Among many other things, this week I was grateful for: The invention of general anesthesia.1 FaceTiming old friends Dreams Strangers writing in my blog’s guestbook and emailing me.2 The Pitt The thought that almost every problem can be solved I started reading Ether Day by Julie Fenster last night, and wow I’m glad...

I’ve been searching for a solution to replace Ulysses as my writing app. Ulysses is wonderful but has some major bugs that have existed for too long to ignore. In my search for something new, Ellipsus kept getting recommended as an “anti-AI” writing tool and I got curious. Ellipsus certainly says the right things....

I’ve seen a lot written on the unexpected dangers of letting LLMs run amok in society. Some of the consequences of opening Pandora's box include: AI-induced psychosis, the break-down of truth, proliferation of slop, disregard of human creativity, and collapse of cognitive function. But I have yet to see much written...

In May of 2023, Google introduced “AI overviews” into their search engine.1 This followed years of decisions leading to worse search quality and the consummation of their mission to answer every query on Google instead of sending you to outside sites. This was upsetting but something I groaned about and then moved...

This document serves as a page I can send friends when I think they should start a blog (hi, friend). But It also applies generally to anyone who is capable of writing. I enjoy our conversations and think you have many good thoughts. I would like to read what you think. A blog will give you a place to publish...

The weather in the northeast was hard to pass up this week. Felt spoiled. Here are some things I was grateful for this past week: The smell of old shops and blooming flowers in Georgetown Finding a really good book Gyros Tour guides at museums Live music Public transit Note: this was actually posted March 1st, I...

I recently read a piece on reading fiction instead of self-help. It's great and you should read it. But it also got me thinking. Is "self-help" really an alternative to fiction? Good nonfiction feels like the real alternative to fiction. To most people, nonfiction is either those pseudo-psychological ramblings, or...

The Bear dashboard hurts my eyes. But that's okay because it's customizable! I've revamped it to use Rosé Pine Dawn and Catpuccin Frappe colors (these are also colors used on my site). Here's what it looks like: You'll notice I've also added some other nifty features that Bear dashboard does not have by default....

I recently posted about how you shouldn’t write for length. But I don’t think you should write for brevity either. Instead, get every thought you have on the page. Then, go through each sentence and reduce it to its essentials. cut, cut, cut When you’re finally happy with the result, read it again. This post wasn't...

During this penultimate week of February, here are a few things I am grateful for: Book shops Talking to strangers Orange blossom mochas The rain Pen and paper writing Dungeons and Dragons unfortunately

I've been using Bear Hug's fun note styles and wave-y seperator on this blog. But I keep getting pulled out of the writing process once I put a bunch of html on the page. I came across Better Admonitions for Bear Blog, which lists out a fascinating way to pass through custom CSS to markdown's built-in quote parsing....

Artificial intelligence is science fiction. No one has ever created "intelligence" in the form of a computer program. And it is debatable that anyone ever will. When people say "AI," they really mean LLMs (and occasionally other forms of machine learning). As I think about my stance on "AI," I am just talking about...