Christopher Mims

tech columnist @ wsj, here to make friends & chew bubblegum (& I'm all out of gum)

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Last Notes

2024-05-17 13:14:12

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Here's the full article:
(new gift link)
https://www.wsj.com/tech/personal-tech/what-i-got-wrong-in-a-decade-of-predicting-the-future-of-tech-06420bba?st=rriznlgai9aw8y7&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink

2024-05-17 13:13:38

5. We’ve got more power than we think
"Having all the wealth and technology in the world doesn’t matter if we don’t have the wisdom to use it in the right manner. Early in my career, I bought into the notion, espoused by science-fiction author William Gibson, that all cultural change is driven by technology.
I’ve now witnessed enough of both technological and social change to understand that the reverse is also—and perhaps more often—true."

2024-05-04 20:52:58

Most of history is people living nasty, brutish and short lives and modernity is a paradise by comparison, example 9,328:
Before the introduction in the 1920s of iodized salt, iodine deficiency was so widespread in the northeastern U.S. that it was known as the “goiter belt,” for the painfully enlarged thyroid glands that millions had as a result of this deficiency.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2024/05/01/iodized-salt-100-years-deficiency/

2024-03-26 12:31:27

As a person who has actually ridden with harbor pilots before and wrote a whole book about shipping goods across oceans here’s a tiny bit of possibly clarifying detail about this horrible bridge tragedy:
If as reported there was a power failure on this container ship that could have been enough on its own to send it into the bridge.
Maneuvers for ships this large are incredibly tight when they are going in and out of harbors. We don’t think about it but harbor pilots perform miracles every day

2024-03-24 14:20:24

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@npub1nfl…7t3d oh completely! I genuinely hope uses of it like this are regulated out of existence

2024-03-23 13:46:09

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Something real is going on here and it will profoundly alter the landscape of employment for millions of people -- there are 100 million 'knowledge workers' in the U.S. alone!
The only way to fully understand what's coming is to play with these AIs yourself. There's both less here than the zealots would have you believe, and way more than the critics argue.
(gift link)
https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/jobs-chatgpt-artificial-intelligence-openai-cea961d5?st=43o4w9gbeuhh30g&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink
5/🧵

2024-03-23 13:45:31

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This is not to say that today's GPTs think, or reason, or any of that nonsense.
But their everyday utility gets lost in all the noise about turning them into AGI, or a future in which everyone's on UBI because the machines took over, or whatever.
4/🧵

2024-03-23 13:42:53

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At the other end of the spectrum, knowledge workers who perform a large number of tasks that can't be automated, are still going to be using all kinds of AI assistants in the not too distant future. (Plenty of them already are.)
Today's GPTs are way more capable at some things than is immediately apparent. They are starting to become plain-language programming environments.
Hence all the custom GPTs in the OpenAI GPT Store.
3/🧵
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/112/145/290/597/876/828/original/3f65f3c655cf967a.png

2024-03-23 13:41:42

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Here's the thing about ChatGPT and the like: The reason it has close to 200 million users is that there are tons of people -- freelancers, small businesses -- who find it genuinely useful.
You're doing your own marketing in your spare time and you need tools to make it much easier to get your message out? This is the way.
Wordsmiths (like me) and artists might not like it, but this is the future of a lot of tossed off but important "content"
2/🧵

2024-03-23 13:40:10

I spent the past two weeks using generative AI in every aspect of my life, both personal and professional.
At the end of my total immersion, here's my verdict:
The last time I had an experience this eye-opening and transformative was when I bought my first smartphone.
(gift link)
https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/jobs-chatgpt-artificial-intelligence-openai-cea961d5?st=wrosu8uv2tej8c8&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink
1/🧵

2023-10-09 20:38:06

Twitter / X is being flooded with clips from video games being passed off as footage from Gaza.
With the gutting of its trust and safety team, and payouts to accounts based on engagement, Twitter / X now rewarding trolls, clout-chasers and their clueless enablers -- with what looks like less oversight than ever from anyone inside the company.
https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/arma-3-video-game-clips-israel-hamas-conflict-1234849405/

