Community comes before strategy

NY Times: To Take on Trump, Think Like a Lion, 2025-05-28 by Carl Safina, an ecologist and professor at Stony Brook University.

Like those waking lions, we don’t know how the coming challenges will play out. We know that there will be failures and that success is possible. But it’s important that we now reaffirm our sense of pride, our shared purpose, our dedication to our common good. As the lions showed me, community comes before strategy.

So many people are waiting in the tall grass of decency, ready to rush out to restore the nation that we have all loved, the great America that promises liberty and justice for all.

So let us rouse and rub noses and greet and remind ourselves who we are.

How thinkers and writers must compete with LLM's

Longreads + Open Thread newsletter: 2025-May-24 by Byrne Hobart

The Patel interview is too long for my patience, but I love Byrne's comment! I added the emphasis.

Nilay Patel interviews Microsoft CTO Kevin Scott. This interview mostly focuses on the economics of AI, specifically the question of how anyone will make money online if AI agents are circumventing ad-supported models, and are trained on tokens they haven't paid for. He seems confident that we'll work something out, which will still have implications for the online content business: it means that being able to write at the same skill as an LLM is basically worthless, but being able to produce things that they can't, and that will influence their behavior, is very, very worthwhile.

How thinkers and writers must compete with LLM's

Longreads + Open Thread newsletter: 2025-May-24 by Byrne Hobart

The Patel interview is too long for my patience, but I love Byrne's comment! I added the emphasis.

Nilay Patel interviews Microsoft CTO Kevin Scott. This interview mostly focuses on the economics of AI, specifically the question of how anyone will make money online if AI agents are circumventing ad-supported models, and are trained on tokens they haven't paid for. He seems confident that we'll work something out, which will still have implications for the online content business: it means that being able to write at the same skill as an LLM is basically worthless, but being able to produce things that they can't, and that will influence their behavior, is very, very worthwhile.

Make a plan to think better

Cars (and before them, horses) reduced some people's ability to walk long distances. Unless they had a plan to avoid the degradation of that capability. I think we all need a plan to think even when we don't have to do so. 

Svblte: Thoughts on thinking, 2025-May-16 by Dustin Curtis

The irony is that I now know more than I ever would have before AI. But I feel slightly dumber. A bit more dull. LLMs give me finished thoughts, polished and convincing, but none of the intellectual growth that comes from developing them myself. The output from AI answers questions. It teaches me facts. But it doesn’t really help me know anything new.

While using AI feels like a superhuman brain augmentation, when I look back on the past couple of years and think about how I explore new thoughts and ideas today, it looks a lot like sedation instead.

And I’m still stuck. But at least I’m here, writing this, and conveying my raw thoughts directly into your brain. And that means something, I think, even though an AI could probably have written this post far more quickly, eloquently, and concisely. It’s horrifying.

Voicing ideas

This article has me thinking about making more voice memos and notes. 

Ness Labs: Thinking Out Loud: How to Use Your Voice in Knowledge Work, 2025-May-15 by Anne-Laure Le Cunff

Reduce cognitive load. Psychologist Alan Baddeley’s model of working memory suggests a “phonological loop” — the part of the brain that holds spoken and written material. Speaking activates this loop, reducing cognitive load and freeing bandwidth for deeper reasoning.

Improve clarity. Studies show that explaining ideas aloud (even to yourself) improves understanding — a phenomenon known as the self-explanation effect — which can boost problem-solving and retention.

Strengthen memory. Reading aloud or repeating things vocally has been found to improve encoding in long-term memory. This is linked to the production effect, where memory is better for words that are spoken than those silently read.

A bunch of reasons NOT to use AI

Like Marie, I've been given a bunch or reasons to use AI. Instead of replying, I usually just keep quiet. I don't like to argue, and I'm pretty sure anything I say is going to be contested--maybe even ridiculed. So I'm glad Marie applied her energy to explaining why it's not necessarily a great idea. Here's just one of her 11 different reasons. 

Young Vulgarian: 11 things I hate about AI, 2025-May-9 by Marie Le Conte

Some proponents of generative AI will argue that going back and forth with the computer helps creativity, as opposed to stifling it: as someone who has to be creative a lot of the time, I just don't think it's entirely true. Sometimes you do need to force yourself to do the hard thing a lot of the time, so that you're then able to do the easy thing quicker.

It's also a good habit to pick up, as starting from nothing is, I think, good for the brain. I see it a lot in oil painting, which I started doing last year. There's nothing as horrifying as a blank canvas, but the first steps you take when faced with it are often the most important ones. Which colour should I use to make my wash? What am I mixing to begin with, for that first layer? Am I drawing some outlines in charcoal first, or just vibing it?

By taking these first few decisions, I start building the foundations of whatever project I'm embarking on. It's a different exercise from, say, paint-by-numbers, and there's a reason why one of those is a more respected field than the other.