You’ll have noticed how previously normal people start acting like addicts to their favourite generative AI and shouting at you like you’re trying to take their cocaine away.

Matthias Döpmann is a software developer. He’s been trying out AI autocomplete for coding. He was very impressed at how good the tools are for the first 80% of the code. But that last 20% is the hard bit — where you have to stare into space and think for a bit, work out structure, and understand your problem properly: [Revontulet.dev]

For a good 12 hours, over the course of 1 1/2 days, I tried to prompt it such that it yields what we needed. Eventually, I noticed that my prompts converged more and more to be almost the code I wanted. After still not getting a working result, I ended up implementing it myself in less than 30 minutes.

So he used the chatbot as a vastly more wasteful rubber duck. He adds:

… This experience is shared among peers, where AI traps you into the thinking “I am only one prompt away”, whilst clearly it just does not know the answer.

That is: generative AI works the same way as gambling addiction. Spin the gacha! Just one more spin, bro, I can feel it!

Large language models work the same way as a carnival psychic. Chatbots look smart by the Barnum Effect — which is where you read what’s actually a generic statement about people and you take it as being personally about you. The only intelligence there is yours. [Out Of The Software Crisis, 2023; blog post, 2023]

This is how people fall for chatbot girlfriends. They know it’s a bot, but they fall in love with the personality they’ve projected onto the generic statement generator.

There’s a book on this — Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products by Nir Eyal, from 2014. This is the how-to on getting people addicted to your mobile app. [Amazon UK, Amazon US]

Here’s Eyal’s “Hook Model”:

• First, the trigger is what gets you in. Say, you see a chatbot prompt and it suggests you type in a question.
• Second is the action — say, you do ask the bot a question.
• Third is the reward — and it’s got to be a variable reward. Sometimes the chatbot comes up with a mediocre answer — but sometimes you love the answer! Eyal says: “Feedback loops are all around us, but predictable ones don’t create desire.” Intermittent rewards are the key tool to create an addiction.
• Fourth is the investment — the user puts time, effort, or money into the process to get a better result next time. Skin in the game gives the user a sunk cost they’ve put in.
• Then the user loops back to the beginning. They might be more likely to follow an external trigger — or they’ll come to your site themselves looking for the dopamine rush from that variable reward.

Hooked builds on research papers about the mechanisms of gambling addiction — a life-destroying problem — to explain how you can use the same psychological manipulation techniques in your app. This book is on the bookshelf at every startup.

Eyal said he wrote Hooked to promote healthy habits, not addiction — but from the outside, you’ll be hard pressed to tell the difference. Because the model is, literally, how to design a poker machine. Keep the lab rats pulling the lever.

You’ll see the Hooked model in every mobile game. You’ll see it in dating apps, where the business model is to string you along and not connect with someone nice, but keep you spending money on the dating app. Before Duolingo went nuts with AI slop, it used the same techniques to get you to do your language practice every day!

I sort of recommend you read Hooked, though the book’s a bit disingenuous about what it says it’s doing, and it will make you angry. Because it explains so much about everything we deal with.

With ChatGPT, Sam Altman hit upon a way to use the Hook Model with a text generator. The unreliability and hallucinations themselves are the hook — the intermittent reward, to keep the user running prompts and hoping they’ll get a win this time.

This is why you see previously normal techies start evangelising AI coding on LinkedIn or Hacker News like they saw a glimpse of God and they’ll keep paying for the chatbot tokens until they can just see a glimpse of Him again. And you have to as well. This is why they act like they joined a cult. Send ’em a copy of this post.

For addictive potential, Sergio Visinoni posted a few months ago: “Is GenAI digital cocaine?” He works through the analogy. [blog post]

Coincidentally, Natalie Ponte on LinkedIn posted today: [LinkedIn]

try replacing “ai” with “cocaine” in all the posts you read about it. it’s pretty funny

Let’s try it!

• “My cocaine skeptic friends are all nuts, they’ll be left behind.”
• “Cocaine isn’t going to replace you. Someone using cocaine is going to replace you.” Checks out.

Cocaine doesn’t make you a business genius — it just makes you think you’re a business genius. Same for AI.

• Video version

Click here to go see the bonus panel!

Hovertext:
Hey I found something lazier than graph jokes.

OmniFocus 4.6, available today, improves note and attachment functionality in OmniFocus, with new support for image attachment resizing and paste behavior refinements on all supported platforms. This update also introduces handy new attachment and link contextual shortcut menus on iPhone, iPad, and Apple Vision Pro, brings support for custom font display to these platforms, and more!

Improved Paste Behavior

Notes are a great way to add additional context to an item in OmniFocus, and OmniFocus 4.6 makes it easier than ever to add content from outside of OmniFocus to a note, without bringing unnecessary font styles along for the ride. With this update, OmniFocus now defaults to an improved “Merge Styles” paste behavior, preserving only essential styles like bold, italic, underline, and strikethrough, as well as links with titles, and attachments.

