Maj (@majdotdev.bsky.social)

29 Nov 2025

Realizing it's not easy to have a good time on bluesky, due to a few factors. (And partly due to all social media having many awful downsides.) 1. You need to follow at least 500 people to make your Following tab feel good/active. Takes many months to find the right mix. Lots of un/re-following.

I wasn't sure about Vision after the first two episodes, but it's gotten pretty interesting during 3 & 4.

The political hill i'll die on is that timid moderate poll-watching obstructionist Democrats get way more Republicans elected than bold progressive Dems, regardless of what the donor class supports.

Matthew Sheffield@matthew.flux.community

There is hope for some of the newer voices in the Democratic Party like AOC and AES because they realize you have to actually stand for something to build a movement and draw people toward you. The old guard must all be overthrown. Their laziness and cowardliness can never defeat fascism.

I get that political consultants are worried about going "too far" into unpopular territory. But when it comes time to get informed and actually show up to vote, what matters to people is what you stuck your neck out for. If the answer is basically nothing except the status quo, the other guy wins.

Shame & reputational damage were the main deterrents against stealing ideas in the past. GenAI vendors can only stay competitive by normalizing theft & ignoring people's unwillingness to participate. More data = better results => cursed loop that's ending any semblance of shame or morality in tech.

KetAnthropic JoshAI@ketanjoshi.co

The first genuinely honest ad for generative AI I've ever seen, from Microsoft / CoPilot A mediocre white guy sees his non-white colleague getting praised for good work, he asks AI to *literally copy it*, and then he gets all the praise instead: www.ispot.tv/ad/SoDi/micr...

This type of vindictive resentment for another person's skillset is also deeply weird and antisocial behavior. It doesn't even hold up if you think about it for half a second. Why would any of these people (that Kyle doesn't even want to talk to) admire him instead of generating their own slop?

I genuinely feel sad for the people whom this absolute grift of ad works on. It can only be people who can't see one step ahead to recognize the worthless self-sabotaging house of cards they're staking their whole professional reputation on. It's straight up predatory advertising.

Making anything truly original & intentional will always be challenging. But the hardest part of making a new game in this decade is getting people to notice it exists and pay actual money for it. AI doesn't help w/ this at all. Maybe it's good that a bunch of slopdevs are about to realize this?

Mike Rose@mikerose.bsky.social

Next Fest was already a bit of a pointless exercise for 90% of devs. Now the AI slop has made it entirely pointless for 99% of devs I don’t really know what Valve can do about this, but I think it’s fair to say that we pay them well enough, that it would be nice if they’d bloody do *something*

Lakers are supposed to be an exciting contender this year, but i can't bring myself to get invested knowing they're up for sale, and finding out that everyone in the ownership conversation is either an annoying nepo baby or an absolute goon. Might be done with the NBA tbh, plenty else to follow.

I know it's not that big a deal and i know that stepping away while your team is under wack ownership is part of being a fan of professional sports. But it's still sad bookending good memories. On the plus side, it's fun to learn about new sports. Maybe climbing, skateboarding or blind soccer next?

I, for one, applaud Tim Epic for "write code." Nothing bad has ever resulted from a billionaire ceo checking in yolo changes to the game. I bet he's up late making Fortnite 10x better as we speak!

Kenney@kenney.nl

Last I'll post about this, but Elon Musk disagrees with me. This means I am onto something, and I feel more valid in my opinion than ever.

Brewers scored too many runs in one game if you ask me. More than they needed. Could come back to bite them if the Dodgers play their baseball cards right.

Mobile games have been the addiction / monetization petri dish of gamedev for 15+ years. I guess/hope this formula wouldn't be so successful if normies knew to recognize it, but then again people do like defending their addictions. Fwiw youtube & social media are obviously built like this too.

Morgan Johnson@poormojo.bsky.social

No joke. I think this is the most important video I have ever seen about mobile games. This guy breaks down how this game psychologically profiles you, and makes the game harder or easier in order to show you ads

Hey 90s #comicsky, did we ever find out why Jim Lee hates foreheads?

Would baseball be better or worse if batters could choose to stay in the box and take a strike after hitting a fair ball?

