When AI meets IOT.
Deep dive on Marc Andreessen, including some exploration of his early life in Wisconsin and his new interest in “American dynamism.”
Discussion of ELIZA, computers and people, and how tech mitigates our relationships to ourselves and one another.
A deep dive and new reporting angle on reading programs in public schools from WIRED. Also related.
The art of complaint.
Has the creator window closed? A look at Ravelry.
Octavia Butler, “Devil Girl From Mars”: Why I Write Science Fiction (1998)
First-person account of how one scientist uses AI in a research and academic setting.
MIT on AI and productivity and how it shows up in workstreams today.
New knitting stitch dropped — no pun intended.
Steve Albini on the problem with music, originally printed in 1993 in The Baffler, republished in 2007. It reads from a particular time and place in the music industry.
This one has been in the pile all summer, and I’m glad I set this one aside for now. Lemieux’s personal story is so smart and relatable, she shares without shame, and her voice is light and clear despite navigating often-heavy subject matter.
In particular, I want to tag the last section of the book where Lemieux invited other single mothers to write from their perspectives, centering their voices in their own words, including stories from notable names like Tarana Burke. Timely and well executed.
Finished reading: Black. Single. Mother. by Jamilah Lemieux 📚
Stanford Daily on the drop in Humanities grads, exploring some of the proposed reasons for the drop.
Some blog notes:
- I’m doing most of my writing here via iPhone apps, and tinkering later. This means I’m making a lot of post-publish edits, buyer beware. (Welcome to the indie web where things are forever unfinished.)
- Remember that what makes songs, poems, writing, books, and games mimetic - and websites and platforms - is that they function something like a mirror. Their meanings emerge through interaction and reflection, and you drive (unless an algorithm, or author, or designer, or coder, or instructor drives), while you iterate through your own perspectives and relationships. And today, virality tends to happen when something produces outrage, especially when units of content are removed from their original, and often more local, context.
- Original blogs were considered something in the spirit of “problem-based learning” praxis, and pro-tech, fwiw. A lot of early ed tech started here, all in good faith and tech optimism. Today many blogs are self-marketing machines, but that’s not what I intend to do here. I don’t want a new, glittering platform, I enjoy several already; I’m here to ponder and learn while welcoming comment and critique within open, defined web parameters.
- I’m rusty in this area, though I hear there’s a new Freire documentary online. The neighbors are hosting a yard party with a group showing of Minecraft after dark. I hear kids laughing through the roar of cicadas. There will be a fire. Life is good.
- In my experience: when I read to diagnose rather than understand, I have probably lost the plot.
A detail I find interesting about the education landscape are how many K-12 teachers end up in higher ed, as both professors and administrators. In my experience there are also a glut of former journalists in higher ed communications, though I’m struggling to find good stats.
Matt and Brad on the economics of Vox.
I’m not a terribly crunchy person, but an Aquarius, Leo, Libra, Taurus combo is unbeatable. It’s just praxis.
Currently reading: Black. Single. Mother. by Jamilah Lemieux 📚 Finally tucking into this one, another deft writer with a deceptively light touch.