werber

I didn't finish the article, it was slightly difficult to read due to handwriting, and I'm not sure if I would have gotten any more value if I had continued. The mere of act of having written, or prompted to get something written is not intrinsically valuable to me. I have a degree in English literature, and I do not feel confident in my ability to discern AI writing from human anymore. I wasn't sure when I stopped reading if the images had been generated or not, and I don't know if it matters either way.

If you cannot demonstrate why I should continue reading by the quality of your writing alone, I'm not going to finish what you have written. I put down maybe half of the books I start without finishing, plenty of them written well before 2022 just because I am not enjoying them, or find the writing bad, or boring, or overly pedantic, or a million other reasons that are specific to me and my own bad taste.

I hope we can get to a point where people will stop clutching their pearls over AI writing, I have no interest in entertaining the theater of proof. Writing is either useful or not useful, good or bad for the reader, and making the reading experience worse to prove your worthiness as a writer provides me no value. If you need to be reassured that something was not written by a large language model, and that's enough for you to consider something worth reading your standards are lower than I will ever be comfortable dropping mine too.

I hope that her star power encourages young people to read literally anything. The ability for her fans to sit with a singular text, without ad breaks, sponcon, brand deals, and everything else on social media seems like a societal win.

https://www.audible.ca/fr_CA/pd/What-Could-Go-Wrong-Livre-Au... , this podcast (which I guess is now only available as a book) was really interesting, about 3/4 of the way through they tackle the emotional resonance bit, with one of the people from Broken Social Scene, and the artist kinda breaks down because the AI model they were experimenting with was able to replicate the "humanness" of music that loved. All in all it was a really interesting program, but the music section was probably the most fascinating.

Spotify being listed as one of the brands doing AI right is jarring to me. It’s the only one of the companies mentioned where I’ve had multiple conversations with non tech people about how much they hate their AI usage. Specifically in their case the drift to AI produced and performed music in the playlists that are not explicitly labeled as AI. And there seems to be a nuance to what uses people are ok with, large language models for personal use, ok, generative ai in any creative capacity, offensive. Obviously anecdotal, but this article was very far from the reality I’m experiencing

I noticed ads? maybe not the right word in this situation, for https://juanito.ai, on several of the large Catholic churches in Mexico City this year.

I noticed ads on churches in Mexico City for this earlier this year, https://juanito.ai

I think someone downloading an app to help them be more spontaneous for a partner who wants that is extremely authentic, it takes someone seeing that they have a blind spot.

On the most recent iPhone pro I have a query running (about ~15 minutes so far) and the results are really good, just really slow, but I imagine the performance is worse on an older device

A lot of people are taking fentanyl thinking it's something else. It's pervasive in the drug supply. Kids who are being served ads for ketamine on social media are buying street K (obviously with a confidence boost from the advertising big tech allows) and boom, fentanyl. People who have been prescribed xanax, and got a little addicted and then buy it on the street because the pharmacist and doctor are onto their misues... It's not as simple as calling it an opiate thing, and even then, opiate addicts in my book deserve to like live. We have to rethink our approach to drugs, because this isn't the same game as even a decade ago. I think legalizing and deshaming to the point of exhaustion makes sense, but I'm not sure my thought is right.

I thought this seemed fair till i read it was in flushing. Nyc is the worst, but, if you’re American where else can you get a city that international and walkable

Oh, I haven't heard of Slouching Towards Bethlehem, gonna read that next, thanks

codrops is a nice one

Down The Drain by Julia Fox, fun memoir of a nyc fashion icon, it's a beautiful mess, "I know the influence, I know the impact, and I know the vibes, and the girlies love the vibes, and that's just what it's about."

How To Murder Your Life by Cat Marnell, recommended by Julia Fox in an interview, similar book, if you're interested in fashion, publishing or beauty and where it intersects with addiction. Super funny, super sharp, super bitchy, reading her 2nd book now

Walking Through Clear Water in a Pool Painted Black by Cookie Mueller, if you like Nan Golden or John Waters you know who Cookie is, a really fun and crazy ride, made me wish I was best friends with Cookie.

