Joao Nascimento retweeted
Philomena: Some people have been writing PHP for over 20 years. Is that because it's particularly difficult to finish?
Expert: No, software is constantly evolving.
Philomena: So they've been writing the same website for 20 years?
Expert: No, different projects.
Philomena: Have they tried finishing one before starting another?
Expert: That's not how software development works.
Philomena: My mate Paul spent 20 years building a shed. Turned out he was just an alcoholic.
Expert: Right.
Philomena: Is PHP like that?
Monogamous marriage, which enables the extended family and provisions resources across generations, constitutes deep cultural technology. We evolved and developed this technology over generations as our culture grew in complexity.
Marriage is not the default state or institution of our species. It represents the advancement of multiple seemingly unrelated concepts: honor, contract law, fidelity, inheritance, romantic love, etc. We had to develop marriage to climb out of the muck of prehistory.
The reason it has declined in certain populations or social classes lies in two things that are corrosive to durable institutions: the overemphasis on the individual and the inability to plan beyond the present moment.
Marriage data reveals traditional nuclear families are disappearing across US - with a rate of just 13% in one major city trib.al/Ux4t1VL
Joao Nascimento retweeted
I don’t buy for a second that any of these guys are concerned for humanity. The AI bubble was about the burst and they needed a narrative that bought them time
Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei called on AI companies to deliberately “slow the pace” of AI development huffpost.com/entry/anthropic…
Joao Nascimento retweeted
Pictured: Google Deepmind CEO Demis Hassabis steps down to become chair
Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis steps down to become chair ft.trib.al/R3sWuoE
Joao Nascimento retweeted
Antoni Gaudí looking on the completed and blessed Tower of Jesus Christ in approval.
Well done, Barcelona!
Joao Nascimento retweeted
In 1507-15, the Portuguese crown built the fort of Our Lady of the Conception in Hormuz, to control trade from India and charge hefty tolls to passing ships. From the outset, holding the fort and controlling the Strait of Hormuz required constant fighting with local emirs; by 1662 the Shah of Persia (backed by British forces) took it for good. After a detailed account of the back-and-forth in a fierce and bloody seven‑month naval battle in 1521–22 in the Strait of Hormuz, Commander Saturnino Monteiro, in the first volume of his treatise "Batalhas e Combates da Marinha Portuguesa,” concluded: "...and thus ended this stupid and useless war of Hormuz, with everything remaining as it had been before."
Joao Nascimento retweeted
Operation name trajectory:
1944 — Neptune
1991 — Desert Storm
2001 — Enduring Freedom
2026 — Epic Fury
2030 — Kickass Eagle with Laser Eyes Pew Pew Pew
Joao Nascimento retweeted
Iran? You haven’t even finished Venezuela.
How can you have any Iran if you don’t finish your Venezuela!
Joao Nascimento retweeted
Europeans with 0% annual GDP growth watching America become a 3rd World Country
Joao Nascimento retweeted
Last quarter I rolled out Microsoft Copilot to 4,000 employees.
$30 per seat per month.
$1.4 million annually.
I called it "digital transformation."
The board loved that phrase.
They approved it in eleven minutes.
No one asked what it would actually do.
Including me.
I told everyone it would "10x productivity."
That's not a real number.
But it sounds like one.
HR asked how we'd measure the 10x.
I said we'd "leverage analytics dashboards."
They stopped asking.
Three months later I checked the usage reports.
47 people had opened it.
12 had used it more than once.
One of them was me.
I used it to summarize an email I could have read in 30 seconds.
It took 45 seconds.
Plus the time it took to fix the hallucinations.
But I called it a "pilot success."
Success means the pilot didn't visibly fail.
The CFO asked about ROI.
I showed him a graph.
The graph went up and to the right.
It measured "AI enablement."
I made that metric up.
He nodded approvingly.
We're "AI-enabled" now.
I don't know what that means.
But it's in our investor deck.
A senior developer asked why we didn't use Claude or ChatGPT.
I said we needed "enterprise-grade security."
He asked what that meant.
I said "compliance."
He asked which compliance.
I said "all of them."
He looked skeptical.
I scheduled him for a "career development conversation."
He stopped asking questions.
Microsoft sent a case study team.
They wanted to feature us as a success story.
I told them we "saved 40,000 hours."
I calculated that number by multiplying employees by a number I made up.
They didn't verify it.
They never do.
Now we're on Microsoft's website.
"Global enterprise achieves 40,000 hours of productivity gains with Copilot."
The CEO shared it on LinkedIn.
He got 3,000 likes.
He's never used Copilot.
None of the executives have.
We have an exemption.
"Strategic focus requires minimal digital distraction."
I wrote that policy.
The licenses renew next month.
I'm requesting an expansion.
5,000 more seats.
We haven't used the first 4,000.
But this time we'll "drive adoption."
Adoption means mandatory training.
Training means a 45-minute webinar no one watches.
But completion will be tracked.
Completion is a metric.
Metrics go in dashboards.
Dashboards go in board presentations.
Board presentations get me promoted.
I'll be SVP by Q3.
I still don't know what Copilot does.
But I know what it's for.
It's for showing we're "investing in AI."
Investment means spending.
Spending means commitment.
Commitment means we're serious about the future.
The future is whatever I say it is.
As long as the graph goes up and to the right.
Joao Nascimento retweeted
This hits. So good. @TheEconomist
Joao Nascimento retweeted
The wiser you become, the less you argue, because you begin to see that people defend identity, not truth. Silence replaces correction, not out of arrogance, but because explanation no longer feels worth it.
Joao Nascimento retweeted
When magnetic compasses came to Europe in the 12th c., ship captains had to hide them from sailors who by and large thought magnets were a form of witchcraft and refused to sail in their presence.
Ship captain, sailor, and magnet are always with us in new and different forms.





























