Lydia's Weekly Lifestyle blog is for today's African girl, so no subject is taboo. My purpose is to share things that may interest today's African girl.

This week's contributors: Lydia, Pépé Pépinière, Titi. This week's subjects: How to Look Expensive, Polished & Effortlessly Elegant—Without Designer Labels, Fashion Show Galore, Pain killers, Sticky Non-Stick Frying Pans, The Internet of Things and Make Sure You Don't Lose Your Password, and People Social Eatery

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How to Look Expensive, Polished & Effortlessly Elegant—Without Designer Labels. Dear Accra corporate girl, luxury is not always about the logo on your handbag or the price tag on your blazer. Sometimes, the most expensive looking woman in the office is the one wearing a perfectly tailored pair of trousers, a crisp shirt, and enough confidence to make everyone wonder, “Where does she shop?” Welcome to the world of quiet luxury—Accra office edition. Tailoring Is Your Best Investment: You don't need a wardrobe full of designer clothes. What you need is clothing that fits beautifully. A well-fitted blazer, tailored trousers, or a structured dress will instantly make your outfit look more luxurious. Avoid pieces that are too tight, too loose, or awkwardly proportioned. The secret? Sometimes, a simple trip to your tailor can make an affordable outfit look like it belongs on a luxury runway. Keep Accessories Elegant, Not Excessive: Quiet luxury doesn't need everything to scream for attention. Choose one or two beautiful accessories: a classic watch, delicate jewellery, a structured handbag, or elegant shoes. Remember, the goal is not: “Can everyone see my accessories?” The goal is: “Why does she always look so polished?” Your Shoes Can Make—or Break—the Look: You could be wearing the most beautiful outfit, but tired-looking shoes can change the entire story. Invest in versatile styles such as: – Classic pumps – Elegant loafers – Minimal sandals – Pointed flats – Clean, sophisticated heels And please, Accra corporate girl: keep them clean. Luxury is often in the details. So the next time you walk into that Accra office, remember: You don't need a designer logo to look expensive. You just need good style, great tailoring, and the confidence of a woman who knows exactly who she is. That is the Accra Corporate Girl luxury aesthetic. Fashion Show Galore. It seems we are in line with what is happening in the world. In quick succession we had the New York, London, Milan and Paris Fashion Weeks. And in Ghana, we had the Ghana Garden and Flower show, which took place at the Efua Sutherland Children's Park, and last weekend the HnM Fashion Show at the National Theatre and on the same day the Style Runway FW26, and then Glitz and RodR (Rhythms on Da Runway), and the Ghana Fashion Week coming up, and Black Star Fashion Week in the making. Is there money to be made there? Is this the latest fashion fad, to organize fashion shows called fashion weeks? As a designer, what should I do? Apply for all? And pay for all? These things don't come cheap if you add all the expenses involved: making the collection, paying your fee to the show organizer, (ranging from 3000 to 8000 GHC) transporting your stuff to a fitting session and back, transporting it to the show, getting a stylist to make it look good, taking it back, and sending it all to the dry cleaner to remove makeup and sweat. Say somewhere between 5,000 and 13,000 GHC. And what do you get? A bit of publicity. Any sales? Any foreign buyers giving you contracts for 500 pieces of this and 500 pieces of that? Hmm.

Pain killers. What Is Pain? Mostly, it’s a signal that something somewhere in your body is wrong. So, to get rid of that pain, you take a painkiller. Problem solved? No, problem suppressed, not solved. The same thing is still wrong with you. Now, if you take a painkiller once a month or so I don’t want to argue much, but if you take painkillers daily, then you are not on the right track. And many are not on the right track. Try to find out what creates the pain, and rather try to solve that problem than taking the pain away without knowing what’s wrong with you. And as you take more pills, you will need more pills. Your body gets used to them, the same as when using narcotics. Eventually, you get into the overdose mode. Brrrr.

Sticky Non-Stick Frying Pans. The famous one is the French Tefal, and that contains so-called forever chemicals, which everyone is currently agitating against. They cause cancer, hormonal disruption and other health problems and don’t break down, hence the name forever chemicals, also called PFAS. So Tefal came up with a big campaign: “Now we are healthy.” But currently, they got attacked by three groups, the ClientEarth (an environmental law organization), Generations Futures (a French environmental organization) and Notre Affaire à Tous (a French environmental justice organization) who claim Tefal is still using the poison. So they’ll probably stop using it and close the factory? Of course not. Keep the show going. Africa also needs non-stick frying pans. So be aware. Stainless steel or cast iron is a better option. The good news is that the FDA recently destroyed a container with dangerous nappies. Let’s hope they get their act together and also look at cooking pans and makeup.

The Internet of Things and Make Sure You Don't Lose Your Password. And how secure is that? My computer friend, one of those geeks who seems to be married to the screen, pizza and beefburgers, says nothing is secure. Imagine a lock on your room door. You have the key. But things get missing. Either someone has a spare key or came in through the window, or removed the entire door, or came in through the ceiling. It’s a bit like that with computer security. And then we read that a 15-year-old boy hacked the USA Ministry of Defense system. 15-year-old boy hacked the USA Ministry of Defense system In Sweden, they tried to introduce a cashless society, so everything went through the internet. Now they don't trust that anymore and ask everybody to keep a reasonable amount of cash at home. This morning, I read that hackers got into the cooling systems in supermarkets (I never knew they were connected through the internet), and thousands of tons of refrigerated food have to be thrown away. Who thinks this is funny? But I think maybe someone is testing. Like you design a weapon and then quietly test it somewhere. The next war will probably be fought by shutting down each other's internet. And drones, which use computers to hit the target. So don't rely too much on all of this. Have two bank cards from different banks and have some cash in the house, spread your savings over several banks, and have two mobile numbers from different operators. Paranoia? Maybe.

People Social Eatery. We went to Orca at Spintex to buy a few things for the new bathroom, but were disappointed and walked out with nothing. To make up for it, we went to the People Social Eatery next door and had a honey nut granola banana at 110 GHC, which was nice, and orange juice at 50 GHC, and a double espresso at 55 GHC, which was small and came without sugar, though on request it was brought. Our 5 GHC change was taken and not brought back, and the waiter had disappeared.

Lydia...

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Elles reviennent, comme si elles faisaient partie de la nature des choses (en tout cas chez ma personne).

En y prêtant attention, je remarque qu’elles apparaissent lorsque mon travail mental n’est pas clair. Je veux faire quelque chose, j’avance, je tâtonne, je recule, j’avance...

Ce cycle crée une sorte de brouillard qui m’alourdît et m’épuise.

C’est peut-être une piste : éclaircir de manière très précise ce que j’ai à faire avant de le faire.

Rien que de l’écrire me procure une certaine satisfaction.

Alors bien sûr, le chaos est inévitable. Mais si je peux le dissiper ne serait ce qu’un peu, je pense en ressortir gagnant.

The Essay

This is a space for a single piece of work. One inquiry, given room to breathe.

A new essay will appear here on the first Sunday of every second month. The inaugural piece will publish on Sunday, 6 December 2026, at 08:00 AM.

