Sean Evans interviews Conan OBrien on Hot Ones
I don’t know that much about Conan OBrien, but I definitely wasn’t expecting this. Conan is obviously putting on a show, and the unhingedness of the whole thing is very entertaining, but there are also these moments of truth that speak to what’s really happening (in a Montreal Screwjob kinda way). Case-in-point:
“You can’t stop me from being who I am. I’ve gotta go for it. Whatever I do, I have to go a hundred and ten percent.”
“I know, you’ve gotta commit to the bit.”
“It’s not a bit. This is life! Don’t say ‘commit to the bit.’ This is life.”
What we are actually watching here, is full and total commitment. The water buffalo, the drinking the hot sauce, the desperate screaming about wanting to stay relevant. Yes, the show is funny, but the commitment is no joke.
This is great. It’s silly, but competitions like these drive people to innovate, and I’d love to see more innovation in robotics. I want to see more countries participate, including the US. If it gets bigger, I could actually see my self watching the competitions. There’s something endearing about watching a bunch of dorky robots stumble around like toddlers.
Neal Stephenson reflects on “The Primer,” a personalized education device that plays a big part in his 1995 book, The Diamond age. The Primer bears some resemblances to modern AI systems, but it remains to be seen whether modern AI can be as empowering as The Primer was in the story. My biggest takeaway: some things are difficult to teach (via AI), because they aren’t knowledge to be memorized or skills to be mastered. They are “…a stance from which to address the world and all its challenges. The conviction that one has a fighting chance to overcome or circumvent whatever obstacles the world throws in one’s path. The way you acquire it is by trying, and sometimes failing, to do difficult things.”
Brick Technology and Brick Experiment Channel
Two YouTube channels about solving intense engineering challenges with legos. The kids and I have enjoyed watching some of these videos together in the evenings. A few of my favorites include this one about using legos to break steel and the 200 Wheel Vehicle.
Dan Abramov writes convincingly on how social media would be much better if it was built around open protocols. To explain this, he compares Bluesky’s AT Protocol to the organization of the distributed web (domain names, web-hosts, and user-owned content). The benefits of protocols appeal to me, which is why I’ve recently focused my consumption on self-curated RSS, but Dan believes that the AT Protocol can provide the benefits of RSS without sacrificing “truly social” features, like comments, likes, follows, etc. To me, the most compelling argument is that if users owned their social network, they could easily change services, which would force more competition between social media companies (and better competition might offer users options with less toxicity and addictiveness). I’d like to live in a world where I can follow and interact with select people on Twitter/X/Bluesky/Mastodon/etc, without subjecting myself to the worst parts of those communities. Time will tell whether AT Protocol will get adopted beyond Bluesky in a meaningful way (there’s also ActivityPub and Nostr competing for adoption in this space). I wish them well.
I needed a new editor theme and this directory was helpful for finding one that was both beautiful and unambiguous for the colorblind (I went with Simple Dark).
Russell M. Nelson: We All Deserve Dignity and Respect
Last week’s events included the death of Russell M. Nelson, Prophet and President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints at age 101. A few weeks ago, he wrote an editorial for Time.com (likely, his last public address), which included these important words:
“A century of experience has taught me this with certainty: anger never persuades, hostility never heals, and contention never leads to lasting solutions. Too much of today’s public discourse, especially online, fosters enmity instead of empathy. Imagine how different our world could be if more of us were peacemakers—building bridges of understanding rather than walls of prejudice—especially with those who may see the world differently than we do. I have seen bitter divisions soften when neighbors chose to listen to one another with respect rather than suspicion. Even small acts—like reaching out across lines of faith, culture, or politics—can open doors to healing. There is power in affording others the human dignity that all of God’s children deserve.”