Steve Farrugia
@fasterandworse.com
Experienced user
Australian In Amsterdam
I talk about product design and I'm quite critical
open to work, open to talks
Words: https://fasterandworse.com
Videos: https://youtube.com/@fasterandworse
Audios: https://pnc.st/s/faster-and-worse
Australian In Amsterdam
I talk about product design and I'm quite critical
open to work, open to talks
Words: https://fasterandworse.com
Videos: https://youtube.com/@fasterandworse
Audios: https://pnc.st/s/faster-and-worse
Pinned
Steve Farrugia
@fasterandworse.com
· Sep 24
Dispatch #31: Anti-Design
YouTube video by Faster and Worse
www.youtube.com
Dispatch #31: Anti-Design
Design to compensate for a lack of design
Video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=V3eL...
Audio: pnc.st/s/faster-and...
1/x
Design to compensate for a lack of design
Video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=V3eL...
Audio: pnc.st/s/faster-and...
1/x
Reposted by Steve Farrugia
Our latest interview on Stop Gen AI's blog is with a computer scientist who has a reputation for not jumping on Silicon Valley bandwagons.
Thank you, @ncweaver.skerry-tech.com!
Anti Gen AI Heroes: Nicholas Weaver would rather tell the truth than be a grifter
stopgenai.com/anti-gen-ai-...
Share!
Thank you, @ncweaver.skerry-tech.com!
Anti Gen AI Heroes: Nicholas Weaver would rather tell the truth than be a grifter
stopgenai.com/anti-gen-ai-...
Share!
November 12, 2025 at 6:24 PM
Our latest interview on Stop Gen AI's blog is with a computer scientist who has a reputation for not jumping on Silicon Valley bandwagons.
Thank you, @ncweaver.skerry-tech.com!
Anti Gen AI Heroes: Nicholas Weaver would rather tell the truth than be a grifter
stopgenai.com/anti-gen-ai-...
Share!
Thank you, @ncweaver.skerry-tech.com!
Anti Gen AI Heroes: Nicholas Weaver would rather tell the truth than be a grifter
stopgenai.com/anti-gen-ai-...
Share!
Reposted by Steve Farrugia
Every technology problem is three social problems in a trench coat
ok one last post -- oldheads are always going to "why is the web dying.... how can we get the kids invested in the free and open web"
bro the kids can't read. that's why the web is dying. first things first
bro the kids can't read. that's why the web is dying. first things first
November 11, 2025 at 7:41 PM
Every technology problem is three social problems in a trench coat
Reposted by Steve Farrugia
bluesky won’t let you upload GIFs that have no animation
my eyes are rolling so hard I can see my brain
my eyes are rolling so hard I can see my brain
November 12, 2025 at 6:01 PM
bluesky won’t let you upload GIFs that have no animation
my eyes are rolling so hard I can see my brain
my eyes are rolling so hard I can see my brain
the use case we found for ourselves has expired, other use cases have emerged and this is the nature of fluid software products of no purpose in particular
the decision to really just abandon moderation and let it rip suggests that this is what meta wants for its platform. this is the final, idealized form of the product
The most horrifying AI slop of ICE raids you can possibly imagine is wildly viral on Facebook, collectively totaling tens of millions of views from a single account. First spotted by @chadloder.bsky.social
www.404media.co/ai-generated...
www.404media.co/ai-generated...
