Hey everyone,

Today I'm writing from a train that is headed to Yorkshire from London to visit my Mum's family and cousins. Summer has officially wrapped up in the Northern hemisphere, although it's hard to tell as London has been 24 degrees all week. A real treat.

I realised that this summer in NYC was the longest I'd spent in any city in the last 3 years. I've been moving around a lot, and it was really nice to be in one place. I hope to be back again soon so I can experience fall and winter.

Moving around a lot really does affect your ability to connect with a place. I love how seasons act like conductors of the energy in cities. It's nice to watch NYC and London prepare for the colder months and equally it's nice to see Australian's getting excited for summer there.

I need to buy some jackets though. I'm certain I am currently underprepared for a proper winter.

I'll have more to say about work things soon, but in the meantime, here are all the things I saved to share this month which I hope you find interesting.

The image above is by Sebastian Curi, an LA based artists and illustrator.

My Writing

Last month I wrote four short posts about product design, hardware and AI interfaces for creative tools. All the buzz words really.

One of them was me venting about Friend.com. A new product that aims to cure loneliness by letting you talk to a AI model that hangs around your neck.

I mean...

Sometimes you have to laugh and cry. Is loneliness a growing and important problem? Yeah, sure. Is AI the answer? Ah, almost certainly not.

This product makes the mistake that I think a lot of people in tech are making right now, which is confusing (ignoring) AI with actual human experience and intelligence.

Next word prediction, no matter how accurate, is not a substitute for human connection and conversation.

The end of that debate is something like 'what is consciousness' or 'what is intelligence' and lots of scientists are working on that. But today, I can't believe that its sometime similar to LLM's running on Nvidia chips. And therefore, I can't understand how these ideas are being funded. I mean I do, but I wish I didn't. What do you think?

Here is my article on Friend.com and the other ones on my blog.

Quick Links

The Instagram account where people review sticks they've found Link
The original designs for Gmail (circa 2003) Link
Adam Tooze - why aren't people talking about Bangladesh Link
My Twitter friend reviewed all the NYFW shows, I learned heaps Link
Jony Ivy & co."redesigned the button". Budgets gone wild Link
Cosine - "electronic music similarity search engine" Link
Insightful profile on Jamie xx Link
Procreate said they won't add GenAI tools to its app. Let's see Link

Drake & Kendrick

The Drake + Kendrick beef had many people gripped to their seats this summer, myself included. Was it all planned by their labels? Do they really hate each other? Is this just sales and marketing in 2024? Idk, but it's all very fascinating to me. I enjoyed this deep dive that appeared in the New Yorker and this episode of Popcast goes very deep into the Kendrick super bowl announcement.

Fuck Cars

Every month I get more and more radicalised and interested in urban planning, city design, and public spaces. So I will continue to share more content. I love cities, but as soon as you realise they have been designed to accomodate cars, not people, you start to imagine how they can and should be designed differently.

This months essay, "The social ideology of the motorcar" by André Gorz 1973.

"The worst thing about cars is that they are like castles or villas by the sea: luxury goods invented for the exclusive pleasure of a very rich minority, and which in conception and nature were never intended for the people."

Music

Pretty much all I've listened too in the past few weeks is the Floating Points 5 hour boiler room that was recorded in NYC this summer. Sam (Floating Points) is a 37 yr old producer and dj from England. His knowledge of music is incredible. Almost all of the set is vinyl. Link

Vicenza FC by Bureau Borsche

This could be old news, but the branding and jersey design for Vicenza FC (the football club of Venice) is so sick. Take a look at the work here and check out the BBC doco on it all.

Nick x