Really digging the Wallace-esque footnote formatting on these. I think it would be fun to see an edition of the newsletter that was like two paragraphs followed by 4k words of footnotes. I'd immediately pay another $40 a month to be able to connect ChatGPT to my Evernote and just conversationally chat with it.
One day I'll release "Footnote Frenzy," a 10x10 grid of exclusively footnotes, and within each one will be cryptic puzzles, that, if solved, reveal my private Bitcoin key.
Seriously though, footnotes add a lot to the process. They allow me to nerd out and follow tangents without sabotaging the essay. Never sure if people experience them, since the inline format only comes through on 1 of 4 formats (desktop browser). Thanks for encouraging more of this.
Re: Evernote -- I wonder if the new Chat GPT API can work with the Readwise API. I won't pretend I know how to do any of this, but I kind of want to learn. Chat GPT is basically AI with all the default settings. When you can train it on your writing/notes, and even tweak the voice parameters, it really opens up what you can do.
Amazing post Michael! It really opened my perspective on how AI can supporting writing. Interestingly, I'm currently building an AI Note app with similar vision. You can converse with your notes, search for them using natural language, and it also automatically suggest relevant notes to what you are typing.
While it's not yet at the level discussed in your post, I'd love to hear your thoughts and feedback if possible, at https://saner.ai/
You are too kind Michael. For the record, it was an honor to bring what I know of my Latin heritage to the Greek world you had already brought to the page. I would attribute any illusion of my encyclopedic knowledge to an early learning of sed, grep, awk and some basic data structures. All tools future writers will hopefully not need for aggregating and parsing civilization spanning volumes of information.
This sentence is spot on:
"Like all new technologies, it will create a gap between those who harness the technology and those who don’t."
The Dean does it again! Hope all is well with you man!
"Like all new technologies, it will create a gap between those who harness the technology and those who don’t.¹⁶" I am leaning toward the side of the gap that you predict is going to be left behind. One of the "who don't" hold outs. But somehow I like that idea. I'm not sure why. Perhaps it's just my age. I have an old-school feeling that the information I don't have, the quotes I can't recall, and the common knowledge I never retrieved might, in ten years time, provide a moment of quirky delight for somebody who discovers that they like to read writing that is not cluttered with relevancy.
Appreciate you sharing this Rick, and I agree with what you're saying on many levels.
1) I'll always trust the natural mind & the subconscious more than a synthetic version of it.
2) Forgetting is a good filter for compression. Jordan Peterson goes through a systematic process to shape ideas into a first draft, and then starts over from memory to see what was important enough to make it through again.
3) I'd also vote for quirky delight over a 'Factoid-Frankenstein' -- there's definitely a risk of over-indexing on research and losing touch with prose & expression. U
Ultimately, I think that POP writing is a moat, and antidote against AI-generated content. A person that a) writes from their experience, b) uses their intuition to shape insights, and c) has an unpredictable sense of humor and style, will always beat a predictable AI.
That said though, I think somehow who knows POP writing and uses AI is in an interesting place. Dan Shipper uploaded 10 years of journals into an AI, so he has something that's trained on his real experience -- it's augments the personal dimension. This whole article about re:collect augments the observational dimension. I'm sure we'll see "voice machines" that let you dial in on style in a very specific way.
At the moment, the technology is still new, meaning 1) the products that are public and easy to use (Chat GPT) can be underwhelming, limited, and robotic feeling, and 2) the personalized use cases of AI require some technical knowledge (which I don't have).
With time though, I'd hope that people can interface with it in their own unique way, without needing any technical knowledge. It's nuts that people are writing apps now through natural language instead of coding. Hopefully this means that no one gets left behind from a skill asymmetry. It's more about people's openness to experiment and play with it.
Thanks for the useful and detailed reply. Obviously there are a lot of places to land on the spectrum between “use” and “don’t use.” And I honestly don’t expect remain isolated from the blended possibilities. But I do know that if the use of tech makes writing less fun and diminishes the excitement and creativity of personal discovery, I’ll skip it. But I’m sure you’re correct that something unobtrusively useful is bound to be coming.
Love it -- 'excitement, creativity, and personal discovery' -- we should measure the value of a tool to the degree that it gives us momentum, enable us to think differently, and learn about ourselves.
This is excellent, Michael. Will check out re:collect immediately, thank you! Sounds like a paradigm shift. And in the awesomeness of it all, this had me think and laugh so hard my head’s in pain: “A hundred lifetimes of synthetic wisdom is prepared in the time it takes for you to release a single bowel movement.” :)
Thanks Silvio -- I was 50/50 on keeping that line, so I'm glad I did! I don't mean to cause head trauma, but that line is an awesome testimonial. I've been enjoying your essays (especially the Zappa one). Keep it up!
