iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Ben Schmidt @freeptop.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

One more painted miniature, except this one is from Battletech. I present “Kintsugi”, the cracked Kraken. Yes, the pun was necessary.

A miniature of a Kraken Battlemech from Battletech painted to look like Kintsugi artwork where broken objects are repaired with golden solder. Front view

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Ben Schmidt @freeptop.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

I haven’t posted any painted minis in 4 months. I have been painting them, just not posting them. Time to change that. You’ve been warned 😁

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Ben Schmidt @freeptop.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

One of the most interesting things I've discovered is that when someone is helpful, they're perceived to be smarter, and when they're a jerk, the estimation goes down. So, if one wants to be considered the smartest person in the room, the best thing to do is to be both nice and helpful.

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Ben Schmidt @freeptop.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

My father, who was, in fact, a geology professor, would have loved this. Not just the comic, but if he'd gotten to work in that building. imgs.xkcd.com/comics/geolo...

XKCD comic showing a building with a diagonal fault line through it, with the building on the left side shifted slightly from the building on the right side. The fault line also splits the sign on the front that reads: "Department of Geology".
Caption underneath reads: "The administration regretted giving the geology department free reign to design their new building."

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Mo Ryan @moryan.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

All the adults working on the wizard bigot show made an active decision to endorse a vile campaign of hate. We do not in any way have to reward them for that, let alone sympathize with their plight. Which they CHOSE.

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Ben Schmidt @freeptop.bsky.social · 08/08/2026

Hey guy readers! Quote this with some books by women and nonbinary authors that you recommend. My recommendations: Binti by Nnedi Okorafor Trail of Lightning by Rebecca Roanhorse The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir The Wayward Children series by Seanan McGuire

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Ben Schmidt @freeptop.bsky.social · 04/08/2026

I haven’t had anyone come after me for it, but I do often get met with surprise when folks discover that I don’t appreciate genAI, when I’m a software engineer in Robotics.

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Ben Schmidt @freeptop.bsky.social · 22/07/2026

"Survival of the Fittest, and I am still standing here" -- nolongerhuman, "Stop.Listen.Think.Infest" It might not actually be the greatest, but man, does it resonate sometimes.

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Kari Dru @karidru.bsky.social · 17/07/2026

Re: cyclospora, Taco Bell having ethics and going "you know what, it's always the fucking lettuce, why don't we just pull that until we know what's going on" resulting in all the outlets going "LETTUCE SOLD AT TACO BELL LINKED TO EXPLOSIVE DIARRHEA" is a fantastic way to discourage ethics in future.

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Ben Schmidt @freeptop.bsky.social · 14/07/2026

The funny thing is that, in theory, we’d both be able to do each others’ jobs, as we’re in similar fields. In practice, we’d both struggle, because we both have many years of experience in our current positions, and our specialties are quite different from each other.

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Ben Schmidt @freeptop.bsky.social · 11/07/2026

Oh no, Harris attempted to tell Republican voters who hated Trump that it was okay to hold their nose and vote for her! I'm sure that was so much worse than *gestures at everything from DOGE to the reflecting pool and everything else that happened in the interim* 🙄

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Ben Schmidt @freeptop.bsky.social · 10/07/2026

This is a great breakdown of the two major parties, and of why Democratic Party leaders , as the article puts it, "seem chronically weak."

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Ben Schmidt @freeptop.bsky.social · 19/06/2026

It's not really a coincidence that these two events are 25 years apart. The people feeding music into models now are the ones who cried out how "information wants to be free" while pirating music and movies in college 25 years ago.

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McSweeney's @mcsweeneys.net · 16/06/2026

"Ben owns a farm. He employs 100 workers. His total payroll is $10 million/year. One day, he buys a mule, which provides the worker who uses it with a modest 10% productivity gain. Ben fires 99 of his workers and purchases 99 mules, expecting a 1,000% productivity gain..."

buff.ly

AI Economics for Dummies

“Xavier owns an apartment that he rents out at a loss of $1 billion/month. Seeing this success, he decides to make financial commitments to construct $850 bi...

