@droneevtol @danobrien20 This Hong Kong?
Cage Homes, Hong Kong, Picture: by Alex Hofford (cited in: Thomas, 2009). | Download Scientific Diagram share.google/Q2HNQHx6CO4I1r…
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Dermot O'Shea
221 posts
Data data everywhere.
It’s interesting to consider in 1960s Hong Kong, John Cowperthwaite slashed taxes & deliberately limited official economic data. He knew bureaucrats & politicians would twist the stats into demands for subsidies, planning & interventions that distort markets. They had explosive organic growth, low taxes, no heavy meddling.
Ireland has 20%/40% income tax & USC up to 8% & PRSI ~4.35%. We have record revenues and high levels of meddling by politicians and civil setvice and many feel poor value in services & infrastructure. That is the reality, call it the vibe.
So maybe the data is not on point, you reference, the outliner did look rather too much of an outlier, but spending other peoples money on other people means little to no accountability.
Abundant data fuels exactly the “remedies” Cowperthwaite feared, which is more spending, higher burden, weaker outcomes.
It would be good to try his way. Lower taxes, less data, and more freedom to deliver better results. Currently Ireland is diametrically off that trajectory.
Markets self-correct faster than planners.
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Why this chart is wrong.
Five metrics are used to measure 'infrastructure and public services', as per the first image, which shows Ireland to be a total outlier.
Start with public capital spending as share of total govt expenditure. (Unfortunately) rich world governments spend only single digit percentages of total government expenditure on capital spending. As it happens, Ireland has the highest share in western Europe. The actual Eurostat data are charted in the second image.
What about doctor density? Unlike public expenditure, where I'd claim some expertise, I'm certainly not an expert in health economics. But I've spent enough time looking at the numbers over the years to know that Ireland is not an outlier in the number of doctors it has relative population. Even the OECD healthcare at a glance report that is referenced as a source shows that. The table from the report is the third image.
Finally, Ireland has almost no electrified rail. These figures seem correct, but is the energy source of your rail system indicative of the quality of overall infrastructure? I'd argue no, but that's a judgement call.
So, two of the five metrics are completely wrong and the inclusion of a third (which happens to show Ireland by far the worst performer in west Europe) is questionable.
Sinéad O’Sullivan@SineadOS1
The protests in Ireland are not about just fuel! They are about the distance between Ireland on this graph and every other modern and developed economy. Ireland is second wealthiest but gets waaaaay less than any other country for that wealth. By a golden mile. That visual gap in this graph? That’s what people are protesting. It’s a lack of infrastructure and the everyday enshittification of services, the economy, and the additional difficulty of trying to live, relative to peers in any other country. It also highlights why people don’t get uniformly listened to! - because there is no government architecture to engage meaningfully across this huge gap. That gap is a three hour drive to work in traffic, a 14 month wait for an MRI, buses that don’t arrive, trains that don’t exist, schools that have no places for your kids, houses that are unaffordable, pubs that close before midnight, €12 sandwiches, expensive fuel. People feel this gap, even if they can’t explain it precisely. And that builds into resentment, and ultimately protest. Fuel just happened to be the next thing that could be pointed to, today.
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@WithyGrove @ValaAfshar Where I live in Kildare, honesty boxes are the norm.
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@ValaAfshar What happened to ‘honesty boxes’ in Ireland. Sad. 😞
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You can find fresh farm free range eggs vending machines in Ireland 🥚
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Keir Starmer gets a round of applause in Munich as he says
“We are not the Britain of the Brexit years anymore.”
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@GTCost Burglars will now be able to turn stolen jewellery into cash with anonymity.
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What a way to gamble... right?
Las Vegas Locally 🌴@LasVegasLocally
Coming soon to Las Vegas casinos: an ATM that melts down your gold jewelry at 2200°F, verifies the purity and weight, and then transfers the value (minus fees) to your bank account. This will devastate the local pawn shop industry.
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Tommy’s second guest tonight is neurologist and writer Dr Suzanne O'Sullivan. Watch live now on @RTEOne or stream on @RTEplayer: rte.ie/player/onnow #TommyTiernanShow
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Dermot O'Shea retweetledi
RETWEET if you stand with the Obamas against Trump’s racist attacks!
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@saloreilly Beware The Streisand Effect. 🤭
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streisand…
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The lack of understanding of the GDPR and drone rules in Ireland is hilarious.
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@KROPKA1111 @mcgillmd921 @JamesLucasIT No, they are not the same place. The one on the left is the library in my old college and is very much intact. Mind you, it is only frequented by tourists these days. The Book of Kells is on exhibition there. visittrinity.ie/book-of-kells-…
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@CallumMacClark @easyJet It's okay Callum, we've got your back. 🇪🇺 (AI generated answer) "A UK passenger on a flight from England (UK) to the Netherlands (EU) is covered by the full set of EU air passenger rights (EC Regulation 261/2004) in the event of a cancellation.