Black Friend by Ziwe Fumudoh, if you like Ziwe, then obvi. An interesting mini memoir, has some of the bite of her talk show but pulls back the mask and makes you realize how damn brilliant she is, really interesting refection of the experience of a 2nd generation Nigerian

I Was Better Last Night by Harvey Firestein, a fun look back at the alt theater scene in NYC, still listening on audible, he has the best voice ever, something that is a must listen

Feeding the Soul (Because it’s my business) by Tabitha Brown, if you fell in love with Tab’s vegan soul during the pandemic like me this audio book was like a warm hug from a super nice auntie. I don’t share a lot of the same beliefs as her, but it was interesting look at one person’s faith and how it made them the person they are

The Fuck Up by Arthur Nersesian, if you ever dreamed of living in the East Village in the 1980s this book was great, paints a lively picture of NYC at that time

The New Animals by Pip Adams, a kiwi fashion scene slice of life, like if Virgina Wolf had written Bret Easton Ellis' Glamorama. Some interesting musings on social media and it's place in the fashion world

Glamorama by Bret Easton Ellis, re-read after 20 years, really appreciated the non stop references, if you want to live in the late 90s fashion world for a bit it’s a great book

I Am Not Ashamed by Barbara Payton, old hollywood starlet who ended her life broke and addicted, an interesting look at the dark side of the old studio system and the seedier parts of Los Angeles. Picked up at Mast Books in the East Village (along with a few others on this list), highly recommend the book store, great selection of artsy fartsy stuff

The Shards by Bret Easton Ellis, didn’t finish it, mostly because it’s massive and I never could bring myself to pack it, intend to finish to next year, but if you like his other books, especially less than 0, it’s worth reading. Picked up at Literati in Ann Arbor, great bookstore near a few other great bookstores on the edge of Kerrytown, highly recommend

Eve's Hollywood by Eve Babitz, if you want to fall in love with a Los Angeles even more, great writing

An Attempt at exhausting a place in Paris by George Perec, a quick read can’t remember if it was the first book I bought from Wakefield Press at Artbook Hauser & Worth LA, but thankful for that bookstore introducing me to that press

Psychology of the Rich Aunt by Erich Mühsam, another Wakefield title, funny and still felt modern despite being a century old. The authors real life was really interesting to me, he was one of, (if not the first, I remember reading somewhere but can’t find the source), victim of the Nazis

The Sundays of Jean Dézert by Jean de La Ville de Mirmont, another Wakefield title, I read it one sitting (easy to do with this press, they publish almost entirely novellas from what I can gather), made me think of Notes From Underground and Seinfeld

Honey I'm Homo by Matt Baume, A really wonderful guided tour of LGBT representation in television. Was not expecting this book to hit so hard. I cried more times reading this than anything else this year. If you grew up gay in the 1900s, it's a really powerful reminder of how vital accurate and compassionate representation is. Made me realize how much things have changed for the better, really made me appreciate being alive today.

The Art Thief by Michael Finkel, really romantic crime non fiction about a prolific art thief, his girfriend, his family, extremely cinematic, would be shocked if it's not made into a movie very soon

Paris by Paris Hilton, a really dark look at the troubled teen industry, made me really respect Paris Hilton as a cultural engineer (she was mostly in on the joke) and abuse survivor. Also, a really dark look at revenge porn, consent, and technology in the aughts

Mean Baby by Selma Blair, really enjoyed the parts about her childhood, a very specific look at the Jewish Detroit suburbs at the last quarter of the 20th century

Unprotected by Billy Porter, if you watched Pose, and wanted to know more about the actor that brought Pray Tell to life . A memoir about demanding your place in the world

Spinning Plates by Sophie Ellis Bextor, read at the start of the year, but love that with Saltburn coming out “Murder on the Dancefloor” is everywhere again. Loved the early parts of the book and the britt pop teenage stories, the obvious music career throughout, and then interesting look at motherhood. She’s so charming, smart and talented, I’ve always wondered why she wasn’t as big as the other pop stars of her era but her podcast Spinning Plates is also great, and most recent album Hana is a charming love letter to japan.

