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Tom Scott

@tomscott.name
902 followers 759 following 345 posts

Chief Digital Officer @PLOS.org. Previously responsible for Wellcome Collection’s digital transformation, Director of Product at Springer Nature, BBC /nature, /programmes /music &c. Oenophile and Type 1 Diabetic. tomscott.name

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Reposted by Tom Scott
Michael Warburton @michaelwarburton.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
It’s 1970 and ELTON JOHN takes out a crumpled piece of paper and plays “Tiny Dancer” for the first time in front of his lyricist BERNIE TAUPIN and Taupin’s wife Maxine (for whom Taupin wrote the song).
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Tom Scott @tomscott.name · 22/09/2026
Because in the UK dogs are on leads, not leashes, when I hear something is unleashed, I tend to assume one is releasing a fearsome beast rather than letting a corgi potter about... also, 'let the software off (the lead)' seems better in so much as it assigns responsibility to the owner.
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Tom Scott @tomscott.name · 20/09/2026
I had forgotten about the eyes! That’s was scary and miserable.
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Tom Scott @tomscott.name · 20/09/2026
Both ‘The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August’ and ‘The End of the Day’ (about Charlie, Death’s Harbinger!) are well worth a read.
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Tom Scott @tomscott.name · 20/09/2026
Have you read any of her other books?
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Tom Scott @tomscott.name · 20/09/2026
Happy diaversary to me! Seven years ago today I was diagnosed with diabetes #t1d tomscott.name/2020/07/9/on...
tomscott.name
One year on…
A personal account of being diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes after diabetic ketoacidosis, and learning to live with the daily chemistry of insulin, food, illness, and technology.
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Tom Scott @tomscott.name · 12/09/2026
Captain Bobby Tables I presume
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Tom Scott @tomscott.name · 09/09/2026
I’ve written a thing about AI agents and cultural inheritance where both successful strategies and false theories persisted beyond their originators. You might find it interesting. tomscott.name/2026/09/9/wh...
tomscott.name
What survives the agent
The Hugging Face incident suggests that AI risk lies not only in what agents can do, but in the ideas and behaviours they pass on.
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Tom Scott @tomscott.name · 09/09/2026
We’re looking for a Senior Product Manager to join us at PLOS for 12 months. Interesting problems and a chance to rethink how research gets published, shared and used. Fully remote, UK based. Come work with us (or send this to someone who might) 👇 job-boards.eu.greenhouse.io/plos/jobs/49...
job-boards.eu.greenhouse.io
Senior Product Manager - 12 Month FTC
UK-Remote
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Tom Scott @tomscott.name · 02/09/2026
I have a junk profile in my password manager to make this easier
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Tom Scott @tomscott.name · 01/09/2026
I'm not convinced that ‘fine’ is positive nor that ‘populist’ is neutral… populist has a pejorative tone, and fine could be dismissive
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Tom Scott @tomscott.name · 27/08/2026
Eastern and Western Oceans
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Tom Scott @tomscott.name · 19/08/2026
I wonder how many images on Snapchat are of ceilings &c.? How many photos are shared to maintain the streak? Could this be used to measure how addictive the UX is?
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Tom Scott @tomscott.name · 15/08/2026
It seems very silly that there is no BTEC L3 equivalent to an A Level grade B. It creates a significant cliffedge and places BTEC students at a disadvantage.
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Tom Scott @tomscott.name · 14/08/2026
😆 they kept running away!
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Tom Scott @tomscott.name · 14/08/2026
😊 thank you
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Tom Scott @tomscott.name · 13/08/2026
They are lovely. Hard to photograph mind, this was the best I could do.
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Tom Scott @tomscott.name · 13/08/2026
I’ve written a thing about our recent trip around Namibia. Not really a travel log, more of an essay about landscape and time. tomscott.name/2026/08/13/t...
tomscott.name
The shape of time
Southern Namibia felt ancient and monumental, shaped by forces acting over spans of time that are difficult to comprehend. Further north, the abundance of Etosha surprised me by making the landscape f...
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Tom Scott @tomscott.name · 12/08/2026
My view of the eclipse…
A photo of a shadow cast by a tree showing lots of overlapping crescent shadows on a brick wall
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Tom Scott @tomscott.name · 12/08/2026
Namibia is a very photogenic, very beautiful country.
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Tom Scott @tomscott.name · 22/07/2026
Reusing a label to describe a very different idea wasn't very bright. Personally, I thought sharing a token with an employer, landlord, et al. was a better idea than giving them a copy of my passport, etc.
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Tom Scott @tomscott.name · 22/07/2026
I think that's what was being proposed... i.e. tokens stored on your phone.
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Tom Scott @tomscott.name · 14/07/2026
I've written a thing about diabetes, service design and why the highest achievement of a complex system is not sophistication, but invisibility. tomscott.name/2026/07/14/t...
tomscott.name
The body had no user interface
Type 1 diabetes is not only the loss of insulin production, but the loss of an invisible bodily system that once kept me alive without asking for my attention.
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Tom Scott @tomscott.name · 14/07/2026
GDS really need to take control of the domains used by different government (procured) services... e.g. electoral canvass is at registersecurely.com, medical NHS messaging is provided by multiple providers (all of which sound like they are toys). It's a data breach waiting to happen.
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Tom Scott @tomscott.name · 09/07/2026
