Art credit @Madison Harney
Spark of the Week
I am just returned from a family river cruise on the Danube. One can't do such a trip and not be captivated by the wonder of humans. Our creativity, our failings and our legacy.
Walking in the complex stories of history gives context to the moment, in a way that helps me process change and renew my hope for the arc of the moral universe. It also reminded me that there is no hierarchy of suffering.
I begin this week on a Tuesday full of gratitude for family, friends and health. As we round into the final quarter of 2025 my wish for you is to remember to be kind to yourself and to others. It takes practice to let go productivity for a moment and just be in the world but it offers you perspective that helps you do better.
Reading and Pondering
Colossus2 datacenter (xAI)
JP Morgan Energy Transition report and BCG one
Managing AI - a new set of skills which, of course, Amy said here
If we are serious about reversing population decline/collapse we should consider this study that supports mothers with cash (A specific type of UBI and more proof that investing in moms has solid ROI).
Content Moderation API (I see this as a bright spot - h/t Han-Shen (Han) Yuan )
1.5T in AI spending this year
Global safety report - edging up with visible (and sustained) gender gap (also this - Gender Inequality index)
Electric Tech Stack. (This is a must read IMHO)
Creative self efficacy - (h/t Benedikt Lehnert )
Work and Jobs
Productivity vs. Organizational Capacity - Meg Note: this is what most get wrong in the AI conversation and why there is disconnect of both expectations and results.
25% of unemployed are long term (27+ weeks without a job). Other big spikes of long term unemployment 2010 44% (financial crisis), 2021 42% (Covid - stimulus round 3)
Post-AI org charts/ org design discussion
UK capitalizing on US H1-B fees - curious who is next (similar to the university policy shift response)
Tech response to H1-B policy (expect this to expand - dated Sept 22), India response (again early)
RTO compliance peaking at 75%
Workslop productivity costs. (The gap is the 2nd bit of this excellent comic)
Enshittification and P(catastrophe)
Anthropic says white house can’t use the models for surveillance
More on the AI recursive content problem (My name for this is content cannibalism)
SEO => AI SEO whiplash - Reddit not as prominent (more here on why)
Salesforce data hacked (this is the same hack that impacted Workday - that I enjoyed someone mansplaining to me about how security incidents work… you know how I LOVE that)
Fun and Funny
Recruiting with AI (and Flan recipes)
Doomsday scorecard - (this might be uniquely funny to me)
Lifehacks - AI and Others
More prompt revisions (good data to remind us that best practices evolve)
Lifehack - List wishes that have already come true
Looping Back to You
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** Typos and poor grammar either because I'm too lazy to edit properly, or to make you feel confident this was written by a flawed human and not AI generated.
