I’ve been mulling over a discussion I stumbled across recently about workplace flexibility and whether certain groups get preferential treatment. It’s one of those topics that really gets under my skin because it touches on something fundamental about fairness in the workplace – and frankly, it’s a conversation that’s long overdue.

The situation described was painfully familiar: a company with a rigid five-day office mandate that offers “exemptions” for flexible work arrangements. But here’s the kicker – those exemptions seem to follow an unwritten hierarchy. Parents? Approved without question. Pet owners? Not a chance. Someone wanting flexible hours to pursue a master’s degree? “Can you postpone your plans?”

I stumbled across an interesting workplace dilemma online recently that really got me thinking. Someone had been offered a choice between 10 extra days of annual leave (that doesn’t expire and can be cashed out) or an ongoing 0.5% superannuation increase. They were earning around $180k and genuinely torn about which option to take.

The responses were fascinating and really highlighted how differently people value time versus money. The mathematical minds quickly jumped in with calculations - the leave being worth about $6,920 if cashed out versus the super contribution of $900 annually. On paper, it seems like a no-brainer, right? Take the leave, cash it out if needed, and you’re significantly ahead financially in the short term.

Been scrolling through some tech discussions lately, and there’s one topic that keeps popping up that’s got me both fascinated and a bit concerned. The latest AI power grab - literally. We’re talking about companies racing to build data centers that consume more electricity than entire countries. One terawatt of power. That’s roughly a third of global energy usage, just for training AI models.

The comparison that really stuck with me was someone pointing out that the smartest human brain on the planet runs on about 100 watts. Meanwhile, we’re building these massive computational behemoths that could power small nations, all in the pursuit of artificial intelligence that might - might - be as clever as that 100-watt human brain.

Well, here’s something I never thought I’d write: I find myself nodding along with the Pope. Pope Leo’s recent declaration that AI technology is “an empty, cold shell that will do great damage to what humanity is about” has been doing the rounds online, and frankly, it’s got me thinking about the uncomfortable parallels between tech evangelism and religious fervor.

The irony isn’t lost on me. Here I am, someone who’s spent decades in IT and DevOps, someone who generally leans towards science over religion, finding common ground with the Vatican. But when you strip away the religious context, what Pope Leo is essentially saying is that we’re creating false idols – and in the tech world, that hits uncomfortably close to home.

Been scrolling through some discussions about Microsoft’s CEO expressing concerns that AI might destroy the entire company, and honestly, it’s got me thinking about the bizarre state of corporate anxiety we’re living through right now. Here’s a bloke running one of the world’s largest tech companies, worth hundreds of billions, and he’s kept awake at night worrying about being made obsolete by the very technology his company is aggressively pushing.

There’s something oddly satisfying about finding the perfect intersection of quality and value when grocery shopping. Recently, I stumbled across a fascinating analysis someone had done comparing basil pesto across the major supermarkets, and it got me thinking about our relationship with convenience foods and the art of budget shopping.

The breakdown was impressive in its thoroughness - they’d calculated not just the price per 100g, but the actual basil content per dollar spent. Aldi’s Remano brand came out on top at 36 grams of basil per dollar, while Coles’ Cucina Matese offered the best texture despite being pricier. It reminded me of the kind of meticulous comparison shopping my mum used to do, armed with a calculator and a notebook, back when every dollar mattered even more than it does now.

Well, this is it then. The moment we’ve all been dreading has finally arrived. Discord users across Australia are waking up to those lovely age verification screens, complete with the cheerful promise that your personal information will be “used for verification and then deleted.”

Right. And I’m the Queen of England.

The whole thing has me absolutely ropeable, to be honest. Here we have a law that was supposedly designed to “protect the children” but in practice is creating a surveillance state that would make George Orwell blush. The government has essentially outsourced identity verification to private companies – many of them foreign-owned – and we’re expected to just trust that they’ll do the right thing with our most sensitive data.

Sometimes the internet can be a pretty bleak place. Between the endless political arguments, the rage-bait headlines, and the general sense that everyone’s shouting past each other, it’s easy to lose faith in humanity. But then you stumble across something that restores your belief in the fundamental goodness of people.

I came across a post recently from someone facing one of those situations that would test anyone’s limits. Their mother-in-law, who is blind and lives semi-independently, had a medical emergency that resulted in a bathroom covered in blood and diarrhea. The poor woman couldn’t see what had happened, so she didn’t realise the extent of the mess when she tried to clean up. Now she’s in hospital getting the care she needs, but someone still had to deal with the aftermath.

Spotted an interesting discussion online yesterday about the Barbie Café at Chadstone’s social quarter, and it’s got me thinking about one of those modern retail practices that really gets under my skin. Someone noticed they’re operating as card-only but still slapping a surcharge on every transaction - which, if you know anything about ACCC rules, sounds dodgy as hell.

Here’s the thing that frustrates me: we’ve somehow normalised being nickel-and-dimed at every turn. Remember when businesses absorbed their operating costs into their prices like civilised establishments? Now it’s all “convenience fees,” “service charges,” and my personal favourite - surcharges on payment methods that are literally your only option.

I’ve been following the discussion around Meta’s Ray-Ban smart glasses with growing unease, and frankly, I’m baffled by how casually we’re all accepting what amounts to a massive expansion of surveillance technology into our daily lives. While tech reviewers gush about the convenience and cool factor, we’re sleepwalking into a world where privacy becomes even more of a distant memory.

The fundamental issue here isn’t about the person wearing these glasses - it’s about everyone else around them. This represents a complete shift from the usual “don’t like it, don’t buy it” consumer choice argument. When someone walks into a café on Collins Street wearing these things, everyone in that space becomes a potential data point for Meta’s algorithms, whether they consented to it or not.