Kevin sent me a link to this email from Linus Torvalds the other day, and I found that to be a great example of something that has been bothering me for a while now. It’s about AI—everything is about AI these days, so damn boring—and, more specifically, Linus’ position when it comes to the use of LLMs.
What I find bothersome is the lack of any consideration for the moral and ethical implications of the technology itself. The justification for its use essentially boils down to “it’s a useful tool”, which is a totally unconvincing argument in this context.
In his defense, Linus also mentioned that «There are other questions around AI» but it’s telling that the one example he picked was «what the economy of it will actually look like in the end» which, again, has nothing to do with anything related to the ethics around the use of these tools, how were made, and so on.
And look, I understand that this is a very complex landscape to navigate since it touches A LOT of different aspects. But to quote Linus, «the solution is not to put your head in the sand and sing "La La La, I can't hear you”» . This is a technology that is deeply entangled with moral and societal issues, and you have to accept the fact that you need to confront those ethical and moral dilemmas. There’s no way around it. And if you decide to sweep everything under the “it’s useful” rug, well, that’s disappointing to say the least.
July's Thoughts and Interviews On ethics and usefulness
17th On planting seeds
14th Downsizing
10th Zachary Kai
10th A moment with blue and orange
9th Andy Baio
3rd The AI Compass
1st 2026 June Books: January to June, 2026
29th On ends
28th Anne Lee Steele
26th IndieWeb Book Club: July 2026
23rd Passing of the torch
19th Edoardo Baldi
19th Decoupling from the web
18th Fitness Challenge: Update One
17th 21 down, 23 more to go
13th Carl Barenbrug
12th Fitness challenge underway
8th Barry Hess
5th A moment with chemicals
4th May 17 down, 27 more to go
31st AI blog question challenge
30th fLaMEd 🔥
29th Enhanced games
28th 14 down, 30 more to go
26th Piri
22nd I feel your pain Sara
21st On people writing about their use of AI
20th A phone battery experiment
18th RMF
15th Accepting tradeoffs
14th Nicola Losito
8th A moment with a silly creature
2nd Hyde Stevenson
1st April 11 down, 33 more to go. Plus a cave.
30th Nicolas Solerieu
24th Spending hard caps
23rd 5 down, 39 more to go
22nd JTR
17th Nuances
16th Vertical Tabs
14th Frank Meeuwsen
10th Anthony Nelzin-Santos
3rd Slash AI
1st March Nikhil Anand
27th Successful products
26th
My 2-step process for AI-free blogging 21st Melanie Richards
20th Social media reimagined
19th Exploiting brain flaws
18th Patrick Rhone
13th Just admit you’re playing the game
12th Step aside, phone: closing thoughts
9th Eric Schwarz
6th Step aside, phone: week 3
1st February Dominik Schwind
27th Interviews, interviews, interviews
23rd Step aside, phone: week 2
22nd Updated thoughts on People and Blogs
21st Stefano Verna
20th An incomplete list of things I don’t have
19th Step aside, phone: week 1
15th David Cain
13th A random list of silly things I hate
11th Step aside, phone
7th Frances
6th Adblocking ≠ Piracy
5th Ad Blockers didn’t help kill the open web
4th A moment with a message from the past
3rd January Nikita Prokopov
30th Digital resistance
28th Sharing is caring
27th
A follow-up on a follow-up 25th Ryan
23rd I’m bad at coming up with examples
22nd Moral false dichotomies
21st Thoughts On People and Blogs
18th Web, Social Networks, Social Web
18th Yancey Strickler
16th How You Read My Content
13th A moment with tea
12th Bix Frankonis
9th How Do You Read My Content
6th Yearly reminder to use RSS
5th V.H. Belvadi
2nd Year 10
1st 2025 December What did I read this year
29th A moment with a sunset
28th Lars-Christian Simonsen
26th On simple solutions
21st Thoughts on MCP
20th Kathleen Fisher
19th Age-gating the web
16th IndieWeb Carnival: where do I wish to see the IndieWeb in 2030
14th Nick Heer
12th On open protocols
6th Come on John
5th Stephanie Stimac
5th November Double opt-in PSA
30th On eating shit
28th Karen
28th Dealgorithmed