While we think the “Merge Styles” paste behavior will be a great fit for most workflows, OmniFocus 4.6 also allows for customization of this behavior with a new paste behavior setting. And the default paste behavior is now context aware, only stripping styles when pasting text copied from an external source—styles are retained when pasting text copied from within OmniFocus, allowing you to move styled note text between OmniFocus items with ease.

Attachment Enhancements

OmniFocus 4.0 brought inline attachments to OmniFocus across all supported platforms—OmniFocus 4.6 introduces the ability to resize these attachments!

This release also makes it easier to edit notes that contain an image or link, with a new contextual shortcut menu, and improved cursor placement behavior. We’ve also restored the ability to preview attached text and Microsoft Word files on iPhone and iPad.

And More!

In addition to changes related to notes and attachments, OmniFocus 4.6 includes a range of bug fixes and improvements. Custom font display, previously introduced for Mac in OmniFocus 4.5, is now available on iPhone, iPad, and Apple Vision Pro. We’ve also made sync improvements that affect all platforms, refined the display of Omni Automation plug-in buttons in the Mac toolbar, and fixed bugs related to hardware keyboard shortcuts on iPad.

While we can’t wait to show you what else the OmniFocus team has been hard at work on, we’ll have to keep the exciting new features currently in development under wraps, until we see what excitement Apple has in store for us next week at WWDC 2025. Stay tuned for a big OmniFocus 4.7 TestFlight later this summer, and if you’ll be in Cupertino next week, please feel free to say hi to Ken if you see him!

Wellness is no longer something we seek out. It’s something we’re building into our homes. From infrared panels and cold plunges to entire rooms designed for rest and recovery, the wellness-at-home movement is reshaping how we live and reset. Thermasol, a pioneer in steam and sauna innovation since 1958, embraces this shift with a new collection of Scandinavian-inspired saunas that bring spa-level luxury to both indoor and outdoor spaces in your home. With natural materials, European craftsmanship, and smart features like WiFi-enabled controls and ambient lighting, each sauna is designed to transform daily rituals into immersive moments of restoration.

Aalto Indoor Sauna

The new indoor models – Aalto, Astra, and Lumaria – each take a distinct approach to serenity. Aalto, named after the Finnish word for “wave,” features sculptural lines and a seamless blend of wood and glass, creating an organic sense of flow.

Astra Indoor Sauna

Astra, derived from the Latin word for “stars,” offers a luminous experience with a sleek, corner-friendly layout that maximizes space without compromising elegance.

Lumaria Indoor Sauna

Lumaria, a combination of the words “lumina” (which means light) and “aria” (or melody), lives up to its name by blending gentle illumination and refined design in two flexible sizes. The Medium fits two to three people while the Large fits up to five – perfect for home wellness areas of all shapes and scales.

Ombra Outdoor Sauna

Designed by award-winning designer Bojan Črešnar, Thermasol’s five new outdoor saunas feel like you’re stepping away for a short vacation away from home. Each model is a study in contrast – bold yet serene, architectural yet inviting. The Ombra uses tinted, reflective glass that offers privacy while maximizing the views. Wavy wood accents add an organic warmth to the otherwise streamlined facade.

Ombra Outdoor Sauna

Ombra Outdoor Sauna

Ombra Outdoor Sauna

Vue Outdoor Sauna

Vue Outdoor Sauna

Vue Outdoor Sauna

The Vue opens up to nature with a striking full-glass front, while the Fortis leans into warmth and durability with thermally modified wood and layered insulation.

Fortis Outdoor Sauna

Fortis Outdoor Sauna

Spectra Outdoor Sauna

For those with smaller footprints, the Spectra delivers big on style in a compact form, and the Vera is tailored for balconies, rooftops, and garden corners, bringing wellness to even the coziest of spaces.

Spectra Outdoor Sauna

With this new collection, Thermasol continues to evolve what wellness can look and feel like at home. These saunas merge design, technology, and tradition in ways that feel both elevated and deeply personal. Whether you’re carving out a moment of stillness indoors or soaking in the quiet of your backyard, these saunas invite you to pause, reset, and reconnect – no spa membership required.

Vera Outdoor Sauna

To learn more about Thermasol’s newest saunas and bring tranquility into your own home, visit thermasol.com.

Imagery courtesy of Thermosol.

Ich habe gestern eher auf ruhig gemacht und mich den Tag lang von diesem Mix begleiten lassen, den Camillenfee und ANNAWAFFEL letztes Wochenende gemeinsam oben auf dem Klunker gespielt haben. Ich kenne den Laden und finde, dass das alles ganz wunderbar zusammenpasst. Dazu die Sonne über Berlin versinken sehen… Hach, da wäre ich ganz gerne dabei gewesen. Aber auch allein diese Konserve ist akustisch echt fein.

