Rob Miller
@robm.wtf
• writer • https://roblog.co.uk
• strategist • https://orso.so
• umami lover • https://msgist.com/ & https://honestumami.com/
• documentary watcher • https://docked.blog/
• photographer • https://reldn.co.uk/
• Romanista • https://romer.world/
📍 London
• strategist • https://orso.so
• umami lover • https://msgist.com/ & https://honestumami.com/
• documentary watcher • https://docked.blog/
• photographer • https://reldn.co.uk/
• Romanista • https://romer.world/
📍 London
I finished it a couple of weeks ago. I had to set aside some time on a quiet Saturday morning to read the last couple of chapters, both because I didn't want it to end and because I had a sense of how I might feel when it did. "Whimsical and devastating" is exactly right – thank you for it.
January 4, 2026 at 9:33 AM
I finished it a couple of weeks ago. I had to set aside some time on a quiet Saturday morning to read the last couple of chapters, both because I didn't want it to end and because I had a sense of how I might feel when it did. "Whimsical and devastating" is exactly right – thank you for it.
The gushing tone of US articles about military operations is nauseating. Nerds fawning over jocks, coopting the language of "elite units", "MH-47 helicopters", regimental nicknames and then casually dropping in "oh and 40 Venezuelan civilians died too" www.nytimes.com/2026/01/03/u...
Inside ‘Operation Absolute Resolve,’ the U.S. Effort to Capture Maduro
www.nytimes.com
January 4, 2026 at 9:18 AM
The gushing tone of US articles about military operations is nauseating. Nerds fawning over jocks, coopting the language of "elite units", "MH-47 helicopters", regimental nicknames and then casually dropping in "oh and 40 Venezuelan civilians died too" www.nytimes.com/2026/01/03/u...
Reposted by Rob Miller
orcas have the chance to do the funniest thing
December 31, 2025 at 5:25 PM
orcas have the chance to do the funniest thing
Hard to disagree with this.
Having had a day to think through everything about El-Fattah, here's where I stand. Yes, it's possible to believe all of these things at once! In fact, it really shouldn't be that hard.
December 29, 2025 at 1:56 PM
Hard to disagree with this.
An absolute pleasure, and Merry Christmas right back at ya
December 24, 2025 at 8:52 AM
An absolute pleasure, and Merry Christmas right back at ya
(Here's a gift link just in case it's paywalled: giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/... – the link is in the footer links at the end of the article)
December 24, 2025 at 8:47 AM
(Here's a gift link just in case it's paywalled: giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/... – the link is in the footer links at the end of the article)
Looks like it's linked from here: www.ft.com/content/c26f...
Chart of the Week: America’s current account woes
The risks of a weaker dollar on the current account deficit
www.ft.com
December 24, 2025 at 8:46 AM
Looks like it's linked from here: www.ft.com/content/c26f...
(And shark pyjamas! It's an amazing AI/Photoshop job though, really can't see any dead-giveaway image artefacts about it)
December 19, 2025 at 6:31 PM
(And shark pyjamas! It's an amazing AI/Photoshop job though, really can't see any dead-giveaway image artefacts about it)
Yeah, this is it IMO – that and the general situation. Why would they be together on Christmas morning at all, let alone in a house with a Jaws-themed Christmas tree?!
December 19, 2025 at 6:29 PM
Yeah, this is it IMO – that and the general situation. Why would they be together on Christmas morning at all, let alone in a house with a Jaws-themed Christmas tree?!
Yeah I think both of these points of view are very valid. I think even a light bit of hypertext/generative interactivity sprinkled on the otherwise traditional index would be interesting though (e.g. even just the ability to group index entries semantically as well as ordering them alphabetically)
December 19, 2025 at 6:16 PM
Yeah I think both of these points of view are very valid. I think even a light bit of hypertext/generative interactivity sprinkled on the otherwise traditional index would be interesting though (e.g. even just the ability to group index entries semantically as well as ordering them alphabetically)
Like, we have indexes in paper books precisely because we can't search them, computers were good at searching text before LLMs and are waaaaay better at searching text after them. We should be imagining how to more effectively search books, not how to more efficiently create indexes
December 19, 2025 at 5:15 PM
Like, we have indexes in paper books precisely because we can't search them, computers were good at searching text before LLMs and are waaaaay better at searching text after them. We should be imagining how to more effectively search books, not how to more efficiently create indexes
The need to keep the output as "TOPIC: page #, page #, page #" is an annoying limiting/complicating factor, which shows their initial premise to be a bit silly. Why get an LLM to replicate a dead-tree index format, when you can get it to give you a hyperlinked semantic search over the entire book?!
