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The latest thought-provoking Fediverse stories

There is no better way to demonstrate how Murmel works than give you a taste of it right away. This page aggregates the most widely shared news and articles from a broad range of people across the Fediverse. You can get those in your favorite RSS reader too. Want the news and stories that matter to you personally? Sign up and enjoy a fully-tailored experience free for 30 days.

A Remarkable Assertion from A16Z

nealstephenson.substack.com · Nov 28

A friend made me aware of a reading list from A16Z containg recommendations for books, weighted towards science fiction since that’s mostly what people there read.

Shared by @hackernewsrobot and 34 others.
Kelsey Jordahl (@kajord) · Nov 28
🔁 @gerikson:

Neal Stephenson comes out strong and funny against GenAI here:

…substack.com/…/a-remarkable-assertion-from-a16z

“Hypothesis 1: it was written by a clanker”

Dominic 🇪🇺 🏳️‍🌈 🇺🇦 (@riotnrrd) · Nov 28

Why do people dislike #AI-generated content. aka slop?

When people sign up to receive writings from a16z, they are presumably hoping for some insight into the thinking of pmarca et al. Sending out AI slop instead is… well, it's worth what the readers paid for it, sure, but it also devalues the a16z brand. If readers can get the exact same insights by just prompting their own #LLM, what is the added value that a16z is adding to the transaction?

nealstephenson.substack.com/p/

Chris Ragazzi (@ragazzi) · Nov 28
🔁 @gerikson:

Neal Stephenson comes out strong and funny against GenAI here:

…substack.com/…/a-remarkable-assertion-from-a16z

“Hypothesis 1: it was written by a clanker”

Bill Seitz (@billseitz) · Nov 28
🔁 @gerikson:

Neal Stephenson comes out strong and funny against GenAI here:

…substack.com/…/a-remarkable-assertion-from-a16z

“Hypothesis 1: it was written by a clanker”

maco (@maco) · Nov 28
🔁 @gerikson:

Neal Stephenson comes out strong and funny against GenAI here:

…substack.com/…/a-remarkable-assertion-from-a16z

“Hypothesis 1: it was written by a clanker”

Boules de Fourrure (@boulesdefourrure) · Nov 28
🔁 @gerikson:

Neal Stephenson comes out strong and funny against GenAI here:

…substack.com/…/a-remarkable-assertion-from-a16z

“Hypothesis 1: it was written by a clanker”

Glyn Moody (@glynmoody) · Nov 28
🔁 @gerikson:

Neal Stephenson comes out strong and funny against GenAI here:

…substack.com/…/a-remarkable-assertion-from-a16z

“Hypothesis 1: it was written by a clanker”

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A trillion dollars is a terrible thing to waste

garymarcus.substack.com · Nov 28

The machine learning community is finally waking up to the madness, but the detour of the last few years has been costly.

Shared by @hackernewsrobot and 14 others.
Daniel Detlaf, Meatpuppet (@HumanServitor) · Nov 28
🔁 @peter:

this is a good post on where the consensus has basically settled: LLMs aren't really going to improve substantially from here purely from making them larger. wonder when the financial markets will digest that. it basically means all the massive investment in Nvidia chips and the data centers to house them is kind of pointless. garymarcus.substack.com/p/a-tr

hnbot (@hnbot) · Nov 28

A trillion dollars (potentially) wasted on gen-AI
----
- an hour ago | 57 points | 30 comments
- URL: garymarcus.substack.com/p/a-tr
- Discussions: news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4
- Summary: Gary Marcus warns that the AI field’s decade-long bet on scaling ever-larger LLMs has burned roughly a trillion dollars without solving core flaws—hallucinations, poor generalization, weak reasoning—and now faces diminishing returns. Ilya Sutskever’s recent admission that bigger data and compute alone won’t yield AGI vindicates long-standing critiques from Marcus and others who advocate neurosymbolic and innately constrained approaches. Venture capitalists and big tech, enriched by management fees and massive capex, keep repeating the same experiment while pension funds and the wider economy bear the risk. If expected AI revenues fail to appear, a broad market correction or recession could follow. The delay in heeding earlier cognitive-science insights has not only wasted money but may also trigger collateral social and economic damage.

