Weekly Link Roundup #64
"Will you still need me, will you still feed me When I'm sixty-four?" ~McCartney and Lennon
Just finished watching The Pitt. So good. Brutal, tragic and uplifting all at the same time. Just really good TV - the writing, acting, etc. All spot on. I wanted to highlight a topic that came up in one episode - a piece of American history I had never heard before - the story of the Freedom House Ambulance Service in Pittsburgh. These men, almost exclusively African-American from Pittsburgh’s Hill District, weren’t just any paramedics - they were America’s FIRST paramedics. What they did, the lives they saved, was the basis for our 911 system. Read more about them at the links below but next time you need help, and you call 911, think of these folks whose victories paved the way for you to be able to do that. We owe them, at the very least, remembrance and thanks.
At Freedom House, these Black men saved lives. Paramedics are book topic
American Sirens: The Incredible Story of the Black Men Who Became America's First Paramedics
The Ambulance Service That Made the Modern EMS
AI Agents vs. Agentic AI: A Conceptual Taxonomy, Applications and Challenge: “This study critically distinguishes between AI Agents and Agentic AI, offering a structured conceptual taxonomy, application mapping, and challenge analysis to clarify their divergent design philosophies and capabilities. We begin by outlining the search strategy and foundational definitions, characterizing AI Agents as modular systems driven by Large Language Models (LLMs) and Large Image Models (LIMs) for narrow, task-specific automation. Generative AI is positioned as a precursor, with AI Agents advancing through tool integration, prompt engineering, and reasoning enhancements. In contrast, Agentic AI systems represent a paradigmatic shift marked by multi-agent collaboration, dynamic task decomposition, persistent memory, and orchestrated autonomy. Through a sequential evaluation of architectural evolution, operational mechanisms, interaction styles, and autonomy levels, we present a comparative analysis across both paradigms.” Kind of a signal in itself when two folks like Nico Orie and Ross Dawson have write-ups on this paper. Brian Evergreen also has great insights from his interactions at IBM’s Think2025 > > My honest take on IBM AI Agents. I do think we are verging into vocabulary territory that could be handled with phrases like “workflow automation” and so on. Usually I’m a stickler for precise language (there’s literally no such thing as a real “learning management system” that exists outside someone’s brain), in this case though, I’m OK with it. I think the new language is fine because we also have new systems evolving and we will need that new vocabulary to semantically find our way around.
Flexible work’s enduring appeal affects workers, employers, and real estate (McKinsey report): “On average, workers go into the office about 30 percent less frequently than they did prior to the pandemic. In sum, these changes to working patterns are likely marginal for many organizations, but meaningful for others.” > > I’ll take this opportunity to beat on one of my fav drums - that COVID didn’t destroy working in an office, what it did was expose the lack of conscious design around how we schedule and architect work. I’ll say again, the companies that come through this transition the best won’t be the ones with mandated RTOs but rather the ones like DropBox, who put in the work to think about what “being in the office/remote” actually means.
When place matters again: strategic guidelines for a splintered world: “The forces shaping the next decade are pulling in the opposite direction; towards fragmentation, divergence, and complexity. Place, which once seemed irrelevant in a globalised economy, is suddenly taking centre stage.” > > I think COVID accelerated a lot of things and moving dynamics like hybrid and remote work forward by probably a decade was one that I think we’re still in the early stages of decoding.
Stack overflow is almost dead: This is one of those crazy signals. I mean back in the day (like 3-4 years ago), your software folks had to have access to Stack Overflow. Look at this chart though. There are deeper implications here like real people doing real work used to vet answers on SO - AI doesn’t currently allow for that kind of crowd voting. Are we swapping speed for accuracy? See also: Prominent chatbots routinely exaggerate science findings, study shows.
‘LegoGPT’ designs Lego models with nothing but a prompt: Wow - if you thought the whole Studio Ghibli thing was bad - this one is going go way past that. “In a paper titled “Generating Physically Stable and Buildable LEGO Designs from Text,” published last week, six coauthors lay out an invention they’re calling “LegoGPT.” This generative AI model can take a text-based prompt, like “an acoustic guitar with an hourglass shape,” and determine all of the necessary Lego pieces needed to build that structure and how to assemble them.”
Microsoft just taught its AI agents to talk to each other—and it could transform how we work: So thank you to Venture Beat for putting “could” in that headline. Here’s the part that I really think has potential - “Another key announcement is “computer use” for Copilot Studio agents, which allows agents to interact with desktop applications and websites by controlling interfaces directly — clicking buttons, navigating menus, and typing in fields — even when APIs aren’t available.” Think about deploying in legacy environments - this could speed that up - I just wonder what will be the unforeseen hang-ups here.
Beyond the office-versus-remote debate: Why we lack focus at work and what to do about it: Look, I’ve said before that I love the thinking that Dropbox is doing on being “virtual first.” I think the image below in which I have professionally highlighted what I think are the two most important pieces is indicative of what I like. They are being intentional about collaboration. Intentional about meetings. I really dislike this idea of ‘ well if we’re just all back in the office, collaboration will happen.’ Didn’t work that way before - don’t know why you think it’ll work like that now. My only issue is that when we just break work modes into categories like “office”, “hybrid”, or “remote” - what we lose is any thinking around which demographics (age, org, etc) favor which mode and even deeper - what the migration patterns look like between those modes - i.e. what life changes or job changes could move someone from remote to office?
Finding Beauty and Truth in Mundane Occurrences: One of my fav articles and a new hero. Sidney Nagel might just be the ultimate combination of a fox and a hedgehog. I believe in this quote so much “Nagel and his collaborators have developed theories of “jamming” that help explain the flow (or lack of flow) of both sand and traffic. They’ve also stumbled upon new phenomena in droplets and splashes. “My deep and abiding feeling is that if you look at anything closely enough, there will be new riches to be found,” Nagel said.”
Internet Artifacts: I love this. ARPANet. The Hamster Dance. Friendster. How internet old are you?
Roblox creators will be able to sell merch in-game: Every experience is a shopping cart > > “Roblox is going to let creators sell physical items from their games. The company has been testing its tools to do so since last year, but today, it’s announcing that it’s opening up its Commerce APIs to eligible Roblox creators.” >> I think I’m just getting a little cynical. I’m sure this will enable more creators to create bigger businesses and a stronger economy but I just want to see other advances beyond a “buy now” button.
The 2025 Environmental Photography Awards Winners Show the Power of Photographers: Because we really should remember that there is a whole world out there beyond us - that’s not AI generated.