Now, in and of itself, I would agree that this is a useful feature. To me, being able to use RSS and feeds in general to get some notification of content updates from a web site or weblog is incredibly useful. As an aside, WordPress has supported this from day 1 (here is a comment feed from my blog). As another example, when Colin Walker and I were collaborating on MyStatusTool, Colin proposed a RSS namespace to support comments within a RSS feed.

However, the nit I want to pick at is – Dave Winer was interested in who was commenting on his linkblog posts. But – in past posts/podcasts, Dave has said that blogs should not have comments. Yet, he wants to know who is commenting on his posts. This begs the question – how can people let Dave know that they have commented on his posts? Answer: they can’t. Well, here is one way that this can happen (for Micro.blog users).

Another way is the comment system that Dave is implementing as part of his WordLand development project. But….he hasn’t rolled it out yet. And… you have to use his tool to make a comment so that he can then be made aware of that someone had a comment. Seems limiting, doesn’t it? In the past, Dave has relied on Github as a comment space (when he wants to have a discussion, he creates an issue there and points to it). However, that is a space controlled (and moderated) by him, so some comments might get deleted by him. Again, not encouraging.

So – how can people comment and/or have a conversation? They have to be using a tool/service that supports this (as an example, Micro.blog). Just this morning, I can see several Micro.blog conversations where Dave Winer is participating (see here, here, and here.) I am guessing that Dave is using the Micro.blog reading interface to respond – that is what I do, but maybe there is another way to do it.

It just seems to me that there is something of a double standard here (write comments about my posts on your blog, I don’t want it on my blog, but I want to know what you are saying…) – am I missing something here? Anyone – feel free to share your thoughts as comments on my blog!

This whole drama, from the viral post to the takedowns to the counter-takes, none of it is really about Shumer’s essay. What it’s about is simpler. And harder to admit. In the words of screenwriter William Goldman, “Nobody knows anything.” 

Shumer writes his breathless warning. Marcus writes his skeptical rebuttal. Kahn points out the flawed assumptions. Goldman notes the difficulty of separating signal from hype. And every one of them is also selling something. A book. A newsletter. A reputation. An audience.

Hmmm…sounds like we are all “on our own”….

Interestingly, The Atlantic has just published an article titled “America Isn’t Ready for What AI Will Do To Jobs” (might be paywalled). I read through this article as well, it raises concerns about big companies slashing workforces as AI does more and more. This theme is touched on in the Matt Shumer post.

Finally, Bernie Sanders published a position paper in the fall of 2025 on AI impact on workers. Again, the outlook was negative.

What should people do? What, if anything, should be done about AI, from the regulation standpoint? I don’t know.