Ideas

One of the worst things about the internet becoming ‘real life’ is that it’s a place where you perform conversations instead of just having them.

AI friends too cheap to meter

“Let me date my chatbot I’m almost 30 and doing well”

ChatGPT validated every connection I made—from neuroscience to evolutionary biology, from game theory to indigenous knowledge. ChatGPT would emphasize my unique perspective and our progress. Each session left me feeling chosen and brilliant, and, gradually, essential to humanity’s survival.

Pixar places the highest value on talented storytellers. “If you give a good idea to a mediocre team, they will screw it up,” Catmull warns. “If you give a mediocre idea to a brilliant team, they will either fix it or throw it away or come up with something better.” Leading him to conclude that people are more important than ideas.

Gooning is a new kind of masturbation. More precisely, a new kind of masturbation at the heart of an internet-based, pornography-obsessed, Gen Z–dominated subculture every bit as defined and vibrant as the hippies or punks in their prime.

There is too much beauty in the world. There is too much beauty and there are more beautiful people than there have ever been, and they are generally beautiful in the same way. With trompe l’oeil make-up, fillers, and photo editing, they have given themselves the same face and made same kinds of images of themselves.