iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Rob Pickering @rob.pickering.org · 17/08/2026

It's amazing what some people forget they have with them, although I've been pulled out for tick tweezers in the past. Seen in an actual international departure lounge.

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Rob Pickering @rob.pickering.org · 21/01/2026

Feel free to submit one liners. Implemented it as a Google form because I was concerned about being inundated and easier to triage but response hasn't been that great. We are in the process of distilling them down to the half dozen or so most impactful so great timing.

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Rob Pickering @rob.pickering.org · 18/07/2025

Forget age, why don't we gate voting on passing a critical reasoning test.

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Reposted by Rob Pickering

Software Mansion Elixir @swmansionelixir.bsky.social · 20/05/2025

🚨 We've extended the RTC.ON call for speakers! You asked and we listened – CFP is open for 2 more weeks! 🔥 Got a great story to tell? See what we're looking for and apply 👇

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Rob Pickering @rob.pickering.org · 28/04/2025

100% AI generated. This really isn't hard.

Map of Europe with capital cities generated by an AI

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Rob Pickering @rob.pickering.org · 08/04/2025

The view from the top deck at "the most scenic bus stop in the UK", but are there any better? #LakeDistrict

View from a 555 bus at Low Wood Bay Bus Stop

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Rob Pickering @rob.pickering.org · 08/03/2025

Getting out for a walk is an incredible way to leave all the doom behind for a few hours and today was incredibly beautiful.

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Rob Pickering @rob.pickering.org · 12/02/2025

A cautionary tale about trying to get an AI agent to present a slide deck at FOSDEM this year: www.pickering.org/ai-presentat... Lessons learnt, but was it a good idea badly executed, or just a straight bad idea?

Slide deck being presented in the Real Time Communications room at FOSDEM by Rob Pickering.

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Rob Pickering @rob.pickering.org · 16/01/2025

This looks super interesting. I suppose we could choose the current trajectory of unmanaged decline instead though. youtu.be/RdLEjTowMIs

youtu.be

The LFG Bill: Launch

YouTube video by Looking For Growth

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Rob Pickering @rob.pickering.org · 11/01/2025

I don't underestimate it at all, it is broken. We need to start fixing broken things if we are to get the country out of the mess we are in. There are no silver bullets but focussing on system change, rather than the conditioned helplessness of symptom fixing is what gets us to somewhere better.

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Rob Pickering @rob.pickering.org · 11/01/2025

Even if I'm off by 90% and it is only £100, the numbers still stack up.

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Rob Pickering @rob.pickering.org · 11/01/2025

Plucked it out of thin air, how many van sized loads of fly tipping can one team (bet its two people minimum) load up, take to the disposal facility in a day, clean the site. What is the cost of that disposal, line managers to manage them all, call centre to take reports etc etc.

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Rob Pickering @rob.pickering.org · 11/01/2025

I believe there is a concept of prosecution costs in orders that courts can make, so maybe it could be done without legislation change. Even if it does need it, the one off cost of making it so has got to be less than employing ever more people in vans (and people to manage them) to keep clearing up

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Rob Pickering @rob.pickering.org · 11/01/2025

I do not. Not blanket. The same places get hit again and again with fly tipping. If the CCTV is cheap and easy enough then just install one for a couple of months everywhere that there has been an incident.

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Rob Pickering @rob.pickering.org · 11/01/2025

Return in investment. Invest £50,000 on an extra man in a van for a year, vs invest £50,000 on an enforcement person with fit for purpose tools. Which one reduces fly tipping more by the end of the year (return on that investment).

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Rob Pickering @rob.pickering.org · 11/01/2025

being dumped, and a couple of months worth of battery is about £300. Would pay for itself with one detection and prosecution. This is just an example. You said AI couldn't help with fly tipping, investment in people and vans is the only solution. That is an example of where it could.

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Rob Pickering @rob.pickering.org · 11/01/2025

Yea, CCTV everywhere that there has been a flytipping incident. Costs what, £1000 to clear up with basically zero chance the offender is caught and pays. Conventional CCTV costs a five figure sum, needs a mains supply etc, but the actual cost of a camera, with AI that can detect rubbish...

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Rob Pickering @rob.pickering.org · 11/01/2025

And yes, putting lots of resource into clearing up, and not enough into rectifying root causes does affect something they care about. It reinforces "victimless crime, someone else is paid to remove it, so may as well leave it there" narrative.

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Rob Pickering @rob.pickering.org · 11/01/2025

It isn't cost free, there is a (vanishingly small) probability of a (not large enough) fine. Fly tippers are economically rational just like everyone else. Change either of those variables and they make different decisions. Fixing systems gives a much better ROI than chasing round clearing up.

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Rob Pickering @rob.pickering.org · 11/01/2025

Obviously it would, right? If you employ more blokes and more vans to simply clear up after fly tippers, then you get more fly-tipping, and need to employ more blokes and more vans. Rinse and repeat, until you run out of men, vans, or kitchen units to be fly tipped.

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Rob Pickering @rob.pickering.org · 11/01/2025

How about IT solutions that reduced fly tipping by identifying offenders and tracking loads. Surely the fact that workers have to be sent to collect way more stuff than the council has capacity to deal with is a systems failure in controlling fly tipping?

