Simon Willison's Weblog: anil-dash

Quoting Anil Dash

2025-09-07T21:32:09+00:00

I agree with the intellectual substance of virtually every common critique of AI. And it's very clear that turning those critiques into a competition about who can frame them in the most scathing way online has done zero to slow down adoption, even if much of that is due to default bundling.

At what point are folks going to try literally any other tactic than condescending rants? Does it matter that LLM apps are at the top of virtually every app store nearly every day because individual people are choosing to download them, and the criticism hasn't been effective in slowing that?

— Anil Dash

Tags: anil-dash, ai, generative-ai, llms, ai-ethics

What does a board of directors do?

2024-12-12T22:15:43+00:00

What does a board of directors do?

Extremely useful guide to what life as a board member looks like for both for-profit and non-profit boards by Anil Dash, who has served on both.

Boards can range from a loosely connected group that assembled on occasion to indifferently rubber-stamp what an executive tells them, or they can be deeply and intrusively involved in an organization in a way that undermines leadership. Generally, they’re somewhere in between, acting as a resource that amplifies the capabilities and execution of the core team, and that mostly only helps out or steps in when asked to.

The section about the daily/monthly/quarterly/yearly responsibilities of board membership really helps explain the responsibilities of such a position in detail.

Don't miss the follow-up Q&A post.

Tags: anil-dash, entrepreneurship, governance

“Link In Bio” is a slow knife

2024-05-12T14:15:41+00:00

“Link In Bio” is a slow knife

Anil Dash writing in 2019 about how Instagram’s “link in bio” thing (where users cannot post links to things in Instagram posts or comments, just a single link field in their bio) is harmful for linking on the web.

Today it’s even worse. TikTok has the same culture, and LinkedIn and Twitter both algorithmically de-boost anything with a URL in it, encouraging users to share screenshots (often unsourced) rather than linking to content and reducing their distribution.

It’s gross.

Via @mhoye

Tags: anil-dash, linkedin, links, social-media, twitter, tiktok

“Wherever you get your podcasts” is a radical statement

2024-02-09T05:18:21+00:00

“Wherever you get your podcasts” is a radical statement

Anil Dash points out that podcasts are one of the few cases where the dream really did work out:

“[...] what it represents is the triumph of exactly the kind of technology that’s supposed to be impossible: open, empowering tech that’s not owned by any one company, that can’t be controlled by any one company, and that allows people to have ownership over their work and their relationship with their audience.”

Tags: anil-dash, podcasts, rss, web-standards

Quoting Anil Dash

2018-05-07T13:28:51+00:00

Somebody should write up how the early-2000s push for open standards and the Web Standards Project’s advocacy are a major factor in why Apple was able to create its enormously valuable comeback. Put another way, one of the killer moments of the first iPhone demo was Jobs saying it had the “real” web, not the “baby” web, by demonstrating the NYT homepage. That would’ve been IE-only & Windows-only if not for effective advocacy from the web standards community.

— Anil Dash

Tags: anil-dash, apple, web-standards, web-standards-project

Quoting Anil Dash

2009-11-18T09:38:20+00:00

It's clear that, even those who are privileged by access and wealth and the ability to amplify their own voices have anticipated that we'll all be disenfranchised by the private companies that own and control our networks of communication. And yet, most of our effort and ambition in the technology industry are not going towards building for the open web.

— Anil Dash

Tags: anil-dash, openweb

The Pushbutton Web: Realtime Becomes Real

2009-07-24T18:30:01+00:00

The Pushbutton Web: Realtime Becomes Real

Anil Dash is excited by the potential for PubSubHubBub and Webhooks to make near-real-time scalable event publishing accessible to regular web developers. So am I.

Tags: anil-dash, pubsubhubbub, pushbutton, realtime, realtimeweb, webhooks

Exclusive: The Future of Facebook Usernames

2009-06-11T09:46:15+00:00

Exclusive: The Future of Facebook Usernames

I have to admit I was planning to just let Facebook get on with it, assuming that the OpenID provider part would show up of its own accord—but maybe I should write a thoughtful and persuasive essay about it after all.

Tags: anil-dash, facebook, funny, openid, urls

Quoting Anil Dash

2008-06-26T17:17:30+00:00

Bill Gates has pulled off one of the greatest hacks in technology and business history, by turning Microsoft's success into a force for social responsibility. Imagine imposing a tax on every corporation in the developed world, collecting $100 per white-collar worker per year, and then directing one third of the proceeds to curing AIDS and malaria.

— Anil Dash

Tags: aids, anil-dash, bill-gates, hacks, malaria, microsoft, philanthropy

Quoting Anil Dash

2007-11-02T06:49:37+00:00

But here's the thing: Regular people on the web love Snap previews. I know you don't believe it - I didn't want to believe it. But it's completely true. In the testing and feedback I've seen, it's some emotional pull about the fact that links "do something" now, instead of just being on the page.