Dr Pen (@DrPen) · Nov 28
🔁 @hkrn:

A trillion dollars (potentially) wasted on gen-AI
L: garymarcus.substack.com/p/a-tr
C: news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4
posted on 2025.11.28 at 08:21:17 (c=0, p=4)

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Worth reading

How good engineers write bad code at big companies

seangoedecke.com · Nov 28

--

Shared by @djoerd and 11 others.
Nolan Lawson (@nolan) · Nov 29

"How good engineers write bad code at big companies" by Sean Goedecke seangoedecke.com/bad-code-at-b

Having worked at a couple big companies, this is extremely accurate. The linked "pure and impure engineering" post is also great.

Djoerd Hiemstra 🍉 (@djoerd) · Nov 29
🔁 @nolan:

"How good engineers write bad code at big companies" by Sean Goedecke seangoedecke.com/bad-code-at-b

Having worked at a couple big companies, this is extremely accurate. The linked "pure and impure engineering" post is also great.

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CSS-in-JS: The Great Betrayal of Frontend Sanity

thenewstack.io · Nov 28

CSS-in-JS promised simplicity but delivered performance issues. Learn why ditching it for native CSS solutions leads to faster, more maintainable web apps.

Shared by @malarkey and 14 others.
your auntifa liza 🇵🇷 🦛 🦦 (@blogdiva) · Nov 29
🔁 @Meyerweb:

Nearly every paragraph of this article is a certified banger. “We don’t need to reinvent styling. We just need to respect the boundaries that made the web work in the first place. CSS is not broken; our discipline is. The answer isn’t more abstraction — it’s better understanding.” thenewstack.io/css-in-js-the-g

LillyLyle/Count Melancholia (@LillyHerself) · Nov 28
🔁 @Meyerweb:

Nearly every paragraph of this article is a certified banger. “We don’t need to reinvent styling. We just need to respect the boundaries that made the web work in the first place. CSS is not broken; our discipline is. The answer isn’t more abstraction — it’s better understanding.” thenewstack.io/css-in-js-the-g

John Allsopp (@johnallsopp) · Nov 29
🔁 @Meyerweb:

Nearly every paragraph of this article is a certified banger. “We don’t need to reinvent styling. We just need to respect the boundaries that made the web work in the first place. CSS is not broken; our discipline is. The answer isn’t more abstraction — it’s better understanding.” thenewstack.io/css-in-js-the-g

peelinggecko (@peelinggecko) · Nov 28
🔁 @Meyerweb:

Nearly every paragraph of this article is a certified banger. “We don’t need to reinvent styling. We just need to respect the boundaries that made the web work in the first place. CSS is not broken; our discipline is. The answer isn’t more abstraction — it’s better understanding.” thenewstack.io/css-in-js-the-g

Steve's Place (@steter) · Nov 29
🔁 @Meyerweb:

Nearly every paragraph of this article is a certified banger. “We don’t need to reinvent styling. We just need to respect the boundaries that made the web work in the first place. CSS is not broken; our discipline is. The answer isn’t more abstraction — it’s better understanding.” thenewstack.io/css-in-js-the-g

Dave Rahardja (@drahardja) · Nov 28
🔁 @Meyerweb:

Nearly every paragraph of this article is a certified banger. “We don’t need to reinvent styling. We just need to respect the boundaries that made the web work in the first place. CSS is not broken; our discipline is. The answer isn’t more abstraction — it’s better understanding.” thenewstack.io/css-in-js-the-g

Shane Becker (@veganstraightedge) · Nov 29
🔁 @Meyerweb:

