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John Lyle

@johnlyle.com
238 followers 580 following 209 posts

British parent with interests in technology, security, and 90s computer games. Previously a software engineer at a large social network (not this one) working on trust and safety. He/him.

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John Lyle @johnlyle.com · 02/10/2026
Today I was reading one of my friends technical accomplishments and I thought “I couldn’t do that in theory, but I bet I could do that in practice”. That’s what AI gives you now - the ability to mask your fundamental skillset inadequacies with a magical automaton that lets you fake it.
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John Lyle @johnlyle.com · 02/10/2026
Is it possible for a millennial man to sing “Goldfinger” without thinking of (and thus sounding like) Alan Partridge? youtu.be/9ured0oVW10?...
youtu.be
Alan Partridge singing Goldfinger
YouTube video by Tom Hughes
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John Lyle @johnlyle.com · 01/10/2026
Fun test - 12axes.vercel.app
My political ideology test results, showing I am aligned with being in a “Nordic Social Democracy “
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Sean Jones KC @seanjones.org · 29/09/2026
The rush to speculate that asylum seekers are responsible for every crime in the news is a sort of opportunistic informational terrorism. Until it’s disproved it stokes fear and hatred. When it is disproved there are no adverse consequences and they know that they only have to be lucky once.
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John Lyle @johnlyle.com · 23/09/2026
Defend the RNLI, you cowards.
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Josiah Mortimer @josiahmortimer.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
“We think it will be of public interest that the most expensive house in British history was acquired in a way that saved £18.5m of stamp duty.” Sold by Reform's treasurer, no less open.substack.com/pub/londonce...
open.substack.com
London’s most expensive house, Reform UK’s treasurer, and a massively reduced tax bill
A £265m mansion in the heart of the Chelsea • Sold by billionaire Nick Candy and his ex-wife Holly Valance • Bought by a Labour-donating hedge fund boss • Why was the tax bill so small?
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John Lyle @johnlyle.com · 20/09/2026
Canonbury is otherwise lovely but as someone who used to live on St Paul’s Road it’s not fun being sandwiched between a railway with loud freight trains and a noisy road with regular traffic jams. Whilst living in a Victorian house with poor heat & noise insulation. Oh and it’s a conservation area!
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John Lyle @johnlyle.com · 19/09/2026
Spurs scoring and then having the goal disallowed, thus continuing their streak of failing to score in the premier league, may be the funniest development yet. Well done whoever wrote that.
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John Lyle @johnlyle.com · 19/09/2026
Bluesky doesn’t handle intermittent internet connections well. If I can’t connect to the internet it’ll not just stop me from logging in, it will also log me out even when I have a connection again next time.
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Eddie Burfi @eddieburfi.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Just look at the glee on Nigel Farage’s face as he watches a Piddington resident cry about the overt racism she, her Caribbean heritage husband, and their two children have felt in the village during the referendum. Time and again he’s showing us exactly who he is.
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John Lyle @johnlyle.com · 14/09/2026
It’s taken me a long time to understand that we need to tax the ultra-wealthy because they otherwise simply have too much power. Wealth taxes won’t generate much money but they will limit the influence of a small set of people who otherwise may try to run the world solely for their own benefit.
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John Lyle @johnlyle.com · 11/09/2026
A continued theme for the last few years is the decline of remote roles. Most companies being at least hybrid now.
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Henry Mance @henrymance.ft.com · 08/09/2026
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Jonn Elledge @jonnelledge.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
I want the Prime Minister to look into a TV camera and say the RNLI are heroes, that we do not change policy by street violence in this country, and that he expects any criminal action to face the full force of the law. That's it. That's all he has to do.
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John Lyle @johnlyle.com · 07/09/2026
Showing the most recent story first is an algorithm. This is just “we insist on making social media less engaging”. It would be better to specify precisely what good looks like - what social media should be optimising for, not how they achieve it. E.g., force measurement of rage-bait or misinfo.
