AI-driven bots are disrupting web traffic— “and may also be inflating the internet economy by distorting the very metrics that drive tech company valuations.”
AI
What makes AI generative? “To choose well between billions of things is difficult. To choose between effectively infinite options perfectly is impossible.”
“In 2024, there were a total of 454 words used excessively by chatbots, the researchers report.” When does use of AI tip over into something fraudulent? Experts disagree.
A cool sustainability story out of Madison: “Birds did not evolve with windows, so [they] have little to no ability to identify them as solid, transparent objects…” sustainability.wisc.edu/bird-safe…
“The world’s most valuable companies are based in the United States, built on foundations of government-funded university research.” open.substack.com/pub/edtec…
Of course Jean Grae has a striking narrative voice and point of view. My hero. Currently reading: In My Remaining Years by Jean Grae 📚
An interesting take on why we like AI for coding but not for writing. www.linkedin.com/pulse/cre…
Currently reading: In My Remaining Years by Jean Grae 📚
Which AI applications do what best - and how to think about it. www.vox.com/future-pe…
Still maintaining this sprawling 1200+ song playlist of indie music across genres, focused on women vocalists and players. open.spotify.com/playlist/…
⚡ A trust-building exercise in an era of "flooding the zone"
Monday, February 10, 2025
While institutions are backing away from making position statements, news outlets are making lengthy statements of intent. This one from Madison is interesting because it also acknowledges that a portion of their audience may be intentionally avoiding news about the White House. This is a traditional trust-building strategy applied in a new way: explaining how the news outlet plans to allocate their resources in an era of “flooding the zone.”
Isthmus: isthmus.com/opinion/f…
Thursday, September 19, 2024 →
“To create a novel or a painting, an artist makes choices that are fundamentally alien to artificial intelligence.”
🍳 Meat People
Sunday, July 28, 2024
This butchery on the east side of Madison is owner-operated, and features meats only from local, humane farms. In addition, they are a “whole animal” butcher, in that they buy and break down a whole animal at a time, thus offering an array of extremely fresh products from sausage to steaks to specialty cuts (picanha, anyone?). One of the owners was working the counter this Saturday when we came in and greeted us with some suggestions for the day. We got a few pounds of pork shoulder to make carnitas at home, and while they were preparing our order, I perused the grocery area.
It’s clear that whoever curates their grocery knows their stuff. They had great fixings to pair with their meats, including a selection of curated wines, hot sauces and other sundry that reflect thoughtful food experience, travel and research. I got some wine, a series of hot sauces, and some tinned fish. Our tacos were delicious.
⚡ Acceleration
Tuesday, June 25, 2024
This has a bad headline, but the gist is that AI is already beginning to be used to power racketeering and ransom business models against vulnerable human enterprises. The net effect is a general erosion of the trustworthiness of written communication, especially online, as the same tools we use to perform our work and extend our social lives are increasingly used to scam us.
I read this again after a twenty year break. It holds up, but wowzers, my takeaways were different in 2024. Finished reading: The Red Tent by Anita Diamant 📚
“Again and again, I sought out high-challenge, high-stress jobs. I thrived when I felt bad.”
61% of Americans are self-proclaimed collectors. 83% of collectors think their collection will be worth something someday. Young people identify as collectors more than ever, with Gen Z at 76% and millennials at 72%.
Starting to see some best practices emerging around AI capabilities in the higher ed space. Here’s a table of AI vs human capabilities in the Bloom’s hierarchy of cognitive tasks from Oregon State.
Maybe it’s because I’ve been reading so much, maybe it’s because I’m in a reflective stage of life, but I have the writing bug again. It’s been a long, long time since I felt the urge to write.
From the Garbage Day newsletter, my fav newsletter on internet trends and marketing, this blog post on looking for federated blog alternatives to Wordpress which links out to this handy dashboard measuring total users on federated platforms.
Girl in a Band
Monday, June 3, 2024
A quick read by a singular voice, heavy on descriptions of the New York art and music scene of the 90s. Like many punk memoirs, it’s a tribute to the many names that made the movement and a memorial for a city that no longer exists. Gordon’s voice is kind and bold, curious and smart. Her descriptions of growing up in LA and coming of age in New York are painterly and poetic. Her takes are generous for all but one person: her ex-husband.
All my respect to her for opening and closing the books with her raw reflections on Thurston’s mundane and deeply uncool betrayal.