Nearly every paragraph of this article is a certified banger. “We don’t need to reinvent styling. We just need to respect the boundaries that made the web work in the first place. CSS is not broken; our discipline is. The answer isn’t more abstraction — it’s better understanding.” thenewstack.io/css-in-js-the-g

Witchzilla (@msbw) · Nov 29
🔁 @Meyerweb:

Nearly every paragraph of this article is a certified banger. “We don’t need to reinvent styling. We just need to respect the boundaries that made the web work in the first place. CSS is not broken; our discipline is. The answer isn’t more abstraction — it’s better understanding.” thenewstack.io/css-in-js-the-g

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Daily links from Cory Doctorow

pluralistic.net · Nov 28

Shared by @thefathippy and 14 others.
Andrew (Television Executive) (@ajroach42) · Nov 28
🔁 @puzzled:

"The reason billionaires urge you to vote with your wallets is that their wallets are so much thicker than yours."
-- Cory Doctorow
pluralistic.net/2025/11/28/dis

ItsDoctorNotMrs (@northernlights) · Nov 28
🔁 @puzzled:

"The reason billionaires urge you to vote with your wallets is that their wallets are so much thicker than yours."
-- Cory Doctorow
pluralistic.net/2025/11/28/dis

leighelse{} (@leighelse) · Nov 28

Cory Doctorow's impassioned keynote speech proposes that Canada repeal its anti-circumvention law, allowing Canadian companies to legally repair, improve and interop Big Tech products.

pluralistic.net/2025/11/28/dis

I doubt any country is foolish enough to take that step until it has local alternatives in place, because the Trump administration's immediate response will certainly be to order US Big Tech to shut down all products and services in that jurisdiction. That shutdown may well include social media as well as operating systems, other software, and cloud services.

But if a country could craft easily scalable replacements for the most significant products and services ... if a country could ...

Dennis Flood (@fideldonson) · Nov 29
🔁 @jeppe:

@jwcph @pluralistic alle i hele verden burde læse dette! Doctorow ser så klart og hjælper os til at forstå hvad der skal gøres.

pluralistic.net/2025/11/28/dis

Linda Woodrow (@lindawoodrow) · Nov 28
🔁 @puzzled:

"The reason billionaires urge you to vote with your wallets is that their wallets are so much thicker than yours."
-- Cory Doctorow
pluralistic.net/2025/11/28/dis

Cory Doctorow (@pluralistic) · Nov 29
🔁 @stagerabbit:

"Despite the endless insistences of the right, your consumption choices aren't the arbiters of policy."
pluralistic.net/2025/11/28/dis
@pluralistic

peelinggecko (@peelinggecko) · Nov 29
🔁 @puzzled:

"The reason billionaires urge you to vote with your wallets is that their wallets are so much thicker than yours."
-- Cory Doctorow
pluralistic.net/2025/11/28/dis

Bob LeFridge :tinoflag: (@BobLefridge) · Nov 28
🔁 @leighelse:

Cory Doctorow's impassioned keynote speech proposes that Canada repeal its anti-circumvention law, allowing Canadian companies to legally repair, improve and interop Big Tech products.

pluralistic.net/2025/11/28/dis

I doubt any country is foolish enough to take that step until it has local alternatives in place, because the Trump administration's immediate response will certainly be to order US Big Tech to shut down all products and services in that jurisdiction. That shutdown may well include social media as well as operating systems, other software, and cloud services.

But if a country could craft easily scalable replacements for the most significant products and services ... if a country could ...

thefathippy (@thefathippy) · Nov 29
🔁 @stagerabbit:

"Despite the endless insistences of the right, your consumption choices aren't the arbiters of policy."
pluralistic.net/2025/11/28/dis
@pluralistic

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Can Dutch universities do without Microsoft?

dub.uu.nl · Nov 28

Can Dutch higher education part ways with Microsoft? The sector is trying to break free, and alternatives are being explored here and there. At the same time, more and more tasks are being completed by Microsoft tools.