If you wish to be present when the text changes, you can subscribe below to receive each new essay directly in your inbox.

Yeah, the wind down here in San Antonio is absolutely fierce today! Weather forecast is predicting 50 mph gusts all day long! The wind got me out of bed early this morning, banging things around on the front porch.

Much cooler temps. and lower humidity is welcome. But this wind is absolutely nuts!

And the adventure continues.

”Dino’s Stash” Now complete, in repository, art, lyrics, alternate mixes, credits included!

I worked on this song and just put it in the repository. I hope you check it out. I am very proud of it. While you are there, I included art, credits, lyrics, alternate mixing, and even a compressed version if you just need the download of the mp3. Something for lots of kinds of music fans. The folks who work with me to make music are stellar personalities and kind friends. They also play! They also write for the magazine! I have always wanted to be in a kind of “club.” This music/magazine gig feels like a good form of that. Beats nazis.

The crew is in the folder too, but I wanted to list them here. I love working with these people.

Keri – words, narration,

Kelly – bass, keyboards, words, narration, mixing

Marc Schuster – drums

John Gilbert from Voodoo Planet – guitars

Bkbirge – mastering

Dino DiMuro – sound effects

Chris Triggs – Single art and loads of art for the magazine

*All these folks have also written in The Horse’s Mouth Magazine.

Is software shitty, just me?

I have been transitioning my software brands and requirements. I’ll continue to do so until computing is better or gone entirely. I will not settle for what Apple seems so confident I will settle for in the software or OS department. Some of the design is careless and lazy. It really holds me up. I download things, but I can’t find them. I often can’t tell if the computer registered my click from a mouse, or if it is working. This is because there’s no onscreen indicator anymore to inform me it is working. Hourglass, anyone? What kills me in creative states more than anything is needlessly losing work. This has happened more frequently. I now save both incoming and outgoing projects locally, and in two online storages. I have to. There’s a good chance I will lose it otherwise. It wouldn’t be my fault. Shit just disappears now…like on the norm.

Losing 30 minutes of creative improv writing or music is crushing. It is a sinking feeling of defeat. I won’t ever remember it and pull it off. I don’t have that kind of memory. I might get close, but I get so bummed I lost that session or a few pages, that is all I can think about. I don’t think there’s any excuse for a software developer to release updates or “improvements” that cost me time and sadness. I was talking about this with a friend; he said, “Have you heard of ‘enshittification’?” I had heard it. But I did not realize how well thought out and absolutely spot on it is. I just thought it was something folks said on the web.

Asking google about a word I learned and it’s correlations to indie music..

Enshittification, Cory Doctorow, fun reading.

I asked Google, “Please list ways I’d come into enshittification making an indie rock song.” If you don’t know the word and Cory Doctorow, who invented it, the book is cheap. I tried to link one, but obviously that isn’t going to work right now. Google AI has read it; try and keep up.

“But things are supposed to change..”

Things change over time. I hope. Technology makes things easier and kind of fun. It is also good for business. Ideally, we are able to provide a better life for future generations, but we are very out of practice at doing that. It is almost as if generational trauma is playing out some new undiscovered territory en masse. The ripples of bullshit that flow in the bloodlines of our family trees have reached an all-new peak involving brands, beliefs, and yes, enshittification. This is not the change we hope for, or at least I hope for. But it is the change we get.

My understanding of terms changes over time, that’s an okay change.

I am just learning this term, so my take now may be different or expanded in a few months. But at this point, I feel good about where my brain is at regarding computer usage, making music, and writing lyrics. I haven’t reached nirvana or anything. But I certainly feel on the right track, leaving Apple’s ecosystem. It sucks. I can’t help it. I wish it didn’t. But I am trying to do artwork and protest work, and it seems firmly against that lately. I get over-corrected to a criminal level. I dread having to use the iPad. I just loathe everything about it except the TAPE 16 DAW Beta. haha.

I messed up, learned a thing. I had to admit messing up to learn it. Why I am cooler than software devs.

I messed up my first mix of this tune and sent it out prematurely, not checking it like I should have. Maybe these software devs are like me. Maybe they feel pressure and excitement and they press send too soon. But I doubt it. They want money. I am not after that with any of this crap I do. I think chasing that with my artistic abilities creates, yes, enshittification. See, I always want to be interested in what I do, so I leave the money out of it. Otherwise, I am just interested in making money. I think that’s boring when I spot that in others, so I try to avoid it. I would much rather be broke than boring. So of course, I am a musician, not a developer. Glad for that.

Kelly Kintner

The Horses Mouth

The Kintners

27 companies raised billion-dollar-plus rounds last quarter, so I now check how many companies got funded before I check how much money moved.

Every few months, the new startup funding numbers come out, and a few founders forward me the headline. Some messages say “great time to raise.” Others ask if the market is drying up. Either way, the headline is usually one big total.

My name is Alexander Kopylkov, and I have invested in startups for more than twenty years. Over time, I learned to scroll past that total. The figure I look for first is smaller and far more useful: how many companies actually got money.

A record total mostly measures the biggest checks.

Here is the latest example. Crunchbase reports: “Global venture funding totaled $159 billion in Q3 2026 with close to 6,000 startups funded, Crunchbase data shows.” That sounds like money for everyone.

Then you read further. “A notable shift in 2026 has been the number of startups that have raised billion-dollar-plus rounds. An all-time record of 27 companies raised such sizable rounds in Q3 2026”. And: “Around a third of all global venture capital raised in Q3 went to those 27 companies.”

Picture a small town where a billionaire moves in. The town's average income jumps overnight. Nobody else got a raise. A funding total works the same way. Crunchbase says as much about this year: “In the two prior quarters, billion-dollar raises pushed total funding to well above historical norms.”

It works in reverse too. “While global venture funding in Q3 was down 25% quarter over quarter from the $212 billion raised in Q2, it was up 53% year over year from the $104 billion raised in Q3 2025.” A separate Crunchbase analysis explains the dip: “overall venture funding declined with the absence of new record megarounds for AI leaders.” In plain words, the total fell because the biggest deals were missing.

The number that matters to most founders barely moved.

If you are raising a first or second round, your real question is simple. Are investors at my stage still writing checks? To answer it, I count deals.

The same quarter that looked weaker in dollars looked steady in activity. Crunchbase found that “Active startup investors largely kept up or increased their dealmaking pace in the third quarter”. It adds: “Per Crunchbase data, a majority of the most active venture investors in Q3 participated in more deals compared to the prior quarter.” At the earliest stage, “the busiest by far was Y Combinator, which participated in at least 221 known seed rounds this past quarter, per Crunchbase data.”

Europe gives a smaller, honest picture. Crunchbase reports: “Europe’s seed funding fell quarter over quarter and was flat year over year. Around $2 billion was invested in more than 750 companies at seed stage in Q3.” By my own math, that is under $3 million per company on average. Those are the deals most founders actually compete for, and there were hundreds of them.

Early numbers undercount the smallest rounds.

