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Every generation or two you hear about a few tech wiener boys who think after getting founders stock at a Silicon Valley company and getting his picture in Business Week or TechCrunch that he should run Africa or make up some country and for a minute tries doing it and no one pays much attention and a generation or two later it happens again, and the conclusion is that being a tech wiener boy doesn’t really prepare you to do anything but make a bunch of money once, be bored, and really nothing else. First time I witnessed this phenomenon was with a few product marketing wünderbrats at Apple in the early 80s, smart people (not kidding) but not nearly as smart as they thought they were. A big part was the serendipity of being in a Hobee’s or Buck's when Steve Jobs or a Kleiner partner was having breakfast after a big IPO.

There will not be a Black Friday sale for Micro.blog. No better time than right now to sign up and subscribe.

New episode of Core Int just in time to queue up for your Thanksgiving travel. We talk about my short vacation last week, working while away, dealing with bugs, Bluesky growth, and the state of the social web.

I may seem easygoing and agreeable on the surface, don’t mind a little friendly competition, but deep down… I do not like to lose.

What the heck, Austin? In the last few weeks we’ve now made two full-priced offers on houses and not gotten either one. Sigh. 🏡

Abigail Hauslohner, Washington Post national security reporter, breaks down what is known about Pete Hegseth, President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for defense secretary, including his military background and scrutiny surrounding Hegseth's personal life.

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As our centennial series continues, Kenneth C. Davis, author of the "Don't Know Much About History" series and most recently, The World in Books: 52 Works of Great Short Nonfiction (Scribner, 2024), reviews the history of the American Thanksgiving holiday and how it has changed over the past 100 years.

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Ben Werdmuller writes about the fallout from an attempt to train AI on Bluesky posts:

So the problem Bluesky is dealing with is not so much a problem with Bluesky itself or its architecture, but one that’s inherent to the web itself and the nature of building these training datasets based on publicly-available data.

I also like Tantek Çelik’s proposal to add a “no-training” flavor of Creative Commons. I blogged about that a couple months ago.

Jordan Neely died after a former marine named Daniel Penny put him in a chokehold on an F train in May 2023 - some of which was captured on a viral video taken by a bystander. Samantha Max, reporter covering public safety for WNYC/Gothamist, talks about the arguments the prosecution and defense made in the trial, and what comes next.

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Shane Harris first tasted “Vangie’s bacon” 10 years ago, and he hasn’t stopped thinking about it since. But learning her secret recipe turns out to be harder than Shane’s day job covering national security for The Washington Post. Today on the show, Shane goes on a quest to unlock the bacon mystery – and a time in Washington when Republicans, Democrats, spies, diplomats and journalists used to set their differences aside and gather around a dinner table.

Today’s show was produced and mixed by Ted Muldoon. It was edited by Maggie Penman and Renita Jablonski. Special thanks to Ariel Plotnick and Ariella Markowitz. Tape of David K.E. Bruce courtesy of the Harry S. Truman Presidential Library and Museum.

Subscribe to The Washington Post here.

Over the last few months at Every, we’ve: Launched two AI products Acquired tens of thousands of users Released a new incubation in private alpha The weird thing is: We’re a media company with < 10 full-time employees, and we’re mostly bootstrapped. That’s...

I hadn’t noticed this before. New styling for blockquotes on Mastodon. This post started on my blog: Markdown → HTML → ActivityPub → Mastodon. This version of Mastodon is probably deployed widely enough that I can drop the redundant quotes that Micro.blog adds.

This perspective rings true to me, on a platform’s decay from Steve Troughton-Smith:

Threads has the same problem all of Meta’s social media properties have: nobody really wants to be on them. That social graph may be the company’s crown jewels, but there’s a clear sense of decay, a radioactive half-life to Facebook, Instagram, et al that portends doom

Over the last few months at Every, we’ve launched two new AI products with tens of thousands of users, and we’ll release a third one before the end of the year. The weird thing is: We’re a media company with less than 10 full-time employees, and we’re mostly bootstrapped. Tha...

In this episode of Remarkable People, join Guy for an illuminating interview with Nancy Duarte, the pioneering force behind presentation excellence and visual storytelling. Together, they explore the art and science of powerful communication, from crafting unforgettable pres...

Overnight, Israel agreed to a cease-fire with the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah — a major turning point in one of the wars the country has been fighting since Hamas attacked it on Oct. 7. But the war in Gaza shows no sign of ending, and Israel’s conduct there is coming unde...

This week, Donald Trump erupted in fury at The New York Times. He appeared triggered by a story about a Trump aide named Natalie Harp, who serves as his gatekeeper with creepy levels of devotion. What caught our eye is that in his rant, Trump demanded that The Times show obeisance to him because he won the election, perhaps providing an early glimpse of how he will seek to cow the media into submission. We talked to Margaret Sullivan, the former Times public editor and author of the great Substack “American Crisis,” who explains what Trump’s crackdown on the press might look like—and how well the media will respond to it.
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With antitrust prosecutions in full swing, the company keeps giving regulators fresh reasons for concern

Judge is inclined to grant preliminary injunction against Automattic, but WP Engine’s fight isn’t over yet

Judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín said she was “inclined to grant some sort of injunction” but described WP Engine’s proposed order as “exceedingly vague,” making it difficult to enforce.