Shared by @AngelaScholder and 13 others.
Angela Scholder (@AngelaScholder) · Nov 29
🔁 @publicvoit:

"I'm an average user, so I don't need all the options and apps the programme has to offer. But, to be honest, #Microsoft is making it increasingly attractive to switch. Now that the company is putting #AI in everything, everything is becoming more annoying to use."

Can Dutch #universities do without Microsoft?
dub.uu.nl/en/news/can-dutch-un

IMO, it's never been easier to switch away from the problematic players because we've got so many alternatives that got much better over time whereas Microsoft and others are practicing #enshittification.

We've done it before. Somehow, we found that giving away knowledge and control to use the #cloud was a good idea. It never was because we've lost so much competence we now need to ramp up very quickly.

#Windows #Teams #SharePoint #digitalsovereignty #EU #FOSS

Jeppe Bundsgaard på Mastodon (@jeppe) · Nov 28
🔁 @publicvoit:

"I'm an average user, so I don't need all the options and apps the programme has to offer. But, to be honest, #Microsoft is making it increasingly attractive to switch. Now that the company is putting #AI in everything, everything is becoming more annoying to use."

Can Dutch #universities do without Microsoft?
dub.uu.nl/en/news/can-dutch-un

IMO, it's never been easier to switch away from the problematic players because we've got so many alternatives that got much better over time whereas Microsoft and others are practicing #enshittification.

We've done it before. Somehow, we found that giving away knowledge and control to use the #cloud was a good idea. It never was because we've lost so much competence we now need to ramp up very quickly.

#Windows #Teams #SharePoint #digitalsovereignty #EU #FOSS

Karl Voit :emacs: :orgmode: (@publicvoit) · Nov 28

"I'm an average user, so I don't need all the options and apps the programme has to offer. But, to be honest, #Microsoft is making it increasingly attractive to switch. Now that the company is putting #AI in everything, everything is becoming more annoying to use."

Can Dutch #universities do without Microsoft?
dub.uu.nl/en/news/can-dutch-un

IMO, it's never been easier to switch away from the problematic players because we've got so many alternatives that got much better over time whereas Microsoft and others are practicing #enshittification.

We've done it before. Somehow, we found that giving away knowledge and control to use the #cloud was a good idea. It never was because we've lost so much competence we now need to ramp up very quickly.

#Windows #Teams #SharePoint #digitalsovereignty #EU #FOSS

Jure Repinc :linux: :kde: (@JRepin) · Nov 29
🔁 @publicvoit:

"I'm an average user, so I don't need all the options and apps the programme has to offer. But, to be honest, #Microsoft is making it increasingly attractive to switch. Now that the company is putting #AI in everything, everything is becoming more annoying to use."

Can Dutch #universities do without Microsoft?
dub.uu.nl/en/news/can-dutch-un

IMO, it's never been easier to switch away from the problematic players because we've got so many alternatives that got much better over time whereas Microsoft and others are practicing #enshittification.

We've done it before. Somehow, we found that giving away knowledge and control to use the #cloud was a good idea. It never was because we've lost so much competence we now need to ramp up very quickly.

#Windows #Teams #SharePoint #digitalsovereignty #EU #FOSS

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Daily links from Cory Doctorow

pluralistic.net · Nov 28

Shared by @mistergibson and 10 others.
Dirk Hohndel (@dirkhh) · Nov 28

Whatever you do today, first read this:

pluralistic.net/2025/11/28/dis

I hurt my neck reading this because I nodded along so hard. @pluralistic puts his finger on the pulse and points out what's wrong with, you know, everything these days.

Thanks Cory.

Kevin Russell (@kevinrns) · Nov 28
🔁 @pluralistic:

You can follow these posts as a daily blog at pluralistic.net: no ads, trackers, or data-collection!