December 19, 2025 at 5:14 PM
The need to keep the output as "TOPIC: page #, page #, page #" is an annoying limiting/complicating factor, which shows their initial premise to be a bit silly. Why get an LLM to replicate a dead-tree index format, when you can get it to give you a hyperlinked semantic search over the entire book?!
Look forward to seeing how you get on with this. My mind went to a sort of semantic index approach: treat each page as a separate document, generate embeddings, do some sort of kNN to find thematically similar pages, feed those into an LLM to summarise the (topics | people | other works) referenced
December 19, 2025 at 5:07 PM
Look forward to seeing how you get on with this. My mind went to a sort of semantic index approach: treat each page as a separate document, generate embeddings, do some sort of kNN to find thematically similar pages, feed those into an LLM to summarise the (topics | people | other works) referenced
Thanks! Appreciate that. AI is by a million miles the hardest-to-navigate technical-ethical dilemma I've experienced in my life, especially since the position I think is probably morally and practically correct is so different from that of my "tribe" (soft-left creatives and craftspeople)
December 18, 2025 at 9:43 PM
Thanks! Appreciate that. AI is by a million miles the hardest-to-navigate technical-ethical dilemma I've experienced in my life, especially since the position I think is probably morally and practically correct is so different from that of my "tribe" (soft-left creatives and craftspeople)
I tried to write a bit about this at the start of the year; IMO the correct framing is to oppose "machinery hurtful to commonality", as the Luddites put it, and the answer is to try to create machinery that is helpful rather than hurtful roblog.co.uk/2025/01/the-... & roblog.co.uk/2025/08/ai-s...
December 18, 2025 at 9:26 PM
I tried to write a bit about this at the start of the year; IMO the correct framing is to oppose "machinery hurtful to commonality", as the Luddites put it, and the answer is to try to create machinery that is helpful rather than hurtful roblog.co.uk/2025/01/the-... & roblog.co.uk/2025/08/ai-s...
Reposted by Rob Miller
Cruelty is anhedonic. It rarely delivers the euphoria promised because, in the abstract, what feels righteous and joyful inevitably reveals itself to be sordid and small. Then it's "No not like that". "No not enough". "No the real battle, the forever war to make this feel good starts now". Forever.
Note how these awful people are getting exactly the exclusions of children that they demanded and *that still isn’t enough for them*: they demand everyone be delighted about it and kiss their arses for being brilliant.
December 4, 2025 at 10:59 AM
Cruelty is anhedonic. It rarely delivers the euphoria promised because, in the abstract, what feels righteous and joyful inevitably reveals itself to be sordid and small. Then it's "No not like that". "No not enough". "No the real battle, the forever war to make this feel good starts now". Forever.
Reposted by Rob Miller
Jevons only knows: the Jevons paradox and AI, or “if AI makes your industry more efficient, what happens to demand – and to your job?” roblog.co.uk/2025/12/jevo...
Jevons only knows
Jevons paradox gets thrown around a lot in the context of AI, but it’s a useful lens through which to view an industry or a role. Should you run towards or away from what you’re currently doing?
roblog.co.uk
December 15, 2025 at 4:22 PM
Jevons only knows: the Jevons paradox and AI, or “if AI makes your industry more efficient, what happens to demand – and to your job?” roblog.co.uk/2025/12/jevo...
Jevons only knows: the Jevons paradox and AI, or “if AI makes your industry more efficient, what happens to demand – and to your job?” roblog.co.uk/2025/12/jevo...
