For what it's worth, my work fell off a cliff this year, mostly down to AI.
Went from being excessively busy around Christmas 2023 to having very little luck finding anything so far after losing two long term clients in the first half of 2024.
And, if I can play my violin a moment, I don't have quite the mountain of wealth to just retire that some here do. On the plus side, I'm not destitute either but the situation isn't great and hasn't been for a while.
One of the reasons behind me starting the Undercutters podcast, as well as hopefully turning it into a side gig down the line, is that I can just crack on with it without AI eating it, and without having to beat 100-200+ other people applying for something.
I can't see how AI will do anything other than revolutionise some jobs. At the moment I'm between major projects so I've been looking into how it might be used in Project Management, and actually I've been disappointed as there doesn't yet seem to be much real benefit. All the examples of its use have been to generate templates of documents used in management (project plan, risk log) but if you work for any decent consultancy you already start from having all the templates you need. I've seen nothing yet which would make any difference to what I actually do for a living, which is mostly thinking and talking to people.
I'd be very interested to know if others in IT/Project Management have been able to get real benefit from AI yet?
(I would like an AI that could manage MS Project for me....)
I've been using it for a few IT/HR/Project things.
First - a job applicant scanner. Takes in a job description, some 'not on the description, but useful pointers to what we're after', and a candidates CV. Runs various focussed tasks on it - extracts key details, spot any red flags, reformat some of the info to make comparisons easier, outputs some details in the format our HR system wants, etc. Gives an overall summary with a 'call for interview? Y/N' along with it's reasoning. We've only been using it as a guide so far but it's *really* effective. A few people we've gone on to hire have been shown their own reports and have all agreed with the findings. So probably going to go into production in 2025. It can process about 100 CV's in a few minutes at a cost of about a quid.
Second - a 'user story generator'. Lets users of our in-house applications log in, ask for new features/bug-report/whatever about an app (it has the details and docs for each app to refer to as context), the LLM can ask some clarifying questions (or even say "the app already does that - click X then Y then Z'). Those user stories, the LLM's summary of the request, and the original conversation are all added as a new issue for the developers to then look over. So far it's working ok, needs a bit of refining to be properly useful. But certainly looks like it's going to cut down a lot of meetings/calls/overhead. The end users are also really liking it. The cost is so low it's effectively 'free'.
Third - auto-allocating helpdesk tickets. Very much a proof-of-concept (I only wrote it a few weeks ago). We give the LLM a list of our teams and what they do, and a list of the people in those teams and their specialities. When a new ticket comes in the LLM reads it, tries to figure out which team/people would be best suited and allocates the ticket to them. So far it's not actually allocating the ticket - it just adds a note saying who it thinks it should go to (and why). We'll monitor that to see how it compares to the people who do it by hand just now. I'd also like to give it the ability to search for similar tickets and use that information too - but we'll see how it goes.
Lastly - more an IT admin tool - our LLM system log scanner. We pipe our back-end system logs through the LLM which is given some specific guidelines about our tech stack. Then the LLM produces a report of 'interesting/odd/noteworthy' stuff that's happened. (We have specific tools for security/hardware faults with known messages outside of this). After it's highlighted the issue, gives an example of the log entry, which server(s) it's happening on etc, it offers some very brief technical hints as to what might be the underlying issue, how to investigate or fix it. It's really very useful. We're managing to clear up just a lot of little issues in minutes that otherwise might never have even been looked at.
Thank you, your experience is useful to know. Triaging Help Desk tickets seems like a good application for AI.
I had heard about AI being used to scan CVs recently from people seeking new roles and how it was making it harder for them (the flip side, perhaps, of being better for employers).
The last post we advertised for I'd say 30-40% of the CV's were clearly written (or rewritten) by an AI tool. Even just a glance at them and you could spot them. Which makes me feel much less guilty about using an LLM to process them in return (there is a step that asks it to judge if the CV is likely LLM generated now too...)
Are you sure it was AI and not just morons writing the usual "I am a goal-centred team player" bilge?
Pretty certain. There are a few keywords that are give-aways to the very low-effort people, and there is an 'over-flowery' style. If you were just reading one CV you might not spot it, but when you have 30 with exactly the same patterns in it you begin to spot them.
Also the bargain-basement 'jazz up my CV' tools seem to just *love* adding nonsensical metrics and KPI's. "I improved the API response by 15% leading to an increase in user satisfaction of 37%" without any context. Just 'the API', 'user satisfaction' can be any plausible sounding thing. Again, if you were just reading one CV it might just roll past your eyes, but CV after CV after CV with the same lines.
ChatGPT has a very overly positive style, everything is lovely and wonderful, as a default to rewriting things. Claude on the other hand is overly verbose, ask it to turn bullet points into text and you end up with 24 pages of prose.
Your prompting must be shite. Sorry
I said as a default, which is what a lot of people will be using for jazzing up their CV, hence the give away style. They don't really think about prompt engineering, as it is already "magic" that this text box on a webpage can turn your rubbish CV into something better.
