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Andrew Smith

@oldboysmith.bsky.social
198 followers 498 following 796 posts

Just an old bloke from Bristol. Semi-retired C software engineer.

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Andrew Smith @oldboysmith.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
Economists seem particularly in awe of it. I think it’s dazzlement. They can get Claude code to bang out a few charts, barely lifting a finger, and they are in heaven.
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Kristian van der Vliet @vanders.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
I drew a face on a paper plate and sellotaped it to broom. It's answers may surprise you.
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Grady Booch @booch.com · 03/10/2026
Let’s be very clear: there is value in automating tedious and repetitive and dangerous tasks; there is value in delegating certain work to our machines that can do the work tirelessly and much faster.
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Jo Michell @jomichell.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
A rare example of a coherent argument on this stuff. giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/... Protests from the City about bank tax ring hollow
giftarticle.ft.com
Protests from the City about bank tax ring hollow
No one likes to pay more — people or corporations — but this is a time of national need
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Grady Booch @booch.com · 02/10/2026
In the market of agentic mania ,apathy and hubris appear to be the primary competition for most anything involving solid engineering. Apathy: we don't need no stinkin' rigor, because we can iterate so quickly. Hubris: give me a swam of agents and enough tokens to stand on and I can move the world.
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Andrew Smith @oldboysmith.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
It is. But not a good one. Needs a T in the middle.
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JW Mason @jwmason.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
This level of stupidity doesn’t just happen. You have to work to achieve it.
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Andrew Smith @oldboysmith.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
They are just alchemists really, not really knowing what they are doing , like Henig Brand boiling the output of local beer drinkers in an a attempt to create the philosophers stone. At least he discovered phosphorus. I doubt the output of gen AI will ever be as significant.
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Kate Devlin @drkatedevlin.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
This does indeed smell desperate, but that's not why I'm sharing it. No, the bit that leapt out to me was the @financialtimes.com use of the phrase "Seattle-based cloud giant" to describe Amazon, which sounds beautifully fairytale and captures the nature of this whole industry: magic beans.
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Jonathan Portes @jdportes.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
This is a dreadful argument from Burnham. Empirically false - almost 6m people were granted settled status; about 4m are currently resident. More importantly panders to racism/xenophobia, and directly contradicts argument made in his speech about migrant contributions.
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Grady Booch @booch.com · 30/09/2026
Having contributed to the advance of software engineering, it is sad to see the rise of a new profession, slopware engineering.
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Andrew Smith @oldboysmith.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
The ripeness of avocados is such a difficult open problem it isn’t even on the clay institute list.
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Andrew Smith @oldboysmith.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
They really have lost it. What’s your USP? End of the world. One for the millennialists I suppose.
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Gerry Hassan @gerryhassan.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Too many people with authority & influence demand again & again the Palestinians do this & that. The Palestinians are an occupied people. How abt starting with the Israelis commiting to ending occupation? That Israel recognise Palestine's right to exist? Israel are the oppressors.
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Andrew Smith @oldboysmith.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Córdoba spoke for the collaboration that made the whole thing possible: “I don’t use AI. I have Luis.” www.nybooks.com/online/2026/...
nybooks.com
The Work of Math in the Age of Artificial Reproduction | Dan Rockmore
There are seven questions in pure mathematics deemed important enough by the Clay Mathematics Institute, a nonprofit foundation devoted to “furthering the
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Andrew Smith @oldboysmith.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
And what is the “it”. Can’t see that AI is a useful term at all. Any meaningful discussion has to clarify what we actually talking about.
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Andrew Smith @oldboysmith.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Yep. You learn by doing. You outsource your thinking to A.I., you don’t do, so won’t learn.
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Andrew Smith @oldboysmith.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Birmingham with HS2 link
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ProfAFinlayson @profafinlayson.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
I hear AI changes everything but I'll stick my neck out & say that right now weight loss drugs (GLP-1s) are having a more fundamental impact on our culture: on food production, eating out, the labour market in hospitality etc. & that's before we consider the wider behaviour changes the drugs induce.
thegrocer.co.uk
The weight-loss boom reshaping the dairy sector
For GLP-1 users with smaller appetites, every calorie counts - and dairy is caught in the crossroads of functionality and indulgence
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Yair Wallach @yairwallach.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
"This is not my Zionism" writes the president of the UK Jewish Board of Deputies today. Good for you, but this is the Zionism that exists. Is it about time to start treating Israel as a real state and not as a fairy tale?
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Alfie Stirling @alfie-stirling.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Some good thinking covered in this piece from @hettieobrien.bsky.social. Though an important part of the case for direct support from government on the cost of living is that it is highly *supportive* of growth, not a substitute for it. 1/
theguardian.com
Labour’s last chance? The people shaping Andy Burnham’s grand plans for Britain
The long read: The new prime minister has declared he wants to end 40 years of neoliberalism. But is he really prepared to be that radical?
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Dan Snow @thehistoryguy.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
England is a made up thing. It has no basis in the ineluctable laws of nature. Its extent is defined by Edward II getting his arse handed to him. Athelstan conquering York. The Welsh of Cumbria were incorporated, the Welsh of Gwynedd were not. It is a political idea, an aspiration - not taxonomy.
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Nick Davies @njdavies.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Great to hear the PM say “We are going to be much prouder in standing up for our values and the rule of law” re foreign information warfare. I wonder if he or the Home Secretary might consider doing the same when it comes to masked vigilantes shutting down infrastructure and harassing the RNLI
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Chaminda Jayanetti @cjayanetti.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
I shot the security guard dead and then held everyone at gunpoint while robbing their life savings all the while yelling STOP THE BOATS and PROTECT WOMEN WHO AREN'T MY WIFE. everyone cheered
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Ash Oro @ashoro.co.uk · 22/09/2026
