https://bsky.app/profile/mikekramer.bsky.socialhttps://bsky.app/profile/mikekramer.bsky.social/post/3lfldflzbjs2iPaul Graham says that writing is thinking. So once people stop writing, because AI does it better, they will stop thinking. But you can write to figure things out without communicating it. Then give it to AI to tailor the message to its audience. You wrote to think. AI wrote to communicate. https://paulgraham.com/writes.html12 Jan 2025 23:03 +0000at://did:plc:oboetvrtrifdrts2jws2kra7/app.bsky.feed.post/3lfldflzbjs2ihttps://bsky.app/profile/mikekramer.bsky.social/post/3ldw2epe2uk2x Yesterday, "Why it matters" in Axios gave a lower-level fact that answered "What happened?" Today's "Why it matters" gives two higher-level facts that suggest what motivated Trump's demand. Why stick to a rigid format for stories where it doesn't work?22 Dec 2024 18:31 +0000at://did:plc:oboetvrtrifdrts2jws2kra7/app.bsky.feed.post/3ldw2epe2uk2xhttps://bsky.app/profile/mikekramer.bsky.social/post/3ldtc5bbqb22i"Why it matters" in Axios, gives lower-level facts. That's not an answer to why? but an answer to what? Conclusion: Trump found the limits to his power. Why? Premise: Trump failed 3 times to get what he wanted. Premise: Anyone who failed 3 times to get what he wanted found the limits to his power.21 Dec 2024 16:12 +0000at://did:plc:oboetvrtrifdrts2jws2kra7/app.bsky.feed.post/3ldtc5bbqb22ihttps://bsky.app/profile/mikekramer.bsky.social/post/3ldqsdpxbxs2pIf you want to make it quick and easy for your audience, wouldn't you structure it like this? 𝗖𝗮𝘂𝘀𝗲: Musk spread false information on X. 𝗘𝗳𝗳𝗲𝗰𝘁: The false information killed a spending bill. 𝗦𝗼 𝘄𝗵𝗮𝘁?: Musk wields enormous political power.20 Dec 2024 16:24 +0000at://did:plc:oboetvrtrifdrts2jws2kra7/app.bsky.feed.post/3ldqsdpxbxs2phttps://bsky.app/profile/mikekramer.bsky.social/post/3ldogenhrac2y"Knowledge relies . . . in judgements, which you discover and polish in conversation with other people or yourself. Therefore you don't learn the details of your argument until speaking or writing it out in detail and looking back critically at the result." --Nancy Jensen McCloskey19 Dec 2024 17:44 +0000at://did:plc:oboetvrtrifdrts2jws2kra7/app.bsky.feed.post/3ldogenhrac2yhttps://bsky.app/profile/mikekramer.bsky.social/post/3l53ukhrn3s2rHarari: "Clearly , then, information cannot be defined as specific types of material objects. Any object--a star, a shutter, a pigeon--can be information in the right context." But today, information technology requires very specific types of material objects found in Taiwan and the Netherlands. [contains quote post or other embedded content]27 Sep 2024 00:06 +0000at://did:plc:oboetvrtrifdrts2jws2kra7/app.bsky.feed.post/3l53ukhrn3s2rhttps://bsky.app/profile/mikekramer.bsky.social/post/3l4zgr6flsx2f Harari opens Nexus with radical idealism: "Information is increasingly seen by many philosophers and biologists, and even by some physicists, as the most basic building block of reality, more elementary than matter and energy." But the difference between clay tablets and newspapers is material. [contains quote post or other embedded content]26 Sep 2024 00:54 +0000at://did:plc:oboetvrtrifdrts2jws2kra7/app.bsky.feed.post/3l4zgr6flsx2fhttps://bsky.app/profile/mikekramer.bsky.social/post/3l4x265jsij23Clay tablets make kingdoms. Newspapers make democracies. Social media make dictatorships. When Yuval Noah Harari's not condemning others for being Marxists, he sounds like a vulgar technological deterministic Marxist.25 Sep 2024 02:03 +0000at://did:plc:oboetvrtrifdrts2jws2kra7/app.bsky.feed.post/3l4x265jsij23https://bsky.app/profile/mikekramer.bsky.social/post/3l4ufkskce32yThis is from Yuval Noah Harari's latest book 𝘕𝘦𝘹𝘶𝘴. So, the arrow represents "is a weapon for the achievement of". I don't think I've ever seen an arrow used that way before.24 Sep 2024 00:49 +0000at://did:plc:oboetvrtrifdrts2jws2kra7/app.bsky.feed.post/3l4ufkskce32yhttps://bsky.app/profile/mikekramer.bsky.social/post/3l4rrpichkj2lA lot of social-science-inspired people seemed to put a lot of faith in standardized tests. I wonder why no one is touting the IQ scores of each new upgrade of LLM.22 Sep 2024 23:49 +0000at://did:plc:oboetvrtrifdrts2jws2kra7/app.bsky.feed.post/3l4rrpichkj2lhttps://bsky.app/profile/mikekramer.bsky.social/post/3l4pcv7ijzd2g1. Are humans powerless in the face of the food environment in contemporary, developed economies? 