This is a fantastic distillation of how the last couple weeks have felt - the dizziness-inducing blitz.
My engineer friends I respect do feel the tide is beginning to turn in favor of AI, which I find...disquieting.
But on the other hand, other tides I see appear to be turning as well. I think your brother is right about a lot of things, although I have had a minor spat or two with him about the economy once or twice, because I do think the numbers fail to capture a changed reality - the numbers look good because they are no longer tracking lived experience well; things look good because the upper echelons are propping stuff up, and of course, those echelons are the ones who write the articles and the newspapers and make the media.
When I talk to people who live on the proverbial ground? Different story.
We live in interesting times, but of late, I find it hard to say they are good interesting. I wish they were, but 'Shitty Cyberpunk' feels so much more accurate with every passing year.
You have put a lot of words into a feeling where I struggled to put any, thank you!! And I'm glad I'm not alone. And as always, really well written. Waiting for the book (no pressure but pressure)
I’ve been feeling the breathlessness. My work is more intense, responding to agents I kick off to look into every bug, feature request, infra decision. I’ve been thinking about prioritizing time of really disconnecting and chilling out to balance it out.
I’ve been thinking about, but haven’t read “The Vertigo Years 1900-1914”, a period of so much change people were going insane, which I heard Cory Doctorow recommend on The Honest Broker podcast (and about the same time period, I loved Ragtime at Lincoln Center and plan to see it again!)
This hit, feels like everyone is doomscrolling model releases and calling it history happening. Maybe the real takeoff is us, not the machines, so I’m trying to keep my feet on ground and build boring useful things anyway.
The pace and formatting of this piece are just as dizzying as the reality it describes, well done :)
That's writing, babyyyyyyyy!
Yea, it really is!
Intentionally nauseating? I got the point! +1.
This is a fantastic distillation of how the last couple weeks have felt - the dizziness-inducing blitz.
My engineer friends I respect do feel the tide is beginning to turn in favor of AI, which I find...disquieting.
But on the other hand, other tides I see appear to be turning as well. I think your brother is right about a lot of things, although I have had a minor spat or two with him about the economy once or twice, because I do think the numbers fail to capture a changed reality - the numbers look good because they are no longer tracking lived experience well; things look good because the upper echelons are propping stuff up, and of course, those echelons are the ones who write the articles and the newspapers and make the media.
When I talk to people who live on the proverbial ground? Different story.
We live in interesting times, but of late, I find it hard to say they are good interesting. I wish they were, but 'Shitty Cyberpunk' feels so much more accurate with every passing year.
Getting caught up on some reading today! I very much feel the vertigo as well.
I think one really unique thing right now is that almost everyone is now essentially working on the same problem. Atleast in software.
Looping text images or audio through one of 3 or 4 apis that are all roughly the same.
It’s gives a really large number of people a common thing for good or bad.
You have put a lot of words into a feeling where I struggled to put any, thank you!! And I'm glad I'm not alone. And as always, really well written. Waiting for the book (no pressure but pressure)
I’ve been feeling the breathlessness. My work is more intense, responding to agents I kick off to look into every bug, feature request, infra decision. I’ve been thinking about prioritizing time of really disconnecting and chilling out to balance it out.
I’ve been thinking about, but haven’t read “The Vertigo Years 1900-1914”, a period of so much change people were going insane, which I heard Cory Doctorow recommend on The Honest Broker podcast (and about the same time period, I loved Ragtime at Lincoln Center and plan to see it again!)
Thank you for this recommendation, I'm going to look that up now!
love for sharing this 🫶
This hit, feels like everyone is doomscrolling model releases and calling it history happening. Maybe the real takeoff is us, not the machines, so I’m trying to keep my feet on ground and build boring useful things anyway.
Great post. Nicely done. Better than that LCD Soundsystem song.
Inflection point or infection point? 😉