Despair is interestingly good signal
Five fragments for the week of October 13, 2025
Hello from the middle of October. Do you know what you’ll be for Halloween?
Here are five fragments that stuck with me last week…
unfortunately it only works in retrospect, but i noticed that there’s an ‘optimal’ amount of ambition when undertaking a new project: i feel highly confident in my odds until i get 90% through, followed by 9% of pure despair “why the fuck did i decide this was a good idea i’m so so screwed”, before a final 1% where the ship ultimately turns around successfully
without experiencing the “why did i do this” moment (but only in juuust the right amount), i systematically underinvest. despair is interestingly good signal!
– @giansegato on X, October 11, 2025.
Like Simon, I don’t understand the appeal of being an operator rather than a programmer. There’s leverage, sure … but remember that leverage happens through a lever: which necessarily dulls your senses, pushes you back from where the work is happening. I’d rather be up close, because (1) it’s more fun, and (2) I care about the details.
– Robin Sloan, “The distance of leverage,” October 9, 2025. Robin’s blog is delightfully active lately; new posts every time I return.
…emoji’s are masterclass of communication. Apple’s version of them, hold genuine status & prestige. They have redefined language over the last (nearly) 20 years. A pattern language incarnate, reimagined with every generation of user.
Their diffusion model lets you translate plain english into your own emoji’s. Generated user input in real time. It’s fucking amazing, & while that open ended creativity IS at odds with the conditions that created emoji’s profound folk patterns - it is EXTREMELY worthy as a marketing campaign.
The Arc of Good Design & Worthy Compute is Long, But it Bends Toward The Egg with Hands & Feet.
– @peace_node on X, October 5, 2025. The best response I saw to this viral post on X contrasting an old Think Different campaign from Apple with a recent Genmoji campaign. I’m especially fond of the idea of emoji as a renewable pattern language and “The Egg with Hands & Feet” as a folk hero.
I met some people from openAI this weekend and I was telling them how much I like o3 and they said “yeah some people got weirdly attached to models” and I was like “how dare you compare me to those 4o losers. I like an unfeeling sociopath, we are not the same. I have taste.”
– Jessie Frazelle on X, October 8, 2025. Personality is a matter of taste.
it’s so amazing when you’re handwriting and you get to a word with two t’s and you get to do one big line across for both of them. life can be amazing occasionally though also still very painful
– @chunkbardey on X, October 12, 2025. The account is full of jokes, but this one rings true.
Until next time,
Diana
https://dianaberlin.com