quotes

5/25/25 →

Can Directories Rise Again? from The History of the Web:

Search has bent in quality towards its earliest days, difficult to navigate and often unhelpful. And the remedy may be the same as it was a quarter century ago. It may be once again time for the surfers. Only different this time.

The only resistance to the current advance of AI is humanity. We are relearning that humans can see through the bullshit. There are examples everywhere.

A lot of personal bloggers already have slash pages, which are like personal directories. Makes sense to have old-school directories where a community contributes.

5/25/25 →

From an article in McSweeny’s, A COMPANY REMINDER FOR EVERYONE TO TALK NICELY ABOUT THE GIANT PLAGIARISM MACHINE:

I’d like to remind you that our company policy is pro–Plagiarism Machine™. We’re a tech-forward, future-oriented company that doesn’t shy away from the promise of new innovation—even if that innovation is a Giant Plagiarism Machine™ that copy-pastes existing innovation into fake sentient sentences.

5/25/25 →

Asking questions isn’t being difficult. It’s being curious. It’s trying to understand the rationale behind actions and beliefs. But for some people in power—whether that’s a boss, a self-styled authority figure, even a Partner—questions are dangerous. Questions suggest that maybe they don’t have all the answers, that maybe their decisions aren’t flawless, and that maybe, just maybe, there’s a better way of doing things.

— You’re Only “Difficult” to People Who Don’t Want to Be Questioned by Joan Westenberg