iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

sebastian s @sangervasi.net · 30/09/2026

San Francisco streets are disgusting. Today I stepped in a pile of books about how to build AI apps.

010

sebastian s @sangervasi.net · 23/09/2026

The live ones keep walking away

021

sebastian s @sangervasi.net · 23/09/2026

Starting a new job soon and I'm already thinking up activities to get to know people. This is the same impulse that drives executives insane because they can force so many people into activities.

000

sebastian s @sangervasi.net · 23/09/2026

Wonder how many times his wife told him to stfu and he didn't listen.

010

sebastian s @sangervasi.net · 21/09/2026

A number in a press release is a lie A number in an internal report is a guess. A number in a legal filing is a compromise.

000

sebastian s @sangervasi.net · 19/09/2026

Current AI discourse is like if instead of shutting down Theranos for the crimes we had politicians saying we need stop Holmes from becoming a Blood Bender.

000

sebastian s @sangervasi.net · 17/09/2026

Guy who avoided falling into qanon because of a "what if the hokey pokey is what it's all about" sticker

000

sebastian s @sangervasi.net · 15/09/2026

[Holding my trillion dollar hammer] lotta stuff lookin like nails rn

000

sebastian s @sangervasi.net · 13/09/2026

"Focusing on becoming Hay-Eye native" - Please pronounce the hard H so that I know you're cool but need to say something the boss would like.

000

sebastian s @sangervasi.net · 10/09/2026

If I was Microsoft or Google I would cut all my financial losses and claim I'm doing it to protect humanity. Like a guy walking away from a fight because "these hands are deadly weapons."

000

sebastian s @sangervasi.net · 09/09/2026

Mystery AI Hype Theater 3000 sniped me into reading Dorsey's slop. Thanks(?) @alexhanna.bsky.social and @emilymbender.bsky.social

030

sebastian s @sangervasi.net · 09/09/2026

If there’s one redeeming quality to the current tech hype cycle, it’s how funny I find it when dudes talk about “intelligence” while demonstrating how dumb they are. harmless.substack.com/p/jack-dorse...

harmless.substack.com

Jack Dorsey’s “intelligence” soup

A tragicomedy of CEO speak

010

sebastian s @sangervasi.net · 09/09/2026

Obligatory repost of my "AGI fraud guide" harmless.substack.com/p/agi-baby-f...

I know people are bad at estimating probabilities, especially for ambiguous, speculative questions like this. I wouldn’t expect any of these colleagues to make life-changing decisions in anticipation of a civilization-changing dice roll (though you don’t have to browse tech blogs long to find people who are betting the farm). I know better than to expect rational consistency from people in an industry where “engineering” consists of performing spreadsheet rituals and praying a solution will manifest. I know from experience that trying to engage a group of tech workers in skeptical discussion results in a smattering of thumbs-ups, thumbs-downs, and no one actually taking much time to reevaluate the bias that has been installed in them through marketing saturation. This is passive acceptance and, in my opinion, leaves the AI-curious public open to a risk that is far more likely than AGI: a hoax.

000

sebastian s @sangervasi.net · 08/09/2026

Makes sense because the SAT is adding a gom jabbar section

011

sebastian s @sangervasi.net · 05/09/2026

Counterintuitive, I know, but I think you'll find my experience is just as bad in the app.

010

sebastian s @sangervasi.net · 28/08/2026

Nostalgic for those years when seeing emoji in a repo readme meant the devs were Slack-pilled insead of AI-pilled #opensource

020

sebastian s @sangervasi.net · 24/08/2026

Just got home after a week at Edinburgh Fringe. It was overwhelming to see so many billboards for self-indulgent clown shows, but what else can I expect living in San Francisco.

010

sebastian s @sangervasi.net · 01/08/2026

Big budget cultural touchstone: watch it months later at my own pace. Niche youtube/podcast/anime: consume it release day and agonize over wait for next

000

sebastian s @sangervasi.net · 12/07/2026

Whoever's been handed the Death Note - smooth work, watch out for eccentric detectives

000

sebastian s @sangervasi.net · 07/06/2026

Misanthrope Computer-science Theater 3000

010

sebastian s @sangervasi.net · 31/05/2026

Me: the software industry has made me hate all programming Also me: what a nice morning spent learning to make a rust webserver

000

Reposted by sebastian s

404 Media @404media.co · 22/05/2026

OK ya'll, we have it: Body cam footage of the Texas Cybertruck driver who intentionally drove the vehicle into a lake to test the Tesla's "wade mode" feature. It got stuck. He got arrested. “Obviously I wasn’t thinking at all." Read now: www.404media.co/heres-the-bo...

1371535346

sebastian s @sangervasi.net · 01/05/2026

JF Madonna impression too good

010

sebastian s @sangervasi.net · 24/04/2026

"Slop is, by definition, not worth the effort. If you try to clean up, you only get yourself dirty. Why would you stick your hands in slop? The trash heap that runs our business is a trash heap for a reason. It’s where we put our plastic knives." harmless.substack.com/p/ai-code-is...

harmless.substack.com

AI Code is a Plastic Knife

Slop, frameworks, and cheese

000

sebastian s @sangervasi.net · 10/04/2026

And actual human education could be made better and more accessible for a fraction of a fraction of the cost of a data center.