Finished reading: Girl in a Band by Kim Gordon 📚
Why are divorce memoirs stuck in the 1960s? A fair question, I say. www.nytimes.com/2024/05/2…
The relevance of these authors, imo, is about women’s buying power in the ex-evangelical and ex-Mormon movement. But I think it’s pretty difficult to think publicly about ideas like liberation or, say, bodily autonomy when you aren’t regularly entertaining trans politics or questioning carceral politics.
Currently watching how AI will affect SEO and search: www.forbes.com/sites/for…
It’s spring, so my lizard brain is locked on the excitement of garden-planning. The backyard is a blank slate, virtually untouched for ten years until we moved in and removed a wild grapevine so overgrown it looked like a hedge. I have my work cut out for me.
I got to eat at my first Michelin star restaurant this weekend, Kasama in Chicago, which you may recognize from The Bear. We braved the line during the day to try their daytime menu, including a hearty breakfast and a selection of lovely, delicate pastries. Beautiful food, worth a wait.
Also in arts and crafts: On the revival of blacksmithing in Kentucky.
🧶 Craft Work: On a Joann's bankruptcy and the struggling retail craft market
Wednesday, March 6, 2024
The internet says Joann fabrics is going to declare bankruptcy, putting a huge market of individual crafters without access to in-person retail craft spaces into a tailspin. It’s likely they will ask their creditors to restructure their debt, making them able to keep some stores open. The whole market relies heavily on in-person shopping (it’s a textural and sensory shopping experience, which is the point!) and hasn’t pivoted well to e-commerce.
This is one of my favorite pet subjects. Globally, the arts and crafts market overwhelmingly caters to women and children and it’s HUGE, commanding a very dedicated and loyal customer base. And still, it struggles.
Despite an influx of crafters during the shutdown, retail craft stores have struggled to strike a balance between sustainable e-commerce and in-person retail strategies. Other issues: For months after the pandemic, the Joann’s in my neighborhood struggled to keep the place stocked and staffed, exacerbated by skyrocketing shipping costs and shifts in the retail worker market after the shutdowns. Kids went back to school, cooling the market for arts and crafts activities on which to spend their time. And with lagging incomes and cost of living increases eating into people’s spending money, customers just don’t have the bandwidth they may be used to.
In my experience, customers don’t love shopping at a Michaels or a Joann’s, but they appreciate the ability to get what they need, mostly on demand, and to do so in-person where you can handle the materials before you buy them. Fiber arts people, for example, put a lot of importance on the weight, texture and color of their tools and materials - and for good reason! Pleasant tools make for a pleasant experience - and for pleasant outcomes. Indie retailers corner this market by keeping inventory low, building relationships with customers, creating affinity using social media marketing and by nurturing community with digital learning and forums. Crafters from around the world can share tricks, tools, patterns and finished items with like-minded people. The large-scale retailers can’t compete with that and haven’t really tried.
It’s unclear what’s next, but I’m thinking of all the people who live in places that can’t sustain a standalone fabric or yarn store. Rural makers can sometimes find tools and materials in resale markets like Facebook Marketplace, and sometimes you can find decent stuff at the local flea, or at specialty shop, such as a small machine repair shop that works on sewing machines. A lot of those folks won’t have a store to go to, and will have to travel to shop in person or resort to online retailers that don’t meet their needs.
Relinquished: The Politics of Adoption and the Privilege of American Motherhood
Wednesday, February 28, 2024
I’ve been waiting for this one because it’s a story I know well. It is an impeccably reported book covering how young women navigated a compromised, stigmatized, coercive landscape around unplanned pregnancies in the late 20th century. Sisson is a comprehensive writer whose reporting is deeply empathetic, based on her personal experience as an activist and academic working in reproductive justice alongside extensive research. She discusses the history of the adoption movement at length, connecting it to other institutional family separation movements, and considers it alongside the choice to abort unplanned pregnancies and against the decision to parent anyway, often in a deeply compromised social and political climate.
My deep appreciation to her for telling these stories and telling them well.
Currently reading: Relinquished by Gretchen Sisson 📚
The new provost is an interesting person and an ultra-charismatic speaker, which makes for a p good podcast. madison.citycast.fm/podcasts/…
U of M not selling student data (yet)
Friday, February 16, 2024
This story spun up yesterday with broad outcry from academics, and with good reason. Institutions needs to define and clarify their relationship to tech in order to assuage ongoing concerns about monetization in a fast-moving landscape. gizmodo.com/universit…