DP: Writing now has to be really, really good to stand out. People got really upset last December when I tweeted that AI’s writing is already better than the majority of Write of Passage students would be with a day’s worth of work. It made a lot of people upset, but I think it’s true. AI’s writing is great with a good prompt, which is why people... See more
an interview about instant messenger that takes place on instant messenger. the lesson is simple: writing is hard because it forces us to improve our thinking.
Many people assume they are bad at writing because it is hard. This is like assuming you are bad at weightlifting because the weight is heavy.
Writing is useful because it is hard. It's the effort that goes into writing a clear sentence that leads to better thinking.
When used properly, metaphors enhance speech. But correctly dosing the metaphorical spice in the dish of language is no easy task. They ‘must not be far-fetched, or they will be difficult to grasp, nor obvious, or they will have no effect’, as Aristotle already noted nearly 2,500 years ago.
The robot was quite good at copying my style, but much less good at writing anything meaningful. It could predict which words I would be most likely to use but it couldn’t make an original argument for me. Using the robot made me think a lot about the nature of writing and what goes in to its peculiar form of labor. AI tools fundamentally promise... See more