iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

thinking today about how if AI takes the easy parts of our jobs then we'll just spend all day doing hard tasks instead! maybe first written about by @fredbenenson.com www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...

theatlantic.com

AI Is Coming for Your Favorite Menial Tasks

As AI gets better at performing routine tasks traditionally done by humans, only stressful ones will be left. The work experience could suffer.

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sophie alpert @sophiebits.com · 01/02/2026

saw this @muni.sfmta.com bus last night. what does it mean! this little guy is living two weeks in the future

photo of a muni bus in SF driving at night. instead of a route name and number, its digital display reads “2026-02-14v1 SFChrom2”

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Reposted by sophie alpert

andy™ @andylevy.net · 23/01/2026

nine years old

“I am Puerto Rican,” she says. “I send my kids with their passports to school. I’m having conversations with them about safety: Am I safe at school? A week ago we had an incident where there was a school bus with the STOP sign open and kids were getting on the bus and it was surrounded by ICE agents. And this is 7:20 in the morning and — just — you get that fight-or-flight response.” At first her 9-year-old was carrying her passport in her backpack; now it’s in her back pocket. “I have to prepare them for it if they get stopped,” she says. “I said, Do not engage. This is not the time to be cussing at anyone. But she said, Mom, if I create enough noise, my friends can get away.”

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sophie alpert @sophiebits.com · 24/01/2026

why does every ecommerce website now offer me “You’ve earned a mystery discount!! Which of the following are you most interested in:” as soon as I click on anything I really don’t think it used to be like this

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sophie alpert @sophiebits.com · 09/09/2025

More blogging! I don't want AI agents controlling my laptop. Not because that's not useful, but because it's incredibly hard (impossible?) to do securely: sophiebits.com/2025/09/09/a...

sophiebits.com

I don’t want AI agents controlling my laptop

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sophie alpert @sophiebits.com · 23/08/2025

I keep getting into conversations with engineers where I talk about how desperately I want my database to support materialized views with incremental updates and too often I get a blank stare in response. so I wrote a new post about why you should care! sophiebits.com/2025/08/22/m...

sophiebits.com

Materialized views are obviously useful

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sophie alpert @sophiebits.com · 17/07/2025

I have a confession to make. I've gone back and forth on whether to say anything, but I can't keep quiet any longer—not only does this look bad, it makes no sense. Please stop doing the cursor-smoothy effect that Screen Studio does. It's so bad. Not how hovering on things works!! Hello!

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sophie alpert @sophiebits.com · 17/05/2025

you can always do the “5 whys” in your incident review but be careful about going past that because after like 8 whys it’s just “capitalism”

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sophie alpert @sophiebits.com · 07/05/2025

every time you think "maybe I should add a layer of caching in the application", take that energy and make the database faster instead

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sophie alpert @sophiebits.com · 22/04/2025

shinigami eyes a bit concerning when it glitches out

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sophie alpert @sophiebits.com · 11/02/2025

“Important information about disputing online: You cannot change your transgender or non-binary name here but it can be done via mail.” uh, thanks TransUnion

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UV Kravitz 🏳️‍⚧️ @uvbk.bsky.social · 08/02/2025

Union square is full of people protesting for trans youth. Over for 4000 in attendance

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sophie alpert @sophiebits.com · 29/01/2025

what are everyone's favorite tiny tools in the form of web pages? for the sake of argument, specifically ones that (a) do something useful and (b) don't send your data anywhere here's three that I always come back to:

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sophie alpert @sophiebits.com · 28/01/2025

large language model the size of a small LLM

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sophie alpert @sophiebits.com · 29/12/2024

weirdest review I’ve seen in a while

screenshot of a 5-star Amazon review

I rarely leave reviews, but I felt compelled to write one for this product because it has truly impressed me. From the moment it arrived, I could tell it was well-made and of high quality. The packaging was secure, and everything was neatly arranged, which was a great start.
What really stood out to me was how easy it was to use. Whether you're familiar with products like this or it's your first time, you'll have no problem figuring it out. The setup was quick, and it worked exactly as described. I've been using it consistently since it arrived, and it hasn't let me down once.
The performance is outstanding. It delivers exactly what you need and more. One thing I particularly appreciate is how reliable and efficient it is. It has quickly become something I reach for regularly, and I can already tell it's built to last.
Durability is another major plus. It feels sturdy and well-constructed, so I have no concerns about it holding up over time. I've accidentally put it to the test a couple of times, and it has proven to be tough and long-lasting.
For the price, I couldn't ask for more. I've seen similar products that cost much more but don't offer the same level of performance or reliability. This one strikes the perfect balance between affordability and quality.
Customer service has also been top-notch. The company clearly stands behind their product and is

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sophie alpert @sophiebits.com · 23/12/2024

if someone handed you a button that changes your gender instantly and kills a random person somewhere in the world, how many times would you press it?

