"...but there are also disadvantages"
Nothing but links today. Plus, an experiment with using the robot to share links with you, dear readers.
This episode: AI is coming for your software job, or at least for the parts of it you actually enjoyed. Meanwhile, businesses are still stuck in pilot purgatory with generative AI, IT leaders remain unconvinced of AI’s ROI, and Java is apparently coming for Python’s AI crown. The economy may be changing not because of interest rates or labor shortages, but because everyone is drinking more water and eating fewer snacks. Also: MP3s are free, remote workers may be getting pay cuts, Kubernetes vs. Serverless, and a reminder that laws are now a gentlemen’s agreement, and we are not ruled by gentlemen.
Relative to your interests
You Didn’t Notice MP3 Is Now Free - The MP3 format, once a staple for digital audio, is now free due to expired licensing. However, its significance has diminished with the rise of streaming services and faster internet speeds, making file sizes less of a concern. While this change is notable for developers, the general population is largely unaffected by the shift away from MP3.
When will remote workers see their pay cut? - This sort of like paying people in different regions different salaries for cost of living. Of course, it doesn’t address the actual question: does WFH vs RTO actually have an effect on business success?
LinkedIn revenue: ”Microsoft’s bottom line — the division delivered $16 billion in revenue in 2024, more than The New York Times, Zoom, and Docusign put together.” Sherwood.
Reflecting on the ROI of marketing efforts I’ve done recently - “Reflecting on the ROI of marketing efforts I’ve done recently: Print isn’t that useful unless it’s with a writer with a voice (e.g., a substack). Audio and video really make an impact. You want to be inside someone’s EarPods. Speaking at trade shows is helpful in expanding your network”
After 30 years of code, Java remains an enterprise cornerstone - ”Nearly 7 in 10 respondents reported more than half of their organization’s applications run on Java. Roughly half are now leveraging the programming language to build AI applications.”
2025 Is the Last Year of Python Dominance in AI: Java Comin’ - Asked if he believed Java could overtake Python for leadership in AI development, Arnal Dayaratna, an analyst at IDC, told The New Stack: “Yes, definitely, this could happen, especially since Java is unparalleled for the development of enterprise-grade, mission critical applications at scale.”
How real-world businesses are transforming with AI - with 50 new stories
Stuck in the pilot phase: Enterprises grapple with generative AI ROI - “More than 90% of leaders expressed concern about generative AI pilots proceeding without addressing problems uncovered by previous initiatives, according to the Informatica report. Nearly 3 in 5 respondents admitted to facing pressure to move projects along faster.”
IT decision makers unconvinced of returns from AI investment - “Nearly half of respondents have yet to adopt AI at all, with 36 percent indicating they plan to start using it within the next 12 months, while a further 13 percent are still at the stage of considering or evaluating it but have no plans yet.”
70s Sci-Fi Art - Good newsletter, lots of great styles.
Wastebook
“It’s bedtime again in America.” Among many more clever phrases.
“Broligarchs.” Brooke Harrington.
“The aphoristic rule of Washington meetings is: The more you know about what happened in it, probably the less fruitful it was.” Politico.
Plastic straws are a shibboleth.
“They used to say that the sun will never set on the British Empire because God doesn’t trust the bastards in the dark.” Warren Ellis.
“Immediately, we were cocktailed to the max. Some of us more than others.” David Plotz, Political Gabest for February 6th, 2025.
“If you work from home, you may go several days without speaking to another human being, but there are also disadvantages.” Laura Manach.
“laws have become a gentlemen’s agreement and we are not ruled by gentlemen.” jenn schiffer.
Great headline: “Bill Gates Says He Donated $100 Billion Of His Wealth For Charitable Causes, But He ‘Didn’t Order Less Hamburgers Or Less Movies.’”
What the robot read
I often ask the robot to summarize articles for me that look interesting…but that I don’t want to read. These are not the summaries, but I asked it to write a Harper’s Weekly Review style summary for you. What do you think?