Pageboy by Elliot Page, really made me want to go Nova Scotia, feels like a long late night conversation on a porch chain smoking cigarettes in college while a party is going on inside but the conversation is more compelling

When We Cease To Understand The World by Benjamín Labatut, suggested to me in last years version of this, really beautiful and thoughtful, lots of very specific truths in a fictional history

I’m Glad My Mom Died by Jenette McCurdy, a look back at being a child star, written as if it’s all happening in the present, interesting reflections on Mormonism and Nickelodeon

Atomic Habits, nothing earth shattering but a pleasant, picked up a few things from it i started doing day to day that increased my quality of life

Friends, Lovers, and The Big Terrible Thing by Matthew Perry, a really dark look at what addiction combined with fame does to a person, didn't enjoy reading it, but when Matthew Perry died I was glad I had.

The Woman in Me (Le Femme en Moi), currently enjoying this as an audio book in French, if you're learning another language and love pop culture, the vocab is simple, being able to slow down the speed on audible is really nice. Read the book in English first and it was a really interesting look at sexism in the media and the commodification of celebrity, super sad

Valid by Chris Bergeron, currently reading, trans dystopian sci fi in a near future Montreal. Enjoying it so far

Bunny by Mona Awad, also currently reading, reminds me of Heathers if it was made by Wilt Stillman

The Love of Singular Men by Victor Heringer, also still reading, really visceral writing, one of those books that really makes you feel like you are seeing what the author is writing about, was suggested by the staff at De Stille in Montreal on Duluth, a great english language bookstore highly recommend

https://www.cnet.com/culture/internet/the-way-kids-use-memes... , this article is pretty interesting, it touches on how digital culture permeates young children and how they aren't constantly connected. But they are connected enough to have these disembodied memes on the playground the way my generation heard about Marilyn Manson's missing rib and that superman S we all drew.

I think the Americanism for that would be Progressive

I started using chatgpt last week for coding problems, and while it's not perfect, with very specific questions and code examples fed in, the results coming out saved me a lot of time, even if i'm rephrasing a question 5 times

CNBC has a youtube video on the economics of Trader Joe's and the piece that stuck out to me is that they will have essentially a white label option, but have it slightly modified so it is "unique" to them

This feels like a very smart and deliberate protest on performativity of these messages. Besides the credit to chatgpt it is completely believable. Like even the computer can do it, I hope this inspires people. It made me cry

What did it turn off in mice? After reading this I have no idea what this does

I don't know, somewhat recently I went to a Halloween party because I saw a flier for it and it started early, had food included with the door entry, didn't know the organization throwing it but it looked cool. Turned out to be a senior citizens nudist dance party, I was the youngest person by 40 years. Sometimes you just need to throw caution to the wind and get naked, dance, and eat fried chicken with the elderly, it was a blast.

This product looks great, but I can’t get over how fresh the design of the landing page is. Great work

https://eloquentjavascript.net/ is nice and project based, it builds up from 0

I’ve had one employer that “soft” pushed employees to do social advertising on their personal accounts. I quit shortly after, it made me unbelievably uncomfortable and was a sign of a culture that my life is incompatible with my temperament. Before quitting I just completely disengaged from social media (no apps on my phone, passwords too confusing to remember stored on a computer I didn’t bring to work). I don’t think I even realized I was doing it, and in the language of 2023, I think I was “soft quitting”

I think you might be looking for a founder wonder child and your kid might be fine just working to live. If his life is well rounded while maintaining academic success I think you should feel relieved. He’ll probably have a career, maybe in a “safe” or corporate environment, and have terrific amount of freedom to balance his less lucrative interests to find pleasure, and pursue meaningful connections with friends and romantic partners. Sounds like you have a smart kid going to college to find a job

I think the new version is just being the person who owns no car and just Uber blacks everywhere.

I have pocket notepads with mini pens stashed everywhere. When I go walking I like to take a tiny recorder that I can start the recording as I’m getting it out of my pocket(I have two from Zoom, highly recommend their products)

Paradais by Fernanda Melchor was the only book I literally could not put down till I finished. It’s a short book, but extremely visual. I read it maybe six months ago and the whole story has played through my head since then.

After reading and enjoying and gaining something from what I read, or a comment saying what I was about to write (usually written better than I would have myself)

I’m thankful for having a place that is vaguely social media but I learn things I wouldn’t have otherwise.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Letters_from_an_American_Far...

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fanny_Hill

It’s kinda dumb in retrospect but these two books brought significance to the past. They’re both kinda fake, sort of like 18th century reality tv. They’re salacious, they’re not wholesome, they made me love the past because they made me see that not much has changed, we’re still selfish and Horny and awful.