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Nicole DeWitt @catastro-v.bsky.social · 06/06/2026

for cis people, “im just trying to live my life as a teen girl but the government, backed by a vast shadowy web of fanatical religious groups, is hellbent on using its full might to destroy me bc i was born special” is an outlandish YA novel plot for teenage trans girls in america its tuesday

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Ben Schmidt @freeptop.bsky.social · 05/06/2026

I don’t know about the left in general, but my model for positive masculinity is Gomez Addams.

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Ben Schmidt @freeptop.bsky.social · 25/05/2026

It shouldn’t come as a surprise that I went to see The Mandalorian and Grogu. I have a simple rule when it comes to Star Wars: would I have enjoyed it when I was between the ages of 6-14? This movie cleared that bar just fine. It was fun! And I got to see Sigourney Weaver in Star Wars!

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Ben Schmidt @freeptop.bsky.social · 24/05/2026

This reminds me of one of the pitfalls of using AI. I had an executive basically say that gen-AI for coding is basically like having a junior engineer - it needs to be supervised. 🧵 1/4

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Dr Panti Bliss-Cabrera @pantibliss.bsky.social · 02/09/2025

Trans people have been around your whole life. You’ve been sharing bathrooms with them your whole life. They’ve been in your communities your whole life. They’ve even been playing sport your whole life. And you didn’t care *at all* till a few years ago when every right wing org decided you should

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Ben Schmidt @freeptop.bsky.social · 20/05/2026

Kudos to the marketing department of the record label that paid to have a music video about how bad social media is get dropped in as a youtube advertisement. I admit, I wasn’t expecting an f-bomb laden thrash metal song to end up as an ad - but it worked; first time I’ve clicked on a YT ad 🤣

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Ben Schmidt @freeptop.bsky.social · 20/05/2026

My oldest kid voted for the first time today! I’m a very proud father right now! (Also, feeling old, but still, proud as well)

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FuzzWolf 🏳️‍🌈 @fuzzwolf.bsky.social · 25/04/2026

Saw this meme and I did it. Opening line to Neuromancer.

Centered text reads “The sky above
the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel”

Below are 3 versions of the same cityscape labeled 1985, 2005, 2025 with the background changing from grey static, to solid blue, to streaming service logos.

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Ben Schmidt @freeptop.bsky.social · 24/04/2026

I think this is the first time where I think I'm actually getting better at this. I mean, not necessarily _good_ yet. But better, at least!

A painted miniature of an Onager-class Star Destroyer from Star Wars.
Designed by Wobble (https://wobbleking.gumroad.com)
Printed by Stellar Endeavours (https://www.etsy.com/shop/StellarEndeavours)

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Ben Schmidt @freeptop.bsky.social · 21/04/2026

As a former fencer, this is really cool. I am amused at how it makes the bout look a bit like a lightsaber duel, though 🤣

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A.R. Moxon @juliusgoat.bsky.social · 14/04/2026

Also, "woke" in the now-common white supremacist appropriated vernacular just means "I'm a bigoted and/or complacent piece of shit, and every reminder of the vastness of human diversity—up to and including simple basic acts of human decency—confront me with my moral failing, causing me to lash out."

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Ben Schmidt @freeptop.bsky.social · 10/04/2026

Last summer, there were a bunch of people hoping Crosby would get traded, because "he deserves to get back to the playoffs." The Penguins apparently decided to only pay attention to that last part there 😂

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mcc @dryad.technology · 07/04/2026

Probably my proudest moment on Twitter was when someone was talking about climate change, and a sealion said "oh yeah? prove it" and somebody said "well have you seen the report from BOFA?" and the sealion said "what's BOFA?", and I jumped in with a link to Bank of America's report on climate change

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Katie Mack @astrokatie.com · 06/04/2026

NASA isn't why the US doesn't have universal healthcare, or a social safety net. The US doesn't have those things because politicians with the power to provide them choose specifically not to (with varying levels of support from voters). Enthusiasm for human spaceflight doesn't drive that choice.

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Ben Schmidt @freeptop.bsky.social · 01/04/2026

I would like to second this. I have several decades of life experience, over half of them being happily married, that support the quoted statement. As the Spaceshipper said: Be kind, be understanding, be there for each other.

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Kevin D. Grüssing 🪷🪷 (Pronounced Grew-sing) @kevdgrussing.bsky.social · 01/04/2026

White Dem, Swing State, loudly vetoing anti-Trans bills. Both Parties are not the Same.