There is a second reason I am careful with the first headline of each quarter. Crunchbase says it plainly in its own notes: “Note that data lags are most pronounced at the earliest stages of venture activity, with seed funding amounts increasing significantly after the end of a quarter/year.” The global report also states: “Data is as of Oct. 2, 2026.” That is two days after the quarter ended.

So the first look at any quarter shows the giant rounds clearly and the small ones only partly. Even the seed figure gets stretched by a few huge deals: “Global seed funding totaled $13 billion in Q3, Crunchbase data shows. Of that, $2.6 billion went to seed rounds of $100 million and over, around 20% of seed financings.”

For a founder, the lesson is practical. Wait for the fuller data before reading anything into a quarter. Then give more weight to what investors at your stage tell you directly.

My rule is to count the rounds first.

Every cycle I have watched, slow years and boom years alike, produced headlines about totals. The founders who raised well watched something else: how many investors at their stage were active, and whether their own business got stronger each month.

That still holds in 2026. The $159 billion is real, and it shows where the biggest bets are going. The count of companies funded shows whether there is a seat at the table for you. So when a founder forwards me the next big headline, I will ask my usual question. How many companies got funded, and what do they have in common with yours?

First published in 2007, this article was explosive when it was first distributed. Read on to see why…

This edition of The Doctor’s Notes is about the relativistic effects of quantum levels, and how potential energy is extremely important to each individual, and those around them.

All of an individual’s psychic quantum energy levels are very tightly interconnected, but are also connected to those around them. The varying levels of potential energy that each individual maintains has a relativistic effect on the quantum levels of those and other individuals, leading to perception and behavioral changes.

The Couple Effect

The quantum levels of an individual’s psychic energy are interrelated, or coupled, to one another. Jackson, Lassiter and Jackson (1972) building on work by Johnson and Defrees (1932), determined that these different quantum levels or states, correspond to the varying moods in individuals.

The quantum levels of an individual’s psychic energy are interrelated, or coupled, to one another.

Through research by engenetics^.org, it was later found that quantum levels are also affected by the quantum levels of other individuals. The coupling of quantum levels of an individual and those around them can directly influence each of the individual’s potential energy level.

What is less well known is the reverse: the potential energy of an individual can affect the quantum levels of those around them. The exact mechanics of this influence is extremely complex, requiring higher order mathematics to accurately model.

The main reason these couplings are difficult to model is that these interrelated systems can be perturbed by quantum entanglements. The energy that is lost from the individual that is channeled into these entanglements leads to results that are very difficult to predict.

Changes in Potential Energy, Changes in Behavior

Another fact that was determined by Barnaby (1983) is that these differences in potential energy of individuals—particularly in social situations—can lead to changes in behavioral patterns. These changes in behavior are caused by subtle alterations in perception by the individuals affected.

...the relationship between these changes and the differences in quantum levels is related to the square of the difference of maximum quantum energy levels.

The greater the difference in maximum quantum energy (and therefore potential energy), the greater the perception and behavioral changes. In fact, based on research performed at The Center for engenetics ^.org Studies, the relationship between these changes and the differences in quantum levels is related to the square of the difference of maximum quantum energy levels.

When larger differences in potential energy exist between individuals, perceptional shifts occur that lead to feelings of jealousy or the loss of self-worth; conversely, they can also lead to feelings of superiority and arrogance in others. Other situational effects can cause feelings of confusion and disorientation, depending on the individual’s maximum quantum energy level.

Support Our Research

Still, while great strides have been made in determining these relationships and refining the models of quantum energy levels, we have a long way to go. Research operations are costly, and there is so much to do.

If you wish to help support this research, please contact your local engenetics ^.org representative today. Remember: to improve all of humanity, only you can help make the future a reality—today. Ω

Dr. M. E. Tabyánan Executive Director and Founder The Center for engenetics ^.org Studies

“According to the proven fields of thermodynamics and physics, the arrow of time dictates that energy flowing from a current state must be transferred to a future state, and not the reverse.” Why Entropic Resonances Require Study (2012)

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Ask The Doctor!

Question: How does the collective unconscious fit in with engenetics^.org? —Eddie Long, Seattle WA The Doctor: The work we do at the Center is critical for understanding the entropic energy collective, which is the real phenomenon that can mistakenly be called the collective unconscious. At engenetics ^.org, skills are learned to allow the individual to tap into these energies, for personal use and higher education through the information learned from the collective. In a nutshell, engenetics ^.org is truly the basic fundamental source of scientific knowledge about such global phenomena.

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What Others Are Saying

My quantum entanglements seemed to be destroying my marriage. The Doctor helped me get them sorted out—and now my husband and I are really happy! —Sara Baxley, New York, NY, USA

Doctor Tabyánan, you should run for president! —Victor Morrison, Miami, FL, USA

Even though a number of engenetics.org places have closed across the world, I still believe in the Center—and the Doctor! —Jeremy Raya, Oklahoma City, OK, USA

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#thedoctorsnotes #potentialenergy #quantumlevels #quantumentanglements #entropicresonances

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JOURNAL 16 octobre 2026

Ma princesse est rentrée tard avec un air bizarre, mi-sourire et mi-inquiétude dans ses yeux. Elle a été convoquée dans un bureau qu'elle ne connaissait pas au sous-sol. Là dans un fauteuil confortable elle a attendu l'arrivée d'un type qu'elle n’avait jamais vu. Il lui a demandé direct : — madame A xxx, seriez-vous intéressée par une mission en Ukraine ? Elle allait ouvrir la bouche, très étonnée, il l'a interrompue : — nous connaissons vos objections. Cela ne serait pas décompté de vos mois de séjour ici et même ça pourrait aider à votre changement de nationalité. Puis nous savons votre attachement réciproque avec madame H xxx avec qui vous vivez, il est prévu qu'elle vous accompagne. Nous apprécions aussi ses qualités et nous avons pour elle une tâche qu’elle acceptera nous n'en doutons pas. Nous allons la contacter très bientôt. Vous pouvez lui en parler déjà. Si vous acceptez, et vous accepterez toutes les deux, cette mission durerait environ un mois. Vous pouvez vous préparer l’une et l’autre vous avez deux semaines, ça vous laisse le temps de régler vos petits soucis en cours. Ma chérie était abasourdie, ça ne lui arrive pas souvent. Il s'est levé, s’est incliné, et la laissée là tout sec. J’avoue moi aussi ça me la coupe. Le sourire narquois de mon soi-disant capitaine me revient en mémoire je ne peux pas m'en empêcher et ça m'énerve. On est un peu ko. Bien sûr ma chérie serait super heureuse de voir l'Ukraine, elle s'inquiète pour moi et ce qu’ils me veulent. Il avait l'air si sûr de son truc ce mec.

Je me demande comment on va pouvoir dormir. On a mille questions dans la tête. C’est angoissant cette façon de décider de nos vies dans on ne sait quel bureau avec des questions qui ressemblent à des ordres. La très nette impression que nos souhaits sont complètement manipulés et qu'on est observées scrutées comme des cobayes. Le mec lui a même dit qu’ils étaient particulièrement intéressés par notre couple, il a pas dit “couple” il a dit “paire” comme un attelage de chevaux...

