Patrick Thornton
@pwthornton.bsky.social
Intersection of product, design, tech, and AI (the good parts). Creator of Fun Little Games (https://funlittlegames.com). Former journalist but still writing, focused on product design and development. AI, and more (https://betterdesigned.substack.com).
A generation of political journalists has been brain-rotted on interacting with bots and astroturfed accounts.
Anyone who believes in the wisdom of crowds needs to verify the crowds are real first.
November 24, 2025 at 6:54 PM
A generation of political journalists has been brain-rotted on interacting with bots and astroturfed accounts.
Reposted by Patrick Thornton
skill issue and for God’s sake I really do want to offer free “how to make a good turkey” tutoring to people
in the internet age it is simply not hard to find the not-at-all-hidden knowledge about how to make a turkey taste good though
in the internet age it is simply not hard to find the not-at-all-hidden knowledge about how to make a turkey taste good though
Something almost as stale and flavorless as your mom's overcooked turkeys are the annual "turkey sucks" ""hot"" """takes"""
November 24, 2025 at 3:08 AM
skill issue and for God’s sake I really do want to offer free “how to make a good turkey” tutoring to people
in the internet age it is simply not hard to find the not-at-all-hidden knowledge about how to make a turkey taste good though
in the internet age it is simply not hard to find the not-at-all-hidden knowledge about how to make a turkey taste good though
Shoooots fired
The Only Children of White Collar Professional Parents In The 1990s website is uniquely badly-positioned to have good memories or holiday food
November 24, 2025 at 3:12 AM
Shoooots fired
Reposted by Patrick Thornton
If you’re a journalist who’s still on Twitter, from now on in your writing you have to replace “the American people want” with “troll bots in Eastern Europe demand”
Being there makes your judgment suspect. I don’t care how savvy you think you are, you’re marinating in a disinformation campaign.
Being there makes your judgment suspect. I don’t care how savvy you think you are, you’re marinating in a disinformation campaign.
November 23, 2025 at 4:27 PM
If you’re a journalist who’s still on Twitter, from now on in your writing you have to replace “the American people want” with “troll bots in Eastern Europe demand”
Being there makes your judgment suspect. I don’t care how savvy you think you are, you’re marinating in a disinformation campaign.
Being there makes your judgment suspect. I don’t care how savvy you think you are, you’re marinating in a disinformation campaign.
Reposted by Patrick Thornton
watching the real-time brain rot of people like nate silver bears this out
If you’re a journalist who’s still on Twitter, from now on in your writing you have to replace “the American people want” with “troll bots in Eastern Europe demand”
Being there makes your judgment suspect. I don’t care how savvy you think you are, you’re marinating in a disinformation campaign.
Being there makes your judgment suspect. I don’t care how savvy you think you are, you’re marinating in a disinformation campaign.
November 23, 2025 at 6:28 PM
watching the real-time brain rot of people like nate silver bears this out
A post I am noodling on: Has Apple lucked out by being so late to the AI hype train?
Could the AI bubble burst before Apple even gets a chance to make a massive investment in it? And will this leave them standing tall amongst tech giants?
Could the AI bubble burst before Apple even gets a chance to make a massive investment in it? And will this leave them standing tall amongst tech giants?
November 24, 2025 at 2:15 AM
A post I am noodling on: Has Apple lucked out by being so late to the AI hype train?
Could the AI bubble burst before Apple even gets a chance to make a massive investment in it? And will this leave them standing tall amongst tech giants?
Could the AI bubble burst before Apple even gets a chance to make a massive investment in it? And will this leave them standing tall amongst tech giants?
I wish I had more plants but my cats eat them
Twitter accounts are based in Russia. BlueSky accounts are based in homes with, frankly, too many books, plants, obsolete cables, and pieces of rustic pottery, that could do with a bit of a tidying up, to be honest.
November 24, 2025 at 1:58 AM
I wish I had more plants but my cats eat them
AI has some legit uses and can be a decent research tool. But you can't rely on it to do more than you understand, and if you ask it to do everything, it will get a lot wrong.
The biggest paradox of AI is that those who get the most out of it are experts in an area.
The biggest paradox of AI is that those who get the most out of it are experts in an area.
