Automation

AI Won’t Take Your Job. It Will Expose Your Lack of Ideas.

The real threat of AI isn’t job loss—it’s the brutal exposure of whether you have original ideas. As execution becomes frictionless, the bottleneck shifts from ‘doing the work’ to ‘directing the work.’ The age of hiding behind busywork is over; your worth now depends on the quality of your thinking, not the quantity of your output.

Stop Doing Manual Office Installs. Microsoft’s Free Tool Is Actually a Power Grab

The Office Deployment Tool (ODT) promises to save IT admins from manual installs, but it’s actually a brilliant power play by Microsoft. By offloading the complexity of XML configurations and command-line execution to enterprises, Microsoft forces you to do the heavy lifting while maintaining strict control over licensing activation.

Robot Parking at Gatwick Isn’t Convenient. It’s a Climate Trap.

Gatwick’s new robotic parking system is a marvel of efficiency—but it’s also a disguised subsidy for car travel. By making driving cheaper and frictionless, it shifts travelers away from trains, undermining the environmental push for public transit. The real competitor isn’t other parking lots; it’s the railway.

Mathematicians Are No Longer Creators. They’re Critics. And They Hate It.

AI is transforming mathematicians from creators into critics, and they’re terrified to admit it. The future belongs to those who embrace curation, not production. This shift mirrors DevOps in software—and it’s coming for every cognitive profession. The real value was always in taste, not technique.

You Hate AI Job Interviews. That’s Exactly Why Hiring Stays Broken.

AI-driven async video interviews like OneWayInterview trigger visceral backlash — candidates hate being judged by a machine. But the outrage reveals something uncomfortable: hiring was never truly human or fair. The ‘gut feeling’ and ‘culture fit’ we defend have always functioned as gatekeeping. A transparently designed AI interview could reduce bias, but performative outrage ensures we’ll never get there.

Stop Using tio and screen. The Serial Terminal That’s Actually Built for AI Agents

SerTerm is a cross‑platform serial terminal built for humans, scripts, and AI coding agents. Unlike older tools like tio and screen, it offers a clean, scriptable interface designed for programmatic use. This signals a paradigm shift: developer tools must now be agent‑ready, not just human‑friendly.

Pixar Fired 100 People on Elastigirl Letterhead. The Subtext Is Suffocating.

Pixar laid off over 100 employees using letterhead featuring Elastigirl — a character who symbolizes resilience and flexibility — to deliver cold termination notices. With an internal joke about achieving ‘AGI’ circulating alongside the cuts, the incident exposes a dark paradox: the studio that built its brand celebrating irreplaceable human creativity is now automating away the very people who created that magic, and using beloved childhood characters to soften the blow.