iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Johan Bertil Hjelm @johanbhjelm.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

The stores actually stopped selling Halloween stuff some weeks ago. Now they are full of Christmas stuff already? Am I the only one to think it too early? Maybe we could invent some in-between holidays? Suggestions welcome, but please make it something really memorable.

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Johan Bertil Hjelm @johanbhjelm.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

I put a question to the AI we use at work, and it ”thought” for 20 minutes. Then it ran out of credits. When my mother did her masters thesis in the early 70’s, I helped her feed the punch cards into the machine. A small run took about 20 minutes. And never ran out of credits.

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Johan Bertil Hjelm @johanbhjelm.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

I keep worrying that all fiction involving AI I have ever seen or read involves the AI having feelings. That is a human trait, or at least mammal. If we ever meet aliens, will they have feelings? And can an author imagine a being without them? I am not sure. But if anyone has tried, let me know.

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Johan Bertil Hjelm @johanbhjelm.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Started on my next book already. No AI editing this time, but I had it give me the chapter headings (after careful instruction). Feels better than the previous one already. One lesson: Plodding does not work well for non-fiction. AI research does, if you know what to ask and rewrite it.

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Johan Bertil Hjelm @johanbhjelm.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

It has actually been more than one year of Duolingo. And I already speak Japanese. At home, every day. Which is why I am less than impressed, especially by the AI features.

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Johan Bertil Hjelm @johanbhjelm.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

I re-read the book I have been working on. Removed all the chapter headings the AI had set. Now the only thing that remains of a non-human effort is in the research. Unfortunately, I do not like it. It is pretty good (although one more edit would be helpful). But does not say what I wanted to say.

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Johan Bertil Hjelm @johanbhjelm.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

Printed out the book I am trying to write. It is a special feeling to edit with a pen on papper. Even if it gets messier when you are trying to fix the changes the AI did to the draft I gave it. But finally it feels like it will turn to something readable.

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Johan Bertil Hjelm @johanbhjelm.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

*sigh* now I found out what Gemini removed when it ”edited” my book: The pieces I liked best, of course….

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Johan Bertil Hjelm @johanbhjelm.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

Sometimes AI are baffling. I asked it to do a new set of chapters, which was not half bad. But it removed all the text I had written. So I asked it to put it back. It says it is all there. But why has the word count shrunk by 75 %? Guess it was time for a detailed edit anyway…

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Johan Bertil Hjelm @johanbhjelm.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

On the 5th revision of my next book. AI is great as a structural editor and research assistant. But I will not use what it writes directly (helps that I ask for the research results in English and write in Swedish). I may have become overly sensitive, but I am starting to see AI wording everywhere.

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Reposted by Johan Bertil Hjelm

Scott Immordino @scottimmordino.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

It didn’t feel possible.

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Johan Bertil Hjelm @johanbhjelm.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

The way we design apps is wasteful and lazy. When I started in this business, a modem was a luxury. Now, several gigabytes per second are the norm. But during a recent excercise, when we stressed our service by lowering the capacity to modem speeds, it stopped. And that was only the signaling.

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Johan Bertil Hjelm @johanbhjelm.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

Got a phone call yesterday evening from a young lady who Introduced herself and then said ”we have a frozen wallet that belongs to you in the blockchain”. She did not get any further as I had started laughing uncontrollably and kept on until she hung up.

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Johan Bertil Hjelm @johanbhjelm.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

Just figured out how to keep our services running on our outlying islands even if Russian ghost fleet ships ”accidentally” cut the cables. Never thought I would see the cold war again, but in many ways we are fast-rewinding Europe back to the 80’s. Only this time the war is dirty, not just cold.

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Johan Bertil Hjelm @johanbhjelm.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

When you shut down a data center, what can you use the land and facilities for? Hard to repurpose for either manufacturing or office space. Should not be long until we will see the first examples, if they are not there already but under the radar.

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Johan Bertil Hjelm @johanbhjelm.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

I am not a chemist, but isn’t there some reaction by which absorbing carbon dioxide would cool things? Seems to me data centers should jump at it.

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Johan Bertil Hjelm @johanbhjelm.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

I am still surprised neither Elon Musk nor president Trump has claimed credit for the solar eclipse.

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Johan Bertil Hjelm @johanbhjelm.bsky.social · 08/08/2026

I keep reminding my kids that when their grandparents were growing up, they did not have indoor plumbing and had to bring in water from the pump in the yard. What will those who are children in India and Africa today tell their grandkids?

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Johan Bertil Hjelm @johanbhjelm.bsky.social · 06/08/2026

So I let Gemini help me with a testing plan, and it turned out quite nice. Then I let ChatGPT review and correct it. Mostly complained about mistaking gigabytes for gibibytes. But after stuffing the result into PPT, it was good enough to show to my boss. Which it may have been from the start anyway.

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Johan Bertil Hjelm @johanbhjelm.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

On the third edit of my next #book. Ran it through a bunch of different AI and some of their suggestions actually make sense. Structural editors are going to be out of their jobs if this continues. And #self-published books improve vastly. #amwriting

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Johan Bertil Hjelm @johanbhjelm.bsky.social · 04/08/2026

I am revising our CMDB, and while the configurations are well documented, the risk register and contingency planning have lived a life of their own. Not connected to the modules that deliver our service at all. Of course, I should register that as a risk….

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Johan Bertil Hjelm @johanbhjelm.bsky.social · 26/07/2026

One of the benefits of being on vacation is visiting flea markets. Where I live there is one in every farmhouse. Makes you realize how much goods we are producing and not using. Us and the planet should be better off if we could optimize consumption from the start.

