August 2025 blend of links
Well, August went by in a flash, didn’t it? Time flew by. My two weeks of holiday lasted what felt like five days, including a very relaxing week in the Austrian Alps, where I managed to rest both body and mind, to return to my working routine this past week, fully recharged. During the break, I had the time and headspace to catch up on a few articles, and below are the ones that stood out.
Bragging about replacing coders with AI is a sales-pitch・Fascinating take by Cory Doctorow, once again, and eye-opening.
What Liberal Media? Axios Thinks Being Neutral Means Kissing Trump’s Ass・“Call it what it is: stenography masquerading as journalism. Taking insider talking points and presenting them as “clinical reporting” isn’t analysis—it’s propaganda with better fonts.” Mike Masnick at his best.
Dedicated volunteer exposes “single largest self-promotion operation in Wikipedia’s history”・The internet is indeed a fascinating, weird, scary, and perpetually surprising place.
Balancing being seen with being presented・An article with too many good lines to quote a single one. Reading this, I was reminded of why I deleted my LinkedIn account a few years ago. LinkedIn is, in my opinion, an awful place to read and publish thoughts about anything, and I couldn’t stand it anymore: the cringe level was off the charts, 95% of the time. I still somehow miss the old days when LinkedIn was just an online CV network used to find job opportunities and engage with former colleagues via DM. Nowadays, it’s the worst collection of blogs to have ever existed, with fake appreciation and scraps of the barrel comments. And don’t get me started on the seemingly popular format of reacting to a viral video (usually reused without permission) by making a point about being a CEO/manager/entrepreneur/father/mother/investor or whatever…
Lost in Play・I loved this little game. It has a very strong Hilda visual style — the wonderful and my favourite Netflix TV show — and it’s an absolute joy to play. It’s been years since enjoyed a game on Apple Arcade as much as this one. (Thanks Daniel for the tip)
Genes, memes and manufactured dissent・A nice comment from Nick Asbury on this summer’s Genes/Jeans controversy, sadly very representative of the attention-based business models surrounding us.
Study: No Two People Have Listened To Same Band Since 2003・“As far as we are able to determine, the last song heard by more than one person was Outkast’s ‘Hey Ya,’ which, in fact, had several hundred fans.”
Bad dates and bath bombs: 10 of the funniest jokes from the Edinburgh fringe 2025・A cracking selection, with my loudest applause going to Sikisa’s joke.
Affirmations for bloggers・In case you are questioning the legitimacy of having your own blog, or if you don’t know what to write about, this post by Nicole Tietz-Sokolskaya should act like a shot of adrenaline down your brain and typing hands. Bookmarked.
The Economy? He died five years ago.・“Since the iPhone it feels like everyone has been waiting for the next big hit, the next new shiny, the next money-maker. It’s like an endless distracted boyfriend meme looping year over year. And I regret to inform you that the investors are at it again. Today it’s LLMs, before that crypto and the Web3 Metaverse, before that VR, before that the gig economy, before that smartwatches, before that smart-homes, before that 3D televisions, before that…”
More “Blend of links” posts here