Steve Coast
Founder of OpenStreetMap, the collaborative map of the world; later worked on mapping at Microsoft and Telenav.
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What they believe
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Fear and vanity, not a lack of ideas, are what keep most people from building new things.
There seems to be a million reasons and two opposing forces keeping us in inaction: fear and vanity.
stevecoast.comSaid 9 Aug 2024This on korrents
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AI should be approached as a collaboration between humans and computers, not a forced choice between them.
We need to find ways to work with this new tech to get the best of humans and the best of computers, together, rather than thinking in terms of one or the other.
stevecoast.comSaid 6 Feb 2024This on korrents
The bold line is korrents’ wording; the quote is theirs. These 2: what they wrote before what they said aloud, one per source, newest first.
Beliefs
Korrents What they believe 17 beliefs — each backed by an exact quote.
Each is a — compiled by korrents.com, not by them: the one-line wordings are korrents', the quotes are theirs.
Recent
Fear and vanity, not a lack of ideas, are what keep most people from building new things.
There seems to be a million reasons and two opposing forces keeping us in inaction: fear and vanity.
The Days Are Long but the Years Are Short Said 9 Aug 2024
New ideas usually fail outright or require drastic changes before they can succeed.
New things tend to not work, or you have to change them drastically.
The Days Are Long but the Years Are Short Said 9 Aug 2024
AI should be approached as a collaboration between humans and computers, not a forced choice between them.
We need to find ways to work with this new tech to get the best of humans and the best of computers, together, rather than thinking in terms of one or the other.
Encyclopaedia Automatica Said 6 Feb 2024
Show 14 more
AI-generated writing is already fairly good but still lacks the direction and insight of human editors.
As of today, computers write pretty good articles but lack the direction and insight of human editors.
Encyclopaedia Automatica Said 6 Feb 2024
People who are smart in a narrow way but don't read broadly are the ones who cause disastrous unintended consequences.
you should be frightened of smart people who don't read. They're the ones that build Jurassic Park, or send all the dentists to build a dam.
Orbitals Said 15 Oct 2023
Reading even one book on a niche topic sharply shrinks the number of people you can discuss it with.
Most people don't read books. If you read a book on a topic (say, clouds, or Italian furniture), you can now only communicate on that topic with 1 in 10 to 1 in 100 people.
Orbitals Said 15 Oct 2023
The right response to lacking the ideal tool is to improvise a solution from what's on hand rather than accept you can't proceed.
It's important to look around you for solutions instead of accepting the current unavailability of options.
Orbitals Said 15 Oct 2023
The gap between what media covers and what actually matters, like real causes of death, is very large.
The gap between reality and media is very large: The gap between cause of death and what people search for and read.
Content Shaping Said 4 May 2023
AI will soon let anyone consume any content reshaped into the timeframe, tone, voice and bias they choose.
This isn't perfect, but soon it will be, and you will be able to listen to or read any content you want in the timeframe, tone, voice and bias of your choosing.
Content Shaping Said 4 May 2023
The purpose of professional training is to produce people who are competent and capable of independent thought and leadership in their field.
The aim of any professional training in the end is to make you someone competent, capable of independent thought and leadership in a specified field.
Azure Dives Said 21 Sept 2022
People don't really control most outcomes, so the sensible response to events is to look for the good in them.
We don't really control anything anyway, so we may as well find the good in things.
Azure Dives Said 21 Sept 2022
Zoning and building restrictions across most of the western world make housing in desirable towns extremely expensive.
Charming, beautiful and astronomically expensive because like in most of the western world it's illegal to build anything.
Jurassic Jeep Adventures Said 29 Jul 2022
Fixating on the destination rather than the process leaves you stranded when things go wrong.
If you focus on the goal you'll just be stranded on some mountain waiting for a rescue mission.
Jurassic Jeep Adventures Said 29 Jul 2022
Adding rules and complexity to a system drains it of humanity and fun.
With each rule and added complexity you make the system less human and less fun. You make it a Computer Scientists rube goldberg machine while sterilizing it of all the joy of life.
In Defense of OpenStreetMap's Data Model Said 6 Jun 2022
Talking to customers about your product risks discovering that you are wrong.
The problem with talking to the customer for anything you are making is that you might be wrong.
In Defense of OpenStreetMap's Data Model Said 6 Jun 2022
Making a change within a complex system tends to produce unforeseen and unintended consequences.
I'm reminded I'm in a huge dynamical system and making a change has unforeseen and unintended consequences.
Jungle VIP Said 30 May 2022
Experiencing a wild animal on its own terms creates a real connection that seeing the same animal in a zoo cannot.