November 23, 2025 at 9:12 PM
AI has some legit uses and can be a decent research tool. But you can't rely on it to do more than you understand, and if you ask it to do everything, it will get a lot wrong.
The biggest paradox of AI is that those who get the most out of it are experts in an area.
The biggest paradox of AI is that those who get the most out of it are experts in an area.
Reposted by Patrick Thornton
y'know, if tech companies weren't so fired up to call every single thing "AI" it would be a lot easier to distinguish "ML spam filter that is well-sandboxed and tuned on your emails" from "giant context and IP-eroding foundation model that makes people paranoid and unhappy"
since the "google is now training gemini on your email contents" thing keeps bumping around here: it's _not happening_. I say this not to defend google but because I know a lot of people that have broken their filtering and made their lives much more annoying from sheer misinformation.
The malwarebytes Google opting-your-emails-into-ai-training thing is not true. The post is based on one bad tweet.
I know anti-tech lamenting is a Bluesky core principle, but please use the same judgement you would for any other clickbait.
www.theverge.com/news/826902/...
I know anti-tech lamenting is a Bluesky core principle, but please use the same judgement you would for any other clickbait.
www.theverge.com/news/826902/...
November 23, 2025 at 12:58 PM
y'know, if tech companies weren't so fired up to call every single thing "AI" it would be a lot easier to distinguish "ML spam filter that is well-sandboxed and tuned on your emails" from "giant context and IP-eroding foundation model that makes people paranoid and unhappy"
Just roast your turkey like a normal person.
People who can't cook are tripping over themselves to burn their houses down. At some point, just get takeout Chinese.
People who can't cook are tripping over themselves to burn their houses down. At some point, just get takeout Chinese.
There is a post circulating on Bluesky encouraging the moving of a frozen turkey straight into a pot of hot oil. We are combating this misinformation the best way we know how - through the power of dance music.
November 23, 2025 at 8:10 PM
Just roast your turkey like a normal person.
People who can't cook are tripping over themselves to burn their houses down. At some point, just get takeout Chinese.
People who can't cook are tripping over themselves to burn their houses down. At some point, just get takeout Chinese.
Reposted by Patrick Thornton
“The account MAGANationX—with nearly 400,000 followers and a bio reading ‘Patriot Voice for We The People’—is actually based in Eastern Europe.”
X's new About This Account feature reveals that some top accounts, including many MAGA influencers, are based in countries like Russia, India, and Nigeria (Jack Revell/The Daily Beast)
Main Link | Techmeme Permalink
Main Link | Techmeme Permalink
November 23, 2025 at 4:02 PM
“The account MAGANationX—with nearly 400,000 followers and a bio reading ‘Patriot Voice for We The People’—is actually based in Eastern Europe.”
Reposted by Patrick Thornton
I see a lot of Paidchecks on X didn’t realize that a whole lot of people on social media lie about their location to grift off the naïveté of the rage-addled American right.
Turns out this problem is real and it’s a thing those of us who worked on “disinformation” pointed out.
Turns out this problem is real and it’s a thing those of us who worked on “disinformation” pointed out.
November 23, 2025 at 5:11 AM
I see a lot of Paidchecks on X didn’t realize that a whole lot of people on social media lie about their location to grift off the naïveté of the rage-addled American right.
Turns out this problem is real and it’s a thing those of us who worked on “disinformation” pointed out.
Turns out this problem is real and it’s a thing those of us who worked on “disinformation” pointed out.
Preach. Tell these social media bozos to stop being bozos.
why have reporters, politicians, influencers, etc. all of a sudden seem to have started holding lapel mics to talk into them? it’s a lapel mic, it’s specifically designed to go on your shirt or lapel, you look ridiculous holding it, stop it.
November 23, 2025 at 3:24 AM
Preach. Tell these social media bozos to stop being bozos.
Reposted by Patrick Thornton
really baffled at elon's decision to confirm that most of twitter is just a poorly organized foreign influence operation
November 23, 2025 at 2:14 AM
really baffled at elon's decision to confirm that most of twitter is just a poorly organized foreign influence operation
Reposted by Patrick Thornton
Regret to report that there has been another good linkedin post
November 22, 2025 at 11:18 AM
Regret to report that there has been another good linkedin post
Reposted by Patrick Thornton
It’s widely known (and, I think, pretty uncontroversial) that learning requires effort — specifically, if you don’t have to work at getting the knowledge, it won’t stick.
