Tidal Series by Curtis Collicutt

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Latest — Mar 28, 2025

GenAI Rewriting Interfaces Is Already Happening: The Ghibli GUI

OpenAI's GPT-4o showcases advanced image generation with trending "Ghiblified" visuals. While raising artistic appropriation concerns, the capability points to potential future interface transformations.

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Bayesianism: Constantly Updating to Get Closer to the Truth

Most of us understand statistics through the frequentist model, which relies on large datasets and repeated observations. However, Bayesian thinking offers an alternative approach that continuously updates probability estimates as new evidence emerges.

One Person, One $Billion?

Advances in AI have opened up the possibility of billion-dollar companies with solo founders or minimal teams. New automation tools allow founders to build products and run complex operations with smaller staffs, fundamentally rewriting startup economics with remarkably lean operations.

Could AI Could Just Rewrite Every App for You on the Fly?

AI screen-monitoring tools could rewrite apps in real-time, creating custom interfaces without API access. This interesting thought experiment shows how software might transform on-the-fly to match individual needs.

The New Business Dictionary

Behind every successful company lies a distinctive language, coded phrases and terms that reveal how they think and operate. What can these linguistic patterns tell us about success? By deciphering this vocabulary, we can better understand the different paths to building something remarkable.

Unintended Encryption, or, Much Cooler: Cryptoviral Extortion

The 'unintentional encryption' narrative creates a cartoonish framing around RANSOMWARE, as if you mistyped and hit control-z to undo the mistake. This overlooks critical questions about design choices, default security settings, and the fundamental art and science of computer security.

No More Fun Computers?

The contrast between late 90s transparent tech (iMac G3, VW Beetle) and today's opaque AI systems reflects a cultural shift from optimistic, visible computing to inscrutable black-box technology. However, AI could ironically help make computing more natural and "invisible" again.

Open on Thursday, Closed on Sunday

The last couple years have shown unprecedented speed of change: SVB collapsed within days through group chat coordination, while ChatGPT reached global adoption almost instantly. Yet we may be hitting natural limits—not technical ones, but human capacity to process and adapt to such rapid shifts.

A Smarter Rubber Duck: The Duck Talks Back

The classic "rubber duck debugging" technique asks developers to explain code problems to an unresponsive toy duck, but AI transforms this into an interactive dialogue where the duck can actually respond with meaningful insights and suggestions.

What if a Computer Was a Walk in the Woods? Why Should an AI Computer Be Like a Desktop Computer? And More on Mark Weiser.

Recent advances in AI have given rise to "power users" who push the boundaries of human-computer interaction. Moving beyond simple prompts, they develop personalized workflows that treat AI as a cognitive partner. Their practices hint at a future where we question what a computer even is.