Colin Dismuke

Software engineering in 2026 means rapidly skimming and judging AI outputs rather than slow reflection, which risks eroding deep thinking skills. Writing in one's own words and reading dense non-fiction books, rather than delegating to LLMs, preserves the capacity for careful thought.

Landfill's reputation as environmentally disastrous doesn't survive scrutiny: reuse only beats single-use plastic after hundreds of washes, recycling contamination runs near 25%, and America has nearly a century of natural gas feedstock for making new bags anyway.

Widespread complaints that time is accelerating trace not to actual velocity but to a collapse in memory formation: routine, screen-mediated days generate fewer distinct memories, so retrospectively the months compress.