— Anil Dash

Tags: anil-dash, annoyances, livejournal, snap, snappreviews, usability

Cats Can Has Grammar

2007-04-24T02:02:53+00:00

Cats Can Has Grammar

Anil Dash gives lolcats the analysis they deserve.

Tags: anil-dash, lolcats

Office 2007 is the Bravest Upgrade Ever

2006-06-20T08:11:22+00:00

Office 2007 is the Bravest Upgrade Ever

Anil Dash likes the ribbon. It’s definitely one heck of a risky move.

Tags: anil-dash

Anil Dash: Microsoft *nix

2004-01-19T23:06:01+00:00

Anil Dash: Microsoft *nix

What if Microsoft shipped “Linux for Windows”?

Tags: anil-dash

Blogmarks

2003-11-24T00:52:16+00:00

This entry was going to be another list of links, together with a note about how much I really needed to set up a separate link blog. Then I realised that it would make more sense just to set one up so that's exactly what I've done. I still need to implement the archive but it's getting dark so I'm posting this and heading home.

My main points of inspiration were Paul Hammond's bookmark store, Mark Pilgrim's b-links, Anil Dash's Daily Links and Jason Kottke's Remaindered Links. Since there didn't seem to be any naming convention I decided to call them blogmarks, which isn't a new term but doesn't seem to have a widely accepted meaning yet either.

The system is powered by a simple bookmarklet. To make things a little more interesting I'm capturing the referral information and using it to automatically generate the 'via' link; since the title of the previous page isn't available in Javascript I extract is using a server side script instead. I swayed briefly between using page extracts a la Hammond or sarcastic commentary a la Pilgrim and decided that commentary would be far more fun.

Tags: anil-dash, blogging, jason-kottke, mark-pilgrim, paul-hammond, site-upgrades

The Google Browser

2003-07-17T11:09:14+00:00

Anil Dash suggests Google should start sponsoring the Mozilla project, and use it as a basis for releasing their own browser. He makes a very good case:

Firebird is, finally, a usable browser, and damn close to the being the best in the world, if it isn't already. Google's shown the ability to get an installable client onto millions of desktops around the world. And they have a user experience focus that would nicely shore up the critical weakness that's dogged Mozilla from day one. If the goal is now organizing and presenting information instead of just being the best search engine, then a browser client focused on information retrieval, search, and management is a great first step. And I'd give them better than even odds at being able to grow that application into a full microcontent client if they were so inclined.

The Google toolbar is a runaway success, but could a Google browser be nearly as popular? Google seem to be in the ideal position to launch a browser: they are one of the most popular and trusted brands on the internet, and have a reputation for usability which fits brilliantly with the focus of the Firebird browsers. Mozilla advocates such as myself have long bemoaned the fact that far better browsers exist which the IE using public are completley unaware of. Google have the marketing coverage and the influence to help them discover the alternatives.

What's in it for Google? Anil suggests built in hooks to Google's services and APIs, evolving in to a fully fledged microcontent client. I think the biggest advantage is the huge boost a well promoted alternative browser would give to the overall health of the internet. Without competition to drive it forward IE has stagnated, and the web has stopped moving forward. Introduce "Firebird, Google edition" to the mix and things suddenly get interesting again.

Oh, and just think of the cool things Google could do with XUL.

Further Thoughts (updated 11:27am)

With Microsoft's recent announcements that they plan to compete seriously with Google in the search market, this idea becomes even more relevant. Microsoft have a history of using the dominance in one area to win market share in another (they are after all a convicted monopoly). If they're planning a big push on Microsoft Search you can bet they'll use Internet Explorer to help them get it - it already defaults to searching MSN if you enter words straight in to the location bar. If IE retains its market dominance, Google will be competing on Microsoft's turf, and MS don't have a very good history of playing fair. With their own cross-platform browser, Google will be in a far stronger tactical position.

Tags: anil-dash

Anil Dash on diamonds

2003-01-21T21:26:33+00:00

Anil Dash: Diamonds are for never. A thoroughly entertaining and educating rant about the Diamond industry. Some day I hope to be this articulate.

Tags: anil-dash

Syndication is not publication

2002-11-28T23:24:46+00:00

Mark Pilgrim pretty much single handedly killed the discussion thread on syndicating weblog content with XHTML started a few days ago by Anil Dash. Stuart's reply to Mark's post is definitely worth a read though.

Tags: anil-dash, mark-pilgrim

Syndicating blogs with XHTML

2002-11-24T22:01:25+00:00

Anil Dash suggests using structured XHTML as a blog syndication format. Scott Andrew points out that this has semantic problems in that it would mean using the class attribute to add additional meaning to a document. I was going to say that this would be an ideal opportunity to mix different namespaces in one XML document (as described by Lachlan Cannon) but techno-weenie beat me to it.

Tags: anil-dash, xhtml

Anil Dash does Amazon

2002-06-15T21:11:15+00:00

Anil Dash provides a copy of Amazon's home page in HTML 4.0 Transitional, and it validates. Solid proof that you can rewrite a complex ecommerce site in valid HTML, and another victory for the web standards movement.

Tags: anil-dash