Five Links #62
1. Refusing to choose is a choice
You can say “all are welcome,” but if wolves and sheep are both welcome then you’re only going to get wolves. The smart sheep will go somewhere else and the naive sheep will be eaten and processed. If you welcome Islamophobes and Muslims then you’ll get Islamophobes. If you welcome Klan members and people of color then you’ll get Klan members. If you welcome nativists and immigrants you’ll get nativists.
Refusing to choose is a choice. It’s a choice in favor of the people who prey on others and who refuse to acknowledge the humanity of those they hate.
2. The Crystal Email
Advice like this is pure gold dust, especially at a time when people’s communication might unintentionally resemble LLM prompts:
In her email, Crystal pleasantly acknowledged that tasks our client sent and excitingly informed her of how we had already completed them. Crystal then added 4 more things we had on our radar that our client wasn’t aware of, our status on each, and when she could expect them to be completed.
3. 370k Grok AI chats made public without user consent
Forbes reviewed conversations where users asked intimate questions about medicine and psychology; some even revealed the name, personal details and at least one password shared with the bot by a Grok user. Image files, spreadsheets and some text documents uploaded by users could also be accessed via the Grok shared page.
4. Wholegrain Digital’s client screening process
Great to see how Wholegrain Digital screen their clients. It’s a clear, repeatable process – impressive given how difficult these issues are to navigate.
5. Email is easy
We all know what email addresses are, right? I thought I did until I tried this…
What am I up to?
- I’ve always been uncomfortable with the idea of referral fees, and I decided to make a policy of not paying/offering them a little while ago. This week, I penned a few thoughts on why.
- Unoffice Hours continue on a fortnightly schedule. The next available slot is 3 September.
- I’m offering design consultations to give feedback on design work without the commitment of a larger project. Discounted rate available until the end of September (not 9 days like I wrote last week – I must have thought we were in September already 🤦♂️).
- I’m currently booking projects from November onwards.
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Until next time,
Dave
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