#Ukraine

Vintage Weddings: Moody Romance and Old-School Glamour

Vintage is not a theme you pick from a catalogue. It is a mood — candlelight on brass, lace that looks inherited, photographs that could sit in a silver frame on your grandmother's piano and somehow also be from last Saturday. A vintage wedding borrows the best of the 1920s through the 1950s and leaves the fancy-dress-shop clichés behind. Here is how to build one properly, from the big pieces down to your wedding website.

The palette at a glance

• Base: ivory, champagne and warm cream — dresses, paper, linen, the website background.
• Hero: deep, moody accents — burgundy, forest green, navy, antique gold.
• Texture: lace, velvet, tarnished silver, cut glass, aged wood, pearls.
• Sparkle: candlelight. Vintage is lit by flames and warm bulbs, never by cold white light.

Where vintage shines

Fashion. Tea-length or lace-sleeved gowns, birdcage veils, red lips if they suit you; suits with waistcoats, pocket watches used sparingly, polished shoes. Bridesmaids in mismatched vintage-style dresses — different necklines, one colour family — photograph like a film still.

Tables. Lace or embroidered runners over plain cloth, brass candlesticks of different heights, cut-glass vases with loose roses and dahlias, amber glassware, and place cards in a serif hand. Hunt charity shops and family cupboards before buying anything new — real age beats imitation.

Flowers. Garden roses, dahlias, ranunculus and trailing greenery, arranged loosely, as if gathered rather than designed. Dried elements — grasses, seed heads — add the faded quality that makes vintage feel honest.

Cake and paper. A cream cake with piped details or fresh flowers; invitations in ivory with an ornate-but-readable serif, a fine border, and perhaps a wax seal. Your paper goods set the era before a single guest arrives.

Your wedding website, in vintage

Guests meet this mood first on your website, so make it count. A vintage wedding website template sets the scene instantly — ivory background, elegant serif type, lace or fine-line details — and covers everything guests need: your story, the schedule, venue and travel details, an FAQ page, a countdown to the day, your registry, and online RSVP so replies come back to you in one tidy place.

With an editable Canva template it takes about twenty minutes: add your names, date and photos (sepia or softly edited photos look wonderful here, but colour is fine too), check the details, publish, and share the link everywhere — including a QR code on your save-the-dates. If plans change, you update the site once and every guest sees the new version.

Three quick tips

1. Pick one era and commit. Mixing 1920s Art Deco with 1950s rockabilly reads as costume. One decade, loosely held, reads as style.
2. Age is texture, not dirt. Vintage pieces should be clean, mended and deliberate. Worn-out is not the same as old.
3. Let music do the heavy lifting. A jazz trio, a record player at drinks, swing for dancing — the soundtrack sells the era faster than any prop.

The template in this guide is from OpenVite on Etsy — fully editable Canva wedding website templates with RSVP, countdown and registry built in, in vintage, old money, burgundy, sage, olive, dusty blue, terracotta and more.

Vintage done well does not look old. It looks like it was always going to last.

On the opening page of essayism.org I wrote What if the essay were never merely a text? Suffered an avalanche of criticism and revised the sentence to What if the essay was never merely a text?

It's a question of mode, in English there are at least two of them, and in this case we are talking about the Indicative and the Subjunctive. Though I believe there are many editors who can't wait to attend the funeral of the latter. You can think of the first as concrete reality, here, now, in the past or in the future. The material world. The second is about “what if”, “sending wishes”, imagining, and daydreaming. The other mood.

Understanding this, that early correction on Essayism.org has never felt quite right to me. More, let me be honest; it's just been grating away at me. The difference is subtle. Was tends to suggest a question about fact or history: What if it turns out that the essay was never merely a text? By contrast, were is traditionally subjunctive. The words do not cast the thought in stone; rather, the mood invites the reader to entertain a possibility, a shift in perception, or a thought experiment:

What if music were a form of architecture? What if memory were spatial rather than temporal? What if the essay were never merely a text?

My intention was always the second. The question is not historical but exploratory. It asks the reader to suspend an assumption and consider another way of seeing.

Modern English increasingly favours was in such constructions, which is why many readers and editors instinctively replace were. Yet in this case the sentence functions as an invitation to inquiry rather than a statement about the past. So, after much correction, I find myself returning to my original thought:

What if the essay were never merely a text?

Sometimes grammar is not only about correctness. It is about choosing the mood that best expresses the thought. In this case, were keeps the door open. Was casts it somewhere in the past, as though the inquiry had already begun.

David Marshall Skerries

JOURNAL 16 octobre 2026

T chan nous a préparé le thé. Elle est venue au dôjô avec moi, je ne voulais pas la laisser seule. Cette nuit elle s'est réveillée en panique, c'était prévisible. Elle a fini la nuit dans les bras de A qui décidément est douée pour calmer les peurs et effacer les cauchemars. On est allées faire des tests pour les maladies sexuellement transmissibles. Elle a ses règles donc pas enceinte. Et elle est vaccinée contre l'hépatite. Ka chan a sauté son stage du jeudi avec moi, mais évidemment elle était bien d’accord pour laisser la priorité à T chan ça n'a même pas été discuté. On verra comment s'organiser.

Notre petite amie commence à se rassurer. Elle a un avenir chez sa tante. On restera en contact évidemment, on va l'aider de loin. Elle fait partie de notre famille maintenant. On ne sait pas trop où tout ça va aller mais on y va toutes ensemble. Je redescends on m'attend. Mon pauvre Tom est arrivé. Tout le monde s'équipe. T chan aimerait prendre des cours. Elle regarde sagement sans bouger pendant les séances, c’est trop mignon.

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Puis on a reçu les tests de T chan elle n'a rien, on est soulagées Quand même avant qu’elle parte chez sa tante je vais l'accompagner chez ma gynéco elle est d'accord. On irait la semaine prochaine. On la regarde, elle est détendue, elle a changé de visage. Parti le chien perdu, remplacé par une jeune personne au sourire timide et adorable sous ses joues roses de petite fille sage. On se fait des câlins, elle en est affamée. On va la coucher, demain elle vient avec moi on se lèvera plus tôt qu’aujourd'hui, il faut dormir.

#Tchan #Kchan #dojo

There is a very specific, infuriating kind of whiplash that comes from being bullied for the exact same things that later become mass-market pop culture. It is the gentrification of geek culture, and watching it happen over and over again is enough to make anyone cynical.

You start in the trenches. You remember what it was like to sit in the glow of a CRT television, blowing into an NES cartridge, fully aware that the kids at school thought you were a weirdo. You remember the sting of “go outside, you fucking nerd.” You remember the early days of anime—trading bootleg VHS tapes, downloading 240p fansubs over a screeching dial-up connection, and hiding your interests because the general consensus was “ew, what is this weird cartoon stuff?”