For as much as youtube was built on shameless piracy before google weaponized a copyright harassment platform against everyone, i do miss the heartfelt "All glory to copyright holders 🙌 / No copyright infringement intended 🙏 🙏" scrolling disclaimers at the end of album/dvd rips, stream reposts, etc.

youtube.comHIGHLIGHTS - Argentina vs Benín | Amistoso - | TUDNYouTube video by TUDN USA

Benin kept Messi to zero open play goals on 9 shots, and then he retired. Is this the blueprint for stopping Messi?! youtube.com/watch?v=d-iV...

I don't believe in destiny except when i accidentally grab two candy bars instead of one

youtube.comKobe’s Cousin CALLS OUT Mamba Haters Rewriting HistoryYouTube video by ALL THE SMOKE

This 30s clip (starting at 15:17) is pretty good. Talking about Magic running the legendary UCLA pickup games during that 90s basketball era. Reminds me of some oldschool FGC arcade shenanigans haha. youtube.com/watch?v=hOBZ...

Lanterns trailer looked pretty dumb, so i mostly gave the show a shot out of nostalgia for coach. But it's legit good and gotten more interesting every episode. Season finale is on Sunday, so it's worth avoiding spoilers if it might be your jam.

Seems to me there's two main ways to perceive capitalism: player-focused and product-focused.

In any sane/educated society, conservatives would be first in line to lash out at the anti-competitive, user-captive, game-rigging, corrupt bullshit that tech companies, oil companies, medical companies, investment funds, etc. pull on a daily basis.

But i wasn't taught any of this in school either, so for some reason we live in a capitalist society that skips over teaching the most basic, fundamental requirements of operating capitalism. bsky.app/profile/majd...

Maj@majdotdev.bsky.social

Summary: Any hope for capitalism functioning to our benefit REQUIRES that individual users demand competition. If you catch yourself thinking product or brand loyalty is a virtue, then i'm sorry to say, you are being an idiot mark.

Seems to me there's two main ways to perceive capitalism: player-focused and product-focused.

I really wonder what the world would be like if Americans took anti-competitive business practices as personally threatening as we've been trained to distrust whatever "communism" meant to inheritance-class conservatives.

Seems to me there's two main ways to perceive capitalism: player-focused and product-focused.

But in fairness, capitalism also demands that everyone pay attention to the stock market, otherwise we all get fleeced by the few scammers running it. (Like how capitalism's answer to scalpers is for everyone to become a reseller on the side, making career scalping nonviable. Competition again!)

Obviously maximizing competition should also extend to politics. This stuff becomes way more manageable with laws & systemic solutions that force competition. Like insider trading is a huge corruption drain on the whole system with zero social benefit, so the laws against it need to be enforced.

Seems to me there's two main ways to perceive capitalism: player-focused and product-focused.

Unfortunately the stock market layer on top of capitalism always favors the player-focused view. That's because pumping stocks benefits greatly from name recognition.

And sadly, a lot of very smart/powerful/unprincipled people have been incentivized to invest their life skills into getting ahead in the meme casino that is the stock market instead of doing anything useful or creative with their lives.

Seems to me there's two main ways to perceive capitalism: player-focused and product-focused.

Maintaining a level playing field is essential, so allowing past successes to be leveraged into retention moats and head starts is a huge net negative. Users are RESPONSIBLE for enforcing competition by proactively migrating to new products when old ones (inevitably) become problematic.

To me it's obvious that the product-focused view is more sensible. (It's also obvious to me that capitalism needs universal basic income and universal health care to maximize competition, because so many great ideas die to employer health insurance handcuffs, but that's a tangent for another time.)

Seems to me there's two main ways to perceive capitalism: player-focused and product-focused.

Consumers aren't required to pay attention to changes in the market or to actively demand competition, because the masters of humanity know best anyway.

2. Product/customer-focused: Goods and services consistently improve when fair competition is maximized. The system does not require or depend on individual geniuses or great leaders, because competition will always find/forge more.

Seems to me there's two main ways to perceive capitalism: player-focused and product-focused.

1. Player/entrepreneur-focused: Capitalism exists as an arena for individuals to prove themselves the masters of humanity, after which their opinions must be obeyed until they either die or somehow manage to piss away their fortune despite having massive advantages in any venture.

Uneven playing fields aren't a problem because doing whatever it takes to win rigged games further proves exceptionalism, which is assumed to be transferable regardless of which competition you managed to win. Nepotism isn't a problem if you believe superiority can be inherited.

