Tim Horan

I talk about anything and everything.

[Tim Horan @TimboTalks1]

My chance encounter with dolphins got me thinking about AI and what it's missing. More: https://t.co/vIOqcQEQEP

[Tim Horan @TimboTalks1]

On my walk, I saw three animals, out of place. It was low tide, and they bounded from one island to the next, past the oyster farms. It took my brain a beat to register that these were deer. Two boys and their mother came up to me after they saw me filming the deer with my phone. "You saw those, right?" pleaded one of the boys. I reassured them that I had. It felt nice to share something unusual and beautiful with other people.

[Tim Horan @TimboTalks1]

We live in weird times. Everyone in the laptop class now relies on something no one understands. AI's pull is undeniable. People who "hate it" can't help but use it themselves. I've witnessed numerous examples. But I don't care about hypocrisy; it's a feature, not a bug, of humanity. The danger now is that we've outsourced our ability to think to a tool that doesn't seem to "think" like us. It advances so quickly that we'll soon be unable to account for its existence. Our explanations will be no less fanciful than those who believe we owe modern technology to reverse-engineered flying discs that crashed in the 1940s. All we'll know is how to keep power flowing to it. That will be essential knowledge, because without this electrified alien mind, we won't be able to do anything.

[Tim Horan @TimboTalks1]

That show on Netflix where Alex Honnold climbed Taipei 101, an almost 1,700 ft skyscraper without any climbing gear, was incredible. I turned away in horror a few times. But what I watched had a positive effect afterwards. I caught myself feeling frustrated about the stuff on my to-do list. The negative emotion passed damn quickly when I thought of Alex repeatedly climbing over those 10 decorative steel dragons as he made his way up the outside of the building. 101 floors in an hour and a half. The guy needs to be studied.

[Tim Horan @TimboTalks1]

I envy Neo in The Matrix (1999). Not because of his mad powers. No, I'm jealous that he can use a mobile phone that switches on immediately. It takes forever for my Android phone (2026) to boot up because of all the bloatware crammed into it. Technology companies don't know how to be as efficient as their predecessors. They're making things slower while promising us we can do more with their products. The evil machines in Neo's world should take over. I'd be a human battery for them if my phone were ready to go as soon as I pressed the power button.

[Tim Horan @TimboTalks1]

This is a crazy concept, but if you speak the truth in your headline, people will click on it. I clicked on this one. Refreshing!

[Tim Horan @TimboTalks1]

Thanks, Netflix, for the reminder. I'll pass. The truth is, I bailed after one episode and tried to forget. Your new product is nowhere near as good as your old product. 2016 was lightning in a bottle.

[Tim Horan @TimboTalks1]

This blew my mind. WeightWatchers now offers weight loss drugs. Weight gain is easy, especially this time of year. Losing it, well, that’s super hard. But being a human is no picnic. I think the point of our existence is to overcome difficulty on our own terms. This is another example of marketing people losing the plot in their quest to convince us that removing all friction from life is good.

[Tim Horan @TimboTalks1]

Give me a choice between reading a blog post or a few pages of a book, and I'll always choose the physical object. However, I'm happy to read your blog if you print it out first and FedEx it to me. BTW, my pile of yet-to-be-read books is not as impressive as Umberto's, but I'm getting close.

[Tim Horan @TimboTalks1]

Only $24.00 AUD for three and a bit hours of spectacle. That's roughly 12 cents per minute. Money well spent and less than the underwhelming "gourmet" burger and fries I purchased from Grill'd. I should have fled from that meal the way Spider in the movie did after his deadbeat dad, Quaritch, extended him a burger as a peace offering. I digress. It baffles me that always-online types trash the Avatar movies as weak, forgettable slop. Every frame is a work of art. The story is as layered as an onion.

[Tim Horan @TimboTalks1]

The metaverse died because the VR/AR goggles were too big for anyone to wear. Look how tiny Zuck's head is in comparison.

[Tim Horan @TimboTalks1]

There are two LLMs inside you.

[JB @JasonBotterill]

Another example of Sonnet 4.5 just feeling genuinely less cringe to talk with.

[Tim Horan @TimboTalks1]

About time. Only $8. We should have never ditched handsets. If you live long enough, you'll see everything comes back around.

[Tim Horan @TimboTalks1]

Plenty of "moral" outrage out there about AI. Imagine if someone with talent and taste embraced it rather than condemned it. That sounds like hard work, though.

More in my newsletter: https://t.co/bfLa5MBAM5

[Tim Horan @TimboTalks1]

I always thought Claude was better than the rest. Nice to see it top this AI list, too.

[Tim Horan @TimboTalks1]

AI promises to turn everybody into a somebody, but makes most sound like nobody.

[Tim Horan @TimboTalks1]

Poor internet. You had so much to give.

[Tim Horan @TimboTalks1]

You ever try going shopping with an AI? I mean, what's the deal with that? It's like bringing along a lawyer who's also a thesaurus! I'm in the produce aisle, I pick up a banana, and I say, "Hey, AI, what's this?" Does it say, "It's a banana"? No! It goes, "It's not just a piece of fruit." Not just? What is this, a riddle? I'm not trying to crack a code in the grocery store! I just want to know if it goes in my cereal! So I press it, right? "Come on, just tell me what it is!" And the AI is like, "It's an elongated, curved, yellow, peelable fruit filled with potassium and vitamin B6." Oh, so it's a banana? Why didn't you just say that? I'm not studying for a botany degree here! I'm trying to buy breakfast, not defend a thesis!

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From the lost Seinfeld episode: "The Banana Negation Nightmare"

[Tim Horan @TimboTalks1]

AI is making people crazy.

I've documented a couple of examples here: https://t.co/mFuem2OlI0

[Tim Horan @TimboTalks1]

I’ve given up explaining how slow Australia’s internet is to overseas clients. I share this pic with them instead.