Mason Pelt

The following is a podcast pilot episode of a podcast from April 2021.

The ego some people have because they “founded a company” is insane.

Peter Theil and Elon Musk believe their money bought them a person in the Oval Office who will always take their calls and never tell them “no.”

Trans people are… a very small percentage of the population.

The year is 2042, Google just gives you random made up facts when you refresh the page.

Tony Hinchcliffe known for his controversial stand-up, made global headlines after attempting a set at Donald Trump’s presidential gala at Madison Square Garden.

Reminder, some people will look at a tree that provided their family syrup for 100 years and want to know why it never gave them waffles.

Lily Allen apparently makes more money selling her feet pics online than she earns from 8 million monthly Spotify streams.

Once you have solved a problem, you don’t need to continue working to fix it further, even if it feels exciting to keep optimizing.

Goal: Start a restaurant, maybe something having to do with food trucks or comic books.

James Vincent for The Verge covered my beat, or more aptly beat the same drum, as I today.

Why are so many social media companies trying to sceeeeeeezzzszzee money out of API fees?

OXO potato peelers, and curb cuts.

Willing to bet Google is afraid of an antitrust issue, and Squarespace mostly wanted the technology (security/ DNS management) to sure up issues that they’ve had for a long time.

Worshiping Visionary Leaders Hurts Innovation People are so hungry for a singular genius who “think different,” that once someone is broadly accepted as a visionary, people will give them credit for ideas they didn’t have.

Forbes props up frauds in a lot of ways, and one of those is the Forbes Councils.

The AI industry is heavily capitalized, and reliant on smoke and mirrors.

My latest for Push ROI, explains a few hard and fast rules for when we will walk away from a negotiation.

Some subreddits are taking stand opposing new Reedit API pricing.

You may know The Muffin Man.

Filed under if AI ends humanity it will do so with human stupidity.

Jonathan Snowden wrote an incredibly thoughtful article about ethics in MMA media, and journalism more broadly.

I think more publications like Deadspin would be a net positive.

Software is replacing artists and writers who enjoy their work while warehouse staffers pee in bottles to make quota.

I’m giddy.

This article came out in 2020, and I missed it until today.

This profile of Lindsay Dougherty fucking awesome and well worth the read.

A lawyer used ChatGPT to research a legal brief and it didn’t work out.

My latest for KnowTechie covers the rise of AI powered fraud.

It takes a lot for a PR firm, or any marketing firm to sue a client (Google “Spring Free EV Push ROI” to see a case in point).

AI will not be our god.

I know it was coming and I’m still not sure how I feel.

An AI-generated image of an explosion near the Pentagon went viral, causing a brief stock market crash of 0.26%.

Investigators apparently found a Nazi flag inside the truck!

Startups are filled with psychopaths enabled by delusional investors.

It’s not enough money to hurt Meta, but it may make them think twice next time.

My latest for KnowTechie is a criticism of “grief tech,” the growing number of AI chatbots that are trained with data of deceased loved ones.

Former Minneapolis police officer Justin Stetson apologized in court to Jaleel Stallings.

I’ve been at Push ROI for over eight years, but every few years I kick a few tires in consideration of a career change.

This article is an interview with Richard Mathenge, a former contractor for Sama, an AI annotation service that worked with OpenAI training OpenAI’s GPT model by repeatedly viewing and categorizing explicit and offensive content.