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Steve Peers @stevepeers.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
Kent police said 'no arrests were made' of the people who blocked a port and roads. There's your two-tier policing, folks www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/cm...
bbc.co.uk
Port of Dover delays: Disruption as masked 'stop the boats' protesters block roads
Hundreds of demonstrators, wearing black with their faces covered, caused delays to traffic reaching the port.
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Steve Peers @stevepeers.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
Surprise! The outfit blocking roads and the port in Dover includes seriously violent thugs
Description of the criminal record of one of the thugs (there are more) from the article
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John Lyle @johnlyle.com · 05/09/2026
“Cowardly racists inconvenience thousands” would be my headline. Not that the BBC headline is wrong, I just think everyone involved deserves extreme contempt. www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/cm...
bbc.co.uk
Port of Dover delays: Disruption as masked 'stop the boats' protesters block roads
Hundreds of demonstrators, wearing black with their faces covered, caused delays to traffic reaching the port.
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John Lyle @johnlyle.com · 25/08/2026
One of the unquestionably best people has died. www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/c0...
bbc.co.uk
Dolly Parton, legendary US country singer, dies aged 80
The singer died at her home in Nashville, Tennessee, earlier today, her family confirmed in a statement.
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John Lyle @johnlyle.com · 25/08/2026
Wait for them to get older. While they age you also age twice as fast, which is a questionable bonus.
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John Lyle @johnlyle.com · 23/08/2026
In London Fields and I could be forgiven for thinking this was somewhere in Sydney - so many Australian voices everywhere.
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John Lyle @johnlyle.com · 20/08/2026
Craft degradation probably least important - arguably if AI means cheaper but worse software (for example) that’s a reasonable tradeoff and market forces already decide. This has plenty of precedent. Industries should watch out for irresponsible or unethical AI shortcuts, of course.
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John Lyle @johnlyle.com · 20/08/2026
Banning children from using LLMs is arguably much more reasonable than banning them from social media. Just as hard to enforce, though.
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John Lyle @johnlyle.com · 20/08/2026
Education - schools and universities have to adapt to the fact that students who can mimic learning. The societal, economic and individual costs are alarming. There may be mitigating benefits (personalised AI coaching) but I’m not sure we should bet on it. How do we de-risk?
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John Lyle @johnlyle.com · 20/08/2026
Job losses - unclear what the impact will be, but if I’m displaced from my role by AI, today I see this will cost me and government revenues (I would end up paying less income tax) but profit the corporation (who pay proportionally less). A retrospective tax on these companies might make sense?
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John Lyle @johnlyle.com · 20/08/2026
Cybersecurity - I’m deeply unimpressed by articles like this that put all the expectation and cost on business and individuals to get ready for the painful cyberattacks that frontier labs have enabled and made cheaper for bad actors. They ought to be subsidising the cost. openai.com/index/the-de...
openai.com
The Defender’s Window
AI is reshaping cybersecurity for attackers and defenders alike. Learn how OpenAI is strengthening its defenses and what security teams can do now.
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John Lyle @johnlyle.com · 20/08/2026
Climate - all these data centres add climate to the atmosphere and may slow the decommissioning of polluting gas/coal power plants. Carbon taxes seem obvious, or laws that require new capacity to be carbon neutral.
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John Lyle @johnlyle.com · 20/08/2026
I’m a software engineer who deeply appreciates the power of the tech for coding and problem solving - I use it all the time and it has huge potential. But these externalities exist and currently I don’t see any real cost being born by the frontier labs or big tech.
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John Lyle @johnlyle.com · 20/08/2026
I’m struggling to imagine how AI should be regulated or organised to mitigate the imbalance of frontier labs / companies profiting from its adoption but not being accountable for externalities felt by broader society (climate change, cybersecurity, education, job losses, craft degradation).
