Modern tech companies use their customers as beta testers for their flaky services — and yet manage to convince us to pay for the privilege.
Generative AI has exploded onto the creative scene, offering tantalising possibilities for image creation. It promises instant art at the push of a button. But as anyone who has spent time with these tools will know, the reality can feel more like feeding a slot machine than commissioning a masterpiece. You sit there, crafting your …
There’s a reason tech companies market their AI products as assistants, copilots, companions, and underlords. No, not ethics. It’s because they’re still not very good. Don’t get me wrong. For many mundane tasks, they can be amazing. But it’s when you push then that they fall apart. That’s when the hype runs hollow, as if …
Our young men are bitter that our young women are too successful. How dare they be so well educated, with such vast ambitions! They should know their place. Actually, it’s the other way around. The boys thinking themselves men should take a leaf out of these young women’s book. Have some ambition of your own. …
My parents had much more success asserting their authority that we have had. Even in my late 40s, I wouldn’t dare swear in the presence of my parents, let alone at them. But our kids? It’s all fair game. Anything goes. When they’re angry, all they’ve learned in the gutter will come spewing forth like …
Mosque full of kids and teenagers whose first and primary language is English? The perfect opportunity for an inspiring sermon about the relevance of their deen! Well, you’d think so. But no, the celebrated English-speaking imam’s off on umrah, so bad luck kids. You get treated to the irrelevant, incomprehensible khutbah in Punjurdlish. And we …
Most religious movements start life subverting repressive power structures but end up embodying them. Sad but true.
I’ve realised recently that the reason I never seem to finish anything isn’t so much laziness, as having too many ideas. No sooner have I started one project than another one occurs to me, sending me off in a different direction. The proliferation of unfinished projects is more testament to a hyperactive imagination than it …
So here we are: I’m back in productive mode, working hard once more, no longer distracted. Just like I knew I would, for this cyclical rhythm has become second nature, almost too predictable for comfort. Living with a chromosomal aneuploidy comes with its unique challenges, physical, cognitive, and psychological. In this particular case, there’s the additional …
I’m not a social animal.
“Thank you for finding me,” says my wife. Finding me… because? Because she was from a world away? Because we were lost? Because we nearly missed each other? But the truth: I didn’t do anything. My involvement in our meeting was minimal. No, as the years have passed by, with all that I have seen, …
Maybe I should take three days off every week. I’ve just had the most productive two days’ work in ages. Back to my usual self.
I didn’t see the years tumbling by. There we were, 17 years ago, reeling from the trauma of childlessness. Then those two souls fell into our lives, and a decade and a half flew by. Suddenly, I glance in the mirror and find grey in my beard. One minute I was thirty, and then…
I hate suppliers who use their monopoly status to take advantage of their customers. But, sorry, we’re not playing. Contract terminated.
