iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

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Giles Wilkes @gilesyb.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

It's always the way, isn't it giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/...

Graph shows far right support higher where the number of foreign nationals is lowest

Policy Sketchbook @policysketch.bsky.social · 22/08/2026

"Flooding the market with low-quality early uses" is a great summary of the problem with AI as it currently is. You don't need to be sceptical about the potential of the technology to observe that to date it has been terrible at many of the things it claims to do.

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Dan Davies @dsquareddigest.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

at the 'stack, I argue for the indispensability of the human in the loop backofmind.substack.com/p/because-i-...

backofmind.substack.com

because I say so, that’s why

a loop cannot close itself

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Stephen Bush @stephenkb.bsky.social · 15/08/2026

The problem can be summed up with one question: how many people who can name Jason Arday can name the plagiarising professor at the same institution who is still in post? How many people can name the VC criticised by name in an employment tribunal this week?

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Steve Peers @stevepeers.bsky.social · 15/08/2026

Ok, some thoughts, as an olde tyme academic, on the Arday tragedy. First, allegations about causes. We don't know what was in his mind, but many people are keen to blame him, or woke lefties/academia, or the media. Some people are absolutely certain that the media are faultless. 1/

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Sam Freedman @samfr.bsky.social · 16/07/2026

Or much of a drop in public support. Fascinating example of elite consensus switching despite popular opinion.

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Policy Sketchbook @policysketch.bsky.social · 17/07/2026

Meta AI Glasses but for parents to wear all day every day to document every interaction with their child, rate its difficulty and produce a comparable score to solve every argument ever about how the domestic workload is shared.

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steve the skeptic @policyskeptic.bsky.social · 15/07/2026

It is an interesting argument but makes the mistake many do when opposing good tax reform: every tax has to be fair by itself and not create losers. this is a barrier to any change but misses the point...

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Policy Sketchbook @policysketch.bsky.social · 11/07/2026

In the same way that farts only smell bad when someone else has done them.

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Policy Sketchbook @policysketch.bsky.social · 09/07/2026

A case of mistaken identity, I fear. Count Binface has a bin on his face, not a face on his bin. This is the family of Count Facebin.

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Dan Neidle @danneidle.bsky.social · 04/07/2026

A greatly expanded version of this thread, with interactive charts, and links to all sources/references is here: buff.ly/YvWBJlK

buff.ly

37 ways Andy Burnham could raise £4.7bn

Andy Burnham may need to find £4.7bn for defence. Here are 37 possible tax rises and reforms.

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Policy Sketchbook @policysketch.bsky.social · 01/06/2026

Spotting the opportunity to make the argument that if you are willing to pay that much for the worst AI company, surely you will pay just as much for the best one?

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Giles Wilkes @gilesyb.bsky.social · 22/05/2026

IMHO possibly the most interesting question in finance and economics right now is the extent to which future AI dominance can retain any monopoly characteristics. People assume because it's "Silicon Valley" that those explosive network effects will necessarily pertain. They really might not... 1/

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Policy Sketchbook @policysketch.bsky.social · 21/05/2026

Without claiming any expertise in the problem in question, I think it's notable that OpenAI says that it was solved by "a new general-purpose reasoning model" i.e. not by an LLM. This makes sense as I do not think LLMs are even in principle able to solve novel problems.

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Duncan Weldon @duncanweldon.bsky.social · 20/05/2026

I have watched this maybe 8 times today

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Policy Sketchbook @policysketch.bsky.social · 18/05/2026

I have been thinking about this point a lot over the past couple of days. Leadership is hard and you may need to compromise on some issues for the sake of the bigger picture. But having the judgement to know when you have triangulated yourself into unacceptable positions seems important.

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Stephen Bush @stephenkb.bsky.social · 16/05/2026

I will never understand how Keir reconciles his self-conception as a good man doing a good job as prime minister with “my premiership had to be brought to the brink of death for me to say this”.

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Policy Sketchbook @policysketch.bsky.social · 14/05/2026

Dear Prime Minister, I am great and therefore should remain in my job. However, I no longer think you are great and therefore I cannot. Yours sincerely, Wes

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Stephen Bush @stephenkb.bsky.social · 13/05/2026

Terrific and wholly correct thread.

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Rob Ford @robfordmancs.bsky.social · 12/05/2026

Social care reform, immediately. Bon the commission, give task force 3 months to propose final recommendations building from Dilnot proposals, implement immediately with penny on basic and higher rates of income tax to pay for it. Immediately transforms local govt fortunes too…

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Policy Sketchbook @policysketch.bsky.social · 12/05/2026

The defence of the FPTP political system has always been, in effect, that it is unstable. An increase in vote share can have a non-linear effect on the share of seats, so a swing to one party can quickly snowball into a large majority. This is apparently good because it leads to strong government.

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Policy Sketchbook @policysketch.bsky.social · 07/05/2026

Power works best when it's not exercised. In the abstract, we equate "the strongest army in the world" with absolute power and act accordingly. When put into practice, the limits of that power become clear and it seems somewhat less impressive.

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Policy Sketchbook @policysketch.bsky.social · 06/05/2026

I can't remember whether @dsquareddigest.bsky.social covered this exact angle in his book, but there's a kind of accountability sink that's created in law by the government to protect people and organisations from the consequences of their actions, in order to encourage risk-taking and innovation.

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Ben Zaranko @benzaranko.bsky.social · 03/05/2026

Headline measures of wealth inequality haven't meaningfully changed since the 1980s, but it's harder to work and save your way up the ladder than it used to be. Meanwhile, inheritances are becoming ever more important. Me for this weekend's Observer: observer.co.uk/news/capital...