I didn't say that you can't direct it otherwise. I use LLM literally 16hrs a day, but even so Claude is annoying that I have to direct it carefully not to be so verbose while also not going to the other extreme of just dropping crucial info. Its default is overly verbose and overly flowery, and they know it, hence why they introduced style tags of concise, explanatory, formal...
It’s not up to them. It’s up to people on random bulletin boards.
Hah
If Trump offered the UK American statehood, and we were allowed to swerve American gun law, avoid the American healthcare system, and find some compromise over the monarchy where we get to keep it but they don't have to adopt it, I would absolutely say Yes
Probably I'm alone in PB. on that
That would be like wanting to join Italy provided we could still have regulations applied properly regardless of who you happen to know, could eat pasta where the sauce has been added after cooking rather than during, could order a cappuccino after 11 am, didn’t have to dress up in our best clothes and wander about the town every evening, and didn’t have to listen to what our mother is telling us.
Yes, we could do that, but we wouldn’t be Italian.
Yeah, but we'd be allowed to live in Italy
I don't want to be American but I would love the freedom to travel and live anywhere in the USA, the American protection of Free Speech, and the dynamism of the American economy
And a nutter like Trump might just be willing to offer it for the glory of adding a large new state to the USA (or four states?), and 70m people, and a mighty world city, and great universities, and some stunning countryside, and the English Premier League. And Wimbledon. And scones jam and cream. Etc
That would instantly make Trump one of the great American presidents, and he's not known for disliking praise and fame
Yes, many Americans move about a bit for work. But, after three road trips in the US with my dog, it continues to amaze me that my dog, aged seven, has typically been to places that most Americans we meet have not.
The ‘freedom to travel’ in the US only applies to those who already have wealth and have traded it for more free time. Those many Americans who are working multiple jobs just to stay afloat, plus those with money who are still obsessed with making even more, don’t have the luxury of doing much travelling about, even in their own country.
A memory I will always treasure is my first night on the magnificent QM2, on my way to my first US road trip, dining in the Britannia restaurant on a table with Americans from NYC, Chicago and Georgia - who on hearing that I was headed to South Dakota, proceeded to share with me everything they knew, by way of forewarning, about South Dakota. When I asked which of them had been there, the answer was, remarkably, none - despite their all being older than me.
Needless to say, there wasn’t a single thing they told me that turned out to be true.
Bit gloomy but Labour have another Budget not that far away. If they haven't learned that just smacking the private sector then blowing money on the carbon capture crap (which even if you really want green spending is a poor idea) then things will just get worse.
But something that's better, ahem, is the second episode of my new F1 podcast, which focuses on the midfield battle:
Trump in power in America will cause several major economic shocks as well, assuming he enacts some of the policies he's been talking about.
Even if he doesn't, endlessly tweeting about them in all caps is going to unnerve businesses.
Yup. I hope he is talking about tariffs to get a deal. But his rhetoric will drive behavioural change just as labours did when coming to,office.
It’s the reason why I’d have preferred the hapless Harris.
Well, it's one reason, remembering this is a man who in 2017 tweeted so many military threats to North Korea even Putin urged him to cool it down before he provoked a nuclear war.
There are others. Harris isn't a criminal, or a sex offender, or a failed President, or a serial liar, or a traitor, or 78.
Yet she was such a shit candidate he beat her comfortably.
He didn't beat her that comfortably. The electoral college magnified his vote margin. Admittedly, he did better than in 2016 or 2020.
The more interesting and alarming question is why, knowing all these things, enough Americans still voted for him to put him back in the White House (leaving aside the efforts of the courts and Musk to put their thumb on the scales on his behalf). If the Democrats have any sense they will start their inquest there. They probably won't, but they should.
The worrying thing for those who believe in liberal democracy is that Harris wasn't a bad candidate. Undoubtedly mistakes were made - probably also on the Republican side but nobody talks about those because they won. But Harris had a clear and positive message. Whatever else you might say about Trump he's never pretended to be anything he's not. He also had a clear message of utter cynicism.
The fact is more Americans preferred the despot to the democrat in a clear choice. To claim it was the fault of a bad campaign or the wrong candidate is to be in denial.
Harris was a poor candidate, lacked charisma, a coastal liberal elitist, basically John Kerry in a skirt.
One thing I need AI to tell me is how to cook lobster tails best.
In the absence of a pheasant, I went for one of these instead for supper last night. And the Aldi instructions on the lobster tail box are a little wanting. Very pleasant steamed lobster, though - once I got it out.
I think I need some lobster shell shears (aka strong scissors) for Christmas, and to identify the point in the process to use them.
It’s not up to them. It’s up to people on random bulletin boards.
Hah
If Trump offered the UK American statehood, and we were allowed to swerve American gun law, avoid the American healthcare system, and find some compromise over the monarchy where we get to keep it but they don't have to adopt it, I would absolutely say Yes
Probably I'm alone in PB. on that
If you replaced America with Europe, I would take that.
Oh, didn't we have something even better than that once upon a time?
For what it's worth, my work fell off a cliff this year, mostly down to AI.
Went from being excessively busy around Christmas 2023 to having very little luck finding anything so far after losing two long term clients in the first half of 2024.
