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.”
In relationship to collectors, purchases of physical media are on the rise, with vinyl outselling everything, and cassette tapes, CDs and DVDs making a comeback. I’m a longtime downloader and streamer, but have been buying vinyl lately myself. Indicative of lost trust in Big Tech?
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.
A clever look at feminist theory through celebrity case studies. My favorite chapters were on humor, leadership and nudity.
Finished reading: Too Fat, Too Slutty, Too Loud by Anne Helen Petersen 📚
All the women I know are reading and gardening at a feral clip.
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.
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.
The Bookshelves feature of Micro.blog is easily my favorite of this platform. It sits right at the intersection of medium and function: as a reader I want to keep track of things, but I don’t need so much infrastructure around it. Just some checkmarks and a place to dash off my immediate thoughts.
I’ve been keeping my virtual bookshelf up to date while pushing myself to take on a bunch of literary fiction, but I’m tired, reader. So instead of laboring on with a pile of good books I didn’t really want to read, I lined up a bunch of rock n’ roll memoirs for the summer while I manifest camping, hammocks and time otherwise spent by a lake.
My posts from micro.blog are pushing to Mastodon but not Bluesky. Why?
Two new media publishers are looking to build out their presence in the Fediverse: digiday.com/media/why…
I very much enjoyed this book. Despite the heavy subjects, ultimately culminating in a reflection on the ongoing conflict in Palestine that can’t be missed, it was a compelling read that I’ve returned to many times as a reference. The mirror as metaphor for the inexplicable stories in the news.
Finished reading: Doppelganger: A Trip into the Mirror World by Naomi Klein 📚
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.
Just finished rereading “Station Eleven” for my beloved book club. It’s so well-written that I find myself annoyed and jealous by it, it’s that good. It makes me consider the legacy of art-making - grassroots, human-made art - and its role in crafting meaning and beauty out of the grind of living.