iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Paul Johnston @pdj.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

I'm still amazed at how many people think AWS Lambda is basically kubernetes.

Paul Johnston @pdj.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Have been having frustrating conversations today. It made me realise how poorly understood LLM usage in tech actually is. Most people still seem to be at the stage of "I'm in a repo and I direct the AI to fulfill a feature request/bugfix".

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Reposted by Paul Johnston

Ian Dunt @iandunt.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

One of the hardest things about being progressive is knowing the limit to inequality. For communists, it's easy. There'll be no inequality. For neoliberals, it's also easy. There's no limit to inequality. But most people live somewhere between these positions, never sure where to draw the line.

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Paul Johnston @pdj.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Not going to argue with this at all

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Paul Johnston @pdj.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

I've realised that my brain has so much more context than 280 characters can handle. When I say stuff, there's usually 47 thoughts unsaid. But what I'm realising is that this isn't the normal way people think. It's an ADHD thing in some ways. My brain gets to the conclusion very fast.

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Paul Johnston @pdj.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

This is why you should be **very careful** using these models. Your prompts and content you upload (unless you opt out where you can) *WILL* BE USED AS "TRAINING DATA". "TRAINING DATA" Good grief. I genuinely despair of people using these tools without opting out. Auto opt out *now*.

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Paul Johnston @pdj.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

If I've learned anything about solving problems in Northern Ireland in the past few decades, it's that people outside Northern Ireland think it's simple and people inside Northern Ireland think it's impossible.

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Paul Johnston @pdj.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

The data protection implications of this are astonishing.

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Paul Johnston @pdj.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

I'm going to disagree. There's a difference between control and accountability. The way that the AI is being used is uncontrolled. It's not OpenAI "doing" it. And it's not OpenAI "directing the AI to do this". But OpenAI is responsible for whatever it does.

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Paul Johnston @pdj.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

The Stanford Kitchen Experiment: Where a robot is put into an almost immaculate kitchen and told to tidy it. It looks around wondering what the humans are talking about, and performatively "tidies the kitchen" until the humans tell it to stop. Robot eventually goes mad.

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Paul Johnston @pdj.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

If you can write, AI allows you to reshape your world. We've become so reliant on tech that it's now everywhere and businesses rely on it all the time. Tech is everything from email to phones to business accounts to marketing to getting your food delivery. It's already changed everything.

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Paul Johnston @pdj.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

I don't think people understand how *stable* political leadership is a lot to do with *not* following public opinion and is a lot more to do with consistency. Thatcher and Blair did it. Two of the most hated political figures in Britain. But largely brought political (not economic) stability.

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Paul Johnston @pdj.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Counter argument: Make the data open by design from the outset. And maybe there's a good argument to modify the scientific process in an age of AI. Science is not static and neither is the advancement of knowledge. I imagine there were arguments against using computers in research 60 years ago.

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Paul Johnston @pdj.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

This is my worry for the Green Party. The bump started as a protest vote against Starmer from the left and gained a lot of momentum. It was why Starmer going right to combat Reform was strategically inept. Labour doesn't own the left but it does have weight. The budget will determine how much.

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Paul Johnston @pdj.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Explaining a story to friends about a company that didn't understand the long term consequences of forking a mature open source project. They suggested writing this O'Reilly book: Yoinking and Yeeting - Successfully forking with no plan

Fake O'Reilly book cover with purple accents:
Title "Yoinking and Yeeting"
Pencil drawn image of a raccoon
Header: "Open source is ready to take and updates are trivial"
Subtitle: "Successfully forking with no plan"

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Paul Johnston @pdj.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

I would really like to see Zack get elected. I do think Labour are taking a lot of support for granted and have neglected their progressive wing for a long time. No party is perfect including the Green Party but I have more faith in the Greens than Labour now.

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Paul Johnston @pdj.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

At some point I'm going to knock on the door and ask if they know what the ICO is

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Paul Johnston @pdj.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Carreras Try of the season Harlequins v Bath

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Reposted by Paul Johnston

Cat Hicks @grimalkina.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

I wanted to give /informed-patient some better guidance for handling medical classification frameworks and helping you reason about them. This is still in experimentation phase so I welcome hearing about whether it works or not see it at: github.com/DrCatHicks/i...

github.com

GitHub - DrCatHicks/informed-patient: A Claude Skill to create an evidence review to inform specific health questions

A Claude Skill to create an evidence review to inform specific health questions - DrCatHicks/informed-patient

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Paul Johnston @pdj.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Having to explain to Green Party people that to solve the issue of data centre water usage, you just have to build some reservoirs and they will still complain about water usage of data centres. It's almost nonexistent. Especially in the UK.

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Paul Johnston @pdj.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

One thing I'll never understand is why my kids like watching Twilight It's so bad

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Paul Johnston @pdj.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

I was always told HSBC did not stand for Hong Kong Shanghai Banking Corporation. But apparently Wikipedia says it's true. Very confused.

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Paul Johnston @pdj.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

If you don't understand why AI is such a big deal in the tech world, this is one piece of software in one company. That's a huge productivity increase.

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Paul Johnston @pdj.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Seriously wondering whether I should step back from social media and just delete all my content. That means this account, mastodon and similar. My X account is dormant, not deleted. I wonder if it would make a difference or if anyone would actually notice.