And, if I can play my violin a moment, I don't have quite the mountain of wealth to just retire that some here do. On the plus side, I'm not destitute either but the situation isn't great and hasn't been for a while.
One of the reasons behind me starting the Undercutters podcast, as well as hopefully turning it into a side gig down the line, is that I can just crack on with it without AI eating it, and without having to beat 100-200+ other people applying for something.
I can't see how AI will do anything other than revolutionise some jobs. At the moment I'm between major projects so I've been looking into how it might be used in Project Management, and actually I've been disappointed as there doesn't yet seem to be much real benefit. All the examples of its use have been to generate templates of documents used in management (project plan, risk log) but if you work for any decent consultancy you already start from having all the templates you need. I've seen nothing yet which would make any difference to what I actually do for a living, which is mostly thinking and talking to people.
I'd be very interested to know if others in IT/Project Management have been able to get real benefit from AI yet?
(I would like an AI that could manage MS Project for me....)
I've been using it for a few IT/HR/Project things.
First - a job applicant scanner. Takes in a job description, some 'not on the description, but useful pointers to what we're after', and a candidates CV. Runs various focussed tasks on it - extracts key details, spot any red flags, reformat some of the info to make comparisons easier, outputs some details in the format our HR system wants, etc. Gives an overall summary with a 'call for interview? Y/N' along with it's reasoning. We've only been using it as a guide so far but it's *really* effective. A few people we've gone on to hire have been shown their own reports and have all agreed with the findings. So probably going to go into production in 2025. It can process about 100 CV's in a few minutes at a cost of about a quid.
Second - a 'user story generator'. Lets users of our in-house applications log in, ask for new features/bug-report/whatever about an app (it has the details and docs for each app to refer to as context), the LLM can ask some clarifying questions (or even say "the app already does that - click X then Y then Z'). Those user stories, the LLM's summary of the request, and the original conversation are all added as a new issue for the developers to then look over. So far it's working ok, needs a bit of refining to be properly useful. But certainly looks like it's going to cut down a lot of meetings/calls/overhead. The end users are also really liking it. The cost is so low it's effectively 'free'.
Third - auto-allocating helpdesk tickets. Very much a proof-of-concept (I only wrote it a few weeks ago). We give the LLM a list of our teams and what they do, and a list of the people in those teams and their specialities. When a new ticket comes in the LLM reads it, tries to figure out which team/people would be best suited and allocates the ticket to them. So far it's not actually allocating the ticket - it just adds a note saying who it thinks it should go to (and why). We'll monitor that to see how it compares to the people who do it by hand just now. I'd also like to give it the ability to search for similar tickets and use that information too - but we'll see how it goes.
Lastly - more an IT admin tool - our LLM system log scanner. We pipe our back-end system logs through the LLM which is given some specific guidelines about our tech stack. Then the LLM produces a report of 'interesting/odd/noteworthy' stuff that's happened. (We have specific tools for security/hardware faults with known messages outside of this). After it's highlighted the issue, gives an example of the log entry, which server(s) it's happening on etc, it offers some very brief technical hints as to what might be the underlying issue, how to investigate or fix it. It's really very useful. We're managing to clear up just a lot of little issues in minutes that otherwise might never have even been looked at.
Thank you, your experience is useful to know. Triaging Help Desk tickets seems like a good application for AI.
I had heard about AI being used to scan CVs recently from people seeking new roles and how it was making it harder for them (the flip side, perhaps, of being better for employers).
The last post we advertised for I'd say 30-40% of the CV's were clearly written (or rewritten) by an AI tool. Even just a glance at them and you could spot them. Which makes me feel much less guilty about using an LLM to process them in return (there is a step that asks it to judge if the CV is likely LLM generated now too...)
Are you sure it was AI and not just morons writing the usual "I am a goal-centred team player" bilge?
Pretty certain. There are a few keywords that are give-aways to the very low-effort people, and there is an 'over-flowery' style. If you were just reading one CV you might not spot it, but when you have 30 with exactly the same patterns in it you begin to spot them.
Also the bargain-basement 'jazz up my CV' tools seem to just *love* adding nonsensical metrics and KPI's. "I improved the API response by 15% leading to an increase in user satisfaction of 37%" without any context. Just 'the API', 'user satisfaction' can be any plausible sounding thing. Again, if you were just reading one CV it might just roll past your eyes, but CV after CV after CV with the same lines.
ChatGPT has a very overly positive style, everything is lovely and wonderful, as a default to rewriting things. Claude on the other hand is overly verbose, ask it to turn bullet points into text and you end up with 24 pages of prose.
Your prompting must be shite. Sorry
I said as a default, which is what a lot of people will be using for jazzing up their CV, hence the give away style. They don't really think about prompt engineering, as it is already "magic" that this text box on a webpage can turn your rubbish CV into something better.
I didn't say that you can't direct it otherwise. I use LLM literally 16hrs a day, but even so Claude is annoying that I have to direct it carefully not to be so verbose while also not going to the other extreme of just dropping crucial info. Its default is overly verbose and overly flowery, and they know it, hence why they introduced style tags of concise, explanatory, formal...