November 12, 2025 at 6:02 PM
the use case we found for ourselves has expired, other use cases have emerged and this is the nature of fluid software products of no purpose in particular
Reposted by Steve Farrugia
Exclusive: Based on documents viewed by this newsletter, OpenAI spent over $12.4 billion on inference from 2024 to September 2025. As part of its Microsoft revenue share, it sent $493.8m in 2024/$865.8m Jan-Sep 2025, implying lower revenues than previously reported.
www.wheresyoured.at/oai_docs/
www.wheresyoured.at/oai_docs/
Exclusive: Here's How Much OpenAI Spends On Inference and Its Revenue Share With Microsoft
As with my Anthropic exclusive from a few weeks ago, though this feels like a natural premium piece, I decided it was better to publish on my free one so that you could all enjoy it. If you liked or f...
www.wheresyoured.at
November 12, 2025 at 4:30 PM
Exclusive: Based on documents viewed by this newsletter, OpenAI spent over $12.4 billion on inference from 2024 to September 2025. As part of its Microsoft revenue share, it sent $493.8m in 2024/$865.8m Jan-Sep 2025, implying lower revenues than previously reported.
www.wheresyoured.at/oai_docs/
www.wheresyoured.at/oai_docs/
Reposted by Steve Farrugia
GEMA wins against OpenAI on copying song lyrics
yo ho ho, rum, etc
www.youtube.com/watch?v=JPTY... - video
pivottoai.libsyn.com/20251112-gem... -podcast
time: 4 min 47 sec
yo ho ho, rum, etc
www.youtube.com/watch?v=JPTY... - video
pivottoai.libsyn.com/20251112-gem... -podcast
time: 4 min 47 sec
November 12, 2025 at 4:51 PM
GEMA wins against OpenAI on copying song lyrics
yo ho ho, rum, etc
www.youtube.com/watch?v=JPTY... - video
pivottoai.libsyn.com/20251112-gem... -podcast
time: 4 min 47 sec
yo ho ho, rum, etc
www.youtube.com/watch?v=JPTY... - video
pivottoai.libsyn.com/20251112-gem... -podcast
time: 4 min 47 sec
Reposted by Steve Farrugia
Do not under any circumstance hand your phone to law enforcement.
Apple launches a Digital ID and says it’ll be accepted by the TSA
Apple launches a Digital ID and says it’ll be accepted by the TSA
A new way to present your ID.
buff.ly
November 12, 2025 at 5:51 PM
Do not under any circumstance hand your phone to law enforcement.
Reposted by Steve Farrugia
Huge scoop from Ed, who had several years of financial reports leaked to him. OpenAI has been over-reporting their revenue. The company is even less profitable than we knew.
Exclusive: Based on documents viewed by this newsletter, OpenAI spent over $12.4 billion on inference from 2024 to September 2025. As part of its Microsoft revenue share, it sent $493.8m in 2024/$865.8m Jan-Sep 2025, implying lower revenues than previously reported.
www.wheresyoured.at/oai_docs/
www.wheresyoured.at/oai_docs/
Exclusive: Here's How Much OpenAI Spends On Inference and Its Revenue Share With Microsoft
As with my Anthropic exclusive from a few weeks ago, though this feels like a natural premium piece, I decided it was better to publish on my free one so that you could all enjoy it. If you liked or f...
www.wheresyoured.at
November 12, 2025 at 5:21 PM
Huge scoop from Ed, who had several years of financial reports leaked to him. OpenAI has been over-reporting their revenue. The company is even less profitable than we knew.
I feel like the "it's good for building prototypes" vibe coding excuse ignores the way that building a prototype also helps build a strategy for how to code the real thing. As in, a prototype isn't just to validate the idea, it helps validate the best course of production.
November 12, 2025 at 5:00 PM
I feel like the "it's good for building prototypes" vibe coding excuse ignores the way that building a prototype also helps build a strategy for how to code the real thing. As in, a prototype isn't just to validate the idea, it helps validate the best course of production.
sam altman's ux design has always been innocence
November 12, 2025 at 4:33 PM
sam altman's ux design has always been innocence
I will talk at your product design conference
November 12, 2025 at 1:56 PM
I will talk at your product design conference
Reposted by Steve Farrugia
A friend works in recycling logistics and was asking CTO of another popular recycling app company how they do their vision ML for IDing high-quality recycled clothing, and it's literally just a wrapper over ChatGPT that works only slightly better than random chance
The key weakness in AI agents is that they're a lie. They don't work. They just don't fuckin' work. You can't set a hallucination engine to work doing tasks. It's pants on head stupid. The hype pretends this isn't the case and hypothesises a fabulous future where they work *at all*. This is a lie.
