considering adding a ‘german niche twitter micro celebrity’ line to my LinkedIn bio

Lately, I started two self-experiments:

1) I have completely abandoned Google search. Every time I need to find something, I use DuckDuckGo instead. It was scary at first. After all, Google has dominated search & provided the best results for decades. Clearly, not anymore. It has become unbearable: littered with bullshit, and the word “relevance” means nothing — all on top of insane tracking. DuckDuckGo doesn’t have all the features we’re used to, but I was amused by the fact that it feels OK and I didn’t switch back after a day, as I thought I would. In fact, it’s now a default engine on all my devices.

2) I switched to a blank Home screen on my iPhone. The reason is simple: I suddenly got a feeling that a system I had been developing for a decade, with a perfect app setup and well-adjusted app positions, was becoming more of a burden than a helping hand. After ten years of impeccable service, it started giving me the subtle impression that it was setting the limits and holding me back in some way. And that if I wanted to continue to build something new, this system needed to be reset. And that was also the reason for my decision to set up a new MacBook from scratch instead of transferring everything from my old machine. Well, we’ll see how that works out.

Yeah, and from this screenshot you can see I'm good at completing tasks and… uhhh well, not so good at responding to non-business inquiries

I’m 30 and that’s my pic rn

Yeah, Vasily Krouglov → Francesco Gatti

The absurdity of some people’s actions speaks for itself. It’s time to rethink the cycle of producing unnecessary stuff instead of just bending the process to include AI

https://colonelroyce.com/cut-out-the-ai-middleman/

I've created a user-friendly ChatGPT prompting guide for beginners and intermediate users. It’s based on my experience of professionally using it for various stuff, from code to analysis, and teaching it to others. Here’s all you need to gain a better understanding of how to make her more useful:

https://colonelroyce.com/chatgpt-guide-basic/

Feel free to share!

TECH TRENDS 2025 REPORT

AI has become both a blessing and a curse (rn, more of a curse IMO), but it's not the only story worth telling. Beneath the surface of chatbots, LLMs, and generated images lies a complex web of technological shifts, social implications, and economic disruptions that are redefining our world.

I've wrapped up some trends based on events that happened in 2024. Here’s the full report (take a comfortable seat, it’s big):

https://colonelroyce.com/2025-tech-report/

The discussion (let alone social media hot takes) about AI in the broader masses is quite alarming: most of the people who say anything about the topic either side with the ‘AI bros’ with, mildly saying, an overly optimistic approach in which LLMs are a salvation and the solution to all our problems, or go all in with extreme Luddite beliefs that every iteration of AI must be shut down and the technical progress must be reversed.

I wish every single fucker who has no idea how AI & ML works beyond ‘there’s a chatbot/app that does something I do(n’t) like’ and still blurts out their extremely valuable opinion RTFM, but that’s obviously too much. And maybe they should’ve started with basic education and scientific principles.

Oh, it’s not about AI at all, oh boy…

I’m convinced (and I guess you share this idea) that understanding high-level processes and frameworks in any field you’re involved in is crucial. It’s also true of the modern world itself: how it works, where it’s heading, why it works the way it does.

It may seem like a philosophical subject, but I’m excited about how much practical use I’ve made of such concepts over the years. If you’re interested in exploring the underlying concepts further, I’ve compiled a list of six books that I humbly recommend:

https://colonelroyce.com/6books-modernity/

Dario (the CEO of Anthropic) is a little too optimistic, even given the disclaimer, but his vision is:
1) much better than no vision at all
2) much better than 'we’ll-release-AGI-next-month-(we-have-no-idea-what-we-are-doing)-lol-we-rockkkk'

And if we see it as an invitation to a broader discussion (and that’s the intention), which the world is lacking right now, that’s a solid 8/10.

https://darioamodei.com/machines-of-loving-grace

Fair point. I might seem too critical and acrid, but I’ve def been a builder for years. If I say something isn’t right or broken, I always: mean ‘we need to fix it’; believe it’s possible; sometimes suggest fixes, sometimes roll up my sleeves and create a fix myself.

Building is great, and working with other builders is a soup for the soul.

https://www.joanwestenberg.com/we-dont-need-more-cynics-we-need-more-builders/

A quick all-timer: https://colonelroyce.com/porn-and-work/

I’ve been using this feature (along with the Alfred app for Mac for complex shortcuts and snippets) every day for at least a decade, and frankly, at this point idk how people live without it

https://colonelroyce.com/messaging-shortcuts/

By the way, I’m currently rebuilding my curated tool collections on my website from the ground up, and would love to hear from you!

If you have cool must-know, must-have web services & MacOS apps you’d like to share with the world, let me know. Even if you’re sure everyone knows about it — that’s an expert bias. I bet there are people who’ll find it useful.

The categories are:
• Project & Product management
• Web & Software development
• Design, Brand identity & Creative direction
• Content and Marketing

I only add tools that I love, so I’ll test your suggestions, and then add them to the collection.

I’m not a fan of comment sections on Telegram, and keep my channel neat and clean, but for this purpose, I’ll create a temporary chat — welcome. If you wanna share anonymously, you can use the form.