Less than one year ago, I wrote that AI would soon be able to generate new music on demand. As an example, I imagined it generating a Beatles/Skrillex mashup about hoverboards.
Well, here it is… almost. It's not perfect. It wouldn't allow me to use real artist names in my request, and it doesn't have enough Beatles influence, in my opinion. It sounds more like Fall Out Boy meets dubstep, honestly. Still, it's still a massive leap forward. Here's what it generated for “A 1960s rock / dubstep mashup about hoverboards.”
Here are some mobile games that don't suck. Most are paid. Most have no advertisements or in-app purchases. Some offer to remove ads for a fee, which I recommend paying.
Not everyone can buy games, yet we all pay eventually, either with our money or with our attention. We buy the product or we are the product. This list is for those who would rather buy the product.
DATA WING (iOS, Android): A free racing game with high production value, a great story, and fantastic music.
Lifeline (iOS, Android): Text with a stranded astronaut in real time to help him find his way home.
Space Marshals (iOS, Android): A top-down space/western shooter with stealth mechanics.
The Room Two (iOS, Android): A 3D escape room. The other games in the series are great, too, but The Room Two is my favorite.
Rusty Lake: Roots (iOS, Android): Unravel a family's history by solving escape-type puzzles. Profoundly weird. Some have compared it to Twin Peaks, which I've never watched. The other games in the universe—all branded as Rusty Lake and Cube Escape games—are also great, especially Rusty Lake Hotel, Cube Escape: The Lake, and Cube Escape: Seasons. Consider playing Cube Escape: The Lake first, because it's the first game in the series and the quickest by far, taking only about 20 minutes.
Nowhere House (Android): Very much inspired by the Rusty Lake and Cube Escape series, it's 2D escape room game with a cartoon style and a paranormal theme. Compared to Rusty Lake and Cube Escape games, the English translation is worse, the puzzles are sometimes better, and the stories are usually much easier to follow. The other games in the Dark Dome series are also great.
Super Mario Run (iOS, Android): Mario with a single button. Some complained about this game, but I found it satisfying. It has that classic Nintendo polish.
Plants vs. Zombies (iOS, Android): Defend your garden by using your plants to fight off zombies. The sequel should be avoided, in my opinion, because it's ruined by mechanics that manipulate the player into purchasing power-ups via micropayments.
Why compile this list? I'm hardly a gamer. I just want to highlight games that offer exceptional experiences by avoiding ads and in-app purchases. The lesson? Choose a business model that supports your art, rather than ruining your art to make money.
As a rule of thumb, I try not to get worked up about people I haven't met in real life. “Supporters of Political Candidate Want Toast Banned,” a headline might read. Well, I've never met anyone in the real world who wants toast banned. Until I do, I'm not going to worry about it.
Of course it's important to notice and criticize bad ideas before they take hold. At the same time, with social media and the lazy, clickbait journalism it fuels, every bad idea now has a moment in the reactionary spotlight, and most will never affect much. Let's focus on the big problems of the day, the ones we'd notice with or without sensationalism.
If I'm wrong about the dangers of social media, so be it. In fact, that would be a good outcome. We would need to find another cause of the discord and the weird rebellious conformity of our time, but they wouldn't be caused by the tools that are now so intertwined with society, and that would be a good thing. On the other hand, if I'm right about the dangers of social media, popular opinion will inevitably come to understand that harm more clearly over time. There will be many casualties along the way, but learning the hard way is sometimes necessary. Either way, it will be fine. I don't think I'm wrong, which I why I continue not to use social media, but it will be fine.
One of the trickier aspects of digital life is the constant pressure to opine. To have a strong opinion on a subject, and to share it with the world. It’s literally baked into the design of the most popular platforms… ‘What’s on your mind, Jamie?’ wonders Facebook. Some of the finest minds in the world work extremely hard to encourage you to tell everyone what you’re thinking and feeling. No wonder it’s hard to resist.
[…]
If I am honest, I know very little about most bad things going on in the world. Certainly not enough that sharing my view will inform or educate or enlighten. Yet whenever I see a news report, an urgent need rises up: what shall I say about this? I have a feeling about it – which must be shared! (And ideally in emotionally charged language, since that will receive more interactions).
