Author: Antony Mayfield

I'm Antony Mayfield - to find out more about me take a look at my LinkedIn profile (see the button on the home page). You can contact me by email at antony [dot] mayfield [at] gmail [dot] com.

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Friday’s Lies

Friday is lie day, it appears. In an article in The Economist, “Lie Detector”, we learn about Demaskuok, a Lithuanian tool developed to spot fake news, a much larger problem there because of the intensity of its information war with Russia. The tool spots fake news story candidates for analysis by humans by looking for…… Continue reading Friday’s Lies

Fresh metaphors, please

Words and phrases that may have meant something once, in Cannes “Madame, all our words from loose using have lost their edge…” — Death in The Afternoon, by Ernest Hemingway Hemingway, as usual, hit the thing on the head. When words get used too often, their usefulness erodes. Sometimes we call that jargon. Or cliché.…… Continue reading Fresh metaphors, please

A horrifying version of us

The idea of “personal brand” seems to be resurgent. Ten years ago, when I wrote Me and My Web Shadow it was a thing – but then seemed to fade from conversation. I avoided using the term; reputation is a much more useful idea to focus on for individuals – it is something you can affect…… Continue reading A horrifying version of us

Old rules no longer apply

Kraft Heinz became the deal where Warrent Buffet’s old rules for investment came unstuck. The FT reported on Monday this week: Kraft Heinz shares dived nearly 30 per cent on Friday after it took a $15bn writedown, cut its dividend payout and disclosed it was the subject of a probe by the Securities and Exchange…… Continue reading Old rules no longer apply

Synthetic media: be as afraid as you ever were

Synthetic media is a term I’d not come across before hearing about Google’s paper on fighting disinformation that was published this week. It describes those eerily realistic images and video generated through artificial intelligence (AI) or machine learning (ML) techniques. You might have seen the video of the Jennifer Lawrence press conference where she has been gifted…… Continue reading Synthetic media: be as afraid as you ever were

Old book simulator

Remember when the design community had its Two Minutes Hate about  vtb   design? I agreed. But sometimes, fake analogue is just lovely. The Google Play Books app on iOS (and presumably on Android) gives you the option of reading original page layouts. I downloaded A copy of Treasure Island onto my iPad Pro 11 and…… Continue reading Old book simulator

My best reads of 2018

What did your books do for you lately? If they aren’t working hard, you should cut your losses and get new ones. That’s what I learned while reading last year. 2018 was a year when I needed my books to be right. I looked around for the ones I needed, and I abandoned several that…… Continue reading My best reads of 2018