Espresso Shots 10-12-25

It's that time again for my weekly update, which includes a short collection of noteworthy finds, posts that inspire, as well as a few reflections from the past week or two. I'll aim to land these in your inbox by the weekend, in time to pair with your morning coffee (or your preferred cup of inspiration).

The Latest Drippings ☕️

• A Cartoonist's Review of AI Art. This post from Matthew Inman has been making the rounds all over the Internet this week, and is easily one of the best discussions around the usage of Gen AI artwork and the feelings that it evokes. 'AI art is an interesting technology because, despite its growing popularity, nobody seems to want it. Artists hate using it. Consumers hate consuming it, and yet it thrives, like an Arby's built inside a protected forest.' I've been a long-time fan of The Oatmeal, and he absolutely nailed it. 'Because your toil is what makes your art beautiful.'
• Development Gets Better With Age. Werner Vogels, CTO of AWS always has a great take on things, and I found myself nodding in agreement with his perspective around the hype on AI. 'As an older developer, you've also seen patterns repeat themselves... constantly. Companies promising the moon but only delivering a package of Swiss cheese.' He goes on, 'The older developer isn’t worried about the barrage of new model announcements and feature releases that come out every week. He’s seen that before. New tech, same patterns.' The wisdom, of course, is the hard truth with his response to the question 'What should we be doing with Gen AI?' when he asks back, "why?" 'You'll find that 90% of the answers you get back are not because they think generative AI will solve a specific problem that their business is encountering, but because they’re anxious. That they have very strong feelings of FOMO (the fear of missing out).'
• You Have 18 Months. Derek Thompson has a great post this week, 'The real deadline isn't when AI outsmarts us — it's when we stop using our own minds.'' He notes several sources that are already seeing both writing and reading skills have declined when people outsource their thinking to the AI gods, and it's a warning worth thinking about. 'The one-two punch of reading and writing is like the serum we have to take in a superhero comic book to gain the superpower of deep symbolic thinking, and so I have been ringing this alarm bell that we have to keep taking the serum.'
• Cory Doctorow Turned His Word of the Year Into a Whole Book. I've written many times about Cory's perfect article, Enshittification. It's now out in both book and audiobook formats (with a book tour accompanying) it. Highly recommended.
• Everything Is Becoming a Bank. I remember years back, when I first heard about the economics of gift cards and was fascinated by the revenue they generate. But I was shocked to read that 'Starbucks now holds nearly $2 billion of customers' money in its rewards program.' 2 BILLION! Reloading a card is essentially free capital for these reward programs (and Starbucks earned approximately $21 million in interest income in one fiscal year). On one hand, it's brilliant, 'airlines generate more revenue from selling frequent-flyer points to credit card companies than from flying passengers.' But on the other hand, it's a worrying trend to see more and more major corporations trying to become unregulated banks.
• The Reverse Bucket List. 'Wisdom can come from letting go of what you think you want' is how this post opens up the idea of having a reverse bucket list. It's a thoughtful read that disassociates the cravings, desires, and ambitions that accompany a task, instead 'acknowledging that I have the desire. When I cross them out, I acknowledge that I will not be attached to this goal.'
• Finding Calm in Chaos. I've been somewhat overwhelmed recently about how everything is growing more and more disconnected. This post serves as a great reminder to focus on calm over chaos. 'I've been trying really hard recently to slow down and make my life feel less chaotic. The chaos I’m referring to, of course, is the everyday chaos. The stuff that feels like static noise. Unanswered emails. Juggling tasks. The pressure to be available to everyone at any moment of the day. While there’s a lot of chaos we can’t control, I found that my life got 10x better when I decided to pacify the chaos I can. Here’s what I’ve discovered works.'
• The Happiness of Choosing to Walk Alone. This article is going into my commonplace journal, 'When people go along with an opinion they disagree with but think is popular, they are in a catch-22 of inviting pain through cognitive dissonance by trying to avoid the pain of social rejection.'
• Utilitarianism Is Bullshit. According to Wikipedia, Utilitarianism can be defined as: 'a family of normative ethical theories that prescribe actions that maximize happiness and well-being for the affected individuals.' I'm still processing this post, but I found myself thinking about it over and over (which is why it's in this week's newsletter).
• You Missed the Point of This Movie. The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, as I have written previously, tells a wonderful story of how 'you need to let yourself go a little, as time is easily wasted' to rediscover yourself. I appreciated the reminder of this video to queue up this Ben Stiller film, which is still one of my favorites. (Side note: I just watched Life of Chuck, and highly recommend that too)
• The Fonts of a Showgirl. You may have heard, Taylor Swift released her latest album this week. Check out this excellent post, which examines the font choices used in the lyric videos for each of the tracks. It's a fun and unique view into some of the stylistic choices that she made.
• Sona Is Ordained In The Religion Of Dudeism. I am an ordained Dudeist Priest, and you can be too. From a 2003 article on how embracing this can lead to a happier life, 'The essential message is that there’s an efficient, harmonious way to approach the problems of life – mainly we should learn to ​go with the flow and not react by creating bigger problems.'. The dude abides.
• Amazon Removes James Bond's Gun From New Posters. Who thought this was a good idea? Ridiculous.
• iPhone Air Review: Back to the Future. After initially ordering the usual iPhone Pro Max this year (which is a solid upgrade from last year), I decided I was tired of the "brick" of a phone and gave the iPhone Air a whirl. And, after a week of travel with it, I'm sold. I'll get this out of the way: the camera is fine for most usage. Sure, I will miss using the telephoto or wide-angle lens once or twice a month, but I have been generally impressed with the Air's capabilities. And yes, I know - the battery life. It is not on par with the Pro, and I get it, but for me, I am often at a desk, and it frequently sits on the charger. Bottom line: I wanted something different and new this year, and I'm not disappointed.
• The Management Skill Nobody Talks About. Some great notes here, 'Let me tell you something that will happen after you become a manager: you’re going to mess up. A lot. You’ll give feedback that lands wrong and crushes someone’s confidence. You’ll make a decision that seems logical but turns out to be completely misguided. You’ll forget that important thing you promised to do for someone on your team. You’ll lose your temper in a meeting when you should have stayed calm. The real question isn’t whether you’ll make mistakes; it’s what you do after.'

Dum Spiro Spero ✌🏻