Even if an LLM could be trusted to give you correct information 100% of the time, it would be an inferior method of learning it.
Even if an LLM could be trusted to give you correct information 100% of the time, it would be an inferior method of learning it.
Relying on ChatGPT to teach you about a topic leaves you with shallower knowledge than Googling and reading about it, according to new research that compared what more than 10,000 people knew after using one method or the other.
Shared by @gizmodo.com: buff.ly/yAAHtHq
Shared by @gizmodo.com: buff.ly/yAAHtHq
November 21, 2025 at 12:49 PM
It’s widely known (and, I think, pretty uncontroversial) that learning requires effort — specifically, if you don’t have to work at getting the knowledge, it won’t stick.
Even if an LLM could be trusted to give you correct information 100% of the time, it would be an inferior method of learning it.
Even if an LLM could be trusted to give you correct information 100% of the time, it would be an inferior method of learning it.
Reposted by Patrick Thornton
this insistence that she is some preternatural journalistic talent is going to drive me insane
November 21, 2025 at 4:59 PM
this insistence that she is some preternatural journalistic talent is going to drive me insane
Reposted by Patrick Thornton
I just love how AI is constantly doing things that would get real employees fired, and people keep using it.
November 22, 2025 at 11:38 PM
I just love how AI is constantly doing things that would get real employees fired, and people keep using it.
Reposted by Patrick Thornton
Honestly if you're going to take away anything it's this.
These aren't ethical people and they were upheld by people who didn't really care that they weren't ethical. And that's damning for journalism
These aren't ethical people and they were upheld by people who didn't really care that they weren't ethical. And that's damning for journalism
The more Lizza writes the more he indicts himself in serious ethical lapses but there are a lot of editors and publishers who are complicit here, too.
The whole thing is just gross.
(And shout out to the serious journalists who do good work. You deserve better peers and a healthier industry.)
The whole thing is just gross.
(And shout out to the serious journalists who do good work. You deserve better peers and a healthier industry.)
November 22, 2025 at 5:56 PM
Honestly if you're going to take away anything it's this.
These aren't ethical people and they were upheld by people who didn't really care that they weren't ethical. And that's damning for journalism
These aren't ethical people and they were upheld by people who didn't really care that they weren't ethical. And that's damning for journalism
Reposted by Patrick Thornton
the entire beltway media complex is rotten all the way through, I truly believe Nuzzi's just the worst at hiding it
The more Lizza writes the more he indicts himself in serious ethical lapses but there are a lot of editors and publishers who are complicit here, too.
The whole thing is just gross.
(And shout out to the serious journalists who do good work. You deserve better peers and a healthier industry.)
The whole thing is just gross.
(And shout out to the serious journalists who do good work. You deserve better peers and a healthier industry.)
November 22, 2025 at 6:45 PM
the entire beltway media complex is rotten all the way through, I truly believe Nuzzi's just the worst at hiding it
Reposted by Patrick Thornton
Two perfectly normal ads in the perfectly normal city of San Francisco.
November 22, 2025 at 11:42 PM
Two perfectly normal ads in the perfectly normal city of San Francisco.
Am I reading this correctly that Notre Dame is up 21-0 in the first quarter and they haven't even had an offensive possession yet?
November 22, 2025 at 8:50 PM
Am I reading this correctly that Notre Dame is up 21-0 in the first quarter and they haven't even had an offensive possession yet?
Reposted by Patrick Thornton
Me, watching the waitress walk toward me with my fajitas...
November 22, 2025 at 3:08 AM
Me, watching the waitress walk toward me with my fajitas...
Reposted by Patrick Thornton
They line up perfectly.
November 22, 2025 at 2:32 AM
They line up perfectly.
Reposted by Patrick Thornton
it's actually really good our stock is down $500 billion, you fool, you absolute simpleton
www.businessinsider.com/jensen-huang...
www.businessinsider.com/jensen-huang...
November 22, 2025 at 2:49 AM
it's actually really good our stock is down $500 billion, you fool, you absolute simpleton
www.businessinsider.com/jensen-huang...
www.businessinsider.com/jensen-huang...