Don't Accomplish Everything

Games Done Quick's Long, Difficult Journey To A Better Gaming Future

Progress isn't linear, and there are no skips or shortcuts

The Return of the Cutting-Off Way

Structural changes are driving us towards a more chaotic world, defined by "neither peace nor war, but conflict."

Harnessing Frustration: Using LLMs to Overcome Activation Energy

One of my biggest weaknesses as a software engineer is procrastination when facing a new project. When the scope is unclear, I have a tendency to wait until I feel I’ve “felt out” the problem to start doing anything. I know I’ll feel better and work much faster when I get “stuck in” but I still struggle with that first step, overcoming the “activation energy” required to engage with the details. LLMs have been a game-changer for me in this respect: I can just throw a couple of sentences at them with the shape of the problem. This leads to one of two outcomes: The LLM comes up with a good solution, usually in a slightly different way than what I was thinking. I realize “oh wow the solution is much simpler than I thought”. Straight away I start thinking about the consequences of implementing and improving what the LLM suggested. The LLM comes up with a solution that I intuitively recognize as “wrong”. My immediate reaction is frustration (“How could it get it so wrong”) which leads me to go back and forth with the model, explaining to it why its solution could not possibly work. But in the process of arguing with the model, my brain is churning away and generating variations or different approaches that could work. After a while, even if the AI is still on the wrong track, the debate will trigger a moment of inspiration where suddenly the solution will come to me. I’ll excitedly start up a new conversation and start working through it with the model. The key is the emotional reaction I have immediately to the LLM’s response, either excitement or frustration. By harnessing this immediate feedback loop, I get my brain out of its passive, procrastination mode. It’s almost like a jolt: either I’m thrilled because it’s simpler than I thought, or I’m spurred to action by the urge to correct a perceived ‘wrong’ answer. This forces me to engage with the problem in a meaningful way.

Aporetic Turn

The aporetic turn refers to an authentic and legitimate domain of transition where we know what we don’t know. We will typically also not know what to do and need to understand that suspension of action is valid. Here we need to map the context and start to build evidence to support moving out of this state. It very much brings Cynefin dynamics front and centre as there are a number of ways (see diagram) that this state can be exited.

Oil and Gas=Peril and Poverty/ Solar and Wind=Prosperity and Protection

2026 has changed the psychological meaning of energy forever

Correcting climate ‘misperceptions’ may not boost climate action - Carbon Brief

Most people "underestimate" general support for climate change and "overestimate" actual, real-world climate action.

Fighting for a Livable Future: Exploring Frontier Climate Interventions - The Great Simplification

While current conversations about global heating tend to center around a few well-established pieces of science, we don’t often hear about the scientists and leaders working at the frontier of what is still unknown about Earth’s systems. This includes unpredictable tipping points and cascading effects of our rapidly changing climate, as well as the unconventional adaptation strategies that might help us maintain a stable planet. What is the newest climate science being researched right now, and what areas are we still needing to explore as we fight for a livable future?

Relocating Rigor - The Phoenix Architecture

The Discipline That Looks Like Recklessness

Erik Brynjolfsson on Twitter / X

The @nytimes piece today by @ByrneEdsal13590 highlights a concern I share: “If we stay on the current path, the risk of extreme concentration — both economic and political — is very real.”In work with @zhitzig, we ask why AI may shift the balance between dispersed knowledge… pic.twitter.com/10vOTRj4Dq— Erik Brynjolfsson (@erikbryn) March 17, 2026

Value(s): building a better world for all

A bold, urgent argument on the misplacement of value in…

#760: Gambling the future into existence

Plus: Cosmo for conservatives, AI;DR and being "agentic"

Opinion | The Age of Interdisciplinary Slop

The corporate jargon of change masks the decimation of intellectual life.

How creatives and devs can all finally escape the control of the silicon valley of evil and make a trillion dollars · Multi-hyphenate

ft. ATprotocol (the remix)

Risk, Uncertainty and Profit

A timeless classic of economic theory that remains fasc…

Note-Taking and Personal Knowledge Management — Unattributed

Bridge heading into the smokey landscape. License: CC-0 I read Brennan Kenneth Brown's What have note-taking PKMs accomplished, really?...