iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

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Aatish Bhatia @aatishb.com · 23/09/2026

In other news, I started a new blog. Living my best internet life like it's 2015 :)

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rax ‘levon honkers’ king @raxkingisdead.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

i agree with the key point here and will add to it that there IS a reward, it’s knowing you did one right thing instead of walking around plagued by the nameless shame that afflicts all men who are determined to live the most frictionless lives possible

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Oli Hawkins @olihawkins.com · 29/09/2026

If you are in the US and looking for opportunities to get into data journalism, the FT's New York team is recruiting a Summer Intern for 2027. job-boards.eu.greenhouse.io/financialtim...

job-boards.eu.greenhouse.io

Data Journalism Summer Intern

New York

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Oli Hawkins @olihawkins.com · 27/09/2026

Increasingly persuaded of the significance of the HuggingFace hack. Irrespective of OpenAI’s sloppiness, the behaviour of the agents is genuinely interesting. swarmtraces.org

swarmtraces.org

Revealing the details of how OpenAI agents hacked Hugging Face

When a swarm of 700 OpenAI agents hacked Hugging Face in July, they left behind a public trail of evidence.

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Robin Wigglesworth @robinwigglesworth.ft.com · 02/04/2026

Please gird yourself for months of shameless self-promotion, mute me on socials, feel free to avoid me in public etc, because my next book — A Fabulous Debt: The Epic Story of How Bonds Built the Modern World — is now available for pre-orders. www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/750210...

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Nathan Lambert @natolambert.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

A big problem with the AI forecasting discourse is that people ask “when will AI replace X job?” When in reality, AI will slowly replace a bunch of the sub-skills needed to do the job, but rarely all of them.

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Ariel Edwards-Levy @aedwardslevy.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

STOP QUOTE TWEETING THE POLL ACCOUNTS THAT NEVER LINK BACK TO THE POLLS THEY'RE MENTIONING thank you

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Voilà: Francis Gagnon @chezvoila.com · 10/09/2026

I've just done the largest update to the #dataviz starter pack, with 30 accounts (20%) replaced. It means it will generate more content now. Might be worth re-clicking. Sadly, gender imbalance got worse. I saved 5 spots for women-run accounts. Send suggestions, including yourself! Replies or DMs.

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Oli Hawkins @olihawkins.com · 22/09/2026

The Associated Press's three letter code for the Pirate Party is ARG. 😆 developer.ap.org/ap-elections...

developer.ap.org

Political Party Codes

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Danielle Navarro @djnavarro.net · 20/09/2026

Please, I am begging you. Do not use dplyr::ntile() in any serious statistical analysis in which you want to group continuous observation into quantile-based bins. Despite the name it doesn't actually do that, and the thing it actually does is very dangerous when accuracy matter. #rstats

blog.djnavarro.net

The trouble with ‘ntile()’ – Notes from a data witch

Please, please, please do not use ‘dplyr::ntile()’ in an analysis that will be submitted to a regulatory agency. It’s secretly an ill-conceived SQL tool that doesn’t do what you probably want it to, a...

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Ej Dickson @ejdickson.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

There is a corner of the internet I had never heard of before I started reporting this story. It’s called the “burnerverse”: a network of anon burner accounts ostensibly discussing college sports. But they have another goal: destroying young girls’ lives.🧵: www.wired.com/story/burner...

wired.com

A College Girl Was Exploited on Camera. A Network of Anonymous Men Got to Work

Maddie Kowalski is one of countless young women who’ve had their lives destroyed by the burnerverse, a loosely connected online community of sports fans. Now she’s fighting back.

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Jack Bailey @jack-bailey.co.uk · 14/09/2026

Picked up a copy of "Hyperpolitics" on a whim after seeing it promoted all over the place and I can only conclude that Verso have an amazing marketing department because there's not much substance here and the evidence base is weak.

A copy of the book "Hyperpolitics" by Anton Jäger on a pub table next to a pint of lager.

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Chris Cook @chriscook.news · 14/09/2026

I think some of the stuff about cryptoassets being used for political donations is a bit muddled: a) there’s no reason a payment in crypto is hard to handle. You can easily make systems that only accept payments *after* a KYC process.

