard if *everyone* uses them, which increasingly they are. This Economist article summarises a paper by Gabaix/Koijen on what the problems seems to be. www.economist.com/finance-and-...

economist.com

Is passive investment inflating a stockmarket bubble?

A widely circulated working paper suggests so

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Francis Irving @flourish.org · 15/03/2026

Land Talks #5 is soon! I'm running another evening of lightning talks about land policy. This one's got quirky stuff about the impact of driverless cars on land, and crunchy stuff about how liberalising planning can reduce trust and cause more problems. luma.com/avdjw348 Come along!

luma.com

Land Talks #5: Phantom Cabs, Books on Fire & The Trust Deficit · Luma

🗺️ Where Fresh Thinking Meets Britain’s Oldest Bottleneck Land is key to economic growth and equality of opportunity, yet in Britain we’ve done almost nothing…

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Francis Irving @flourish.org · 01/02/2026

Excited to announce we're running a second season of Land Talks! Evenings of lightning talks in London about radical land policy. Come along to the first one two week's tomorrow (Monday): luma.com/ba8uvclo Or follow us on Luma for updates as we announce speakers for all of them!

luma.com

Land Talks #4: Land-For-Flats, A New Forest City, Undead Property Taxes & More! · Luma

🗺️ Where Fresh Thinking Meets Britain’s Oldest Bottleneck Land is key to economic growth and equality of opportunity, yet in Britain we’ve done almost nothing…

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Francis Irving @flourish.org · 14/01/2026

I think meditation is a particular area where more comparison to the variety of normal experience is important. Everyone's mental experience before they meditate is so different, it makes lots of the conversations confused esp. about early stages.

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Francis Irving @flourish.org · 14/01/2026

Pleased with Vynn and my new episode of our podcast "Imagine an apple". We talk with Jess - who organises JessCamp where Vynn and I met! - about the inner experience of meditation.

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Francis Irving @flourish.org · 30/12/2025

Brilliant, thank you! I've signed up!

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Francis Irving @flourish.org · 25/12/2025

Am interested! That doesn't seem like the full link though - just takes me to Luma home page. Am struggling to find it! And happy Christmas!!

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