Murmel's Digest
March 19, 2026 · View on web
These are the most widely shared links from across Mastodon and the Fediverse today — surfaced by Murmel from thousands of posts in the open social web. This is the Fediverse-wide view. Sign up to get a digest tailored to the people you actually follow.
Marc Andreessen is wrong about introspection
joanwestenberg.com · 31 people Worth reading
This newsletter is free to read, and it’ll stay that way. But if you want more - extra posts each month, access to the community, and a direct line to ask me things - paid subscriptions are $2.50/month. A lot of people have told me it’s
Four hundred years ago, the people Andreessen imagines were blissfully unselfconscious were reading Augustine and Montaigne and arguing about Stoic philosophy. They were writing diaries and letters that examined their own motives with considerable care. They were not, in fact, just moving forward without asking where they were going.
— @Daojoan · Mar 19
Let’s work together. — ethanmarcotte.com
ethanmarcotte.com · 20 people Worth reading
Hi, I’m Ethan. I’m a web designer who helps companies make beautiful sites and services that work everywhere.
I’m winding down with two excellent clients I’ve been working with since January, which means I’ve got some availability for new work coming up soon.
If you need a designer who thinks deeply about systems and teams, and who will ooh and/or ahh over an especially pretty serif, I’d love to chat with you!
Here’s more about me, how I work, and some work I’ve done:
— @beep · Mar 18
The Dunning-Kruger Effect Is Probably Not Real
mcgill.ca · 33 people
I want the Dunning-Kruger effect to be real. First described in a seminal 1999 paper by David Dunning and Justin Kruger, this effect has been the darling of journalists who want to explain why dumb people don’t know they’re dumb. There’s even video of a fantastic pastiche of Turandot’s fa...
Once again I am heartbroken to remind you that the Dunning-Kruger effect is probably not real:
Like Freudian psychology, Hardin's tragedy of the commons and any number of other popular pseudoscientific narratives, it caters to our preconceptions and makes fore entertaining, easy to re-tell stories, but it's also... not true.
And - again, I am entirely saddened by this - that means that if we keep using these metaphors we're legitimizing the false ideas behind them.
— @mhoye · Mar 18
Overthinking: AI wasn't the first to break my heart
ohhelloana.blog · 16 people
In this post I do a shit job at trying to carry on when values misalign. Ta-da!!
“Oh Hello Ana - Overthinking: AI wasn't the first to break my heart”
> We will lose good people in exchange for cheap, quick and shit outputs.
— @baldur · Mar 18
The Onion's Exclusive Interview With Sam Altman
theonion.com · 88 people
While leading OpenAI, Sam Altman has weathered leaked internal memos, an attempt to oust him as CEO, and widespread skepticism about artificial intelligence’s role in society. The Onion sat down with the entrepreneur to hear his vision for the technology’s future. The Onion: Good morning, Sam...
“Hey you, human! Quit breathing my data centers’ air and drinking its water.”
— @MHowell · Mar 18
Free SPARCstation and more — mackenga.ro
mackenga.ro · 24 people
If you’re interested in retro and old computer hardware (Sun SPARCstations in particular) and you’re able to get to the South of Scotland early this April, you might be interested in some equipment I’m trying to give away. If you like the sound of any of this stuff, Contact Me (Mastodon is ...
Would you, or anyone you know, be interested in a free SPARCstation 20 and be able to collect it from the South of Scotland in early April? Some more details here:
Boosts appreciated if you think someone downstream of you might want it.
— @radicalabacus · Mar 18
"[...] the chatbot’s most notable feature is not its “brainpower” but rather how desperately sycophantic it is."
— @thomasfuchs · Mar 18
Celebrating Tony Hoare's mark on computer science - Bertrand Meyer's technology+ blog
bertrandmeyer.com · 13 people Worth reading
Tony Hoare at the LASER summer school, September 2007 (All photographs in this article are by the author) Had they included just one of Tony Hoare’s major achievements, many scientific careers would be considered prestigious enough. His had a long list, which I am going to try to summarize, not...
Celebrating Tony Hoare’s mark on computer science
— @lproven · Mar 18
Afroman’s Defamation Trial Is Going About As Well For The Deputies As Their Original Raid Did
techdirt.com · 12 people
We’ve been following the saga of Afroman (real name Joseph Foreman) and the Adams County Sheriff’s Office for a few years now, and I’m delighted to report that the defamation tria…
Afroman’s Defamation Trial Is Going About As Well For The Deputies As Their Original Raid Did
— @socprof · Mar 19
The Planet Is Overheating, But You Might Not Know It From the News - Inside Climate News
insideclimatenews.org · 15 people
Since 2021, global media coverage of climate change has dropped 38 percent. Blame wars, political chaos and Jeffrey Epstein.
The Planet Is Overheating, But You Might Not Know It From the News.
Since 2021, global media coverage of climate change has dropped 38 percent. Blame wars, political chaos. #ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis #GlobalWarming
— @climatenewsnow · Mar 18
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