1/23 Sorry, this will be long... There is a lot of shouting about what happened in the Channel yesterday. So I want to go back to basic law. Not immigration policies or political rhetoric. At sea, the starting point is simple: Preservation of life comes first under all maritime conventions.
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Roland Smith @rolandmcs.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
This only works by accepting we are a national culture rather than an ethnicity. And a national culture can be 'breathed in' by newcomers. That's what the ethnats hate.
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Paul Hebden @paulhebden.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
So are we saying that if I got a van and started ramming ambulances, slashing their tires and assaulting their staff, I'd be fine as long as I was a fascist. Mahmood should be sacked. The situation with this government is intolerable.
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The Empty City @davidallengreen.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Just as well those committing wrongs against the RNLI are not holding placards supporting a proscribed organisation, else they would really be in trouble.
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flyingrodent @flyingrodent.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
I understand the outrage at the rampant fascists but, look: our national press has been telling the public that the streets are infested with ethnic sex offenders and migrant rapists, set loose by secret communists, for *fifteen years* now. And not sotto voce either, power-blasting it constantly.
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JW Mason @jwmason.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
What El-Arian is saying, in other words: You need to accept higher taxes and worse public services, in order to make it cheaper for tech companies to build data centers.
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Andrew Smith @oldboysmith.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
and can’t spell you’re
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Andrew Smith @oldboysmith.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Nah. Your old when you still have a ration book
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Andrew Smith @oldboysmith.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
“And finally, there are no statistical shortcuts to prosperity. Whatever the number is, the ongoing task for policymakers seeking tangible productivity gains remains the same: put land, labour, energy and capital to better combined use.”
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flyingrodent @flyingrodent.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
Did we really need to have all the variants of Thatcherism proving how fucked it is while making everything hugely worse, just to get to this point? No we did not, but our political/media class absolutely insisted on it.
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flyingrodent @flyingrodent.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
It has to be couched in very vague, hand-wavey terms because if you make definite statements like “the Thatcherite consensus has created a catastrophe that our ideology and institutions cannot fix”, then that implies quite specific people are to blame, and they should now face career consequences.
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Yair Wallach @yairwallach.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
There are so many things wrong in this article, let me focus on two: on the perverse logic argument against sanctions, and on the betrayal of Israel's human rights and anti-occupation activists. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
theguardian.com
This Israeli election could be the country’s last – this week I saw that for myself | Jonathan Freedland
Spend time on the ground and you see how high the stakes are for next month’s contest – for Israelis and Palestinians alike, says Guardian columnist Jonathan Freedland
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Chris Dillow @chrisdillow.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
This whole issue is framed wrongly. As I've written: "Worrying that some migrants won’t pay their way is a displacement activity - an attempt to blame migrants for the failings of British capitalism." chrisdillow.substack.com/p/on-the-fis...
chrisdillow.substack.com
On the fiscal costs of immigration
Are immigrants a drain on the tax-payer? It's a silly question.
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Yair Wallach @yairwallach.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
In the last decade, the IDF prosecuted one (1) soldier for unlawfully killing a Palestinian in the occupied territories. Elor Azaria served 9 months in prison. Today Israel's president, Yitzhak Herzog, pardoned him and expunged his criminal record. A clear message of 100% impunity.
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Andrew Smith @oldboysmith.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
Yes a password manager is better (most of the time), but its very much better than just using one simple to remember password, which is what people did in the past. I just wouldn't have that description on the cover.
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Yair Wallach @yairwallach.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
Tldr: "don't sanction Israel" www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
theguardian.com
This Israeli election could be the country’s last – this week I saw that for myself | Jonathan Freedland
Spend time on the ground and you see how high the stakes are for next month’s contest – for Israelis and Palestinians alike, says Guardian columnist Jonathan Freedland
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Anand Menon @anandmenon.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
God I hate this 'people who create wealth' nonsense. Let's see how much wealth we have in a society without teachers, nurses etc......
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Andrew Smith @oldboysmith.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
when they are really saying “people who extract wealth”. Put them on a desert island and see how they get on. Actually, that sounds like a good idea for a reality TV show.
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Katie Martin @katie0martin.ft.com · 19/09/2026
How to trade the robot apocalypse So far the answer seems to be call bullshit and/or lean into the nihilism Me, 300 free clicks x - as.ft.com/r/fd415159-4...
as.ft.com
How should investors position for the robot apocalypse?
The end of human existence might be bad for financial markets
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Andrew Smith @oldboysmith.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
It doesn’t “think” FFS. It’s linear regression on steroids.
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Helen Shin @h-x-s.bsky.social · 06/03/2026
Tapping the 1970s IBM training manual’s warning again:
Page from a late 1970s IBM training manual that says: 
A COMPUTER CAN NEVER BE HELD ACCOUNTABLE
THEREFORE A COMPUTER MUST NEVER MAKE A MANAGEMENT DECISION
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Andrew Smith @oldboysmith.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
Nope. I don’t think the common good has ever crossed Musk’s mind. That they have common cause, in keeping the money rolling in, is without doubt. That is all this is, cynical PR.
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Jess Miers 🦝 @jmiers230.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
I did a somewhat deep dive into the recent OpenAI and Anthropic "hacks" for an upcoming interview. IMO, the AI companies are better off running with the "rogue AI" story because the real story is actually pretty embarrassing. Like making your Wi-Fi password "wifi" embarrassing. 🧵
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Andrew Smith @oldboysmith.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
They are desperate. The whole thing only keeps going by huge inflows of funds. When it stops it’s not so much a bubble, more a pyroclastic flow.
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Andrew Smith @oldboysmith.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
“I have no doubt Almodei, Altman and co are sincere about the safety stuff.” Really???
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