Jon Ayre
@jonayre.uk
I've been an engineer, software developer, architect, director & CTO. Now I'm a hands-on consultant doing business and tech strategy. Creator of the business evolution map. Father & Husband. It WILL go wrong & it CAN be fixed. He/him.
Let's not forget that for every man with a Glock, there's also a man (many in fact) who just loves photographing nature.
And that's why it's all worthwhile.
Happy New Year.
And that's why it's all worthwhile.
Happy New Year.
18 months ago I was photographing birds in a US national park when someone jumped out of a car in front of a dozen witnesses, put a Glock to my forehead, and demanded my camera.
This shot is from my first time out birding after that.
Living like this is a deliberate choice.
This shot is from my first time out birding after that.
Living like this is a deliberate choice.
January 6, 2026 at 8:48 AM
Let's not forget that for every man with a Glock, there's also a man (many in fact) who just loves photographing nature.
And that's why it's all worthwhile.
Happy New Year.
And that's why it's all worthwhile.
Happy New Year.
If everyone makes the same mistake in a language, the language is the problem.
If only we moved the software development profession forward with each new language rather than looping back to the beginning each time.
If only we moved the software development profession forward with each new language rather than looping back to the beginning each time.
🐍 Python Mistakes Everyone Makes ❌
Day 11: Using += Thinking It Creates a New Object
Detailed Explanation: www.clcoding.com/2025/12/day-...
Day 11: Using += Thinking It Creates a New Object
Detailed Explanation: www.clcoding.com/2025/12/day-...
January 3, 2026 at 12:25 PM
If everyone makes the same mistake in a language, the language is the problem.
If only we moved the software development profession forward with each new language rather than looping back to the beginning each time.
If only we moved the software development profession forward with each new language rather than looping back to the beginning each time.
The more of these I see the more it feels like Python has forgotten all the lessons learnt with previous new languages.
The most important of these lessons being don't have features in the language that are bound to become common problems for new users of the language.
The most important of these lessons being don't have features in the language that are bound to become common problems for new users of the language.
🐍 Python Mistakes Everyone Makes ❌
Day 9: Overwriting Built-in Names
Detailed Explanation: www.clcoding.com/2025/12/day-...
Day 9: Overwriting Built-in Names
Detailed Explanation: www.clcoding.com/2025/12/day-...
January 2, 2026 at 9:28 AM
The more of these I see the more it feels like Python has forgotten all the lessons learnt with previous new languages.
The most important of these lessons being don't have features in the language that are bound to become common problems for new users of the language.
The most important of these lessons being don't have features in the language that are bound to become common problems for new users of the language.
Sometimes, if it's a mistake everyone makes, it's a mistake in the language syntax not the people
🐍 Python Mistakes Everyone Makes ❌
Day 8: Forgetting self in Class Methods
Detailed Explanation: www.clcoding.com/2025/12/day-...
Day 8: Forgetting self in Class Methods
Detailed Explanation: www.clcoding.com/2025/12/day-...
December 31, 2025 at 3:48 PM
Sometimes, if it's a mistake everyone makes, it's a mistake in the language syntax not the people
Ads.
Still the biggest revenue stream in town.
Still the biggest revenue stream in town.
what a shocking turn of events
who could’ve seen this coming
who could’ve seen this coming
OpenAI Reportedly Planning to Make ChatGPT "Prioritize" Advertisers in Conversation
OpenAI employees working on ChatGPT report plans to unleash sponsored advertisements above organic results.
futurism.com
December 31, 2025 at 10:14 AM
Ads.
Still the biggest revenue stream in town.
Still the biggest revenue stream in town.
Yup. This is I like to call the snow shovel effect.
You make rapid progress at first but you're building up a huge wall of snow in front of you. Pretty soon you grind to a halt and there's no easy way to get moving again.
We know how this goes because we've seen it so many times before.
You make rapid progress at first but you're building up a huge wall of snow in front of you. Pretty soon you grind to a halt and there's no easy way to get moving again.
We know how this goes because we've seen it so many times before.
Can't wait for the loosened up, non-perfect, but quickly shipped AI-enhanced updates to hit my banking and insurance services next year.
