Mike Monroe

@monroe

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Aside from the doomers who believe that AI will kill us all and the techno-utopians who believe it will solve all of our problems, there are three main ways that people seem to be thinking about AI.

At one extreme, you might fear that AI will take your job. Certainly, you’ve read as much in the press, and it does seem to be getting better and... See more

From Ezra Klein:

AI might be able to churn out content faster than we can, but we still need a human mind to sift through and figure out what’s good. In other words, A.I. is going to turn more of us into editors. But editing is a peculiar skill. It’s hard to test for, or teach, or even describe. But it’s the crucial step in the creative process that

On writing

True loyalty is emotional and irrational, and often at odds with our survival instinct. To achieve it, brands are better off with membership programs than the point schemes. Figuring out a good membership scenario is even more important today with a proliferation of subscription models, private chat rooms, and an ever-increasing costs of paid... See more

Ana Andjelic • From Loyalty to Membership

Do this, get that

Incentives are the strongest force in the world. They explain why good people do awful things, why smart people do stupid things, and why ordinary people do amazing things. Nearly everyone underestimates how much their own beliefs and actions are influenced by their incentives, many of which are designed to fulfill someone else’s goals.

Morgan Housel • Big Beliefs

Time, priority, & purpose

meaningful identity, belonging, and purpose found in materialism (I am what I have), consumerism (I am meant to acquire), perfectionism (I am what I do), rationalism (I am the final word), stoicism (I am unaffected by you), romanticism (I am my emotions), hedonism (I am my greatest pleasure), or postmodernism (I am what I say I am).

Mason King • A Short Guide to Spiritual Disciplines: How to Become a Healthy Christian

Identity

Far too often, the money that companies spend on digital marketing is just lit on fire. All the companies are competing for all of the same shoppers using higher bids as their only advantage. Swaypay flips that on its head. It amplifies an existing behavior - people telling friends about the things they bought - and rewards shoppers for doing so.... See more

Packy McCormick • Swaypay: Not Boring Investment Memo

Do this, get that

Since the beginning of time, the answer to “What do you do?” could be answered with one word.

Finance. Sales. Education.

But today, most jobs exist in liminal spaces: Kind of like this but also not quite that.

It may have been fair to think that any explanation longer than a one-word, universally understood, job title was just an attempt to look

Alex Tan • #059 Environment Design

Teaching & Storytelling

Lots of people worry that AI will replace human writers. But I know something the computer doesn’t know, which is what it feels like inside my head. There is no text, no .jpg, no .csv that contains this information, because it is ineffable. My job is to carve off a sliver of the ineffable, and to eff it.

(William Wordsworth referred to this as... See more

Adam Mastroianni • 28 Slightly Rude Notes on Writing