27th A moment in yet another memorial
24th Alexandra Wolfe
21st Y’all are great
16th Nic Chan
14th Following up on input diet
14th Input diet
12th Robb Knight
7th A moment with a decidedly less gloomy church
4th 46.1007188 — 13.5545292
2nd October Frank Chimero
31st 46.1186821 — 13.5953544
28th IndieWeb Carnival: On Ego
26th Romina Malta
24th Look, another AI browser
22nd 10 pointless facts about me
21st A newsletter-related PSA
20th Five least favourite tech topics
18th Alice
17th
From the Summit 2.0 17th On concrete examples
16th Linda Ma
10th My issue with the two sides
10th Safari and iOS 26: PSA and a rant
8th On public online behaviour
5th Blake Watson
3rd Making things obvious
1st September
New site, kinda 30th Scoring books
27th Kris Howard
26th Digital fatigue
25th Robert Birming
19th RIP my minimal phone setup
16th Two quick news items
12th Jack Baty
12th On em dashes
10th Blogs don’t need to be so lonely
6th I guess they did not, in fact, make it
5th Louie Mantia
5th On my August challenge
2nd August Courtney
29th You will not believe what I just wrote
25th Tom Critchlow
22nd AI this, AI that
17th Loren Stephens
15th First update on the August challenge
10th Alexandra
8th Sticking with it
7th Emma Goto
1st July August Challenge
30th The July experiment: week four
28th On books and assumptions
26th Marisabel Munoz
25th Why this matters
25th The July experiment: week three
21st Alex Sirac
18th On using Apple products
17th RSS feeds
16th The July experiment: week two
14th BSAG
11th The July experiment: week one
7th A gift to myself
6th Rewiring the brain
5th Nick Simson
4th Random mid-year update
2nd June IndieWeb Carnival: Take Two
30th Experimental June: week four
29th On complaining
28th David Wertheimer
27th Minimal New Page
25th Experimental June: week three
23rd Dave Rupert
20th Digital chains
19th On corpses, selfishness, and ownership
16th Experimental June: week two
15th James A. Reeves
13th A moment on the fields
8th Experimental June: week one
8th Non-negotiables
7th Benji
6th A moment with climbers
6th May Sebastián Monía
30th On Browsers, AI, and the web
29th Experimental June
27th The web != the web
24th Seth Werkheiser
23rd A moment with a pizza
19th Celebrating kindness
17th Watts Martin
16th Web Accessibility. A follow-up.
15th Your license is a scam
14th Web Accessibility. Help needed.
13th Sharing, helping, connecting
11th Anh
9th A moment with waves
6th Labeling the mind
5th A moment with concrete
4th A thought on AI and creativity
3rd Alexandra Deschamps-Sonsino
2nd Tomorrow
1st April IndieWeb Carnival: Renewal
30th Frills
25th Fixing the mind
25th Jeremy Keith
18th When a side project finds you
12th Jedda
11th A moment with long shadows
6th Matt Webb
4th Online counterculture
3rd March Maya
28th Ko-Fi Wishlist
27th The cost of getting too big
26th Ben Borgers
21st A moment with snow and trees
15th Keenan
14th How personal should a personal site be?
7th James
7th A moment with someone flying to the moon
5th February Marco Giancotti
28th Audience of one
28th The cost of doing the right thing
27th Ben Werdmuller
21st Ephemeral content
20th Confidently incorrect
18th Max Kapur
14th Context
8th Lou Plummer
7th Identity
6th January Donny Truong
31st A moment after the rain
28th Sharing “Unplatform”
27th A better list of blog platforms
26th Tiny corners
25th Ava
24th Modern discourse
23rd Awful people are everywhere
22nd Ugh, I’ll have to make myself a portfolio again
22nd Photography
20th Shenanigans
19th Short Long Form
18th Annie Mueller
17th The internet is now five websites
16th On Meta’s moderation changes
15th IndieWeb Carnival: On the importance of friction
14th Bloggers at the right time
13th Toscana
12th A moment of relaxation
11th Steven Garrity
10th A moment amongst the trees
10th A moment in a back alley
9th A moment with the two towers
8th A moment with some leftover Christmas spirit
7th Blogging: you’re doing it right
6th Blog Questions Challenge
5th On Spotify
4th Pauline P. Narvas
3rd Just because you can doesn’t mean you should
2nd Twenty Twenty-Five, codename “Output”
1st 2024 December Was 2024 a good year?