Im sure there will be no issues there at all.
Im sure there will be no issues there at all.
December 27, 2025 at 8:07 AM
Yup. This is I like to call the snow shovel effect.
You make rapid progress at first but you're building up a huge wall of snow in front of you. Pretty soon you grind to a halt and there's no easy way to get moving again.
We know how this goes because we've seen it so many times before.
You make rapid progress at first but you're building up a huge wall of snow in front of you. Pretty soon you grind to a halt and there's no easy way to get moving again.
We know how this goes because we've seen it so many times before.
Schrödi says Merry Christmas!
December 24, 2025 at 2:50 PM
Schrödi says Merry Christmas!
IMO conciousness is both binary and linear
Binary: A neural network (artificial or biological) either has the necessary architectural features for consiousness or it doesn't.
Linear: If it does, then the level of consciousness is related to the network size
LLMs do not have the necessary features
Binary: A neural network (artificial or biological) either has the necessary architectural features for consiousness or it doesn't.
Linear: If it does, then the level of consciousness is related to the network size
LLMs do not have the necessary features
December 24, 2025 at 11:03 AM
IMO conciousness is both binary and linear
Binary: A neural network (artificial or biological) either has the necessary architectural features for consiousness or it doesn't.
Linear: If it does, then the level of consciousness is related to the network size
LLMs do not have the necessary features
Binary: A neural network (artificial or biological) either has the necessary architectural features for consiousness or it doesn't.
Linear: If it does, then the level of consciousness is related to the network size
LLMs do not have the necessary features
Reposted by Jon Ayre
Space news is the best. Like, what do you mean there's a runaway supermassive black hole 10 million times bigger than the sun moving through space at 2 million miles per hour www.space.com/astronomy/bl...
James Webb Space Telescope confirms 1st 'runaway' supermassive black hole rocketing through 'Cosmic Owl' galaxies at 2.2 million mph: 'It boggles the mind!'
"The forces that are needed to dislodge such a massive black hole from its home are enormous."
www.space.com
December 19, 2025 at 4:40 AM
Space news is the best. Like, what do you mean there's a runaway supermassive black hole 10 million times bigger than the sun moving through space at 2 million miles per hour www.space.com/astronomy/bl...
Ah. I see Bluesky found their revenue stream and, rather unimaginatively, it's you.
v1.112 is live!
We’re launching Find Friends, a contact import feature that helps you find people you know on Bluesky.
Try it! In the mobile app, go to Settings → Find friends from contacts.
Read how we took a more secure approach to this than other platforms: bsky.social/about/blog/1...
We’re launching Find Friends, a contact import feature that helps you find people you know on Bluesky.
Try it! In the mobile app, go to Settings → Find friends from contacts.
Read how we took a more secure approach to this than other platforms: bsky.social/about/blog/1...
December 18, 2025 at 7:48 AM
Ah. I see Bluesky found their revenue stream and, rather unimaginatively, it's you.
"I am Connor MacLeod of the Clan MacLeod. I was born in 1518 in the village of Glenfinnan on the shores of Loch Shiel. And I am immortal!"
Natural compound found in dark chocolate and coffee is directly linked to slower aging
Dark chocolate contains theobromine, a compound that links to slower cell aging. People with higher levels showed younger biological ages.
www.earth.com
December 15, 2025 at 8:59 AM
"I am Connor MacLeod of the Clan MacLeod. I was born in 1518 in the village of Glenfinnan on the shores of Loch Shiel. And I am immortal!"
Love it or hate it, I think Disney just made a power move.
Yes, the link is to LinkedIn, but please bear with me - it's the best way to connect all the context.
Please do follow the link and give it a read. I'd be interested in your thoughts.
Yes, the link is to LinkedIn, but please bear with me - it's the best way to connect all the context.
Please do follow the link and give it a read. I'd be interested in your thoughts.
Someone just remembered the "VHS vs Betamax vs V2000" battle and the lesson that taught us.
In the media world, the winner is never the best tech. The winner is the one with the best… | Jon...