2023-09-18 18:38:52

This is bonkers:
Only 4 in 10 Americans know that "filling up" an EV is cheaper than filling up a gas-powered vehicle.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-solutions/2023/09/15/ev-tipping-point-electric-poll/

2023-09-18 15:36:44

10,000 steps a day is made-up b.s.
It turns out that ANY amount of additional walking per day is good.
And also that if you want to max out the benefits, 7,500 is where it actually tops out
https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2019/05/10000-steps-rule/590785/

2023-09-15 20:05:08

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@npub193t…gd0r I mean let's not get TOO crazy

2023-09-15 20:04:59

"Is it covid or is it modernity?" feels like the most popular game in America right now
https://mastodon.social/@lzg/111070943184472731
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/111/070/951/165/563/394/original/1bef6be598a17bdd.png

2023-09-15 20:02:45

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@npub1hn5…mzl8 "Is it covid or is it modernity?" feels like the most popular game in America right now

2023-09-15 20:01:45

the way arm-based laptops can get two days' worth of life out of a single charge is low-key a game changer

2023-09-10 15:30:15

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@npub1c7s…7p0y one thing I didn’t get to: open standards like this could lead to privacy-protecting versions of this tech

2023-09-08 18:01:11

Sometimes I come up with a headline that makes me giggle, and then I pray that it makes it all the way through edits.
Today, friends, is one of those glorious days.
https://www.wsj.com/tech/personal-tech/its-finally-time-to-add-some-smart-tech-to-your-dumb-home-192132ac

2023-09-05 14:55:52

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@npub124v…r54v meanwhile the pigs are just like "whatever" which I also love :)

2023-09-05 14:14:00

dream portable keyboard just dropped
(true story, this costs more than the laptop I use as my every day driver)
https://www.zsa.io/voyager/buy/
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/111/012/951/202/822/732/original/f8207cda1e4b0d4c.png

2023-09-04 18:05:29

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@npub1vh3…8mkp yes! great story, good addition to this thread

2023-09-04 18:04:56

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@npub1dte…kys3 amazing.

2023-09-04 17:00:49

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One thing I've discovered in my own reporting is how many incipient threats are just waiting in the wings, for a single bad season, a single black swan event to make entire towns uninhabitable.
People who don't live out west don't know this, but entire towns have burned to the ground, forcing everyone to leave.
A prime example: Grizzly Flats, California.
1,200 residents. Most of their homes burned to the ground in 2021
#climatechange #climatemigration
https://www.wsj.com/articles/they-moved-to-rural-california-for-affordable-homes-then-the-caldor-fire-destroyed-the-town-11636207202

2023-09-04 11:39:56

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In areas most vulnerable to climate change-enhanced disasters, like Florida, the cost of home insurance has gone up so much that it’s now affecting how much lenders will give — potentially pushing many out of the home ownership market altogether.
Others are risking having no insurance at all, gambling on complete financial ruin should their home be damaged or destroyed.
🧵 #climatemigration #climateimpacts #climatechange
https://www.wsj.com/personal-finance/americans-are-bailing-on-their-home-insurance-e3395515
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/111/006/684/216/739/291/original/72533bca3627112d.jpeg

2023-09-04 11:34:40

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Tech workers who fled to Austin during the pandemic are being repelled — Austin is #3 in the country for outmigration now — by a summer that has smashed all records for heat, with well over a month of days above 100 degrees.
This is a profoundly different weather than Austin had 20 or 30 years ago.
🧵 #climatemigration #climatechange
https://www.businessinsider.com/tech-workers-moved-to-austin-regrets-2023-8
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/111/006/663/368/934/506/original/37fe8d43fec06290.jpeg