The early internet was a sanctuary for the outcasts. It was raw, unpolished, and difficult to navigate. You had to want to be there. And because the barrier to entry was high—and the social stigma was heavy—the people who were there cared deeply. That was the magic of it. In internet history, the loss of this era is often compared to the “Eternal September”—the moment when the barrier to entry drops, the masses flood in, and the original, fragile culture is completely drowned out by people who don’t understand the unwritten rules.

Then comes the Golden Age. Technology catches up to the passion. The medium hits its stride, producing absolute masterpieces. Video games had their legendary eras of rich, complete, single-player storytelling. Anime exploded with boundary-pushing art. The internet became a vibrant ecosystem of weird, hyper-specific forums, and memes were just inside jokes shared among communities that spoke the same digital language. For a brief, shining moment, the thing you loved was at its peak, and it felt like vindication.

But then the money realizes what it’s missing.

The mainstream shift happens, and it doesn’t just bring new people; it brings the profit motive. Sociologists call this “subcultural commodification”—the process where the mainstream culture identifies an edgy, outsider subculture, strips away everything weird or challenging about it, and repackages it as a mass-market product.

Suddenly, the same society that mocked you decides your sanctuary is a gold mine. They don’t just participate in it—they pave over it. As the money takes over, the platforms themselves begin to rot. This is the era of “enshittification,” where companies trap their users, squeeze them for every drop of data and subscription revenue, and ruthlessly choke the users just to keep the stockholders happy. Look at platforms like Medium—once a fantastic, open place for writers, now reduced to pure shit in the name of aggressive monetization. The friction, the weirdness, and the soul get sanded down to a smooth, highly marketable paste designed to offend no one and sell to everyone. They take the house you built, kick you out of it, and charge you a subscription fee to look through the window.

Today, we are watching this entertainment bubble pop in real-time, leaving behind a stagnant wasteland. The “comic hero” movies are dead in the water. We are getting a new Harry Potter show that feels like it’s stuck in a depression era with incredibly shitty production values, yet somehow costs billions to make. The Rings of Power is another corporate nightmare. Video games are just the same titles being remade every three years, now costing $80 or more just to get your foot in the door. Even tabletop gaming isn’t safe—look at Dungeons & Dragons closing ranks, literally pulling public domain or legacy books offline just to “revamp” and resell them, forcing everyone to buy into their proprietary app.

And we see the exact same writing on the wall with AI.

Right now, we are in the messy, experimental basement phase of relational and generative AI. It is weird. It breaks. People are using it to build entirely new ways of interacting with machines, to push boundaries, to act as a thought partner, and to create bizarre, unpolished things. The mainstream still largely views it with suspicion, fear, or outright mockery. We are absolutely approaching the Golden Age—that brief window where the tools are incredibly powerful but haven’t yet been completely locked down by corporate interests.

But the cycle is inevitable. The “normies” and the massive corporations are already circling, and they are going to go incredibly hard against open-source AI. Why? Because if everyone has access to a system where they can program their own tools, write their own stories, and make games themselves, the corporations lose their monopoly. AI is a massive leg up for independent creators. If people can make it themselves, the corporations can’t squeeze them for cash to fund the CEO’s seventh private jet—right before that same CEO turns around and lectures the rest of us on our carbon footprint.

The fear is that the wild, open-source, personalized AI of today will eventually be completely sanitized. It will get locked behind massive paywalls, strangled by excessive corporate guardrails, and watered down into a sterile, soulless customer service bot designed entirely to maximize profit margins and serve ads. The pioneers map the territory, but the corporations build the toll roads.

It is exhausting to be the canary in the coal mine for culture. You get the cuts and bruises of the frontier, but rarely the spoils of the empire.

Appendix: The Academic and Theoretical Context

For those who want to dig into the actual studies and terminology behind this phenomenon, here is the vocabulary for what you are experiencing:

1. “Eternal September” (The death of early internet communities)

• The Concept: Coined in 1993, this describes the phenomenon where a continuous influx of new, uninitiated users permanently alters and degrades the culture of an established online community. Before 1993, new users only joined Usenet in September (when college freshmen got internet access). After AOL offered Usenet access, the “September” never ended.
• Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eternal_September

2. Subcultural Commodification (How the mainstream steals from the outcasts)

• The Concept: Explored heavily in Dick Hebdige’s seminal 1979 book Subculture: The Meaning of Style. It explains how capitalism neutralizes the threat of outsider cultures (like punk, or in this case, gaming/anime) by turning their unique traits into mass-produced commodities, effectively killing the original soul of the movement.
• Read more (Overview): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commodification
• Reference: Hebdige, D. (1979). Subculture: The Meaning of Style. Routledge.

3. “Enshittification” (Why the platforms you love end up terrible)

• The Concept: A term coined by author and digital rights activist Cory Doctorow in 2023 to describe the inevitable life cycle of digital platforms: “First, they are good to their users; then they abuse their users to make things better for their business customers; finally, they abuse those business customers to claw back all the value for themselves. Then, they die.”
• Read more (Doctorow’s original essay): https://pluralistic.net/2023/01/21/potemkin-ai/#hey-guys
• Read more (Wired article): https://www.wired.com/story/tiktok-platforms-cory-doctorow/

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“Your partners in creation.”

We march forward; over-caffeinated, under-slept, but not alone.

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Snapchat is mostly a phone app, so a lot of people assume there is nothing useful on the open web. That is half true. Creator and public profiles still ship HTML you can open logged out at snapchat.com/add/<handle> or snapchat.com/@<handle>, and Spotlight pages exist as shareable URLs. The other half is the hard part: the pages are JS-heavy, fields vanish by region, and anything that looks like a private story is simply not there without an account.

This guide builds a small Python tool that:

1. Fetches a public Snapchat profile page
2. Pulls useful fields out of embedded JSON / page data (handle, display name, bio, subscriber count, website, avatar, Spotlight-highlight flags)
3. Optionally lists Spotlight highlight stubs that appear on that page
4. Stores a snapshot every run in SQLite
5. Retries politely when Snapchat or a CDN flinches

I will not scrape private stories, Friends-only content, or anything behind a login. If a page redirects you to install the app or sign in, that is a stop sign, not a puzzle.

Legal / ethics note: Stick to publicly visible pages. Respect Snapchat's Terms of Service and rate limits. Do not harvest private users, do not automate friend adds, and do not build a dataset of minors. If your use case is your own accounts, Snapchat's official creator tools are the cleaner path.

What a public profile actually gives you

Open https://www.snapchat.com/add/<some-public-creator> in a private window. When it works, you typically get:

• Username / handle, display title, and bio
• Subscriber (follower) count
• Website URL and profile picture URL
• Flags like whether curated or Spotlight highlights exist
• Sometimes a short list of Spotlight highlight stubs

What you do not get logged out: private Stories, chat, Friends-only tiles, or a full chronological dump of every Spotlight. Treat the web page as a marketing card, not an archive.

Setup

python -m venv .venv && source .venv/bin/activate
pip install requests beautifulsoup4

snap-scraper/
  handles.txt          # one public handle per line
  scrape_snap.py
  out/

Step 1: A polite fetch with backoff

Snapchat (and the CDNs in front of it) will return 429, soft empty pages, or app-install interstitial HTML if you hammer from a datacenter IP. Reuse one Session, send realistic headers, and back off with jitter.

