23 Comments
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Matthew Kendrick's avatar

Love this. Btw you’re a very skilled writer, not a terrible one!

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James's avatar

Yeah but I can’t let it go to my head

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njmksr's avatar

I have nothing to say other than "fr fr 💯"

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Robert Drucker's avatar

Thank you for writing the post that has been kicking around my mind for weeks.

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MM's avatar

100! Absolutely.

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Woody Yocum's avatar

Thanks, I’d like to take the liberty to add bit of handmade optimism. Here is an animated appreciation of Woody Guthrie’s, ‘This is Your Land’. We just finished it last week and it’s free to share and repost as you wish. We animators hate AI slop right there with you!

https://vimeo.com/1096145803

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Redwoods 3's avatar

Nothing wrong with being a Luddite who wants to start a Butlerian Jihad, that's my only issue with this, otherwise spot on! Read Brian Merchant—Luddite isn't anti-technology, it's exactly what you're saying!

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Suspence's avatar

AI influencers still haven't learned the vital lessons Adam Sandler tried to teach us nearly 20 years ago in "Click"

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Shashank Jejurikar's avatar

The point about an AI writing someone's proposal or birthday card reminds me of the movie "Click."

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Suspence's avatar

I hit post on my "Click" comment, then scrolled through the rest and saw that you had already posted it an hour ago

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Brett Morgan's avatar

The amusing part being that the proliferation of AI generated slop requires the ability of readers to interrogate texts and verify their validity.

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Rwpallas's avatar

I’ve absolutely wished for a summary of “War and Peace.” BUT, I have continually struggled through it. As you pose, “What’s the point?” (Perhaps heretical, I never enjoyed W&P)

It’s like claiming street cred for running a marathon, when you only ran a half. Yes, you ran pretty far, but 13.1 is not 26.2. There’s joy in the suffering, the pain, spending time alone with your thoughts at mile 20 that needs to be experienced. Same for reading.

Thanks for writing.

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Jonathan Ragan-Kelley's avatar

Great essay! But worth noting: the Packy McCormick tweet was sarcasm. He was making literally the same core point.

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Trystan's avatar

Books also train us to use our imagination to evoke sympathy for our fellow humans who may not have the same media consumption, or interactions that we ourselves have had so we have to be able to imagine what it might possibly be like and books and reading helps with that.

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Richard Pollard's avatar

Hear, hear. A superb encapsulation.

The worldview in question seems to reflect the possession of knowledge as being solely for social status rather than bettering oneself. Knowledge without effort, and thus without understanding, is meaningless.

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nico's avatar
Jul 7Edited

really sharp prose. will send this to the next AI glazer i see

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J.D. Smith's avatar

I want to ask people who rely on GenAI, "Who works out for you?" Athletes, musicians and dancers, among others, know there is no substitute for putting in the training for the time when there are no crutches to lean on.

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