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The Starr Report
My TED Talk on the Pitfalls of Optimising for Data was Cancelled... Because They Obsessed over Data
Karla Starr says metrics/SEO-driven TED talk committees create bland sameness.
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Useful, curious, and interesting things found beyond this site.
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28 May 2026
The Conversation
Disappointment can be an important fuel for creativity. It surfaces what we truly desire, clarifies what matters to us, and points us toward what we are not yet willing to accept.
Karla Starr says metrics/SEO-driven TED talk committees create bland sameness.
Brad Stulberg argues that online ‘optimisation culture’ is making people fragile, because obsessing over perfect sleep, diet, and metrics turns normal life variation into anxiety.
Pope Leo XIV warns AI needs ethical, legal guardrails to protect human dignity, labour, education, and warfare decisions.
Cal Newport argues that treating machines as speakers cheapens human speech’s sacred role, raising urgent ethical questions.
Friendship research reframes midlife loneliness: make deliberate space for friends, weak ties, and everyday community.
Digital distractions drive constant switching, but attention capacity seems intact. Redesigning habits and environments can help restore focus.
Football’s low-scoring, state-dependent flow makes it hard for analytics to predict outcomes, despite ever-better tracking data. Here’s why.
35 practical rules for staying sane, growing through challenge, and focusing on what matters in a noisy world.
Japan’s care robots can help with lifting and monitoring, but real care still depends on human judgement, emotion, and trust.
Four-day weeks can boost wellbeing and productivity, but need thoughtful, sector-specific design to avoid widening inequality.
Plug-in home batteries are being legalised in the UK, letting households arbitrage off-peak tariffs and cut bills without solar or installation.
MG Siegler argues Western “super apps” keep recurring, but bloat and complexity make them hard to sustain.
Brené Brown and Adam Grant argue RTO debates miss the point: define the problem, then design hybrid work around it, not attendance.
Eliza Filby argues Gen Z’s “lack of hunger” reflects an economy and life-cycle reshaped since 2008, forcing leaders to rebuild security and belonging.
A case for ‘wintering’: deliberate withdrawal that rebuilds the self and enables deeper, longer-term work.
Why RAM and bandwidth—not cores—are the limiting factor for local AI, and why Apple’s unified memory is a big edge.
Your brain doesn’t run out of space; it filters and forgets when attention and reinforcement are lacking.
With diagnoses at a record high, some experts have begun to question our assumptions about the condition — and how to treat it.
This is definitely something I worry about with my girls.
A stark exposé in The Economist on the rise of online scams like ‘pig-butchering’, now rivalling the drug trade. None of us are safe.
Be curious about what’s new, sure. That’s expected. But it’s more interesting to be curious about what’s old.
We can’t always control what life throws at us, but we can control who we become through it all.