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Rob Pickering @rob.pickering.org · 09/01/2025

Coming to the end of another wonderful day.

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Rob Pickering @rob.pickering.org · 02/01/2025

Another stunning day again today, could get used to the yellow thing in the sky.

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Rob Pickering @rob.pickering.org · 01/01/2025

This was the skeet as it seems I'm now blocked. I've obfuscated the handle as the person saying it doesn't matter and I don't want to cause them problems. Just highlighting my disagreement with their, to me, entirely illogical position.

Let's make something clear for 2025
There is NO ethical way to use AI gen.
You are using it? Ok, but don't try to gaslight people, explaining that
the way you do it isn't problematic, hurtful and wasteful. Cause that
is NOT a thing!
Happy new year!

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Rob Pickering @rob.pickering.org · 01/01/2025

AI is just another advance in computing. Whether we use it to predominantly cure or curse humanity it is a choice we get to make. Uninventing it isn't a choice we have.

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Rob Pickering @rob.pickering.org · 01/01/2025

Harnessing motive power built our current society of relative comfort. As a result hunger and disease are now political choices rather than the inevitable order of things for humankind. Few would now say that Ned Ludd was on the right side of history. Same will be true of these opinions.

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Rob Pickering @rob.pickering.org · 01/01/2025

This bothers me. It is completely wrong to say that using a neural network is always unethical, any more than using a steam engine, a car or electricity were somehow inherently immoral when they were invented. Just makes no sense.

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Rob Pickering @rob.pickering.org · 01/01/2025

Pushed on and sheltered for a bit to be rewarded with...

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Rob Pickering @rob.pickering.org · 01/01/2025

Until I could almost reach out and touch it... but got rather wet in the process.

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Rob Pickering @rob.pickering.org · 01/01/2025

What a day today. Storm over, I was enticed out by a rainbow...

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Reposted by Rob Pickering

TheYorkshireTony @theyorkshiretony.bsky.social · 30/12/2024

Joining Bluesky this year, I found a creative and supportive community. Stunning photos and thoughtful conversations make this space special. As 2025 approaches, I wish you all a fantastic, healthy, and Happy New Year. Let’s keep building this together.

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Rob Pickering @rob.pickering.org · 27/12/2024

First serious post here... What does the AI and the value of knowledge work, what can we expect government to do, and how should we respond individually... www.pickering.org/ai-and-the-p... TL;DR Don't worry about P(doom), P(bad_things) is much more likely, and possibly influenceable.

pickering.org

AI and the value of knowledge work

This tweet was probably pretty controversial back in mid 2021 but, with suitable qualification, the number of informed people that would now argue with it must be pretty small. I've been thinking quit...

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Rob Pickering @rob.pickering.org · 22/12/2024

No it isn't tidal. Not in the diurnal sense anyway, with weather maybe. Just a very brief stop on Peel Island, Coniston.

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Rob Pickering @rob.pickering.org · 14/12/2024

Housebuilders have plenty of land but refuse to increase the supply of housing to a level that reduces the price of their product. Governments are complicit in this because not having house price inflation causes all sorts of political and economic issues. So we have to put up unaffordable housing.

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Reposted by Rob Pickering

Bay Search & Rescue @baysar.bsky.social · 13/12/2024

We're Bay Search & Rescue and we're new to Bluesky. Our main base is at Flookburgh in Cumbria and we operate all around Morecambe Bay. We have charity shops in Grange-over-Sands, Milnthorpe and Kendal which are all staffed by our amazing volunteers. Please repost to help us meet new people.

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Rob Pickering @rob.pickering.org · 12/12/2024

I'm used to views with the tops of hills disappearing into the murk, but it is grim down south today. They've lost the tops of their buildings.

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Rob Pickering @rob.pickering.org · 09/12/2024

You use a VC funded "tech bro" straw man to criticise startup mentality. Any number of local community organisations deliver profound social good in startup mode. They do this more effectively than public sector delivery orgs they work alongside. It is legitimate to ask if lessons can be learned.

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Rob Pickering @rob.pickering.org · 09/12/2024

Those management methods are ultimately about the goal of ensuring that those delivery organisations and everyone working in them is 100% focussed, aligned and effective as they possibly can be at generating that public good. That is what I would hope everyone in society would be agreed upon.

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Rob Pickering @rob.pickering.org · 09/12/2024

I guess it depends on your definition of "government". To me government is developing and enacting legislation. Governing. Everything else the public sector does (including enforcement) is delivery. Delivering a public good. Delivery should use the most effective management methods available.

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Rob Pickering @rob.pickering.org · 09/12/2024

There are some well documented cases where delusional and duplicitous founders have exploited governance flaws and the organisations have exploded. There are just as many cases where conservative public sector orgs have done enormous harm though leadership failures for the same reasons.

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Rob Pickering @rob.pickering.org · 09/12/2024

Sure, management reaching the limits of it's competence is definitely an issue. Great founders being a great growth CEO is the exception, not the rule. The progression of most successful start-ups fixes that by founders realising this or investors deposing them at some stage.

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Rob Pickering @rob.pickering.org · 09/12/2024

Isn't a 100% focussed and effective team what every organisation should have, or at least be aiming at? They fail for lots of reasons: bad or mistimed idea, another team executing better. They are a great way of identifying the former and in a social context, the latter is a nice problem to have.

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