The Golden Era of PaaS is Still Here

I’m playing around with trying to, I don’t know, re-introduce the notion of PaaS to the platform discussion. I don’t think what’s going on now is as good as it could be. I mean, yeah, I’m biased. But, you know, also biased to awesome.

As you may recall from last episode, I cleaned my desk. You can see that in action here. My audio there was crap, but I wanted to get onto my weekend. Subsequently, I got a bunch of new audio gear.

You get the AI you deserve

Looking at the recent skepticism and elusive ROI for enterprise AI (see some links below!), here’s three theoretic takes from me over on my weblog. Plus, one of Andrew’s best PowerPoint-jokes.

Relevant to your interests

• OpenAI is looking for a head of ads for ChatGPT - “Sources say that Simo has recently been meeting with potential candidates, including some of her former Facebook colleagues, to lead a new team that will be tasked with bringing ads to ChatGPT. The role will oversee all monetization efforts across OpenAI, including subscriptions.”

• Workslop: bad ‘study’, but an excellent word - They call bullshit on that HBR study on “workslop.” But, rightly so, they love the term and agree with the existence of said workslop.

• AEO for YouTube: How to Get Your Videos Cited by ChatGPT - Doing SEO for the LLMs so that your content can be found.

• Enterprise AI Looks Bleak, But Employee AI Looks Bright - I think a take-away is: AI ROI accruing to individuals, not the enterprise as a whole. This must drive executives crazy. Is that some kind of digital Marxist thing?

• 🤖 “Gen AI seems so simple, right?” Think again, advises Accenture CEO Julie Sweet - Accenture’s CEO explains why generative AI is deceptively complex, detailing why scaling AI is less about tech and more about organizational reinvention.

• [2509.13348] Towards an AI-Augmented Textbook - Adapting/changing textbooks to match learning style. // This is an additive use of AI: you’re not replacing humans, you’re doing more work that they humans couldn’t do.

• The Professionalism Trap - ‘I think the level of quality that everything has these days, every image, every website, every song, every video also has downsides. It defining the “norm”, the expectation we have from one another has two main issues that keep irritating me.’

• It isn’t your imagination: Google Cloud is flooding the zone - ”nine out of the top 10 AI labs use Google’s infrastructure. He also says that nearly all generative AI unicorns run on Google Cloud, that 60% of all GenAI startups worldwide have chosen Google as their cloud provider, and that the company has lined up $58 billion in new revenue commitments over the next two years, which represents more than double its current annual run rate.”

• my “shopping” note keeps me from buying dumb shit all the time - Instead of actually impulse buying, put it on a list to get that dopamine hit. // “for the past year and a half i have been keeping a plain note (it started as an apple note but now i use obsidian) titled “shopping” that i’ve built a habit of opening any time i want something i see online”

• 🤖 Magical systems thinking - Works in Progress Magazine - Explores why complex systems resist top-down control, why incremental evolution beats master planning, and how public and private successes emerge from small, working systems.

• 🤖 The Last Days Of Social Media - Explores the decay of algorithm-driven social media and imagines a future of smaller, intentional, and civic-minded online spaces. // Let’s hope so!

Wastebook

• “audio-first creators” Descript release notes.

• “Our parenting hack of the year so far is having cut vegetables ready at the table when our kids get home from school. The percentage of vegetables consumed is up like 10x” Good tokens 2025–09–26.

• “The Concorde was fast, but not that fast. It could go from New York to Paris in just over 3 hours. The starry-eyed futurists of the song could be forgiven for expecting things to get even better. But even when oil prices were cheap, it was just too expensive to run, so we gave up on that dream, and now are lucky to travel that distance in 7 hours.” // Boooo! Commentary on “I.G.Y.”

• “Very often, you need great audiences to have great art.” Tyler.

• And at, don’t sweat the small stuff: “people judge things at the margin, right? In a friendship, or marriage, or if you have co-founders. At the margin, am I getting what I want? And, getting out of that mindset is very difficult.”

• “Juice Jacking” is a problem.

• “How many $18 glasses of natural wine can you drink while friends relay the latest upsetting news they gleaned from X, Instagram, and TikTok…” the new lost generation

Conferences

Civo Navigate London, September 30th, London, speaking. Cloud Foundry Day EU, Frankfurt, October 7th, 2025, speaking. AI for the Rest of Us, London, October 15th to 16th, London, speaking. SREDay Amsterdam, November 7th, speaking.

I’ve got a 20% off discount for AI for the Rest of Us: SDI20. You should go the conference if you can, it’ll be good!

Logoff

This probably isn’t the first time there’s been an Tim & Eric reference in corporate content, but it’s the first time I’ve slipped one in.