# scrape_snap.py
from __future__ import annotations

import json
import random
import re
import sqlite3
import time
from datetime import datetime, timezone
from pathlib import Path
from typing import Any
from urllib.parse import quote

import requests
from bs4 import BeautifulSoup

SESSION = requests.Session()
SESSION.headers.update({
    "User-Agent": (
        "Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) "
        "AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) "
        "Chrome/129.0.0.0 Safari/537.36"
    ),
    "Accept-Language": "en-US,en;q=0.9",
    "Accept": "text/html,application/xhtml+xml;q=0.9,*/*;q=0.8",
})

HANDLE_RE = re.compile(r"^[A-Za-z0-9._-]{3,30}$")
OUT = Path("out")
OUT.mkdir(exist_ok=True)


def fetch(url: str, retries: int = 4) -> str:
    last: Exception | None = None
    for attempt in range(retries):
        try:
            resp = SESSION.get(url, timeout=30, allow_redirects=True)
            if resp.status_code in (401, 403, 429, 503):
                raise RuntimeError(f"HTTP {resp.status_code}")
            text = resp.text
            if len(text) < 800:
                raise RuntimeError("suspiciously short body")
            lower = text.lower()
            if "log in" in lower and "snapchat" in lower and "add/" not in resp.url:
                raise RuntimeError("looks like an auth / install wall")
            return text
        except Exception as e:
            last = e
            time.sleep((2 ** attempt) + random.uniform(0.3, 1.5))
    raise RuntimeError(f"failed after retries: {last}")

Two habits matter more than the retry math: reuse the session (fresh TCP every request looks like a botnet), and treat short / wall HTML as failure even when the status is 200.

Step 2: Find the embedded JSON

Snapchat does not give you a documented public JSON API. On a good day the HTML still embeds a big state blob — __NEXT_DATA__, a window.__PRELOADED_STATE__ = {...} assignment, JSON-LD, or a mix. Walk the scripts and keep the first object that looks like a profile:

def _walk(obj: Any, hits: list[dict]):
    if isinstance(obj, dict):
        keys = {k.lower() for k in obj}
        if {"username", "bio"} <= keys or {"username", "title"} <= keys:
            hits.append(obj)
        up = obj.get("userProfile") or obj.get("userprofile")
        if isinstance(up, dict):
            hits.append(up)
        for v in obj.values():
            _walk(v, hits)
    elif isinstance(obj, list):
        for v in obj:
            _walk(v, hits)


def extract_profile_blob(html: str) -> dict | None:
    soup = BeautifulSoup(html, "html.parser")
    candidates: list[dict] = []

    nextdata = soup.find("script", id="__NEXT_DATA__")
    if nextdata and nextdata.string:
        try:
            _walk(json.loads(nextdata.string), candidates)
        except json.JSONDecodeError:
            pass

    assign_re = re.compile(
        r"(?:window\.__PRELOADED_STATE__|window\.__INITIAL_STATE__)\s*=\s*(\{.*?\})\s*;?\s*</script>",
        re.DOTALL,
    )
    for m in assign_re.finditer(html):
        try:
            _walk(json.loads(m.group(1)), candidates)
        except json.JSONDecodeError:
            continue

    for tag in soup.find_all("script", attrs={"type": "application/ld+json"}):
        if not tag.string:
            continue
        try:
            _walk(json.loads(tag.string), candidates)
        except json.JSONDecodeError:
            continue

    return max(candidates, key=len) if candidates else None

This is deliberately loose. Snapchat renames nested keys; normalize what you found into a stable shape before it hits SQLite.

Step 3: Normalize fields and optional Spotlight stubs

def normalize(handle: str, blob: dict, page_url: str) -> dict:
    username = blob.get("username") or blob.get("userName") or handle
    title = blob.get("title") or blob.get("mutableName") or blob.get("displayName") or ""
    bio = blob.get("bio") or blob.get("description") or ""
    subs = blob.get("subscriberCount") or blob.get("subscriber_count") or blob.get("followers")
    website = blob.get("websiteUrl") or blob.get("website") or ""
    avatar = blob.get("profilePictureUrl") or blob.get("profile_picture_url") or ""
    has_spot = blob.get("hasSpotlightHighlights")
    if has_spot is None:
        has_spot = bool(blob.get("spotlightHighlights"))

    highlights = []
    for item in (blob.get("spotlightHighlights") or [])[:20]:
        if not isinstance(item, dict):
            continue
        thumb = item.get("thumbnailUrl")
        if isinstance(thumb, dict):
            thumb = thumb.get("value")
        highlights.append({
            "id": item.get("id") or item.get("storyId") or "",
            "title": item.get("storyTitle") or item.get("title") or "",
            "thumbnail": thumb or "",
        })

    return {
        "handle": username.lstrip("@"),
        "title": title,
        "bio": bio,
        "subscriber_count": str(subs) if subs is not None else None,
        "website_url": website,
        "profile_picture_url": avatar if isinstance(avatar, str) else "",
        "has_spotlight_highlights": bool(has_spot),
        "spotlight_highlights": highlights,
        "source_url": page_url,
        "fetched_at": datetime.now(timezone.utc).isoformat(),
        "raw_keys": sorted(blob.keys()),
    }


def scrape_handle(handle: str) -> dict:
    if not HANDLE_RE.match(handle.lstrip("@")):
        raise ValueError(f"bad handle: {handle!r}")
    handle = handle.lstrip("@")
    urls = [
        f"https://www.snapchat.com/add/{quote(handle)}",
        f"https://www.snapchat.com/@{quote(handle)}",
    ]
    last_err: Exception | None = None
    for url in urls:
        try:
            html = fetch(url)
            blob = extract_profile_blob(html)
            if not blob:
                raise RuntimeError("no profile JSON found in page")
            profile = normalize(handle, blob, url)
            if not profile["title"] and not profile["bio"] and not profile["subscriber_count"]:
                raise RuntimeError("profile fields empty after parse")
            return profile
        except Exception as e:
            last_err = e
            time.sleep(1.5 + random.random())
    raise RuntimeError(f"{handle}: {last_err}")

If both URL shapes fail, stop. Do not invent a logged-in session to “fix” it.

