Benjamin Borowski 🍁
@typeoneerror.com
🔮 Notion warlock at notionmastery.com
🧱 Product maker at weareokidoki.com
🤠 Latest at typeoneerror.com
👨🚒 Volunteer firefighter (Lt.)
👨💻 Hacker (rb/js/ios/php)
🎹 Producer (soundcloud.com/hacynth)
🎧 DJ (mixcloud.com/hacynth)
Avatar by Vic Nguyen
🧱 Product maker at weareokidoki.com
🤠 Latest at typeoneerror.com
👨🚒 Volunteer firefighter (Lt.)
👨💻 Hacker (rb/js/ios/php)
🎹 Producer (soundcloud.com/hacynth)
🎧 DJ (mixcloud.com/hacynth)
Avatar by Vic Nguyen
Pinned
Benjamin Borowski 🍁
@typeoneerror.com
· Oct 26
Hello, new friends! 👋
I'm Ben. I'm a software/product guy and one of the world's top Notion experts. I make software and currently run the NotionMastery.com program.
Connect with me if you're interested in my favorite topics: Systems, Complexity, Permaculture.
Here are my favorite books:
I'm Ben. I'm a software/product guy and one of the world's top Notion experts. I make software and currently run the NotionMastery.com program.
Connect with me if you're interested in my favorite topics: Systems, Complexity, Permaculture.
Here are my favorite books:
tough couple weeks doing a pump/driver operator course. learned tons; feeling so much more confident with driving and pumps and engines are mostly demystified. very thankful to be done!
December 1, 2025 at 6:07 AM
tough couple weeks doing a pump/driver operator course. learned tons; feeling so much more confident with driving and pumps and engines are mostly demystified. very thankful to be done!
I feel like my mental health is improving, because I am on occasion having "normal" obsessive thoughts and, like, looking right at the activation drive, and just kind of emotionally feel: "nah, i'm good". it feels good. it's also confusing to have control. i don't trust me yet.
December 1, 2025 at 5:29 AM
I feel like my mental health is improving, because I am on occasion having "normal" obsessive thoughts and, like, looking right at the activation drive, and just kind of emotionally feel: "nah, i'm good". it feels good. it's also confusing to have control. i don't trust me yet.
How is Emma Thompson not The Doctor? It makes no sense. Related: Down Cemetery Road is good.
December 1, 2025 at 5:22 AM
How is Emma Thompson not The Doctor? It makes no sense. Related: Down Cemetery Road is good.
my favourite people are those that don't like people but really are just over-the-top enthusiastic about animals
December 1, 2025 at 4:00 AM
my favourite people are those that don't like people but really are just over-the-top enthusiastic about animals
Reposted by Benjamin Borowski 🍁
Red teaming tech harms is a myth. Guardrails are a myth. Algorithmic audits are a myth. Multi-stakeholder collaboration is a myth. These ideas serve to honeypot regulators and civil society into thinking they can work with tech companies to make them safe on their own terms, but it doesn’t work.
November 29, 2025 at 2:31 PM
Red teaming tech harms is a myth. Guardrails are a myth. Algorithmic audits are a myth. Multi-stakeholder collaboration is a myth. These ideas serve to honeypot regulators and civil society into thinking they can work with tech companies to make them safe on their own terms, but it doesn’t work.
Reposted by Benjamin Borowski 🍁
This is normal. At one point, the economy was propped up by selling Africans left and right.
It's very American to have an economy based on absolute bullshit (and to have the benefactors of said propping up to be like "it's fine, it's just a bot/robot/slave")
It's very American to have an economy based on absolute bullshit (and to have the benefactors of said propping up to be like "it's fine, it's just a bot/robot/slave")
Almost half the US economy is now based on Nvidia selling GPUs to itself using other companies as proxies
November 29, 2025 at 12:27 AM
This is normal. At one point, the economy was propped up by selling Africans left and right.