31st A solved Bluesky conundrum
31st The Bluesky conundrum
30th Kindness in a transactional world
29th Jatan Mehta
27th A moment on my favorite bench
27th On featured images in blog posts
26th Meta blog post
24th Zinzy
20th On asking
16th Moonlight
15th Sunday update
15th Chris DeLuca
13th Digital responsibilities
12th Topic blockers
9th Erica Fustero
6th Life on
6th The correct amount of ads is zero
5th On blogging, substacking (?), and owning digital real estate
4th Personal philosophy
1st November Lucy Bellwood
29th On Bluesky
22nd Em
22nd Media diet
21st An appreciation of the “mark all as read” button
16th Small scale is the best scale
15th Sara Jakša
15th Housekeeping
14th A moment of natural therapy
11th Dalton Mabery
8th Regaining focus
7th An afternoon of early November
6th Westley Winks
1st October A moment in yet another Airbnb
31st Denny Henke
25th Constraints in video games
18th Steyn Viljoen
18th Creation and Curation
14th Chris O'Donnell
11th A Ko-Fi PSA
5th Xanthe Tynehorne
4th A moment with morning light in the kitchen
3rd IndieWeb Carnival: multilingualism in a global Web
2nd On personal websites and social web
1st September Justin Duke
27th Internet commentary
26th It should be easy to say “My bad, I was wrong”
24th Giles Turnbull
20th Thoughts on the new iOS control centre
19th Discovering new blogs is stupid hard
16th Naz Hamid
13th The EU vs US iPhone debate
9th Steve Ledlow
6th IndieWeb Carnival: Power Underneath Despair
5th On People and Blogs and courtesy
5th The internet used to be great
3rd The social web
1st August Marty Day
30th
On email addresses (again) 29th My software stack is old
28th Yelling at the web clouds
27th Thoughts on symbols
24th Robert Kingett
24th On the value of context
20th On hobbies, side projects, and money
17th Ploum
16th IndieWeb Carnival: Rituals
13th Fifty shades of people and their blogs
11th Georgie Cooke
9th Digital nudges
7th The “blowing smoke up your ass” theory of AI
3rd Anne Sturdivant
2nd July Thoughts on politics and communities
29th A moment among the trees
26th Daniel Miller
26th On goals, online projects, and the usefulness of money
24th Mismatch
22nd Thoughts on digital communities
21st Luke Harris
19th Should you give up social media?
18th One hundred
14th Andrew Stephens
12th A moment walking towards the sunset
9th Some more thoughts on TBC
9th A moment with my 35th bday
6th Anton Podviaznikov
5th A moment of morning light
5th Shared reality
2nd On being humble and accepting success
1st June The Mimo Diaries: Feedback and Directory
30th Everything is freeware
29th Alison Wilder
28th Ads hypocrisy
27th Fighting bots
23rd A moment of blissful relaxation
22nd Jennifer Devastatia del Gato
21st On “What Money Can’t Buy”
19th Blocking bots
16th Jessica Nickelsen
14th Celebrating failure
12th The money conundrum
11th JF Martin
7th How to converse online
6th They might not make it
3rd Slashes
1st May Matthew Graybosch
31st AI and the English language
30th Bearblog is fun
29th
Consumption-to-creation ratio 28th Rebecca Toh
24th A moment with a birthday good boy
23rd My blogging workflow
21st A moment of daily practice
20th A moment with a choice
19th A moment from a misty morning
18th Om Malik
17th Curation, search, and the future of the web
15th It’s fun to do silly things
14th A comment on the Apple iPad ad controversy
12th Sharing too much about too little
11th Riccardo Mori
10th The webs
9th On guestbooks
8th
The kitchen s(l)ink post 5th Cory Dransfeldt
3rd IndieWeb Carnival: Natural creativity
2nd April The web is not dying
27th Veronique
26th Too little, and too much, self-promotion
25th Re: Growth is a mind cancer
24th Simone Silvestroni
19th A comment on comments
16th Tracy Durnell
12th On video podcasts
10th Matt Stein
5th IndieWeb Carnival: Good enough and the search for perfection
2nd Pay per scroll
1st March Why I write
31st Adrianna Tan
29th Writing about writing
25th Growth is a mind cancer
23rd Taylor Troesh
22nd Why I don’t write dev posts
21st A moment with a bunch of fun sheep
20th