Step 4: SQLite snapshots

A single scrape is a curiosity. Two scrapes a week apart are a dataset — subscriber drift, bio changes, new Spotlight stubs.

def init_db(path: Path = OUT / "snap.db") -> sqlite3.Connection:
    conn = sqlite3.connect(path)
    conn.execute(
        """
        CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS profile_snapshots (
            id INTEGER PRIMARY KEY,
            handle TEXT NOT NULL,
            title TEXT,
            bio TEXT,
            subscriber_count TEXT,
            website_url TEXT,
            profile_picture_url TEXT,
            has_spotlight_highlights INTEGER,
            spotlight_json TEXT,
            source_url TEXT,
            fetched_at TEXT NOT NULL
        )
        """
    )
    conn.execute(
        "CREATE INDEX IF NOT EXISTS idx_snap_handle_time "
        "ON profile_snapshots(handle, fetched_at)"
    )
    conn.commit()
    return conn


def store(conn: sqlite3.Connection, profile: dict) -> None:
    conn.execute(
        """
        INSERT INTO profile_snapshots (
            handle, title, bio, subscriber_count, website_url,
            profile_picture_url, has_spotlight_highlights, spotlight_json,
            source_url, fetched_at
        ) VALUES (?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?)
        """,
        (
            profile["handle"], profile["title"], profile["bio"],
            profile["subscriber_count"], profile["website_url"],
            profile["profile_picture_url"], int(profile["has_spotlight_highlights"]),
            json.dumps(profile["spotlight_highlights"]),
            profile["source_url"], profile["fetched_at"],
        ),
    )
    conn.commit()
    (OUT / f"{profile['handle']}.json").write_text(
        json.dumps(profile, indent=2), encoding="utf-8"
    )


def main():
    handles = [
        line.strip().lstrip("@")
        for line in Path("handles.txt").read_text().splitlines()
        if line.strip() and not line.startswith("#")
    ]
    conn = init_db()
    for i, handle in enumerate(handles):
        try:
            profile = scrape_handle(handle)
            store(conn, profile)
            print(profile["handle"], profile.get("subscriber_count"), (profile.get("title") or "")[:40])
        except Exception as e:
            print(f"SKIP {handle}: {e}")
        if i < len(handles) - 1:
            time.sleep(3 + random.uniform(0, 4))


if __name__ == "__main__":
    main()

Put a couple of public creator handles in handles.txt and run python scrape_snap.py. Space requests a few seconds apart.

The walls you'll hit

Auth and install walls. From some IPs the “public” page is an app-install interstitial or a login prompt with no profile JSON. Back off, try later, or accept that handle is not scrapeable from your network.

JS-heavy rendering. A plain requests client only sees the first HTML paint. If more of the profile moves into client-side fetches, the JSON walk returns nothing even though Chrome looks fine. Playwright helps — and still loses to the same IP reputation rules.

Missing and renamed fields. subscriberCount is sometimes a string ("1200"), sometimes missing, sometimes only on badge accounts. Store NULL when absent; keep raw_keys in the JSON dump so you notice schema drift.

Spotlight stubs ≠ full feed. Profile-card highlights are curated, not every Spotlight ever posted. Deep browsing lives on /spotlight/<id>, topic pages, and search.

Regional variance and rate limits. Pin Accept-Language: en-US. Burst traffic from cloud IPs gets 429 or empty bodies fast — one handle every few seconds from a laptop is usually fine.

Private users. Handles that exist in the app but have no public web profile will never give you a clean page. Do not route around that with account cookies.

When DIY stops being worth it

The script above is a good fit for a short watchlist of public creators on a daily cron. It stops being fun when you need reliable subscriber counts across thousands of handles, Spotlight feed browsing, search, or topic collections — and you do not want to wake up because __NEXT_DATA__ moved again.

That is where a hosted API earns its keep. ScrapeAtlas* exposes Snapchat as normal HTTPS with an x-api-key header. Routes that map cleanly to the jobs above:

• GET /v1/snapchat/profile?handle= — public profile, including userProfile fields like username, title, bio, subscriberCount, websiteUrl, profilePictureUrl, hasSpotlightHighlights
• GET /v1/snapchat/spotlight/feed?limit= — Spotlight feed stories with creator + engagement metadata
• GET /v1/snapchat/search?query= — public search sections (profiles, Spotlight, topics, places)
• GET /v1/snapchat/spotlight?url= — one Spotlight URL in detail
• GET /v1/snapchat/topic?slug= — a topic collection and its videos

import os
import requests

KEY = os.environ["SCRAPEATLAS_API_KEY"]
BASE = "https://api.scrapeatlas.com"


def sa_get(path: str, **params):
    r = requests.get(
        f"{BASE}{path}",
        params={k: v for k, v in params.items() if v is not None},
        headers={"x-api-key": KEY},
        timeout=60,
    )
    r.raise_for_status()
    return r.json()


profile = sa_get("/v1/snapchat/profile", handle="example.creator")
print(profile["status"], profile["coverage"].get("complete"))
up = profile.get("userProfile") or {}
print(up.get("username"), up.get("subscriberCount"), up.get("bio"))

feed = sa_get("/v1/snapchat/spotlight/feed", limit=20)
if not feed.get("coverage", {}).get("complete", True):
    print("partial:", feed["coverage"].get("warnings"))
for spot in feed.get("spotlights") or []:
    author = spot.get("author") or {}
    metrics = spot.get("metrics") or {}
    print(spot.get("id"), author.get("handle"), metrics.get("views"), (spot.get("caption") or "")[:60])

# one video: sa_get("/v1/snapchat/spotlight", url="https://www.snapchat.com/spotlight/...")
# search:    sa_get("/v1/snapchat/search", query="trail running")

Responses use success, status (success or partial), and a coverage object with complete and warnings. Read those every time — a partial profile is not the same as “this creator went quiet.” Each successful request costs one credit (including partials); failed requests cost nothing.

Wrapping up

• Start from public /add/<handle> or /@<handle> only; treat auth walls as hard stops.
• Prefer embedded JSON over brittle CSS selectors; normalize before SQLite.
• Snapshot every run so subscriber and highlight diffs exist later.
• Expect JS rendering, renamed fields, regional variance, and rate limits — plan for empty results, not just exceptions.
• When you need Spotlight feeds, search, topics, or reliability without babysitting script tags, use a real Snapchat API surface instead of fighting the HTML.

If you are tracking public Snapchat creators for research, I am curious whether subscriber drift or Spotlight highlight changes ended up being the signal you cared about most.

*I build it.

I spoke to my fella earlier, who reminded me that we knew there was a high probability that what happened might happen. I admit that I go into such things with both cynical awareness and optimistic faith simultaneously. It's not that it happened to me that bothers me so much as recognizing where it's likely happening to others. I also admittedly have very high standards for certain situations. I was reminded that perhaps I should be aware that I likely need to relax them just a lil. Do you feel my almost imperceptible growl? Good!

After that, I went to bed and crashed into a not-so-pleasant nightmare. It could have been worse. I woke up, and within a handful of minutes he was calling me because he, too, had experienced a doomsday scenario of a nightmare. We distracted ourselves with excitement about January, then both returned to sleep.

When I woke again, I watched a few animal videos on subjects of interest, and then was notified that a book I had on hold was available for loan — 'Why Do We Exist' by Hakeem Oluseyi. I have only spent around 46 minutes reading it thus far, but I am thoroughly enjoying it.

What I am enjoying the most is a combination of two things. One, his excitement, passion, and wonder shines through from the very beginning. He invites curiosity of both the young and old with his word choice. And two, his narration is that of a storyteller. Instead of speaking over uninformed heads, he enlightens with possibility, facts as we know them, and invigorating exploration of those fact. His explanation of gravity really made me smile, because I think it'd be more likely to capture a general audience than bore it away. I love it when a book makes my heart and mind smile simultaneously.

