Monthly Roundup #46: September 2026

In the September 2026 installment of his monthly roundup, Zvi Mowshowitz states that AI has taken over his blog, that he has moved to seven posts per week and still cannot keep up, and that the monthly roundup remains a tradition he continues.

Mowshowitz writes that Alibaba uses a computer's audio system, among other tricks, to at least try to assign a device fingerprint. He also notes that TSPI's polling was, in his words, outright fraud, with their explanation fully AI generated, and says it is a shame this is not treated as criminal.

Citing a survey, he writes that only about half of all psychology professors said, when asked to pick, that they put social equity concerns before truth, while the rest are overwhelmingly "it's complicated." He mentions a gender divide but says neither that nor the framing is the story.

He quotes a discussion between shellac! in the bay! and Aprii about the meaning of telling someone "skill issue," distinguishing between telling someone versus describing something as one. He also quotes __eloïse__ on the "curse of a good trait," and responds that intelligence, consideration and rizz raise access to others possessing those traits.

Mowshowitz says he agrees with David Perell that it is sad that making a variety of things beautiful was once a priority and now they are merely made functional, pointing to architecture and to Ted Gioia's work on beauty in everyday life. He quotes Matthew Yglesias on "Woke 1," including that people who avoided saying false things were still scared into silence.

Other items include spending lessons about choking on outrageous prices and focusing on absolute rather than percentage price differences, Daniel Pink's four elements of an effective break as relayed by How I Write Clips, a quoted endorsement of a device for insect bites, and discussion of rationalist social norms such as walking away from conversations. He notes the University of Michigan robotics curriculum is on GitHub, and quotes an announcement of Inkhaven 3 with $2,000 admission and housing from $1,500.