It's very American to have an economy based on absolute bullshit (and to have the benefactors of said propping up to be like "it's fine, it's just a bot/robot/slave")
It's very American to have an economy based on absolute bullshit (and to have the benefactors of said propping up to be like "it's fine, it's just a bot/robot/slave")
Pluribus is a lovely essay on paradox. It highlights the crushing loneliness of disconnection, and the oppressive hell of a pure union—the idea that consciousness seems to arise from the paradox between selfness and wholeness—mutual arising and whatnot. Also, who doesn't love a tsundere main?
November 28, 2025 at 4:05 PM
Pluribus is a lovely essay on paradox. It highlights the crushing loneliness of disconnection, and the oppressive hell of a pure union—the idea that consciousness seems to arise from the paradox between selfness and wholeness—mutual arising and whatnot. Also, who doesn't love a tsundere main?
Reposted by Benjamin Borowski 🍁
An old pal of mine introduced me to Buy Nothing Day in the late 90s/00s and I've been mostly doing this ever since. One alternate thing you can do on Black Friday is donate instead of buy. Buy your local fire hall, community centre, hospital, volunteer, non-profit orgs, etc. Buy buy buy!
November 20, 2024 at 6:41 PM
An old pal of mine introduced me to Buy Nothing Day in the late 90s/00s and I've been mostly doing this ever since. One alternate thing you can do on Black Friday is donate instead of buy. Buy your local fire hall, community centre, hospital, volunteer, non-profit orgs, etc. Buy buy buy!
Reposted by Benjamin Borowski 🍁
Mushroom spore landing in my lungs: I eat?
My immune system: no not right now he’s still alive
Mushroom spore: ok i wait
My immune system: no not right now he’s still alive
Mushroom spore: ok i wait
December 28, 2024 at 2:00 PM
Mushroom spore landing in my lungs: I eat?
My immune system: no not right now he’s still alive
Mushroom spore: ok i wait
My immune system: no not right now he’s still alive
Mushroom spore: ok i wait
astrological meaning-making through gambling 🎰
shoot productivity straight into my veins 💉
bsky.app/profile/type...
shoot productivity straight into my veins 💉
bsky.app/profile/type...
November 26, 2025 at 10:10 PM
astrological meaning-making through gambling 🎰
shoot productivity straight into my veins 💉
bsky.app/profile/type...
shoot productivity straight into my veins 💉
bsky.app/profile/type...
"Complexity is easy. Simplicity takes effort."
Too much is designed by those terrified of complexity (even just plain complication) in systems. XP is friction-filled and inelastic because the incurious desire "simple". Limit trust w/someone who states "complexity is easy"; makes no worldly sense.
Too much is designed by those terrified of complexity (even just plain complication) in systems. XP is friction-filled and inelastic because the incurious desire "simple". Limit trust w/someone who states "complexity is easy"; makes no worldly sense.
November 26, 2025 at 3:19 PM
"Complexity is easy. Simplicity takes effort."
Too much is designed by those terrified of complexity (even just plain complication) in systems. XP is friction-filled and inelastic because the incurious desire "simple". Limit trust w/someone who states "complexity is easy"; makes no worldly sense.
Too much is designed by those terrified of complexity (even just plain complication) in systems. XP is friction-filled and inelastic because the incurious desire "simple". Limit trust w/someone who states "complexity is easy"; makes no worldly sense.
I dread the "is there anything AI can do to help here?" question, but now I dig it as a transference opportunity. My go-to is "I'm willing to try and not be responsible for the outcome." I'll try, but I will not be held responsible for AI "acting as" me. You own the experiment and your faith.
November 24, 2025 at 4:28 PM
I dread the "is there anything AI can do to help here?" question, but now I dig it as a transference opportunity. My go-to is "I'm willing to try and not be responsible for the outcome." I'll try, but I will not be held responsible for AI "acting as" me. You own the experiment and your faith.
There's such a huge competitive advantage in the future to companies that decide to build without AI lock-in. Boring, purpose-built software is where's it's at!
Unlike most apps these days, Scrivener does not use AI in any way. However, if you’re on a Mac, you may see an AI prompt.
.
Here’s why, and what you can do if you want to remove this: buff.ly/MlAq0rL
.