From ink to pixel to ink 19th Sara Joy
15th A moment with a sunset
14th Housekeeping
12th Digital walled gardens
9th Brad Barrish
8th Guestbooks are cool
7th It’s Time to Give Up on Everything but Email
5th IndieWeb Carnival: Accessibility in the Small Web
4th IndieWeb Carnival: Roundup
3rd Cassidy Williams
1st February Chris Coyier smells like donkeys
29th On POSSE
27th IndieWeb Carnival: February is almost at the end
26th I have a new* website
25th Society and technology
24th Herman Martinus
23rd On dreams and goals
18th Peter Rukavina
16th Ai and Robots
14th On climbing and design
13th Housekeeping
12th Phil Gyford
9th The great list of all the blog platforms
8th A rant on ARC Search
7th Routines
5th The Mimo Diaries: Streams and Menus
3rd Winnie Lim
2nd On digital relationships
1st January IndieWeb Carnival: Digital Relationships
31st Best laptop of 2024
30th A People and Blogs PSA
27th Ran Prieur
26th Positive Internalization
25th
Private conversations in public 22nd Tom MacWright
19th Indieweb Carnival
18th
If a human does it 16th On enjoying the process
14th Rachel Smith
12th The Mimo Diaries
10th A moment with a great book
6th Arun Venkatesan
5th Answers to my analytics inquiry
3rd Create more. Consume less.
2nd Yet another year of living without
1st 2023 December Analytics inquiry
30th Derek Sivers
29th Reflecting on learned things
27th A moment up high on a lake
26th Chris Butler
22nd Pirating social media
16th Jamie Thingelstad
15th I’m taking over Minimalissimo…for real this time
14th Eli Mellen
8th The personality of a personal website
7th One a Month
6th More new mindsets, fewer new technologies
2nd Nicolas Magand
1st November Housekeeping
28th Human connection
27th Robin Rendle
24th On creating beautiful things
22nd On Ad Blockers
20th Chris Coyier
17th Conversation enders
15th App Defaults
11th Piper Haywood
10th The beauty of broken things
5th Jamie Crisman
3rd On subscriptions
1st October Why I'll never do podcasts
28th Ray Thomas
27th A moment with a hardware bug
25th Jim Nielsen
20th Shoes dilemma
15th Ana Rodrigues
13th How to make a blog
12th Internet culture outsider
7th Andrea Contino
6th My issue with the modern NBA
4th September Toby Shorin
29th Bots, Spiders, and Crawlers: The Results
27th Brian Koberlein
22nd Bots, Spiders, and Crawlers
20th Housekeeping
19th I don't want your data
18th Kev Quirk
15th A moment up on the mountains
11th Rachel J. Kwon
8th
Use a custom domain name 7th Website flexibility
6th Places on the web
2nd Manton Reece
1st August Housekeeping
25th People and Blogs
17th A moment on the 2nd biggest lake
15th Self-promotion
5th Who is to blame?
2nd Unscalable businesses
1st July My three rules for online interactions
31st The web I want
25th Carl has a new blog
23rd Who are you writing for?
19th Links
14th I am not a writer
9th A moment with some proper mountains
8th On the state of the web
2nd June A moment with things not going as planned
30th Clients and budgets
28th AI will not replace you
16th A moment with a cloudy sky
13th Small communities are the best communities
1st May A moment thinking about decisions
28th Answering machines
26th I'm taking over Minimalissimo…
22nd Spotify and the bullshit podcast ads situation
18th Focus
14th Poking around my server logs
10th Financial transparency
9th Digital simplicity
6th My verified online presence
5th April A moment with my crazy dog
28th Usernames roulette
26th Criticising is the easy part
21st I hate internal linking
19th Incentives and motivations
13th A note on Substack
12th Writing about writing
10th 10000 URLs
9th
Let people contact you 6th RSS excerpts
5th March Sysadmin
28th Verified human
24th Writing voice and beginner’s mind
22nd Bandwidth consumption
20th Thoughts on an unpolished note
18th A personal blog doesn't need a homepage
17th A rant on web font licenses
10th Minimum viable blog
9th Monetising online content
7th I'll read it
4th Website complexities
2nd A moment on yet another lake
1st February Human curation
16th How much is a friendship worth?