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Paul Johnston @pdj.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

What's amazing to me is that the politicians start jumping when AI companies claim an existential threat... But have been dithering on climate change for nearly 40 years. One is a guaranteed existential threat, and the other has very little evidence beyond fearmongering.

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Paul Johnston @pdj.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Just looked back at the blog posts and talks on YouTube that I did from 2016-2019 on serverless. I should have written a book!

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Reposted by Paul Johnston

Carla Denyer @carladenyer.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Good news! I made the case for banning adverts for high-carbon products back in 2020. It was important then and it’s even more crucial now. Huge respect to @adfreecities.bsky.social for their years of campaigning, and to my @bristolgreenparty.bsky.social council colleagues for making it happen 👏

Screenshot of an Instagram post by Adfree Cities: Bristol bans polluting ads - ads for fossil fuels, SUVs, flights and fast fashion will no longer appear on council-owned sites. Huge result as Bristol council approves ban on ads for fossil fuels and other polluting products and services.

Screenshot of second page of Instagram post by Adfree Cities: In a massive win against polluting advertising, Bristol City Council has introduced restrictions on ads for SUVs, fossil fuels, airlines, cruises and ultra-fast fashion on council-owned and sites. The policy aims to make rim for the promotion of more sustainable forms of transport, travel and holidays.

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Paul Johnston @pdj.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

This is why the climate crisis is not getting solved at this point. Internally the goal is market share, not a livable planet. Until that changes these companies are, at best, unreliable partners regarding the climate crisis and at worst actively harmful. It's not the workers. It's the system

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Paul Johnston @pdj.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

Sounds like a tactic that might work then

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Paul Johnston @pdj.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

Was supposed to be going to MK Pride today with my youngest two. Have had a migraine for the last two days. Having to miss it which is a shame. It's always fun to go.

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Paul Johnston @pdj.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

My wife and I put Colin from Accounts on yesterday. Haven't watched it before, but have seen a couple of clips on social media. It's very good.

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Paul Johnston @pdj.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

The mobilisation of the Greens for this by-election is actually quite incredible. I originally gave Zack around 25-30% chance to win. That's gone up. I think Labour have a real fight on to retain this seat.

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Paul Johnston @pdj.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

One advantage of the huge sums donated is that it destroys the "anti establishment" narrative. Reform are the party of the rich. No question. Anybody that thinks that they are interested in the working class are just wrong. But the issues they are tapping into are real.

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Paul Johnston @pdj.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

I've just had to get a new smartphone. I've always just bought a "good enough" phone. But prices have jumped and the last phone I got had a poor camera. Most phones now will have enough power to do the things I want. The biggest thing I realised I want is a good camera. Nothing else matters

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Reposted by Paul Johnston

Ben Collins @bencollins.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

25 years later and The Onion’s ParentCorner 9/11 explainer from immediately after the attack is a better understanding of the threat environment than the one produced by the U.S. government.

An Onion article titled “Talking to your child about the WTC attack,” which is filled with real good info.

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Paul Johnston @pdj.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

You know your reporters keep seeing they just rung Trump and he answers. Why not DDoS his phone? Over and over?

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Paul Johnston @pdj.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

My 13y/o was reading about various topics today. It's 25 years since 9/11 and my youngest starts reading about tsunamis. 3000 died in the attacks and 5000 died of health conditions. 175,000 died in Afghanistan. 100,000-600,000 died in Iraq. 230,000 people died in the Boxing Day tsunami 2004.

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Reposted by Paul Johnston

Kaburion ❄️ WEBTOON ARTIST @kaburion.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

Don't be like doomer bunny, it's not good for you 🐇

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Paul Johnston @pdj.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

This is exactly why open source projects that refused AI generated updates should be dropped like a very large and heavy piece of crap

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Paul Johnston @pdj.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

This excellent piece is worth a read. I'm so frustrated with the data centre debate. Almost everything gets solved with decarbonising the grid and mandating water use **if it's even needed** using closed loop systems. The US political debate doesn't transfer here in the way many think.

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Paul Johnston @pdj.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

Oh good grief. Data centres don't really create jobs and certainly not in the local community. The capacity and services they enable are where the jobs come from. And sovereign capacity and capability is important for things like national security. So it's not just a "number of jobs" equation

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Paul Johnston @pdj.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

The Anthropic v OpenAI Navier-Stokes debacle highlights a couple of key things: 1) THEY LOOK AT YOUR INTERACTIONS WHEN IT BENEFITS THEM And 2) THAT'S NOT HOW YOU SHOULD DO SCIENCE Huge implications for national security, critical national infrastructure and more. Sovereign AI is now critical.

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Paul Johnston @pdj.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

My nephew is about to start a Masters in Fusion Energy Engineering. The kids are alright

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Paul Johnston @pdj.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

The latest AI marketing scam

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Paul Johnston @pdj.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

Getting claude to write me a script telling me how many tokens I've used per day in the last few months. I'm *nowhere near* what I'm hearing other people are doing in terms of numbers. Literally orders of magnitude less.

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Paul Johnston @pdj.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

This is what happens when you base yourself in LA and lots and lots of actors will come and do mad things for union minimums.

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