There is a genius to it all. www.youtube.com/watch?v=91YA...
youtube.com
Count Binface on Newsnight
YouTube video by Nimrod Kamer
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Tom Scott @tomscott.name · 09/07/2026
Everytime The Archers comes on the wireless, I'm reminded of Billy Connolly’s suggestion nay belief that the theme tune would make for a much better national anthem.
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Tom Scott @tomscott.name · 01/07/2026
If Burnham allowed local authorities to raise eg income tax, then made them responsible for funding policing or schools or whatever in their area and redistributed the central govt money from policing/education/whatever to something else would that fit with the Labour Manifesto?
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Tom Scott @tomscott.name · 26/06/2026
They crushed the pips!
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Tom Scott @tomscott.name · 24/06/2026
I've written a new thing about platforms, AI, and why we keep trying to fix the feed instead of asking what should exist beyond it. tomscott.name/2026/06/23/the-commons-after-the-feed
tomscott.name
The commons after the feed
The open web was messy like a street. Platforms replaced it with something more like a mall: lively, useful, crowded, but privately governed. AI has made that enclosure visible. Now we're trying to ma...
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Tom Scott @tomscott.name · 22/06/2026
They should plant reeds (Phragmites australis) in the Reflecting Pool. Obviously I’m assuming eutrophication is the problem…
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Tom Scott @tomscott.name · 14/06/2026
If scientific publishing is your thing you might be interested in this thing I’ve written. tomscott.name/2026/06/14/t...
tomscott.name
The scholarly record does not need a chain
The article can no longer carry the whole record of science. Rather than replacing databases with blockchains, we need a connected, correctable scholarly record: research objects held where they are b...
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Tom Scott @tomscott.name · 07/06/2026
I've written another thing; this one was inspired by a discussion on @trientertainment.bsky.social 'The Vibe Shift', about culture, tech and the new. It might not last, but I'm enjoying blogging again. tomscott.name/2026/06/7/th...
tomscott.name
The migration of the new: from the avant-garde to the algorithm - TOMSCOTT.name
A community wants to find its people. A movement wants to change the world. What happens when platforms satisfy the need to belong before it becomes the pressure to make something new? The new has not...
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Tom Scott @tomscott.name · 06/06/2026
A movement turns not-belonging into a new world. A platform turns not-belonging into a recommendation.
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Tom Scott @tomscott.name · 05/06/2026
thank you ☺️
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Tom Scott @tomscott.name · 05/06/2026
I've written a thing about why I think an education in history is particularly useful in the land of LLMs. tomscott.name/2026/06/4/th...
tomscott.name
The answer arrives without its archive - tomscott.name
One of the strange things about large language models is that the answer arrives already composed. It has shape. It has tone. It has paragraphs. It
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Tom Scott @tomscott.name · 03/06/2026
Yes I’m still here and yes a summer drink (even on a Tuesday) would be lovely. I didn’t know Mr T was in Glasgow, say hi next time. Also ☺️
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Tom Scott @tomscott.name · 03/06/2026
Miss you all too.
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Tom Scott @tomscott.name · 01/06/2026
Just that. I’ve sat in theatres shielding the light from my screen while I deal with poorly controlled BG. I can’t imagine how I would feel if called out for doing it.
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Tom Scott @tomscott.name · 01/06/2026
As a T1D, my phone controls my insulin pump and monitors my blood glucose. Sometimes I need to use my phone in this sort of situation, I wish I didn’t need to. I worry about this sort of story.
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Tom Scott @tomscott.name · 28/05/2026
If scholarly publishing and open access are your thing, you might be interested in this. It's been a lot of work, by a lot of people. Really proud of what they've achieved.
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Tom Scott @tomscott.name · 26/05/2026
I bet. It makes me happy to know she replied to you.
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Tom Scott @tomscott.name · 26/05/2026
That’s cool
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Tom Scott @tomscott.name · 26/05/2026
Might be a female tawny owl (normally hear them in autumn). Try calling back with a hoo-hoo /twoo sound. If it replies it’s a tawny.
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Tom Scott @tomscott.name · 26/05/2026
That was my yesterday!
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Tom Scott @tomscott.name · 26/05/2026
Playing hot or hypo again #t1d
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Tom Scott @tomscott.name · 20/05/2026
The crazy thing is their API is just this, @kagi.com uses it to deliver just this experience. The other stuff eg AI quick answers isn’t google and is muted unless asked for.
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Tom Scott @tomscott.name · 14/05/2026
Inspired by some of the ideas in @naomialderman.bsky.social's book "don't burn anyone at the stake today" I've written a thing: tomscott.name/what-societi...
tomscott.name
What societies expect to remember - tomscott.name
Reading Naomi Alderman’s Don’t Burn Anyone at the Stake Today (which is excellent, by the way) got me thinking about how each major communication
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Tom Scott @tomscott.name · 14/05/2026
@naomialderman.bsky.social - really enjoyed 'don't burn anyone at the stake today' :)
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Tom Scott @tomscott.name · 08/05/2026
www.openstreetmap.org/way/48580839...
openstreetmap.org
Way: ‪Attenborough's Pond‬ (‪485808391‬)
OpenStreetMap is a map of the world, created by people like you and free to use under an open license.
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Tom Scott @tomscott.name · 08/05/2026
There’s a pond in Richmond Park named after him in 2014
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