Stalwart is an all‑in‑one mail server built for JMAP, the ultra‑modern email standard we should be using but the tech industry is cowardly and hella slow to move. Anyhoo! I recently setup a new mail server with Stalwart because updating my aging Mail‑in‑a‑Box instance was unappealing and I wanna use cool new things like JMAP. Running a mail server is never simple but you're not here for simplicity, you're here to experience the future and benefit from my learnings.

The latest fad amongst tech CEOs is no longer "founder mode", or taking drugs that they would fire you for taking, or telling everybody to return to the office — it's demanding that all work be AI-first! This is a great idea if you think nobody at your company is great at what they do. It may otherwise be a suboptimal strategy. Let's dive in!

Since leaving 18F, I’ve spent much of the last month thinking about what’s next for me work-wise. And of course, I’ve been doing no small amount of doomscrolling. But amid all of that, I’ve been remembering how to treat my website like a worry stone. When things get too stressful I’ll spend some time sanding down a few rough edges in the redesign. A tightened-up header layout here, a little more spacing there — doing a bit of design doesn’t fix a single thing about the world, but it gives me a little space to breathe, and to get my feet back under me.

I’ve got a post-graduate certificate in artificial intelligence (AI). I’m also an author, and I believe writers and publishers should not use AI in publishing. So that’s why I was disturbed when a reviewer asked if I had used AI in writing my recent coming-of-age novel, Under the Gulf Coast Sun. But the reasons I oppose using AI are not the usual ones you hear.

After sharing Ed Zitron’s latest piece called “OpenAI Is A Systemic Risk To The Tech Industry” I got a few responses arguing in a similar way: People agree that “AI” and especially “generative AI” is a massive bubble that does not really make much sense – if you imply rational decision making. Training the models, building the data centers, inference, inflated wages, potential licence costs and the costs of damages … economically the whole sector doesn’t make too much sense (Sequioa Capital agrees). Sure some people believe that they’ll find the machine god in old 4Chan posts but I also would not consider that to be rational in any way, shape or form. The singularity is just a weird ersatz-religion for rationalist nerds confronted with their own mortality.