Caroline Mays
@illemonati
Caroline Mays
The late biologist E.O. Wilson said that “the real problem of humanity is the following: We have Paleolithic emotions, medieval institutions, and god-like technology. And it is terrifically dangerous.” Wilson said that back in 2011, long before any of us were talking about large language models or GPTs.
Debate: Will the Truth Survive Artificial Intelligence?
I suspect that writers who heavily use AI (or, indeed are AI) will never not be seen, by most people, as low status. Artists tend to shrink from the concept of the ‘brand’, but a writer’s name is their brand, and it will be of enormous value to them in our new age. The authentic human author will be seen almost as a luxury good. People want to be s... See more
Scamming Substack?
“People need trouble -- a little frustration to sharpen the spirit on, toughen it. Artists do; I don't mean you need to live in a rat hole or gutter, but you have to learn fortitude, endurance. Only vegetables are happy.” - William Faulkner
To be serious is to press for a specified conclusion. To be playful is to allow for possibility whatever the cost to oneself.
James P. Carse • Finite and Infinite Games
The writing can be both serious and playful.
To write a good memoir you must become the editor of your own life, imposing on an untidy sprawl of half-remembered events a narrative shape and an organizing idea. Memoir is the art of inventing the truth.
William Zinsser • On Writing Well, 30th Anniversary Edition: An Informal Guide to Writing Nonfiction
Ideas I want to write about and Beautiful Sentiments
Maybe introduce this idea of the mini-memoir
I find myself drawn to literature more now than in the past; not the individual works as much as the idea of literature—the heroic effort and nobility of our human desire to make beauty of our minds—which moves me to tears, and I have to brush them away, quickly, before anyone notices.
Ruth Ozeki • A Tale for the Time Being: A Novel (ALA Notable Books for Adults)
If I had to guess, I think the general disappearance of good manners has something to do with how we’ve been conditioned to view each other: as things, not people. We see other people as things that can get us things. Maybe we have such little respect for one another because we have such little respect for ourselves. The commodification of the self... See more
Intelligence is a form of friendship with the world. It can’t be cultivated out of fear of it.