{D} 142: Did you sleep with your ex?

pics + links + guilt // photos are doorways

I was sitting in the theater yesterday. Dark walls and bright screen. The movie had just begun. Then my phone vibrated.

One vibration, a pause. Another. Another. That must be Maru, I thought. On the screen a zombie chased a child.

Had I done something wrong? Left the dishes in the sink? Slept with an ex in my dreams? I walked out of the theater into the light.

(5:10) There’s a fucking scorpion in our bedroom!!!

Oh, I said to an empty hallway.

(5:31) But our new neighbor from 302 is a biologist and she’s in our bedroom catching the scorpion

Oh, I said again.

(5:31) With a blue light

Sure.

(5:31) Bc she used to catch and breed scorpions

I blinked and looked at the screen.

-s.

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• “You sound like ChatGPT”. The other day I slacked a friend about who the kids thought were the popular drag queens these days. My friend screenshotted her 15yo niece’s imessage response that seemed, to my ear, like it was written in that pervasive, structured, semi-formal LLM manner of bloodless speaking. “Forgive me,” I replied, “but … did your niece use ChatGPT to write that?” The deepest risk is not language uniformity but losing conscious control over our own expression. [The Verge]

• “In this study we demonstrate the pressing matter of a likely decrease in learning skills [among people who used an LLM]”. [MIT: Your Brain on ChatGPT]

• “The cure for our techno-political nightmares is using your brain to escape into the universal” [The Trend Report]

• How I’m Fixing My Broken Attention Span. “One told me she’s taken up pottery simply because having clay all over her hands prevents her from picking up her phone for a few hours a week.” // my two abe lincolns: it’s not about fixing your attention span, it’s about finding something you love to do. Not will power against but attraction toward. Flip it and reverse it. [Vulture]

• “The wanting was the fun part” [Baron Ryan]

• PaperPanda and Unpaywall are two Chrome extensions that help you search the web for scientific papers // OA.mg has all open access papers // Anna’s Archive is big // LibGen has all the books // SciHub if not // arXiv.org might have the pre-print // r/scholar might be able to help, post a request // Z-Library has pirated books but move around a lot (use a VPN) // of course you could always email the author //

• Last 15 years: tech writers → gossip columnists, gossip columnists → political analysts, political analysts → PR flacks

• Smart folks build ugly decks [LinkedIn]

• The biased algorithm that is your brain [Financial Times]

• How People Decided It’s OK to Wear AirPods Anywhere, Anytime (I literally wear them to sleep) [WSJ]

• The 100 Best Movies of the 2020s (So Far) [Indiewire] and Vote for the 100 Best Movies of the 21st Century [NYTimes] //

• The end of ultra-neutrality airy plains Scandinavian style // It is a true testament to one’s personal taste (and a confidence in it) to be able to seem “stylish” (whatever that means) DESPITE mess and chaos. (In fact, sort of BECAUSE OF IT.) // [FOR SCALE]

• “Inevitably, curiosity wins the day. There will be something. You can even mine your own neurotic life for areas of inquiry. So if I’m worried about my age, then I start thinking, “How do I make a story about that?” // On the value of not knowing [The Creative Independent]

• The 21st century collapse in American literary fiction vs. the popularity of sci-fi and fantasy books + rise of reading among Gen Z girls

• “Keep your dreams soft and malleable and flexible and porous and fun.” [Tilda Swinton]

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Locals Weekly

This is actually a fella from the LA protests, from a photo my friend

Anita Schillhorn

took.

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Delightful is a 100% organic, free-range, desktop-to-inbox newsletter with links and things, usually. Your host is Steve Bryant, friendly neighborhood insights and content strategist. Let’s work together or go on a hike or something. steve@thisisdelightful.com

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{ 🔒 archive }

Creativity, illustration, language, stuff like that

• What did you learn about yourself today?
  Notes on picking up drawing 30 years later

• 26 things I've learned while learning a language
  Notes from someone who’s working at it

• How to write
  On moving and watching and paying attention

• Curiosity and Research 101
  On finding out about things

• A map of what you meant to say
  On the 3D space of language

• The A.I. isn't a moron. She's your wife.
  On making ads with AI

Brand strategy, content strategy, etc

• Observational and Culture Study Cheat Sheet
  A template and tools for researching people and communities

• My content strategy toolkit
  14 tools for organizing, measuring, and creating content

• My concept diagram template
  A Figjam for diagramming the complex relationships between concepts

• Product Content Strategy 101
  For anybody who’s creating a product that requires editorial content

• The Bento Box Method for developing topical content
  A cute and useful way to structure your content topics

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Thanks for reading. Be seeing you.

“I don’t feel that it is necessary to know exactly what I am. The main interest in life and work is to become someone else that you were not in the beginning.”

—Michael Foucault