20260426
#210
When hourly workers begin their day already drained, exhausted, and stressed by increasing pressures to work with understaffed teams and subject to unpredictable schedules, it’s being called ‘shift sulking‘. This goes beyond the disengagement typified by the Gen Z stare, deeper into the way the hourly jobs of today are sapping the reserves of hourly workers, especially when coupled with poly-employment: when workers have to juggle multiple jobs to make ends meet. — Work futures
People: US women 73% more likely to be severely injured in crashes as crash test dummies still aren’t built for them. Shift sulking is arriving depleted before the shift even starts.
Tech: MIT ultrasound wristband controls robotic hands, finger by finger. Pokémon Go’s 30 billion AR images training delivery robots. State of orgs in 2026.
Planet: Sudden oak death — a water-loving fungus — is jumping species and spreading beyond quarantine lines.
Geopolitics: China detained Manus AI’s founders after they sold to Meta. Japan returns combat troops to the Philippines after 81 years. China’s 5-year AI plan and global ambitions.
AI: LLMs don’t grade essays like humans. China paying people to start solo AI companies. Claude co-authored a physics paper with a Harvard physicist. Val Kilmer appearing posthumously — actors as monetisable IP.
Crafting Chaos
Martha Flicker stood in her cramped kitchen, eyes glued to the holographic screen hovering above the counter, a portal into a reality struggling to keep itself afloat amid national rivalries and tech upheavals. Today’s news blurted out headline after headline, as choppy as a third-rate sci-fi flick that had skipped its special effects budget. *Chinese AI startup relocates!* *Free apartments for solo entrepreneurs!* *Federal employees disengaged!*
She sighed, flipping a pancake that had the audacity to stick to the pan as if it had plans to escape. Honestly, the pancake was more ambitious on some days than she was. With her meager freelance gigs going belly-up and the cost of living soaring like a caffeinated kite, the idea of starting an OPC—one-person company—almost sounded appealing. After all, if China was dishing out apartments like candy at a parade, why not take a dip into that whirlwind? Unless, of course, the golden oyster had its say.*1
The golden oyster, a mushroom that was more determined to take over the ecosystem than a toddler at a cookie buffet, was still a sore topic for local environmentalists—who, if they had it their way, would be hugging trees rather than swiping right on their dating apps. Martha, not much of a mycologist herself, wondered what species might prevail if she turned her love for hand-crafting leather goods into a legitimate business venture. Perhaps a pin could sell itself by showcasing wristbands with AI-driven hand tracking to launch her designs into augmented reality—because every high-end handbag deserved to be modeled by well-tracked hands, right?*2
“Time to crank up the AI!” Martha declared, adjusting her tiny wristband that monitored her every finger movement with an intensity akin to a dog watching its owner prepare dinner. The device was less than a year old and had been a gift humorously dubbed “The Next Best Thing to Telekinesis.” While it wasn’t exactly granting her the telekinetic prowess to turn pancakes into omelettes, it did offer a snazzy display of how her hands flailed about like they were in a fight with an invisible octopus during her crafting sessions. Her trusty AI algorithm, expertly trained yet undoubtedly confused by her creative disaster, chirped vibrantly as it logged each movement, perhaps contemplating the meaning of existence through the lens of leather stitching.*3
As she pieced together a bag that admittedly resembled a deflated balloon, the doorbell buzzed—the sound jarring enough to make her drop her needle like a clumsy wizard at a wand-choosing ceremony. Outside stood a delivery person with an expression as abject as a federal employee lamenting their annual review.*4 “Package for Ms. Flicker,” they muttered, sealed with an insincere smile.
Not too long after, she unwrapped the parcel, revealing a small drone—it came with an instruction manual that was thicker than a sea monster’s diary. Tickled by its ingenuity, she grinned. “Look!” she said to the AI wristband, which probably didn’t appreciate the sudden distraction. “We could do something really revolutionary. Send prototypes to testers across the city, remote-controlled by a delightful little drone!” Because nothing could go wrong when you let unregulated drones handle your precious designs, right? Surely, they wouldn’t develop consciousness and start launching rival startups.
Over the months that followed, she found herself navigating through a landscape where AI and humans shared a dance as bewildering as all the wrong moves at a high school prom. Her embattled heart warmed at the thought—a whimsical mix of societal collapse and mushroom takeovers had birthed her newfound venture. It thrived, most likely through sheer luck or astonishing incompetence, and decided this little bag of tricks could perhaps conquer the world, or at the very least, turn a profit before the mushroom kingdom unfolded its spores.
And there Martha was, living life in a futuristic bid through chaos, armed with nothing but her cleverness, a snazzy wristband, and the idealism of a person who, against the odds, still believed it was never too late to wish upon a tax-deductible star.*5
*1: Just like high demand can sometimes lead to rising prices. Be careful where you step in the marketplace!
*2: Fashion and tech – a merger more fashionably late than most reality TV shows!
*3: Things getting fuzzy between humans and AI? Just another Tuesday at the office!
*4: Disengagement levels reaching critical lows, perhaps due to the existential dread we all face!
*5: Remember, wishing doesn’t always work, but it sure beats crying in the dark.