Here’s why, and what you can do if you want to remove this: buff.ly/MlAq0rL
November 22, 2025 at 7:19 PM
There's such a huge competitive advantage in the future to companies that decide to build without AI lock-in. Boring, purpose-built software is where's it's at!
Doing a little research project. If you could build your ideal music player, what would it do differently from the major streaming players? I personally feel that spotify, tidal, etc are not designed for people who fit the "curator" archetype. Curious to hear what you think.
November 22, 2025 at 3:33 PM
Doing a little research project. If you could build your ideal music player, what would it do differently from the major streaming players? I personally feel that spotify, tidal, etc are not designed for people who fit the "curator" archetype. Curious to hear what you think.
I have three major things ending in early December:
Finish the first phase of my new program.
Finish a super memorization-heavy emergency vehicle operation course.
Wrap up a ~5 month contract.
Will collapse, but I also feel like I've had an incredible amount of growth because of the workload.
Finish the first phase of my new program.
Finish a super memorization-heavy emergency vehicle operation course.
Wrap up a ~5 month contract.
Will collapse, but I also feel like I've had an incredible amount of growth because of the workload.
November 21, 2025 at 9:13 PM
I have three major things ending in early December:
Finish the first phase of my new program.
Finish a super memorization-heavy emergency vehicle operation course.
Wrap up a ~5 month contract.
Will collapse, but I also feel like I've had an incredible amount of growth because of the workload.
Finish the first phase of my new program.
Finish a super memorization-heavy emergency vehicle operation course.
Wrap up a ~5 month contract.
Will collapse, but I also feel like I've had an incredible amount of growth because of the workload.
I'm so tired of not being able to track my water intake from Notion to Userlist. My productivity is at an all time low and I'm very dehydrated.
One thing I keep noticing: People love asking for integrations between @userlist.com and other tools, but almost always are very fuzzy about what that actually looks like 🧐
You'd think there's a specific use case or problem they're trying to solve, but it's rare to get specific answers to that 🤔
You'd think there's a specific use case or problem they're trying to solve, but it's rare to get specific answers to that 🤔
November 21, 2025 at 5:17 PM
I'm so tired of not being able to track my water intake from Notion to Userlist. My productivity is at an all time low and I'm very dehydrated.
Good stuff. Dig the reference to spellcasting as a sort of prescient wayfinding. Much better than my use of egregores to explain the same. It's faith, really. We've lost ours—in humanity—perhaps machines can save us?
🦊
“Artificial intelligence isn’t going anywhere. It’s the future.”
I hear that line a lot. The thing is, futures are tricky.
ethanmarcotte.com/wrote/the-li...
“Artificial intelligence isn’t going anywhere. It’s the future.”
I hear that line a lot. The thing is, futures are tricky.
ethanmarcotte.com/wrote/the-li...
The line and the stream. — ethanmarcotte.com
“Artificial intelligence is the future,” they tell me. The thing is, futures are tricky.
ethanmarcotte.com
November 21, 2025 at 4:30 PM
Good stuff. Dig the reference to spellcasting as a sort of prescient wayfinding. Much better than my use of egregores to explain the same. It's faith, really. We've lost ours—in humanity—perhaps machines can save us?
Reposted by Benjamin Borowski 🍁
This is a really good thread about staying the fuck alive when the narrator in your head is trying to have you do otherwise.
Please keep going. Losing people is hard, and it just keeps happening. 😭
Please keep going. Losing people is hard, and it just keeps happening. 😭
if youre trans and youre struggling to justify why you as a person should be allowed to take up space in the universe just consider that by your sheer existence you make a lot of the worst people on earth mad enough that they will die early deaths from stress. so thats a p good reason
November 21, 2025 at 4:11 AM
This is a really good thread about staying the fuck alive when the narrator in your head is trying to have you do otherwise.
Please keep going. Losing people is hard, and it just keeps happening. 😭
Please keep going. Losing people is hard, and it just keeps happening. 😭
Reposted by Benjamin Borowski 🍁
Oh you're saying I can use a riddle to confound the inscrutable creature who wants to drain my life force?