16 Sept

One way i think about question-answering GenAI: In any large group of people, there are some highly reliable experts who consistently go out of their way to verify what they share, there are some intentional liars, and there are people who just pass along what they've heard (more or less).

16 Sept

With VERY few exceptions (like certain kinds of math & games with simple win conditions), GenAI can't verify anything. So it's like adding more guys into your group who repeat what they heard from another guy. You get easy/fast answers, but it reduces the reliability of info in the group overall.

14 Sept

I wonder if the most beneficial thing the chess community can do for humanity in this moment is act as a testbed for achieving consensus on a reasonable, verifiable limit on how deep engines should calculate. Otherwise what are we doing? Burning compute to solve chess faster? For whose benefit?

9 Sept

Theseus would've been all about live service games. Matchup chart of Theseus. Fireball trap of Theseus. Jungle of Theseus. Optimal combo route of Theseus. You're plus after that? of Theseus haha

6 Sept

Knowing how little of value GenAI has produced across nearly every profession, isn't it wild how much of "AI adoption" is performative virtue signaling from people who made freaking out about virtue signaling their whole identity for years?

1 Sept

Props to Messi for actually retiring from international play when it made sense. Couldn't have been an easy choice with Argentina being a legit contender. I have a lot respect for people who pass the baton when it's time. Not everyone has the humility to do that.

Maj@majdotdev.bsky.social

Now that it's over, i still think Messi should retire from international play. It's fair to say Argentina would've lost every knockout stage of WC2026 without Messi AND they lost to Spain because he was too old to run. Put 2008-2020 Messi into any Scaloni squad, they probably beat Spain. It's time.

bit.lyHow to help after Nepal and Tibet's catastrophic floodsHumanitarian organizations are mobilizing to aid survivors along the Nepal-China border after catastrophic floods struck the region Wednesday.

28 Aug

Nepal's per-capita greenhouse emissions rank in the world's bottom 10. If your country burns significantly hotter, please consider donating to direct relief efforts and to climate action today. Even if it turns out the glacier was knocked over by a particularly strong goat, you won't regret helping.

The Associated Press@apnews.com

Humanitarian organizations are mobilizing to aid survivors along the Nepal-China border. Here's how to help after Nepal and Tibet’s catastrophic floods.

26 Aug

There's so much bad design in the world. Like today i put my phone at the edge of the bed, then later i leaned on the bed to get up, and my phone fell down. It didn't have to be this way!

26 Aug

I would take a photo to demonstrate my phone falling but i would need my phone to do that. Also bad design!

youtube.comMessi Hits FILTHY Stutter Step Scores Tiebreaker Goal vs. Philadelphia Union!YouTube video by Major League Soccer

21 Aug

Kind of a chaotic game overall, but that Messi goal in Philadelphia was fun to watch. Gotta say i'm a fan of Messi playing on shaky/flawed teams to close out his career. Putting up big numbers in both directions. #SoccerHype youtube.com/watch?v=K_PA...

4 Aug

The new Spider-Man movie is pretty good imo. It's weird how Sony understands the need for A/B-list supporting characters for mainline Spidey movies, but still uses C/D-list characters for offshoots (which need the most help).

28 July

Finally got around to watching The Odyssey yesterday. I thought it was really good! Also read a couple critical articles making the rounds. I thought those were pretty good too. If you're new to professional criticism, you gotta understand that it's normal to be annoyed by half of what they say.

28 July

Nitpicking minor details & choosing weird hills to die on are what niche subject matter critics are supposed to do! (Or at least can't help doing.) If you can take away a few new perspectives or insights from what they offer, they've done their job. No one owns the final say. Make up your own mind.

28 July

The game industry has never really understood celebrity power like movies/films do. Game studios are too afraid to let creatives be seen, for several reasons. They prefer to present their studio brand or main char as the celebrity, but there's only like 4-5 studios i trust enough to shift attention.

Mat Piscatella@matpiscatella.bsky.social

"That’s why indie makes sense for Xbox... You can dip in and out of them as you need. You could play two or three in a month. They make sense for a subscription service." Which would appeal to an even smaller portion of the player base than exists now, accelerating the death spiral.

20 July

Maj@majdotdev.bsky.social

Win or lose, i really hope Messi retires from international play after this World Cup. Even if you can still play somewhat, and all the name recognition money is begging you to stay, at some point you're just denying the next generation development opportunities. It's not admirable in a team sport.