We take for granted that the holidays to the sun we take come with cheaper prices. Holidaying somewhere more expensive than your home country is not relaxing. Maybe it's just money?
Indeed on my world travels its a truism that most people have never even left their home country. Travel is very much a nw europe and australia phenomenom, Even Americans dont travel much.
President-elect Donald Trump has vowed to immediately stop “transgender lunacy” and make it “official policy ” to only recognize two genders, male and female.
“With the stroke of my pen on day one, we’re going to stop the transgender lunacy,” Trump told supporters at AmericaFest 2024 in Phoenix, Arizona, on Sunday, according to a video shared by C-Span.
“I will sign executive orders to end child sexual mutilation, get transgender out of the military and out of our elementary schools and middle schools and high schools,” he said, drawing cheers from the crowd.
“Under the Trump administration, it will be the official policy of the United States government that there are only two genders, male and female,” he continued as he also vowed to “keep men out of women’s sports.”
It’s not up to them. It’s up to people on random bulletin boards.
Hah
If Trump offered the UK American statehood, and we were allowed to swerve American gun law, avoid the American healthcare system, and find some compromise over the monarchy where we get to keep it but they don't have to adopt it, I would absolutely say Yes
Probably I'm alone in PB. on that
That would be like wanting to join Italy provided we could still have regulations applied properly regardless of who you happen to know, could eat pasta where the sauce has been added after cooking rather than during, could order a cappuccino after 11 am, didn’t have to dress up in our best clothes and wander about the town every evening, and didn’t have to listen to what our mother is telling us.
Yes, we could do that, but we wouldn’t be Italian.
Yeah, but we'd be allowed to live in Italy
I don't want to be American but I would love the freedom to travel and live anywhere in the USA, the American protection of Free Speech, and the dynamism of the American economy
And a nutter like Trump might just be willing to offer it for the glory of adding a large new state to the USA (or four states?), and 70m people, and a mighty world city, and great universities, and some stunning countryside, and the English Premier League. And Wimbledon. And scones jam and cream. Etc
That would instantly make Trump one of the great American presidents, and he's not known for disliking praise and fame
Yes, many Americans move about a bit for work. But, after three road trips in the US with my dog, it continues to amaze me that my dog, aged seven, has typically been to places that most Americans we meet have not.
The ‘freedom to travel’ in the US only applies to those who already have wealth and have traded it for more free time. Those many Americans who are working multiple jobs just to stay afloat, plus those with money who are still obsessed with making even more, don’t have the luxury of doing much travelling about, even in their own country.
A memory I will always treasure is my first night on the magnificent QM2, on my way to my first US road trip, dining in the Britannia restaurant on a table with Americans from NYC, Chicago and Georgia - who on hearing that I was headed to South Dakota, proceeded to share with me everything they knew, by way of forewarning, about South Dakota. When I asked which of them had been there, the answer was, remarkably, none - despite their all being older than me.
Needless to say, there wasn’t a single thing they told me that turned out to be true.
Paid vacation attached to many jobs in the US is also a lot less than we are accustomed to in Europe and far less flexible. You can quickly eat up a fair chunk of it with day to day family requirements.
It’s not up to them. It’s up to people on random bulletin boards.
Hah
If Trump offered the UK American statehood, and we were allowed to swerve American gun law, avoid the American healthcare system, and find some compromise over the monarchy where we get to keep it but they don't have to adopt it, I would absolutely say Yes
Probably I'm alone in PB. on that
That would be like wanting to join Italy provided we could still have regulations applied properly regardless of who you happen to know, could eat pasta where the sauce has been added after cooking rather than during, could order a cappuccino after 11 am, didn’t have to dress up in our best clothes and wander about the town every evening, and didn’t have to listen to what our mother is telling us.
Yes, we could do that, but we wouldn’t be Italian.
Yeah, but we'd be allowed to live in Italy
I don't want to be American but I would love the freedom to travel and live anywhere in the USA, the American protection of Free Speech, and the dynamism of the American economy
And a nutter like Trump might just be willing to offer it for the glory of adding a large new state to the USA (or four states?), and 70m people, and a mighty world city, and great universities, and some stunning countryside, and the English Premier League. And Wimbledon. And scones jam and cream. Etc
That would instantly make Trump one of the great American presidents, and he's not known for disliking praise and fame
That sounds a bit like joining the EU with an opt out of all regs. There's no constitutional opt out for US states, either.
And I don't think the GOP half of the US would be too keen on our voting in their elections.
It’s not up to them. It’s up to people on random bulletin boards.
Hah
If Trump offered the UK American statehood, and we were allowed to swerve American gun law, avoid the American healthcare system, and find some compromise over the monarchy where we get to keep it but they don't have to adopt it, I would absolutely say Yes
Probably I'm alone in PB. on that
That would be like wanting to join Italy provided we could still have regulations applied properly regardless of who you happen to know, could eat pasta where the sauce has been added after cooking rather than during, could order a cappuccino after 11 am, didn’t have to dress up in our best clothes and wander about the town every evening, and didn’t have to listen to what our mother is telling us.