Someone just remembered the "VHS vs Betamax vs V2000" battle and the lesson that taught us.
In the media world, the winner is never the best tech. The winner is the one with the best technology.
It'...
www.linkedin.com
December 15, 2025 at 7:32 AM
Love it or hate it, I think Disney just made a power move.
Yes, the link is to LinkedIn, but please bear with me - it's the best way to connect all the context.
Please do follow the link and give it a read. I'd be interested in your thoughts.
Yes, the link is to LinkedIn, but please bear with me - it's the best way to connect all the context.
Please do follow the link and give it a read. I'd be interested in your thoughts.
Reposted by Jon Ayre
I hate how much I enjoyed this
BIG NERD DESIGN ENERGY 🫦
BIG NERD DESIGN ENERGY 🫦
December 13, 2025 at 5:47 PM
I hate how much I enjoyed this
BIG NERD DESIGN ENERGY 🫦
BIG NERD DESIGN ENERGY 🫦
Honestly, if your transcription tool doesn't replace whole sections of your meeting with "blah blah blah", is it even AI?
December 14, 2025 at 10:30 AM
Honestly, if your transcription tool doesn't replace whole sections of your meeting with "blah blah blah", is it even AI?
Took my kid Charlie to Cambridge for an interview at Trinity College. It's like going back in time to an era where everyone wore hats and scarves, and bicycles were a thing.
December 9, 2025 at 8:17 AM
Took my kid Charlie to Cambridge for an interview at Trinity College. It's like going back in time to an era where everyone wore hats and scarves, and bicycles were a thing.
We really should be getting a lot less excited about GenAI and a lot more excited about this.
We should be celebrating less billionaires, entertainers and athletes as role models, and presenting people like this as role models.
Human endeavour and ingenuity at its best:
We should be celebrating less billionaires, entertainers and athletes as role models, and presenting people like this as role models.
Human endeavour and ingenuity at its best:
Base editing: Revolutionary therapy clears girl's incurable cancer
New way of altering DNA is used to engineer an
www.bbc.co.uk
December 9, 2025 at 7:59 AM
We really should be getting a lot less excited about GenAI and a lot more excited about this.
We should be celebrating less billionaires, entertainers and athletes as role models, and presenting people like this as role models.
Human endeavour and ingenuity at its best:
We should be celebrating less billionaires, entertainers and athletes as role models, and presenting people like this as role models.
Human endeavour and ingenuity at its best:
The core thing that drives someone to become an engineer is the insatiable desire to know how things work
If you use LLMs to code but don't know how they work, that's fine, but don't call yourself an engineer. You probably don't have an engineering qualification & you clearly don't have the mindset
If you use LLMs to code but don't know how they work, that's fine, but don't call yourself an engineer. You probably don't have an engineering qualification & you clearly don't have the mindset
December 9, 2025 at 7:53 AM
The core thing that drives someone to become an engineer is the insatiable desire to know how things work
If you use LLMs to code but don't know how they work, that's fine, but don't call yourself an engineer. You probably don't have an engineering qualification & you clearly don't have the mindset
If you use LLMs to code but don't know how they work, that's fine, but don't call yourself an engineer. You probably don't have an engineering qualification & you clearly don't have the mindset
This is riddled with ethical concerns as it is, but as someone who accidentally trained a neural network to identify sunny days instead of tanks in a forest, I can confirm you need to know where & when each photo was taken
AI will find a pattern but you can't be sure it's the pattern you wanted
AI will find a pattern but you can't be sure it's the pattern you wanted
Springer Nature retracts, removes nearly 40 publications
The dataset contains images of children’s faces downloaded from websites about autism, which sparked concerns at Springer Nature about consent and reliability.