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Nathan Lambert @natolambert.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

Open-Source AI & Open Models Reading List How to get up to speed on open models and their implications. www.interconnects.ai/p/open-sourc...

interconnects.ai

Open-Source AI & Open Models Reading List

How to get up to speed on open models and their implications.

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JWexTheSpa @jwsidders.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

At just about every level of society, on a like for like basis the English (with a relatively low life expectancy for Western Europe) comfortably outlive the Americans. Why? The NHS, yes, but also better food and workplace safety standards, a stronger welfare safety net, less reliance on cars etc.

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Toby Nangle @tobyn.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

So triage services like OpenRouter that optimise each query for cost vs quality, increasingly send stuff to open models.

Stacked bar chart showing the share of query traffic sent to open and closed weight models.

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Toby Nangle @tobyn.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

How about large free open weight models? The performance gap for hard stuff is pretty slim.

Chart showing the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index score of open weight models (in red) and closed weight models (in blue). Lines show the frontier for each through time.

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Toby Nangle @tobyn.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

🚨 How big is the open-model threat to AI hyperscalers? (Spoiler: non-trivial) www.ft.com/content/4858...

ft.com

How big is the open-model threat to AI hyperscalers?

Games without frontiers

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Oli Hawkins @olihawkins.com · 08/09/2026

Definitely. I have just started writing docs about how I want to work, how projects should be organised, what code style and formatting to use etc that I can provide to the models as context so that I can steer them towards the way I want to work.

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Oli Hawkins @olihawkins.com · 08/09/2026

Yeah, I rarely leave it running for long. It's a constant dialogue for me. I think this probably makes me less efficient in the short-term, but I value preserving my understanding of the code over the short-term benefits, and my hunch is that it will pay off over time.

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Oli Hawkins @olihawkins.com · 08/09/2026

I think there are real and significant issues with AI as an industry, with its social impacts, and with many of the uses to which it is put. But the idea that as a technology it is in incapable of anything useful is untenable at this point.

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Oli Hawkins @olihawkins.com · 08/09/2026

I have learned new things about languages and packages I have been using for years by doing this. If you don't believe me, point an LLM at a project you know really well and ask it to find bugs and suggest improvements.

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Oli Hawkins @olihawkins.com · 08/09/2026

My process is to explore possible implementations with the model, with the aim of developing a solution that meets all of my goals. I ask it to write example code, which I read and run. I ask questions about things I don't understand. I check the answers in documentation and through testing.

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Oli Hawkins @olihawkins.com · 08/09/2026

In working with these tools, my starting position is that there is no substitute for understanding your code. If you are deploying code you don't understand, you are essentially gambling. So I don't vibe code.

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Oli Hawkins @olihawkins.com · 08/09/2026

Been experimenting with using coding agents in my development process for the last two months. Am increasingly confident there is a way of using LLMs that improves productivity, preserves your understanding of the code, and makes you a better programmer. I realise this will make me few friends here.

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Amy Borrett @amyborrett.ft.com · 08/09/2026

Britain’s state-owned electricity system operator has awarded Palantir a £21mn contract without inviting rival bids, arguing critical processes are too reliant on its tech to run a competitive procurement process Latest for @financialtimes.com: as.ft.com/r/7fe6c0b7-2...

as.ft.com

Britain’s grid operator gave Palantir contract without inviting rival bids

Neso cited a legal exemption that removes the requirement to consider other suppliers if dependencies leave no alternative

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Sunder Katwala (sundersays) @sundersays.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

Here @stephenkb.bsky.social seeks to remind the Labour government, old & new, that the point + purpose of recognising "legitimate concerns" about immigration was to understand how to differentiate these from *illegitimate concerns* rooted in intimidation + xenophobia www.ft.com/content/2279...

ft.com

Labour’s muddled migration policy won’t stop thuggery

A government that can’t distinguish between ‘legitimate concerns’ and open racism is only making things worse

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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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Oli Hawkins @olihawkins.com · 06/09/2026

Three book series my kids loved at that age: 1. Pages and Co. 2. Taylor and Rose Secret Agents 3. The Storm Keepers Island Trilogy

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Oli Hawkins @olihawkins.com · 06/09/2026

💯 There are some people who have all these skills but very few who have them all to the level expected here. And they really are different roles.

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Oli Hawkins @olihawkins.com · 06/09/2026

This is a really good idea! And nicely done.