14th
A moment with a not-so-distant past 13th Good enough
9th Consumismo ed integrità morale
8th Great software is timeless
5th January A moment with sand and waves
30th A less artificial future
27th Shared understanding
23rd Unsolicited blogging advice
17th A moment in Italy's green heart
14th Quitting
7th RSS feeds for everyone
6th Money is one of the reasons why today's internet fucking sucks
5th A moment of sleepiness
2nd 2022 December How to start a successful blog in 2023
26th End of year book review
21st Free speech absolutism vs the real world
19th Quirky search engine
18th On the current decentralisation movement
16th To the moon
13th Another year of living without
11th On public email addresses
7th How to consume the news
4th A quick word on scrolljacking and new tab fuckery
1st November A moment with real and fake birds
21st On internet silos
8th A moment of clouds and light
4th Letting go
1st October On the struggles of the mind
30th My attempt to answer the question "What is too minimal?"
21st A moment of sunlight after the rain
3rd September Who owns a conversation?
30th Selfishness
14th The web is failing us
12th A moment of urban patience
11th #Shorts
9th UHX
8th August Passionless Web
16th A moment contemplating the mountains
13th Selflessness
9th On becoming a better designer
8th Loneliness
7th July A few thoughts on RSS
28th A moment of glowing light
27th Algorithmic nonsense
26th Production Values
24th June What is worth filling your mind with?
29th May Portfolio, Projects and Posts
11th Links and webrings
5th A moment reflecting on the past
2nd April Communities and free speech
27th On Web 3.0, capitalism and money
11th Honest Design
6th February Spectrums
18th On owning your content, complexity, platforms, elitism and a bunch of other related topics
16th Endless everything
6th January A moment on the lake
10th The new year’s post
1st 2021 November On finding reasons
22nd On life
4th October Humans and tech companies
25th A somewhat depressing realisation
20th The creativity ark
17th Phones and Social Media
10th Thoughts on social media
6th September On Words and Definitions
29th Six Seven Eight
27th Crunching some numbers
25th Can I ask you a favour?
20th On September the 19th
19th Social media and social groups
17th Social platforms
11th On the indie web... again
6th Thoughts on UX
4th August On the indie web
30th Thoughts on communities
25th Sharing rules
21st Mistakes and doubts
20th On audience capture and fast food content
10th 10 years
5th An update on side projects
4th July A moment with old and new
19th On photographs
14th Adoption Sponsorships
5th On discovery and consumption
2nd June The internet is not broken. People are.
30th Sharing is caring
28th On reading books
26th Motivations
20th Online Conversations
8th Asynchronous conversations
6th May What even is a website anyway?
27th Scaling Up Kindness
21st What I learned by being #1 on PH and reaching HN front page
20th The shape of digital interactions
17th A moment of solitude on the mountains
12th Should I care about this?
4th April Something about the evolution of the web
21st March Inspiration overload
23rd Greed is ruining the web
21st My love/hate relationship with the web
19th February A moment with sun and hot tea
19th Responsibilities
2nd January The curse of the perfect tool
22nd Thoughts on newsletters
20th 2020 December We wrote a little something
24th November On November the 18th
18th Since Google asked...