2. Are humans powerless in the face of the information environment in contemporary, developed economies? Is the answer to both of these questions explained by a common mechanism?22 Sep 2024 00:18 +0000at://did:plc:oboetvrtrifdrts2jws2kra7/app.bsky.feed.post/3l4pcv7ijzd2ghttps://bsky.app/profile/mikekramer.bsky.social/post/3l4kfwa4lbm23Yuval Noah Harari sees AI as an existential threat preying on human gullibility. Hugo Mercier has a sanguine view of AI, since he thinks we're not at all gullible. Two different perspectives. But they both see human institutions as the salvation because the trustworthy ones sort fiction from fact.20 Sep 2024 01:29 +0000at://did:plc:oboetvrtrifdrts2jws2kra7/app.bsky.feed.post/3l4kfwa4lbm23https://bsky.app/profile/mikekramer.bsky.social/post/3l4hwen4vyi2hWhy does the US have so much gun violence? Is it the result of a culture that celebrates violent video games or a legal structure that makes it easy for almost anyone to get their hands on powerful, deadly, weapons?19 Sep 2024 01:45 +0000at://did:plc:oboetvrtrifdrts2jws2kra7/app.bsky.feed.post/3l4hwen4vyi2hhttps://bsky.app/profile/mikekramer.bsky.social/post/3l4ctkfy3md26Assertions of the cultural hegemony of science haven't aged so well. Today skepticism with regard to science might be at an all-time high, at least from my provincial US perspective. [contains quote post or other embedded content]17 Sep 2024 01:12 +0000at://did:plc:oboetvrtrifdrts2jws2kra7/app.bsky.feed.post/3l4ctkfy3md26https://bsky.app/profile/mikekramer.bsky.social/post/3l4agwzqcl22yBarzun decried the cultural imperialism of science, its dominance of the cultural forms of the law, the arts, religion, and philosophy. However, when one country had military bases across the globe to dominate it, he remained mum. And for good reasons. Culture trumps everything. [contains quote post or other embedded content]16 Sep 2024 02:21 +0000at://did:plc:oboetvrtrifdrts2jws2kra7/app.bsky.feed.post/3l4agwzqcl22yhttps://bsky.app/profile/mikekramer.bsky.social/post/3l45lg5l3nn2yCulture is the independent variable for Barzun. Thus, he minimizes social structure's influence, viewing it as a dependent variable. [contains quote post or other embedded content]14 Sep 2024 23:03 +0000at://did:plc:oboetvrtrifdrts2jws2kra7/app.bsky.feed.post/3l45lg5l3nn2yhttps://bsky.app/profile/mikekramer.bsky.social/post/3l43b4wmimx2tBarzun claims that scientific-technological culture determines social structure (276). I think he got it backwards. Of course, it's never that simple. They both affect each other. But it does matter which one weighs more heavily. [contains quote post or other embedded content]14 Sep 2024 00:53 +0000at://did:plc:oboetvrtrifdrts2jws2kra7/app.bsky.feed.post/3l43b4wmimx2thttps://bsky.app/profile/mikekramer.bsky.social/post/3l3xtsljfqo2rI agree with Barzun that modern humans are discontented with their lives. Ben Franklin famously wrote that Europeans who lived among the Native Americans never wanted to return to the White-dominated settlements. Indigenous people who lived among the Europeans never wanted to remain with them. [contains quote post or other embedded content]12 Sep 2024 16:17 +0000at://did:plc:oboetvrtrifdrts2jws2kra7/app.bsky.feed.post/3l3xtsljfqo2rhttps://bsky.app/profile/mikekramer.bsky.social/post/3l3vf3v3qn222Barzun mistitled his book. He should have called it 𝘚𝘤𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦: 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘊𝘢𝘶𝘴𝘦 𝘰𝘧𝘏𝘶𝘮𝘢𝘯 𝘚𝘶𝘧𝘧𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨. [contains quote post or other embedded content]11 Sep 2024 16:48 +0000at://did:plc:oboetvrtrifdrts2jws2kra7/app.bsky.feed.post/3l3vf3v3qn222https://bsky.app/profile/mikekramer.bsky.social/post/3l3sk3tkwu52yI finished Barzun's 𝘚𝘤𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦: 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘎𝘭𝘰𝘳𝘪𝘰𝘶𝘴 𝘌𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘵𝘢𝘪𝘯𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵. I agree that modern humans are discontent, but I don't find his reasoning convincing. However, before I can critique it I want to present it in its strongest form.10 Sep 2024 13:40 +0000at://did:plc:oboetvrtrifdrts2jws2kra7/app.bsky.feed.post/3l3sk3tkwu52yhttps://bsky.app/profile/mikekramer.bsky.social/post/3l3r6zsl7dk2mYou can just transmit information. Or you can transmit information and emotion. [contains quote post or other embedded content]10 Sep 2024 00:49 +0000at://did:plc:oboetvrtrifdrts2jws2kra7/app.bsky.feed.post/3l3r6zsl7dk2m