2023-09-04 11:29:31

Evidence of America’s — and the world’s — climate migrations are mounting.
In this thread, I’ll collect all the papers, news items and anecdotes I find on the subject. Feel free to contribute by using this tag:
#climatemigration
It’s starting with insurers. When homes are destroyed and homeowners lose everything, with no recourse, market forces herd people away from the zones of greatest vulnerability:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2023/09/03/natural-disaster-climate-insurance/
#climate #climatechange #adaptation #climateimpacts
🧵
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/111/006/634/096/924/442/original/e00bfe73a7a571f2.jpeg

2023-09-01 19:02:38

New to Mastodon? Bookmark this handy glossary:
"toot" - post
"down the toot hole" - delete a post
"tootsday" - what we call Tuesday on here
"tootally" - self explanatory
"tickle the ivory" - post a toot
"miocene mastodonian" - old hand at tooting
"pliocene mastodonian" - just showed up, doesn't know it's called "tootsday"

2023-09-01 18:57:20

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@npub1j46…3gm7 no but I do like to shout into the void about it
https://www.wsj.com/articles/annoying-password-rules-actually-make-us-less-secure-a05edb70

2023-09-01 18:56:03

The biggest determinant of your health, on average?
Where you live, and the deeply historical reasons that public policy there is what it is.
"“Your health is only 10 percent influenced by the medical environment and maybe 20 or 30 percent in behavioral choices. The social and political determinants of health are overwhelmingly what you’re seeing in these maps.”"
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2023/09/01/america-life-expectancy-regions-00113369
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/110/991/407/321/954/919/original/d4a7dabea2631dd5.png

2023-09-01 13:01:05

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"Most jarringly, we will have to admit that we have left behind the [the idea] that, through collective action we could bring on an orderly transition to a sustainable society, using adaptation and solidarity to make whole the harms unleashed in the meantime.
That’s over.
We are now in a catastrophe of broken continuity that we cannot resolve (even if we limit its further severity) and that will not be made whole by any action within our power. There is no going back."
https://alexsteffen.substack.com/p/coming-back-to-when-we-are

2023-09-01 12:58:32

a beautiful, if somber, meditation by @npub1sfe…yp3x on the way the climate crisis has become the primary, underlying threat to us all, whether we acknowledge it or not
"We certainly have been (and still are) transforming the Earth on vast and pitiless scales, in ways that will go on unfolding for millennia. But what is far more pressingly true for us is by altering the planet, we have made our lives no longer what they were."
https://alexsteffen.substack.com/p/coming-back-to-when-we-are

2023-09-01 12:46:06

whatever happened to thinkbois?

2023-09-01 12:45:21

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@npub1sc0…duc3 lol, it's the thinkfluencer arc of life

2023-09-01 12:44:17

would mean a *lot* of preinstalled apps
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/110/989/947/865/432/084/original/82e3b20fb1791c2c.png

2023-09-01 12:42:41

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@npub1c32…ps3k would be a *lot* of pre-installed apps

2023-08-31 14:36:23

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@npub1klp…rler ah, makes sense. good approach.

2023-08-31 14:34:24

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@npub1klp…rler ohhh, does this mean you lift?

2023-08-31 14:33:49

one of the most enlightening things about seeing people opine about an industry you're actually a part of is realizing how many opinions that go viral are just a person's biases, put in such a way that other people agree
this isn't meant as judgment -- it's just human nature
this teaches me as much about *myself* and my own beliefs as anything

2023-08-31 14:31:47

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@npub1l6y…2e4y I think this is ... sort of true -- but also has much more to do with the fact that the media is pretty bad at covering slow-moving stories (see also, up until very recently, climate change)

2023-08-31 12:30:30

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@npub19ek…ya3u not sure! But maybe keep records if you’re a lawyer accusing people of federal crimes?

2023-08-30 22:44:05

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@npub17ce…zvzg wow, thank you!