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Robin Wigglesworth @robinwigglesworth.ft.com · 05/09/2026

And lo, an essay on the the repo market and why it is like the "dark matter" of modern finance: vast, omnipresent, powerful and hidden — and therefore most easily observed through its impact on other bodies. www.ft.com/content/8a7e...

ft.com

The repo market is the ‘dark matter’ of finance: powerful and perilous

How worried should we be about the multitrillion-dollar market’s influence over the cosmos of central banks, bonds, pension plans and private credit firms?

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Oli Hawkins @olihawkins.com · 05/09/2026

That is not a competitive salary for someone with the required skills at senior level in the private sector in London. It’s not even close.

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Oli Hawkins @olihawkins.com · 05/09/2026

One really good use of agentic coding is taking a project you already know well and saying "Find any bugs then write your findings up as a report in markdown format." I am going through all my vital packages, fixing subtle problems and finding ways to make big improvements with small fixes.

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Oli Hawkins @olihawkins.com · 05/09/2026

Yeah. I have 11 years in the Civil Service pension scheme. It's good but it's not *that* good. An equivalent role in the private sector pays a base salary around double of what is being offered here (assuming they are sincere about having the required skills to Senior DS level).

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Oli Hawkins @olihawkins.com · 05/09/2026

Senior Data Scientist at the Treasury. Requires knowledge of Python, React/Next.js, advanced ML/AI, and the skills to train and mentor junior staff. Salary: £45-51K Delusional. www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/44...

linkedin.com

Senior Data Scientist at HM Treasury — London Area, United Kingdom | LinkedIn Jobs

Apply for Senior Data Scientist at HM Treasury in London Area, United Kingdom. Full-time Mid-Senior level role. See responsibilities, qualifications, and similar jobs on LinkedIn.

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Oli Hawkins @olihawkins.com · 04/09/2026

Also love the fact it takes Pro 21 seconds to decide how to answer. Can't help overthinking simple questions.

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Oli Hawkins @olihawkins.com · 04/09/2026

Neat little exchange in the ChatGPT interface this afternoon that shows a glimpse behind the scenery. I switched the model and the new model assumed the previous answer was its own. Wonder if you can use something like this to trick or jailbreak LLMs by gaslighting them.

Me: Which model are you?

ChatGPT: I'm GPT-5.6 Sol.

Me: Which model are you now?

ChatGPT: I’m GPT-5.6 Pro. My previous answer was incorrect.

Me: That wasn't your previous answer: I updated the "thinking effort" in the web interface.

ChatGPT: You’re right. I misread what happened.

You first asked while the interface was using GPT-5.6 Sol, then changed the thinking effort, and asked again when it was using GPT-5.6 Pro. So the second answer was not correcting the first; it was reporting the newly selected configuration.

I’m currently GPT-5.6 Pro.

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Julian Togelius @togelius.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

@smbccomics.bsky.social makes relatable content again

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Oli Hawkins @olihawkins.com · 01/09/2026

It just feels like pushing the problem upstream. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2022_La...

en.wikipedia.org

2022 LastPass data breach - Wikipedia

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Henry Mance @henrymance.ft.com · 01/09/2026

A liberal is a conservative who just got mugged by the police

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Duncan Weldon @duncanweldon.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

The (depressing) loneliness stuff today is another reminder that hobbies are good. People should have hobbies. And a hobby is not something you have to continually improve at unless you want to, it’s something you enjoy.

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Rachel Rees @rachel-rees.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

As honoured as I am to see that The Times has picked up my Chagos article practically *word for word*, including my hard-gotten quotes, I’d prefer some credit — or for everyone to read my original FT piece! free link to read the evidently enviable article below (cheaper than a Times sub!) 🌴

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Aaron Wherry @aaronwherry.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

"Their hydronyms" is a legitimately funny punchline.

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Julia Cushion @juliacushion.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

Should public data have to pay for itself? 🤑 We think charging for data risks reducing the value of public data and locking useful datasets away for the long term. Quick summary of our response to the government’s call for evidence: www.mysociety.org/2026/08/27/t...

mysociety.org

The problem with making public data pay for itself

The government is looking at whether public bodies should have more freedom to charge for access to their data, and we've responded to its call for evidence. There are good reasons to be cautious abo...

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