Vol. II · No. 314
Established 2025

smallweb

Tuesday, November 10, 2026
174 writers in the library
Tech · 1 shelves
Tech

One Useful Thing.

Trying to understand the implications of AI for work, education, and life.

Recent essays

30 of 34

Fable 5.2 and Jagged AGI

General, often expert, and sometimes jagged

30 Months on the Exponential (in Charts)

My new book is out today... what happened since the last one

The Dot and the Swarm

Benefitting from the Bitter Lesson

The Overhang

Using your deep knowledge, wide knowledge, taste, and agency

Agency and Agents

From the Hugging Face Incident to Twilight Factories

An opinionated guide to which AI to use to do stuff

The Summer 2026 Edition

The twilight of the chatbots

How work changes along the exponential

What it feels like to work with Mythos

Claude Fable represents another big jump in AI

Co-Existence and the End of Co-Intelligence

Also: how pitch a book to an AI!

Choosing to Stay Human

If you go to your favorite social media site, you will find it full of posts that start to look suspiciously similar to each other:

Sign of the future: GPT-5.5

One impressive step on the curve

Claude Dispatch and the Power of Interfaces

We often lack the tools for the job, even if the AI is capable enough

The Shape of the Thing

Where we are right now, and what likely happens next

A Guide to Which AI to Use in the Agentic Era

It's not just chatbots anymore

Management as AI superpower

Thriving in a world of agents

Claude Code and What Comes Next

With the right tools, AI can accomplish impressive things

The Shape of AI: Jaggedness, Bottlenecks and Salients

And why Nano Banana Pro is such a big deal

Three Years from GPT-3 to Gemini 3

From chatbots to agents

Giving your AI a Job Interview

As AI advice becomes more important, we are going to need to get better at assessing it

An Opinionated Guide to Using AI Right Now

What AI to use in late 2025

Real AI Agents and Real Work

The race between human-centered work and infinite PowerPoints

On Working with Wizards

Verifying magic on the jagged frontier

Mass Intelligence

From GPT-5 to nano banana: everyone is getting access to powerful AI

GPT-5: It Just Does Stuff

Putting the AI in Charge

The Bitter Lesson versus The Garbage Can

Does process matter? We are about to find out.

Against "Brain Damage"

AI can help, or hurt, our thinking

Using AI Right Now: A Quick Guide

Which AIs to use, and how to use them

The recent history of AI in 32 otters

Three years of progress as shown by marine mammals

Making AI Work: Leadership, Lab, and Crowd

A formula for AI in companies

Personality and Persuasion

Learning from Sycophants