Don’t forget the ‘null’ option
At any decision point, remember this: you can do nothing. Doing nothing is always an option. I call it the ‘null’ option. The null option isn’t always your optimal option but sometimes it is and knowing when to do nothing, not respond, keep quiet – that’s an art form.
FBI Head Kash Patel on the Rogan Podcast
This was a great podcast and not decidedly one-sided, politically. It wasn’t just a MAGA stunt show for those doubtful. Patel takes a common-sense approach to running the FBI which is change I welcome. The stories Patel shares about the evidence and facts that were buried in the FBI building is however quite disturbing. I recommend this episode; it’s enlightening, it’s real, and it doesn’t have that sleezy political bias that mainstream media always wreaks of.
Secret’s out: US Government-wide Ai
And so it begins, the gentle, unstoppable swirl toward the drain that is the future of American government. 404 Media documented the federal development project before it went private. Or maybe that’s too gloomy. I hope it is. Maybe an all-government-wide Ai is just what we need to get the accountability in government that we all deserve.
On the bright side, if Ai is to replace anyone’s job, let’s certainly start with government bloat. There’s a lot of good people in government, and a lot of people who do nothing but fight to protect their desk. A way to distinguish between the two would be rather valuable. DOGE set out to replace those federal workers who accepted resignation packages with Ai. This seems to be a continuation of that effort.
Here’s the best part: we aren’t even supposed to know about this. The geeks planning the project used GitHub to maintain the code. When you start a project on GitHub, you can select if the project is public or private. They evidently left a super secret new government project open to the public and the clever geeks from 404 Media found it and spilled the beans.
Diligent record keeping by the government has rarely turned out to benefit the public. Did you know when the Nazis marched into Amsterdam in 1940, they went to the city hall and opened up the big book of public records. Guess what they found there. You guessed it, diligently kept personally-identifiable records of all residents. Most interestingly to the Nazis were the Jewish residents. You might have guessed again: these records directly lead to the capture and murder of Annelies (Anne) Frank and her family, sans her father, Otto, who published her diary after the war.
A few years ago, I asked one of my Dutch friends if the Dutch government learned from this blunder of a decision. He laughed and told me no, now they just diligently keep the records on a digital system.
I suppose it’s impossible to predict how this government-wide Ai might turn out. What do you think?
A promise I might regret
I made a promise on Facebook and I’ll extend the promise to you here. And I’m probably going to regret this. Don’t make me regret this, please.
For our upcoming high school reunion in July, I made an option to “Buy a round”. It works like a gift to all of us, and for those who choose to make this kind gesture, there’s an option to add a “toast” – a bit that will be read aloud to all of us alumni. The promise is that for a minimum $50 donation, anything you write, I’ll read aloud at the reunion. Anything. And for $75, I’ll send you a video of it. You write it, I’ll read it. Anything. OK, it has to be legal.
Like this email?