Three links: happiness, AI ads, social networks
Published 2026-01-19
tag(s): #random-thoughts #link-post
The last two times I started a post of "light commentary on disparate topics", I ended up expanding on only one topic, and dropping the rest. But this time, they are comments on links, so other people did most of the typing already. :)
On happiness
Kev Quirk posted some thoughts about happiness. Timely post, my sister and I were having a conversation over the last few days about the responsibilities of parenting, and how they impact everything else in our lives.
But the simplicity of my life a decade ago made me so much happier. I don’t wish I’d stayed there, though. Life moves on. We mature, we progress, we c…
Three links: happiness, AI ads, social networks
Published 2026-01-19
tag(s): #random-thoughts #link-post
The last two times I started a post of "light commentary on disparate topics", I ended up expanding on only one topic, and dropping the rest. But this time, they are comments on links, so other people did most of the typing already. :)
On happiness
Kev Quirk posted some thoughts about happiness. Timely post, my sister and I were having a conversation over the last few days about the responsibilities of parenting, and how they impact everything else in our lives.
But the simplicity of my life a decade ago made me so much happier. I don’t wish I’d stayed there, though. Life moves on. We mature, we progress, we change. And I’m happy those things have happened to me, and continue to happen to me.
This paragraph resonated with me in two different ways. On a surface level, I had to agree. My life was much simpler when I was 30ish, and I have fond memories of a specific period when I felt "truly free". But then I thought about how I feel inside my own head now versus then. And even with all the added responsibilities, the turmoil of emigrating (which had its consequences), the challenges of parenting, etc...I think I am happier now. The answer to this question, is, obviously, extremely personal and unique. It can even change day to day, as we use different lenses to evaluate what/how to asses something as broad as "happiness".
I know that I feel more at peace with myself than ever before in my life. I don’t mean enlightened, actually the complete opposite. I still have a base level of anxiety, it still takes a bit of effort to see myself doing things instead of just reacting, and old habits pop up here and there. But I see the honesty and acceptance of where I am and (more importantly) where I want to go as being a good place from where to keep growing. And that makes me happy.
OpenAI ads
On a completely different topic, ldstephens is worried what will happen with OpenAI when it introduces ads. Small quotes: I’m genuinely concerned about how the introduction of ads will impact my ChatGPT experience. and Instead of the dedicated ChatGPT app, where I have little control over the content, I plan to use the browser version.
First a disclaimer: to this day, I have barely used AI. I think it is important to be transparent that I am what you would call an AI hater. Well, not necessarily hate...I am indifferent towards the tech, honestly. But like Manu Moreale once said, I hate the circus around it.
So, back to the post: It thought it was completely delusional. We have been through the reddit and twitter fiascoes already, related to using third party clients. And same with being served ads in a web context. In the best case, since the product you are using controls the presentation, even if it is in the browser, they can still sneak in ads one way or the other. Disguised as part of the same content. An adblocker will block dynamic ads from other domains and trackers, which is great, but you are still open to many ways of being exposed to ads.
Which takes me to the worst possible future for this. As people rely more on AI answers, will then their barometer to discern the actual answer from the ad portion of an AI text also go down? You ask "good restaurants in city XYZ that are open the two days I am visiting". You will get a generated answer from reviews (which are themselves subject to manipulation, but I can only tackle so many topics in this post) but then one restaurant gets bumped in the generated answer because they are "promoted". Just like it happens nowadays with Google results.
All the tech giants have invested so much in AI, that unless every planet in the solar system has a need for it, there’s no way they can justify the amount of money they are burning. There has to be losers in this race, and it will be us consumers as usual. Expect AI to get even less factual as time goes by.
Shallow discourse
The already mentioned Manu had a recent post on social networks that reminded me of a gem from a few weeks ago: On simple solutions.
I keep thinking about this tweet because to me it embodies one of the core issues I have with general social media discourse: the lack of depth. The idea expressed in that single sentence is so devoid of details and substance that it is effectively meaningless.
It is a short one, I recommend it. I been thinking about that Manu quote a lot recently. You know when? When reading the news. That’s just extra sad. And bad for democracy. Political and policy discourse has devolved into the same shallow "solutions" that a tweet from a random dude can offer. But these are (allegedly) public servants... I have examples of this from both the US and Argentina, but since this post is in English: Minnesota shows what happens when governing and content creation merge - NPR.