Links, July 25, 2025

I’ve been doing these links for just over a year now, and in many ways they’ve fulfilled their original purpose of helping me close out some open tabs – at least, open tabs for things which I think people who might otherwise be reading my site might be interested in.

I still have a number of open tabs I’m going through: music theory, electronic circuits for synthesizers, game programming and algorithms, and the like. Which reflect an entirely different side of my interests that I haven’t been posting about here.

I’ve come to realize I’m burnt out on web development, and am fortunate to have the space to pursue something else for a while. Similarly, I’m getting tired of talking about “AI” and some of the other “this isn’t the dystopia we were promised” stuff.

All this is to say, I’m wondering if I should keep up these link roundups. If I do, they’ll change in nature quite a bit, probably towards the aforementioned music and audio/game programming topics. I’d love to hear from you if you think I should keep it up or not.

§Naming Things

A collection of good advice that I find no disagreement with:

That is, don’t name something kiki unless you know what would be bouba. If something is named up, there should be a down. If clockwise is deosil, then counter-clockwise is widdershins. If you need one dimension, left and right will do; whereas if you need two dimensions, north, east, south, and west are there for you.

§Everything Else

a rather terrifying piece about Dubai

It is hellish because, as the self-appointed showtown of free trade, it provides normal people with the chance to buy the purest form of the most heinous commodity: the exploitation of others. If you want to know how it feels to have slaves, in the modern world – and not be blamed openly for this desire – visit Dubai.

I too am getting tired of talking about AI

§Artificial intelligence is the opposite of education

what if there isn’t a middle of this road? What if the project of ‘artificial intelligence’ is not a road to new kinds of education - not even a slow and bumpy one – but the reversal of everything education stands for?

This is the start of a yet-to-complete series currently including (Not) telling the truth, (Not) reasoning or explaining, (Not) developing experience, (Not so much) innovation, (Not) enhancing research.

§I’m Tired of Talking About AI

Full of great rebuttals, such as

Worse, this argument pairs particularly poorly with “it democratizes software engineering” and “vibe coding”. If it’s so easy now that anyone can do it, why can’t I pick up the skills later, when I actually need them for employment? Is it so easy that anyone can do it, or so hard that if I don’t upskill I’ll be left behind?