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Adam Serwer @adamserwer.bsky.social · 31/03/2026

They’d rather the country be poorer and whiter than rich and diverse. Of course when the pie shrinks, the rich will demand the same amount and will tell you the crumbs you’re left with are because of immigrants or trans people or DEI. bsky.app/profile/apne...

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Marianne Martin @mariannemartin.bsky.social · 26/03/2026

There is *significant* money being spent by the elite on cultivating beliefs and attitudes towards AI. We need to keep exposing this. Don't get me wrong: I need food on the table and my work may, in time, glob forbid, make me use it. But my own money will not feed it. And denying AI $ matters.

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Ben Schmidt @freeptop.bsky.social · 21/03/2026

Saw Project Hail Mary. One of the best adaptations of a book I’ve ever seen. They knew when to speedrun through a chapter, and what key points of the novel needed attention. It is very good.

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Ben Schmidt @freeptop.bsky.social · 17/03/2026

Not going to call out the author by name, but I’m reading a book of theirs from a long running series I’ve enjoyed, and I swear I’m reading chapters taken wholesale from earlier in the series. Which really isn’t helping how much of it is repeating stuff that’s already been said… a few times. Oof.

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Ben Schmidt @freeptop.bsky.social · 12/03/2026

Time to break up the doomscrolling with some starships! First up - an old WEG Imperial Strike-class Cruiser

A hand painted miniature of an Imperial Strike-class Cruiser from Star Wars.
Designed by Utar Games and Designs
Printed by Pulsefired Gaming

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Gail Simone @gailsimone.bsky.social · 24/01/2026

Transphobia is a cancer of the heart and mind. It is a useless fear, based on ignorance and cruelty. Trans people are not responsible for a single one of the problems we face. Do the world a favor and grow the fuck up.

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Melissa "Auntie Yaga" @riversdaughter.bsky.social · 05/03/2026

This. The fact that this man is not an international hero and household name is a crime. WE ARE LITERALLY ALL ALIVE BECAUSE HE TOOK TWO SECONDS TO DOUBLE-CHECK THE SYSTEM.

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Hal 10000 @hal10000.bsky.social · 03/03/2026

This isn’t about drivers licenses.

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Frank D’Elia @frankd7.bsky.social · 28/02/2026

This is a history lesson in why the incompetent drunkard and the brain dead pedophile shouldn’t be allowed to replace human judgment with AI.

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Ben Schmidt @freeptop.bsky.social · 27/02/2026

Post a pic you took, no context, to bring some zen to the feed.

Banded, wrinkled terrain of the Badlands in South Dakota

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Ben Schmidt @freeptop.bsky.social · 23/02/2026

I know this seems heartless of Nintendo - but it’s worth noting that Trademark law doesn’t give them a choice to overlook this. Unlike copyright law, trademarks require the owner to enforce it or otherwise they lose it.

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Adam Gretz @adamgretz.bsky.social · 22/02/2026

Connor Hellebuyck: Welcome to the Hockey Hall of Fame.

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Ben Schmidt @freeptop.bsky.social · 22/02/2026

Olczyck on Team USA: “They need someone to make a play.” Yeah, someone like Jason Robertson, maybe? OH WAIT

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Ben Schmidt @freeptop.bsky.social · 18/02/2026

To further expand on my prior repost: vote blue no matter who is just for the general election, and assumes the general is a democrat vs a republican. Vote your ideals in the primary, then least damage in the general.

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AkivaMCohen @akivamcohen.bsky.social · 18/02/2026

You'd *still* rather have Fetterman in the Senate than Oz. You'd WAY rather have Cortez Masto than Adam fucking Laxalt, who's insane. Corey Booker? Are we pretending he's a problem now? Newsom is a slime - and still a better governor than Brian Dahle would've been THINK! CRITICALLY!

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Ben Schmidt @freeptop.bsky.social · 16/02/2026

I love this, because this is a perfect illustration of how genAI doesn't actually reason through anything, it's just matching patterns it has seen before. When humans write, we pretty much never write out all the numbers from 1-100. The "and so on to 100" is pretty common in writing.

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Ben Schmidt @freeptop.bsky.social · 16/02/2026

Just about every feature I've ever added to the robots I work on has ended up being used in some way I had never envisioned when I designed it. This is more a matter of "necessity is the mother of invention", than any sort of act of resistance, though 😂

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