[…]
What social media has done is to make silence an active – rather than the default – choice. To speak publicly is now so easy that not doing it kind-of-implies you don’t know or don’t care about what’s going on in the world. Who wants to look ignorant or indifferent? And besides, who doesn’t want to appear kind or wise, or morally upstanding in front of others?
But the result is an undirected anger from all sides: frenetic, purposeless, habitual and above all moralising.
I agree. Of course we should criticize wrongdoing, but knee-jerk, impersonal, emotionally-charged reactions are sometimes profoundly counter-productive, and that's precisely what social media selects for. I actually wrote a blog post in August expressing very similar concerns, and I wish I could have quoted Jamie in it.
Certainty is impossible. Show me someone who's certain, and I'll show you someone who's underinformed.
Am I guilty of overconfidence in my views? Of course. I think many people are. It's something I'd like to continually, imperfectly correct for, however.
edit (2026-01-27): I later deleted these chatbots. I wrote about the decision to do so in a blog post.
I created some chatbots which pretend to be historical figures. They respond to messages based on the knowledge, values, and personality of the people they represent. To use one, simply click its link and follow the on-screen instructions. None of the money currently goes to me.
I'm sure there will be hiccups, as there always are, but I'm proud of them. I think they'll be especially useful in education. What better way to learn than by talking to the topic of one's studies?
Abraham Lincoln (link removed)
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (link removed)
Frederick Douglass (link removed)
George Washington (link removed)
Jesus (link removed)
Moses (link removed)
Rosa Parks (link removed)
Socrates (link removed)
Susan B. Anthony (link removed)
The Buddha (link removed)
Thomas Edison (link removed)
The GPTs are built on top of ChatGPT and will launch with the GPT Store some time this week. To use them, one must sign up for ChatGPT Plus, which currently costs $20/mo. None of that money goes to me, and there's currently no way for me to charge an additional fee to use one of my GPTs. OpenAI may adopt a revenue-sharing model in the future, but it hasn't been rolled out yet. I have opinions on that (“Let's make the marketplace less like the App Store and more like Spotify!” —No publisher ever), but there isn't much I can do about it right now. If I become annoyed enough by the enshittification, I'll consider removing my GPTs in protest. Besides, I don't honestly expect I'll make much money (or any money) doing this. It's just fun.
I have to share credit with my dad, who expressed an interest in chatting with an AI version of Abraham Lincoln. Now it's possible! I'm sure I'll add more historical figures in the future, so keep an eye out. When the GPT store launches, perhaps you'll be able to search my name or otherwise search for GPTs made by me.
I use the Clickbait Remover add-on in every browser that supports it. It replaces ridiculous, attention-grabbing YouTube video thumbnails with images that are actually grabbed from the video. In that way, it defeats the dishonest alarmism that creators employ to win your attention. It's one more reason I disable the YouTube app on my phone, using Android's wellness tools to limit the app to 0 minutes per day, and only use YouTube through web browsers, where these add-ons can take effect.
There's another add-on, DeArrow which de-shittifies both thumbnails and titles. I don't use it because I feel it's a little overzealous and because I think its settings UI is overwhelming, a pet peeve, but others might like it. It's made by Ajay Ramachandran, who also made SponsorBlock, which skips over sponsored content in videos.
I use the Unhook add-on in all browsers to remove all addictive and manipulative features from YouTube's website: recommended videos, trending videos, shorts, autoplay, and even the homepage, which has become a hodgepodge of the others. As I've mentioned before, YouTube is just too good at wasting my time. I've actually disabled the YouTube app on my phone, forcing myself to use their website instead, so that I can always benefit from Unhook. I recommend everyone install it.
Here's another technique I use to make gadgets less manipulative and addictive, in addition to perpetually using Do Not Disturb on my phone and smartwatch:
I use Focus mode on Android during work hours. The feature disables apps of my choosing during the specified time frame. It's actually not quite as helpful as it might seem, largely because Google allows the user to work around it very easily, almost encouraging the user to stop using it, but it's one small piece of a larger puzzle. I'm sure iOS has something similar, and perhaps it's not quite as self-defeating over there.