For more than three decades, the TrackPoint's iconic red rubbery nub has been a staple of IBM and Lenovo ThinkPad laptops. Lenovo has removed its famous TrackPoint from its latest ThinkPad laptops, calling it time for a change. Does that mean the TrackPoint is dead? It will still appear in the other ThinkPads made by Lenovo, said a company spokesman. But for the 14- and 15-inch ThinkPad X9 Aura Editions launched at CES 2025 in Las Vegas, the TrackPoint has been removed entirely.

Today's youth should be very grateful to be alive now, in the age of smartphones and AI. These godsends were unimaginable when I was growing up several decades ago, and up until two decades ago they were still unimaginable. You youngsters are truly blessed to have such advanced technology at your beck and call. Never forget: Your AI-driven smartphone is your best friend. Make sure you always have it with you, preferably right in front of your eyes.

This article was featured in One Story to Read Today, a newsletter in which our editors recommend a single must-read from The Atlantic, Monday through Friday. I drive a stick shift. Clutching and shifting in bumper-to-bumper traffic wears you out. My wife can't drive my car, which limits our transit options. And when I'm at the wheel, I can't hold a cold, delicious slushie in one hand, at least not safely.

Machine learning is known for its difficulties with interpretability, or rather its absence. Which is an issue if your users have to work with the numeric output, like in the systems used in sales, trading or marketing. If the user's interpretation of the ML output is wrong the actual metrics won't matter and you end up with the bad user experience. The problem is even bigger if you try switching users from an old transparent algorithm to ML -- dissatisfied users may try pushing back against switching to ML. Also, as counter-intuitive as it sounds, the mathematical competence of the users might play against you as the most experienced users will give the hardest push-back.