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Policy Sketchbook @policysketch.bsky.social · 03/05/2026

This is confusing symptom with cause. Labour is repeating the mistakes of the Conservatives in trying to win voters from the far right by chasing anti-immigration headlines. That's only serving as promotional material for Reform and is (part of) the reason the leaderships is under question.

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Policy Sketchbook @policysketch.bsky.social · 24/04/2026

This works on multiple levels, because even the bit that RFK presumably thinks is right is actually wrong. $100 rising to $600 is a 500% increase. Just great Content all round.

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Policy Sketchbook @policysketch.bsky.social · 14/04/2026

This is a very insightful comment about how we shape our careers. It seems obvious to me that you'd want to have a career that sees you do the things you are good at and avoid the things you are bad at. But maybe this is why I will never be PM (or e.g. CEO of a large company).

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Dan Davies @dsquareddigest.bsky.social · 08/04/2026

I muse on what it is about Palantir's business model that triggers my spidey sense ... backofmind.substack.com/p/brain-dono...

backofmind.substack.com

brain donors of the firm

giving it all away and paying for the privilege

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Policy Sketchbook @policysketch.bsky.social · 03/03/2026

I get why people compare worries about kids on social media with previous moral panics but I think an important difference is that when previous generations worried about computer games or rock music they were worrying about things kids did that their parents didn't understand.

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Policy Sketchbook @policysketch.bsky.social · 28/02/2026

Not the most important point right now I know, but you can see the US track record on regime change as an example of a widely applicable rule in managing complex systems. It's easy for someone with power to destablise the system. The US military can kill the leaders of smaller countries.

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Policy Sketchbook @policysketch.bsky.social · 27/02/2026

I was accused of having a terrible blog name, a crappy avatar, and of not making any jokes. And that was just by @t0nyyates.bsky.social. Thank god I'm now on Bluesky and entirely safe from any such treatment.

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Policy Sketchbook @policysketch.bsky.social · 23/02/2026

A man can rape an underage girl and walk around free, but god forbid he misuse a small amount of public money.

BBC New headline: Andrew charged taxpayers for massage when envoy, claim ex-civil servants

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Policy Sketchbook @policysketch.bsky.social · 22/02/2026

This is absolutely true for any complex system, whether that's a large organisation, a state or the world. It is impossible for someone at the top to intervene and make it all work well - there's just way too much complexity - but it's a hell of a lot easier for them to personally mess things up.

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Dan Davies @dsquareddigest.bsky.social · 14/02/2026

I expand a little on a term of cybernetic interest backofmind.substack.com/p/how-to-mak...

backofmind.substack.com

how to make your organisation dumber

adding the term “adversarial context” to the lexicon

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Indy @indy.bsky.social · 13/02/2026

It goes further - imagine a by-election contest between a working plumber from Manchester and a professor from Kent? The media lines write themselves, except that the party allegiances are not how our commentariat would like them to be.

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Toby Nangle @tobyn.bsky.social · 13/02/2026

Where do parents find the time to parent? Less sleep, work and screens. Amazing chart feat. in @alphaville.ft.com Further Reading. homeeconomics.substack.com/p/where-do-p...

Difference in time use between working parents of small children vs working non parents. Areas above zero are activities parents do more of; areas below are what they give up.

Compiled by analyzing the Census Bureau’s American Time Use Survey.

Analysis and chart by Aziz Sunderji, https://homeeconomics.substack.com/p/where-do-parents-find-the-time

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Antony Carpen @acarpen.bsky.social · 11/02/2026

Thread 🧵 re Westminster politics & the lack of independent revenue-raising powers for #Localgov. The result? *Everything* has to go through Whitehall for something to happen. All policy initiative is locked up in London. (Note #LibDems proposal to revamp HMT with rebrand & move to Birmingham)

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Policy Sketchbook @policysketch.bsky.social · 10/02/2026

Immigration has not become significantly better or worse for the country over this period of time, so what we have is a volatile indicator that bears little relationship to underlying factors that can be targeted by policy.

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Andrew Sissons @acjsissons.bsky.social · 10/02/2026

Just plotted the "difference" lines from this table to show how big the swings are over time. Wild. public.flourish.studio/visualisatio...

Chart shows the difference between people saying immigration is "good for" and "bad for" the UK economy (blue line) and culture (green line).
The value is negative (bad outweighs good) from 2011 to 2015, before swinging to positive between 2016 and 2022. It has since fallen to be roughly neutral

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Policy Sketchbook @policysketch.bsky.social · 19/01/2026

"I no longer feel an obligation to think purely of piss."

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Sam Freedman @samfr.bsky.social · 11/01/2026

As I've said before the lack of focus on A&E in govt plans is bewildering even just from a political perspective. For many people it's their most viseral and memorable interaction with the state.

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Policy Sketchbook @policysketch.bsky.social · 08/01/2026

The US approach to geopolitics mirrors the libertarian oligarch's approach to government and regulation: those who benefit most from the current system want to tear it down because they believe it's holding them back from even greater wealth that their intrinsic superiority would otherwise deliver.

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Policy Sketchbook @policysketch.bsky.social · 27/11/2025

Possible my memory is failing me, but I feel like it's a while since I saw one of these charts shaped like this, because it's a while since we meaningfully increased benefits - which is the only way to support the lowest income groups, who pay very little in tax, so don't benefit from tax cuts.

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Robin Ince @robinince.bsky.social · 22/11/2025

This SUNDAY - COLCHESTER!! A solo show for @samaritans.bsky.social Tickets here www.redlionbooks.co.uk/product/poet... Tell your friends

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Policy Sketchbook @policysketch.bsky.social · 18/11/2025

For 90% of people there is no good reason these days to own a high value phone when a second hand one from several years ago can do everything you need it to and more. The added bonus appears to be that would-be muggers won't want to take it from you.

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