Yes, we could do that, but we wouldn’t be Italian.
Yeah, but we'd be allowed to live in Italy
I don't want to be American but I would love the freedom to travel and live anywhere in the USA, the American protection of Free Speech, and the dynamism of the American economy
And a nutter like Trump might just be willing to offer it for the glory of adding a large new state to the USA (or four states?), and 70m people, and a mighty world city, and great universities, and some stunning countryside, and the English Premier League. And Wimbledon. And scones jam and cream. Etc
That would instantly make Trump one of the great American presidents, and he's not known for disliking praise and fame
Sad times, the British exceptionalist meme of the ex-colonies gagging to rejoin the mother country degenerating into humping Trump’s leg to become the 51st state. Oh Starmer, what have you done?!
It could be a nice solution to your desire to escape the dreadful colonial yoke of England, which basically enslaves you by giving you more money than England and allowing you to vote on English laws whereas the English can't do the opposite. With my idea you could be the 52nd state, Wales 53 etc
Surely my cuz (x times removed) Trump would give 51st statehood to his mother’s country, Scotland (which in any case is of course in any case the oldest constituent nation in the UK)? Could you live with that?
Edit: Reuters screwing up after all, perhaps. No. 3. Or No 3 plus No. 4 (former chapel on site of old hospital), seeing as it was a very old hospital before they wedged the chapel in).
It’s not up to them. It’s up to people on random bulletin boards.
Hah
If Trump offered the UK American statehood, and we were allowed to swerve American gun law, avoid the American healthcare system, and find some compromise over the monarchy where we get to keep it but they don't have to adopt it, I would absolutely say Yes
Probably I'm alone in PB. on that
Just have the Governor / Lieutenant Governor structure they have in Texas
It’s not up to them. It’s up to people on random bulletin boards.
Hah
If Trump offered the UK American statehood, and we were allowed to swerve American gun law, avoid the American healthcare system, and find some compromise over the monarchy where we get to keep it but they don't have to adopt it, I would absolutely say Yes
Probably I'm alone in PB. on that
I will never get over the propensity of the rich to be patriotic to every country but their own. What was the point of Brexit if the first thing you do is to kneel to another country? First it was CANZUK, now it's USA.
It’s not up to them. It’s up to people on random bulletin boards.
Hah
If Trump offered the UK American statehood, and we were allowed to swerve American gun law, avoid the American healthcare system, and find some compromise over the monarchy where we get to keep it but they don't have to adopt it, I would absolutely say Yes
Probably I'm alone in PB. on that
I will never get over the propensity of the rich to be patriotic to every country but their own. What was the point of Brexit if the first thing you do is to kneel to another country? First it was CANZUK, now it's USA.
There's a sense in which CANZ and the USA are not really foreign but part of Greater Britain.
Edit: Reuters screwing up after all, perhaps. No. 3. Or No 3 plus No. 4 (former chapel on site of old hospital), seeing as it was a very old hospital before they wedged the chapel in).
Edit: Reuters screwing up after all, perhaps. No. 3. Or No 3 plus No. 4 (former chapel on site of old hospital), seeing as it was a very old hospital before they wedged the chapel in).
President-elect Donald Trump has vowed to immediately stop “transgender lunacy” and make it “official policy ” to only recognize two genders, male and female.
“With the stroke of my pen on day one, we’re going to stop the transgender lunacy,” Trump told supporters at AmericaFest 2024 in Phoenix, Arizona, on Sunday, according to a video shared by C-Span.
“I will sign executive orders to end child sexual mutilation, get transgender out of the military and out of our elementary schools and middle schools and high schools,” he said, drawing cheers from the crowd.
“Under the Trump administration, it will be the official policy of the United States government that there are only two genders, male and female,” he continued as he also vowed to “keep men out of women’s sports.”
I think it was @Sandpit the other day who thought that this was only a battle to prevent children being trans and born men competing in women's sports. He was naive. Ultimately the battle is around the concept itself - whether it is possible for a man to become a woman, and vice-versa. This is a battle of ideas, sometimes called "the war of ideas" or "the battle for the narrative". It can be measured by techniques such as tracking terminology over time. As anti-trans has become fashionable in the USA following Harris/Trump, this more overt approach was to be expected.
Edit: Reuters screwing up after all, perhaps. No. 3. Or No 3 plus No. 4 (former chapel on site of old hospital), seeing as it was a very old hospital before they wedged the chapel in).
Mrs C has just come in and asked why I'm looking up the Chapel on Wiki. She said 'Oh yes, that's where Dickens's workhouse that he was in, and which inspired Oliver Twist, was. It is just round the corner - the Middlesex Hospital took it over'. We've got Ruth Richardson's book and she went to have a look at it when having a work course round the corner.
It’s not up to them. It’s up to people on random bulletin boards.
Hah
If Trump offered the UK American statehood, and we were allowed to swerve American gun law, avoid the American healthcare system, and find some compromise over the monarchy where we get to keep it but they don't have to adopt it, I would absolutely say Yes
Probably I'm alone in PB. on that
I will never get over the propensity of the rich to be patriotic to every country but their own. What was the point of Brexit if the first thing you do is to kneel to another country? First it was CANZUK, now it's USA.
