I commend you for not second guessing yourself… and for wearing the PPE in the first place.

Good for you! Again and again people underestimate the impact of chronic hazards which can be just as detrimental as the acute hazards in our lives. Hopefully some of your studio mates second guessed themselves when they saw you properly donning safety gear.

Gormless… I do say, that’s a nice woooody word… quite woody indeed. Goooormmmmlessss.

Someone who always acts in bad faith can be trusted to act in bad faith… and that means you shouldn’t trust them with anything you care about. A person who always acts in good faith can be trusted and distrust is unnecessary. A person who waffles or does neither should be avoided.

Yes, no, yes, yes. 1 and 3 are not mutually exclusive, but 2 and 4 are.

There’s a sun in there somewhere…..
#BlueSkyArtShow
#Shiny
#EastCoastKin

This is in the same vein as a thought of mine… almost all people can be trusted. It’s just that some can be trusted to act in good faith and others can be trusted to act in bad faith (or at least always in accordance with their personal interests). Those few who can’t be trusted should be avoided.

If you had two, put a pole in each set of grooves, and tied the poles to each other at each end, now you have a bookshelf. I feel like that’s a very good shape for a divergent thinking exercise. Keep it up. Sometimes the end is the end, sometimes the process is the end.

If one were to advise an aspiring reader on their literary journey from day zero to Tolstoy this would not be a bad list to ease them on their way.

It is a shame the word “estranged” has such a negative connotation. I suppose we must encourage ourselves to learn to “detach”. But I’m still not opposed to amping up to full estrangement when warranted. There are things you detach from & others you want to be so far in the past as to be strange.

And better for you than the Big Mac meal!

Be like the bird, who
pausing in his flight
On limb too slight
feels it give way beneath him
Yet sings
Knowing he has wings.

― Victor Hugo, The Bird
#Poetry

Bookplate with a series of six images illustrating a stick figure from the purchase of their first book to their books being unceremoniously tossed after death. Text reads "EX LIBRIS KNUD SCHØNBERG"

Are YOU the most depressing book plate ever? YES, You ARE!

“Totalitarianism in power invariably replaces all first-rate talents, regardless of their sympathies, with those crackpots and fools whose lack of intelligence and creativity is still the best guarantee of their loyalty.”

― Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism

Oxford Researchers Discovered How to Use AI To Learn Like A Genius YouTube video by Python Programmer

3/3 always ask it for the contrary arguments but this is a typical blind spot even without LLM’s. This guy’s video did a great job of advising how to use LLM’s as a tool and avoid brain rot. youtu.be/TPLPpz6dD3A?...

2/3 People should be trained to ask the question, give their answer, and then ask the LLM if they missed anything. Also you can’t trust anything it says and always must request citations with the answers and give order of preference (peer reviewed journals > government databases > Wikipedia). Also,

1/3 I agree with the points in the article but what’s the next step? This is only discussing the negatives. For good or ill LLM’s are only becoming more pervasive, so let’s figure out the good. LLM’s should be a means, not an end. You will cede all your cognitive skills if you only ask for answers.

Linked article with studies on impact of LLM use to cognitive decline… BUT what’s the next step?? My thoughts in the replies…

Oxford Researchers Discovered How to Use AI To Learn Like A Genius YouTube video by Python Programmer

3/3 always ask it for the contrary arguments but this is a typical blind spot even without LLM’s. This guy’s video did a great job of advising how to use LLM’s as a tool and avoid brain rot. youtu.be/TPLPpz6dD3A?...

2/3 People should be trained to ask the question, give their answer, and then ask the LLM if they missed anything. Also you can’t trust anything it says and always must request citations with the answers and give order of preference (peer reviewed journals > government databases > Wikipedia). Also,

1/3 I agree with the points in the article but what’s the next step? This is only discussing the negatives. For good or ill LLM’s are only becoming more pervasive, so let’s figure out the good. LLM’s should be a means, not an end. You will cede all your cognitive skills if you only ask for answers.

Hi. Question from an inexperienced person… why are some of these portraits done over letters? The regular spacing of the letters make it seem planned rather than a later drawing done later over the written work.

Another year, another...Sitewide Summer Sale. www.nyrb.com

📢 📢 THE SITEWIDE SUMMER SALE IS ON 📢 📢
Buy 2 books and save 20%
3 books and save 30%
4 or more books and save 40%

Some reasons:
- Good intentions, as yet unrealized
- Unrealistic expectations that will never materialize
- Seeking an aspirational connection to intellectual or spiritual ideas; the idea of being part of something
- Wanting to show support to a worthwhile idea even with no intention to read

In case you're wondering, authoritarians use this strategy of escalation to manufacture crisis, provoke outrage, then use the reaction to justify repression. It’s not about restoring order, it's about creating a spectacle of chaos they can claim only they can control.

What to expect next:

– Escalation framed as “restoring order”
– Mass arrests under vague pretexts
– Targeting of protest organisers and journalists
– Expansion of emergency powers
– Demonisation of dissent as “terrorism”

We are close to the final transition of WWII being a firsthand experience and second hand memory to just a chapter in the history book that most never get to by school year’s end. The fading & dissolution of lost memories of total war, its pain and repercussions, are evident in our daily discourse.

The pendulum doth swing
An extremum obscene.

over time. I’m sure there’s a more academic way to express this with mimesis and validation seeking being greater motivators than Western individualism drivers, but you get the gist. I don’t know if this observation tracks in non-Western and/or less economically developed societies.

Most Western persons want to be unique and occupy some special echelon, but not in a vacuum. What good is being unique if no one recognizes it. But when someone achieves recognition, others notice and seek recognition with a “similar but tweaked” uniqueness. It all converges (/regresses) to the mean