Really digging the Wallace-esque footnote formatting on these. I think it would be fun to see an edition of the newsletter that was like two paragraphs followed by 4k words of footnotes. I'd immediately pay another $40 a month to be able to connect ChatGPT to my Evernote and just conversationally chat with it.
One day I'll release "Footnote Frenzy," a 10x10 grid of exclusively footnotes, and within each one will be cryptic puzzles, that, if solved, reveal my private Bitcoin key.
Seriously though, footnotes add a lot to the process. They allow me to nerd out and follow tangents without sabotaging the essay. Never sure if people experience them, since the inline format only comes through on 1 of 4 formats (desktop browser). Thanks for encouraging more of this.
Re: Evernote -- I wonder if the new Chat GPT API can work with the Readwise API. I won't pretend I know how to do any of this, but I kind of want to learn. Chat GPT is basically AI with all the default settings. When you can train it on your writing/notes, and even tweak the voice parameters, it really opens up what you can do.
Amazing post Michael! It really opened my perspective on how AI can supporting writing. Interestingly, I'm currently building an AI Note app with similar vision. You can converse with your notes, search for them using natural language, and it also automatically suggest relevant notes to what you are typing.
While it's not yet at the level discussed in your post, I'd love to hear your thoughts and feedback if possible, at https://saner.ai/
World-class, cutting-edge thinking, Michael, matched by your pitch-perfect writing style. Thank you.
You are too kind Michael. For the record, it was an honor to bring what I know of my Latin heritage to the Greek world you had already brought to the page. I would attribute any illusion of my encyclopedic knowledge to an early learning of sed, grep, awk and some basic data structures. All tools future writers will hopefully not need for aggregating and parsing civilization spanning volumes of information.
This sentence is spot on:
"Like all new technologies, it will create a gap between those who harness the technology and those who don’t."
The Dean does it again! Hope all is well with you man!
"Like all new technologies, it will create a gap between those who harness the technology and those who don’t.¹⁶" I am leaning toward the side of the gap that you predict is going to be left behind. One of the "who don't" hold outs. But somehow I like that idea. I'm not sure why. Perhaps it's just my age. I have an old-school feeling that the information I don't have, the quotes I can't recall, and the common knowledge I never retrieved might, in ten years time, provide a moment of quirky delight for somebody who discovers that they like to read writing that is not cluttered with relevancy.
Appreciate you sharing this Rick, and I agree with what you're saying on many levels.
1) I'll always trust the natural mind & the subconscious more than a synthetic version of it.
2) Forgetting is a good filter for compression. Jordan Peterson goes through a systematic process to shape ideas into a first draft, and then starts over from memory to see what was important enough to make it through again.
3) I'd also vote for quirky delight over a 'Factoid-Frankenstein' -- there's definitely a risk of over-indexing on research and losing touch with prose & expression. U
Ultimately, I think that POP writing is a moat, and antidote against AI-generated content. A person that a) writes from their experience, b) uses their intuition to shape insights, and c) has an unpredictable sense of humor and style, will always beat a predictable AI.
That said though, I think somehow who knows POP writing and uses AI is in an interesting place. Dan Shipper uploaded 10 years of journals into an AI, so he has something that's trained on his real experience -- it's augments the personal dimension. This whole article about re:collect augments the observational dimension. I'm sure we'll see "voice machines" that let you dial in on style in a very specific way.
At the moment, the technology is still new, meaning 1) the products that are public and easy to use (Chat GPT) can be underwhelming, limited, and robotic feeling, and 2) the personalized use cases of AI require some technical knowledge (which I don't have).
With time though, I'd hope that people can interface with it in their own unique way, without needing any technical knowledge. It's nuts that people are writing apps now through natural language instead of coding. Hopefully this means that no one gets left behind from a skill asymmetry. It's more about people's openness to experiment and play with it.
Thanks for the useful and detailed reply. Obviously there are a lot of places to land on the spectrum between “use” and “don’t use.” And I honestly don’t expect remain isolated from the blended possibilities. But I do know that if the use of tech makes writing less fun and diminishes the excitement and creativity of personal discovery, I’ll skip it. But I’m sure you’re correct that something unobtrusively useful is bound to be coming.
Love it -- 'excitement, creativity, and personal discovery' -- we should measure the value of a tool to the degree that it gives us momentum, enable us to think differently, and learn about ourselves.
This is excellent, Michael. Will check out re:collect immediately, thank you! Sounds like a paradigm shift. And in the awesomeness of it all, this had me think and laugh so hard my head’s in pain: “A hundred lifetimes of synthetic wisdom is prepared in the time it takes for you to release a single bowel movement.” :)
Thanks Silvio -- I was 50/50 on keeping that line, so I'm glad I did! I don't mean to cause head trauma, but that line is an awesome testimonial. I've been enjoying your essays (especially the Zappa one). Keep it up!
Sir, how do I get into re:collect? I've requested access several times (maybe that's why?)
Let me look into this and get back to you. My guess is they onboard in batches in between product updates.