Every - essay bits inspo
collecting fragments of inspo for the essay I’m working on with Every
full essay here: https://every.to/thesis/the-end-of-productivity
Every - essay bits inspo
Meaning and point of view are essential for anything worthy of our attention. It’s about a sense of purpose and personality that goes beyond mere information transmission. It’s about paying attention, and not outsourcing observation. In a world increasingly populated by auto-generated content, the combination of substance and style will rise above
Carly Ayres • On substance with style
Oliver Burkeman sums up my views on AI and creativity pretty well:
To start with, picture this scenario. You’re at home, feeling lonely and sorry for yourself, when the phone rings out of the blue. It’s an old friend, checking in on you. For an hour, you have one of those rare, wonderful, uplifting conversations; by the time you hang up, you’re
... See moreToday’s cult of convenience fails to acknowledge that difficulty is a constitutive feature of human experience. Convenience is all destination and no journey. But climbing a mountain is different from taking the tram to the top, even if you end up at the same place. We are becoming people who care mainly or only about outcomes. We are at risk of
... See moreTim Wu • Opinion | The Tyranny of Convenience - The New York Times
The history professor Nelson Lichtenstein told me, “What you can’t measure, you can’t reward,” and that may be why executives are so focused on work hours. For decades, the corporate world has been consumed with metrics. Managers love tangible measures by which they can determine success or failure. Work hours is one of the easiest ways to measure... See more
Do Nothing Quotes by Celeste Headlee
Takeaways from Jerry Seinfeld on Tim Ferriss:
To survive in comedy you have to be a writer
“As any writer can tell you it’s 95% re-write”
“I think I could solve just about anyone’s life, I don’t care what you do, with weight training and transcendental meditation” Jerry Seinfeld
“If you could take your experiences and ask to trade them in, the last
Human expression was perfected into pithy thought-capsules (Twitter, LinkedIn), glamour shots (Instagram), and performative soundbites (TikTok), all perfect carriers for human emotions and — most importantly — ADVERTISING, which we were also now expected to do, newly equipped with our “personal brands.”
The dominance of these formats and mindset... See more
The dominance of these formats and mindset... See more
Yancey Strickler • Formulary for New Media
But if the deep roots of boredom are in a lack of meaning, rather than a shortage of stimuli, and if there is a subtle, multilayered process by which information can give rise to meaning, then the constant flow of information to which we are becoming habituated cannot deliver on such a promise. At best, it allows us to distract ourselves with the... See more
Kurt Vonnegut, talking about when he tells his wife he’s going out to buy an envelope:
“Oh, she says well, you’re not a poor man. You know, why don’t you go online and buy a hundred envelopes and put them in the closet? And so I pretend not to hear her. And go out to get an envelope because I’m going to have a hell of a good time in the process of
... See moreArt, AI, and the Courage to Create
open.substack.com