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Seems like @easyJet have completely given up on customer service. Flight to Amsterdam cancelled, didn't receive an email. Travelled to airport and now the next flight is Wednesday. Not one easyJet employee at Gatwick so now on can help us. They just say "use the chat". Go to chat app, at it just tells us to phone a number that is closed.
You'd think easyJet would have one single employee in the entire airport who can help
Hookwood, South East 🇬🇧 English
@RituWithAI @justinskycak 'We need to normalize "Mental Soreness" as a sign of growth.' Please, may I steal that sentence? Mental soreness, luv it!
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Modern ed-tech tries to gamify learning to give you that cheap dopamine hit (badges, streaks, bright colors) because it keeps you addicted. But real learning—the kind that rewires your brain—is high-friction. If you aren't feeling resistance, you probably aren't building muscle. We need to normalize "Mental Soreness" as a sign of growth.
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Many students are sold a lie that learning should feel pleasurable, and when that's not their experience, the cognitive dissonance eats them alive.
It's like someone signs up for strength & conditioning at a gym and the trainer tells them that they should feel pleasure doing pushups, sprints, deadlifts, etc. Or like a nutritionist saying "you should enjoy the taste of broccoli." Completely alienating.
What a good trainer will say is "Yes, it feels taxing, and that's okay, that's normal. Our goal here is not pleasure, it's satisfaction -- making progress, doing things you weren't able to do before, feeling good about what you've accomplished, transforming yourself in ways that are beneficial for your future. You're here to work, so let's do work."
People respect that, and there's a kind of comfort in knowing that we're all here to do serious work. Whether it's the gym or the classroom, that's what people need to hear.
Justin Skycak@justinskycak
The most hard-hitting 2 sentences in all of talent development research:
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What are some books you’re planning on reading in 2026?
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Dermot O'Shea retweetledi
Happy December! 🌲Against All Odds & two-thirds Govt Majority -My Disability Rights (Misc Provisions) Bill 2023 Passed All 5 Stages in Seanad -If Enacted in Dáil this Law will Transform the Legal Rights of #Disabled Irish Citizens -Source: Irish Legal News share.google/QS9zcSmhycZUiG…
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@DonaldClark @C_Hendrick Yes, agreed. Callum with his Dutch colleagues Saskia and Sanne tease it out well with John Helmer on The Learning Hack Podcast. I've directed lots of people to the podcast, and all with no exceptions have found it highly informative. youtu.be/9K80mrjRSQE?si…
YouTube
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@doshea_pds @C_Hendrick A combination of what AI tells us, internal documents and SMEs works but needs to be synthesised. AI often trumps all else, saving huge amounts of time and cost. Use SMEs not to 'create' but 'validate'.
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ChatGPT for teachers has launched. A landing page has a series of suggested tasks such as curriculum planning, reviewing work with a rubric. I'd like to see a robust study on the the following:
1. Does it actually save time? Measure the time it takes to prompt and edit the AI output versus creating materials from scratch. Does the "correction time" (fixing hallucinations or generic filler) negates the initial speed advantage?
2. What do teachers lose in terms of subject and pedagogical knowledge when they don't plan curriculum and lessons themselves?
2. Have experienced teachers review lesson plans and rubrics without knowing if they were created by a human or AI. (There have already been studies like this)
3. Feed the model student work with known subtle errors and known correct answers. Evaluate if the AI catches the actual mistakes or if it "hallucinates" errors that don't exist.
chatgpt.com/use-cases/high…
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@DonaldClark @C_Hendrick Yes. Extracting knowledge from a SME is a painful process. The "unconscious nature of knowledge" requires a lot of 'work-around'. Thankfully, AI helps take the drudgery out of this process. Like recording interviews with "top performers" and have AI process the transcripts.
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@C_Hendrick On 3) AI will have a lot of the common errors, to which teachers can add. Experts often have this as 'tacit' knowledge & can't express them. Take three teachers, get them to list them & you'll get three different lists. We use AI first, then AI to synthesise & spot contradictions
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people overcomplicate digital products way too much.
they think they need a 10-hour course, a massive following, or some secret guru strategy to start.
then they get stuck “perfecting” everything - new logo, fancy funnel, endless tweaks - and never actually launch.
truth is, it’s not that deep.
all you really need is:
a solid niche people already spend money in,
maybe some basic ai tools to speed things up,
and one reliable traffic source.
no team. no investors. no fancy setup.
just execution.
I broke down the full process - how to build, launch, and sell your first digital product - step-by-step inside a free PDF.
Repost, Like, and Comment “SEND” and I’ll DM it to you personally.
(must be following to receive.)
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@DonaldClark The sooner they can do the garden, the sooner I'm in!
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Consumer robot adoption will most likely follow the 'Crossing th chasm model from the 90s... but price point will make earlier percentages lower...
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