000

sebastian s @sangervasi.net · 10/04/2026

The 'too cheap to meter' line is a such blatant doublespeak. How could it ever be in his company's interest to charge nothing, given its dependence on an energy industry which has for decades been blocking a move to cheaper sources because of similar incentives.

100

Reposted by sebastian s

Paris Marx @parismarx.com · 09/04/2026

Sam Altman has a new plan to make money from generative AI: he wants intelligence to be treated like water or electricity — and we’ll all have to pay him for it. His chatbots are degrading people’s ability to retain information and think critically. Now he wants to sell smarts back to us.

disconnect.blog

Make ‘em dumb, sell ‘em smarts

Sam Altman wants intelligence to be a utility that you pay him for

38972345

sebastian s @sangervasi.net · 10/04/2026

Love living in the plot of a Deus Ex game where the tech doesn't even work

010

sebastian s @sangervasi.net · 07/04/2026

handing a chef a swiss army knife and telling him it has a corkscrew and a magnifying glass so he can also be my sommelier and my detective

000

sebastian s @sangervasi.net · 28/03/2026

A genie who only grants wishes for more wishes.

000

sebastian s @sangervasi.net · 03/03/2026

Remember when you'd only have to google "are we technically at war" like once a year? Yeah, me neither.

000

sebastian s @sangervasi.net · 28/02/2026

Having a seltzer and fresh popcorn and entering The Burp Zone

000

sebastian s @sangervasi.net · 23/02/2026

AGI Baby: A Fraud How-To Guide harmless.substack.com/p/agi-baby-f... #ai #agi #stopai

AI Bullshit Blackjack: Use this table to score every sentence you speak! Win by getting as close to 21 as you can without going bust, AKA giving away you’re just spewing gibberish. Table contains Ace through 2, "Singularity" through "Training".

000

sebastian s @sangervasi.net · 21/02/2026

I put too much thought into this and made a chart. Other replies were circling around some categories that I think I've summarized (plus my opinion).

130

sebastian s @sangervasi.net · 19/01/2026

Searching for "Gemini" in your Google account settings returns no results. Yet another w for Google's branding, UX, and coordination.

010

sebastian s @sangervasi.net · 16/01/2026

Old man in three sweaters buying old meme coins worth zero like he's picking up trash on the beach.

000

sebastian s @sangervasi.net · 31/12/2025

So, at an institutional level, I worry it doesn't matter how useful, efficient, or expensive AI is (or isn't). Those who are already bought into data hoarding will buy the new accessory. It will be stuck in the garage when it goes out of style, but only because something else took its place.

000

sebastian s @sangervasi.net · 31/12/2025

It struck me that this was just like any other "upgrade" or accessory: you might as well buy it because you have The Thing, and then you're more committed to The Thing because it has all this stuff dangling off it. It's a transparent tactic but it works.

100

sebastian s @sangervasi.net · 31/12/2025

But there was one solid thing they knew how to sell: data storage. I don't know if AWS cradted this pitch, or if it was just the only obvious thing to reach for, but their case for AI amounted to "you have all this data, you're gonna keep paying for it, so why not do random stuff with it?"

110

sebastian s @sangervasi.net · 31/12/2025

It felt like selling a pen by saying it could enable you to write a best seller. "There's no limits to what a pen can do! Just look at our examples!" And then it's a bunch of post-it notes...

100

sebastian s @sangervasi.net · 31/12/2025

Things got weird when the mundanity of AWS collides with the "AI can do anything!" popular attitude. The sales reps had super boring demos, basically just document summary, but had to frame it like this was the first step towards solving anything your heart desires.

110

sebastian s @sangervasi.net · 31/12/2025

This sales pitch is attractive to orgs that don't have a ton of cash for R&D but need to spend budget on "modern innovations" mainly to make the board of directors feel cool. In this case the webinar was targeted at nonprofits, which are highly vibes motivated.

100

sebastian s @sangervasi.net · 31/12/2025

This was a few months ago, I guess I'm a masochist, but I was curious what people like my bosses were being sold. AWS isn't really associated with the LLM hype, but instead sells itself as more of a hub to plug trendy things together with boring (functional) things.

110

sebastian s @sangervasi.net · 31/12/2025

I attended a "How your company can use AI" webinar from Amazon and was struck by how flimsy a sales pitch it was. #ai #data #nonprofit thread

100

sebastian s @sangervasi.net · 19/12/2025

Considering becoming one of those Hallmark guys who looks like a dog and acts like a dog

000

sebastian s @sangervasi.net · 07/12/2025

No Gods No Shareholders

000

sebastian s @sangervasi.net · 30/11/2025

Maliciously turning the heat down to make my cat snuggle me more.

000

sebastian s @sangervasi.net · 24/11/2025

I love when a company brags that its team includes "ex-Foo" engineers where Foo is like one year older and is also speculative stuff no one cares about.

000

sebastian s @sangervasi.net · 17/11/2025

Still thinking about how in a book called Three Body Problem there is a big reveal that a mystery is solved by a three body problem.

000