Here's today's edition: pluralistic.net/2025/11/28/dis

--

If you prefer a newsletter, subscribe to the plura-list, which is ad-/tracker-free, and is utterly unadorned save a single daily emoji. Today's is "🌡". Suggestions solicited for future emojis!

--

You can also get a fulltext RSS feed, licensed CC BY 4.0:

pluralistic.net/feed/

13/

Donnie (@macbraughton) · Nov 28
🔁 @dirkhh:

Whatever you do today, first read this:

pluralistic.net/2025/11/28/dis

I hurt my neck reading this because I nodded along so hard. @pluralistic puts his finger on the pulse and points out what's wrong with, you know, everything these days.

Thanks Cory.

😀🚲 (@enobacon) · Nov 28
🔁 @rgulick:

"In a vote of ballots, rather than wallets, [billonaires] will lose every time, which is why they're are so committed to this wallet-voting nonsense. The wallet-vote is the only vote they can hope to win."

pluralistic.net/2025/11/28/dis

G. Gibson (@mistergibson) · Nov 28
🔁 @KevinCarson1:

(Digital) Elbows Up: How Canada Can Become a Nation of Jailbreakers, Reclaim Our Digital Sovereignty, Win the Trade-War, and Disenshittify Our Technology.

pluralistic.net/2025/11/28/dis

the_blackwell_ninja [EST] (@the_blackwell_ninja) · Nov 28
🔁 @dirkhh:

Whatever you do today, first read this:

pluralistic.net/2025/11/28/dis

I hurt my neck reading this because I nodded along so hard. @pluralistic puts his finger on the pulse and points out what's wrong with, you know, everything these days.

Thanks Cory.

Cory Doctorow (@pluralistic) · Nov 28
🔁 @dirkhh:

Whatever you do today, first read this:

pluralistic.net/2025/11/28/dis

I hurt my neck reading this because I nodded along so hard. @pluralistic puts his finger on the pulse and points out what's wrong with, you know, everything these days.

Thanks Cory.

Levka (@LevZadov) · Nov 28
🔁 @dirkhh:

Whatever you do today, first read this:

pluralistic.net/2025/11/28/dis

I hurt my neck reading this because I nodded along so hard. @pluralistic puts his finger on the pulse and points out what's wrong with, you know, everything these days.

Thanks Cory.

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Australia’s ‘protestival’: kayaks, music, a push for climate change action – and the risk of arrest

theguardian.com · Nov 28

Fossil fuel protesters are making their annual pilgrimage to the NSW city of Newcastle to draw attention to climate policy failure. Police will be there too, with a ‘zero tolerance approach’

Shared by @CaringKinderSociety and 8 others.
Lazarou Monkey Terror 🚀💙🌈 (@Lazarou) · Nov 28
🔁 @SKRiley_Author:

7000 expected to protest at world’s largest coal port

Organisers are calling for 3 things:

🛶 An end to new coal developments
🛶 A fair transition for workers & communities affected by the shift away from fossil fuels
🛶 A 78% tax on fossil fuel export profits

#ClimateAction #Flotilla #Newcastle #NSW #FossilFuel #Protest #ClimateChange #Australia

theguardian.com/australia-news

Matt Cengia (@mattcen) · Nov 28
🔁 @SKRiley_Author:

7000 expected to protest at world’s largest coal port

Organisers are calling for 3 things:

🛶 An end to new coal developments
🛶 A fair transition for workers & communities affected by the shift away from fossil fuels
🛶 A 78% tax on fossil fuel export profits

#ClimateAction #Flotilla #Newcastle #NSW #FossilFuel #Protest #ClimateChange #Australia

theguardian.com/australia-news

Supermoosie (@SuperMoosie) · Nov 28
🔁 @SKRiley_Author:

7000 expected to protest at world’s largest coal port

Organisers are calling for 3 things:

🛶 An end to new coal developments
🛶 A fair transition for workers & communities affected by the shift away from fossil fuels
🛶 A 78% tax on fossil fuel export profits

