The Index

The Index

Notes on tech + culture + politics. @joanwestenberg.eth

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@joanwestenberg.eth

The “AI Browser Wars” are fake. Mainstream users don't care about browsers. Never have, never will. Defaults win. The real fight is enterprise control and distribution deals. https://www.theindex.media/p/the-ai-browser-wars-don-t-matter

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@joanwestenberg.eth

Every beautiful app dies the same way: • Mailbox • Sparrow • Wunderlist • Sunrise • Arc I wrote about why in today's Index https://www.theindex.media/p/why-beautiful-apps-always-die-the-same-way

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@joanwestenberg.eth

Why Perplexity's $34.5B Chrome offer is the perfect 2025 tech stunt: 1/ They don't have the money 2/ Google won't sell 3/ The math makes no sense 4/ But the headlines are priceless https://www.theindex.media/p/perplexity-s-chrome-bid-is-a-34-5-billion-publicity-stunt-5b70ae516766912b

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@joanwestenberg.eth

Copilot is the crown jewel. GitHub is the distribution channel. Developers are the training data. https://www.theindex.media/p/github-s-neutrality-is-over-ae97e9dfba287225

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There’s a name for stories that flatter the regime: State Media. Welcome to State Math. https://www.theindex.media/p/the-future-is-certain-it-s-the-past-that-keeps-changing-2b5e37a274392b21

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@joanwestenberg.eth

When the head of a national statistics agency is fired because their numbers are inconvenient, the implication is that the numbers ought to serve the regime. This is not a problem of optics. It's a problem of function. https://www.theindex.media/p/the-future-is-certain-it-s-the-past-that-keeps-changing-2b5e37a274392b21

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@joanwestenberg.eth

This is Trump's conundrum: Once people become convinced that something is being hidden, evidence to the contrary simply confirms the concealment. The logic becomes circular: any lack of evidence is the evidence. https://www.theindex.media/p/jeffrey-epstein-and-the-collapse-of-belief-e8d6244085a7970c

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@joanwestenberg.eth

There is a reason liberty requires courage. Because it forces you to inhabit a world in which you are not always in control. Where your deepest convictions can be mocked, your values criticized, your institutions doubted. Some interpret this as a bug. Some, as a feature. The feature. https://www.theindex.media/p/liberty-is-the-right-to-be-wrong-187483bb51d5a521

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@joanwestenberg.eth

The clarity offered by purity is fragile. The border between us and them quickly narrows. The field of acceptable opinion contracts. The number of acceptable allies shrinks. And you end up eating your own. https://www.theindex.media/p/purity-tests-scale-badly-fd120fca40b32ec4

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@joanwestenberg.eth

To be born in a liberal democracy is to inherit a paradox: the freedom to denounce the very system that grants you the freedom to denounce it. https://www.theindex.media/p/nobody-has-more-contempt-for-liberal-democracy-than-people-who-ve-never-lived-without-it-e6d712655e6

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War is not a morality play. It is not written in the language of heroes and villains. It is a deplorable bureaucratic process, a strategic wager, and a human disaster. Iran may not be Iraq. But America, still, may be America. And that’s what should worry you most. https://www.theindex.media/p/iran-is-not-iraq-but-america-is-still-america-b0f4

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@joanwestenberg.eth

Polling asks what people say. Markets reveal what people believe. One collects answers. The other prices in risk. https://www.theindex.media/p/what-if-the-market-is-a-better-pollster-than-democracy

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@joanwestenberg.eth

"If a fungus can eat plastic, maybe nature will save us from ourselves." That’s the hope. And that’s the problem. The narrative replaces the responsibility. https://www.theindex.media/the-climate-crisis-needs-a-reckoning-not-a-fungus/

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You didn’t “burn out.” You adapted. To a political system that treats belief like a consumable and optimism like a liability. https://www.theindex.media/the-market-for-hope-is-in-recession/

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@joanwestenberg.eth

What looks like apathy is often risk management. What looks like disengagement is a cost-benefit calculation. I wrote about the collapse of civic belief - and why cynicism isn’t a crisis of morality. It’s a failure of systems. https://www.theindex.media/the-market-for-hope-is-in-recession/

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