November 10, 2025 at 3:53 PM
A friend works in recycling logistics and was asking CTO of another popular recycling app company how they do their vision ML for IDing high-quality recycled clothing, and it's literally just a wrapper over ChatGPT that works only slightly better than random chance
Reposted by Steve Farrugia
It was great to chat with @irisvanrooij.bsky.social. Her work is an important part of the fight to save academia from being destroyed by Gen AI... a very real threat.
van Rooij shared academic citatons too!
Share, share!
stopgenai.com/anti-gen-ai-...
van Rooij shared academic citatons too!
Share, share!
stopgenai.com/anti-gen-ai-...
November 10, 2025 at 5:15 PM
It was great to chat with @irisvanrooij.bsky.social. Her work is an important part of the fight to save academia from being destroyed by Gen AI... a very real threat.
van Rooij shared academic citatons too!
Share, share!
stopgenai.com/anti-gen-ai-...
van Rooij shared academic citatons too!
Share, share!
stopgenai.com/anti-gen-ai-...
Reposted by Steve Farrugia
Generative AI is the apotheosis of this process. It's praised for doing better than a human on certain tasks, but those tasks were *made for computer logic* in the first place.
The new world will try to convince you that this computer logic is more valuable than your human thought. Defy it.
The new world will try to convince you that this computer logic is more valuable than your human thought. Defy it.
November 10, 2025 at 10:42 AM
Generative AI is the apotheosis of this process. It's praised for doing better than a human on certain tasks, but those tasks were *made for computer logic* in the first place.
The new world will try to convince you that this computer logic is more valuable than your human thought. Defy it.
The new world will try to convince you that this computer logic is more valuable than your human thought. Defy it.
Reposted by Steve Farrugia
Over these past decades, software has coached us into thinking like a computer. Not necessarily on purpose, but because the software wasn't designed to be usable by thinking like a human.
This side effect was a net positive for libertarians, who leapt from anti-human software to an anti-human world
This side effect was a net positive for libertarians, who leapt from anti-human software to an anti-human world
Paulina Borsook "warned that tech libertarians wanted an anti-human world that worked more like a computer. From Cyberselfish: A Critical Romp Through The Terribly Libertarian Culture of High Tech, a book based on her 1990s writing" www.thenerdreich.com/she-warned-a...
November 10, 2025 at 10:39 AM
Over these past decades, software has coached us into thinking like a computer. Not necessarily on purpose, but because the software wasn't designed to be usable by thinking like a human.
This side effect was a net positive for libertarians, who leapt from anti-human software to an anti-human world
This side effect was a net positive for libertarians, who leapt from anti-human software to an anti-human world
posts on medium are in the linkedin waiting room
November 10, 2025 at 4:15 PM
posts on medium are in the linkedin waiting room
Reposted by Steve Farrugia
Two dominant narratives of tech: dystopian and utopian. Both are technodeterministic. When we refer to them, we live in someone else's imagination. (Paraphrasing @ruha9.bsky.social.)
November 5, 2025 at 4:56 PM
Two dominant narratives of tech: dystopian and utopian. Both are technodeterministic. When we refer to them, we live in someone else's imagination. (Paraphrasing @ruha9.bsky.social.)
the best way to create a corpus of shit is to make it easier to save stuff for later
November 5, 2025 at 12:58 PM
the best way to create a corpus of shit is to make it easier to save stuff for later
Reposted by Steve Farrugia
Today in luxury surveillance.
Former Meta employees launch a ring to take voice notes and control music | TechCrunch
A raft of voice-based hardware devices have emerged, aimed at companionship, productivity, or personal growth. These include card-shaped devices from
techcrunch.com
November 5, 2025 at 11:06 AM
Today in luxury surveillance.
