Harry McCracken

Two reasons why I’m not interested in letting AI ghostwrite for me:

1) Writing is how I think things through and come to conclusions.

2) Above all, I am motivated by the possibility that I have not yet written the best thing I’ll ever write.

https://www.wired.com/story/tech-reporters-using-ai-write-edit-stories/

Worst moments in American history, ranked:

1) This

I can’t begin to tell you how much fun I had talking to people who were present at Apple’s creation—Woz, of course, but so many more. I learned so much, and really did feel like I was there. So will you, I think. Here’s a gift link which you’re welcome to share: https://www.fastcompany.com/91514404/apple-founding-50th-anniversary-apple-1-apple-ii-jobs-wozniak?mvgt=E5Loo3fO74zl

Flipboard’s Surf, which I first wrote about in 2024, is finally available without an invite as a web and Android app. (iOS still has a waitlist.) It’s a wildly inventive and invigorating way to find stuff that’s actually worth reading, watching, and listening to. https://www.fastcompany.com/91520679/surf-flipboard

Very sorry to hear about the death of Aldus founder Paul Brainerd, the giant who gave us PageMaker and the desktop publishing revolution that followed. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, I used PageMaker to put together my animation fanzine, which led directly to my career in tech journalism. RIP.

All TRS-80 Videotex users were white men, and a surprising percentage were thoughtfully stroking their chins.

The memories in this story are so precious, and I’m very grateful to the 23 people who shared them. Some were teenagers when Apple was born, but most were in their 20s, 30s, or even 40s back then. https://www.fastcompany.com/91514404/apple-founding-50th-anniversary-apple-1-apple-ii-jobs-wozniak?mvgt=E5Loo3fO74zl

Never blame anything on a staffer or an intern. Particularly if you did it.

Among the things that surprised me as I interviewed people for our oral history of Apple’s origin story is that several people referred to the very young Steve Jobs doing things that are more technical than I associate with him. https://www.fastcompany.com/91514404/apple-founding-50th-anniversary-apple-1-apple-ii-jobs-wozniak?mvgt=kiimQhPOTihz

The protests at our local Tesla store continue, and now include a frog and a unicorn.

I am being told that Donald Trump’s credibility may be at risk. Possibly. As unlikely as it seems.

“The overarching goal for the X platform is to be the best source of truth in the world.”—Elon Musk

Paging Mr. False Equivalency…

I’ve never once wanted to use Siri in order to use ChatGPT. The whole idea of one AI being a gateway to another seems like an unhealthy stopgap. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-03-26/apple-plans-to-open-up-siri-to-rival-ai-assistants-beyond-chatgpt-in-ios-27

With Claude Code's help, I reimagined my high school text adventure for this century, complete with sinful luxuries like graphics, animation, and sound effects. Over at Technologizer, I wrote about the weird experience of collaborating with AI and teenage me. https://technologizer.com/home/2026/02/16/arctic-adventure-2026/

I don't think I've ever seen AI say "HOLY COW!" before.

I’m getting way more spam calls lately. At least they are in English and seem to be from actual humans. Anyone else notice an uptick?

This week’s Plugged In newsletter: I asked Claude Opus 4.6 to critique that viral blog post about AI, and was startled by how perceptive it was. https://www.fastcompany.com/91491419/matt-shumer-something-big-is-happening

Here's my Arctic Adventure 2026 game just on its own standalone page, rather than embedded in a lengthy explanation of exactly what the hell it is. https://www.arctic81.com/arctic-adventure.html

Among the Super Bowl’s many impressive qualities is that it’s managed to make driving impossible in San Francisco this whole week, despite the fact that it’s not happening for another couple of days and won’t be played here.

I wrote about Sora’s demise—I, for one, will miss it—and what it augers for OpenAI and maybe other AI companies as well. https://www.fastcompany.com/91516193/openai-sora-discontinued

About to go live on TWiT: http://live.twit.tv

I wrote about AI taking over software development in general, my experience with Claude Code in particular, and this guy named Edsger Dijkstra who thought normal people shouldn’t even try to program computers. https://www.fastcompany.com/91485494/vibe-coding-with-claude-code

That’s it, I’m convinced. https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/25/us/politics/melania-trump-robot.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share

I forgot I wrote this story, in a very different time. (Offering its CMS as a service didn’t end up bolstering the Post’s fortunes.) https://www.fastcompany.com/40495770/the-washington-post-is-a-software-company-now