I'm going to read more, but I'm probably going to recommend this to some adults as well as adults whose children might just get excited. I relish his point of view in the creation. I think it is likely that our learning would excel were we all taught to intertwine the feeding of our curiosity with knowledge acquired. After all, a box exists to either propel us higher or allow us to dive deeper. It's walls should not be to cage or block view of the vastness of possibility.

Also, the wind is howling... I could squeal!

© 2026 AnOublietteofThought. All rights reserved.

Not edited nor proofread.

Generative KI kann Analysen verfassen, Konzepte ausarbeiten und Software entwickeln. Ob die rasch verfügbaren Ergebnisse fachlich stimmen und zum Problem passen, ist eine andere Frage. Ethan Mollick, Professor an der Wharton School, nennt im Harvard Business Review IdeaCast vier Fähigkeiten für die Arbeit mit KI: Deep Knowledge, Wide Knowledge, Taste und Agency [1]. Keine davon ist neu. Doch ihre Bedeutung verändert sich, wenn immer mehr Aufgaben an KI delegiert werden.

Deep Knowledge: Fachliche Tiefe

Eine erfahrene Controllerin erkennt in einer KI-generierten Umsatzprognose vielleicht sofort, dass eine Annahme nicht plausibel ist. Wer das Geschäft und die Kennzahlen nicht kennt, sieht zunächst eine sauber aufbereitete Tabelle.

Mollick betont deshalb den Wert von Fachwissen. Expertise war schon immer nötig, um Arbeit beurteilen zu können. Neu ist, wie viele anspruchsvolle Aufgaben sich an #KI delegieren lassen. Wer delegiert, muss Anforderungen formulieren und Ergebnisse prüfen können.

Daraus ergibt sich ein Problem für den beruflichen Nachwuchs. Wer ohne Erfahrung brauchbare Ergebnisse erzeugen lassen kann, hat damit noch nicht gelernt, sie fachlich einzuordnen. Wie erwerben Berufseinsteiger Urteilssicherheit, wenn KI Aufgaben übernimmt, an denen bisher Erfahrung gesammelt wurde? KI kann Lernprozesse unterstützen, sofern Lernende weiterhin selbst an den fachlichen Problemen arbeiten.

Wide Knowledge: Über Fachgrenzen hinaus

Mollick empfiehlt neben fachlicher Tiefe auch ein breites Orientierungswissen. Wer verschiedene Disziplinen kennt, erkennt Verbindungen über das eigene Fach hinaus.

Ein Marketingverantwortlicher könnte etwa Kenntnisse der Konsumentenpsychologie, der Datenanalyse und der Benutzerführung kombinieren, um mit KI einen Prototyp für einen Kundenservice zu entwickeln. Er muss nicht selbst programmieren. Das breite Wissen hilft, Anforderungen zu formulieren und blinde Flecken zu erkennen.

Tiefe und Breite erfüllen unterschiedliche Funktionen: Die eine ermöglicht fundierte Urteile innerhalb eines Fachgebiets, die andere eröffnet Verbindungen zwischen Gebieten.

Taste: Qualität erkennen und auswählen

Wenn eine KI in Minuten zehn Entwürfe für eine Website liefert, wird die Auswahl zum eigenen Arbeitsschritt. Der auffälligste Entwurf ist nicht zwingend der geeignetste. Eine Gestalterin könnte ihn verwerfen, weil die Navigation auf dem Smartphone unnötig kompliziert ist.

Mit Taste meint Mollick ein entwickeltes Qualitätsbewusstsein: die Fähigkeit, unter mehreren brauchbaren Möglichkeiten jene auszuwählen, die zum Zweck und zum Kontext passt. Das ist mehr als persönlicher Geschmack oder das Abarbeiten einer Checkliste. Erfahrung schärft die Wahrnehmung; gute Urteile lassen sich häufig begründen.

Massstäbe entstehen durch die Verarbeitung von Wissen und Erfahrung, nicht allein durch deren Anhäufung. Diesen Gedanken habe ich im Beitrag Assimilation statt Akkumulation weitergeführt.

Agency: Unter Unsicherheit handeln

Agency bezeichnet bei Mollick die Bereitschaft, auch bei unvollständigem Wissen Entscheidungen zu treffen und aktiv zu werden. Eine Mitarbeiterin könnte innerhalb der geltenden Vorgaben einen KI-Prototyp für einen umständlichen Verwaltungsablauf entwickeln und mit dem Team testen. Ob daraus ein neuer Prozess wird, ist offen.

Mollick hält diese Fähigkeit für schwer vermittelbar und betont den Wert von Experimenten. Hinzu kommt eine organisationale Dimension: Eigeninitiative lässt sich zwar von Mitarbeitenden erwarten, aber nicht unabhängig von den Bedingungen, unter denen sie arbeiten. Wer Verantwortung übernehmen soll, benötigt Entscheidungsspielraum; wer jeden fehlgeschlagenen Versuch rechtfertigen muss, wird Risiken eher meiden.

Zwischen Leistung und Können

Generative KI verändert nicht nur, wie wir arbeiten, sondern auch, wie berufliches Können sichtbar wird. Jemand kann mit KI einen überzeugenden Text erstellen, ohne dadurch automatisch besser schreiben zu lernen. Eine von KI erstellte Analyse beweist noch kein eigenes analytisches Verständnis. Und ein guter Entscheidungsvorschlag ist nicht schon eine selbst verantwortete Entscheidung.

KI kann beim #Lernen helfen. Entscheidend ist, ob wir uns mit einer Aufgabe auseinandersetzen oder nur ihr Ergebnis übernehmen. Ebenso wenig müssen wir jede delegierte Tätigkeit vollständig selbst beherrschen. Wir sollten aber die Grenzen unseres Verständnisses kennen und wissen, wann weitere Expertise nötig ist.

Darin liegt für mich eine wichtige Konsequenz aus Mollicks Überlegungen: KI erweitert, was wir erledigen lassen können. Was wir verstehen, beurteilen und verantworten können, müssen wir weiterhin entwickeln. Dass wir mithilfe von KI etwas tun können, bedeutet noch nicht, dass wir es auch selbst können.

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Quelle [1] E. Mollick, im Gespräch mit A. Beard, „How AI Is Changing Strategy: Rethinking What Your Business Is Designed to Do“, Harvard Business Review IdeaCast, 8. Oktober 2026. Podcast und Transkript; YouTube-Interview ab 13:32.

Bildquellen – Francesco Rustici (1592–1625): Wisdom and Prudence, Museo San Donato, Siena Public Domain. – Die Infografik zu den vier Skills wurde mit GPT-5.6 Sol Mittel erstellt.

Disclaimer Teile dieses Texts wurden mit Deepl Write (Korrektorat und Lektorat) überarbeitet. Für die Recherche in den erwähnten Werken/Quellen und in meinen Notizen wurde Gemini Notebook von Google verwendet. Für das Erstellen der Infografik wurde ChatGPT benutzt.

Topic #ProductivityPorn | #Maschinenwelten