Reposted by Steve Farrugia
You can’t put something out with a “here, see what you can do with this” and then say “it’s not for that”
Sora 2 is not being “misused” when people use it to produce racist, transphobic, misogynistic, & otherwise vile images—it exists to make it easier to put these images out into the world. Calling it a “misuse” is a grave misunderstanding of what these companies are up to, & lets OpenAI off the hook.
November 4, 2025 at 5:09 PM
You can’t put something out with a “here, see what you can do with this” and then say “it’s not for that”
Reposted by Steve Farrugia
The problem with anticipating a “use case” after you’ve made the thing is that you don’t really get to say which use cases are valid or not.
You made the thing before you knew what it was for, that’s why “design” has become limited to manipulating interactions
You made the thing before you knew what it was for, that’s why “design” has become limited to manipulating interactions
November 4, 2025 at 5:22 PM
The problem with anticipating a “use case” after you’ve made the thing is that you don’t really get to say which use cases are valid or not.
You made the thing before you knew what it was for, that’s why “design” has become limited to manipulating interactions
You made the thing before you knew what it was for, that’s why “design” has become limited to manipulating interactions
Reposted by Steve Farrugia
It’s the fake thing: Coca-Cola tries another AI TV ad for Christmas
the best ad Pepsi never paid for
www.youtube.com/watch?v=F0GU... - video
pivottoai.libsyn.com/20251104-its... - podcast
time: 5 min 01 sec
the best ad Pepsi never paid for
www.youtube.com/watch?v=F0GU... - video
pivottoai.libsyn.com/20251104-its... - podcast
time: 5 min 01 sec
November 4, 2025 at 9:54 PM
It’s the fake thing: Coca-Cola tries another AI TV ad for Christmas
the best ad Pepsi never paid for
www.youtube.com/watch?v=F0GU... - video
pivottoai.libsyn.com/20251104-its... - podcast
time: 5 min 01 sec
the best ad Pepsi never paid for
www.youtube.com/watch?v=F0GU... - video
pivottoai.libsyn.com/20251104-its... - podcast
time: 5 min 01 sec
You can’t put something out with a “here, see what you can do with this” and then say “it’s not for that”
Sora 2 is not being “misused” when people use it to produce racist, transphobic, misogynistic, & otherwise vile images—it exists to make it easier to put these images out into the world. Calling it a “misuse” is a grave misunderstanding of what these companies are up to, & lets OpenAI off the hook.
November 4, 2025 at 5:09 PM
You can’t put something out with a “here, see what you can do with this” and then say “it’s not for that”
Reposted by Steve Farrugia
Any high profile person or business that thinks they erroneously caught a block from me but wants to know what I think, I’m available for consulting. Email me for fees.
November 4, 2025 at 4:58 PM
Any high profile person or business that thinks they erroneously caught a block from me but wants to know what I think, I’m available for consulting. Email me for fees.
Reposted by Steve Farrugia
The wet fart noise you hear is the AI bubble deflating. CEOs are pivoting from "AI will make us more productive, somehow" to "culture will make us more productive, somehow"
The bottleneck has ALWAYS been bad strategy at the top. But instead, Amazon is trying to solve it by hollowing out the middle.
The bottleneck has ALWAYS been bad strategy at the top. But instead, Amazon is trying to solve it by hollowing out the middle.
Amazon's layoffs are driven by something even stupider than AI
Andy Jassy wants you to think that velocity can make up for lack of strategy. But "build, measure, learn" only works if you're willing to learn.
productpicnic.beehiiv.com
November 2, 2025 at 6:51 PM
The wet fart noise you hear is the AI bubble deflating. CEOs are pivoting from "AI will make us more productive, somehow" to "culture will make us more productive, somehow"
The bottleneck has ALWAYS been bad strategy at the top. But instead, Amazon is trying to solve it by hollowing out the middle.
The bottleneck has ALWAYS been bad strategy at the top. But instead, Amazon is trying to solve it by hollowing out the middle.