If you ever want to hate yourself you should try writing a book, then editing the book, and then reading it.
AI is super interesting to me
A terrifying argument for paper voting in voting booths from Ready Player One:
Besides, now that everyone could vote from home, via the OASIS, the only people who could get elected were movie stars, reality TV personalities, or radical televangelists.
Do dogs understand elevators or are they just like ‘Ok it’s time to get into the world changer’?
(via @ronnui_ on Twitter via the Dense Discovery email)
Hawaii versus Paris
I
Imagine being as big as a failure as Yahoo
Dan Shipper in The Unreasonable Effectiveness of 1-1 Learning:
One of the most famous studies in educational psychology found that students who learned through 1-1 tutoring performed two sigma—98%—better than students who learned through a traditional classroom environment.
Just found out that Metallica played a concert across town last night and there were tickets available. I had Australian tickets for their Covid-cancelled concert. This is the most disappointed I’ve been since we left Australia!
Film’s not dead.
On arrival to a film lab at 3pm on a Friday in Paris there’s like seven people ahead of me and three behind me pretty quickly.
If publishers paid as much attention to how their articles were experienced by readers as newspaper editors used to, maybe they wouldn’t be going broke?
“Non-smoking Garden of Eden”
As Moses wrote in the book of Genesis, the Lord God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food except for tobacco.
A mum playing Frozen on her phone for her daughter at the playground is super confused as to why every other kid at the playground is up in her grill right now.
Watching 1980s Inspector Gadget with Luna this morning and I never realised how much Gadget influenced my life. All I ever wanted was Penny’s computer book, Gadget’s computer watch, and being accepted for being basically useless in society saved only by the woman by your side every time.
Am I a man or a muppet?
Sitting in a park in Paris watching my kids play I was struck by the idea that at age 41, married for almost 11 years, with two children, that I’m possibly an adult now.
Which probably sounds weird to anyone familiar with the concept of becoming an adult in our society somewhere between puberty and 21.
But I think we lack something in modern society - I know I lacked it in my childhood - that would not only help the 41 year old so know that they’re adults but also help all of us take ownership of our lives. Help us understand that you can either make your life or let someone or something else make it for you. Help us take responsibility for our lives, our families, and our futures.
It’s ceremony.
We shy away from it, not wanting to celebrate birthdays or anniversaries in public, or for some of us we even deny our age. We minimise weddings and engagements saying we don’t want to be the centre of attention - and this is even worse in Australia where tall poppy syndrome rears its ugly head stopping us from celebrating our achievements in life. I even hear it from people who, when they find out I’m a wedding celebrant, proudly tell me how they just went to the registry office and didn’t have a wedding.
For hundreds of generations we have celebrated milestones and achievements with ceremony and feasting.
It’s how we know where we have been, where we are, and where we’re going.
I believe ceremony is important. It’s why I’m a marriage celebrant.
Good ceremony is where we stop, collaborate, and listen. A moment for us to speak truths, smile, laugh, draw near, and share.
I hope you find the time to stop and celebrate something this week.
Evidence that the world’s first mobile phone was probably French
Excited to share another chapter of the book today:
I still distinctly remember the day after getting engaged and Britt’s aunty called with thoughts on which horse-drawn carriage company we should use for our wedding. This was odd to me because in 2012 I had been creating weddings for over two years yet I had not even conceived of the idea that once I asked Britt to marry me that we would then proceed to a wedding.
None of the current large language models/artificial intelligences understand the concept of months, or calendar months, or leap years.
So I’m sure everything is going to work out just fine.