Sam Altman claimed that AI intelligence scales logarithmically with compute and that costs are falling tenfold each year, which, if true, means AI will soon be as cheap and omnipresent as tap water. Tim O’Reilly argued that AI will not replace programmers but instead turn them into managers of digital workers, much like software has done to factory labor, and that those who fail to embrace AI assistance will be the first to fall behind. A group of researchers suggested that AI-assisted development is most effective when structured prompts are used, such as API simulators that let engineers refine interfaces before writing any actual code.
John Cochrane noted that eliminating taxes on tips may have little impact, since most low-income workers already pay little to no federal income tax, unless payroll taxes are also exempted. Martin Weitzman (1974) explained that when costs are highly uncertain, tax-based regulations, such as carbon pricing, are often more efficient than hard quotas, which may force companies into inefficient or unnecessarily expensive compliance.
John Ganz observed that Silicon Valley billionaires, having built platforms that fueled left-wing activism, turned reactionary when they realized their own workers and user bases were using those tools to organize against them. A DIY survival guide advised that the most effective forms of resistance against an authoritarian regime are often mundane—delaying bureaucracy, documenting history, and making sure that those fleeing oppression have somewhere to sleep.
Cloud modernization efforts continued as businesses struggled with “creaky cloud infrastructures”, with Computer Weekly reporting that legacy IT assets remain a major obstacle to data-driven innovation. The importance of modernization, they noted, isn’t just about performance—it’s also about trust, security, and ensuring that businesses can actually use the data they collect instead of just hoarding it.
Meanwhile, new data suggested that GLP-1 weight loss drugs are rewiring consumer spending habits, with James Dillard noting that purchases of fitness trackers are up 183%, water filtration systems up 28%, and skincare products up 12%. Alcohol sales are down, dried meat snacks are down, and refrigerated salad dressings—perhaps the unspoken victims of shifting metabolic priorities—are down nearly 20%. The new economy may be built not on cheap credit or AI-fueled productivity but on fewer late-night snacks and an obsession with hydration.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, now acting director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), issued a directive halting the agency’s supervision of non-bank entities, notably shielding Elon Musk’s X from regulatory oversight. This move aligns with Musk’s vision of transforming X into an “everything app,” reminiscent of China’s WeChat. Meanwhile, Amazon announced plans to invest over $100 billion in artificial intelligence infrastructure for its cloud division, Amazon Web Services (AWS), in 2025. This investment nearly matches AWS’s annual revenue, highlighting the company’s commitment to AI advancement.
In the political arena, President Donald Trump proposed extending the 2017 tax cuts, expanding the State and Local Tax (SALT) deduction, and eliminating taxes on tips, overtime pay, and Social Security benefits. These initiatives could reduce federal revenue by $5 to $11 trillion over the next decade, potentially increasing the national debt to between 132% and 149% of GDP by 2035. Reflecting on societal shifts, an essay in The Point Magazine observed that we are told, with increasing frequency, that we are living in a post-feminist age.
In a candid blog post, designer Elizabeth Pape of Elizabeth Suzann discussed the challenges of scaling a self-funded fashion business, touching on topics like pricing, consumption, and the complexities of ethical production.
Logoff
I did a lot of AI stuff above, maybe too much and too long. But, we’ll see. Sorry if it pissed you off. Tell me if you liked it (and want more) or do not like it and want less/none:
I signed up for ChatGPT Pro this weekend. Ben Thompson’s overview of it in last week’s Sharp Tech made me very interested. Since I live in the EU, I can get a refund within 14 days, so that $200/month price a barrier to trying it. So far the Deep Research thing is OK/good. Since it’s going to be moving into the Plus tier (right?), even if it’s limited to some number a month, I don’t think I need to pat $200 a month. Still, it’s been great, especially for making a parent’s guide to helping our kids out with homework.