Patron saint of trailing-edge technologies, grateful resident of the nation-state of California.
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Among many luminous insights from Stewart Brand in his latest appearance:
"One of the things software engineers are always trying to do, they hate doing: endless simple maintenance, taking care of dependencies and stuff like that. They call it toil. Good word.
They try to automate it to get ahead of it so that the system can be made capable of seeing when the problem is coming and immediately get itself to go around it. I’m sure that A.I. is going to bring many more levels of that. That’s the upside.
The downside is you spend more and more of your life arguing with robots. [*Laughs.*]"
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/24/opinion/ezra-klein-podcast-stewart-brand.html
In 2025, wind and solar combined met 99% of demand growth around the world.
Sit with that for a minute. Essentially all new demand for electricity, globally, is being met with clean renewable sources.
How is that not a screaming headline?
On another episode of the Volts podcast, Bill McKibben said we have to stop talking about alternative energy, solar isn't an alternative, it's the default for new power generation.
With or without media recognition, the energy transition is happening and nothing can stop it.
I've been looking for a way to build on the #TeslaTakedown momentum.
Let's reward companies like Costco for holding strong on diversity and encourage companies like Target to get on the right side of history.
In many cities there's a Costco right next to a Target, so if Costco has what you need it's an easy choice to make!
"The only influence X has left is the influence journalists and politicians give it. For the good of all of us, it’s time for them all to unplug."
Journos and poIs I know many of you feel your brands require you to be there. I was once in a similar position, no longer am, so leaving was easier for me than it would be for you. I'm not telling you that you should, only that if you do, many of us will honor the decision.