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[Hoca]

On the last Friday of each month I curate some of the observations and insights that were shared on social media. I call these Friday’s Finds.

“Falsehood flies, and truth comes limping after it, so that when men come to be undeceived, it is too late; the jest is over, and the tale hath had its effect: like a man, who hath thought of a good repartee when the discourse is changed, or the company parted; or like a physician, who hath found out an infallible medicine, after the patient is dead.” —Jonathan Swift, via @dyckron

“Ignoring warnings about submarines that billionaires assure you are « innovative » is a lot like ignoring warnings about climate change that people assure you will be fine, with green tech that doesn’t exist.” —@LALegault

AI Is a Lot of Work, via @KimPerales

“Put another way, ChatGPT seems so human because it was trained by an AI that was mimicking humans who were rating an AI that was mimicking humans who were pretending to be a better version of an AI that was trained on human writing.”

“’Quiet quitting’ is so idiotic. It’s based around the idea that doing the amount of work as contractually obligated is somehow ‘quitting’, as if there is an unspoken obligation to go above and beyond that. For free, of course. Well there isn’t. And only working the amount of time you’re paid for is not disloyal or lazy, it’s simply holding up your end of the bargain. ‘Quiet quitting’ should be the norm, not the exception. Everyone should do it. But stop calling it quitting.” —@Rene

“I don’t know who needs to hear this, but if a prospective employer ever asks you ‘Can you explain this gap in your resume?’ you can totally say ‘No ma’am I cannot. I have signed an NDA.’ It’s not like they can check.” —@LadyDragonfly

me: sorry but i can’t sign this NDA
them: why not?
me: i signed an NDA that prevents me from signing NDAs.
them: wow. with whom?
me: i’m not allowed to say
—@lritter

None of the world’s top industries would be profitable if they paid for the natural capital they use, via @kim_harding

The majority of unpriced natural capital costs are from greenhouse gas emissions (38%), followed by water use (25%), land use (24%), air pollution (7%), land and water pollution (5%), and waste (1%).

So how much is that costing us? Trucost’s headline results are fairly stunning.

First, the total unpriced natural capital consumed by the more than 1,000 “global primary production and primary processing region-sectors” amounts to $7.3 trillion a year — 13 percent of 2009 global GDP.

NYC in smoke from Canadian wild fires — image via @hi_mayank