Looks like LLMs are *very* vulnerable to attack via poetic allusion: "curated poetic prompts yielded high attack-success rates (ASR), with some providers exceeding 90% ..."
https://arxiv.org/html/2511.15304v1
https://arxiv.org/html/2511.15304v1
November 21, 2025 at 3:08 AM
Oh you're saying I can use a riddle to confound the inscrutable creature who wants to drain my life force?
Heads up, Savvycal users. Go check Settings > Integrations. Sounds like they had an encryption key bungle which disconnected all connected accounts. Have to reauth everything. Oopsie!
November 20, 2025 at 11:18 PM
Heads up, Savvycal users. Go check Settings > Integrations. Sounds like they had an encryption key bungle which disconnected all connected accounts. Have to reauth everything. Oopsie!
Listening to Lars Bartkuhn's 2014 "Passion Dance Orchestra"
Me by song 3: "HOW HAVE I NEVER HEARD THIS"
Me by song 6: "This is the best album of 2014"
Me by song 9: "This should have won every grammy".
Me checking streams: 1,907 monthly listeners: "There are around 3K non-lizard people on 🌎"
Me by song 3: "HOW HAVE I NEVER HEARD THIS"
Me by song 6: "This is the best album of 2014"
Me by song 9: "This should have won every grammy".
Me checking streams: 1,907 monthly listeners: "There are around 3K non-lizard people on 🌎"
November 20, 2025 at 10:57 PM
Listening to Lars Bartkuhn's 2014 "Passion Dance Orchestra"
Me by song 3: "HOW HAVE I NEVER HEARD THIS"
Me by song 6: "This is the best album of 2014"
Me by song 9: "This should have won every grammy".
Me checking streams: 1,907 monthly listeners: "There are around 3K non-lizard people on 🌎"
Me by song 3: "HOW HAVE I NEVER HEARD THIS"
Me by song 6: "This is the best album of 2014"
Me by song 9: "This should have won every grammy".
Me checking streams: 1,907 monthly listeners: "There are around 3K non-lizard people on 🌎"
There's a tactility lost in rounding off the edges for machine use. The sharp bits, rough surfaces, oddities, uncomfortable liminality, grief, hardness; things that ground us. I continue to be encouraged that an embodied, humanistic resurgence will arise in the pendulum swing. Enjoying the friction.
Saw a post today that advised writers to stop writing as if a human will read it and start writing for an LLM that will be summarising.
As someone who really enjoyed trying to develop a peculiar but readable authorial voice, I find this incredibly depressing.
As someone who really enjoyed trying to develop a peculiar but readable authorial voice, I find this incredibly depressing.
November 20, 2025 at 5:16 PM
There's a tactility lost in rounding off the edges for machine use. The sharp bits, rough surfaces, oddities, uncomfortable liminality, grief, hardness; things that ground us. I continue to be encouraged that an embodied, humanistic resurgence will arise in the pendulum swing. Enjoying the friction.
Reposted by Benjamin Borowski 🍁
Reposted by Benjamin Borowski 🍁
Endorsed. And I’ve built AI in education, long time back.
So why skepticism now? Good applications require a pedagogy which is not consistent with today’s scaling of AI in an industrial-style of education. You can’t cut through that.
Wait it out — and learn the pedagogy while you wait.
So why skepticism now? Good applications require a pedagogy which is not consistent with today’s scaling of AI in an industrial-style of education. You can’t cut through that.
Wait it out — and learn the pedagogy while you wait.
if I was advising AI-curious junior folks it'd 100% just don't use it at all, stay out of it, let the whole thing just pass you by. It's much safer (as well as frankly better for one's teaching).
November 20, 2025 at 2:04 PM
Endorsed. And I’ve built AI in education, long time back.
So why skepticism now? Good applications require a pedagogy which is not consistent with today’s scaling of AI in an industrial-style of education. You can’t cut through that.
Wait it out — and learn the pedagogy while you wait.
So why skepticism now? Good applications require a pedagogy which is not consistent with today’s scaling of AI in an industrial-style of education. You can’t cut through that.
Wait it out — and learn the pedagogy while you wait.