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Marie Le Conte @youngvulgarian.marieleconte.com · 14/08/2026
Cambridge University should have known better, Fleet Street should have known better, the people hungrily absorbing every bit of news about it, making newsrooms feel like they had to keep going with it as a story, should have known better, horrible horrible horrible
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Marie Le Conte @youngvulgarian.marieleconte.com · 12/08/2026
as ever I do not wish to beef but do people posting like this not realise that Bluesky is in fact a business and not a charity retirement home for said 38 year olds, and will shut down if it can't find a way to make money, which is the whole problem
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Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan @london.gov.uk · 11/08/2026
It's now been confirmed that this summer will be the hottest on record. For those opposing bold action on the climate crisis - you're not just putting lives and the planet at risk today, but dooming future generations.
theguardian.com
This burning summer is the proof: the voices of climate denial aren’t just delusional, they’re deadly | Sadiq Khan
Look at our blazing forests and parched cities. Green policies aren’t a ‘luxury’, and we can’t burn more oil and gas. People need the truth, says London mayor Sadiq Khan
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John Lyle @johnlyle.com · 11/08/2026
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
bbc.co.uk
Trump signs order to limit childhood vaccines and split MMR shots
The American Academy of Pediatrics calls the recommendation on measles, mumps and rubella shots "dangerous".
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John Lyle @johnlyle.com · 11/08/2026
"Vaccines are overwhelmingly safe. Vaccines are effective. Vaccines DO NOT cause autism." I rarely quote Republicans but Bill Cassidy is spot on with this one.
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Philippe Auclair @philippeauclair.bsky.social · 30/07/2026
"No UEFA national teams will participate in any FIFA competition for so long as these proposals remain alive, unless this proposal has been abandoned in its entirety and binding assurances have been given that FIFA will never again open its governance or competitions to private ownership".
uefa.com
Statement on behalf of UEFA and its 55 national associations
UEFA and its national associations will not participate in FIFA competitions.
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John Lyle @johnlyle.com · 26/07/2026
I did the same thing! And it was the tiniest bit of rain. I suspect you could hear a susurrus of dads across the land saying “good to have some rain, the country needs that”.
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John Lyle @johnlyle.com · 25/07/2026
Happy London Trans Pride. I’m very proud to live in a city that is gifted with many wonderful trans people.
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Roy Dickinson @rjohndickinson.bsky.social · 17/07/2026
I think if Spain win, they should unfurl a banner saying “Territorial disputes are best resolved by patient negotiation leading to constructive and mutually beneficial outcomes.” But in Spanish.
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John Lyle @johnlyle.com · 15/07/2026
I still don’t think this Argentina team are that good. So disappointing.
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John Lyle @johnlyle.com · 14/07/2026
“They’re going to ruin Bastille day in France”
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John Lyle @johnlyle.com · 14/07/2026
0-2 to Spain courtesy of Pete Leek and Mickey Wide Forest.
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John Lyle @johnlyle.com · 13/07/2026
Not a very positive datapoint for England’s chances, sadly.
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John Lyle @johnlyle.com · 12/07/2026
🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿
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Robert Hutton @roberthutton.co.uk · 07/07/2026
Calling a by-election over the sovereign right of every MP to take secret gifts from a convicted criminal. What a time to be alive.
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John Lyle @johnlyle.com · 05/07/2026
This appears to be Arsenal vs Arsenal but with guest stars who happen to be ridiculously good strikers. Ideal, in other words.
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John Lyle @johnlyle.com · 04/07/2026
Nice, thanks!
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John Lyle @johnlyle.com · 03/07/2026
Apple have made the podcast app horrendously buggy. What should I use instead?
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John Lyle @johnlyle.com · 30/06/2026
I jest - poor Germany. They were really unlucky and going out via a penalty shootout is something every Englishman can sympathise with. But congrats Paraguay nonetheless.
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John Lyle @johnlyle.com · 30/06/2026
Viva Paraguay! If only there was a word to describe taking pleasure in the misfortune of others…
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