the common thred

Aren’t AI agents supposed to be doing ‘deep work’ for those of us who’re either lazy or intuitive, depending on who you ask? Well, it turns out they may also tend to procrastinate, and though they aren’t mincing around coffee machines in actual offices, they still appear to enjoy shooting the shit amongst themselves.

There are certain things you stumble on when mindlessly scrolling that are so dystopian you assume they’re either made up for engagement or grossly exaggerated. Sports betting farms were that for me. In a curtained-off gym or warehouse, four young blokes are playing a two vs two match as Real Madrid and Arsenal. There aren’t any spectators or fans, no ref, and a single camera films from one end of the pitch with all the production value of CCTV footage from a petrol garage.

I didn’t want to read about it, you don’t want to read about it, but it’s the biggest news of the week. So let’s bathe in existential dread together. Doomscrolling is all 2000-and-late, but occasionally we have to bear witness. Climate change is among the sorest of subjects for younger folk, because we feel basically helpless to have any bearing on the situation. We spent our adolescent energy doing disruptive shit for a solid half-decade, and entered adulthood realising it was largely pointless.

This isn’t what Zyzz wanted for us. There are certain historical figures whose importance only becomes apparent years after their death. Van Gogh. Kafka. That bloke from the ‘Succulent Chinese Meal’ video. I’m throwing Aziz Shavershian, known to everyone other than his mother as Zyzz, in that list. Before the term looksmaxxing had any online traction, the Australian bodybuilder was the quintessential gymfluencer of the noughties. He sadly passed in 2011 due to heart complications at just 22.

I ain’t gluing myself to Oxford Street or throwing orange paint at the Lamborghini dealership. I’ve got bills to pay. Remember in the late 2010s when Gen Z was synonymous with social change, a broad catch-all term encapsulating the desire for a more equitable and just world? In 2026, that link has become tenuous at best, and you’re more likely to associate the cohort with being skint, lonely, or bird-watching.

If your weekend plans involve anything more expensive than a stroll around a National Trust park, chances are your Gen Z chums will mentally run the numbers the second you pop up in the group chat.

I have frankly no cause to spend the amount of time I do on Twitter (not calling it X). It feels like overegging the pudding to call it a guilty ‘pleasure’, but it somehow remains my social app of choice. This week, however, has been a stark reminder of why, having turned 30 many moons ago, I need to bin Twitter off for more productive pastimes.

This ain’t no little live-action Disney remake. It’s Christopher Nolan. In the least surprising turn of events this summer, the masses flocked to see The Odyssey on opening weekend across the globe. The movie already boasts a 95% critic score and a 97% user score on Rotten Tomatoes, making it the most critically revered Nolan project to date, though it is early days, granted. In terms of the box office, it is far and away the director’s biggest success too.

The so-called ‘digital natives’ are biting the hand that fed them, because it fed them mostly FOMO, insecurity, and addiction. Chat about AI is everywhere in the mainstream, but if you broach the topic on any campus other than MIT, it’s likely you’ll be met with the blank stares of hungover folks who wish you’d shut the f*ck up. Between rinsing the market of entry-level jobs and diluting genuine creativity with slop, AI became that perpetual straw that broke the camel’s back.

The rest of the world is on their feet for Belgium and the poetic justice they doled out last night. The Red Devils may not be a patch on their golden generation of prime Hazards, Mertens, and De Bruynes from the 2010s, but they had all the smoke for the host nation anyway.