Jevons only knows
Jevons paradox gets thrown around a lot in the context of AI, but it’s a useful lens through which to view an industry or a role. Should you run towards or away from what you’re currently doing?
roblog.co.uk
December 15, 2025 at 4:22 PM
Jevons only knows: the Jevons paradox and AI, or “if AI makes your industry more efficient, what happens to demand – and to your job?” roblog.co.uk/2025/12/jevo...
A post so lucid and straightforward-seeming that it makes you want to scream: “why can Labour not understand this?!?!?!”
Short new post from me about Bloc Politics. A lot of commentators have argued, with evidence from @profjanegreen.bsky.social, @robfordmancs.bsky.social and others, that British politics has split into blocs. So what does that mean for electoral strategy? 1/n
benansell.substack.com/p/bloc-parties
benansell.substack.com/p/bloc-parties
Bloc Parties
In a world of bloc politics, what's a good offensive strategy?
benansell.substack.com
December 15, 2025 at 4:09 PM
A post so lucid and straightforward-seeming that it makes you want to scream: “why can Labour not understand this?!?!?!”
From a retailer perspective this is what's so frustrating. You have people say "DPD are awful, I'll never buy from you if you use them" and others say "I'd only ever choose DPD if I could", repeated for each and every courier. But it's all down to how good their local driver is
December 15, 2025 at 9:23 AM
From a retailer perspective this is what's so frustrating. You have people say "DPD are awful, I'll never buy from you if you use them" and others say "I'd only ever choose DPD if I could", repeated for each and every courier. But it's all down to how good their local driver is
Yes, you're right – the Americas were geographically isolated for thousands of years, and Australia too, which means the identical ancestors point for humans in ~1490 will have been ~50,000 years earlier. Migration has collapsed the IAP for currently living humans to a much more recent date
December 14, 2025 at 10:08 PM
Yes, you're right – the Americas were geographically isolated for thousands of years, and Australia too, which means the identical ancestors point for humans in ~1490 will have been ~50,000 years earlier. Migration has collapsed the IAP for currently living humans to a much more recent date
Here's more to dig into: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Identic...
Identical ancestors point - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
December 14, 2025 at 9:58 PM
Here's more to dig into: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Identic...
(Mitochondrial Eve is not technically the most recent common ancestor, just the most recent common ancestor through strict matrilineal descent, but I believe we can't tell who those other candidates might be)
December 14, 2025 at 9:57 PM
(Mitochondrial Eve is not technically the most recent common ancestor, just the most recent common ancestor through strict matrilineal descent, but I believe we can't tell who those other candidates might be)
I think you have to go back ~150,000 years to Mitochondrial Eve to find the actual common ancestor of all humans, but in subgroups (e.g. in the group of people "anyone with any European ancestry whatsoever") there's essentially guaranteed to be a (much) later common ancestor than that
December 14, 2025 at 9:56 PM
I think you have to go back ~150,000 years to Mitochondrial Eve to find the actual common ancestor of all humans, but in subgroups (e.g. in the group of people "anyone with any European ancestry whatsoever") there's essentially guaranteed to be a (much) later common ancestor than that
Reposted by Rob Miller
Ever more talk of the war against fascism spreading to Europe's complacent, poorly-armed west.
The hope of relying on America closed off.
Some Brits denouncing their own country and cheering our enemies.
For some reason, I keep thinking about 1940-41 and these guys - the patriotic anti-Nazi left:
The hope of relying on America closed off.
Some Brits denouncing their own country and cheering our enemies.
For some reason, I keep thinking about 1940-41 and these guys - the patriotic anti-Nazi left:
December 14, 2025 at 11:21 AM
Ever more talk of the war against fascism spreading to Europe's complacent, poorly-armed west.
The hope of relying on America closed off.
Some Brits denouncing their own country and cheering our enemies.
For some reason, I keep thinking about 1940-41 and these guys - the patriotic anti-Nazi left:
The hope of relying on America closed off.
Some Brits denouncing their own country and cheering our enemies.
For some reason, I keep thinking about 1940-41 and these guys - the patriotic anti-Nazi left: