# iain mcgilchrist (blogs) — RSS Amplifier Recent posts from the 3 feeds in the RSS Amplifier directory that cover iain mcgilchrist. Page: Feed: --- ## [A Sloppy Interface Is a Security Liability ](https://blog.jim-nielsen.com/2026/sloppy-ui-is-security-liability/) _2026-08-20 · Jim Nielsen’s Blog_ In his talk “Why AI Is Breaking Software Security As We Know It” ( my notes here ), Feross Aboukhadijeh talks about the Axios npm incident and how the maintainer got phished by succumbing to (amongst other things) a faux Microsoft Teams interface: this is the kind of thing that AI makes easy to do, because it can vibe code that whole fake Microsoft Teams interface pretty trivially You’ve probably… ## [Review: Vilmos Csányi’s “Creative Imagination—The Evolution of Human Inventiveness”](https://bltblog.fhlfoundation.org/2026/08/18/review-vilmos-csanyis-creative-imagination-the-evolution-of-human-inventiveness/) _2026-08-18 · Rick Leonhardt · Bowlby Less Traveled (BLT)_ Hungarian ethologist (the study of animal and human behavior) Vilmos Csányi delivers a dense packet of insightful and useful information in his book Creative Imagination—The Evolution of Human Inventiveness. This is a must read for anyone interested in topics such as evolution; animal and human behavior; cultural evolution both archaic and modern; the development of \[…\] ## [Oops, Should’ve Thought of That](https://blog.jim-nielsen.com/2026/oops-shouldve-thought-of-that/) _2026-08-16 · Jim Nielsen’s Blog_ Gordon Brander writes : The thing about computers is that they can do anything you wish, so long as you specify your wish in exacting detail. However, LLMs relieve this constraint. An LLM can extrapolate what you mean (more or less) from just a few words. So computers can do vibes now. It used to be that computers could only ever do exactly what you told them to do, nothing more. If they did… ## [Oh Hey, It’s Not Just Me](https://blog.jim-nielsen.com/2026/its-not-just-me/) _2026-08-14 · Jim Nielsen’s Blog_ My whole life I’ve felt like I have great eyesight (and I still do). But lately I’ve been noticing what feels like…some slippage. Nothing big. Just this feeling in the morning like, as my brain and body wake up, my vision needs to as well. The strange novelty of this phenomenon was operating in some small part of my subconscious the other day when I was scrolling the internet and come across this… ## [The Fruits of AI](https://blog.jim-nielsen.com/2026/fruit-of-ai/) _2026-08-11 · Jim Nielsen’s Blog_ Terry Godier has a post titled “Mea culpa” (which, given his framing, might’ve been better titled “Claude’s Culpa”). I’m not sure how much to even trust anything in his post given the backstory , but this line stood out: I was careless in relying on AI \[...\] without doing the work to understand Let’s face it: carelessness is the grain of AI. It’s what the tool encourages and makes easy by default.… ## [A License to Act](https://blog.jim-nielsen.com/2026/license-to-act/) _2026-08-09 · Jim Nielsen’s Blog_ In the past, search engines and the open web granted access to other people’s knowledge but the task fell to you to synthesize an understanding from it and build a capability to act. Now with LLMs, it’s possible to build things you don’t fully understand which then require a perpetual license in order to have the capacity to maintain and modify. LLMs don’t just do things for you, they do things… ## [The AI Aesthetic](https://blog.jim-nielsen.com/2026/ai-aesthetic/) _2026-07-29 · Jim Nielsen’s Blog_ Every zeitgeist comes with new design idioms unique to its challenges. Many of them disappear as fads change, but others bake themselves into deeper parts of existing software interaction paradigms. For example, there’s the hamburger menu (≡) which saw a proliferation during the rise of mobile due to the constraints around screen size. It has since spread to many other parts of software… ## [Can the Tide of AI Investment Lift All Boats on the Web?](https://blog.jim-nielsen.com/2026/tide-lifts-all-boats/) _2026-07-27 · Jim Nielsen’s Blog_ Jason Grigsby has a great article where he surfaces an opinion from the Safari team about how AI agents shouldn’t get special treatment: An agent acting on a user’s behalf is, in effect, assistive technology : it should operate a site as the user would, and the site should not single it out for different treatment. Jason synthesizes different discussions happening at standards levels to argue, in… ## [A Rabbit Hole—Modern Attachment & Buddhist Exceptionalism](https://bltblog.fhlfoundation.org/2026/07/26/a-rabbit-hole-modern-attachment-buddhist-exceptionalism/) _2026-07-27 · Rick Leonhardt · Bowlby Less Traveled (BLT)_ Mariners wear life vests. Construction workers wear hardhats. Pilots who fly above 12,000 feet don oxygen masks. Snowboarders, downhill skiers, bike riders, and even horseback riders wear helmets. Before entering an environment that carries with it the potential for danger, it is a good idea to wear appropriate safety gear and follow appropriate safety rules \[ \] ## [Podcast Notes: Ed Catmull on David Senra](https://blog.jim-nielsen.com/2026/podcast-notes-ed-catmull/) _2026-07-24 · Jim Nielsen’s Blog_ Ed Catmull, co-founder of Pixar and former president of Disney Animation, was on the David Senra podcast and I quite enjoyed the interview. (If you like the interview, you should read his book .) Ed talks about what he considered his job to be: get the dynamics right for groups of people working together. To do this, he would pull people out of meetings, make groups smaller, make them bigger, just… ## [Snapshot Showdown on Google Play (Sponsored)](https://crawlproof.com/a/TZBnto5gKZZo) _2026-07-24 · **Sponsored**_ Available on Google Play for Android devices. ## [Make It Work vs. Make It Good](https://blog.jim-nielsen.com/2026/make-it-work-make-it-good/) _2026-07-18 · Jim Nielsen’s Blog_ There are two wolves inside of me, lol. Some days I want to be a “designer”. Other days I want to be a “developer”. On the days I find myself wanting to feed the developer, it’s often because making something “work” seems easier (and more impressive) than making something “good”. Making something function often results in a reaction of “Wow, that’s so cool! It didn’t work before and now it does!… ## [Podcast Notes: Iain McGilchrist on “The Great Simplification”](https://blog.jim-nielsen.com/2026/podcast-notes-iain-mcgilchrist/) _2026-07-16 · Jim Nielsen’s Blog_ I wish I could remember how this podcast came across my radar so I could give credit where it’s due. But alas, I cannot. It’s episode 217 with Dr. Iain McGilchrist. At one point, he shares his perspective about how science and reason can only take you so far: \[science and reason\] have their limitations. Most scientists and most philosophers are very well aware of that. Some people who are not… ## [What’s an Icon in 2026?](https://blog.jim-nielsen.com/2026/icons-as-software/) _2026-07-12 · Jim Nielsen’s Blog_ As icons continue to change across Apple’s platforms, I have thoughts. They mainly revolve around two perspectives: What I think of icons as a long-time user of Apple’s platforms. What I think of icons as a digital collector and physical archivist of icons. Let’s see if I can articulate my thoughts. Apple Recommends Making Icons With Icon Composer For “More Expressivity” In “Create icons with Icon… ## [Family Feud: Mac-assed Mac App Edition](https://blog.jim-nielsen.com/2026/mac-assed-family-feud/) _2026-07-08 · Jim Nielsen’s Blog_ “We asked 100 people: What are the top three companies on earth best positioned to make a world-class Mac-assed Mac app ?” Buzz! “Apple!” Survey says: Yes! Apple at the number one spot. Makes sense. Who better to make the very definition of a great Mac app than the people who make the Mac? No brainer, I suppose. Granted, they’ve had some misses , but nobody bats 1000. Ok, let’s keep going. “We… ## [Cozolino and Colleagues on the Three Executive Brains: Fear, Focus & Fondness](https://bltblog.fhlfoundation.org/2026/05/29/cozolino-and-colleagues-on-the-three-executive-brains-fear-focus-fondness/) _2026-05-29 · Rick Leonhardt · Bowlby Less Traveled (BLT)_ I recently downsized to a one bedroom condo. It has taken several months, however, when I now unlock and walk through my front door, I feel a sense of safety, security, and comfort. I attribute these feelings to such things as getting to know my way around the condo complex, meeting other people who live \[ \] ## [Iain McGilchrist’s The Matter with Things: A Lament for the Passing of Humanness (Pt 4)](https://bltblog.fhlfoundation.org/2026/04/19/iain-mcgilchrists-the-matter-with-things-a-lament-for-the-passing-of-humanness-pt-4/) _2026-04-20 · Rick Leonhardt · Bowlby Less Traveled (BLT)_ Hello and welcome back to part four and the final installment in this series looking at the two volume set by Iain McGilchrist entitled The Matter with Things: Our Brains, Our Delusions and the Unmaking of the World. Before we get started I d like to mention another organic principle, property, or motivation found within organic \[ \] ## [Iain McGilchrist’s The Matter with Things: A Lament for the Passing of Humanness (Pt 3)](https://bltblog.fhlfoundation.org/2026/04/05/iain-mcgilchrists-the-matter-with-things-a-lament-for-the-passing-of-humanness-pt-3/) _2026-04-06 · Rick Leonhardt · Bowlby Less Traveled (BLT)_ Welcome back to Part 3. I d like to give you a brief thumbnail sketch of organic systems theory as told by Ludwig von Bertalanffy. I m pulling this information from Bertalanffy s 1968 book entitled General System Theory: Foundations, Development, Applications. I will also pull from work by John Bowlby. As I have mentioned several times before, \[ \] ## [Iain McGilchrist’s The Matter with Things: A Lament for the Passing of Humanness (Pt 2)](https://bltblog.fhlfoundation.org/2026/03/22/iain-mcgilchrists-the-matter-with-things-a-lament-for-the-passing-of-humanness-pt-2/) _2026-03-22 · Rick Leonhardt · Bowlby Less Traveled (BLT)_ At the end of the last episode I mentioned René Descartes, a French philosopher and scientist who worked during the early to mid-1600s. You may know Descartes by his now famous pronouncement Cogito Ergo Sum (I think therefore I am). Looking at Descartes using the lens of McGilchrist s book The Matter of Things I could \[ \] ## [New Mailchimp RSS to Email Delivery](https://bltblog.fhlfoundation.org/2026/03/15/new-mailchimp-rss-to-email-delivery/) _2026-03-16 · Rick Leonhardt · Bowlby Less Traveled (BLT)_ Hello — This is just a test of the new Mailchimp RSS to Email Delivery System. If you re reading this email, then everything is a go. As mentioned in an earlier message, Mailchimp recently updated their RSS to Email Delivery System. As a result, a new automation had to be configured. Sorry for the interruption. \[ \] ## [Iain McGilchrist’s The Matter with Things: A Lament for the Passing of Humanness (Pt 1)](https://bltblog.fhlfoundation.org/2026/03/05/iiain-mcgilchrists-the-matter-with-things-a-lament-for-the-passing-of-humanness-pt-1/) _2026-03-05 · Rick Leonhardt · Bowlby Less Traveled (BLT)_ I just returned from a three-month long funeral procession. OK, not an actual procession like those that wind through the streets of New Orleans led by a jazz band. This procession was the one described by Iain McGilchrist s book The Matter with Things: Our Brains, Our Delusions, and the Unmaking of the World. McGilchrist is \[ \] ## [One platform, from silicon to agent (Sponsored)](https://crawlproof.com/a/eCRS8aoZbHqH) _2026-03-05 · **Sponsored**_ Serverless inference plus Inference Router to optimize cost and latency at scale. ## [Allan Schore—Saving Psychology (and the World) from Itself (Part II)](https://bltblog.fhlfoundation.org/2026/01/02/allan-schore-saving-psychology-and-the-world-from-itself-part-ii/) _2026-01-02 · Rick Leonhardt · Bowlby Less Traveled (BLT)_ I hope everyone had a great holiday season! Before we get started allow me to add to Allan Schore s model as I described it in Part I. Earlier I talked about how disruptions in the transfer and translation of information between right and left brains can cause psychological problems. As Allan points out, the right \[ \] ## [Allan Schore—Saving Psychology (and the World) from Itself (Part I)](https://bltblog.fhlfoundation.org/2025/12/11/allan-schore-saving-psychology-and-the-world-from-itself-part-i/) _2025-12-11 · Rick Leonhardt · Bowlby Less Traveled (BLT)_ To explicitly promote attachment theory as a guiding principle toward understanding and solving societal problems. From the early 2000s to the beginning of the 2010s our Foundation used the above mission statement to guide our grantmaking efforts. During that twelve year period we met with and supported attachment researchers from all over the country. We \[ \] ## [The Orphans of Davenport—Attachment Relationships & IQ Tests in 1930s U.S.](https://bltblog.fhlfoundation.org/2025/11/17/the-orphans-of-davenport-attachment-relationships-iq-tests-in-1930s-u-s/) _2025-11-17 · Rick Leonhardt · Bowlby Less Traveled (BLT)_ If you have spent time reading my posts over the years then you know that I often rail against the decline of public intellectualism here in the U.S. During my rants I often point to the 2001 book by Richard Posner entitled Public Intellectuals: A Study of Decline. Not long ago a geology colleague of \[ \] ## [Optimization is sucking the soul out of everything](https://jakobgreenfeld.com/anti-optimization/) _2025-06-18 · Jakob Greenfeld_ I regularly see soccer fans discuss in forums why they no longer find the game as exciting as they used to. ## [Tight Aggressive Entrepreneurship](https://jakobgreenfeld.com/tight-aggresive/) _2024-08-27 · Jakob Greenfeld_ Aspiring founders tend to fall at one of two extremes: they overanalyze and never ship anything, or they ship tons of random crap. ## [Big IDGAF Energy](https://jakobgreenfeld.com/idgaf) _2024-08-26 · Jakob Greenfeld_ No one gives a damn about Brian Armstrong's silly projects that failed. All they remember is Coinbase. ## [Purpose](https://jakobgreenfeld.com/purpose) _2024-08-26 · Jakob Greenfeld_ Without a conscious life-purpose a man is totally lost, drifting, adapting to events rather than creating events. ## [Suffering](https://jakobgreenfeld.com/suffering) _2024-08-26 · Jakob Greenfeld_ Suffering is not pain. It's a loss of agency. ## [Higher Vibrations](https://jakobgreenfeld.com/vibes) _2024-08-26 · Jakob Greenfeld_ When the vibe is off, it's off. You just know.