Arni Danielsson

In between meetings I’ve had a chance to attend a couple of workshops at AI for good in Geneva. It has been very informative and shows well a core strength of the UN, namely to convene actors from all sectors and then let them do their thing. Beyond that what has inspired me is the people who have innovative ideas and an ability to execute them.

One thought that has stayed with me: perhaps a key impact of these new technologies will be felt in the daily and even mundane, e.g. in how it will enable translation and through that understanding between languages. Imagine what that will do for smaller populations that still want to nurture an identity based on their own language.

Ed (not sure what his last name is) on Prof G Markets where they are discussing Europe’s defence spending:

I’d rather live in a world where investors are more interested in funding products and services that promote peace. I believe that if most people had their basic needs met, there’d be far less incentive to kill people.

I agree. Basic needs. Prosperity. Peace.

If you are keen on cycling some of the iconic mountain passes in Switzerland but are not sure whether they are open yet, don’t worry, there is a website for that.

Playful murals add color to the cityscape which can otherwise be quite gray. I saw this one in Budapest when I visited last week.

Fictional editor Arthur Howitzer Jr in “The French Dispatch”, via Harry Dry’s excellent newsletter:

“Just try to make it sound like you wrote it that way on purpose.”

The tower of the St Pierre cathedral (well, one of the towers to be precise) offers a beautiful view of Geneva. I went there on a Friday with colleagues, one step at a time, and captured what you see above.

Donella H. Meadows in Thinking in Systems:

Hunger, poverty, environmental degradation, economic instability, unemployment, chronic disease, drug addiction, and war, for example, persist in spite of the analytical ability and technical brilliance that have been directed toward eradicating them. No one deliberately creates those problems, no one wants them to persist, but they persist nonetheless. That is because they are intrinsically systems problems-undesirable behaviors characteristic of the system structures that produce them.

Very interesting book and a reminder to think outside the box of simplicity.

Economical writing by Deirdre McClosky is an excellent book of 35 rules for clear prose. In the final chapter she quotes Mark Twain’s seven rules for good style.

The writer should

say what he is proposing to say, not merely come near it;

use the right word, not its second cousin;

eschew surplusage;

not omit necessary details;

avoid slovenliness of form;

use good grammar; and

employ a simple and straightforward style.

These seven are worth following, as are McClosky’s thirty-five.

Simon Willison’s principles for link blogs: include names, add value, be liberal with quotes. Why? One reason is that

Sharing interesting links with commentary is a low effort, high value way to contribute to internet life at large.