There's a sense in which CANZ and the USA are not really foreign but part of Greater Britain.
Yes. And that sense was "we used to be close in the past but aren't any more". There is a difference between alliances and identities, and the British aren't American, Canadian, whatevs. May and Goodhart were correct about "citizens of nowhere", but since when was being right an advantage in politics?
It’s not up to them. It’s up to people on random bulletin boards.
Hah
If Trump offered the UK American statehood, and we were allowed to swerve American gun law, avoid the American healthcare system, and find some compromise over the monarchy where we get to keep it but they don't have to adopt it, I would absolutely say Yes
Probably I'm alone in PB. on that
That would be like wanting to join Italy provided we could still have regulations applied properly regardless of who you happen to know, could eat pasta where the sauce has been added after cooking rather than during, could order a cappuccino after 11 am, didn’t have to dress up in our best clothes and wander about the town every evening, and didn’t have to listen to what our mother is telling us.
Yes, we could do that, but we wouldn’t be Italian.
Yeah, but we'd be allowed to live in Italy
I don't want to be American but I would love the freedom to travel and live anywhere in the USA, the American protection of Free Speech, and the dynamism of the American economy
And a nutter like Trump might just be willing to offer it for the glory of adding a large new state to the USA (or four states?), and 70m people, and a mighty world city, and great universities, and some stunning countryside, and the English Premier League. And Wimbledon. And scones jam and cream. Etc
That would instantly make Trump one of the great American presidents, and he's not known for disliking praise and fame
Sad times, the British exceptionalist meme of the ex-colonies gagging to rejoin the mother country degenerating into humping Trump’s leg to become the 51st state. Oh Starmer, what have you done?!
It could be a nice solution to your desire to escape the dreadful colonial yoke of England, which basically enslaves you by giving you more money than England and allowing you to vote on English laws whereas the English can't do the opposite. With my idea you could be the 52nd state, Wales 53 etc
USA 50 states plus Puerto Rico (and DC too, perchance) Canadia - 13 states UK - 4 states Aus - 6 states NZ - 1 state Ireland - 1 state
Electoral College proportionally increased to now have 804 members.
Seriously, if you’re young and fancy a career in writing, give up. Unless you focus on memoir or war reportage, something AI might never do, it’s done. It’s over. There won’t be a career
I am intrigued by this notion. I have access to the newest paid ChatGPT and it's utterly shite at writing. I suppose you must have access to far better models.
What’s the point in my lying about the death of my profession? Seriously? I like attention but I don’t like it that much
Imparting this news does not make me happy. Quite the fucking opposite. I hate it (even if I find the underlying tech exciting). But it is happening and it is futile if not dangerous to deny it
I don't think you're lying for a second, I think you're wrong, having seen something impressive and drawn erroneous and exaggerated conclusions.
Ok I have to reply to that
The job that disappeared was to a well known American magazine. It would astonish you if you knew the title. AI took the job, everyone accepts this
As for the “good” AI output, this isn’t a one off. In the last month I’ve seen AI produce this quality in multiple ways and in multiple subjects. It’s not just OK it is genuinely good with flashes of brilliance. The improvement is sensational and scary - and, as @SouthamObserver notes - is only going to improve
I find this, personally, deeply sad. This is my beloved profession, largely vanishing. It’s very hard to take for me as a veteran, I wholly understand why @Big_G_NorthWales doesn’t want to disillusion his grand-daughter. Who wants to convey this news to eager young talented people?
I barely know what to tell my own kids. They are both very bright and would normally be looking at cerebral, “cognitive” careers. God knows what they will do in reality
Maybe we will rebel and their jobs will be Fighting the Machines!
Hence my point. How will ai help ordinary people. Sure its great for the 1% class but everyone else?
I’ve promised not to discuss AI any more this chrimbo. Someone else will have to answer!
It doesn't surprise me that it was an American magazine - the ai 'style' it can't shed is developed along the lines of a middle of the road American blog. If one intended to replace a full-time journalist with ai, even if they were writing crappy advertorial or Top 10 lists, one would at least need an additional day of editing support to check its work and amend some of the more egregious ai-isms, and then someone to prompt it, replacing a full time worker with a part time one - unfortunate for the worker, but not a huge drama, and one in my view that could be liable to eventual reversal.
I lied about it being American so as to disguise its identity
Ah. So the Speccie is now using AI under Gove. What's the column? Come on. You can tell us. You're amongst friends. We'll be discreet.
The Sean Thomas travelogue. It’s actually an AI being fed AI generated fake travel data.
The really sinister bit is that it thinks it’s a human having real experiences.
AI will never match the human capacity to devise pointless regulations, ever more complicated types of compliance, and more complex procedures, in order to keep a whole class of people in employment.
Our biggest problem as a society, particularly in this country.
If the United States does something stupid, like make Bitcoin part of national reserves, it will have the impact of driving energy prices through the roof.
Why?
