Jack Yan: the Persuader Blog

Keeping the humanity, because tech is coming for it

Jack Yan & Associates — Sun, 02 Aug 2026 07:57:50 +0000

I’ve had this bookmarked for some time: ‘Facebook allegedly detected when teen girls deleted selfies so it could serve them beauty ads’, in Futurism, and it’s not just Sarah Wynn-Williams saying this. The Murdoch Press, which commendably has done its share of exposés on Big Tech, ‘alleged that the company had crafted a pitch deck [...]

The reason for having a personal Instagram is to know who to block

Jack Yan & Associates — Sat, 01 Aug 2026 00:18:15 +0000

I recently popped into my old Instagram—which I haven’t touched regularly since the start of the decade—to find that Meta, as usual, changed all the privacy settings in the advertisers’ favour and without my consent. This is the norm for the company: even back in the 2000s I used to say the only reason for [...]

‘I am the death of real’

Jack Yan & Associates — Wed, 29 Jul 2026 04:14:00 +0000

Meta’s Facebook and Instagram have been filled with bots for years. When I used Facebook personally, it was already bot city, and the last time I did a calculation on its user base, I seem to recall half was bot. I’m betting it’s more now, the same with Instagram. And we need to add one [...]

Covering 38 years in an hour with Austin Holmes on OverPressure

Jack Yan & Associates — Tue, 07 Jul 2026 12:43:08 +0000

Absolutely thrilled that my friend Austin Holmes has uploaded our OverPressure podcast interview on to YouTube—and what a joy to find that this was one of his favourites! I cover my type design career, publishing, branding, and some of the stories that I’ve never shared before, within the contexts of entrepreneurship, leadership, and service. [...]

There’s one US export I wish they wouldn’t peddle

Jack Yan & Associates — Sat, 04 Jul 2026 14:47:56 +0000

It’s very easy to get the impression that US Big Tech is fundamentally dishonest. Examples abound. Its politicians seem dead keen on balkanizing the place, so on public and private fronts, the image the US projects is decaying and untrustworthy. Words like honour and integrity mean little when everything about that level of the US [...]

A Curlie-influenced web is starting to happen

Jack Yan & Associates — Thu, 02 Jul 2026 03:45:55 +0000

I had an idea last year about getting rid of the junk in search engine results, and that was to link them to Curlie, which effectively succeeded the old Open Directory Project (Dmoz, Newhoo, Gnuhoo, and other names). Curlie isn’t funded anywhere nearly as well as ODP, but something like it is actually fundamental to [...]

Sixteen years on, farewell to WordPress’s Akismet plug-in

Jack Yan & Associates — Sat, 27 Jun 2026 11:06:17 +0000

Akismet, which I’ve used since 2010, spat the dummy in the last 24 hours and the WordPress sites that used my API key were bombarded with spam. Akismet has enshittified, leaving only a very narrow bunch of sites where you can use it for free—completely unlike the early days. Unfortunately, they chose to suspend my [...]

Making something out of nothing

Jack Yan & Associates — Fri, 26 Jun 2026 13:12:45 +0000

I have admittedly taken a softer line on some “AI” gen since our clients use it, and combined with our awareness of how desktop publishing unfolded, and where Medinge Group’s own thinking is heading, in line with our ongoing work into conscious organizations, there is a space for it. You’ve noticed my covering it more [...]

Copy editing: human 1, bot 0

Jack Yan & Associates — Sat, 13 Jun 2026 13:42:35 +0000

One of the team used “AI” to ensure her copy was in line with our house style, namely the OUP one, using Hart’s Rules. I thought that sounded harmless enough so I ran some copy through it to see. Here is my side of the exchange, with censored words where appropriate. The responses from the [...]

I remember back to when I was nine months old, doesn’t everyone?

Jack Yan & Associates — Fri, 12 Jun 2026 11:04:12 +0000

In my last post, I mentioned a memoir that only three people have copies of, in various states of completion. In there, I devote about eight pages to infant memories that I had between nine months (or thereabouts) and five years, as they probably did impact on at least one decision I made in business. [...]