Being on the orangutans schedule and at his convenience vs. going to the zoo is something like love vs. prostitution.
Jungle VIP Said 30 May 2022
Beliefs others hold too
Fear and vanity, not a lack of ideas, are what keep most people from building new things. 2 hold this
There seems to be a million reasons and two opposing forces keeping us in inaction: fear and vanity.
The Days Are Long but the Years Are Short Said 9 Aug 2024
What is a korrent?
A korrent is a belief a person has stated in their own words: one sentence stating the claim, backed by a quote and a source, kept at korrents.com.
Under a name here, the quoted block is what they actually said. The korrent beneath it is the claim those words support, in korrents' wording — tap it to see the record, its source, and who else holds it.
Nobody here wrote their own korrents. They are compiled from public statements, and a person can change their mind, which is recorded too.
Recommends rcmnd
rcmnd What they recommend 7 things — each backed by an exact quote.
Compiled by rcmnd.app, not by them: the quotes are theirs, and each links to the post it was copied from.
Recent
Uses oDesk
Another common hack I use is to hire people on oDesk and other freelancing sites for various tasks.
usesthis.com 20 Jun 2012
Uses Lenovo X201
I have a Lenovo X201 laptop, 2010 MacBook Pro, Samsung Series 7 Slate, Samsung Focus, iPhone 4 and an iPad 3.
usesthis.com 20 Jun 2012
Uses VirtualBox
I use VirtualBox to carry Ubuntu around with me.
usesthis.com 20 Jun 2012
Show 4 more
Uses Instapaper
I have a script which mails to Instapaper the Hacker News front page twice a day. From there I can just tap on things and read them later, at any time, with Instapaper on my iPad or Windows Phone.
usesthis.com 20 Jun 2012
Uses Backblaze
I back up everything in 3 places automatically, partially with BackBlaze.
usesthis.com 20 Jun 2012
Loved Evernote
I back up everything in 3 places automatically, partially with BackBlaze. I love Mathematica and Evernote.
usesthis.com 20 Jun 2012
Loved Mathematica
I back up everything in 3 places automatically, partially with BackBlaze. I love Mathematica and Evernote.
usesthis.com 20 Jun 2012
Where they publish
Blog stevecoast.com His writing on mapping, technology and OpenStreetMap.
Link verified 5 Sept 2026.
x.com @SteveC
Recent
- Sad to watch the @openstreetmap bit rot 1 Apr 2026
- Arguing with @cursor_ai over whether it can in fact use `ssh` or not is peak Douglas Adams 31 Mar 2026
- I love how on @googledrive you tell it to download some files and then if you change wifi network it 1) throws away all the progress and 2) you need to tell it to download again.... Thus faithfully re-creating the 1995 browser download experience. 11 Feb 2026
Show 17 more
- I tried to fix a point of interest which is in the wrong place. Apple Maps -> You can't fix anything. Google Maps -> Your edit suggestion is wrong (it's not). OpenStreetMap -> You need a PhD in GIS. I can't help but think we still have a fundamental problem making better maps. 9 Feb 2026
- gm 29 Sept 2025
- This needs to be a thing, the equivalent of "think"/TTC modes in LLMs but for images 3 Sept 2025
- nano banana thinks making something transparent means putting a white and grey checkerboard all around the image, which is heartwarming 31 Aug 2025
- Creating a documentary on @openstreetmap's volunteer community, open-source release, centered on three #SOTM conferences. Join us! 21 Aug 2025 forms.gle
- I just plugged a mini SD card in to a fullsize SD card adapter in to a USB-A SD card reader in to a USB-A USB-C adapter in to a Mac to copy an indie freeware gameboy game so it could be used by my kids raspberry pi gameboy emulator 7 Aug 2025
- ollama & gpt-oss-20b is remarkably good 5 Aug 2025
- You can just do things 29 Jul 2025
- Maps? @TerribleMaps 24 Jul 2025
- Oh I've also submitted a talk to @sotmafrica and will be at @sotm in Manila.... 23 Jul 2025
- To be fair the UK did used to include many of those places 20 Jul 2025
- He’s back! 11 Jul 2025
- Why doesn’t @X automatically translate tweets? 23 Jun 2025
- The power of having an existance proof 17 Jun 2025 global.honda
- The internet treats censorship as damage to be routed around. The robots treat riots as damage to be routed around. 10 Jun 2025
- Very close to agreeing that everyone at Apple should be fired over the Vista launch 10 Jun 2025
- I've been avoiding looking at MCP because it just smelled wrong. And yes, it's just XML-RPC but it's JSON. It smells like... SUN SPARCStation and 1999. 21 May 2025
Link verified 5 Sept 2026. Recent items update automatically from the channel.
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