Tracklist:
Dolph – Into (Lukas Endhardt Remix)
slow child – About Nature (Original Mix)
Santi, Tugce Kurtis, Santi & Tuğçe – Istanbul’a (Herrhausen & Treindl Remix)
Herrhausen & Treindl, Christian Hülshoff – Helium (Original Mix)
Antaares – Ataraxia (Ninze Remix)
Suzanna Vega – Toms Diner (Lui Mafuta Edit)
Ivory (IT) – There Would Come A Day (Original Mix)
Elder Island – I Fold You (Kassian Remix)
Luca Musto & Iorie ft. Harry Charles – Matter of Fact
Massive Attack – Teardrop (Bowtie & Kaan Edit)
Seyde – Velvet Movement (Original Mix)
Jolasol. – Carefully (Jonas Fasching Remix)
Manucho – Uni (Thea & Schtu Remix)
Ameli Paul – Worak
Deep Ändi – Bajor
Flieder – Pillepalle (Original Mix)
Kariyan – Im Spiegel ist Sonntag
Dolph – Smile Or Die
Fat Freddy’s Drop – Special Edition (Original Mix)

We don’t typically associate city government and public works departments with conceptual artwork, let alone lasting collaborations. But for New York City artist Mierle Laderman Ukeles, who has been artist-in-residence at the city’s Department of Sanitation since 1977, her core creative inquiry centers around a radical shift in how we perceive art, who gets to experience it, and spotlighting the labor that happens “behind the scenes” to keep society running.

The focus of a new documentary, Maintenance Artist, which premieres this weekend at the Tribeca Film Festival, Ukeles’ remarkable approach to art-making centers ideas of upkeep and nurturing. In 1969, she published “MANIFESTO FOR MAINTENANCE ART, 1969!,” a proposal for an exhibition titled CARE, in which she outlined parallels between her experiences as an artist and mother with those of sanitation workers. She asks, “…after the revolution, who’s going to pick up the garbage on Monday morning?”

In the early 1970s, Ukeles performed a number of interventions drawing attention to labor and tasks that often go unnoticed in daily life, like “Washing / Tracks / Maintenance: Outside” (1973) and “Washing” (1974), the latter of which was staged outside of a former gallery in Soho. From 2 to 5 p.m. one June afternoon, she proclaimed that the area outside the front door was to be maintained as art, “normalized” again at 5:01 p.m. In a 1986 documentary short titled “Not Just Garbage,” she describes this early performance:

I started to occupy the area through this sort of repetition of maintenance, of cleaning, and people watched me and were afraid to enter the space. When someone would enter, or go into the gallery and walk across, I would wipe out their tracks immediately. I would follow them on my hands and my knees and wipe out their tracks right up to their heels.

In 1977, Ukeles was officially named the Department of Sanitation’s artist-in-residence, and her studio has occupied an office space within its building for decades. Maintenance Artist opens with historical footage of Ukeles introducing herself to sanitation workers as she began her more-than-four-decade tenure. The film then cuts to the artist and her studio manager, Catie J. Heitz, sifting through Ukeles’ archives to select work to send to the Smithsonian’s Archives of American Art.

“Mierle is not a very typical artist,” Heitz says. “She works within systems, with people. Sometimes you can’t see the work because it was performance—it was an ephemeral thing—but what you can see now is the paperwork that represents it.”

Ukeles’ work aims to illuminate the labor—and laborers—who play an immanently crucial role in keeping the city functioning on a daily basis, even though work like trash collection or street-cleaning is rarely noticed or lauded. “I desire to create a new kind of utterly public art, not in sealed-off, special places for the few, but art injected right into the city’s bloodstream of daily working life,” she said in an early statement.

Ukeles “has created art that deals with the endless maintenance and service work that ‘keeps the city alive’ — urban waste flows, recycling, ecology, urban sustainability, and our power to transform degraded land and water into healthy inhabitable public places,” Ronald Feldman Gallery says, which represents the artist. “Ukeles asks whether we can design modes of survival—for a thriving planet, not an entropic one—that don’t crush our personal and civic freedom and silence the individual’s voice.”

The first piece Ukeles completed in her DSNY residency was a durational performance titled “Touch Sanitation Performance,” in which she shook the hand of every sanitation employee—all 8,500 of them—and said to each one, “Thank you for keeping New York City alive.” That gratitude proved profound in some cases, as the interaction had lasting positive effects for some of the workers, who expressed how they had been harassed or humiliated while on the job in the past.

Several of Ukeles’ works transformed the fleet of New York City trucks and equipment into moving artworks. “The Social Mirror” (1983) covered a garbage truck in a giant reflective glass surface, mirroring denizens of the city back at themselves. “Snow Workers Ballet” (2012) coordinated hulking machinery into a choreographed performance, positioning hard graft in the limelight through the unlikely merging of industrial vehicles and elegance.

The Queens Museum was the first to present a major survey of Ukeles’ work in 2017, spanning five decades of her interrogations of feminism, freedom, crisis, and care. Beyond the conceptual or performative, Ukeles’ practice has always been social and community-oriented, prompting us to genuinely consider how we treat one another, recognize hard work, and, of course, define what art can be.

Maintenance Artist is directed, written, and produced by Toby Perl Freilich in collaboration with writer Anne Alvergue, premiering on June 8 with additional screenings through June 14 in New York. Learn more on the film’s website.

Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member today and support independent arts publishing for as little as $7 per month. The article ‘Maintenance Artist’ Highlights Mierle Laderman Ukeles’ Radical, Caring Approach to Public Art appeared first on Colossal.