Tuesday Things
Some more things that piqued my interest this week
“You’re Doing Great”
I don’t know about you, but I really enjoy sharing on my friends when they’re doing hard things. I really enjoy cheering on strangers when they are doing hard things. One of the reasons the best day in New York is marathon day is because there are roughly 50,000 people doing something hard and the city comes out to support them. Last year on Brendan Leonard’s Patreon, I commented that I was going to have a T-shirt printed up for marathon season that said “you’re doing great”. Brendan reached out to me and said he would make the shirt. We then decided to donate 50% of the profits to a charity of my suggestion which was the venture out project.
I really love this T-shirt. I wear it proudly. You can find it here. You should probably subscribe to Brendan‘s newsletter. And you should definitely order the T-shirt
“Orbital” by Samantha Harvey
Yes, it won the Booker prize. That should be enough for most people. However, literary fiction with a philosophical bent centerboard a space station in this case the ISS, that focuses on the internal monologues of the main characters and takes place over 24 hour period, may not be the book for everyone. At least it may not be the book for everyone the way it’s described.
My argument is that it’s beautiful. They’re so a few books these days that just stay with me. And part of it is because I’m an old person so the idea is that I’m being introduced to are not novel. In this case, however it’s a book about loss and grief and loneliness set in space. About the greatness and weaknesses that we have as individuals and as a species.
If you don’t find that intriguing, you’re not gonna like the book. If you don’t want a book that does not hold your hand, but allows you to finish the book with out a clear understanding of authorial intent, I recommend this.
Gym Style
One of the newsletters that I subscribed to sent this to me.
https://valetmag.com/style/mens-outfit-inspiration/gym-workout/
I really don’t know what to say. As someone who works out a lot, I have a lot of of gym clothes. Yes, I have a favorite pair of shorts, yes, I have a favorite sweatshirt, and yes, I have a favorite T-shirt.
Have I ever thought that I needed to up my workout gear game?
No.
Does a $300 fleece pullover make my intervals faster or my weight workouts more explosive? Who is this article for?
I know a lot of gymbros and running guys, and very few of them look at it as a fashion show. Maybe it’s a generational thing? Maybe I’m just old and out of touch.
I know nothing about Quantum Mechanics
And I still know nothing but I learned some interesting ideas in this YouTube video that I watched at 5:30 on Saturday morning.
The Problem with pretending that Quantum Mechanics makes sense with Sean Carroll.
For some reason, I started reading this, Quantum Mechanics and the Philosophy of Alfred North Whitehead, and I am not going to pretend that I know what’s going on however, I really enjoy being challenged by a subject matter that is so far afield from what I believe that I understand and I am learning little snippets of information that delight me.
AI & You
Over the past couple of days I’ve had a number of conversations and they all came down to the ethics of using a large language model to do work for you. One of the conversations was because a friend who is an academic was having trouble parsing a résumé as it was filled with weird spacing and bolding. The conversation then turned to the use of ATS making the first pass at résumés submit. Yes, I will use Gemini to optimize my résumé for ATS when I submit it for a job. Now I don’t feel good about it, but it is just where we are.
Then it was using a LLM to modify a photo to make it look as if it were something from pop culture. No, there’s no need to do this. There is no ethical reason to do this. That being said, I looked awesome as a Muppet.
And then there’s this. One would think that they would not have to take the shortcut to submit a filing. That’s literally their job. But you see this more and more. There was an article a couple of years ago about how the consultant class would be decimated by the large scale adoption of LLMs and that may come to pass (though the librarian telling me that everything that I do can be done by Google hasn’t come to pass yet so… there we are.) but right now when I refer to an academic study of organizational dynamics, or guidance from a state,federal, or local Department of Labor, I know it’s not an “hallucination” or that it is trying to placate me because I’m referring to the primary sources.
Using AI Does Not Replace Good Lawyering