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Johan Bertil Hjelm @johanbhjelm.bsky.social · 25/07/2026

#UnsolicitedWritingTip It is quite possible (even easy) to write a book on your mobile phone. Especially if you have decided on the structure in advance. But editing (which you need to do at least twice yourself), that is another matter….

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Johan Bertil Hjelm @johanbhjelm.bsky.social · 18/07/2026

Interesting to see how dishes transform when crossing cultures. And how much worse they taste than the original. Case in point: These things are actually called ”sushi” but only by the restaurant chain that serves it. And other similar Swedish buffets.

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Johan Bertil Hjelm @johanbhjelm.bsky.social · 13/07/2026

There was an entire city and a huge river here that I never noticed before! Yay for taking the train!

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Johan Bertil Hjelm @johanbhjelm.bsky.social · 11/07/2026

When the vacation time hits Sweden, offices (virtual and physical) empty fast. Nobody works for the two weeks of high summer. Which is a tremendous advantage if you promised to manage the support desk for a month. No work and lots of kudos, as long as there are no incidents.

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Johan Bertil Hjelm @johanbhjelm.bsky.social · 03/07/2026

I am on vacation, so I thought I would share these with you.

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Reposted by Johan Bertil Hjelm

Joanne Harris @joannechocolat.bsky.social · 29/06/2026

Unsolicited writing advice, no. 7410: This is a conclusion drawn from over 30 years’ observation of publishing. Reviews don’t sell books. Advertising doesn’t sell books. What sells books is human-to-human communication, via reps, booksellers, author events, word of mouth from readers.

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Johan Bertil Hjelm @johanbhjelm.bsky.social · 30/06/2026

Suddenly vacation all by myself. Kids off to camp and wife to our old home. Woke up at four and managed to get in an hour of writing before I had to drive to the nearest breakfast place. I used to be amazed that there were novels written on mobiles, now I have soon done a whole book on it myself.

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Johan Bertil Hjelm @johanbhjelm.bsky.social · 25/06/2026

My son wanted a Lego Titanic for his birthday. The plastic bricks (thousands) come with complete instructions - you will build the inside as well. Personally, I think that is the opposite of what Lego should be about. So I suggested that we buy a lot of white bricks and he build the iceberg instead.

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Johan Bertil Hjelm @johanbhjelm.bsky.social · 21/06/2026

I would like to take an AI model and feed it the most stupid and crazy ideas around. Especially things contrary to established facts without proof. Since the models work on probabilities it should be easy. In essence developing artificial stupidity. No, wait a minute, isn’t that done already?

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Johan Bertil Hjelm @johanbhjelm.bsky.social · 20/06/2026

The kids wading pool near our house was painted dark blue. It was wide and shallow. It did not have any algae. Painting the pool was stupid. But surely there are better ways of solving an algae problem than pouring in paint remover? Or maybe that was the idea? Fun conspiracy theory.

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Johan Bertil Hjelm @johanbhjelm.bsky.social · 18/06/2026

I am re-reading ”thinking fast and slow” and it is striking how the younger president Trump used so many of the things in the book in his speeches. Probably never read it but he is rethorically gifted. Or was, because nowadays he is only rambling, as far as I can tell.

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Reposted by Johan Bertil Hjelm

Bradán Lane @bradanlane.bsky.social · 16/06/2026

There was a time when cell phones had style and personality. Now they are all indistinguishable from each other.

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Johan Bertil Hjelm @johanbhjelm.bsky.social · 16/06/2026

I live in a country that used to close completely in July. No joke: The ”industry vacation” meant nothing was manufactured or sold for six weeks. If you lived here, you would appreciate why. The difference between winter and summer is striking. But that does not mean you can stop business any more.

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Johan Bertil Hjelm @johanbhjelm.bsky.social · 11/06/2026

Yesterday, my son called me to the kitchen where he was making merengues. Why? The water in the tap had turned brown. That was 22:10. Almost exactly one hour later I got a message from the water company on my mobile. The delay was not technical. But what then slows down the alerts?

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Johan Bertil Hjelm @johanbhjelm.bsky.social · 07/06/2026

Got a call from someone who claimed to be from a financial institute, and told me that I had an account there that would be closed and I just had to give him my details. The call came in on my new phone number, which is about one month old. That is how fast your details get on the darknet now.

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Johan Bertil Hjelm @johanbhjelm.bsky.social · 04/06/2026

Sweden has an election this year, but I do not think we would need to be too worried about desinformation. The politicians are doing too god a job providing information about what they pretend they will do and what the people in the other parties did wrong for any desinformation to get through.

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Johan Bertil Hjelm @johanbhjelm.bsky.social · 02/06/2026

My son asked to buy a stylus for his Android pad. It had to be a very special brand. He absolutely had to have a stylus from Zhenshen Younglin Internet Co. Ltd. It was 30 years ago that I said the Chinese brands would go global when they understood quality. Maybe I will not have to wait much longer.

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Johan Bertil Hjelm @johanbhjelm.bsky.social · 28/05/2026

Two-day conference at work teaching us to work better in teams. Still management not showing a clue about how to evaluate the productivity of team members, much less the productivity of the team itself. At least they reference Googles Project Aristotle, but no sign they understand what it means.

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Johan Bertil Hjelm @johanbhjelm.bsky.social · 23/05/2026

It was an unusually nice day. So the entire family took a walk. To the recycle center with the plastics and aluminium. Why do one job when you can do two at once?

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