reading, watching & listening to

an evocative, beautiful piece of writing about new york city written just after 9/11. recommended by Andy Weissman.

great principles on translation. applies to summaries as well. it’s why AI summaries feel so dead.

The idea that we could have so much community with so little effort was an illusion. We are digitally connected to more people than ever and terribly lonely nevertheless. Closeness requires time, and time has not fallen in cost or risen in quantity.

I do not blame anyone but myself for this. This is not something the corporations did to me. This is something I did to myself. But I am looking now for software that insists I make choices rather than whispers that none are needed. I don’t want my digital life to be one shame closet after another. A new metaphor has taken hold for me: I want it to be a garden I tend, snipping back the weeds and nourishing the plants.

this was a beautifully honest retrospective