www.thetransmitter.org
December 9, 2025 at 7:45 AM
This is riddled with ethical concerns as it is, but as someone who accidentally trained a neural network to identify sunny days instead of tanks in a forest, I can confirm you need to know where & when each photo was taken
AI will find a pattern but you can't be sure it's the pattern you wanted
AI will find a pattern but you can't be sure it's the pattern you wanted
You can criticise boomers (& gen X) all you like, but at least those generations tried to make technologies that would improve things. They were horribly naive but they tried
Millennials made Uber, Lyft, Airbnb, Spotify, Deliveroo, GenAI
A veritable cornucopia of exploitative convenience
Millennials made Uber, Lyft, Airbnb, Spotify, Deliveroo, GenAI
A veritable cornucopia of exploitative convenience
December 9, 2025 at 7:16 AM
You can criticise boomers (& gen X) all you like, but at least those generations tried to make technologies that would improve things. They were horribly naive but they tried
Millennials made Uber, Lyft, Airbnb, Spotify, Deliveroo, GenAI
A veritable cornucopia of exploitative convenience
Millennials made Uber, Lyft, Airbnb, Spotify, Deliveroo, GenAI
A veritable cornucopia of exploitative convenience
For a car to be useful to you, you don't have to believe it can fly, but to use it safely and effectively, you do need to accept that it can't.
The same goes for LLMs and thinking (or intelligent reasoning).
The same goes for LLMs and thinking (or intelligent reasoning).
December 9, 2025 at 6:40 AM
For a car to be useful to you, you don't have to believe it can fly, but to use it safely and effectively, you do need to accept that it can't.
The same goes for LLMs and thinking (or intelligent reasoning).
The same goes for LLMs and thinking (or intelligent reasoning).
Remember this next time someone says "but they have autonomous robots". These machines are certainly advanced in mechanical and control terms, but they're not able to do human activities. The humans do them. Same goes for Boston Dynamics.
can't stop watching this clip of a tesla Optimus teleoperator taking his headset off before properly logging out the robot
December 9, 2025 at 6:25 AM
Remember this next time someone says "but they have autonomous robots". These machines are certainly advanced in mechanical and control terms, but they're not able to do human activities. The humans do them. Same goes for Boston Dynamics.
Reposted by Jon Ayre
can't stop watching this clip of a tesla Optimus teleoperator taking his headset off before properly logging out the robot
December 8, 2025 at 9:29 AM
can't stop watching this clip of a tesla Optimus teleoperator taking his headset off before properly logging out the robot
And still every segment looks very clearly like AI.
In the same way as each generation becomes attuned to the differences between CGI and reality, so it is with AI.
The morphing of one 2D image to another never quite reflects 3D reality because there is no underlying 3D model to be rendered.
In the same way as each generation becomes attuned to the differences between CGI and reality, so it is with AI.
The morphing of one 2D image to another never quite reflects 3D reality because there is no underlying 3D model to be rendered.
McDonald's has released an AI-generated Christmas ad
The studio behind it says they 'hardly slept' for several weeks while writing AI prompts and refining the shots — 'AI didn't make this film. We did'
Comments have been turned off on YouTube
The studio behind it says they 'hardly slept' for several weeks while writing AI prompts and refining the shots — 'AI didn't make this film. We did'
Comments have been turned off on YouTube
December 9, 2025 at 6:09 AM
And still every segment looks very clearly like AI.
In the same way as each generation becomes attuned to the differences between CGI and reality, so it is with AI.
The morphing of one 2D image to another never quite reflects 3D reality because there is no underlying 3D model to be rendered.
In the same way as each generation becomes attuned to the differences between CGI and reality, so it is with AI.
The morphing of one 2D image to another never quite reflects 3D reality because there is no underlying 3D model to be rendered.
We got an advent calendar for the cats this year with all sorts of cat toys in. One of them was a decorative collar. Schrödi was very interested in it so we put it on him.
He definitely knew he looked good in it and proudly posed for photos. He's so vain.
(We didn't leave it on for safety reasons)
He definitely knew he looked good in it and proudly posed for photos. He's so vain.
(We didn't leave it on for safety reasons)
December 8, 2025 at 8:54 AM
We got an advent calendar for the cats this year with all sorts of cat toys in. One of them was a decorative collar. Schrödi was very interested in it so we put it on him.
He definitely knew he looked good in it and proudly posed for photos. He's so vain.
(We didn't leave it on for safety reasons)
He definitely knew he looked good in it and proudly posed for photos. He's so vain.
(We didn't leave it on for safety reasons)