DOGE, Deep Research, Human Intelligence, Multitasking, and Doomscrolling
Weekly Review of News in Technology, UX and AI
Here’s the latest news, resources, and use cases from the world of product, UX, AI and technology. Let’s go:
📊 Data Engineering
👺 DOGE Threat
🏛️ Deep Research
🔎 Human Intelligence
💼 Unemployment
📲 TikTok Sideload
🤹♂️ Multitasking
🤬 Doomscrolling
Podcast
Lessons in Data Engineering: Scaling, AI, and Open Source with Sandy Ryza
In this episode of Product by Design, Kyle chats with Sandy Ryza, lead engineer on the Dagster project, author, and thought leader in data engineering. Sandy shares his journey through the world of data—from building big data tools at Cloudera to working as a data scientist, product manager, and engineer—and how those experiences led him to help create Dagster, an open-source data orchestration platform.
News and Useful Reads
A US Treasury Threat Intelligence Analysis Designates DOGE Staff as ‘Insider Threat’
Our journey through the darkest timeline continues, with each new day being more shocking than the last. How many problems can the new Trump regime cause? I’d venture to say “more than any of us can imagine.”
Although Treasury and White House officials have repeatedly denied it, WIRED has reported that DOGE technologists had the ability to not only read the code of sensitive payment systems but also rewrite it. Marko Elez, one of a number of young men identified by WIRED who have little to no government experience but are associated with DOGE, was granted read and write privileges on two of the most sensitive systems in the US government: the Payment Automation Manager and Secure Payment System at the BFS, an agency that according to Treasury records paid out $5.45 trillion in fiscal year 2024.
I tested ChatGPT’s deep research with the most misunderstood law on the internet
AI continues to get better, but even deep research, ChatGPT’s latest feature, can’t contextualize all the nuances like an expert can.
The upshot is that ChatGPT’s output felt a bit like a report on 2002 to 2007 cellphone trends ending with the rise of the BlackBerry: the facts aren’t wrong, but the omissions sure change what story they tell.
AI Memory And Context: Open Source, DeepSeek, Meta, And Model Research
Is AI really approaching human intelligence? It doesn’t seem so. It is very good at certain tasks, much better than humans. But according to many experts, it is nowhere near human intelligence.
“We are nowhere near being able to reproduce the kind of intelligence that we can observe in not humans, but (even) animals,” he says. “Intelligence is not just a linear thing, where, you know, when you cross the barrier, you have human intelligence, superintelligence. It's not like that at all. It's a collection of skills, and an ability to acquire new skills extremely quickly, or even to solve problems without actually learning anything.”
The surprising data on AI and unemployment rates
So far, it seems like AI hasn’t impacted employment. That’s good news for most of us. But we’ll see how it continues to evolve in the next few years, and what that will change for workers.
When ChatGPT was first rolled out, there was a widespread fear that unemployment was going to rise very quickly. Well, it’s been several years since ChatGPT was released, and the unemployment rate in the United States has stayed the same, says Joseph Politano, economic analyst and data journalist.
TikTok advises Android users in the US to sideload the app
If you need TikTok, or just want to get updates, there is now an app that doesn’t go through the app stores, as long as you’re on Android.
In a tweet, the TikTok Policy account has announced that the service has made Android Package Kits available for download through its official web site. Companies don't typically endorse sideloading, but Tiktok is, of course, a special case.
Other Interesting Finds
How Multitasking Drains Your Brain
Many of us have known that multitasking is a bad way of working and living. Years ago, I stopped bouncing from email to messages to work because it was awful. And multitasking is a myth.
Despite marketing claims, your computer does not multitask, and neither does your brain. The latter simply cannot, whereas a computer’s processor divvies up each clock cycle and apportions a slice of time — 200 milliseconds, say — to each task. Round and round it goes until everything is done. The inherent inefficiency of having to split up processor time is why your computer bogs down the more you ask it to do.
How a Mindful Hobby Could Help You Break Your After-Work ‘Doomscrolling’ Habit
It is difficult to avoid the doom these days, especially if you’re living in the US. But one of the best things you can do for your mental health is to disconnect and give yourself space.
While it might feel like doomscrolling helps you to stay informed, research shows that this habit often results in considerable psychological distress. This ultimately leads to lower mental wellbeing, poorer life satisfaction, and reduced engagement at work.