17th Containers
15th On monetary support
4th A moment with mountains and clouds
1st October A moment on the trenches
31st Let's play the internet game
31st Not a success story
30th A moment with my brother
29th A moment on the border
25th September Words
15th A moment on the mountains
13th A moment with myself up on the mountains
13th Blogrolls and Links
10th A moment with a clear sky and a sunset
8th Manufactured Authenticity
7th August Self reflection
14th On August the 9th
9th July Friends' Projects
29th On July the 27th
27th On side projects, money, motivations and human connections
17th Welcome to Manu's website
14th My internet has no comments
12th How to start a blog
5th June Domain Squatters
30th On Value
29th The reachability illusion
17th On Web Responsibilities
15th On Random Interactions: Part Two
12th A quick update on browsers
11th May On Random Interactions
20th On Clutter, Noise, Abundance and Less
18th On Websites
8th The May Update
4th April On burning out, breaking the law, disappearing and cabin fever
22nd My new portfolio
6th March Stories
29th Bits and Bytes of Humanity
25th Subscriptions
9th
For the people who are listening... 5th February Meandering Rivers
24th Web Responsibilities
20th Smallness
17th My weird phone setup, two years later
14th Why I hate money
13th A moment on a familiar peak
5th Workspace
3rd Kind Words
2nd January Discoverability
26th Simple solutions
19th Faceless relationships
10th I don't know how to browse the internet anymore
4th Moments In Time
1st 2019 December Fashion time
31st Here we go again
17th November Trust
24th Closing thoughts: Living a simple life is not easy
22nd Chapter 5: Objects are not everything
20th Chapter 4: Digital and Physical
19th Chapter 3: Function over Form
18th Chapter 2: Design doesn't matter
14th Chapter 1: The Mindset
13th Introduction: What Minimalism is and is not
12th Manu's guide to minimalism
9th October Cento
31st Knowing yourself
22nd Confidence
20th Meditations
15th Websites and complexity
14th Smart Technology
13th What makes you happy?
12th Human debugging
9th Leaving a mark
6th Ups and downs
1st August Setups
26th Minimal Technology
20th Quitting social media
16th Minimalism and Technology
13th A Short Hike
11th Understated design
8th July A simple browser
7th May Mental Space
15th Writing, Hiking and Sharing
6th I want my phone to be a washing machine
2nd April Life, money, work, and a bunch of other things
30th Low tech solutions
15th March What does minimalism sound like?
28th Digital and Work Setup
8th Minimalism Life
5th February Time
22nd Hello fellow human being
5th January Technology of thoughts
21st Addition by subtraction
20th Problems and solutions
10th Digital Hermit
5th 2018 December Walking
11th November A bit of this, a bit of that
26th Lists are hard
11th Blogs
7th Why I stopped using feeds
1st October The rhythm of digital life
9th Seven
8th Let’s talk Minimalism
7th September Timeless design
9th Another iPhone post
8th A moment with the sunset and some puddles
1st August Do not disturb
30th Ignore the numbers
19th Why I love emails
14th Quiet web
13th July A minimal browser
29th The curation issue
25th Online authenticity
23rd There are people on the other side
9th Who are you?
7th Typography and spacing in CSS
6th History of my personal website
5th Watching The World Cup
4th Mnmlqts
2nd June Mnmllist
21st Minimalissimo Shop
14th Be deliberate
11th A reflection on digital publications
10th TTRO
10th Things To Read Online
6th My “Water May”
3rd May "Not so quick" update
16th The usefulness of preferences
11th My April without surfing the internet
5th April My March with no sweets, cookies and cakes
1st March Alessandro Scarpellini
28th Portfolios
22nd My weird phone setup
18th A minimal email client
13th My February without music and podcasts
1st February This is it
15th A January with no computer before lunch
3rd January Numbers and stats
31st Meditation as a design tool
21st The Gallery - Version Six
15th I own a smartphone
3rd A December with no wifi
1st 2017 December Year in review, 2017 edition
29th Opinions
12th Personal brand is a stupid concept
10th How to deal with iOS like a crazy person
8th A November without digital entertainment
1st November Being a "digital nomad" is overrated
29th Designed Space
20th Collaborations
13th 6.04
6th An October without phone and tablet
1st October Podcast Recommendations
25th Have fun
18th Money and Stress
8th September A September without gaming
30th What matters
21st Declutter
17th On tools and crafts
8th My year of living without
7th Way too many side projects
6th Looking for something to read?
5th August The unappreciated value of silence
16th Do I need this?
15th July Minimalissimo
20th March A moment with water and waterfalls
19th February Winter is almost over
26th Style and lifestyle
19th Self questioning
12th Deal with it
5th January Obstacles
28th Find something that works for you
21st I hate you Winter
14th So far so good.
7th Habits. habits everywhere.
1st