Because the higher the Bitcoin price, the greater the value of Bitcoin mined. And the greater the value of Bitcoin mined, the more it becomes financially viable to spend money to mine Bitcoin.
Essentially, the amount of money spent on Bitcoin mining will be 90% of the value of Bitcoin mined.
Currently (and for the next four years) around 13,500 Bitcoin are mined per month.
So, if Bitcoin were (say) $1m. Then 90% of $13.5 billion (say $12.3bn) would be spent on electricity for Bitcoin mining.
Per month.
That would send electricity prices through the roof in most developed economies. To put it in context, that's about 3x the amount of energy that got taken off the market by the closing of the gas pipelines out of Russia.
@Sandpit , you were defending the Gaetz pick. Care to comment?
Biden’s DOJ spent more than two years investigating this case and declined to bring charges.
He may or may not have done something he shouldn’t have done, and may or may not have done something illegal, but if the prosecutors didn’t bring charges then he’s entitled to the benefit of the doubt.
President-elect Donald Trump has vowed to immediately stop “transgender lunacy” and make it “official policy ” to only recognize two genders, male and female.
“With the stroke of my pen on day one, we’re going to stop the transgender lunacy,” Trump told supporters at AmericaFest 2024 in Phoenix, Arizona, on Sunday, according to a video shared by C-Span.
“I will sign executive orders to end child sexual mutilation, get transgender out of the military and out of our elementary schools and middle schools and high schools,” he said, drawing cheers from the crowd.
“Under the Trump administration, it will be the official policy of the United States government that there are only two genders, male and female,” he continued as he also vowed to “keep men out of women’s sports.”
I think it was @Sandpit the other day who thought that this was only a battle to prevent children being trans and born men competing in women's sports. He was naive. Ultimately the battle is around the concept itself - whether it is possible for a man to become a woman, and vice-versa. This is a battle of ideas, sometimes called "the war of ideas" or "the battle for the narrative". It can be measured by techniques such as tracking terminology over time. As anti-trans has become fashionable in the USA following Harris/Trump, this more overt approach was to be expected.
Not naive at all.
Men competing in women’s sports goes against everything that led to women’s sports been set up in the first place.
I have no problem with adults deciding to change their gender, I do have problems with this ideology being pushed on children. The problem isn’t transgender people, it’s the loud activists trying to denigrate women’s spaces, and that in spaces such as prisons the genuine trans women are outnumbered by the perverted men cosplaying as women.
President-elect Donald Trump has vowed to immediately stop “transgender lunacy” and make it “official policy ” to only recognize two genders, male and female.
“With the stroke of my pen on day one, we’re going to stop the transgender lunacy,” Trump told supporters at AmericaFest 2024 in Phoenix, Arizona, on Sunday, according to a video shared by C-Span.
“I will sign executive orders to end child sexual mutilation, get transgender out of the military and out of our elementary schools and middle schools and high schools,” he said, drawing cheers from the crowd.
“Under the Trump administration, it will be the official policy of the United States government that there are only two genders, male and female,” he continued as he also vowed to “keep men out of women’s sports.”
I think it was @Sandpit the other day who thought that this was only a battle to prevent children being trans and born men competing in women's sports. He was naive. Ultimately the battle is around the concept itself - whether it is possible for a man to become a woman, and vice-versa. This is a battle of ideas, sometimes called "the war of ideas" or "the battle for the narrative". It can be measured by techniques such as tracking terminology over time. As anti-trans has become fashionable in the USA following Harris/Trump, this more overt approach was to be expected.
Not naive at all.
Men competing in women’s sports goes against everything that led to women’s sports been set up in the first place.
I have no problem with adults deciding to change their gender, I do have problems with this ideology being pushed on children. The problem isn’t transgender people, it’s the loud activists trying to denigrate women’s spaces, and that in spaces such as prisons the genuine trans women are outnumbered by the perverted men cosplaying as women.
Oh I understand that, but plainly Trump is exceeding that, with the obvious example being "get transgender out of the military".
If the United States does something stupid, like make Bitcoin part of national reserves, it will have the impact of driving energy prices through the roof.
Why?
Because the higher the Bitcoin price, the greater the value of Bitcoin mined. And the greater the value of Bitcoin mined, the more it becomes financially viable to spend money to mine Bitcoin.
Essentially, the amount of money spent on Bitcoin mining will be 90% of the value of Bitcoin mined.
Currently (and for the next four years) around 13,500 Bitcoin are mined per month.
So, if Bitcoin were (say) $1m. Then 90% of $13.5 billion (say $12.3bn) would be spent on electricity for Bitcoin mining.
Per month.
That would send electricity prices through the roof in most developed economies. To put it in context, that's about 3x the amount of energy that got taken off the market by the closing of the gas pipelines out of Russia.
So, essentially, high Bitcoin values are a danger to all developed economies and the living standards of pretty much everyone.
Comments
I didn't say that you can't direct it otherwise. I use LLM literally 16hrs a day, but even so Claude is annoying that I have to direct it carefully not to be so verbose while also not going to the other extreme of just dropping crucial info. Its default is overly verbose and overly flowery, and they know it, hence why they introduced style tags of concise, explanatory, formal...