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sophie alpert @sophiebits.com · 22/12/2024

I wanna hear the untold stories of the huge architectural and data migrations that go into the “smallest” changes like when Slack added the ability to add someone to a group DM and *move past messages* to the new conversation or how Amazon no longer asks which Kindle to send your library book to

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sophie alpert @sophiebits.com · 13/12/2024

mirror, mirror on the wall, who’s the eepiest of them all?

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rahaeli @rahaeli.bsky.social · 12/12/2024

it really is amazing how quickly someone arguing in favor of "think of the children" legislation makes it absolutely explicit they think children are property with zero legal rights or protections, all while claiming to be the ones who care about child safety

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sophie alpert @sophiebits.com · 12/12/2024

I prefer CDFs over histograms for empirical data. no sense in trying to differentiate a non-smooth function

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sophie alpert @sophiebits.com · 10/12/2024

@mileswgriffis.bsky.social curious, what do you wear on the front of your flo mask?

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sophie alpert @sophiebits.com · 06/12/2024

I unfortunately never liked Calibri so I’m ready for era 3

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sophie alpert @sophiebits.com · 03/12/2024

the devil works hard but the figma monetization team works harder

screenshot of an email from Figma:

Still need to edit files?
An admin has changed your FigJam seat at Notion from full to viewer-restricted. This means you’ll be able to view files you have access to, but can’t edit them.

If you still need to edit, request an upgrade from your admins—you’ll be able to include a note to explain why, too.

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sophie alpert @sophiebits.com · 02/12/2024

I am a staunch anti-prescriptivist except, of course, when it comes to the words “crypto” and “algorithm”

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sophie alpert @sophiebits.com · 29/11/2024

oh, you’re getting a vaginoplasty? I call that “ding-dong ditch”

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sophie alpert @sophiebits.com · 27/11/2024

I thought birds could only fly in air

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sophie alpert @sophiebits.com · 25/11/2024

certainly not the point but I’m awed by the justified lines of text in this typewritten letter. was that done by hand or were there popular electronic typewriters that buffered then spaced a line?

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sophie alpert @sophiebits.com · 22/11/2024

so in NYT Connections they advertise a new dark mode. but I thought, ok, I wonder if the puzzle in the illustration is a new one. bonus puzzle, I figured! after looking closer, I was shocked to discover that

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sophie alpert @sophiebits.com · 22/11/2024

if you’re carrying your dog and then hold the door open for someone, would you rather hear “thank you” or “cute dog”?

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sophie alpert @sophiebits.com · 21/11/2024

love to all my trans friends today

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sophie alpert @sophiebits.com · 19/11/2024

a subtle note here is that bluesky’s blocking actually can’t possibly work the way described here because it’s not composable — one bad neighbor causes problems for anyone else in particular, the design of such a system must be resilient to bad actors blocking good ones and shan’t destroy the world

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sophie alpert @sophiebits.com · 16/11/2024

I am absolutely delighted to find that out of people I don’t follow, the person followed by the largest number of my followees is… me.

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sophie alpert @sophiebits.com · 14/11/2024

@danabra.mov the app has gotten a lot better in the last 1.5 years

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sophie alpert @sophiebits.com · 13/11/2024

🎎 never seen this emoji before in my life

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sophie alpert @sophiebits.com · 13/11/2024

evidently aquarius ♒️ is symbolized by “water bearer”, also known as “tardigrader”

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sophie alpert @sophiebits.com · 05/11/2024

does anyone besides nyt have a “needle”? i.e. prediction of the final result based on votes tallied so far, rather than a plain tally that skews towards demographics of the precincts that report first

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sophie alpert @sophiebits.com · 04/11/2024

posting for future searchers: proximity pairing with a Zoom Room on my Mac has been broken for months even though it works fine on my phone and on coworkers' laptops! I cleared caches, Zoom prefs, etc. to no avail figured it out today: I had mic mode on "Voice Isolation". works fine on "Standard".

screenshot of the macOS menu bar orange microphone options icon, showing a choice between "Standard" and "Voice Isolation" microphone modes

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