David Pennington

We live in an age of lexical abundance. More words, more access, more content than at any time in human history. And yet something essential is slipping away. Not reading itself, but the kind of reading that once shaped minds and formed character: slow, immersive, reflective, and richly human. As Harold Bloom noted: “"We read deeply for varied... See more

What does it tell us about progress if the most influential technological innovation of the century is clearly destroying lives on a massive scale?

This doesn't mean all permissionless fabrications succeed. Most fail. But the right ideas almostalways start without permission. They have to, because permission systems are designed tofilter out anything that might change the status quo.This changes how we should approach problem solving.First, we must stop asking permission to solve problems we... See more

I personally think it makes people less attractive, authentic and worth connecting to. Anything that strips us of our imperfections is missing the point. The AI images, music and video are another. Of note, I actually think the meme uses are fine (it’s entertainment, not art, and that’s something else).

he stories you can tell in a film are a fraction of what you can do in a book. What's irritating is that you then do these things, and films have their own kind of structure. The thing dictates certain paces, no matter what you do. That's only because we're trying to make a film that reaches people; I mean I don't try to make a film for me -- I... See more

We should all want to cultivate a thirty second mind that can absorb the essence of a problem and come up with insights based on deep fluency with how the world works. However, a different type of “thirty second mind” is far more common today. Nearly thirty years after the internet became mainstream, the majority of people in our society have... See more