The ‘freedom to travel’ in the US only applies to those who already have wealth and have traded it for more free time. Those many Americans who are working multiple jobs just to stay afloat, plus those with money who are still obsessed with making even more, don’t have the luxury of doing much travelling about, even in their own country.
A memory I will always treasure is my first night on the magnificent QM2, on my way to my first US road trip, dining in the Britannia restaurant on a table with Americans from NYC, Chicago and Georgia - who on hearing that I was headed to South Dakota, proceeded to share with me everything they knew, by way of forewarning, about South Dakota. When I asked which of them had been there, the answer was, remarkably, none - despite their all being older than me.
Needless to say, there wasn’t a single thing they told me that turned out to be true.
In the absence of a pheasant, I went for one of these instead for supper last night. And the Aldi instructions on the lobster tail box are a little wanting. Very pleasant steamed lobster, though - once I got it out.
I think I need some lobster shell shears (aka strong scissors) for Christmas, and to identify the point in the process to use them.
Have a good afternoon, everyone.
Oh, didn't we have something even better than that once upon a time?
“With the stroke of my pen on day one, we’re going to stop the transgender lunacy,” Trump told supporters at AmericaFest 2024 in Phoenix, Arizona, on Sunday, according to a video shared by C-Span.
“I will sign executive orders to end child sexual mutilation, get transgender out of the military and out of our elementary schools and middle schools and high schools,” he said, drawing cheers from the crowd.
“Under the Trump administration, it will be the official policy of the United States government that there are only two genders, male and female,” he continued as he also vowed to “keep men out of women’s sports.”
“Doesn’t sound too complicated, does it?”
https://nypost.com/2024/12/23/us-news/trump-vows-to-stop-transgender-lunacy-only-recognize-two-genders/
There's no constitutional opt out for US states, either.
And I don't think the GOP half of the US would be too keen on our voting in their elections.
(Makes you wonder just what was their beef with Hunter Biden, too.)
Matt Gaetz ethics report says his drug use and sex with a minor violated state laws
https://x.com/MacFarlaneNews/status/1871159477426077717
TEAM TRUMP DEBATES ‘HOW MUCH SHOULD WE INVADE MEXICO?’
https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/trump-mexico-drug-cartels-military-invade-1235183177/
So is that:
The chapel of a former hospital?
The former chapel of a hospital?
The former chapel of a former hospital?
Something else?
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2024/dec/23/revealed-thames-water-diverted-cash-for-clean-ups-to-help-pay-bonuses
Trump is a pacifist who is scared of fights.
https://www.reuters.com/world/uk/king-charles-deliver-christmas-message-former-hospital-chapel-2024-12-23/
Edit: Reuters screwing up after all, perhaps. No. 3. Or No 3 plus No. 4 (former chapel on site of old hospital), seeing as it was a very old hospital before they wedged the chapel in).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fitzrovia_Chapel
https://www.reddit.com/r/funny/comments/18464uu/bristol_airport_prayer_room/?rdt=60743
https://www.instagram.com/twotempleplace/p/C9C7U_Vo5w3/?img_index=1
My wife and I however will listen to the carols from Kings
To be honest I haven’t had any time for the Royals ever, but I grew to admire and respect the late Queen
"Merry Christmas and a happy New Year... In OGH's sin bin"
Canadia - 13 states
UK - 4 states
Aus - 6 states
NZ - 1 state
Ireland - 1 state
Electoral College proportionally increased to now have 804 members.
NEW THREAD
This thread has been Leon'd?
The Sean Thomas travelogue. It’s actually an AI being fed AI generated fake travel data.
The really sinister bit is that it thinks it’s a human having real experiences.
If the United States does something stupid, like make Bitcoin part of national reserves, it will have the impact of driving energy prices through the roof.
Why?
Because the higher the Bitcoin price, the greater the value of Bitcoin mined. And the greater the value of Bitcoin mined, the more it becomes financially viable to spend money to mine Bitcoin.
Essentially, the amount of money spent on Bitcoin mining will be 90% of the value of Bitcoin mined.
Currently (and for the next four years) around 13,500 Bitcoin are mined per month.
So, if Bitcoin were (say) $1m. Then 90% of $13.5 billion (say $12.3bn) would be spent on electricity for Bitcoin mining.
Per month.
That would send electricity prices through the roof in most developed economies. To put it in context, that's about 3x the amount of energy that got taken off the market by the closing of the gas pipelines out of Russia.
He may or may not have done something he shouldn’t have done, and may or may not have done something illegal, but if the prosecutors didn’t bring charges then he’s entitled to the benefit of the doubt.
Men competing in women’s sports goes against everything that led to women’s sports been set up in the first place.
I have no problem with adults deciding to change their gender, I do have problems with this ideology being pushed on children. The problem isn’t transgender people, it’s the loud activists trying to denigrate women’s spaces, and that in spaces such as prisons the genuine trans women are outnumbered by the perverted men cosplaying as women.
Leon banned.
HY wrong on two arguments simultaneously.