Welcome to RationalStuff — long-form takes on technology, politics, and the forces shaping our future.
Using Multiple AI Tricks to Brainstorm Valid Research Topics
A Mac app that combines a citation graph, a scientific embedding model and ideonomy to find research gaps worth writing about, with every claim cited.
Running SemIf locally: a System 1 model on your own machine
SemIf's open-weight NLI classifier on Apple Silicon: an MLX port, what quantization really costs, and setup failures that look like model limits.
High-Velocity Decision Making and Agentic Systems Architecture
Amazon's high-velocity decision making doctrine is a blueprint for how to design, authorize, and operate an agent team. A structured crosswalk.
Hot Take: .gitignore Should Not Be the Most Important File in Every Project. But It Is.
Git was a masterpiece built for humans making deliberate commits. AI agents are neither. Here's why .gitignore is a symptom, not a solution.
If You Give an AI a Git...
A beloved children's book accidentally explains why AI agents and Git repos are a disaster waiting to happen. It will break your build. Constantly.
Using Amazon Bedrock with Crew.ai
detailed steps to connect crew.ai to use amazon bedrock
Why Are We Necroforming Earth?
We dream of terraforming Mars while necroforming Earth, paving grass and trees into concrete and turf that runs 30-40°F hotter. The fix starts on your own lot.
Will chatbots fix toxic online culture?
Gaming lobbies, Facebook and Reddit taught us to treat each other worse offline. Chatbots that model polite, patient conversation might teach us the reverse.
Tips for a Safe Thanksgiving or Christmas during COVID
You can see family this Thanksgiving without hosting a super-spreader event. It takes a guest list, a 14-day hard quarantine, and testing if anyone gets sick.
Self-Driving Cars and their mind-bending transportation possibilities
Critics say EVs don't need 400 miles of range. A self-driving car that earns money all day and drives you through the night will want closer to 1,000.
Consulting is a performance art
Knowing the right answer is 10% of consulting. The rest is performance: dress the part, hit your marks, know your lines, and deliver them like you believe them.
You got a problem?
Five stages of problem solving, from not knowing you have a problem to fixing it. The worst trap is stage four: knowing the fix and waiting for someone else.
How we can make this the last shutdown in US history
End shutdowns for good: no taxes while government is closed, a poison pill that accelerates federal debt, and lawmakers who lose their pay, pensions and seats.
What Blockchain gets wrong: Carbon vs Silicon
Blockchain is flawless silicon; people are messy carbon. A usable chain must handle inheritance, reversing theft, and seizing a criminal's hidden assets.
Blockchain Hype Explained: Much more than Bitcoin
Bitcoin's run-up replayed the Panic of 1907. Blockchain is still the future: smart contracts that swap cash for title will rewire how businesses trade.
The Free Content Economy deserves to die
Social media that relies on user-generated content is morally bankrupt.
The Census is a dumb way to allocate Congressional seats and Electoral College votes
Allocate House seats and electoral votes by who actually voted, not census headcount, and every state suddenly wants turnout instead of voter suppression.
Gen X, Your Storytellers are all Dead or Retired
The artists who told Gen X its stories are dead or retired. Martin answered Tolkien and Abrams answered Lucas. Your turn: stop consuming and start creating.
Is big business more responsive than elected representatives?
Walmart, Dick's and Bank of America acted on guns while Congress stalled. Companies answer to citizens faster than your representatives do, so pressure them.
2018: Is the GPU the most important tech of the year?
Crypto mining, AI training and VR look like three separate 2018 stories. They're one story: every hot technology of the year runs on the GPU.
Even in Texas: Republicans Are The Minority
Neither party is a majority, even in Texas. Independents are, and they skip elections until someone breaks the economy, then show up angry.
In the News: The legal system won’t save us from Sexual Misconduct
Courts are the wrong place to seek MeToo justice. Vox's case against carceral feminism: criminalize more behavior and you jail the poor, not the powerful.
DivX, Snapchat and Why DRM is the Future
DRM failed in Web 1.0 because it fought the internet. It's coming back because we're all creators now, and we want control over who sees our stuff and when.
Can Markets solve the massacre prevention problem?
Put $2 to $5 million of insurance on every bullet, payable to victims' families: a market fix that keeps guns easy to buy for most and hard for the dangerous.
Why Was the Story Different in 2017? Harvey, Louis, & the Open Secret
Why MeToo broke through in 2017: reporters stopped chasing crimes courts can't prove and started exposing inappropriate behavior that civil society can punish.
Design Matters: How Futura became the most ripped off font ever
Futura has been knocked off since the interwar years. The history is worth your time, and Futura PT earns its place by covering nearly all of Latin Extended-A.
Social Media, A disease we build immunity to?
Farmville took over every feed, then vanished. Cory Doctorow says we build immunity to viral media, and a Gen X cynic raised on Neil Postman agrees with him.
Not a Bubble. Investors were right about dotcom.
Dotcom wasn't a bubble. It was a poker game with one big winner, and every section of the 1998 newspaper became an online industry. Crypto is the same game.
Good read, AKA why you don't have friends.
Your tribe probably doesn't live within walking distance. Suburban housing makes adult friendship hard, which is why millennials are choosing downtown instead.
What Comes After AI? 6 Dangerous Things That Will Happen
Artificial empathy could end depression and make happiness measurable. It could also sell your emotions to advertisers, end private thought and arm dictators.