Yes.

Yes.

Thanks be to God.

Ah Eastertide, lovely in newness, fresh in mercy, generous in potential.

“jobs … at risk” is enterprise, not consumer. I agree that AI assistant apps might indeed be great enterprise products. FWIW Nilay has said as much on the Vergecast—including this week’s episode (ex: starting at 10:35).

They do, you are right. But it does matter to the argument @reckless.bsky.social is making that you rebutted: People may love and adore them, but they’re not great consumer products until they work. Selling $5 business-class airfare would be loved and adored—but it wouldn’t work, and thus not great.

Agreed! This is the right model when a startup plan can forecast the conditions in which it becomes profitable (ex: more users, less competition, lower costs, etc.).

There are no *current* business models where consumer AI assistant apps are profitable. One may emerge!(And enterprise is different.)

An unprofitable consumer product is inherently unsustainable, and (again with the syllogisms) is therefore not “good” in the objective sense that it doesn’t work.

A “great consumer product” is, by definition, profitable—not just popular.

The syllogism here is pretty simple: Are the AI assistant apps profitable? No. Are AI assistant apps therefore great consumer products? No.

Correct abbreviation in Romance languages (Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese, Romanian).

Two down.

50 years 

This is also true of Amazon accounts and other global retailers. Not having an account with them makes non-local impulse purchases harder; good for everyone except the bad people!

The quiet 48-year-old electrician with the leathered hands who sits with his family in the third pew every Sunday? He’s nearly memorized the Gospels. And the 82-year-old widow who knits hats for the newborns and bakes coffeecake for every funeral? She can best N. T. Wright on a Bible knowledge exam.

There is at least one person in nearly every church who knows the Bible vastly better than their pastor.

I agree they miscalculate that they will have protection. Carr’s policies have the same fatal flaw as every censorious regime: When the only voices left in the throne room are a chorus of delicate idiots, you no longer hear the sound of a swiftly swelling opposition.

I don’t think they all believe (or even want) themselves to be in power forever but they believe in the durability of the MAGA movement as a long-term shaping force in American politics. There is, of course, scant evidence in favor of this and abundant evidence (ex: 40-point poll swings) against it.

It won’t shock to realize these people are not smart enough to understand that their actions will have consequences in the years to come. To the extent they understand this, they believe they’ll have so remade the world in their image that any consequences will be minor. (They’re obviously wrong.)

In honor of ⚾️ Opening Day: gileadsociety.com/post/8121937...

Happy Opening Day! ⚾️

PLEASE do this!

‘Who Speaks for Us?’, a short new essay in @nybooks.com about the erosion of the two-party system and the peril of American democracy under the weight of Trump’s rule: gileadsociety.com/post/8111895...

Portugal has been on our European shortlist for years, and was again recommended by my seatmate on my flight home from London last week, so I look forward to reading about life there and why it’s recommendable (albeit as a tourist, not an expat).

ruth as someone planning to be on a danube cruise this year please let us keep mr grizzle

In general, isn’t the Sermon on the Mount such a fascinating text to wrestle with? It always turns over a few leaves in your mind and soul you wish could be left undisturbed.

I hope my Greek professor would be happy to know that I think of him fondly every time I read the Lillies of the Field passage (Matt 6:28) and remember his emphasis on its unique form in Greek (a prolepsis!).

An adventure! I assume the timing of this with [points around the U.S.] is not accidental.

Is this permanent or a for-a-while thing?

Marilynne Robinson on ICE, Trump, and Minneapolis: gileadsociety.com/post/8105529...

“Recently we saw soldiers gathered around a man they held prostrate. They beat him first. If Christ appears to us in this moment, he is not among the executioners.”

I guarantee that I dislike the guy more than you, but on this specific point, the Commander in Chief can salute even if they didn’t serve; Obama did, while Biden did not.