2023-08-30 22:43:42

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@npub18r7…xrw4 lol

2023-08-30 22:39:55

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"Giuliani lost his defamation suit because he's every boomer parent who doesn't understand or use iCloud / Dropbox / Google Drive / Onedrive" isn't a headline you're likely to see, but maybe you should?

2023-08-30 22:38:48

Funny to think that Giuliani forfeited his defamation case because, in part, he didn't have adequate cloud-based backups of his personal devices.
From today:
"Giuliani had claimed that the FBI seizure of his electronic devices years ago had complicated his ability to access his records..."
From 2021:
"Federal prosecutors seized 18 electronic devices belonging to Rudy Giuliani and more than one of his employees when they raided his home and office last month"
https://www.cnn.com/2023/08/30/politics/rudy-giuliani-georgia-election-workers

2023-08-30 15:33:56

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@npub1y2d…p52p amazing

2023-08-30 15:32:46

memo to global technology companies, it’s not too late to bring back laptops with CRT screens
https://tvspil.dk/information-om-tvspil/philips/videopac-g7200/
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/110/979/277/669/888/680/original/4bbe7864f09d522a.jpeg

2023-08-30 14:21:04

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@npub1y2d…p52p he's maybe kind of a composite character? here's where at least one of his inspirations (I think) is now
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BTHUAQPlf6c

2023-08-30 14:19:27

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@npub1hjp…el3e especially given that we're now doing that to the planetary life support system of which the economy is merely a subset

2023-08-29 15:32:19

the Big Short is on Netflix and I regret to inform you that it is as relevant as ever

2023-08-25 18:41:11

YIKES.
Following Elon Musk’s lead, Big Tech is surrendering to disinformation
Facebook and YouTube are receding from their role as watchdogs against conspiracy theories ahead of the 2024 presidential election
"The evolution of the companies’ practices was described by more than a dozen current and former employees... The new approach marks a sharp shift from the 2020 election."
https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/08/25/political-conspiracies-facebook-youtube-elon-musk/

2023-08-19 15:15:31

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3/
Second, why it’s so hard to maintain the things we depend on for our very existence:
An aging workforce. The reluctance of young people to take on these jobs. (They pay well, but who wants to become a maintenance engineer just to work in the heat all day and get filthy? And who wants to work on old stuff?)
Enter automation.
What if the most tedious and dangerous parts of these jobs could be done by robots overseen by people?
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/110/916/934/002/472/523/original/b57304bf2cf35027.jpeg

2023-08-19 15:10:57

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2/
First, why this matters so much.
Put simply, much of America’s built environment — the most critical parts, like bridges, the electrical grid, the buildings in which we live — was built in the 60s and 70s.
Trillions of dollars of steel and concrete is entering middle age.
Surfside’s collapse is but the most infamous example.
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/110/916/912/763/203/274/original/9d69c275b11c4c4d.jpeg

2023-08-19 15:06:02

“Another flaw in the human character is that everybody wants to build and nobody wants to do maintenance.“
- Kurt Vonnegut
This week, I went in search of the companies digitizing the upkeep of the least sexy, but most important part of our world.
What I found was a bestiary of robots unlike any I’ve encountered in any other industry.
🧵
https://www.wsj.com/tech/inspection-robots-infrastructure-ebb4172c
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/110/916/892/234/275/398/original/20a4f30e159461c0.jpeg

2023-08-16 18:28:28

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@npub1zuc…vn90 next flippin' level, this
what are you using?