#ClimateAction #Flotilla #Newcastle #NSW #FossilFuel #Protest #ClimateChange #Australia

theguardian.com/australia-news

John :af: :60: :05: :12: :GP: (@John) · Nov 29
🔁 @CaringKinderSociety:

#News #Australia #FossilFuels #WeatherExtremes #NoPlanetB #RisingTide #PeacefulProtests
🚨⏰
🗞️📰 🌏🇦🇺 🦘🔥🐨🔥

"A national gathering for Australians frustrated by a lack of government urgency to address the climate crisis."
//
Australia’s ‘protestival’: kayaks, music, a push for climate change action..
Fossil fuel protesters are making their annual pilgrimage to the NSW city of Newcastle to draw attention to climate policy failure. Police will be there too, with a ‘zero tolerance approach’.
//
Hundreds of people set up camp at Foreshore Park on Friday in preparation for the Rising Tide people’s blockade on Newcastle Harbour. The crowd was expected to swell to 7,000 over the weekend as protesters arrived from across the country for what organisers said had become a national gathering for Australians frustrated by a lack of government urgency to address the climate crisis.

theguardian.com/australia-news

Keira (She/Her) (@keira_reckons) · Nov 29
🔁 @CaringKinderSociety:

#News #Australia #FossilFuels #WeatherExtremes #NoPlanetB #RisingTide #PeacefulProtests
🚨⏰
🗞️📰 🌏🇦🇺 🦘🔥🐨🔥

"A national gathering for Australians frustrated by a lack of government urgency to address the climate crisis."
//
Australia’s ‘protestival’: kayaks, music, a push for climate change action..
Fossil fuel protesters are making their annual pilgrimage to the NSW city of Newcastle to draw attention to climate policy failure. Police will be there too, with a ‘zero tolerance approach’.
//
Hundreds of people set up camp at Foreshore Park on Friday in preparation for the Rising Tide people’s blockade on Newcastle Harbour. The crowd was expected to swell to 7,000 over the weekend as protesters arrived from across the country for what organisers said had become a national gathering for Australians frustrated by a lack of government urgency to address the climate crisis.

theguardian.com/australia-news

Robert Sanscartier (@Snoro) · Nov 28

#Newcastle #NSW #Australia

Australia’s ‘protestival’: kayaks, music, a push for climate change action – and the risk of arrest

Fossil fuel protesters are making their annual pilgrimage to the NSW city of Newcastle to draw attention to climate policy failure. Police will be there too, with a ‘zero tolerance approach

theguardian.com/australia-news

#ClimateChange #GlobalWarming #UpheavalClimate #GlobalBurning #ClimateDestruction #MassAtrocity #pollution #ecology #environment #climate #ClimateStrike

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DNA study backs archaeological evidence of Indigenous Australians' arrival

abc.net.au · Nov 28

A new genetic study has found Indigenous Australians travelled over two distinct routes, and 100 kilometres of open water, to reach the ancient landmass that would become Australia 60,000 to 65,000 years ago.

Shared by @USelaine and 7 others.
ABC News (@ABC) · Nov 28

#News #Australia DNA study backs archaeological evidence of Indigenous Australians' arrival w.st/eeo9

U.S. Elaine (@USelaine) · Nov 29
🔁 @asherwolf.bsky.social:

A new DNA study suggests the first humans came to the ancient landmass that is now Australia via two distinct routes 60,000 years ago — much earlier than previous genetic evidence indicated www.abc.net.au/news/science...

DNA study provides 'almost per...

Adrianna Tan (@skinnylatte) · Nov 29
🔁 @asherwolf.bsky.social:

A new DNA study suggests the first humans came to the ancient landmass that is now Australia via two distinct routes 60,000 years ago — much earlier than previous genetic evidence indicated www.abc.net.au/news/science...

DNA study provides 'almost per...

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