Having agency, they say, is the only human characteristic that AI can’t replace. Agentic humans do things. They get things done. I’ve written about the need to have more agentic people. But do we need mimetic dudes and dudettes, too? I think so. Mimicry isn’t always bad.
It just occurred to me that I may be at the pinnacle of my evolution. For billions of years, living organisms have evolved to produce me. My ancestors, even the one-celled organisms that preceded them, survived ice ages, volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, floods, wars, mass extinctions, and cataclysmic events. Now, here
I just came from a vacation that I thought I didn't really need. I found myself in awe and grateful for the things that came my way. Wow, I didn't think the islands and the sand and the beaches and the sparkling waters of Islas de
You are what you eat. You are what you think. You are what you do. You are what you spend your time on. You are what excites you. You are what gives you energy. These are reflections of what is important to you. You are what you value.
You may think there's a tradeoff. You can't have both. But it doesn't really matter, unless you are aspiring to compete in the Olympics. Here's a snippet of Peter Attia's article. As a single fiber gets larger, it cannot sustain
“Relax. Don’t use strength.” That’s the usual exhortation of martial arts masters. Indeed, they make it look effortless. One single punch and your opponent flies to the other end of the room. One small flick of the wrist, and he goes to the ground. One slight turn of
Can believing in God amid secularism, individualism, empiricism, rationalism, and all those isms be considered more radical and heretical these days? It’s against reason. It defies logic. It is impractical. Who is more radical? The one who attacks religion as nonsense? Or the one who embraces the divine that
Here's something weird. Many of us believe in science, in facts, in empirical evidence, in experts who did the work of uncovering the truth. It makes sense. We should let logic prevail in most cases. And yet we don't. Does belief in science compel us to
George Orwell, author of Animal Farm and 1984, in his essay "Politics and the English Language", had six rules of writing that I revisit periodically. Published in 1946, the essay, particularly the six rules, remains useful and relevant. i. Never use a metaphor, simile or other figure of
Here are some problems that I think hound our use of AI: 1. Our ability to discern what is good or terrible. With all the slop and seemingly perfect prose we now increasingly and perhaps unwillingly consume, we may lose our “taste” for good writing. 2. Our ability and willingness
Another person’s blunder is your lesson. His defeat is your source of insight. Her setback is your setup for success. It is not schadenfreude. You don’t have to repeat other people’s mistakes to learn, do you? They’re called cautionary tales. Why take the pain to discover
It took Atul Gawande 22 rewrites for his first article in the New Yorker, a 4,000 word piece that launched his writing career. It was painful, for sure. But for him, writing and the arduous process of rewriting gave him energy. This pursuit of what gives him energy became