2023-08-16 13:42:09

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for people serious about ergonomics, I should add that to make this keyboard actually ergonomic I had to:
1. elevate the leading edge of the keyboard to give it the correct pitch (that is, with the back of the keyboard slightly down)
2. buy a thick neoprene wrist wrest and use an x acto knife to cut it to fit snug against the bottom of this keyboard

2023-08-16 13:17:16

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@npub12qw…l3xg tune in for this week's column :)

2023-08-16 13:15:56

I finally found a keyboard that got me to ditch my Microsoft ergonomic keyboard
saying that as someone whose middle-aged body and extremely well-used typing muscles both cry out in pain the moment I touch a non-ergo keyboard
also it's sub $200 which seems rare for this category
https://epomaker.com/products/feker-alice

2023-08-15 17:21:54

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@npub1hjp…el3e it's that last one that hurts the most

2023-08-15 17:11:46

* hair dryer
* Siri detects, prevents impending faux pas
* tiny laser etches "[your name] was here [the date]" on whatever desk surface you set it down on
* phone thieves automatically doused with explosion of indelible ink
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/110/894/740/062/648/871/original/a29a7f996188c6ee.png

2023-08-15 17:05:40

my love language is sticking sensors on everything in the built environment in order to facilitate more timely maintenance and avoid catastrophes

2023-08-15 02:34:19

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@scott_bot@hcommons.socialwell now you have us intrigued :)

2023-08-15 02:28:56

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@npub1sc0…duc3 oh I say do whatever works for you, for everyone it's so different, I think? one thing I like about mastodon, it feels like we're having more individualized experiences where Twitter tended to homogenize them... there are no 'main characters' on here, you know what I mean? feels like a more diverse set of interactions for us all...

2023-08-15 02:25:39

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@npub1sc0…duc3 100% 'cause of chronological feed. once you get more than a couple hundred follows whatever you see is random anyway, and so I'm happy to just dip in occasionally, there's no feeling of being overwhelmed by the feed for me anymore...

2023-08-15 02:17:21

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@npub1sc0…duc3 yeah not necessary at all... tho I supposed I might start pruning again soon

2023-08-15 01:50:32

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@npub1a24…dkqm if I knew him personally I'd be very concerned, it feels like actually going off the rails vs his usual bravado

2023-08-14 11:37:14

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@npub1kpy…xknn
woooow

2023-08-14 11:36:48

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@npub1dej…k4uu so so many

2023-08-14 11:03:54

fun fact:
ever person on earth travels nearly 1 trillion miles in their lifetime
https://www.space.com/human-travel-trillion-miles-lifetime-universe-motion
#funfact

2023-08-13 19:09:40

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@npub1dhz…63df has to google this. Am already excited to check it out. 1951 version best?

2023-08-13 19:08:28

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@npub1d5x…l98t it’s quite a romp

2023-08-13 19:08:16

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@npub1cqu…gnnu ok, sold! Thanks again

2023-08-13 19:07:55

ooooooof this 😢
https://www.newsweek.com/trans-man-broken-men-1817169

2023-08-13 17:01:04

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@npub1vyt…mgjn lol

2023-08-12 22:21:09

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@npub1cqu…gnnu I tried the first in the series and it didn’t grab me fast enough, but audiobook sounds like the ideal format. Where’s the best place to begin with the series?

2023-08-12 22:19:23

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@npub1vyt…mgjn who knew! Thanks for sharing this

2023-08-12 18:06:17

Showing the kids Master and Commander for the first time, discovering that in the years since it came out I have become such a big naval history nerd that I can give a running director’s commentary, explaining what’s going on at every turn.
Everyone needs a hobby…
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/110/877/970/180/222/728/original/b07f15634d8aa677.jpeg

2023-08-11 13:32:45

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@npub10gz…jj8z you can do it!

2023-08-11 13:30:35

"if it's not an enthusiastic yes, it's a no" is the best advice I've put into action in years

2023-08-04 16:18:36

the world is on fire and Jeep just introduced a 19-foot long vehicle with a built-in mini fridge that gets 16 miles to the gallon
https://www.wsj.com/articles/2023-grand-wagoneer-l-series-iii-reivew-how-big-is-too-big-5dcc419d
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/110/832/245/294/351/935/original/782a2e8b8ad88fe8.jpeg

2023-07-14 13:22:59

bluesky is fun, threads is fun, but I don't think I'll ever forget the lesson of Twitter:
if you don't control your own social graph, someone else controls an increasingly important part of your life