Michael Brooks

@mike

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A helpful prompt when using AI:

Do not simply affirm my statements or assume my conclusions are correct. Your goal is to be an intellectual sparring partner, not just an agreeable assistant. Every time I present an idea, do the following:

1. Analyze my assumptions. What am I taking for granted that might not be true?

2. Provide counterpoints. What

Remember The New Yorker . You subscribed because you liked it. Then it taunted you with its endless words, pages and pages demanding to be read. It reminded you of all the time you didn’t have to spend reading The New Yorker . Whenever you glimpsed the growing pile, you felt mild panic. Every time you recycled an unread issue, you felt like a... See more

Caroline Cala Donofrio • You Are a Person, Not a Pickle

The mathematical genius Alexander Grothendieck once had a metaphor for solving problems. He suggested that instead of forcing open an impossibly hard kernel with a hammer and chisel, one should simply let it sit in water and wait. Over time, the shell softens and opens with ease. This is also true in writing; time is the only non-substitutable... See more

Epiphanies Come From Waiting

on writing

Writes and Write-Nots

Paul Graham paulgraham.com

ai and on writing

Is writing just writing, or is writing also thinking? In the future, if many of us resort to AI to write, we may be left with people who can’t write at all—which may mean we may lose a generation capable of thinking, too.

“Sometimes fear does not subside and you must do it afraid.”

– Elisabeth Elliot

Indeed the Oak tree King of Limbs, in Britain is over 1,000 years old. It has been growing quietly in place since before the Norman Conquest. The King doesn’t much care about one iPhone model to the next.

Millennia long scales of engagement with the world around us are almost unimaginable when contrasted with the 2 week long Agile sprints popular... See more

That is, to me, everything is fair game. (If something powerful and negative exists in the world and we don’t write about it, what is writing for?)